Seven-time champion

Chapter 8: Joining the School Team On the soccer field at Meijiang Middle School, the moment Zhang Minghai—the school team coach acting as the referee—blew the whistle to end the second friendly match between Class 1 and Class 3 of the freshman year, a system notification sounded in Lu Wenbin’s mind: “Ding-dong. Congratulations, Host. You scored 5 goals and provided 1 assist in this match, earning 11 experience points. Current experience: 11/20.” “Ding-dong. Congratulations, Host. You have completed ‘Task 1: First Victory,’ earning 5 experience points and 1 skill point. Current experience: 16/20. Skill points remaining: 1.” However, Lu Wenbin couldn’t spare a thought for the system rewards just yet. Since they had won, the students of Class 1 were now celebrating wildly. Lu Wenbin, who had scored five goals and provided one assist, naturally became the center of his teammates’ celebrations, with everyone praising him. “I told you so—with Lu Wenbin on the team, last week’s loss to Class 3 was just a fluke. Look, we won today!” “Lu Wenbin scored five goals in a single game again—he really is on a scoring tear!” “And he added an assist today too—awesome!” Indeed, Lu Wenbin was the most dazzling player on the field today. The students watching from the sidelines were all discussing his performance, and even the girls were no exception. A few girls from Class 1, acting as cheerleaders, were buzzing about Lu Wenbin’s performance. “Scoring five goals in a single game—Lu Wenbin is so cool!” “It’s not just this game; he scored five goals last week too. Five goals in two consecutive games—that’s truly amazing!” “Doesn’t that make him the top scorer in Meijiang High School’s soccer team?” “I don’t know, but among the freshmen, he’s definitely the best!” “That’s pretty impressive too!” Two or three girls were even gazing at Lu Wenbin with a bit of a sparkle in their eyes. If things keep going this way, it’s possible that one day girls might even be chasing after Lu Wenbin. After his teammates from Class 1 finished high-fiving and patting Lu Wenbin on the back to celebrate, Zhang Minghai walked over and said to Lu Wenbin: “Lu Wenbin, you played well today. You can join the school team. But I need to make one thing clear: since we have Saturday make-up classes in your sophomore and junior years, the school team trains on Sundays. You’ll need to discuss this with your family and manage your schedule accordingly.” Lu Wenbin replied happily, “No problem. When do practices start?” Zhang Minghai said, “If it doesn’t rain, we usually start at 2:00 PM and finish at 6:00 PM! If there’s a game, we’ll let you know in advance.” Lu Wenbin said, “Great!” Zhang Minghai nodded and smiled, “Alright then, report here at 2:00 p. m. on Sunday to meet your new teammates!” Lu Wenbin nodded repeatedly, “No problem!” Then, Zhang Minghai left the field, making no further invitations to students from Class 1 or Class 3 to join the school team. Just as Zhang Minghai and Lu Wenbin finished their conversation, a voice from the system echoed in Lu Wenbin’s mind: “Ding! Congratulations, Host, on completing ‘Task 2: Join the Meijiang Middle School Soccer Team.’ You have earned 5 experience points and 1 skill point. Current experience: 21/20. Skill point balance: 2.” “Ding! Congratulations, Host. Your experience points meet the level-up requirements. Level-up successful. Reward: 5 skill points. Current Level 2, Experience 1/50, Skill Points Remaining: 7.” Having won the match, joined the school team, completed two tasks, and with 7 skill points remaining, Lu Wenbin was overjoyed. Moreover, having earned Zhang Minghai’s approval and joined the school soccer team, he also garnered envious glances from his classmates. However, everyone knew that given Lu Wenbin’s performance of scoring five goals in two consecutive matches, his entry into the school team was only natural. As for the others, they fell a bit short. Coupled with the physical gap between them and the juniors and seniors, it was understandable that the others hadn’t caught Zhang Minghai’s eye. Amid everyone’s chatter, Lu Wenbin returned to his dorm, took a shower, changed his clothes, and then headed home. Inevitably, his mother, Sun Jiahui, gave him a bit of a lecture for coming home late again. This time, however, Lu Wenbin didn’t talk back. With the system in his possession, he was absolutely determined to pursue a career as a professional player. But since he hadn’t achieved much yet, there was no need to upset his parents or cause them unnecessary worry. That night before bed, Lu Wenbin opened the system and allocated one of his seven skill points to his 11/12 Physical Stamina, bringing it up to 12/12. Then, he allocated all six remaining skill points to his 4/10 Dribbling, bringing it up to 10/10. A 12/12 Stamina rating should match the stats of an average professional player, more than enough to handle high school games. Similarly, a 10/10 Dribbling rating might not be considered adequate among professional players, but it’s certainly sufficient for high school games. With 14/14 in Shooting, 12/12 in Physicality, and 10/10 in Dribbling, Lu Wenbin—playing as a forward—is already certain to stand out among his high school peers. Of course, to lead the Meijiang Middle School team to the national high school league finals, let alone win the championship, Lu Wenbin will have to become even stronger. After all, the Meijiang Middle School soccer team isn’t a powerhouse; they’ve never even participated in provincial competitions, let alone national ones. With such a lack of pedigree, the Meijiang Middle School team is undoubtedly very weak on a national level. This means that as a forward, Lu Wenbin absolutely must be a prolific goal-scorer; otherwise, forget about winning the national league championship—it’s even uncertain whether they’ll qualify to compete! Once he levels up or completes quests to earn skill points, Lu Wenbin plans to allocate them to off-the-ball movement and speed, raising all the skills essential for a striker to over 10 points. Moreover, Lu Wenbin now realizes he was a bit hasty when he first allocated his skill points. He shouldn’t have spent three skill points to increase his shooting potential and ability by just one point each; instead, he should have invested them in other attributes that could immediately boost his performance. For a high schooler, there’s actually not much difference between a 13/13 and a 14/14 in shooting—both are insanely high. If those three skill points had been allocated to current ability attributes instead, they would have immediately boosted those stats by 3 points, which would have made a huge difference. Having learned from the lesson of his first hasty allocation, Lu Wenbin decided that from now on, he would first allocate all his skill points to the current abilities a striker needs, and only then consider using skill points to increase potential values. After raising his physicality from 11/12 to 12/12, he didn’t feel much of a difference. But after raising Dribbling from 4/10 to 10/10, Lu Wenbin felt that if he were to play another match against the students from Class 3, he wouldn’t just be able to receive the ball and shoot inside the penalty area—he could also receive the ball outside the box, dribble past several defenders, and then score. Lu Wenbin felt he could now perform some of the dribbling moves he’d previously only seen other soccer stars do on TV, and he actually put them into practice on the field. After all, the defensive skills of high school students were no match for Lu Wenbin’s dribbling ability.