My Football Legends Chat Group-Chapter 35: A-grade Ball Control Elixir
Rio and Mateo woke up to Rio’s alarm buzzing in the morning like usual, feeling a mix of excitement and dread. Unfortunately, his System was still shut down since 24 hours had yet to pass since he chose to upgrade it.
Since it was the day of the flight, he likely wouldn’t have a chance to check it out until they landed in England. Although it was a bit of a bummer, he didn’t mind too much.
The two boys finished their final packing and had a tearful breakfast with Rio’s parents before heading off to the airport. While they were sitting in the terminal, waiting for the gate to open, Rio noticed something weird.
Was it just his imagination or were people looking at him? Whenever he raised his head he would see people turning around after presumably staring at him while he wasn’t looking.
"Is there something on my face?" Rio turned to Mateo and asked, feeling a little self-conscious.
"Nothing more than usual. Maybe it’s the pink boots you insisted on wearing," Mateo replied without missing a beat.
Rio’s eye twitched at these words. It seemed as if his humble best friend was turning into a smartass as of late. This was very unlike Mateo in his previous life as a benchwarmer, which begged the question, what would have happened if Rio hadn’t dragged him into the spotlight?
He knew so little about the Mateo of his previous life, only that he was released by Girona and disappeared into the lower leagues. But the fact that he felt comfortable enough to roast him was a positive thing.
Rio let out a sigh; he shouldn’t be thinking about such things when he was just about to move to a new country.
They finally made it onto the plane and found their seats. He could tell that it was not just himself who was dreading the flight. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mateo, who looked as pale as a ghost gripping the armrests.
Once again Rio felt as if he had more eyes than usual on him, sending goosebumps up his arms.
’What the hell is going on? Is this the Charisma Oil working overtime?’ He looked around only to see a flight attendant staring at him with a blush before quickly looking away.
He dealt with the feeling until finally making it to Leeds Bradford Airport and letting out a sigh of relief. Rio didn’t think that he would ever be thankful to see gray clouds and rain, yet here he was.
What came next was what he had expected, one form after another, each as mind-numbing as the last. They finally had a reprieve when the club liaison picked them up.
After settling into the temporary apartment, Rio couldn’t help but sigh loudly. He and Mateo unpacked their bags, which held a note from his mom.
’Eat your vegetables! And wear a scarf!’
He felt a smile pulling on the corner of his lips after seeing the note and felt a little better. However, just as he was about to dig into a takeaway pizza, he heard a knock on the door.
Rio, who currently had his mouth wide open and was about to place a slice of pepperoni into it, suddenly put his pizza down, feeling a flicker of nerves in his stomach.
’Who could that be?’
He opened the door to see a girl standing there. She had short blonde hair and bright green eyes that flashed with curiosity. She was wearing a Leeds United training kit.
Although she looked young, maybe his age, she had an air of authority about her.
Rio was troubled by the mix of emotions that his body was currently going through. Considering his focus was entirely on football, he shouldn’t be distracted by a neighbor this pretty.
However, perhaps it was his teenage hormones and past life’s yearning that had made him want to impress her.
’What is she doing here? Is she a player?’
"Hi Rio, I heard the new loan signing moved in next door," she said, leaning against the doorframe. "I’m Sarah. I play for the women’s team."
"Uhh, yeah. Hi," He replied awkwardly.
"I’ll see you at the training ground tomorrow. Try not to get eaten by the defenders," she said, winking. After saying this she walked back to her apartment, leaving Rio stunned into silence.
His mind was empty, yet his teenage hormones caused his cheeks to also flush in embarrassment. In reality, he couldn’t be blamed for his reactions, since girls like Sarah had never even acknowledged his existence in his previous life.
"Oh? Someone has an admirer," Mateo couldn’t help but poke at Rio verbally, enjoying his best friend’s expression.
Rio shook his head, trying to get the weird feelings out of his mind.
"She plays for the club. It’s just professional courtesy," He lied, inwardly thinking that he needed to stay away from Sarah in the future as it was too distracting.
Mateo let out an exaggerated sigh, "My best friend is already so popular only after 5 minutes in England. I wonder when girls will start looking at me." He lamented, however Rio could tell that he was just making fun of him.
Rio’s eye twitched in response.
’This guy is going to be the death of me...’ He felt the whole situation was bizarre, if not a little funny.
As soon as they finished dinner, they collapsed onto the sofas. By the time they were done for the day, Rio’s head felt as if it was going to explode from the English accents he had tried to decipher on TV.
He had never been good at languages, and although he could speak basic English, the Yorkshire dialect was a different beast entirely.
There was no training until Monday which Rio was thankful for. The two made their way to their respective rooms, looking like zombies since they were jet-lagged.
Once arriving in his room, Rio went straight to his bed. Now that the day was over and he was alone, it was time to open up the System and see what had changed.
#SYSTEM ALERT
SYSTEM HAS SUCCESSFULLY UPGRADED TO LEVEL 3.
SYSTEM SHOP IS NOW UNLOCKED
MAJOR LEAGUE SYSTEM
SYSTEM LEVEL: 3 (280/10000 Major points to level up)
NAME: Rio Lance
AGE: 19
TALENT ASSESSMENT: B-
POTENTIAL: D (S+)
MAJOR POINTS: 280
USER MENU:
-STATS
-MISSIONS
-SYSTEM SHOP
-LOTTERY (Locked)
-IMAGE TRAINING
-IDENTIFY
-CHAT ROOM (New Features)
Rio’s eyes widened in surprise. Without hesitation he opened up the System Shop with a sense of anticipation, wondering what kind of treasures it held.
#SYSTEM SHOP
Lottery Tickets
Elixirs
Skills (locked)
Chat Room Upgrades
’Yes! This is what I’ve been waiting for.’ Rio had an abundance of Major points which he had only been able to save for upgrading the System. Now that the System Shop had been unlocked, he could finally find somewhere to use them.
Yet his thoughts quickly turned sour as he saw the prices.
#Lottery Tickets
Bronze Lottery Ticket - 500 Major Points
Silver Lottery Ticket - 1000 Major Points
Gold Lottery Ticket - 5000 Major Points
’So expensive!’ It seemed that getting the lottery tickets through missions would be a lot easier than buying them from the System Shop, which probably meant that Elixirs and Skills would be the same.
It was as he expected. B-grade Elixirs were priced at 1000 Major points, whereas A-grade ones were 5000 which was the same price as a Gold Lottery Ticket.
Rio was a little disappointed, but at the same time it changed his perception of the rewards he received from missions. If he were to win the Championship, the reward was a Gold Lottery Ticket and 500 Major points. This meant his total reward would amount to 5500 Major points, which was huge.
He had been hoping he would be able to improve his skills before the first training session and thought that the upgrade may help facilitate this. However, it turned out that he was poor and could not afford the goods in the System Shop.
But there was one thing that he could do in order to get stronger. After getting ready for bed, Rio returned to his room and a look of determination flashed onto his face.
DOES THE USER WISH TO ENTER IMAGE TRAINING?
[YES/NO]
"Yes."
Rio entered the Image Training and went straight to dribbling. It was quite tough against the upgraded defender who was tackling him with Premier League intensity, but as long as he persisted, he would be able to get the rewards.
He continued the same routine for the entire week, doing media interviews during the day and completing image training at night. Unfortunately, thanks to the supreme defending of the virtual opponent, he was only able to complete one of the missions.
Complete 1000 successful dribbles - 250 Major points + Silver Lottery ticket [COMPLETE] Claim rewards
[Congratulations, you have been awarded 250 Major points 1x Silver Lottery ticket]
Without waiting, Rio went straight to the Lottery wheel and spun.
’Please something good.’ He prayed inwardly as the wheel began to spin slower and slower, finally coming to a stop.
[Congratulations, user has drawn an A-grade Ball Control Elixir.]
’Jackpot!’
Rio jumped out of bed and couldn’t contain his joy, pumping his fists in the air as if he had just scored a hat-trick. Of course he couldn’t vocalize his joy, but the dance and jubilation was enough to see how happy he was.
’I didn’t even know that the Silver lottery gave out Elixirs,’ he thought.
His ball control grade was directly tied to his ability to trap and manipulate the ball in tight spaces. It was currently sitting at B- which allowed him to handle most La Liga defenders.
However, now that he had gotten his hands on the A-grade Elixir it should shoot into the A grade and increase his dribbling prowess by leaps and bounds. This would allow him the ability to clear the dribbling missions in his image training a bit easier also.
Thinking of being able to trap any ball thrown at him caused a grin to tug at the corner of his lips.
"Will I have a touch like Zidane after this?" he mumbled.
Yet remembering the almost supernatural ability of the bald legend in the chat room, he quickly shook his head. Although he couldn’t see his physical grades, Rio had a feeling that Zidane was at least an S rank in ball control despite his age.
Rio quickly got into bed and chose to consume the Elixir. In his excitement, he forgot the potent side effects of the Ball Control Elixir, causing him to feel dizzy almost immediately.
Without warning, Rio sat up and almost emptied the contents of his stomach into his hands. At the last moment he managed to hold it back, preventing a terrible situation.
He was forced to crawl on his knees towards the toilet where he spent the next hour hugging the porcelain throne.
Thankfully Mateo didn’t bother him for the duration of his stay, probably thinking it was the English food. Only after brushing his teeth about a dozen times did he head back to his room and fall into bed, quickly entering the embrace of sleep.
