Seven-time champion

Chapter 23: Promotion When Lu Wenbin returned home, Lu Chongxin was enthusiastically telling Sun Jiahui all about Lu Wenbin’s performance in the final—how he had single-handedly charged into the lion’s den and dominated the field. Although Lu Wenbin had ultimately scored only one goal in the final, anyone who had watched the match live knew that Lu Wenbin was the key figure behind Meijiang High School’s victory and championship. Whenever he got the ball, opponents treated him as if facing a formidable enemy, and it took three or four players to strip the ball from his feet. It was this match that finally gave Lu Chongxin a glimmer of hope that Lu Wenbin might gain special admission to college through soccer. However, he didn’t harbor any grand hopes of him becoming a professional player; Lu Chongxin felt that was too far-fetched. Lu Wenbin was only in his first year of high school, with more than two years to go. If, over the next two years, he could catch the eye of a university sports college through his soccer skills and gain admission as a special sports recruit, Lu Chongxin would be satisfied. Therefore, after returning home from the game, Lu Chongxin talked at length with his wife about Lu Wenbin’s performance. When Lu Wenbin returned home after packing his schoolbag and clothes at school, the couple was discussing whether Lu Wenbin could really get into college through a sports scholarship. However, Lu Chongxin clearly had more confidence in Lu Wenbin, while Sun Jiahui had merely shifted slightly from her previous view that Lu Wenbin simply didn’t like studying, treated soccer as a game, and wasn’t serious about his studies. In any case, Lu Wenbin had won a championship, and that was certainly worth celebrating. So, instead of eating at home that afternoon, the family of three went out to a long-established mutton hotpot restaurant in Meitan to celebrate with a meal. Although his parents still didn’t believe he could become a professional player, they had started to harbor more hope that he could go to college through soccer, which made Lu Wenbin quite happy. Next, he would continue to improve and lead the school team forward. His goal wasn’t to secure a special admission spot at a university, but to catch the eye of a professional club and play professional soccer. Ideally, he’d make the leap directly to playing abroad, so he wouldn’t have to waste time in the murky waters of domestic Chinese soccer. However, Lu Wenbin knew deep down that this was unlikely. As for domestic clubs in the China League One, China League Two, or even the Chinese Super League, it’s still possible that they might send scouts to the National High School Soccer League Finals to scout for promising talent. There have indeed been precedents where high school students used this national championship as a springboard to join domestic clubs, become professional players, and even eventually develop into national team players. But foreign clubs are unlikely to send scouts to watch Chinese high school soccer matches. Even if there are European scouts stationed in China, they’re certainly focused on the Chinese Super League. The China League One and Two are probably not even on their radar, let alone a high school campus league. The likelihood of Lu Wenbin making the leap from the high school league directly to the attention of foreign clubs is truly slim. However, regardless of the odds, Lu Wenbin must perform well to at least secure the interest of domestic clubs and make it into professional soccer first. As for foreign clubs, it’s a matter of luck. What if a scout from a foreign club suddenly decides to go watch the high school league in person? So, opportunity favors the prepared. Lu Wenbin’s top priority, no matter what, is to find ways to improve his skills and ensure he leads his school team to the national finals. To lead his school teammates to the national finals, he naturally has to rely on the system. That evening, Lu Wenbin lay in bed and opened the system interface to take a look. After the final match against First High School that morning, Lu Wenbin first received 4 experience points for scoring a goal and 10 experience points for winning the entire match, for a total reward of 14 experience points. Lu Wenbin’s original level was Level 2, 48/50. After receiving this 14-point experience reward, he leveled up to Level 3, 12/100, and also earned 5 skill points as a level-up bonus. Leveling up from Level 3 to Level 4 requires 100 experience points. Lu Wenbin was still 88 points short—a rather significant gap. Later, during the award ceremony, the moment Nie Yingkun received the certificate on behalf of the school team from the Director of Education, Lu Wenbin’s “Mission 4: First Championship” was completed, earning him 20 experience points and 2 skill points as a reward. As a result, Lu Wenbin’s personal profile and attributes became: Host: Lu Wenbin Nationality: China Age: 16 Height: 163 cm Weight: 55 kg Club: None Level: 3 Experience: 32/100 Skill Points: 7 Shooting: 14/14 Passing: 5/13 Dribbling: 10/10 Speed: 7/11 Physicality: 12/12 Defense: 4/7 Goalkeeping: 1/5 Vision: 5/11 Off-the-Ball Movement: 2/8 Seeing that he was a full 68 points short of the experience required to level up, Lu Wenbin finally dared not make any rash moves with his remaining 7 skill points. In today’s final against No. 1 High School, Lu Wenbin understood the tactics in the second half, but it wasn’t until the 84th minute that he found an opportunity to pass the ball to Han Dapeng, who then assisted Bi Rui in scoring the goal. This was due to Lu Wenbin’s insufficient vision and passing attributes. If Lu Wenbin’s vision and passing stats were just a bit higher, he would have certainly found the opportunity and space to make that pass long ago. It wasn’t just vision and passing; his off-the-ball movement stat was even lower—only 2/8—making it Lu Wenbin’s worst attribute aside from goalkeeping. This was also one of the reasons Lu Wenbin couldn’t score in this final: he couldn’t use off-the-ball movement to receive the ball in open space and take a shot. Because of his low off-the-ball movement attribute, Lu Wenbin can’t spot open spaces, can’t create them, and certainly can’t receive the ball in good positions. As a result, Lu Wenbin is marked by an opponent almost every time he receives the ball, leaving him no choice but to dribble past them. Sometimes, due to poor positioning, he doesn’t even get the ball—it gets intercepted by the opponent mid-pass. Lu Wenbin desperately wanted to immediately max out his passing, vision, and off-the-ball movement stats. If he had extra skill points, he’d even want to boost his 7/11 speed stat to 11/11. But he didn’t have that many skill points; he only had seven, which was nowhere near enough. As the experience required for leveling up increased, leveling up became more difficult, and the frequency of receiving skill point rewards grew even lower. Lu Wenbin could already foresee that every skill point would become extremely precious and hard to come by in the future. Therefore, Lu Wenbin dared not make any rash moves regarding his current 7 skill points. Lu Wenbin had asked the system: while skill points cannot be used to boost attributes during a match, they can be used during halftime. Just as he had done when he was first possessed by the system, adding points before the start of the second half of the match between Class 1 and Class 3 of the freshman year. Lu Wenbin decided to save his skill points, preparing to use them during halftime at the Zunyi match if he encountered difficulties similar to those in the game against First High School, and to allocate them strategically based on the situation.