Kill to Survive

"This is the world of competition. The world-class strikers you all so admire face these kinds of competitions every day, as they survive by risking their future." Jinpachi was giving another speech as the teenagers were still not over the fact that they might get kicked out in this manner, just like Kira.

Ego continued, "How does it feel to risk your futures? Are you spooked? Are you shocked? This is just how things work in Blue Lock. It's clear now, right? Do you realize how shabby and mediocre your soccer lives have been by now? and you trembled, right?" His creepy smile only widened as it literally hid both of his cheeks.

"'Yes… I survived!' That's victory; carve it in your brains! Every time you feel this pleasant sensation, your ego will grow, and you will become closer to becoming the world's best striker. Congratulations! You've passed Blue Lock's entrance exam."

The eleven people left in this room now were roommates, rivals, teammates, and enemies. Sometimes they'll have to cooperate, and sometimes they'll have to betray each other, but in the end, they will be trying to achieve the same dream. They were a group of people very different from each other that were tied together by the sole goal of becoming the best in the world.

Dennis smiled, 'I like this; let's see what I can do.' German was expecting a lot, and he was ready to face Blue Lock's every obstacle head-on.

The first thing after the entrance exam was training. For three days straight, the eleven teammates only trained in gruesome exercises that targeted only their physicality. The first aspect that Ego targeted was definitely their stamina.

"Grahhh! I hate this sh*t!" The team was on motorless treadmills that were powered by their own movements. They had been sprinting for minutes, and their bodies were already taking noticeable tolls as their steps became less and less stable.

Some of their backs were even curved while running; Dennis couldn't understand how they could even run like that. For him, the training was tough, but he'd simply stop the moment he felt something wrong. The tiredness was a good sign; training was definitely working.

More complaints were shouted: "Strikers aren't even supposed to run so much!"

Dennis could only giggle for himself: 'They don't know how it feels to do cardio right after leg day.' but there were people who were still up and running; they didn't seem tired at all judging from their expressions.

'Jingo Raichi was his name; if my mind doesn't change me…' He was a tall, white-haired boy with sharp teeth. He looked energized after 10 minutes of sprinting. He even had enough energy to taunt people next to him.

He was shouting at that, 'Does he have a third lung just for talking shit?'

"Igagura! Isagi! You think you can become the world's best striker like that?! Just go home before you cry after losing to me, you weaklings!" Despite all the talking, his endurance was no joke. He was running at a constant speed of 20 kilometers per hour for an hour and fourteen minutes!

Dennis stopped right after his timer hit 1 hour, and no, he wasn't being lazy; he was just cautious and wanted to do more things today rather than just waste his energy on this. Since this was the first thing they did on an empty stomach, they could expect more exercises to follow.

And Dennis was correct: There were additional pieces of training that tested their abilities, such as jumping power. A good indicator of their play with the head would be the highest height they were able to reach during this training. Speaking of which, Dennis got the highest score in this. His vertical leap without a run-up was 85 centimeters, which translates into 33 inches.

"Yes!" The German exclaimed when he saw his registered height: all these physical exercises were worth it. Never in his life did he miss a leg day! Now, it was a relief to see the outcome.

He was paired with Kunigami, and the orange-haired boy was stunned. "You are a beast. I wouldn't want to compete in headers against you." This was a compliment: "What do you do to increase them so much?"

"Squats are even better if you do them with the bar."

"Oh god, I hate squats. I only got 66 centimeters; I have to work on this or I'll fall behind." Dennis felt the frustration coming from Kunigami on a personal level; he also hated doing the squats. But they were the most superior exercise for the legs. "That long-haired guy also had good leaps." Kunigami mentioned and glanced at Wataru Kuon, ranked in 292nd place.

"The guy next to Isagi, right? His name is Wataru, I think. Yeah, he is also pretty tall. He must be good with headers."

Kunigami pointed at another person, "All those tall people can jump pretty high. Gin doesn't even need to jump most likely, and Okuhito also has some meat on his legs so he can also jump."

"Since the training is done, I think it's time to put something in our stomachs."

… … …

Meal time wasn't as pleasant as Dennis would've liked it to be due to the meal he got. It was some kind of bland vegetable thingy, pickled radish to be exact, made according to some Korean recipe. The German looked at other people; all of their dishes were different, meaning that even the meal you get depends on the rankings.

At least, the main meal was all similar. It was rice and miso soup. At least this could replenish the energy he wasted today. Other than that, Blue Lock had already confiscated some items from them. For example the mobile phones, Dennis couldn't even check what was going on in the outside world.

"I got some dumplings…" Kunigami sat down next to Dennis, "...your side dish doesn't seem to appetizing. Mind if I share some with you?"

Dennis appreciated the act, "I won't refuse, thanks." The last thing he wanted was to have a bad taste on his tongue today. Kunigami was a real brother in arms; he placed an entire side dish in the middle of them and picked from there.

"If we are really at the bottom right now, how much better are higher-ranked players compared to us?"

This question also concerned Dennis; this ranking either served some kind of purpose or there was an error. People in his team aren't of a good level; this was kindly said by Dennis, by the way. They have good traits that others don't have, but they are undeveloped.

"I saw what you guys were capable of; I also watched some national games, and I must say, if you guys are at the bottom, I have no idea who the hell is at the top. If they are so much better than us, then Japan would've been the country with the best strikers in the world, but that's not the case."

It was a simple observation and deduction from Dennis, and Rensuke agreed. But the German's mention of "watching" the nationals was strange; did he not play? Then how is he here? "Have you played on nationals?" He decided to directly ask.

Dennis just shook his head. The orange-haired teen shrugged; it wasn't his job to research more about this. So they just continued to eat silently. Later, Dennis again thanked the guy for sharing dumplings and promised that if he was able to get a higher rank, he'd share something tasty as well.

Today's day was mostly done for them, except for Dennis himself. He took off Blue Lock's joggers and dashed to the practice field; a day would be a waste if he didn't touch the football at least once. For his own training, Dennis saved energy from the previous endurance training. Hopefully, he won't be scolded by Ego for doing this.

The German picked up the equipment necessary for his exercises in the corner. He placed the red cones on one half of the field in a perfect line in the middle, then higher cones that could be easily knocked off on both sides of the line. For the main part, to train the most necessary ability for the striker—finishing—he placed two plastic walls on the corners of the penalty area to pass to himself and then shoot.

Dennis sighed, 'We can start the training now.'

German began dribbling through the middle line of cones immediately after placing everything he needed for the skill training. He tried to make the fewest number of movements in this exercise, cutting edges quickly and not rolling the ball too far away from him. This was already a well-practiced exercise; he could do it with closed eyes.

The next part of the course was similar, but there were two sides to choose from, and Dennis trained both his legs to perfection. He started off from the right side, to later kick off with the weaker left leg. With another set of dribbles, he reached the end of this line too. Bang! The ball ricocheted off the plastic ball and rolled onto the field. Kemp perfectly stomped his right foot next to the ball and slammed his left one into the center of the spherical object.

The football didn't even spin but chaotically moved in different directions; this type of shot was called a knuckleball, and it was a very hard type of shot to pull off. The ball hit the top right corner and went into the net easily.

"Dennis Kemp, excellent shot." Suddenly, the German heard someone else call his shot. He looked around but didn't see anyone else. "I'm talking to you through the dynamics installed there; you can wave for me in the camera, though."

"Ego-san?" Dennis stopped dribbling the ball and searched for the camera the person was talking about; he found it in one of the corners of the field.

"This is correct. I've noticed how you are still full of energy after having nothing but that crap meal. You must have saved energy somewhere else, but it's a good thing you are training right now. Or I would've been disappointed by only European here." Jinpachi got him; he really had a keen eye for just being the director of this project.

"Don't you think that my performance was still too good for someone who is ranked in 300th place?" Dennis carried on with his training and started the course again with the same dribbles, but this time he was going for the left side.

There was a long hum from Ego: "My evaluations are always correct, usually, but I didn't know how would you perform. Considering you haven't participated in any football competitions for the last year. That's why, just for the test, I put you there."

"I see, I see, but since you knew that I'm not Japanese, you could have given me a fork to eat with." Jinpachi wanted to laugh wholeheartedly, but he decided to release a relieved sigh. Was this the only complaint this person had? He picked a weird person. "Couldn't you learn how to use chopsticks in a year?"

"I did, but the fork is still better." It was all fun and giggles until the director decided to ask a different question, related to the football pride of the youngster. His question was maybe too rushed, but he wants to receive only one kind of answer from a European.

"Dennis, how would you compare yourself to your football peers here?"

Ego, back in his office, was watching the German teen through multiple cameras. As he continued to dribble through the cones, the director had to check the equipment to see if his question was even delivered to Dennis. Was there a malfunction? Soon, he saw that this wasn't the case. After another perfect shot, Kemp just stood in one place.

'What is he thinking about for so long?' Jinpachi looked at another person in his office, Anri Teieri, who was also very interested in Dennis' answer. 'Show me your ego, Dennis Kemp…' Unintentionally, Ego even leaned forward to the dynamics. He was also very interested.

"Hahaha, that's funny." He started laughing and went after the football; Ego's smile widened in anticipation. His emotions couldn't be contained, "Because of your question, I really started comparing myself to them. I think Rensuke Kunigami is strong; Meguru Bachira is also good…"

Jinpachi still pressed on the question, "So, which one would you compare yourself to."

There was just silence, during which Ego and Anri both felt uncomfortable as if this was a dumb question from their side. Could it be that their question was so idiotic? Dennis appeared to have already responded, according to Ego.

Dennis continued to do the drills, while Ego just rested his back on the chair. He was satisfied with the answer; however, Anri was confused. Did he really give an answer to Ego's question? Was he so full of himself that even a few sentences comparing himself to others was unworthy?

"What an arrogant boy; how can he be so full of himself when he is literally at the bottom of his group?" The girl said, followed by a "Hmph," in the end. Her words couldn't go unnoticed by Ego, and in response, he just opened a new screen on his computer. The screen showed statistics for a three-day endurance training course.

"In three days, there were no real improvements in his endurance trainings, as he just stopped at a certain mark all the time. He did enough to get his heart beating fast and his legs sore, but what he really cared about was training with football." Ego pointed at the screen where Dennis was training, "For three days now, he has been doing football exercises that not only targeted his skill set but his endurance especially."

"And for how long was he doing these exercises?" Anri thought that it couldn't be much; the guy still had good results in endurance training, probably an hour or two.

Ego pointed at another screen, "Until I took notice of this, he had been doing it for two days already. Most of the time at night. His suit shows me that his heart has been beating at 160 bpm for three hours on the previous one before I took notice." The director was still not done,

"He had run fifteen kilometers in each training; now add the endurance training; this makes it just as impressive as a marathon runner's average."

"No freaking way!" Anri wasn't an athlete herself, but this much running was impossible when considering the food these players receive. It shouldn't be possible! "He doesn't look like an endurance athlete; he has too much mass!"

Ego nodded on this one: "That's what I'm concerned about; he had burned more calories than he had taken. His body fat percentage is also pretty low; that's why his skin is so stretched over his muscles."

On the screen, Dennis was now training shirtless. Anri gave it a brief glance before looking away, pink visible on her cheeks. "He is... probably taking care of his body more than playing football." Otherwise, she was baffled as to how the football player had such a physique.

"I don't doubt that Dennis is also the most physically gifted individual in this facility. I won't even talk about his football skills... They are also quite fabulous when you watch them on display."