Damn, that acting!!!

"Rohan's on fire!"

"He goes for the direct shot, and that free kick looks pretty decent, curling over the defenders' heads."

"Beautiful!"

"It's in!"

Shaiju jumps up from his chair, dancing around as if he scored the goal himself.

"This guy's a riot, one minute he's dissing them, and the next he's fanboying hard."

Bineesh mutters under his breath, looking a bit sour.

As a die-hard fan, it stings to see Barcelona concede, especially to their arch-rivals Real Madrid.

But his professionalism kicks in quickly, and he manages a smile, "Yeah, both free kicks were top-notch, definitely a display of raw talent."

"I heard he's only on a short-term contract with Real. After this game, they ought to consider locking him down long-term, though it's anyone's guess if he'll get enough playtime."

Shaiju doesn't seem to care much about whether Rohan stays at Real. He laughs, "With the way Rohan played tonight, there'll be plenty of clubs willing to offer him a contract. If I were him, I'd take my talents elsewhere rather than waste them warming the bench at Real."

The viewers couldn't care less about their opinions.

Right now, they're all about those two guys in the chat who promised to livestream eating shoes and smelly socks if things went south.

"Hey, shoe and sock eating guy, make some noise, I wanna see this."

"Where are those stinky socks? Why don't you both go live? I'd totally watch that."

"Be a man, you said you'd do it. It's just a shoe and some socks, don't chicken out now."

On the field, while Real's players are jubilantly celebrating, the Barcelona side looks significantly more downcast.

They never expected a substitute to turn the game on its head like this.

Now they're a man down and on the back foot.

Luckily, there isn't much time left for Real, and if Barcelona just holds the defense, they can still walk away with a win from this away game.

Busquets claps his hands, encouragingly, "Come on, keep your spirits up, we still have the upper hand. As for number 67, leave him to me."

Iniesta nods, "Be careful."

Barcelona restarts the game, and the match continues.

After pulling back two goals, Real's players are visibly reinvigorated.

No longer sitting back, they use their numerical advantage to press aggressively.

With little time left, their challenges are sometimes too eager, drawing fouls.

Within just five minutes, stars like Ronaldo and Bale, including Rohan, receive warnings from the referee.

Barcelona, losing their attacking intent, keeps the ball moving back and forth, using their technical skills to maintain possession and deny Real any chance to attack.

As the match hits the 90-minute mark, it moves into stoppage time.

With several goals and disputes, the added time stretches to a whopping six minutes.

Real plays like they're on a super serum, constantly pressing, clashing, and making physical contact.

Barcelona, visibly drained, struggles to handle the ball as crisply as before, hesitating on several occasions.

Finally, during a slightly long pass, a mistake happens.

Casemiro intercepts Rakitic's pass and quickly sends it forward to Kroos.

With Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale, and Rohan already sprinting towards Barcelona's box, Kroos hesitates but decides to pass to the nearest, Rohan.

Despite Rohan's two stunning free kicks, it's clear he's still not fully trusted.

Rohan receives the ball and turns, scanning the field, ready to pass to Benzema at the edge of the box.

Benzema, often the scapegoat, remains a top-tier player in terms of assists and scoring.

Passing to him seems like the best option.

Just as Rohan winds up to pass, a sudden force knocks him off his feet.

Damn, that was a harsh tackle. Who the hell was that?

Rohan turns to see Busquets in the number 5 Barcelona jersey on the ground, clutching his face and ankle, rolling around in pain.

???

Rohan looks around, completely baffled.

Rohan realized there were no Real Madrid players nearby...

So who fouled Busquets?

Images of Busquets' notorious dives flashed through Rohan's mind, and he couldn't help but twitch a smile as he caught Busquets sneaking a peek.

Seeing someone down, the referee immediately blew the whistle and rushed over to Busquets, asking if he was hurt.

"I think I got kicked hard, not sure if it's broken," Busquets groaned, tears welling up in his eyes.

Damn, that acting!!!

Even Hollywood's finest would shake their heads.

Rohan was so stunned he forgot to protest to the referee.

But his teammates quickly gathered, insisting that Rohan was the real victim here.

The referee looked from Busquets to Rohan, paused for a moment, then walked over to Rohan and showed him a yellow card, awarding the ball to Barcelona.

Busquets, meanwhile, was helped off the field by the medics.

Busquets, you legend!!!

Rohan mentally noted this incident.

This was a grudge now.

The rest of the match went without further drama, and soon it was winding down.

"Whistle!!!"

With the final whistle, the match ended.

Real Madrid lost 2-3, their arch-rivals taking three points at their home ground.

Despite his standout performance, Rohan wasn't called for a post-match interview.

In a team full of stars like Real Madrid, he clearly wasn't there yet.

Rohan was fine with the quiet.

He headed straight to the locker room after the game.

Being a loner, no one really spoke to him there.

Just the way Rohan wanted it.

The system had come so suddenly before,he hadn't had time to really dive into it. Now was his chance.

"System, is the mission complete?"

[Triggered mission completed, reward: 10 lottery tickets, 5 skill points]

[Double completion bonus, rewards doubled]

Rohan's eyes lit up.

Skill points were exactly what he needed right now.

Due to his low skill ratings, no club had wanted him before.

But with skill points, he could prioritize enhancing certain skills based on his position on the field.

For a playmaker like him, passing was crucial, followed by dribbling and tackling.

He once had the chance to max out his passing, but a mix-up had upgraded his free kicks instead.

Thinking back, he still regretted it.

Rohan took a deep breath to ease the frustration and then asked, "Besides skill points, is there another way to enhance skills?"

[Perform skill-specific training, each completion of 1000 repetitions adds 1 skill point, required repetitions increase with skill rating]

A thousand times?

For passing, each completion takes about 5 seconds.

A thousand times would be five thousand seconds, roughly an hour and twenty minutes.

That was manageable.

Rohan nodded subtly, glancing at his teammates.

Noticing they were busy chatting and not paying attention to him, he looked around the room and muttered under his breath.

"May the gods bless my lottery luck."