Chapter 60. Focus on Upgrading

Although it was Chen Yingxiong's first time experiencing a training copy, he was trained extremely harshly and didn't even have the strength to speak after.

However, what made him happy was the rapid increase in experience!

After he recovered, Yesenin told him that the training copy not only improved his abilities but also increased the speed of experience accumulation.

Originally, he'd needed 90,000 experience points to advance from level 5 to level 6.

But half an hour of dungeon training actually gave him 6,000 experience points! An average of 200 points per minute.

You know, he only gained 3,000 experience points for the same time period in the past…

Yesenin did not lie to him; this was indeed a faster way to become stronger.

It just took a lot more hard work.

Chen Yingxiong tossed and turned for half an hour and then slept in bed until the next morning. When he got up, he still felt a little sore in his back and waist. He felt like he had been beaten up, and his whole body was in pain.

He finally understood what it meant that "all reactions in the copy can be fed back into reality."

Such a physical condition would certainly affect his normal training.

So, his condition was not very good the next morning.

However, there was one thing that surprised Chen Yingxiong: the weight training mode he had experienced in the dungeon was gone. The weight he had been subjected to in the dungeon was completely gone here, and without such constraints, he felt much more relaxed than in the dungeon.

The result was...

Chen Yingxiong's shot hit the goalpost. After a crisp clang, goalkeeper Malafeev looked at the slightly shaking goal frame and grinned—if the ball had hit him in the face, he would have probably broken something...

Chen Yingxiong swung his legs in the air and found that they were much lighter than before. It was almost difficult to control the power...

But... why should he control his power? Chen Yingxiong thought.

Strength was his advantage; why should he control his advantage?

Chen Yingxiong had already thought about what he wanted to do after he upgraded.

The "heavy artillery" talent could maximize his shooting power!

Having only a header as a scoring weapon was too weak. If he could also shoot from a distance, the opponent would be unable to defend. In this way, he would be an air tyrant in the penalty area and a battleship outside the penalty area, bombarding with heavy artillery… invincible!

Whenever he thought of this, Chen Yingxiong became even more motivated to upgrade.

Therefore, no matter how hard and tiring the dungeon training mode was, he had to grit his teeth and persevere!

He didn't have much time left...

Tekke had started to resume training. Although he had not practised with the team yet, Chen Yingxiong believed that his return was only a matter of time. If he could not make changes before his return, he would need good luck to make a comeback.

It was obvious that Advocaat would still trust the experienced Tekke more than himself, who had outstanding characteristics and equally prominent weaknesses.

…

"Hey, Yingxiong, do you want to go out and have some fun tonight?" Denisov came up to him after the training. He saw that Yingxiong was not in good condition during the training that day and was afraid that the recent game had impacted his mentality, so he suggested going out to play and relax.

Unexpectedly, Chen Yingxiong shook his head and refused. "Thank you, Captain. But I have been busy recently…"

"Ah? What do you want?"

Chen Yingxiong certainly wouldn't tell Denisov that he had a very cool training and upgrade system and that he had to hurry up and grind the dungeon to gain experience and upgrade so that he could then come back to bully his opponents. He made an excuse. "My language teacher is leaving, and I want to learn more Russian while he's still here."

"I think your Russian is pretty good…"

"It's not enough!"

Since Chen Yingxiong was unwilling to go, Denisov had no choice but to go find the other two members of the group.

Chen Yingxiong didn't even bother staying after the training as usual. As soon as the training was over, he ran back to his dormitory.

Advocaat saw Chen Yingxiong's performance that day. He was not in good condition during the training and did not arrange any extra training for himself after.

Did he give up?

If that was the case, Advocaat could only give up on him.

A player without ambition would never be able to succeed…

But it was a pity that such an outstanding talent was…

…

In fact, after the poor performance in the match against Spartak Moscow, there had indeed been many criticisms in the media. However, this time, the criticism seemed to be very reasonable and solid. It was impossible to refute it.

The media no longer made a big fuss about his going to nightclubs like they did the first time.

They now held the view that Chen Yingxiong's characteristics were too simple and prominent and could be easily studied and countered.

He scored five goals in just three appearances, which only showed that his opponents at the time did not know him well enough and were caught off guard by him. Once he became famous, more opponents would pay attention to him, study him, and try to stop him.

In fact, this was indeed the case. After the match between Zenit and Spartak Moscow, Spartak's head coach Vladimir Fedotov said when talking about how they curbed the previously heroic Chen Yingxiong, "…In the last round of the league, although the Soviet Wings were scored three goals by the hero, their tactical changes in the second half gave me inspiration…"

Now, it seemed that the hat trick against Soviet Wings was both a good thing and a bad thing, but this was a test that would have come sooner or later. If Chen Yingxiong couldn't even pass this inevitable test, then that hat trick was all he would achieve in his life.

The media didn't understand why Chen Yingxiong's characteristics were so unbalanced. Many media even gave Chen Yingxiong such a pessimistic conclusion: "…Chen Yingxiong's physical fitness is very good, but except for heading, his other abilities are very average, and it happens that these abilities are now very difficult to improve. I think he will become a shooting star, which is very bright when it passes through the sky but will quickly return to silence…"

…

Chen Yingxiong saw all the criticisms from the media and kept them in mind. However, he did not respond; he just gritted his teeth and trained again and again, desperately bearing the huge weight pressure in the dungeon and increasing the training time day by day.

Just to be able to upgrade earlier and faster.

Then… go slap the faces of those guys who said he was a shooting star!

You guys can show off all you want while I am busy upgrading. When I come out again, I will settle all the accounts!

"Focus on upgrading."

These four words summarized what Chen Yingxiong had done during this period.

He gave up the opportunity to go out for food, drinks, and fun with Denisov and others, gave up all his spare time activities, and never did anything with the Dell laptop he had just bought except to check the upgrade status.

Apart from eating and sleeping, he spent all his time training. If his body could bear it, he would really train all night long.

This was all to be able to upgrade as soon as possible and obtain the new "killer weapon" as soon as possible.

With his hard work, in less than a week, he had successfully crossed the threshold of level six.

Yesenin was amazed.

He had never thought that a human could level up so quickly, and he did it under the torture of the dungeon training mode. He was shocked by the energy and firm belief contained in Chen Yingxiong's body.

When Chen Yingxiong was gritting his teeth and persisting in the dungeon, he heard Yesenin say, "Hero, you've levelled up."

This sentence was like the bell for the end of class and instantly made Chen Yingxiong collapse to the ground.

The surrounding environment also quickly receded from his sight like the tide and returned to normal. He was lying on the floor of the dormitory—with the copy system; one didn't need to go to the training ground in person to enter the copy; one could enter the copy at any location and then exit and return to where they were before entering.

Lying on the ground with his face up, he let out a long sigh. "Damn… I'm so tired…"

He had indeed made progress now. At least he could still speak after training…

Yesenin asked him, "Have you decided to order the 'heavy artillery'?"

"Um."

"But the heavy artillery needs five points to fill out completely…"

"I just have to keep practising, then!" Chen Yingxiong stretched out his arms and legs. "Let me rest for a while, and we'll continue!"

…

In the weekend league, Chen Yingxiong was still in the starting lineup, and they faced Lokomotiv Moscow at home. Facing the twelfth-ranked team, Zenit went on a killing spree and won the final victory 4-1.

However, Chen Yingxiong was still closely guarded by the opponent's team, so he did not perform well. In addition, Chen Yingxiong's physical condition did not seem to be very good, and he looked very tired on the court.

This time, he only played for 65 minutes before being replaced by Advocaat.

"Obviously, Advocaat is using this method to express his dissatisfaction with Chen Yingxiong…" said the commentator of St. Petersburg local TV station, Sergeyevsky. "But he has a reason for doing so. Chen Yingxiong's performance in this game was quite bad!"

Sergeyevsky must be regretting now. He praised Chen Yingxiong so much in the past, but now it seemed like he was slapping himself in the face…

In fact, Chen Yingxiong's performance was not as bad as they thought. At least Chen Yingxiong diverted most of the Lokomotiv team's defensive attention on the court and created opportunities for his teammates.

That's why Zenit won 4-1 against Lokomotiv Moscow at home.

The main reason was that Chen Yingxiong performed too fiercely in previous games, especially the hat trick against Soviet Wings, which raised everyone's expectations of him.

So now, whenever Chen Yingxiong couldn't score a goal, it meant he was not in good shape…

After the match, a reporter shouted at Chen Yingxiong in the mixed zone. "Where is your form now?"

Chen Yingxiong walked quickly without stopping.

The St. Petersburg media finally managed to get back at Chen Yingxiong…