Lin Hai Ting Tao

Chapter 15 Ability

Chapter 1 Why and Where To

For Zhou Yi, why he played soccer and what his future plans were were ultimate philosophical questions, akin to "Where do you come from and where are you going?"

Figuring out this question would help him find direction and goals, enabling him to move forward more firmly and quickly.

Thanks to Yang Muge's words, he had found the answer in his heart.

However, there was one question he still wanted to confirm: did he really have enough talent to be a professional soccer player?

As Zhou Yi snored in bed, drifting off to sleep, he also entered the world of FIFA Online 3.

Chu Ling appeared before him as usual, saying, "Welcome to the world of FIFA Online 3, Zhou Yi."

It was just like a hostess standing at the entrance of a restaurant, bowing to every entering customer and saying, "Welcome!"

Zhou Yi didn't immediately ask Chu Ling to arrange his training. Instead, he asked, "Chu Ling, do I have the talent to play soccer?"

"Of course," Chu Ling replied so quickly and decisively that Zhou Yi was a little surprised.

"Hey, how can you be so sure? Even I'm not sure..." Zhou Yi felt that Chu Ling was being too perfunctory.

"Because I can see your abilities," Chu Ling said.

"See... my abilities?" Zhou Yi found this statement awkward. "Is it because I won the qualifying round finals?"

"No. It's because of this." As Chu Ling spoke, an image suddenly appeared before Zhou Yi.

On the black background, his avatar was in the upper left corner, using his current image. Above the photo was his name, "Zhou Yi," and on the right were details like height, weight, nationality, and preferred foot.

All the information matched Zhou Yi's current situation. For example, his height was 1.71 meters, his weight was 48 kilograms, and he preferred his right foot, so there was a blue number five on his right foot, while his left foot was gray with a gray number four.

Below that were three rows of individual stats, each representing an ability, with a number indicating the ability value. Zhou Yi understood this at a glance.

So, that's what Chu Ling meant by being able to see his abilities...

Zhou Yi focused, starting to look at each stat—he was quite curious about what his specific data was.

Having played soccer video games, he had no difficulty accepting this setting.

Shooting 31, Shot Power 25, Curve 19, Long Shots 20, Volley 9, Free Kick 15, Penalty 37, Heading 27, Positioning 40, Speed 55, Acceleration 54, Agility 45…

Zhou Yi only looked at the first row and felt a wave of despair—his stats were all gray, like pathetic pieces of junk equipment in an online game.

"This is so bad?" Zhou Yi exclaimed. "Is this considered talented? This is a trash player in the game! No one wants him! The kind that gets his contract terminated at the start, and I'd hate him for taking up a team slot and wasting my salary budget!"

"First, these data standards are all based on professional soccer, with a maximum value of 99. These scores represent your true level in the professional soccer world. Second, you're only seventeen years old," Chu Ling said.

Zhou Yi continued to look down.

Reactions 40, Jumping 35, Stamina 30, Strength 11, Balance 45, Short Passing 22, Long Passing 10, Crossing 13, Vision 99, Ball Control...

Wait?

Zhou Yi shifted his gaze back up, focusing on the "Vision" stat. The deep blue 99 seemed to explode in his eyes, stunning him.

Vision 99!

How was this possible? If what Chu Ling said was true, and the highest score in professional soccer was 99… then he was already at the highest level of professional soccer in terms of vision!

But he had never received professional soccer training, nor had he ever been exposed to professional soccer.

"This is impossible..." he murmured.

"What's impossible about it? Vision is the range you can see on the field. I think you should be very clear about that, right?" Chu Ling said from the side.

A flash of light appeared in Zhou Yi's mind, and he understood why his vision was 99.

Being able to see the entire field as a flat map, it didn't seem too exaggerated for his vision to be maxed out.

Zhou Yi temporarily suppressed his shock and continued to look down.

Below vision was ball control: ball control 25, dribbling 20, dribbling speed 25, marking 5, aggression 19, tactical awareness 31, tackling 6, sliding tackle 9.

Except for the heaven-defying vision stat, everything else was a dismal gray.

Finally, there was the overall score—41.

Looking at the gray overall rating, Zhou Yi was speechless.

"Forty-one... is that the lowest score?"

Chu Ling said, "How could it be? The lowest score is 20. You're more than double the lowest score."

"That's... something to be happy about..." Zhou Yi said with a dry laugh. "What's a score of 20 like?"

"Probably... all the scores are single digits," Chu Ling wasn't very sure.

"That's... an amateur, right?"

"No, I said these are the ratings for professional players. As long as there's a rating, they're considered professional players. If they don't meet the standards of professional soccer, they don't even get a rating. Twenty is a threshold."

"So... my strength is still enough to gain a foothold in professional soccer?" Zhou Yi asked.

"A score of 41 should be enough to gain a foothold in a title-contending team in the Indian domestic soccer league," Chu Ling replied.

"India has a professional league too!" Zhou Yi thought Chu Ling was mocking him.

"Yes, recognized by the Asian Football Confederation."

Zhou Yi didn't speak.

He discovered that there was a second page of information about his attributes. He flipped it open and saw special skills and preferred positions.

The special skills section was very empty, with only one skill listed: "Eagle Eye."

Zhou Yi didn't need to ask Chu Ling anymore; he could guess what this skill was.

He continued to look at preferred positions.

The position section was a flat map of a soccer field, with circular patches in different positions, some red, some different shades of green, and some yellow.

"What does this mean?" Zhou Yi asked Chu Ling.

"Red means you're completely unfamiliar with the position, yellow means you can barely cope, light green means you can play the position, and dark green means you're in your element," Chu Ling explained simply.

Zhou Yi stared at the field map in a daze.

The circular patch in the center forward position in the penalty area was light green, while the circular patch in the central midfielder position was… dark green.

Coach Hao Dong's words from the day echoed in his ears:

"Don't play forward anymore; switch to midfield, an attacking midfielder, a number ten."

He exhaled and then asked Chu Ling, "Okay, Chu Ling, can I change my position now?"

"Of course, what position do you want to change to?" Chu Ling nodded.

"Attacking midfielder."

※※※

When Zhou Yi reopened his eyes, the morning light was streaming into the room from outside the window, and a new day had arrived.

The bed next to him was as neat as if no one had slept in it, just like yesterday morning, and Zhou Yi's pillow was still covered in cold sweat.

He had to take another shower.

This time, Zhou Yi didn't think for too long in bed. He quickly rolled out of bed and went into the bathroom.

As the hot water washed away the sticky sweat, Zhou Yi stood under the showerhead, but his thoughts were still in the virtual training ground.

He thought his poor performance on the first day of training with the team was because he was playing forward, as after seeing the map of his best positions last night, it was clear that forward wasn't his best position. So, according to his estimation, after starting to play his best position, attacking midfielder, last night, his performance should have improved.

But unfortunately, it didn't.

His performance wasn't just not as good as the day before; it was even worse.

Because as an attacking midfielder who organized the offense, he was the team's offensive hub, and the soccer ball would gather at his feet from all directions, and then he would pass the ball out.

This meant he had far more opportunities to touch the ball than when he was a forward, which magnified his problems and embarrassment in training.

But this time, he didn't agonize over it for long like he did yesterday morning.

He had already asked Chu Ling and knew that his stats would increase with age and training, so many of the current stats were gray, but that didn't mean they would be gray forever.

So he wasn't worried about his lack of talent for soccer.

In fact, this question had already been resolved when he saw his stats.

Vision 99!

Even among the top professional players, there probably weren't many with such heaven-defying stats, right?

Zhou Yi thought smugly, wondering what He Ying's stats were.

He then remembered that he should check the stats of his teammates to get a direct understanding of their abilities—he hadn't even seen his teammates play soccer yet.

※※※

While eating breakfast, Zhou Yi ran into Sun Pan and Yang Muge in the dining hall. He carried his tray and sat down across from them.

"I've made up my mind," he said to them.

"I want to become a professional soccer player, I want to play professional soccer, I want to earn big money, I want to become famous."

After saying that, he took a bite of his steamed bun and began to eat voraciously.

Sun Pan and Yang Muge exchanged a glance, then looked at Zhou Yi, who was eating in front of them with his head down.

※※※

In the evening, there was the coaching staff's routine daily meeting.

The frequency of this meeting was somewhat high; few coaching staffs would have a meeting every day. But Hao Dong had no choice; he was very clear about the strength of this team. Challenging the youth teams of those European powerhouses was actually not enough, but there was nothing he could do. The opponents they challenged were not something he could decide. Instead, the sponsors and program producers made the choice based on viewership ratings. They didn't look for opponents who were evenly matched with the Chinese teenagers when choosing their opponents.

To improve the strength of this team as much as possible, Hao Dong had to be even stricter.

In fact, this was also Hao Dong's first time truly coaching a team. In 2004, before retiring, he had gone to a club in England to study coaching, but he hadn't independently coached a team since returning to China.

So, in a way, this cobbled-together youth expeditionary force was Hao Dong's debut in the head coach's job.

His lack of experience made him more cautious in his work, and the daily meeting was primarily to highlight his seriousness about this matter.

At the meeting, Hao Dong asked Li Haorui for a report on Zhou Yi's training situation.

"Everything is as usual, the same as the previous two days of training, and he completed the training mission objectives. However, he's pretending to be tired and acting strangely less often."

A coach next to him laughed and said, "Has he resigned himself to fate under your command?"

Everyone laughed.

Li Haorui also smiled, but he didn't think so in his heart.

He thought he could still distinguish between the subtle differences of a person submitting to fate and fighting against it.

In his opinion, Zhou Yi's reduced complaining wasn't resignation, but rather a reason that allowed him to put down his joking and move forward firmly and diligently.

Li Haorui could see that Zhou Yi was exhausted, but his eyes were shining.

He could also hear that Zhou Yi's heavy breathing was no longer the kind of near-death state, but steady and even.

Li Haorui didn't understand why one night would cause such a change in Zhou Yi, nor did he know what this change specifically meant.

He only knew that Zhou Yi's hard work was a good thing.

Although Zhou Yi's current strength was the weakest among the sixteen, hard work meant there was still a chance to catch up. No matter how slim the hope, at least a substitute appearance was possible.

But if Zhou Yi didn't work hard, then he was really just going to Europe for a vacation.

Now it seemed that Zhou Yi still had some ambition.