Start training
Arthur found a highly rated crash course in Italian online, signed up and made rapid progress after only three days of classes.
Italian is a small language, better than German or French, and you learn it faster with talent. Arthur does not only know English after crossing the border, but also has a superb talent for languages and learns foreign languages effortlessly.
He learns all the Italian gestures very quickly, probably from watching Naruto so much that he can do seals.
Apart from pasta and pizza, Italy's most distinctive feature is their hand gestures. Italians have a long history of gesturing, dating back to the 7th and 8th centuries BC, during the colonization of ancient Greece.
The Italian regions, with their large foreign populations and intricate variety of dialects, actually ended up developing a system of ruled gestures to facilitate communication, and it is said that there are almost 250 different gestures with different meanings, and 30 or 40 commonly used ones.
One user said, "Tie the hands of the Italians so they can't talk!"
This is not a joke, there is some truth in it. In soccer, players from other countries like to put their hands down when arguing with the referee, fearing that the referee will mistake it for provocation. Only Italians protest to the referee with constant hand gestures, quite a character.
It's cool to have a gift for languages, and in the future Arthur will be able to explain why he's fluent in Chinese.
Another perk, is that Arthur realizes he doesn't have to discipline himself to stay in shape.
His height and weight were set before crossing over and don't seem to change. After crossing over he intentionally ate without taboos and had an exceptionally good appetite, he ate the buffet barbecue seven times and his weight didn't change at all.
It would be so cool for him if the figure stayed the same.
Many footballers who have shown off their muscles on the internet are keeping in shape through self-discipline. For example, Messi has a very monotonous diet of whole grains, olive oil, fresh vegetables and fruits. He insisted for n years not to drink sodas and not to eat fried food.
c Luo is more famous self-discipline, 38 years old still control eat six meals a day, mainly eat some high protein food, sugar, fat and carbohydrate intake is very small, carbonated drinks and alcohol never touch.
Arthur admired those who were disciplined, but didn't want to become like them. He loves barbecues and fried foods, and how can he enjoy life if he can't touch these things in his fat happy water ...?
When he makes money, he still wants to taste all the food in the world, which is more attractive than living in a big house and driving a luxury car.
With all the benefits in life, Arthur's practice didn't go so well when it came to ball skills. His basic skills of dribbling, stopping, and passing were poor and slow to improve.
He didn't have a good solution for it, knowing that it was a result of the all-plus physical fitness at the setting. He could only try to play as many matches as he could, and get enough for ten to get the quest reward early.
He has recently experienced the benefits of "eagle's eyes" in soccer, and his eyesight is so good that he can't see straight.
He's had performances where he's held the ball in the middle of the field and assisted his teammates on one-touch scores with long, direct passes on the ground. That's something he could never do before and could only see around him.
Another week went by and Arthur played when he had a game, and soon the ten games were done.
In this last one he scored nine goals alone and seven in the second half, crushing the opposing back line to become the king of the penalty box.
Steve, who was a spectator on the sidelines, was dumbfounded and transformed into a flower-spreading amah. "Why didn't you say anything earlier when a talent like yours wanted to transform? Why didn't you say so earlier? Why didn't you say so? You should have said so."
Steve is becoming more and more optimistic about Arthur, believing that he has this dominant body and can play good soccer even if his fundamentals aren't solid. Liverpool's Michael Owen was that kind of player, fundamentally unsound yet he shone in the 1998 World Cup.
He is now convinced that the two can play together in football, he just doesn't know what heights they can eventually reach.
When he got home, Arthur called up the virtual page while taking a shower, and the system prompted "Newbie Quest Completed". He checked the rewards and got a pair of colorful socks.
"I must have opened it the wrong way, how could it be this kind of thing?" Arthur suspected his eyes were blurred, exiting the props warehouse and re-entering to take another look, the reward was indeed a seven-colored sock.
"It's really this crap! It's not like the rewards are all this unreliable-sounding stuff, is it?" Arthur took a deep breath, thinking of the awesome gift of the eagle's eye and becoming interested in the socks again.
Calm down, calm down. This thing should be of great use. It's just ugly.
With a thought of his mind, the text description about the equipment appeared.
Elementary training equipment colorful soccer socks: "Equipment by color represents each training content, green stopping the ball, yellow confrontation, red shoveling, blue long pass, purple short pass, pink carrying the ball, black shooting. After the host is equipped and trained, the accumulated experience of each skill increases by 20%, valid for training only."
Arthur took another deep breath. "Look at the intro, why do I get the feeling that I'm going to get a yellow card after practicing one confrontation, and I'm going to get a red card as soon as I shovel the ball? What the hell is pink for ball carrying? Does this color have a damn thing to do with carrying the ball?"
"Nice quick lifting technique, hmmm, that smells good ... my ass, you'd be taken for a pervert if you practiced in that thing, right?!"
These soccer socks are long socks that will cover the entire calf portion, making it easy for players to secure their shin guards inside the socks. Formal matches must have leg guards for the protection of the players or else the leg bone will be easily fractured. In addition, wearing soccer socks can make the muscles of the legs tense and easy to make power.
So, these socks are not good for hiding unless Arthur goes out to practice and wears long pants all the time.
Arthur turned off the page and put his hands over his face needing some quiet time.
Should I wear a black eye mask for training from now on? That way people won't recognize it's me. Well, at best, everyone will see someone in flowered socks who kind of looks like Zorro.
In order to get stronger I have to use props, otherwise with my current skill set I'd be limited to predominantly grabbing points in the penalty area. If I want to represent England in the 2006 World Cup, will I be able to do it if I'm only good at tackling?
Whatever, I'll simply say that wearing flowery socks is due to superstition and the belief that colors bring good luck. Arthur came up with the brilliant idea that a lot of athletes are superstitious, not just football.
Some people dance around, wear lucky objects, and do all sorts of odd behaviors to win ... It doesn't seem like a big deal for him to wear flowery socks, and it really does work.
He doesn't mind wearing a helmet when he's out fishing with people as long as it's practical.
The system released another newcomer quest, and Arthur could receive a reward for participating in 20 matches. This was clearly encouraging him to play more soccer and increase his real-world experience. Considering Fiorentina's situation, Arthur had plenty of time until early August at the earliest to go on trial.
The next day Arthur wore fancy socks to practice and Steve was thunderstruck for half a minute. He didn't think it was a matter of superstition, it was a matter of taste.
What's even more annoying is that there was a little girl following Steve today, who couldn't stop laughing after seeing Arthur's flower socks. She was blonde, wore a white tunic and green slacks, and had delicate Barbie-like features when she wasn't smiling, but when she was, her mouth grinned like a dc clown girl's.
"Her name is Megan Williams and she's my neighbor. Her mom and dad had to go away for something and asked me to help with the kids." Steve added with a smile. "She's eight years old and doesn't know any better, so don't take it personally."
"Why don't I know any better? The flower socks are funny well they don't go with him at all." Megan chuckled.
Arthur rolled his eyes. "That kid is not cute."
The three chatted for a while, the topic revolving around soccer.
Megan, though small, is an Arsenal fan and was able to interject a few words.
Arthur talks about his desire to join the Fiorentina team so that Steve doesn't have to help him find a tryout target. He also listed the many benefits of joining the Fiorentina team, the only downside being that he would have to go abroad.
Steve sighed, "The team sounds like a good fit for you, but we'll see less of each other in the future when you go over there. I'm leaving soon for Manchester too."
"Confirmed for the City team?"
"Yeah, the path you've chosen is definitely harder than the one I'm on. You've got to get a grip, your poor fundamentals right now will turn the coaches off, like a doormat."
"Don't worry, I've got the hang of it, two months is plenty of time."
The two began practicing the basics, and Arthur soon realized that the flowered socks hadn't been in vain. He clearly felt that he had practiced better than yesterday, with improvements in all techniques and more insights than before.
This was still only a beginner's equipment, and he could become stronger with consistent practice. He believed that in the future, he could get advanced training equipment by completing mission draws or in the mall, and the speed of his progress would definitely be amazing then.
Playing soccer as a job makes Arthur happy. He enjoys training and doesn't find it hard.
One day, I'll make the whole world think highly of me.