Chapter 59: The Thorny Road

"Do you really want to get stronger faster?" Unexpectedly, Yesenin did not shake his head to refuse this time, or say some nonsense like "You will get stronger if you keep going like this."

 However, his sudden question did not surprise Chen Yingxiong. He said, "Nonsense! Didn't you see how I looked like at the Luzhniki Stadium?"

"But this will require you to put in more sweat and effort, and your body will have to bear greater pressure. And... you might get injured in the process, your body might break down, and you might completely quit professional football and not be able to continue playing... Even so, are you willing?"

 Chen Yingxiong was stunned for a moment. "So exaggerated?"

"It's not an exaggeration. If you want to succeed, you have to pay a price that ordinary people can hardly imagine. I think it's very polite of me to warn you. Do you know that there is a guy named Guo Nu who sets a punishment of death for his protagonist if he fails at anything?"

Chen Yingxiong had no idea what Yesenin was talking about, so he shook his head.

"So, if you want to succeed, if you want to be a true hero, if you want to defeat those who laugh at you, you have to... pay these prices, risk being seriously injured, risk your body breaking down, risk completely quitting professional football and not being able to continue playing. Do you think it's that easy to be a hero? Just by having a few talents, you can be domineering on the field, sweeping away your opponents, and slapping the media in the face?"

Every time Yesenin spoke, he took a step forward. When he finally walked in front of Chen Yingxiong, Chen Yingxiong found that Yesenin seemed to be as tall as himself, and that the temperament he exuded was different from before...

Was this an illusion?

"Do you think injuries, physical breakdowns, and early retirement from professional football are exaggerated? Then look back at those people, your predecessors, and what they have experienced... Look back."

Yesenin pointed behind Chen Yingxiong.

Chen Yingxiong really looked back...and then he was shocked!

Behind him, the stadium that was supposed to be empty suddenly became a stadium with stands, fans, and players... He could hear a huge noise and even the voice of the commentator...

In front of him, two groups of players were fighting, one wearing Lazio's sky blue jerseys, the other wearing Inter Milan's blue and black striped shirts. In front of the goal, a No. 9 player wearing Inter Milan's blue and black striped shirt was doing a pendulum-like feint, and at this moment, he suddenly lost all his power, fell to the ground, and then hugged his knees and howled in pain.

The Meazza Stadium suddenly lost all its noise and fell into deathly silence.

"Oh! Oh! Oh... God! Ronaldo! Ronaldo is injured! This is his comeback game four months after his injury, but he... fell down again! Look at his painful expression... His career is over..."

The commentator's voice gradually became quieter until it disappeared completely, and the picture changed.

A player wearing a blue and white Brescia jersey stood on the sidelines, raised his hands to bid farewell to all the fans, and the fans in the stands made a huge cheer.

"Roberto Baggio has finally retired... Actually, I thought he was going to retire as early as 1984. He persisted for 20 years with an injured leg. It is really admirable that he can still come this far. In a match between Vicenza and Rimini on May 3, 1984, he was injured by a tackle and tore the meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee. He had 220 stitches in that operation..."

The sound faded out again and the picture gradually changed.

At a crowded press conference, the handsome man in a casual striped T-shirt spread his hands and said, "In a very simple sentence, I have decided to bid farewell to football..."

Suddenly, the flash went off, and in the white light, there seemed to be light flickering in the corners of the man's eyes...

Yesenin's voice rang out behind Chen Yingxiong: "Ronaldo, Roberto Baggio, Van Basten, Michael Owen, Sebastian Deisler... How many players have had their careers affected by injuries? How many players have decided to leave the football field early because of injuries? They were all talented, but because of injuries, they had to bid farewell to football. Is this exaggerated? No, this is something that happens every day. But while you can see what happens to those famous stars, but who cares about the departure of those unknown players?"

"When Pele played football, the rough defensive style was rampant. He was repeatedly knocked to the ground by his opponents more than ten times every game. Because of injuries, he even missed the 1962 and 1966 World Cups. But he is the king of football, and the number he chose has become the number that countless players pursue now. When Maradona played for Barcelona, ​​he was tackled by Goicochea of ​​Athletic Bilbao and his leg was broken. This serious injury later caused him to leave Barcelona and move to Naples. But he created his own dynasty in Naples, and he became a king of football just as famous as Pele."

"Some people don't stand the test, some people stand the test. This is football, Hero. If you want to be the one in a million hero you say, you have to survive this test as well. So, that kind of price is actually normal."

"Even if you choose to take this path, it doesn't mean you will succeed, because there are still many tests along the way. This is not a comfortable and pleasant journey. It is a road full of traps, thorns, dangers, and various crossroads. In fact, if you don't choose this path, you can still become a world-class star by working hard like you are now, upgrading slowly, step by step..."

Chen Yingxiong suddenly interrupted Yesenin and said, "Who wants to be world-class? I want to be the best in the world!"

"So you choose to take this dangerous path?"

Chen Yingxiong spread his hands. "Is there any other way to choose?"

Yesenin smiled. "No."

"That's it, tell me what to do."

Yesenin snapped his fingers.

Chen Yingxiong found that his environment had changed. The training ground was still the training ground, but it was no longer empty but full of his teammates...

"This is..." Chen Yingxiong was stunned. Did he travel through time?

"Train, Hero! If you want to improve yourself and improve yourself faster, you need to spend more time on more intense training." Yesenin's voice rang out. He looked around and found Yesenin standing behind him.

"What's going on?"

"In short, it's a training copy. You will get more training opportunities here, and... this is a meaningful training with confrontation, not the kind of training where one person shoots a ball into an empty goal. Everything you consume here will be perfectly reflected in reality. Now is..." Yesenin looked at his watch. "Three o'clock in the afternoon. When you finish training for two hours and quit, you will find that the real-time is also five o'clock in the afternoon. You consumed physical energy in training, and you will find yourself exhausted when you quit training. Similarly, if you are injured in training..."

"I will get hurt in real life?" Chen Yingxiong asked.

"That's right. Since you can improve by training here, there's no reason why you should only get the benefits and no harm, right? So you can improve here, but you can also get injured." Chen Yingxiong was listening to Yesenin's explanation when he heard Assistant Coach Porter yell, "What are you dawdling about? Chen Yingxiong! Come over for training!"

Chen Yingxiong turned around and was about to run, but as soon as he took a step, he stumbled... and almost fell to the ground!

"What's going on?" Chen Yingxiong felt as if his legs were filled with lead, extremely heavy. And not just his legs, but his arms, shoulders, his entire body... were extremely heavy!

"Do you think I'm just going to let you train for a few more hours? You're training with weights now!"

"Damn..." Chen Yingxiong shouted. "Isn't this too cruel?"

"As a man, you have to be a little harder on yourself," Yesenin said.

"Fuck you! You're being cruel to me!"

Yesenin waved his hand dismissively. "Go ahead, or the assistant coach will cause trouble for you. Your interpersonal relationships in real life will be perfectly reproduced here. Also, you can quit at any time if you want to, just tell me. I'm right here." Yesenin pointed to the place under his feet.

Chen Yingxiong glared at Yesenin, then ran towards the training ground with heavy steps.

Just by running onto the training ground, he felt that his breathing was already uneven... This load was not light.

To complete the training under such circumstances, even light exercise became gruelling, not to mention a real match... But, all the training here was designed specifically for Chen Yingxiong.

Today it was shooting practice.

When the football was passed to him, he didn't even get to swing his leg before the ball was poked away... because his legs were too heavy.

"What are you doing? Hero? You're too slow!" Porter's roar rang out.

"You can't blame me for this. It's because... I'm carrying this fucking weight!" Chen Yingxiong tried to defend himself.

But he found that Porter did not respond to his words at all, "Focus! When you see the ball coming, you have to judge the landing point in advance and then react quickly! This is in the penalty area, you don't have so much time to adjust, don't be slow!"

It seemed that these characters were just programmed settings after all. It was impossible for them to respond to all his actions... But it was okay. Just focus on training.

 …

Porter kept yelling at him during the entire training session. Fortunately, Denisov, Anyukov, and Kerzakov were able to comfort him, otherwise he would have been really depressed.

Everything here was exactly the same as outside. Chen Yingxiong felt that Yesenin copied the real training outside and moved it directly into this virtual space. 

Chen Yingxiong only lasted half an hour before he was completely exhausted. Although he never said he would quit, Yesenin decisively terminated the training.

In a blink of an eye, Chen Yingxiong found himself lying on the training ground in reality. There was no one around except Yesenin. There were no teammates and the assistant coach Porter who was always roaring was also gone...

He was indeed exhausted and didn't even have the strength to speak.

Yesenin squatted down.

"How was your first experience?" he asked.

Chen Yingxiong opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Then Yesenin focused his attention on his slightly raised right hand.

The four fingers slowly curled up, and finally, only the middle finger was left.