'Your ball magnet isn't strong enough to stop those kinds of shots, it's still at level one.'
"But I can enhance it and make it stronger, this is my dream, after all, right?" Dave said with both of his fists on the ground.
'What's the point of enhancing it here when you can do the same in the real match, have you suddenly forgotten why you're doing this?'
"Yeah, you're right." The goalkeeper said as he slowly got up from the floor. "I have to use everything I can use in the real world. Tell me, what will happen if I activate my shot-stopping attribute?"
'Well, since this is your dream and you can easily reverse the effects after it had happened, why don't you activate it and see for yourself?'
"Okay." He said before letting out a deep sigh.
[ Shot stopping attribute activated ]
[ All stats have received (+10) boost ]
"Is that it? Just a boost."
'Your attribute is still at its lowest level so this is the best it can do for now, with increased dexterity you can dive towards the ball faster, with increased endurance, your body can withstand the toughest of shots and with increased strength, pushing out shots even with the tip of your gloves gets easier.'
"Okay, I understand but what's the downside that you were talking about?"
'Lesica United are leading a counterattack now, why don't you make a save and see for yourself.'
Just like Catherine said, Lesica United were leading a counterattack on their goalpost now with Okafor running down the middle with the ball with Okafor and Aima hot on his trail, and the other players right behind them.
Dave was off his line and was trying to move back and while he was doing that, Okafor found an opportunity he had to take before Adolf closed up on him.
He rolled the ball further out of his reach and just as he closed up on it, he lobbed it over Dave who was still returning to his goal line.
"I hate these types of balls," Dave muttered as he watched the ball fly past him.
He took a quick leap and dived toward the ball and with the tip of his right glove, he tipped the ball over the bar before it could fall into the back of the net.
'Nice save.'
"Yeah," Dave said as she sat on the floor panting.
[ 98/116 Energy ]
"I only lost one energy percentage after trying to save that shot from Okafor how come making this save took way more than that?" The goalkeeper inquired.
'That's why I told you that using an attribute, especially at the beginning of the match is quite risky, at this stage, what the attribute does is push your body to do things it cannot do naturally, you think it's just about the temporarily added stat points but it's way more than that and because your body cannot do these things naturally, pushing it to do them will require way more energy.' Catherine explained.
"Why does everything have to come with a downside?"
'Let me let you in on a little secret, these downsides won't always be there, if you keep working hard to level up and match the body levels, these skills and attributes will naturally become a part of you and you won't have to face the downsides anymore."
________ ________
The goalkeeper let out a loud yawn as he slowly stretched his hands before sitting up on his bed.
'Losing two goals to nothing wasn't that bad, Okafor scoring both of the goals from long-ranged shots was a bit scary.' He said subconsciously.
<To be honest, I was expecting them to do way more than that>
'Yeah, because you made my teammates start playing like a bunch of idiots.'
<That is how they play, I've been studying them during the matches, that is how they play>
'Then maybe your evaluations were wrong because Merino cannot end a match without at least attempting a shot from outside the box, all you made him do in the match was just pass the ball around even when he got a clear sight of the goal.'
<He is supposed to pass the ball because his long shot accuracy isn't anything to be impressed about, he is supposed to pass the ball to someone with a better chance of scoring from that far out>
'You're just making them do what you want, I knew something was off with the way they were playing.'
<Besides the decision-making, that is exactly how they play>
'Really, and you think your decision-making was the best, you just made them worse, they couldn't even get a goal and why did Ferran have to hit the crossbar every time he shot from outside the box?'
<He does have the most woodwork hits this season so...>
'You're unbelievable Catherine.'
<Yeah, nobody would believe you if you told them I was in your head>
'Why do I feel like this isn't the Catherine I know.' Dave said subconsciously before slapping his palm into his face
"Hey, you're awake," Emma said with a weak sleepy voice as Dave quickly turned his gaze to her to see that she had her eyes wide open and was staring at him with a bright smile on her face.
"Hey, good morning," Dave said, smiling at her.
"Good morning." She replied. "Hope you slept well?"
"Yeah, what about you?" Dave asked.
"I feel great." She said with a little burst of energy.
"That's good to hear, I think I should head down for my morning run now." The goalkeeper said and was about to step down from the bed when she grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and pulled him down on the bed.
'What's going on?!' He screamed in his mind.
"You're not going anywhere just yet." She said.
Dave could swear he could see blue flames in her eyes burning and rising with desire.
<I like this>
________ _______
After completing all his daily quests, Dave returned to the house at exactly 9:00 AM expecting Emma to be gone by then but he was surprised when he opened the door and found her working on her laptop in the living room and the fact that she was still putting on her pajamas baffled him more.
"I thought you were supposed to be at work." He said moving closer to her.
"I'm not going to work today." She said with her gaze on her laptop's screen.
"What did you call in sick or you just don't want to go, you could lose your job?"
<Why would she call in sick? She's not sick.>
'You have no idea how things work in the minds of most people.'
"It's not like I won't be going to work, I will work today given the fact that I will be at your match this afternoon and a certain match at night but I won't be going to work today." She explained.
"Oh, you'll be going from home," Dave said.
"Yeah."
"Okay, I'll leave you to continue doing what you doing, I have to be at the stadium by 10:30 AM anyway." He said before quickly making his way upstairs.
_________ _________
Murmurs filled the locker room as the players were sharing their opinions and thoughts on a few things while waiting for Norman to arrive.
It didn't take long for Norman to arrive and as he made his way to the board in front of the players, the murmurs among the players slowly went down.
"Good morning coach." Adolf greeted as most of his teammates followed him to greet the coach.
"Good morning boys," Norman said. "I know I gave you the tactics formation and starting eleven of the match yesterday, but after staying up all night studying a few things about our opponents, I've decided to make major changes to everything."
"Major changes," Dave muttered.
*****
Hope you enjoyed the chapter?
If we can hit 1000+ privilege unlocks before the end of this month, I'll do five chapters mass release on any day between the 20-25th of January.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢