Chapter 421: Chapter 27: The Munich Pull I
Monday, September 18, 2023
Temporary Apartment, Manchester
Night
The apartment was quiet, the recovery drink half-finished on the desk and his boots lined against the wall, and Demien sat with his phone face-down while the Bayern clips kept running behind his eyes.
The Brighton draw still sat badly in him, not because United had lost — they hadn’t — but because they had looked like a side that could be played through whenever the press broke. Brighton had been calm and clever about it. They had invited the mistake, waited for the gap, and punished the impatience.
Bayern were worse.
The staff had walked the squad through it that afternoon, and the clips made Brighton look gentle by comparison. Bayern pressed higher and heavier, the first man closing the center-back while the second cut the lane into midfield and the winger jumped the fullback, all of it moving as a single connected wall. Where Brighton invited mistakes, Bayern forced them, and the moment a touch ran loose, Kane and Musiala and Sané turned it into a shot before anyone reset.
He thought it through without dressing it up. The match didn’t need vague improvement. It needed specific survival tools.
He needed a faster first touch, because Bayern wouldn’t give him a second to settle the ball. He needed weight on his passing, because one loose release at the Allianz would become a Bayern attack. He needed to hold contact, because their midfield would not let him stroll through a challenge. He needed to read danger early, because if United’s midfield split, Musiala and Kane would eat the space behind it. And he needed something explosive, because away nights in Europe turned on a single carry, a single switch, a single shot.
He wasn’t scared of it. But he understood the gap between where he was and where the match would be.
He set the recovery drink aside and spoke, quiet and even.
"Open the system."
The panel surfaced in the dark of the room.
「HELLO, DEMIEN. WELCOME BACK.」
「CURRENT BALANCE」
「659 TP | 373 SP | 1278 MP」
「AVAILABLE PACKS」
「Bronze Pack: 50 TP or 50 MP」
「Silver Pack: 200 TP or 100 MP」
「Gold Pack: 500 TP or 200 MP」
「Black Pack: 10 SP」
「Diamond Pack: 50 SP」
He didn’t rush it. He read the balance twice and worked out the spending path the way he’d worked out everything since Bergamo — in order, by purpose.
Match points first, because they were the easiest to rebuild and a Champions League away leg was exactly what they were for. Training points next, while he still had enough for the silver tier. Special points last, because the premium pulls carried the real weight and Munich justified the risk.
The plan was simple, and it wasn’t reckless. He would burn almost everything. Not because the pulling itself meant anything to him anymore, but because Bayern away was not a match he could walk into half-prepared.
The Gold Run — Match Points
"Gold Pack."
「GOLD PACK SELECTED」
「200 MP CONSUMED」
「REMAINING BALANCE: 659 TP | 373 SP | 1078 MP」
A brass lever formed in the air to his right, solid enough that his hand closed around it, and he drew it down. Seven cards fanned out and began to flip one at a time, each turning over with a soft flush of light.
「Composure +3 · Vision +1 · Sliding Tackle +3 · Vision +3 · Late Run Specialist (shard) · Curling Free-Kick — EPIC · Stop-Start Burst (shard)」
The Curling Free-Kick card held a beat longer than the others, edged in the deeper glow the system saved for techniques.
He registered it without celebration. Bayern conceded fouls in dangerous areas when teams broke their press cleanly, and a weapon from the edge of the box was worth having in a match where chances would be rare.
He pulled again.
「GOLD PACK SELECTED」
「200 MP CONSUMED」
「REMAINING BALANCE: 659 TP | 373 SP | 878 MP」
「Reactions +6 · Stamina +4 · Long Shots +6 · Interceptions +4 · Momentum Shifter (shard) · Curve Run Timing (shard) · Long Passing +4」
This one was Bayern-shaped, and his mind put it together before the last card settled — reactions to see the press earlier, stamina to outlast it, interceptions to punish the loose pass, long passing to switch out before the trap closed.
The third came faster.
「GOLD PACK SELECTED」
「200 MP CONSUMED」
「REMAINING BALANCE: 659 TP | 373 SP | 678 MP」
「Reactions +2 · Vision +3 · Short Passing +3 · Positioning +3 · Leadership Badge (shard) · Acrobatic Volley (shard) · Composure +1」
Less flashy, all of it sharpening the same thing — the part of his game that read the picture and chose. His match brain was getting cleaner with each one.
The fourth made him sit a little stiller.
「GOLD PACK SELECTED」
「200 MP CONSUMED」
「REMAINING BALANCE: 659 TP | 373 SP | 478 MP」
「Reactions +2 · Stamina +2 · Strength +3 · Composure +6 · Pivot Discipline (shard) · Curve Run Timing (shard) · Vision +3」
Pivot Discipline was only a shard, nowhere near a threshold, but the idea landed anyway. Bayern would punish United the instant the holding midfielder left his lane, and the system had put the exact word in front of him.
The fifth and sixth ran together.
「GOLD PACK SELECTED」
「200 MP CONSUMED」
「REMAINING BALANCE: 659 TP | 373 SP | 278 MP」
「Sliding Tackle +1 · Short Passing +4 · Balance +6 · Curve +6 · Weak-Foot Confidence (shard) · Interception Step (shard) · Tackle-and-Carry (shard)」
The balance and short passing he could already feel in his body — less wobble when contact came, a cleaner release off an awkward angle.
「GOLD PACK SELECTED」
「200 MP CONSUMED」
「REMAINING BALANCE: 659 TP | 373 SP | 78 MP」
「Balance +8 · Long Passing +6 · Curve +4 · Long Passing +4 · First-Touch Master (shard) · Trivela Switch (shard) · Game Reader (shard)」
The best of the run. The long passing stacked twice over, and First-Touch Master sat there as a shard — not active, but the thought it carried was the whole match. Against Bayern, the first touch was the difference between escaping and being swallowed.
The Bronze Pull
Seventy-eight match points left, not enough for another gold. He spent one bronze to close the MP out properly.
「BRONZE PACK SELECTED」
「50 MP CONSUMED」
「REMAINING BALANCE: 659 TP | 373 SP | 28 MP」
「Slide Rescue (shard) · Composure +2 · Long Passing +1」
Small, but the composure and long passing still stacked onto the rest, and he took it without complaint. Match points were spent.
The Silver Run — Training Points
He moved to training points, three silver packs, quicker than the gold run because the real weight was still ahead.
「SILVER PACK SELECTED」
「200 TP CONSUMED」
「REMAINING BALANCE: 459 TP | 373 SP | 28 MP」
「Curve +4 · Short Passing +3 · Acceleration +1 · Sponsor Deal Slot (shard) · Cold Blood (shard)」
Practical. More curve, more passing, a touch of pace.
「SILVER PACK SELECTED」
「200 TP CONSUMED」
「REMAINING BALANCE: 259 TP | 373 SP | 28 MP」
「Short Passing +1 · Long Passing +2 · Short Passing +2 · Cool Penalty Taker (shard) · Short Passing +2」
Nothing that flashed, but the passing stack was real and it was the thing Bayern would test most.
「SILVER PACK SELECTED」
「200 TP CONSUMED」
「REMAINING BALANCE: 59 TP | 373 SP | 28 MP」
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