30 A new challenge

"Stop him!!! All of you " The coach yelled from the top of his lungs, the 2 defenders did their best to comply with their coach's orders but couldn't stop their legs from shaking.

Anxiousness took over their body as they looked at the tall and muscular brown haired boy who advanced towards them with a bored look, he was slowly advancing with the ball stuck to his feet but none of the midfielders tried going back to steal the ball from him, they already lost any hope in attempting to do so.

"Are you just going to stand there?" The boy asked with an annoyed look on his face, his disgusted expression making him even more intimidating, he was clearly looking down on them and wasn't going to hide it.

One of the defenders rushed towards him in a desperate attempt to steal the ball but the tanned young man easily nutmegged him with a rouletted and went past him. "Close your legs, you're not in a fucking strip club." He said, with a slight accent in his otherwise fluent Japanese.

He then ran towards the last player in his way, and in a last attempt to stop him, the defender tried fouling him and aimlessly shot up his leg towards him.

"I'm tired of y'all third rate prayers trying to foul me even though you guys are going to lose either way." The young striker didn't even look at him and instead jumped up with the ball to dodge the incoming leg before letting go of the ball mid air and shooting the ball mid air. The ball then formed a high arc in the air and ended up getting planted into the top left bin of the goal.

"Woaahhhh!" All the spectators went crazy after hearing the referee's whistle signaling the end of the game and the end of the prefecture's final game.

Once the game was over, the losing team all collapsed to the ground, some of them were relieved, and some of them cried, but the one thing they all shared was the same feeling of despair in front of an unbeatable opponent.

"Good job as always hahaha..." The coach of the winning team said in a timid voice while looking at his star player who simply ignored him and left the stadium before giving anyone the chance to interview him.

---------

*Jude's pov*

'So this was the Osaka prefecture final for the nationals...7-0? I expected a little more resistance from them. That's just disappointing.' I thought to myself as I exited the stadium while ignoring my current coach's praises.

This coach of mine was nothing other than a hypocrite to me, when I first joined the team he gave me a very hard time just because I looked like a foreigner but now he's only good at sucking up to me and licking my boots.

The same happened to me no matter where I went, everyone treated me differently. At first it was just many weird looks I got at school, then it changed to curiosity when I started excelling in both school and football and soon enough this turned into admiration.

Unfortunately because of that I never got to meet anyone I could see as an equal here, everyone treated me as some kind of idol, I rapidly became famous and made a name for myself after kicking out the favorite team of the tournament.

That's the moment when everyone's attitude towards me changed, even that stuck up coach started praising me on every single occasion he got. I guess that's because I've singlehandedly raised the whole high school's reputation.

Unlike my time in Spain where I had the chance to meet many talented and like minded individuals, in Japan I felt truly lonely.

I've soon as I arrived back home I fell down on the sofa and closed my eyes. 'System, show me my status window.' Luckily, I could do that even with my eyes closed.

[Player status:

Name: Jude Sanchez

Age: 16

Title: "Osaka's Emperor"

Version: Normal

Total: S (90)

Offence: S (94)

Shooting: S (90)

Dribble: S (92)

Speed: S (90)

Defence: A (82)

Pass: A (80)

Stat points: 0

Random stat points: 0

Special Weapons: Greed (Z), Eyes of the Lord (Z), Excitement (C), Emperor's aura (C)]

Every time I looked at my current status I couldn't help but sigh, all of my stats have increased by a lot and many reached above 90 but now I've started stagnating, improving a stat that reached above 90 can take me a few weeks or months sometimes, if not for the random quests I've received I wouldn't have reached such a level so fast, but lately I stopped getting any quest, even for the prefecture's final and I think I knew why.

Ever since I came to Japan, my ego has started to slowly dull, the mentality of my team, as well as the opponents, was so boring that I couldn't but try to spice things up by putting challenges on myself.

At first, it was very fun and I met many people who were stronger than I was, but then I realized that not a single one of them had any actual ambition regarding football, their progression was decent at best, and their motivation was mediocre, even the talented people I met didn't have the necessary mentality and drive to improve, it was just a waste of talent.

During my stay here I slowly gained a deeper understanding of Ego's reason for creating the blue lock project. This country is very big and I've met a huge amount of people who played football and loved it but not a single one of them had the required mentality and ego to become a better player.

In Spain, I managed to improve myself every single game and learn from every single encounter, but ever since I came here I've been just training on my own all day long in hope to at least push my stats to the maximum currently achievable.

A few months ago I also made the decision to use all the stat points I earned and put them all into my condition stability stat to make sure I won't be getting injured again. At some point, my stat even reached 100 but that's when I realized the sad truth.

Both my condition stability and my endurance stat reached 100 but even when I tried to put points into them the system told me that the stat reached its maximum and that it wasn't possible to increase it anymore.

The only way for me to surpass that limit was to change the system into the professional version but for that, I would need something that would be able to stimulate my [Greed] skill enough to create a special quest allowing me to unlock it.

Until then I will have to wait for an undetermined amount of time, I was just starting to become afraid that I might max out all of my stats before that were to happen, luckily, for now that's enough for me to stand at the top, and even become a professional player especially if it's in Japan.

But that's nowhere near my actual goal, I have no intention of being a third rate professional player or of being a bench warmer in a weak team.

"What's wrong Jude? Why are you looking so upset, did you have a bad day again?" My mom asked as she walked in on me frowning while sitting down on the sofa.

"As usual, the games are getting more and more boring, and I guess you could say I'm feeling homesick." I replied while trying to form a smile which ended up looking more like a nostalgic smile.

"Don't worry about it, I'm happy that we got to spend so much time with your grandparents but I'm also thinking of moving back to Spain next year. Also, your father asked me to hand that to you, he said it might cheer you up since you're always so upset hahahaha" She laughed as she handed me a closed envelope before going up to her room.

"Thanks." Since I didn't have anything else to do I opened the envelope and started reading the letter hidden inside it.

'Mr. Jude Sanchez, selection for a Player Improvement Project. We...' I kept on reading as every single line made more and more memories in me start to awaken.

My smile widened after I read the signature at the end of the paper, 'Jinpachi Ego', the man I admire most, even if I've seen many outstanding athletes with amazing personalities and quotes, not a single person managed to impact me as much as him. He's the man who ignited my passion for football and now he recognized my talent.

At the same time as this realization hit me, a new system notification appeared in front of my face.

[Advancement quest: the blue lock project!

Difficulty: B

Description:

You have been invited to be part of the Blue Lock project, the biggest project with the goal of creating the best striker in the world. Join the blue lock project and kick out a player during the game of Tag.

Reward: A higher ego and upgrade of the system into professional mode.]