Chapter 1 After Training

After leaving the Brackel training base, both Mark and Zhou Yi sat in the car without saying a word.

Old Wagner found it a bit strange, but he didn't ask much. He wasn't the kind of person who liked to pry.

So the three of them rode in silence all the way home.

During dinner, both of them seemed preoccupied, just burying their heads in their food without speaking.

This was extremely unusual for the two of them, who usually livened up the atmosphere at the dinner table.

Frau Wagner used her eyes to ask her husband what was going on.

Her husband responded with a look that said, "I don't know."

Frau Wagner glared at her husband, her eyes questioning, "How could you not know?!"

"They didn't say anything," Old Wagner replied, feeling somewhat aggrieved.

"You don't know to ask?!"

"How do I ask?"

Just as the couple was communicating through years of established understanding, Mark pushed his plate away and said, "I'm finished eating. Enjoy your meal."

Then he got up and went to his room.

Not long after, Zhou Yi also got up and left.

Watching the backs of the two boys, Frau Wagner's eyes were filled with worry.

Although she didn't know what had happened, anyone could tell that something was definitely wrong.

But she couldn't help at all, which made her anxious.

This feeling was the hardest for a mother to bear.

If Zhou Yi hadn't been so silent, she would have asked him what had happened.

But seeing that Zhou Yi was also preoccupied, she didn't want to bring it up.

※※※

Mark didn't ask Zhou Yi to come to his room for special training tonight. Perhaps he felt that the training was meaningless?

And Zhou Yi didn't go to Mark either.

The two of them stayed in their own rooms, each with their own thoughts…

Or perhaps that's not quite right. Mark was definitely preoccupied, but Zhou Yi, back in his room, wasn't acting like he had at the dinner table.

He turned on his computer, logged onto QQ, and began to deal with the messages he had missed over the past few days.

It was no different from any other ordinary night, seemingly unaffected by what had happened during the day.

On QQ, Zhou Yi told his parents that he had already played in a formal league match for the U19s and had performed well, and that his starting position should be secure.

However, he didn't say anything about Mark's situation.

After dealing with the messages on QQ, Zhou Yi opened a search engine, typed "Are there gods in this world?" into the search box, and pressed enter…

※※※

Unlike Zhou Yi, who was surfing the internet on his computer, Mark returned to his room, turned on his game console, and loaded his game save.

Then he stared blankly at his character's personal attributes.

After countless nights of hard work, he, who had started with mostly white stats, had become a world-class striker.

Eighty and ninety stats were not uncommon anymore.

Thinking back to the stats that Zhou Yi had given him when he first created this character, it was simply unbearable to look at.

At first, he had thought that Zhou Yi had set him up too poorly, that it didn't reflect his true self.

Now, he suddenly felt that Zhou Yi was right, that was his true strength, that was how pathetic he really was!

Not like this, with these dazzling stats, a world-class striker…

This was virtual, fake, and unreal. It could only exist on the hard drive of the game console and could not be projected into reality.

And the real him was like a clown, whose only purpose was to make others laugh with his clumsiness.

Perhaps he really wasn't suited for a career in professional soccer, just as his sister had said.

Didn't Götze say that he was useless without Zhou Yi…

He didn't deserve to be in the U19s.

Perhaps he didn't deserve to be in Dortmund…

Mark selected his character and pressed the delete key. A window popped up on the screen asking "Confirm or Cancel." He hesitated for a moment, but still pressed "Confirm."

He deleted the character that Zhou Yi had painstakingly created in the game, even though this character, with the help of Zhou Yi’s virtual character, scored goals as easily as chopping vegetables, and together they had helped Dortmund win every championship they could.

But after all, it was virtual, meaningless.

No matter how well he performed in the game, it couldn't change how pathetic he was in reality.

Special training… in the end, it was all meaningless!

※※※

Zhou Yi was sitting in his own room, but his ears were constantly focused on the movements next door.

He knew that, according to Mark's habits, he would take a shower downstairs every night before going to bed.

He was waiting for Mark to go to the shower.

Sure enough, when he heard the sound of the door opening next door, he jumped up from the bed and rushed to his own door. When the sound of footsteps in the hallway faded away, he opened the door and quickly slipped into Mark's room.

Then he went straight under Mark's bed, lay down, adjusted his breathing, and waited patiently.

※※※

Mark came back from his shower, went into his room, closed the door, and fell straight onto the bed, crawling under the covers. He was going to sleep.

Lying on the floor, Zhou Yi could clearly hear Mark tossing and turning on the bed, as well as his breathing.

He didn't know if Mark always tossed and turned so much every night before going to sleep, but he was certainly moving around a lot tonight.

The bed above him kept creaking, continuously. Zhou Yi even wondered if Mark couldn't sleep.

But there was nothing Zhou Yi could do now. He could only lie on the ground and wait.

Waiting for the moment when Mark was about to fall asleep, but hadn't quite fallen asleep yet—that semi-conscious state. This was the moment that Zhou Yi needed for his plan.

After waiting for an unknown amount of time, Zhou Yi heard Mark's breathing gradually become more even, and the frequency of tossing and turning clearly decreased. Zhou Yi knew that his chance had come.

So he lay on the floor and gently called Mark's name.

"Mark Wagner." He didn't use his normal voice, but tried to make his voice as deep and thick as possible, more like a middle-aged man's voice.

He had to say, he really imitated it vividly, controlling his tone very steadily.

Of course, this was all thanks to his wide range of interests since childhood. He had been interested in crosstalk for a while… What does crosstalk emphasize? Speaking, imitating, teasing, and singing.

Imitating is the most important!

Zhou Yi continued to call Mark, imitating the voice of a middle-aged man.

"Mark Wagner."

He called out several times like this, gradually increasing the volume, and finally Mark on the bed reacted. He turned over, or perhaps sat up straight in bed.

"Who is it?" His voice was filled with the bewilderment of just being woken up from a dream. "Who's talking to me?"

"It is I," Zhou Yi said, suppressing his voice.

"Who are you?" Mark must have been looking around the room, but he didn't see anyone, so there was some fear in his voice.

"Who I am is not important. What's important is that I know who you are. Mark Wagner, a teenager who loves soccer and Borussia Dortmund, determined to become a professional player and wear the Dortmund jersey. Am I right?"

"Uh… no."

Unexpectedly, Mark's answer was different from before.

"That's just the past," Mark said in a low voice. "I don't actually have the talent or ability to become a professional player, and I'll never be able to play for Dortmund…"

Hearing Mark's words, Zhou Yi sighed inwardly. If he hadn't pretended to be a ghost, he probably wouldn't have been able to get Mark to reveal these innermost thoughts.

"Why? Because you're not performing well in training?"

"No, that's not the reason… I've realized that I'm useless except for relying on my friends…" Mark continued in a low voice.

Zhou Yi cursed Götze inwardly. It really was that kid! Even if what he said was true, did he have to say it in front of Mark? He could have told me in private!

"Then why don't you think about the fact that there are so many people on the team, why is it that only you can 'rely' on your friend? And no one else can?"

"Maybe… it's because… he lives in my house?"

"No, it's because you have your strengths, and your strengths happen to work better with your friend. If you're giving up on your dream that you've held onto for so many years just because of that, then I can only say that I'm very disappointed in you, Mark Wagner."

"You're afraid of your dream, and you've been defeated and crushed by it."

After saying these words, Zhou Yi stopped speaking. He lay quietly under the bed, not even breathing.

"Huh?" Mark didn't seem to realize that the mysterious person who was talking to him had suddenly disappeared. He was struck in his heart by this last sentence and froze on the bed.

I'm afraid of my dream, and I've been defeated and crushed by my dream?

A dream is a beautiful thing. Why am I afraid of it?

Am I afraid of my dream because I can't achieve it?

Am I afraid of my dream because my dream puts too much pressure on me?

Am I afraid of my dream because I'm worried about what will happen if I fail?

Mark sat blankly on his bed, constantly asking himself these questions in his mind.