Chapter 1 Thank You, Master!

"Thank you, Master!" Chen Hero bowed to Little Juninho in the training instance. He was thanking Little Juninho for teaching him free kicks.

"Looks like you broke your goal drought?" the virtual, intelligent Little Juninho asked with a smile.

"Yeah, two at once, both free kicks!" Chen Hero said happily.

"Keep up the good work. Free kicks aren't something you master once and then forget. If you don't practice it every day, your skills will decline. You need to practice regularly. You should keep up the extra practice you're doing as a show, Hero. It will really help improve your free kicks!" Juninho advised him with the air of a master.

Chen Hero accepted everything.

He had benefited a lot from this apprenticeship system. He treated the teachers here with the utmost respect. Inzaghi had taught him off-ball movement, and Little Juninho had taught him free kicks. Both had become his scoring weapons.

Without them, he would just be an ordinary center forward who could head the ball and shoot wildly from long range. People would have figured him out long ago, and he would have been stuck in a rut, unable to break through.

He was now considering who he should find as his next master.

He was mainly considering this from the perspective of improving his footwork…

But there was a problem—there were many players with good footwork, but very few players who were tall and had excellent footwork. Almost all of those with outstanding footwork were short, like… Maradona, who was always arguing with him in the training instance, was a typical example.

There were tall players with excellent footwork, too—Zlatan Ibrahimović.

But Chen Hero would definitely not seek apprenticeship with someone he didn't like.

Just like although Maradona had become his intelligent player and had a lot of great skills, he just wouldn't learn anything from Maradona.

You have all these skills? I'll just ignore you!

Kenny Dalglish? Chen Hero didn't know much about Dalglish in his playing days, and he had already learned Dalglish's signature "back-to-goal control" skill, so there didn't seem to be anything else to learn.

Inzaghi and Juninho also didn't have anything more to teach him.

So who should he look for?

That night, Chen Hero couldn't think of anyone to learn from.

※※※

The next day when he went to training, Chen Hero was still thinking about this question.

Tall and with great footwork, tall and with great footwork, tall and with great footwork…

He kept muttering this phrase all the way, hoping to find some clue.

After arriving at the parking lot, he ran into Suárez.

He figured that his own wisdom was limited, after all. Maybe it would be better to brainstorm this problem?

So after greeting Suárez, he brought up the problem that had been bothering him all night: "Luis, do you know of anyone in the world of soccer who is tall and has very good footwork?"

Suárez found it strange. "Why are you asking about this?"

"Uh…" Chen Hero naturally couldn't tell him the truth, which was that he wanted to find someone like that to become his master, so he made up an excuse. "I just suddenly thought of this question, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't think of anyone. I'm pretty stubborn, so I had to figure it out. I've been thinking about it all night, but I still can't figure it out…"

When Suárez heard that this question had stumped Chen Hero for an entire night, he immediately got excited—this question had been bothering Chen Hero all night, so if I could figure it out, wouldn't I be better than him? I can't beat him on the field, but there's no problem off the field, right!

So he started to seriously consider the question. "First, you have to tell me, how tall is considered tall?"

"About my height…"

"Are you talking about center backs and goalkeepers?" Suárez rolled his eyes. The Uruguayan was 1.81 meters tall, which was considered tall among ordinary people, but standing next to Chen Hero, he still looked like a child.

There weren't many strikers who were 1.95 meters tall, but there were quite a few center backs and goalkeepers. But even if center backs and goalkeepers had good footwork… it would be limited.

Chen Hero also felt that it didn't make sense to be so strict, so he changed his mind. "Okay, well, it can't be too far off, right? At least 1.88 meters, right?" He originally wanted to say that it had to be at least 1.9 meters, but when he thought about it, there weren't many people who were 1.9 meters tall, so he decided to relax the conditions a little.

"1.88 meters… including retired players? Or can it only be current players?" Suárez asked again.

Chen Hero thought that whether it was current or retired players, they could all be recruited as masters in the training instance. Even dead people could be perfectly resurrected in the instance, so there was no point in limiting it to retired or current players. He said, "Whether they're retired or current, anyone in modern soccer history is fine!"

"Are there position restrictions?"

"Preferably a striker."

"Ah… what do you think of Ronaldo?" Suárez asked.

"Is Ronaldo 1.88 meters tall?" Chen Hero asked back.

"I think so? Didn't they say he was almost 1.9 meters tall when he debuted?"

"Wait… are we talking about the same Ronaldo?"

"Turns out we're not?"

"Yeah, I'm talking about Ronaldo from Brazil…"

"Uh, I'm talking about Ronaldo from Portugal…"

"The one from Portugal isn't that tall, is he?"

"I remember it being like 1.88 or 1.87 meters…"

Chen Hero curled his lips. "I don't think much of him. He relies entirely on his physical strength, isn't that my style?"

Suárez thought about it. Ronaldo's technical skills had indeed deteriorated, and he was starting to rely more on his physical strength.

"Okay, let me think again… let me think again…" Suárez tapped his head. Then he suddenly clapped his hands. "Got it!"

"Who?" Chen Hero looked at him expectantly.

"Van Basten!"

Chen Hero's eyes lit up—how could I have forgotten about him!

Van Basten's footwork was definitely first-class. Although it wasn't as flashy as Cristiano Ronaldo's when he was young, it was very practical. And for a center forward, practical was the best.

He immediately hugged Suárez. "Good brother! I'll buy you a drink! But you're not allowed to pee in my closet this time!"

"Ptooey!"

※※※

Back at home, Chen Hero hurriedly finished his self-made dinner, which didn't look very good and tasted even worse. He didn't even wash the dishes and chopsticks before eagerly entering the training instance.

He didn't go directly to the training base, but entered the "Soccer Star Supermarket." He wanted to buy Van Basten and add him to his collection.

He had already used up almost all of his existing talent points, and in the more than a year he had been practicing free kicks, he hadn't bought a single player other than those rewarded by quests, so he now had a large amount of "Aurora Coins" available.

After not coming for a long time, Chen Hero discovered that Dracula had made some minor changes to this "Soccer Star Supermarket," such as… adding a particularly beautiful-looking female shop assistant!

As soon as she saw Chen Hero appear, she swayed her waist and buttocks as she walked gracefully toward him.

"Respected sir, is there anything I can help you with?" Her Mandarin was authentic, and her voice was clear and sweet, very pleasant to listen to. The only regret was that a blonde, blue-eyed foreign girl speaking fluent Mandarin was a bit incongruous…

"Huh? Aren't you Dracula?"

The female shop assistant opposite him looked blank.

"Yesenin?"

"Yeselina?"

Seeing that she didn't react, Chen Hero confirmed that the person in front of him wasn't Dracula himself disguised, but a program. So he asked, "What's your name, beauty?"

"You can call me Jessica, sir." The other party said respectfully, lowering her head. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Are you from here…"

"I'm a shop assistant here, sir. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Oh, right…" Chen Hero came back to his senses from the surprise of seeing Jessica. He remembered his business. "Bring out the most awesome soccer star you have here!"

He really wanted to slap the table to show his boldness. But there was nothing but air around him, so he almost staggered from the slap.

"Uh… just kidding…" Chen Hero was a little embarrassed that he had made a fool of himself in front of the beauty. He stood up again and smiled at her. "What I meant was, how much does Van Basten cost per pound? Ah, no, how much does he cost each?"

Jessica smiled and waved her hand. Van Basten appeared in front of Chen Hero.

"Thirty million experience points, sir."

"Damn, that's so expensive?" Chen Hero gasped. He remembered that when he first bought Inzaghi, it only cost three million experience points… how did it increase tenfold!

"This is a retired legendary soccer star, sir. You get what you pay for. He has a lot of honors, and he has won the Eredivisie championship three times, namely…" As she spoke, Jessica opened her mouth and began to introduce Van Basten's honors.

Chen Hero interrupted her. He wasn't interested in exactly how many honors Van Basten had won. He just knew that Van Basten was awesome.

"Can't you give me a discount, beauty? Look, I have such a good relationship with your boss…" Jessica's boss was Dracula. Since this system was created by Dracula, it seemed right to say that the Jessica generated by this system was Dracula's employee.

"I'm sorry, sir. We have fixed prices here." Jessica had an apologetic smile on her face, but her attitude was firm, and she wouldn't budge on the price.

"Prices can always be negotiated…"

"Are you only looking at one player, sir?" Jessica asked.

"Huh?"

"How about you take a look at our packages?"

"Huh?" Chen Hero was stunned. You can even buy a package when buying a person? What is this!

"We have the Dutch Three Musketeers package here. You only need to pay 88.88 million experience points to take Van Basten, Rijkaard, and Gullit home! If you buy them separately, you'll need to pay 30 million for each person…"

Chen Hero spat blood. What template did Dracula use to create this shop assistant? Was she a salesperson from China Telecom or China Mobile…

"Okay, okay, I don't have that much money… experience." Chen Hero once again interrupted Jessica's endless introduction. "I'll just buy one Van Basten."

"That'll be thirty million, sir."

"Tsk…"

Chen Hero had no choice but to honestly pay thirty million experience points to buy Van Basten.

After receiving the experience points transferred by Chen Hero, Jessica said with an enthusiastic smile, "Sir, you really have an eye for talent! As a representative of tall, technical center forwards, although Basten is tall, he's not clumsy at all. His greatest strengths are his technique and awareness! I believe that you'll benefit a lot from learning from him! Sir, if you want to buy anyone next time, please be sure to patronize our shop…"

Chen Hero finally fled in disarray, then called Dracula to complain.

After listening to Chen Hero's complaints, Dracula was surprised. "Don't you like it? Isn't it more realistic this way?"

"Realistic, my ass! I'm here to buy a player and leave, not to go shopping at the lotus pond!"

After complaining, Chen Hero hung up the phone. He couldn't bother to waste any more time talking nonsense with Dracula. Business was important!

Find Van Basten and become his apprentice!