Chapter 50 50 Realising He's A Side Character
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[Gen Pov]
Standing on the gator's stadium grass a group of children older than ten could be seen gathered around a group of coaches. Most of the children could be seen panting for breath as they struggled to remain standing. The head coach didn't seem to care though as he continued to give out instructions on their next drill.
"Alright now that we are done with your morning warm-up go back to the same groups as yesterday," Coach James instructed the kids as he shooed them away as if they were flies. The expression on his face remained bored throughout his interaction with the kids seemingly wanting to provoke them.
Not long after his voice fell the group was spilt up and they went string into their next drills. Rakim could be seen moving a ball around his legs as he listened to the coach explain the next drill. Shortly after the kids could be seen dribbling past poles and gates of cones at a rapid pace.
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[Mc Pov]
It feels like such a slow morning, especially with all the fitness drills we had to do. It was fun to do some of the dynamic stretches, I guess. However, being taught about the importance of proper breathing did surprise me. I've been doing it subconsciously when trying to create my dribbling style. Apparently, the trivial things that we brush aside are important enough to allow us to succeed as athletes.
We got told that we are getting a sort of class tonight analysing a match so I'm looking forward to that. Coach James said something about the mental aspect of the game being just as important as physical talents.
Slowly pushing the ball forward, I quickly turned left with my right instep of rounding the pole. Not losing my momentum I pushed the ball forward accelerating through the cone gate. After passing the cones I hit a sudden stop before turning a sharp right around the next pole.
This went on for the next thirty seconds as I went through the dribble maze accelerating and decreasing my pace throughout. After completing the maze, it was right back to the start to redo the maze. It was fun watching some of the boys stumble through the maze though. I watched one of the boys round the pole and he ended up kicking the pole instead of the ball.
"Hey, Yunus wants to compete with who can bring in the most skill moves without slowing down or messing up," I asked him just as we were about to reach the front of the line again. We had been competing with various things all morning as if we had something to prove. Judging by his pumped-up look it seems like he was up for the challenge, as if to prove it he immediately started drilling through the maze.
"Hey, why did you only ask Yunus and not us?" I heard Giovannie ask from behind. Giving him a quick glance, I proceed to just focus on Yunus who had just rounded the first pole with a Ronaldo chop.
"Oh, it's because the fire of youth is burning bright within us," Is all I said to him as I continued to focus on Yunus. If I had looked back, I probably would've noticed the odd looks I was getting from the rest of the guys.
Approaching the second pole he did two rapid steps over's while dropping his shoulders starting with his right leg. Just as he reached the pole, he quickly swiped the ball around it going past it in one swift motion. After passing the pole the ball created a little separation which he used to speed up his run.
Watching him run through the drill reminded me of a cheetah as he lunged past the obstacles whilst increasing his pace. It was an amazing thing to watch he looked like he was in his element. He performed a couple of other skill moves like the roulette and the la croqueta. Honestly, he did better than I expected him to do, I've never seen him properly dribble so it was quite impressive to witness.
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[Ding Mission triggered]
~Dribble Menace~
#Task 1) Perform six skill moves whilst navigating the maze. (0/6)
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[Ding: Posible Rewards]
1) 100 SP
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'Oh, I wasn't expecting a quest for this Eva' I told her as I watched the pop-up screen appear in front of me.
[Yes, sometimes certain actions will trigger the systems quests,] she replied sounding rather bored at the whole situation.
'I better start completing these missions, they are starting to pile up at this point,' I told her as I refocused on my surroundings. Looking up I watched the boy in front of me finish his turn as I got set to start mine.
Pushing the ball, I took a large stride forward quickly reaching the first pole. Performing a Ronaldo chop with my left foot I instantly changed direction. Not slowing down I dashed through the gate.
Next, I performed a slowed-down version of the Elastico to snake past two more poles. Heading straight for another obstacle I stopped the ball with my right foot transitioning into the roulette. Now that my pace slowed a little, I used some stepovers to rapidly change directions through a set of cones.
At the finishing line was a plastic mannequin and in order to get by it I clamped the ball between my legs as I threw it over my back. Getting past the mannequin the ball arrives over my head in a rainbow arc, stretching out my leg I deftly bring the ball back under my control. Running to the side of the course I face the guys in line and take a bow in their direction.
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"I think I'm the clear winner bro," I told Yunus as I joined him at the end of the line. I was smiling brightly wanting to see his reaction to my masterful performance and as if not to disappoint he looked shocked and impressed.
"Yo I didn't know that you were like that fr," He spoke up as he put his arm over my shoulder. It was like a switch had flipped in him and he started rambling off about the skills he and I performed. It was like he had forgotten the whole competition and was simply happy to talk about something he was passionate about.
"That Elastico was crazy you went like shoo and you were past two poles, oh and then the transition int toe the roulette looked so natural, don't even get me started on that Rainbow it was something else," He went on to ramble on for the next five minutes asking me questions about how I approached every skill move. It was weird at first but after a while, it feels like I gained a disciple.
"You're not so bad yourself, you looked like a cheetah when you went through the maze" I couldn't help but compliment him back. All the praise he was giving me got too much at some point. I'm usually too bad at accepting praise but he looked genuinely mesmerised as if he had seen a picture by Picasso or something. Not wanting to ruin the moment I didn't try and crack a joke or trigger him. This was new for me and I think I like the feeling it felt good to just be in the moment.
"I'm surprised you two got along after your competition, anyways what do you think about my dribble?" Giovanni asked as he somehow appeared behind us. He must have mastered instant transmission or something as none of us even noticed him coming up. Processing his words, it took a while for both of us to come up with an answer. Judging by the confused look on Yunus's face it seems like he was on the same track as me.
"You already went?" We both simultaneously asked him, genuinely curious about this. Once we started our conversation, we forgot the world around us. Our response must have caught him off-guard as his foot tripped over the ball almost causing him to fall.
"So, you didn't even watch me dribble through the maze," he asked us again sounding a little hurt. Yunus had seemingly not noticed his friend's mood as he ruthlessly answered him being brutally honest.
"Naw bro we were too busy talking about moves from our turn," he answered him with a straight face without a hint of guilt. The look of betrayal on Giovanni's face was something to behold. He looked like a puppy whose owner had abandon side of the store so he could get his shopping done.
"I'm sorry to tell you this but we skipped watching the fillers," I told him with a pity-filled face as he had just realised, he wasn't the main character at this moment. My words seemed to confuse him since he wasn't a fellow weeb, however judging by the look on Yunus's face he seemed to have realised the meaning of my words. He too ended up showing his friend a pity-filled look which only served to arrive him further.
"I'm done with the two of you" We heard him say as he turned around to go and find anyone else to talk to. Yunus ended up following him in an attempt to appease him or something like that. I on the other hand didn't bother with the two anymore as I decided to check out the system mission that had popped up after my dribble performance from earlier.
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[Ding: Mission Complete]
~Dribble Menace~
#Task 1) Perform six skill moves whilst navigating the maze. (6/6)
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[Host Has gained the following rewards]
1)100 SP
(Note: Keep Working hard)
~~~
'Finally, one of my missions is complete, feels like I just broke a bad habit there' I mused in my head as I accepted the rewards. The Singularity points are pretty much useless to me since the shop is locked, I didn't bother with the system afterwards anymore.
[Yeah, it was starting to become a bad habit there, you're lucky the systems haven't given you a strict time limit yet] Eva spoke up to me throwing in her two cents. I know she was right though I need to hurry up and complete the other two missions.
'I'll work hard plus I've got two more days to impress my teammates and a few more scouts so I'll be fine' I told her feeling confident about my odds of succeeding in both tests.
[Are you sure about that, how'd you know that the scouts will stay here for the whole camp, you know they are busy people even though they might not look it.] She commented in a teasing voice at my lack of urgency. Listening to her words I subconical looked towards the stands and just like she said there were fewer scouts here than the previous two days.
[Some of the scouts are only here to watch certain players that would fit their future team's plans, so once they confirm the talents, they want they have on reason to stick around to watch the pack. There are some who don't mind looking for other outstanding talents but just like any other job some employees just do the bare minimum to get by.] Eva went on to explain why the scouts seemed so busy or uninterested in everybody here.
Her words did make sense though as there would be no point for an attacking-oriented team to spare the time to scout a defensive-minded midfielder like Ben. Although he might be an outstanding talent to them it might not be worth the effort to compete with teams that specialise in defensive-minded training.
In a sense, it makes sense to prioritise the club's assignment over anything else as they pay their bills. This doesn't mean that they don't note down outstanding telnets, but they wouldn't focus too much on them unless they could be a fit for their respective teams. Another factor that I failed to factor in is the fact that I'm not eligible to be scouted yet so they might just gloss over me no matter how talented I am.
'Your right I need to step up my game, show me my progress for the last two missions please,' I asked her as the urgency of the matter started to sell in. If I had known that scouts are such fickle creatures, I would have tried even harder to impress them. This whole time I've just been trying to enjoy my time here not really letting the pressure sink in.
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To Be Continued...
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