Difficulty Of The Striker

[The system has deducted two Ego Points.

Endurance: D->D+]

Aoi reached ten push-ups and felt like he could do five more.

However, afterward, he was afraid his muscles would scream in pain later during the match, affecting his mental clarity.

So, he added two points to upgrade the Endurance to a C- grade.

[The system has deducted two Ego Points.

Endurance: D+>C-]

Now, he was certain that doing fifteen push-ups would be a child's play.

He felt revitalized, feeling like his muscles had grown, and so was his stamina.

Furthermore, Endurance not only covered stamina but also recovery.

After he finished performing warm-up, he would have to watch the football match for a while so he could recover from the intense exercise.

Just thinking about it, he couldn't help but excitedly smile.

***

Nakahara was peeking at Aoi, smiling.

However, it soon faded when Aoi crossed the ten reps of push-ups, going further without stopping.

His face turned solemn.

Furthermore, Aoi's rhythm was the same when he began, appearing like he was not struggling at all.

He was dumbstruck, causing his eyes to glue at Aoi instead of watching the match.

After all, he was supposed to intently observe the match, taking note of the skills of each player and providing a detailed statistic.

Same with the system, he would rate the player depending on their physical capability and technical skills.

Yet, that was momentarily broken by Nakahara, watching Aoi complete his push-up in a daze.

Aoi suddenly changed his body position to perform curl-ups, taking a five-second break before performing the fifteen reps Nakahara tasked him with.

He was lost for words.

Aoi kept surprising him… even more so now he had proven himself through actions, not words.

'What did this guy eat?'

Nakahara felt like thinking about it would explode in his head.

It was incomprehensible, too shocking for him to grasp what had happened to Aoi.

Perhaps… Perhaps, the brat was only fooling around but was actually doing exercise while telling no one about it.

How else would others be able to explain for Aoi suddenly performed an exercise without stopping?

Without even showing a sign of struggle at that!

Nakahara's face color drained, feeling like he had aged for years.

He wanted to punish Aoi, but that does not seem to be the case.

Nevertheless, the discovery was surprising and enlightening.

He was now sure to sub in Aoi at the same time he felt like it – deciding to sub Aoi in even before the other bench players.

He was looking forward to the surprise Aoi was about to bring.

***

Aoi completed his fifteen reps of curl-up, quickly standing up while jumping to examine his body.

He was tired, not so much.

He felt his arm and stomach were burning, but that was it… it was a rejuvenating feeling.

He felt like if he exercised more, he would perform better than the reps he had done earlier.

He would be able to play at peak.

However, he had to cool down himself, performing a breathing rhythm to slowly calm his body and racing heart.

He glanced at Nakahara Sensei, seemingly watching the football match with extreme focus, not wanting to be disturbed.

Lost for what to do, Aoi stared at the bench, wide enough for five people to sit.

There were three more, too, but he decided to sit beside the Nakahara.

Of course, not exactly beside him, only that, two seats away from Nakahara, at least.

After all, he was still slightly afraid of him.

When he sat, he could not help but stare at the football field.

He gazed at Oka, in the middle of the football field, watching the enemy team dragging the ball on his side.

He did not go deeper, letting his teammates block the aggressive opponent, as Oka waited for the chance to counterattack.

Aoi moved his gaze to the player who was dribbling the ball, and he was surprised to discover a familiar figure.

It was actually Kaga skillfully dribbling the ball while passing it when the opponent behind was about to steal the ball from him.

He ran deeper, staring not at his fellow teammates dribbling the ball but at his enemy.

Aoi had a bit of understanding of what Kaga was accomplishing… he was taking note of his mind, the position of his enemy, their distance from him, reading the opponent's intention, and the space he created.

When his fellow teammates successfully drew the defenders' attention to him, his eyes moved, looking for Kaga, and was surprised to see him free on the shooting range.

If he passed it to Kaga, it would not be an offside, so he instantly decided to kick the ball towards Kaga in the air.

However, he failed to see Kaga pointing in a particular direction, having been obstructed by the appearance of the defender, and Kaga grimaced.

The ball was then successfully blocked by the defender with his body after jumping, and his mouth curved upward as he controlled the ball after landing.

He performed a chip pass to pass the ball to the middle fielders, hoping for a counterattack.

That momentary carelessness of the winger and Kaga's performance in utilizing his vision was an eye-opener for Aoi.

He was watching it from a different point of view, so it was easy to claim that the winger was so careless, but Aoi acknowledged the pressure the winger received.

After all, his vision had been limited, having been on the shooting range while seeing many figures in his peripheral vision.

There were also defenders he saw before he lost sight of them, too, creating various speculations in his head that it might have arrived behind him.

With his thoughts falling into chaos, it was impossible to formulate further decisions, instantly becoming impulsive when he saw falsified hope.

Aoi seriously noted his mind in case it might occur to him.

At the very least, he would come up with countermeasures as early as possible.

"Now, do you know the difficulty of being a striker?"

Nakahara asked, causing Aoi to turn towards him.