Dynasty Awakening: Building My Own Football Empire-Chapter 259: System Upgrade
Michael and Kenji returned home in high spirits. After having beaten Tottenham in such chaotic fashion, they would now face the Liverpool giants at Anfield this coming weekend.
"That’s my boys!" A loud crackling voice echoed from the smartphone that Sarah was holding in her hand.
Sarah had called Diego Nunez straight after hearing the news. She had even walked away from preparing dinner, something that was rare for her.
"I’ll be bringing the guitar to your house on Friday, so your wife and you will be able to watch my private concert." The excitement was evident in Diego’s voice as he said these words.
Both Michael and Kenji’s faces paled upon hearing the good news. Kenji in particular felt a little nervous. This would be the first time that Diego would perform in his expensive living room as his star defender.
He had never experienced anything similar in his corporate life before, which meant he felt a lot of pressure to hide the vase collection. However, Kenji would not let such pressure ruin such a precious moment.
"That’s great Diego! Maybe we can go celebrate after we win at Anfield." Michael said with a cheeky grin, trying to distract him.
"Oho, confident are we? Michael, make sure your defender doesn’t become arrogant after you guys win. HAHAHA."
Sarah couldn’t help but shake her head. Instead of telling their friend to be modest, her husband was busy fanning his ego.
"Okay okay, that’s enough excitement for today. You two need to go to bed early tonight so you can recover. You have the transfer deadline day tomorrow so I expect you to be stressing all day." Sarah said, unceremoniously hanging up the phone to stop the guitar solo coming from the other side.
At the mention of deadline day, both Michael and Kenji’s moods plummeted. Whatever high they were riding on after winning such an important game was utterly destroyed beneath the weight of their fax machines.
Seeing the boys’ reaction, Sarah stifled a giggle. "Your negotiations have improved a lot Michael, so maybe I’ll let you both off with only half of Tuesday stressing."
Michael’s eyes lit up, "Thanks honey!"
Yet a moment later a loud grumble filled the room, drowning out all other sounds. Both Michael and Sarah turned at the same time to stare at Kenji who went beet red after his stomach had let out such a noise.
"I think that’s my cue to finish making dinner." Sarah said while trying to hold in a laugh. Michael however, was less tactful, choosing to laugh uncontrollably.
He held his sides and tried to speak between fits of laughter, "I thought Godzilla had come to life to eat the budget!"
Kenji’s eyebrow twitched and he couldn’t help but pinch his Manager to relieve some of his embarrassment.
"Ow! Oi what was that for?" Michael called out.
The two then began to scuffle just like real brothers, however despite being the billionaire owner, Kenji was able to overpower Michael with his "Hidden Thorn" grip.
"Tap! I TAP!"
Kenji felt vindication as he saw Michael panting on the floor after he had successfully wrestled him into submission. He didn’t hold any hard feelings, in fact he felt safe and comfortable enough to behave in such a way.
This was just another indication that his life had changed for the better. He now had a real family that he could rely on, who he could laugh and joke around with and who he could share the successes and failures of football with wholeheartedly.
As Kenji’s thoughts were full of gratitude and thanks, his stomach once again let out a voracious roar. Thus another bout of laughter ensued from the defeated Michael who was still upon the floor.
"Mr. Sterling..." Kenji’s face looked scary as he inched closer towards Michael.
"A-AH NO! I’m sorry!"
Another wrestling match took place, yet the end result was the same.
The three ate a sumptuous dinner and then the boys returned to their rooms for the night. Like Sarah had said, today was an exhausting one and now that they had filled their bellies, sleep was calling out to them like an old friend.
Michael laid in bed and fought off the desire to roll over and enter sleep’s embrace. He had been waiting for a moment when he was free to check the mission rewards.
#NEW MISSION: Free the Football Slaves of Tottenham
*Task 1: Reignite the Tottenham players’ passion for risk [Complete]
REWARDS:
Skill: Chaos Aura (Passive) [Claim rewards]
B-grade Stamina Elixir [Claim rewards]
Unlock potential Guglielmo Vicario (Goalkeeper)
Unlock potential Destiny Udogie (Defender)
[Congratulations, you have been awarded 1x B-grade Stamina Elixir and the skill Chaos Aura]
[Chaos Aura (Passive): Unpredictable events are slightly more likely to happen in your favor during matches.]
Michael read the small description of his new skill and felt a bit exasperated. While the name of the skill sounded good, the description did little to explain how it worked or what the effects were.
He didn’t know if it was referring to just deflections, or even how useful the skill would be. Michael decided to just leave it be, focusing on the second part of his reward which was the B-grade Stamina Elixir.
Stamina was the one thing that he had trouble increasing. It had only increased by a single grade since he had been given the Dynasty System all those months ago.
Without hesitation, he selected it from his inventory and awaited the pain that usually came after using an Elixir. However, he was surprised a moment later when the expected pain did not come.
Instead, he felt his muscles vibrate individually on their own for a little while, causing him no discomfort at all. Yet after a few moments he suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion over his whole body, as if he had just run a marathon.
He was already dead tired, so he quickly fell asleep without the ability to check on the effects of the Elixir.
The next morning, Michael woke up to Kenji shaking him and calling out his name.
"Michael, it’s time to get ready for the office."
At first it was a gentle nudge but after receiving no response, Kenji used more and more strength until he was almost using his full force. If it wasn’t for the loud snores, Kenji might have even thought that Michael had already gone ahead to the afterlife.
Finally Michael began to stir, feeling a bout of nausea from the constant rocking back and forth.
"W-What is it!?"
Seeing that he had finally awoken, Kenji let out a sigh of relief.
"It’s already past 7, we need to get ready and head to the office. It’s deadline day today."
"HUH!?"
Michael quickly got out of bed, still looking half asleep. He searched around the room with a sense of urgency and quickly began to get dressed into his suit before heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
Kenji tried his best to contain his laughter, seeing the frenzy that his manager was in now. He let out a whistle as he headed down the stairs and sat down at the dining table for breakfast.
After only a couple of minutes, Michael raced down the stairs and said hello and goodbye to his wife before putting his shoes on.
"Where are you going?" Sarah asked with a confused expression, seeing that he was in his suit.
Michael stopped in place and turned to his wife, before moving his gaze to Kenji who was sitting at the table in his pajamas. He could see a mischievous light in his eyes as he let out a laugh.
It was only when Michael saw that his owner was not in his suit that things finally started to click into place.
"It’s Monday today isn’t it? Deadline day is Tuesday." He said in exasperation.
"Yes it is." Sarah answered.
She saw the amused expression on Kenji’s face and began to put the pieces together. She stifled a laugh and turned back around to continue washing the dishes, not saying another word.
Michael took his shoes off and headed back up the stairs to get changed. It was likely that his 11 hour sleep was an aftereffect of using the Stamina Elixir the night before.
Since his body was not used to sleeping for so long, it made sense as to why he was so groggy and fell for such a petty trick. He opened the door to his room and couldn’t help but grin.
As he was getting changed, he quickly brought up the system window and checked out his status.
PREMIER LEAGUE SYSTEM
SYSTEM LEVEL: 3 (5800/5000 Influence points to level up)
NAME: Michael Sterling
ROLE: The Architect
INFLUENCE: S+
INFLUENCE POINTS: 5800
[You have consumed: B-grade Stamina Elixir.]
[Stamina grade has been increased by 4!]
MANAGER STATS:
Tactical Knowledge: B+
Man Management: A
Media Handling: A 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
Negotiation: B
Influence: S+
Physical Stamina: B+
Skills: 9
’Whoa, my stamina grade has been bumped up to B+ after taking the Stamina Elixir.’ Michael felt a surge of happiness after seeing his stats. In the short span of 4 months he had managed to improve so much thanks to the system.
He also had enough Influence points to level his system. Considering he would be spending the whole day stressing and the transfer window closed tomorrow, he decided now was the best time to do so.
#SYSTEM ALERT
The user has chosen to upgrade the system.
5000 Influence points will be deducted to upgrade the system.
System will shut down for 24 hours in which all functions will be unavailable until the upgrade has been completed.
[Would you like to commence the upgrade now?]
[YES/NO]
He selected the Yes option without hesitation.
#SYSTEM ALERT
The user has confirmed an immediate upgrade of the system.
5000 Influence points have been deducted.
SYSTEM UPGRADE INITIALIZING
SHUTTING DOWN TO INSTALL UPGRADE...
Michael waited for a few moments before trying to access the system. Yet no matter how much he tried, nothing would pop up. Despite this, he didn’t feel any different which filled him with confidence.
He was worried that his capabilities would return to normal once the system shut down which was why he had been putting off this upgrade for so long.
Once he was changed, Michael headed back downstairs and had a delicious breakfast with his family. Kenji could still be seen chuckling every now and then, seemingly pleased with his little prank this morning.
The two then spent majority of the day analyzing spreadsheets together. Since they were in the same house and same mindset it made things even easier.
It was a tedious day, but they were able to make it through the grueling budget sessions with each other’s company. Kenji was pretty smart and never really struggled even in Wall Street, whereas Michael was quite the opposite with math.
However, with his improved mental capacity he found it much easier to memorize and understand the important clauses. This was reflected on his negotiation plans which he had performed well on, even Arthur had been surprised by his improvement.
Soon enough it was time for bed after hours of cramming. Michael did not waste any time considering the system was still shut down so he couldn’t do any Zone simulation even if he wanted to.
He soon fell asleep, imagining the kind of changes the system would undergo after successfully upgrading.
But just as he drifted off, his phone buzzed. It was a text from Arthur.
"Boss. Liverpool just signed Mbappe. Goodnight."
