On To Carrington

Ayanfe did not manage to save one more penalty from Omari after he used the pinpoint finishing. It was nearly impossible when he had somehow achieved the perfect mix between power and accuracy.

To his credit though, none of the other keepers managed to save one shot when he used curler.

Steve and the manager unanimously decided that Omari should be in charge of taking the free kicks and penalties. As for the corner kicks, there was definitely nobody that could match Jack's delivery.

After a few more training drills, the training session was over well into the evening. Omari wanted to ask Amber if he could walk her home but the Rolls-Royce that came to pick her up reminded him that he wasn't the only one with rich parents.

He ended up walking with Ayanfe to the school dormitories and went back home.

After a quick dinner, he lay on his bed and began to ponder everything that happened today. He reckoned that with the intensive training he did today, he stats had to have improved somewhat.

"System?"

|Ding!|

"I want to see my stats!"

|Ding! User stats downloaded|

|Name: Omari Hutchingson|

|Club: Teeside F.C U18|

|Team role: key first team player|

|Shirt number: 10|

|Attributes|

|Speed: 71 > 72|

|Dribbling: 59 > 62|

|Shooting: 60 > 63|

|Passing: 67|

|Accuracy: 54 > 58|

|Physique: 73|

|Crossing: 62 > 63|

|Pace: 78|

|Overall Player Rating: 65|

|Overall Player Potential: 75|

|Skills: Stepover [Upgradable], Curler [Upgradable], Pinpoint finishing [Unupgradable]|

|Titles: (Star player), (Determined Player)|

|Awards: Nil|

Club: Teeside FC U18

|Games: 1|

|Goals: 2|

|Assists: 0|

|GxG: 2.00| (Goals per game ratio)

|G/IxG: 2.00| (Goal involvement per game ratio)

|Missions|

|Increase OPR by five to live up to title (Star player)|

|Status: Not completed|

|Time remaining: 22 days|

|Repercussion of failure: random loss of stats|

What Omari saw made his jaw drop. Just one intense training session and his Overall Player Rating (I'm putting this out there for people who don't know what OPR means) increased by one! It was at that moment that he realized how easy the mission given to him by the system was.

"How the fuck is it this easy to improve my stats!" Omari muttered to himself in ecstasy. The system didn't seem to realize that however, and answered Omari's question.

|Ding! Host is still under Beginner's Assistance|

Omari furrowed his brows. "What is Beginner's Assistance?"

|Beginner's Assistance: A boost given by the system enabling hosts to increase their Overall Player Rating with minimal effort. It is only applied on hosts with and Overall Player Rating which is less than 70|

Omari's eyes started twitching when he saw the information given by the system. While others would've easily seen it as 'Wow, I get another cheat', Omari saw it as the system pitying him since he was such a shit player.

"Fuck this". He muttered to himself. He immediately got off bed and room of his clothes. He walked into his bathroom and soaked himself in a tub filled with cold water, his post training ritual that he'd nearly forgotten.

Even if the system blatantly called him a shit player, he had to take advantage of the Beginner's Assistance while he could. If only one intense training session could improve his Overall Player Rating by one, what would the self induced training sessions he used to do in his past life achieve.

"Goddamnit! I have to wake up early again!"

In his last life, he'd wake up as early as four in the morning g and jog around the area for some time. His brief 'marathon' was followed by dribbling practice in the park. By the time he was done, it would've been around five thirty. He would then juggle the ball all the way home.

Ideally, the best course of action would've been to take his bath and get ready for school, but it wasn't as if he was looking forward to go to school. So instead, he would just sleep off and entrust the Herculean task of waking him up again to his mother.

After he finished his cold water bath, he set the time on his alarm and changed into his nightwear before falling asleep soon after.

***

School went like a breeze today. He wasn't sure whether it was because he slept all through his classes or because of his arduous morning schedule, or that he was excited about the training session.

All the excitement which he felt towards the training session evaporated when he got to the training area and Steve told them the training schedule.

"Today, we're doing box to box running". He said, an evil smirk settling on his face as he anticipated the reaction of the group of teenagers.

He wasn't disappointed. As soon as the words left his lips, he was met with disappointed groans and complaints from the thirty six boys that sat round him.

"Hey, don't blame me, blame the manager". Steve said. "He said that I shouldn't give you guys anything intense, just some light work".

It was only after he said those words that Omari noticed that the manager wasn't present. "Hey Steve, where's the manager".

"Oh, he went early to Manchester". Stave said. "He has to sort out the hotel arrangement before everyone arrives later today".

Omari nodded. He looked at the distance between the two penalty boxes and smiled slightly. He was easily the only one that didn't complain about Steve's choice of training.

Who knew what continuous runs such as that would do for his Overall Player Rating!

He was finding it hard not to break out to a smile due to his excitement. He bit his cheeks so that his expression would remain neutral.

After the training session, the coach sent everyone home to gather their essentials. They were supposed to leave for Manchester in the evening so that they would either get there late in the night, or in the wee hours of the morning of match day.

Omari didn't take much with him. He brought along two sets of clothes, his training outfit and his football boots.

He went back to the training session, and after everyone arrived they arranged themselves into the team bus.

He couldn't help but feel a sudden burst of excitement as he felt the wheels of the bus propel it forward. He was a huge Manchester Red fan, and while it wasn't as if he was about to go and play at Old Timbre, he still felt quite excited to go to Carrington.

Who knows, maybe he'll get lucky and meet a first team member. His hands shook in anticipation of what lay ahead of him.