Chapter 382: Chapter 55: Pre-Season Week 1

Late June 2023

Centro Bortolotti Training Complex, Zingonia

Locker Room

8:57 AM

The locker room was louder than it had been in May because bodies were rested after three weeks away and conversations overlapped in Italian and English and Dutch while players changed into pre-season training kits, and Demien walked to his locker where his number 30 nameplate sat above the white Atalanta shirt and black shorts hanging inside.

He changed without speaking and laced his boots left before right, and Luca arrived at his locker three spots down and said "Braga was good" when their eyes met.

"We’ll see this season," Luca said, and that was enough.

At nine o’clock exactly Gasperini walked into the locker room and the noise dropped to silence immediately while players who were still tying boots or adjusting shin guards finished quickly and moved to sit on the benches, and the manager stood near the tactical board with his arms crossed and his expression professional rather than warm because pre-season was work rather than reunion.

"Welcome back," Gasperini said without preamble, and his voice carried the same level intensity it carried during tactical reviews before Champions League matches. "Good summer I hope. Now it’s finished. Pre-season starts today and we have six weeks until Serie A kicks off August thirteenth against Lecce at home. We work hard, we train properly, we prepare correctly."

He paused and his eyes moved across the room from left to right systematically, and when his gaze reached Demien it didn’t linger any longer than it lingered on Lookman or de Roon or anyone else because professionalism meant treating everyone with the same standard regardless of transfer speculation that dominated Italian sports media.

"Some of you have interest from other clubs," Gasperini continued, and the acknowledgment was direct rather than coded because everyone in the room knew which players had agents fielding calls and which players were reading Romano tweets about themselves. "That’s normal when you perform well. Your job is to train like Atalanta players until you’re not Atalanta players anymore. My job is to prepare this team for the season. We do our jobs, everything else handles itself."

He looked at the tactical board briefly before returning his attention to the room.

"First session today is fitness-focused. Running, intervals, physical conditioning. No ball work. We rebuild the base first, then we add technical layers after bodies remember what sustained effort feels like. Session runs ninety minutes, recovery protocols after, gym work optional for players who want it. Questions?"

Nobody spoke.

"Good. Pitch in five minutes."

Gasperini turned and walked out while the room exhaled and movement resumed, and players stood to grab water bottles from the rack near the door before filing out toward the training pitches where the morning was getting warmer and the sun was climbing toward the angle that would make the second hour uncomfortable.

Centro Bortolotti Training Complex

Main Pitch

9:12 AM

The grass was perfect in the way it was always perfect at the start of pre-season when groundskeepers had spent two weeks preparing surfaces that would be destroyed by October, and the lines were fresh-painted white and the goals at each end had nets that hung taut rather than sagging like they did after months of shooting drills and match simulations.

Gasperini stood at midfield with his coaching staff spread along the touchline holding clipboards and stopwatches, and when the squad finished their dynamic stretching routine he blew his whistle once and the session structure became immediately clear through the cone patterns already laid out across the pitch.

"Four groups," Gasperini called out, and his voice carried across the field without needing to shout because the morning was quiet except for birds in the trees beyond the fence line. "Defenders group one with Brambilla. Midfielders group two with Gritti. Forwards group three with Tulissi. Rotating interval work between stations. Thirty seconds high-intensity, fifteen seconds recovery, eight rounds per station, three-minute rest between stations. Total three stations. Move."

The squad split automatically because position groups were established and players knew where they belonged, and Demien joined the midfield group where de Roon and Koopmeiners and Éderson and Pasalic were already gathering near the center circle while Gritti—Atalanta’s fitness coach who’d been with the club since before Gasperini arrived—set up the first station with cones marking a shuttle run pattern that looked deceptively simple until bodies were oxygen-deprived and legs were heavy.

"Shuttle sprints first station," Gritti said when the midfield group assembled, and his tone was matter-of-fact because he’d run this exact session for eight consecutive pre-seasons and the structure never changed regardless of personnel. "Cone to cone, touch the line, accelerate back. Thirty seconds maximum effort, fifteen seconds walking recovery, eight rounds. Your pace round one should match your pace round eight. If it doesn’t, you went too hard too early. Understand?"

Heads nodded.

"Demien, you start first."

Demien moved to the starting cone and his legs felt good in the specific way they felt good when three weeks of rest had cleared accumulated fatigue but training rhythm hadn’t been re-established yet, and when Gritti’s whistle blew he exploded forward toward the cone fifteen meters away.

「STAT ACTIVE」

Acceleration: 95

His first three strides covered the ground faster than most players’ first five would cover it, and the acceleration that came from nine months of gacha-enhanced attributes combined with David Drinkwater’s thirty-seven years of understanding how to use a body efficiently meant he reached the cone while his breathing was still controlled and his legs felt light.

Touch the line with his right hand, plant his left foot, pivot, drive back toward the starting cone.

「STAT ACTIVE」

Stamina: 97

The cardiovascular system that had been boosted through multiple Epic and Rare attribute pulls processed oxygen with efficiency that professional athletes spent careers trying to develop naturally, and when he crossed back to the starting cone after the first shuttle his chest wasn’t burning and his legs weren’t screaming for recovery.

Fifteen seconds walking while Gritti’s stopwatch ticked down.

Whistle.

Second shuttle. Same pattern. Cone to cone, touch, pivot, accelerate back. His speed didn’t drop because his body’s ability to maintain high-intensity output over repeated efforts was substantially above what a normal nineteen-year-old midfielder could sustain.

Eight rounds completed and his breathing was elevated but controlled, and when Éderson took his turn after Demien finished the Brazilian’s face showed more strain after round three than Demien’s had shown after round eight.

"Good work," Gritti said when the first station wrapped, and the comment was professional acknowledgment rather than praise because pre-season was about establishing baselines rather than celebrating fitness that should be expected.

Three-minute rest while the group moved to station two where agility ladder work waited, and Demien drank from his water bottle while his heart rate dropped back toward resting and his legs felt ready for the next interval set.

Station two ran twelve minutes—ladder patterns requiring quick feet and directional changes that tested coordination as much as conditioning—and Demien’s Agility rating of 91 meant his feet moved through the ladder sequences with precision that made the patterns look easier than they were.

「STAT ACTIVE」

Agility: 91

Lateral shuffles, in-and-out patterns, single-leg hops, crossover steps—all executed with the kind of fluidity that came from attributes boosted beyond what training alone could achieve, and when station two finished his jersey was damp with sweat but his breathing stayed even and his legs still felt capable of maintaining the same intensity.

Station three was box jumps and burpees—pure explosive power and full-body conditioning—and this was where Strength at 97 and Stamina at 97 combined to create output that separated professional from elite.

「STAT ACTIVE」

Strength: 97

Each box jump cleared the platform with power that came from enhanced muscle fiber recruitment, and the burpees that followed—chest to ground, explosive push-up, jump to feet, vertical leap with hands overhead—were executed with force that didn’t diminish across eight rounds while teammates around him were visibly grinding through the final intervals.

Session ended at ten-thirty after ninety minutes of sustained high-intensity work, and when Gasperini blew the final whistle the squad moved toward the locker room with the specific exhaustion that came from first sessions back after rest periods when bodies remembered what real effort cost.

Demien’s jersey was soaked through and his legs felt worked but not destroyed, and the blue text appeared in his peripheral vision while he walked off the pitch.

「DAILY MISSION COMPLETE」

「Session Type: Physical Conditioning (High Intensity)」

「Duration: 90 minutes」

「Performance: Professional Standard」

「REWARDS: 10 TP」

「CURRENT BALANCE: 365 TP | 18 SP | 463 MP」

The notification faded and Demien continued toward the building where recovery protocols waited—ice baths, compression, proper nutrition—and the routine of pre-season was re-establishing itself one session at a time.