Back at Lukas' apartment.
Lukas was still on the sofa after the call with Marco ended. He had a small smile on his face.
"He wouldn't even take me seriously if he saw my current skills on the ball.
But in two days' time, it will be so different from now."
He had opted out of the rest of the training after he won the race as he told Coach Patrick he had some other plans.
But only he knew the real reason.
His ball control skills were still one of the worst in the team. And if he wanted to maintain the image he had started crafting for himself—a late blooming genius, he had to stay away from the ball before he trained the relevant stats at the Legend Training Center (LTC).
"Two days is enough to raise both my attacking and defending stats to the level of my strength stats."
Although he planned to focus more on attack, he couldn't afford to let his defense lag too far behind.
So his plan was simple—take advantage of the 10X rewards multiplier to raise the attack and defense stats, dazzle both Marco and Patrick in 2 days, and get back into the SV98 academy with the U17 or even U19 team.
But even he, with his years of experience, couldn't have predicted what would happen on that training ground that day.*
"But I'm really glad I was able to contact Marco."
Lukas thought back to his previous life.
Marko Karsten, the founder of Rising Talent Agency, he almost went bankrupt and had to mortgage his family's home to support his business.
Luckily his agency boomed, becoming very popular especially among academy players trying to break through to the first team.
This was due to his reputation of always putting his client's careers first when making a deal whether during club transfers, or brand endorsements deals.
João's rise to a world class player was a blessing to Marco and Rising Talent Agency at large too. João stayed with Marco throughout his career, even when he was getting love calls from other huge name agencies and agents, he was someone whose loyalty was awe inspiring.
Word spread through the academies and upcoming footballers, giving them a good impression of Marco's agency, making it easier to recruit promising players.
This caused a virtuous cycle, and although Rising Talent Agency was never the biggest sports agency in Europe—not even in Germany, it had the best reputation.
By the time Lukas had lost his life, RTA had already opened branch offices in a few football nations across Europe and were gradually expanding into South America.
******************
BEEP BEEP*
The sound of someone typing in the password from outside the door brought Lukas out of his reminiscing as he looked at the door.
The doorknob turned and the door opened. Javi stepped in with a tired expression
He saw Lukas and put on a smile, sincere but still exhausted.
"Good evening, Dad. How was work today?" Lukas asked as he stood up from the couch.
"It was okay. I am a bit tired tho." Javi responded, trying to look strong for his son who he knew was going through a difficult time.
"You should take a shower dad, I'll heat up dinner for us." Lukas said with a smile.
"Hmmmmm" Javi looked at Lukas suspiciously.
"You're acting weird today Luke." He added as he kept looking.
"What do you mean?"
"You didn't even leave your room throughout when I was at home yesterday, but now you're trying to make us dinner? That is suspicious."
"How is that suspicious? I got over it. I can't keep myself locked up in my room forever, can I?"
"Of course not, and I'm glad you've been able to get over it. But I don't know if I should be worried about how fast you went from 0 to 100. Overnight."
"I've had more than 20 years to feel sorry for myself. That is more than enough time. In this life, I will be changing the narrative instead of blaming the world for my lack of effort." Lukas thought to himself.
"Hahaha.... what's weird about that?" Lukas laughed awkwardly.
"If I was gonna let just one failure stop me, then I don't love football as much as I claim I do. A lot of today's professional players failed at some point." He added.
"Yes. That's my boy! That is the mentality of a professional!" Javi smiled as he put Lukas in a playful headlock and ruffled his dark hair.
"You think just like me, son."
"Let me go dad, I'm not a kid anymore. You're messing up my hair." Lukas said as he struggled to get free.
"Says the 15 years old kid." Javi held him tighter for about ten seconds before he let him go.
"Alright I'll go shower now." Javi said as he walked to his bedroom.
"Okay, I'll heat up our meal."
Javi stopped at the door of his bedroom, turned to look at Lukas.
"I'm so glad to have you back Luke. It's been a tough week."
"I know dad. I'm glad to be back too."
******************
The next morning.
It was a bright day. Summer was here already, and the sun illuminated Javi's apartment through it's multiple windows.
"Lukas, are you up?" Javi knocked on the door to Lukas' bedroom.
No sound.
He turned the knob, and looked inside.
Lukas lay on his back on the bed with shorts, and a sleeveless white vest. His hands were placed on top each other covering his navel, his legs were crossed, his eyes were closed, and his breath was steady.
"If his chest wasn't rising and falling, I'd have thought he was dead. Why's he sleeping like this?" Javi thought to himself. He almost panicked when he saw Lukas sleeping like he was in a coffin, and only calmed down when he saw him breathing.
Javi closed the door quietly, and walked to the dining room where he had set breakfast for himself and Lukas.
"He needs to sleep enough to grow well." Javi muttered to himself with a smile before he gobbled up his breakfast at lightning speed.
He was done in about 5 minutes.
Javi cleared his plates, reached for his bag and grabbed a pen and a sticky note from inside.
"Lunch is in the refrigerator. Make sure you go out today. I might be back home late tonight so don't worry. Dad." He stuck the note on the dining table beside Lukas' breakfast, threw his bag on his shoulder as he rushed out the door.
******************
[*Your father just left the house.*] TT's voice sounded in a familiar location—the Legend Training Center.
This time, they weren't in the gym, though, they were out on the pitch.
"Damn it. I should have come for today's training after breakfast with dad." Lukas said out of breath regretfully as he sweated profusely.
He was sprinting down the pitch with the ball at his feet. A timer that counted down from 5, and seemed to reset whenever he touched the ball, hung on the system window above him.
[Day 2 Training
Objective: Attacking Session
Tasks:
- 100 Times Full Pitch Sprint. Max 5 seconds Per Touch. Minimum Speed: 27 km/h (16.7 mph).
In Progress. Lap 29/100.
Current speed: 28.16 km/h (17.5 mph)
Counter: 3
↓ Expand for Other Tasks.]
Then he hit the ball a bit too hard.
[Counter: 2]
He chased with all his might.
"Oh no! This is like my 70th lap already, this demon only 28 counted. I can't lose this lap."
[Counter: 1]
He stretched his leg, and touched the bal—
[*Lap 29 cancelled. Please restart. You have 30 seconds of rest.*] TT's voice reverberated in the field. Cold. Unforgiving. This was training mode, and there was no jokes during training mode.
"Damn it!" Lukas thought as he found himself automatically at the edge of the pitch where he stayed his run from.
"You sure are merciless, I am sure my toes grazed the ball before the timer ende—."
[*It did not.*] TT cut him off
[Rest time: 14 seconds.]
"I can't even get my sentences out."
[*One lap will be extracted if you surpass the 30 seconds rest limit.*]
"Well you don't need to tell me that twice." Lukas heard all the motivation he needed.
2 hours later.
[Task 1: Completed. Lap 100/100]
Lukas looked at the screen with a disgusted expression.
"I'm starting to get more convinced that you are a gift from hell. Is this my punishment for living a useless life. What sort of torturous training is this. I counted more than 450 laps."
Lukas had many laps cancelled mercilessly cancelled due to several reasons: too slow, more than five seconds without touching the ball, spending more than thirty seconds in-between laps.
But even while complaining, he could feel the progress. It took him fifty tries just to get his first ten laps, but only twenty to complete the last ten laps.
He didn't need to see the results from the system before he knew he had improved massively.
"This is just the start. Even if I have to walk through the depths of hell, I will never give myself a reason to not achieve my dream this time."
Lukas' dream so far was rather simple—become a footballer good enough to earn a few caps for Die Mannschaft. Maybe win a few trophies at club and national level.
Although he had the LTC and was seeing the it was capable of, he still had some reservations.
"If talent without hardwork leads to failed potential, talent with hardwork leads to Cristiano Ronaldo, what does hardwork without talent lead to?" This was a question Lukas had asked himself when he found out the capabilities of the system he was gifted with.
A system that claimed hardwork was enough to be the best.
He didn't have the answer to that question yet, so he couldn't predict what was in store for him.
He couldn't even begin to imagine it.
BZZT*
The system window appeared with a new message.
[Next Task: Mimic The Passes 200 times.
Mimic the exact pass of the Abstracts using the same passing lane, force, and technique used in the demonstration.
Completion rate: 0/200 ]
Lukas looked at the system window, confused.
"Abstracts? What are those?"
A/N: * How could he know? only the almighty author knows for now. ୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨
I'm still writing on my phone. The last 3 chapters were written on it. Writing is fun, but proofreading/editing is so painful without a laptop.
You guys have fun reading tho.
Love y'all. It