First Touch

"I wonder what he's being so secretive about," he thought.

"Hey, Luke, who was that beside your dad? Is that your mom?" Philip asked as they walked into the hallway leading to the locker room.

"She's my dad's girlfriend."

"They look really good together."

"I hope it all works out this time," Lukas thought as they walked into the locker room area.

Back outside, Javi smiled as he watched his son chatting with his teammates until they were out of sight.

"You're really not gonna tell him?" Anne asked as she gently squeezed Javi's hands.

"Yeah, he's gonna be so surprised when he finds out."

Javi reached into his breast pocket with the hand that wasn't 'handcuffed' to Anne and pulled out three tickets.

🎟️ UEFA EURO 2024 — GERMANY

Group A | Matchday 3

Germany 🇩🇪 vs Switzerland 🇨🇭

Date: June 23, 2024

Time: 21:00

Venue: Deutsche Bank Park

"I still can't believe you got three tickets for the same match through a lottery. What are the chances? I applied for the lottery, and didn't get even one. I tried to check for the price on the resale market, but it was astronomical. To think you'll get 3 tickets from the first phase of the lottery is very surprising," Javi stared at the tickets in his hand with a smile on his face.

"But wait a second, you initially said you had two tickets, how did it become three?" Javi asked, still staring at the tickets.

"Ahem.. So I had two, but a friend of mine got one, so when they said they wouldn't be able to attend, I bought it from them."

"Hmmm.. Really? Hope they didn't charge you a crazy mark-up?"

"No, of course not. She's a close friend, so… yeah, face value. I promise," Anne responded a bit hesitantly as she looked around to avoid eye contact with Javi.

"You really are lucky," he said, completely oblivious to the fact that he had just been force-fed a half-truth.

"Well, it's technically not a lie. Mom didn't give me any of the tickets for free anyway."

Anne's mother was a high-ranking official at the DFB, and she received tickets to the game, which are allocated to the staff of the association, as well as the players and their families.

She initially planned to have a date with Javi where they would go see the match at the Deutsche Bank Park, but didn't know Javi had a son yet.

After she learnt about Lukas, she asked her mother for one more ticket, and had to find a way to tell Javi without exposing that her family works at the DFB.

"I'll tell him later."

"Alright, I'm glad it all worked out. Luke will be so surprised. Let's go watch the session," Javi said as they started walking, arms still interlocked.

The couple got some refreshments from a kiosk nearby before sitting at the visitors' section to watch the training.

Lukas was juggling the ball on the field. Alternating between his left and right legs as he tried walking while continuing to juggle the ball.

He took about 25 steps before he lost control of it.

"Ahaa.. Finally, there's something I can beat you at," Christian said excitedly as he did the same thing Lukas attempted, but went even farther than Lukas.

"Yes, I admit defeat, sir. No one comes close to you," Lukas smiled as he responded to Christian's taunt.

Then a thought crossed his mind.

"I wonder how much my LTC skill training from today would affect that skill in real life."

He had summoned an ego and started skill training.

Even 8 hours later, when he reached the limit for the amount of time he could spend in the LTC in one day, he hadn't gotten close to acquiring the skill.

But notwithstanding, there was progress.

"Hey, Christian, I want you to help me with something."

"What's that?" Christian asked as he slammed the ball he was juggling upwards.

"Send me high passes. The type a fullback might send to a winger in a match. I wanna train my first touch."

"Okay then, I'll go to the other side."

Christian trotted over with the ball to the other side of the pitch while Lukas backed up to the opposite side.

"Ready when you are!" Christian screamed.

Lukas raised his right hand and gestured for the Christian to send the ball — a signal that meant he was ready.

Christian launched the ball towards Lukas' direction — a lobbed pass. The ball arched beautifully as it headed straight to Lukas.

Lukas' eyes were glued to the ball as he moved to its predicted landing point.

With the outside of his left foot, he brought down the ball — killing its momentum.

The ball, however, rolled a few feet away from him.

"It's still not even close to his level." Lukas looked at the ball as he thought about the LTC session earlier that day.

* * *

During the LTC session that morning, after TT had explained the new v2.0 features of the LTC, Lukas was about to give the command on whom to summon for his first skill training session.

Lukas tapped his fingers on his chin as he considered several players he could pick as his summon for his first skill session.

"Okay, let's go with him. Yeah, that's a good idea."

[*Who will you summon?*]

"Shouldn't you know that already? You are in my mind, aren't you?"

[*I don't read your mind in here.*]

"You don't? I could swear you've commented on something I thought about when I was having a session before."

[*Never happened. I can read your mind when we're in the real world, but not here. This is 'technically' already your mind speaking. So, unless you speak out loud, I can't hear you, for the most part at least.*]

"If this is already my mind, then how is my mind able to have its thoughts?"

[*I said 'technically.' And this conversation will really go nowhere. There are some things I just can't tell you; this is one of them. So what's your choice?*]

"So you can't hear me now?"

[*.....*]

"I should smack you."

[*Don't think shit about me.*]

"AHA! Caught you! You heard that."

[*I don't need to read your mind to know when you're thinking about an insult.*]

"Yeah, right. Anyway, how do I summon the Ego?"

[*Just tell me what you want.*]

"Summon Riyad Mahrez."

The glowing window appeared.

[ Riyad Mahrez

Al Ahli / Algeria

Owned Skills:

First Touch Close Control. Level 5/5

Feint Shot. Level 5/5

Dazzling Dribbling. Level 4/5

Outside Curler. Level 4/5

Please select a skill to train. ]

Lukas read through the list carefully.

"I don't have any of the skills here. TT, how does it work if it's a skill I don't have? Will I acquire it at level 1/5 when I choose it, then train it to go higher?"

[*Of course not. Why would you think that? Level 1/5 means you're able to use that skill on the court, although haphazardly. That skill level won't just be gifted to you. If you select a skill you don't have, you'll start training until you get to the level of 1/5, then it'll be added to your skill window.*]

"Hmmm, I see. I select Dazzling Dribbling."

[ Error. Synthesized skill.

Unable to learn.

Do not meet requirements.]

The system window showed an error message that left Lukas confused.

"What's this? Are there skill requirements? Synthesized skill? What's that?"

[*A skill like 'Dazzling Dribbling' is a synthesis of several dribbling skills. To learn a skill like that, you have to acquire at least 5 different dribbling skills. Then you can combine them all to form this skill.*]

"I see. So this is the requirement. Are there any other kinds of requirements for learning a skill?"

[*I mentioned 'skill-related stats' before, right? To be able to learn any skill, its corresponding stat or stats must be up to a certain number. The number is different for each skill.*]

"Well, that sounded very important. You didn't think to mention that while talking about the skill training?"

[*Meh.. I didn't feel like doing that.*]

"Where can I file a report? Lazy system."

[*Well, good luck with that.*]

Lukas chuckled as he continued setting up the Ego summon.

"Learn First Touch Close Control."

[First Touch Close Control skill.

Requirement: Ball Control 75

Requirement met.

Pick the level of training.]

"Level of training?"

[*It's the level you want the training to stop at. It goes from 1 to 5. Pick level 1 if it's a skill you just want to acquire. Remember, all future sessions will be the same skill training until that skill gets to the level you select.*]

"Hmmm. That's interesting. Level 2," Lukas gave the final instructions for setting up the Ego.

[Ego Summon in Progress

Ego: Riyad Mahrez

Mission: First Touch Close Control skill training till level 2/5 ]

Just as Lukas read the screen, he felt a tap on his back.

"Hey, Lukas."

"Oh my God! That scared the crap out of me," he screamed as he jumped and turned to see who had touched him.

"Don't be scared. I'm Riyad Ego Mahrez. I'll be teaching you the first touch skill from now on."

A/N: Heyyy y'all. Hope you all had a beautiful day. If not, I hope tomorrow will be better. If not, the day after tomorrow will definitely be better.

Thank you guys for your support.

Oliver27 with another 4 GTs. Thanks a bunch, man.

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You all have a blessed day/night.

Love y'all

-Writ