Mission Initiated!

"AOI! THAT WAS AMAZING!!!" Oka shouted for the nth time, almost causing Aoi's ear to bleed.

Aoi remained indifferent, not showing a reaction, but he was internally ecstatic to hear the voice of the system.

[Ding! Congratulations! You have been rewarded for showing your Egoistic Behavior!

The points are being calculated! 

Please show patience, host!]

Aoi shook his head and quickly forgot about the system.

His consciousness returned to reality, staring at the ball dazedly, thinking, 'That was my first ever goal… Is it? It should be. However, this is not the official match, so it could not be counted.'

That was the reason why Aoi did not rejoice completely.

After all, he scored the goal in a pre-try-out training, not in an official match, where he could have his presence as a striker acknowledged by other schools.

'Still, this is a perfect time for me to show what I am capable of.'

His idea was to be laughed at, for he never played football in the first place, greatly relying on the system to score a goal against a football player.

It was an achievement, indeed, to score a goal on the first practice match between club players, proving himself as the best striker on the club…

'The best striker, huh?'

He turned his head and saw Kaga staring at him with an ambiguous expression.

Then, as if Kaga realized that Aoi was staring at him, his eyebrows furrowed, shooting a dead glare at Aoi.

Aoi remained indifferent while thinking with a heart burning with desire.

'I will destroy him. I will be acknowledged as the best striker in the club!'

[Ding! Congratulations! You have shown Egoistic Behavior!

You have been rewarded with three Ego Points!]

Aoi was apathetic to the announcement of the system, even though he received three Ego Points.

After all, he did not decide to destroy Kaga for the sake of the Ego Points, for it was because it came from his Ego.

To be recognized as the best striker in the world, he must slowly tread the path one at a time.

For now, the only striker he had to conquer was Kaga, who was recognized as the best striker in the club.

Aoi finally decided his first objective, returning to his position, where the ball would be placed at the center, with the enemy's possession.

Before the goal could be passed around, Aoi suddenly received a startling announcement from the system.

[Ding! A Mission has been initiated.

Due to the sudden ego burning in the heart of the host, the Egoistic Ace System has decided to bestow a mission!

Task: The host must score a hat trick before the practice match ends.

Failure: None.

Reward: Side-Foot Shot (Placement Shot), Chip Shot, additional one-grade upgrade for Ball Control, Passing, Endurance, and Power.

Difficulty: The system speculated that there were only fifteen minutes left to score two more goals. Now that the host's element of surprise would be no more, the difficulty had greatly risen, and thus the rewards were abundant.

The Egoistic Ace System encouraged the host to accomplish the task!

Continue to show Egoistic Behavior and the host will be rewarded!]

Aoi was stunned and suddenly trembled.

At this point, the ball was finally being passed around, but he stood in his position, frozen.

He was trying to process what the system had just announced.

'Two shooting techniques, four additional one-grade upgrades? How did it suddenly become so generous?'

Aoi ruminated and then read the difficulty part on his mind again, finally realizing why the system suddenly emerged magnanimous.

It turned out the difficulty was also high, equivalent to the value of the rewards.

It meant that he could lose the reward if he failed horribly or obtain them by effort… or perhaps luck.

The reason he scored earlier was because of his egoistic nature, refusing to help Oka and instead choosing to continue observing, searching for the chance to score the goal.

When he finally saw it, he suddenly appeared on the stage, stealing the spotlight.

They could only be surprised as to how he suddenly emerged, attracting the attention of other players.

Now that he had the spotlight, all he had to do was to maintain his position, or even more, elevate it, so he could be seen far in the vast sea of players… where, not only he had attracted the players in the prefecture, but others as well.

Although it would be difficult now that he had their attention, escalating their wariness about him, he had to just conquer them anyway.

Aoi steadily cooled down his mind, taking a deep breath, closing his eyes, and exhaling them.

At this moment, he opened his eyes after hearing the shout in his surroundings, quickly looking for the ball.

The ball was in the possession of Kaga now, who was dribbling while gritting his teeth, face contorted with exasperation.

As always, he was being restrained by the curly, right eyebrow center-back of Aoi's team, inevitably forcing Kaga to pass the ball to the midfielder.

The midfielder was a third-year, one that was being subbed in together with Aoi.

Kaga was familiar with him, knowing his prowess when it came to advancing the ball.

However, if their third-year player was a midfielder focusing on the offense, the midfielder earlier, who tried to steal the ball from the bald player - a third year that was subbed at the same time with Aoi - focused on the defense, quickly dashing towards the midfielder possessing the ball.

Just like that, all the free players of Kaga's team were being restrained one by one, eventually losing the ball after a blunder pass.

Compared to before, there was no chip pass occurring, as the right-back player of Aoi's team felt afraid of accidentally passing the ball on the opponent's back.

He was not skillful enough to perform a chip pass with extreme accuracy.

However, he was trained to pass the ball quickly and short to his teammates, steadily advancing the ball forward.

Now, it was time for Aoi and Oka to score the goal once again.

However, this time, there would be no element of surprise, and there would be no duel to perform as all the defenders set their attention to Aoi and Oka.

With the bald player leading the defense, it would be unknown how Aoi could grab his luck once again to score a goal.