Chapter 7: ABCD - The Compass of Football
In any maze, even if you start at a dead end, don't fear getting lost. Keep walking. Keep learning the paths without giving up. Eventually, whether it's the beginning or the end, you'll reach both.
Football training works the same way.
Ball control. Dribbling. Passing. Shooting. Headers. Defense. Physical conditioning.
Which one to start with doesn't matter. If you want to keep getting better, you'll need to train them all anyway.
Given the limits of space and equipment, I figured I'd start with ball control. All I needed was a football and myself.
But how the hell do I start?
Silence.
Christ. This world doesn't have Google or YouTube to search for tutorials, does it?
I'm not the type who likes sitting down and studying step-by-step how-to guides anyway. Might as well just wing it and see what happens.
Think about it simply. It's probably like when we were kids, just starting to hold a pencil and write letters or grab crayons to color in drawing books.
What we drew looked messy and scattered. But it wasn't because the picture in our heads was messy or scattered.
It was because we weren't used to this new thing we'd just started trying.
First, it's physical. The hand wasn't strong yet. The muscles hadn't been trained for writing. The brain was the same—it needed time to learn and develop new command patterns.
Second, it's the equipment. Even if you have ready muscles and brain commands, if the tool you're using is new, you need time to get familiar with it.
Say a footballer can juggle a football a hundred times. If you make him switch from a football to a volleyball, with its different size, weight, and feel, the number of juggles will definitely drop.
To get back to a hundred juggles, he'd need time to practice and get familiar with it again.
Back to childhood.
Once the body and brain start developing and getting used to the required equipment, what comes out starts looking like actual shapes. More recognizable. After that, it depends on skill development.
How beautiful the handwriting becomes. How well the coloring conveys emotion. It all depends on how much effort goes into improvement.
Following this logic, what I need to do now is train my body and brain to get familiar with the football and playing football.
If kids learning to write start with A, B, C, D...
Then footballers probably start by touching the ball to move it in different directions.
Left, right, forward, back—the ABCD of football training.
I started with my right foot on the football. Touching it to move left, right, forward, back. Trying not to let it escape the range my leg could reach.
Not letting it slip from my control zone.
Then I added some advanced moves. Threw in diagonal angles too. Otherwise, I'd never catch up to the locals. Repeating the same pattern over and over.
Getting used to it now. Next, let's try increasing the leg speed to make it more challenging.
Hup, hup, hup. Left, right, forward, back...
Ah! The ball slipped away from my foot...
No problem. Nobody who picks up a pencil for the first time writes perfect, beautiful letters immediately. Time to chase the ball and start over.
Training, training, training. My right leg was getting tired. Better switch to the left leg.
Hup, hup, hup. Left, right, forward...
Damn. The ball slipped away again. Didn't even get to try increasing the speed.
The difference in skill between left and right foot really makes a huge difference...
Huff, huff, huff.
Haven't been at it long and I'm already tired. But this isn't much at all!
I bent my head down and kept training. Right leg tired, switch to left. Left leg tired, back to right. Cycling like that endlessly. Before I knew it, my clothes were soaked with sweat.
Hup, hup, ha! Whoa!! Yes!! This is getting fun!!! The faster the pace, the more excited I felt. Especially when I'd accidentally speed up and lose myself in it, but still manage to stretch my leg out to catch the ball in time—that felt amazing. Like I had god-level reaction speed. Maybe people who like driving fast and recklessly feel this way too.
Besides the speed rush, there was the vision thing. At first, when I wasn't skilled yet, my eyes had to stay down watching the ball constantly. But now I didn't need to look to know where the ball was. I could lift my head and look around comfortably.
And after staring at walls and sky for so long, evidence of my effort finally appeared.
[Ball Control developed to LV1][Reaction Speed developed to LV1][NEX developed to LV2][Experience increased to 10/100]
Supplementary explanation: Congratulations. You've upgraded from completely pathetic to just pathetic.
Oh. There it is. The system voice.
So I hear this sound whenever I develop, right? Super convenient. But "just pathetic"? Really? That supplementary explanation—if you're just going to mock me, can't you cut it out?
Higher level means better skills, right? More experience is straightforward. Easy to understand.
Even though I was just training randomly, I've developed somewhat. Ball control, reaction speed, and...
NEX.
Special power. Supernatural power. The main energy source that's the true core for generating all the ultimate finishing moves in G.O.A.T TRICKS.
Basic football skills are important, sure. But in this world of super football that emphasizes using finishing moves against each other—
NEX power is absolutely essential.
[Relationship with Agnes increased to LV2. Obtained finishing move 'Rush Up']
Hm. Still not done? Why did this one come later than the others?
Wait, Rush Up...? This move is...
But why did my relationship with Mom develop? Why did it suddenly...
But either way, I need to try practicing and using them first.
"Assarun, time for bed. It's not good to be late from the first day of the new term."
"Ah... Mom."
Suddenly Mom appeared.
Hm. New term. Just hearing those words makes my spine tingle. Because it's the beginning of the story in the game. The day the protagonist appears in Anti Meta city. The day Assarun's destiny as a punching bag begins.
But that's something that'll happen in several years. Because the story starts when Assarun fails at football life and turns to being a thief.
When Assarun first appears in the story, his age should be around twenty-four or twenty-five. But the current Assarun—or me right now—is probably around seventeen or eighteen.
Damn. There's still tons of time left. Don't worry about the protagonist or being a punching bag. Right now I need to try to train my football skills as much as possible.
Otherwise... my life might collapse before I even meet the protagonist.
"Come on, get inside. Go wash your feet clean. Wipe off your sweat properly too. You'll catch a cold."
Then Mom came over, patted my head, and pushed me back to the bedroom. Can't be helped. I'll try again tomorrow.
Ugh... my legs are killing me...