From Arsenal to the Ball God

His passing technique is still quite good, able to find precise spots every time.

After practicing for more than an hour, heading upgraded from Level 2 to Level 3. Ma’el clearly felt that he could now gauge the timing for jumping in various situations.

[Skill: Header Power Level 3]

[Skill Level: (1/800)]

[Utility: After learning to judge the landing point and jumping timing, you start to enhance your power in heading, striving for higher-quality headers!]

”Phew...” Ma’el took a deep breath, yet another skill levelled up; strengthening weaknesses bit by bit felt pretty good.

Alexander Song walked over from a distance, sweat on his nose and chin.

He looked at Ma’el with clear eyes, with a hint of admiration on his face, ”So this is how you train. It’s really monotonous, hard to imagine practicing just one ability for such a long time.

”Actually, everyone has weaknesses, just like me. My technique and tackling ability are quite good, but my concentration is mediocre. No matter how I try to enhance it, it’s of no avail.”

Ma’el nodded in agreement with his statement, but he believed he could be without shortcomings, ”Is it monotonous? Why didn’t you tell me sooner? We could pick some interesting training projects.

”Still, thank you for coming today. After all, I’m not paying you, haha...”

”Very monotonous.” Alexander Song nodded, truthfully saying, ”I just wanted to take this opportunity to see how you train, to learn a thing or two for myself, so I’ve been persevering.

”But reaching this point, I’ve realized that your kind of training is unbearable for me.”

Ma’el smiled without continuing the topic, looking at Alexander Song and said, ”There are many ways to improve, some more fun, as long as you find a way.”

Song lowered his eyelids, not quite agreeing, ”That kind of method is only suitable for kids. Like us professional players, if we want fun, improvement would be minimal at best.

”If the improvement is too slow, there’s no point in me practicing. It doesn’t meet my expectations.”

Ma’el took a bottle of soda water out of his backpack and handed it to him. The two began drinking while resting, sitting by the side of the field chatting.

”Do you know why I still want to improve myself?” Song took a sip of water, glanced at Ma’el, and after hesitating, said, ”My salary is too low, I can’t support my family.”

Ma’el paused in twisting the bottle cap, recalling Alexander Song’s over four hundred relatives, couldn’t help but say, ”Many of those people aren’t your direct relatives, can’t you just cut them off?

”Being good to your family is understandable, but some people are just leeches, doing nothing and relying on you to support them.”

Alexander Song shook his head, biting his lip, ”I can’t cut them off. That’s just the custom back there, once someone gets successful, they have to support their clan.”

”Have you thought about what would happen if you stop earning money?”

”Go back to work?”

”Haha... no, they’ll empty your house, sell your car, and squeeze out every last bit of value from you.”

Alexander Song fell silent, he wasn’t stupid; he understood some things but was unwilling to believe or accept them.

He lowered his head and lamented to Ma’el, ”You know, besides those few mansions at my hometown and those few cars, I have almost no money at all.

”At first, I used a third of all my income to support them, later when my salary rose, their demands also increased. Now I spend two-thirds of my salary.

”And with their demands getting higher and higher, I’m about to be unable to afford it anymore.”

Ma’el didn’t know how to advise him, as some deeply rooted ideas are hard to change.

He wanted to teach Song Ji the story of giving a man a fish versus teaching him to fish, but didn’t know how to translate it, so he opted for a different approach, ”If I were you, I’d open a football school, build the best facilities, hire the best coaches.

”If people from your clan envy you for becoming successful, making lots of money to change your destiny, then let them send their kids to play football, to change their own lives with their own feet.”

Alexander Song’s expression shifted, keeping that in mind, but given the current situation, it was hard to change.

”Let’s go, for a run.”

Ma’el called to Alexander Song, smiling, ”Running can distract you from worries, let’s just run 5 miles, we have a game tomorrow.”

He started running, his Endurance Level 3 was just a little bit away from upgrading, and he wanted to boost it.

Song followed behind him, heavy expression on his face as if really wanting to rely on this to forget his troubles.

When they reached over 4 miles, Ma’el’s muscles suddenly started to ache, and a peculiar sensation seemed to invade his body, washing through his lungs, prompting a coughing urge.

”Cough cough...!”

Ma’el stopped, coughing violently, and couldn’t help sneezing a few times.

Yet he didn’t feel discomfort, instead a wave of joy rose within him; he knew his Endurance had reached Level 4!

The fourth Level 4 physical skill!

A true physical monster!

[Skill: Iron Lung Level 4]

[Skill Level: (1/5000)]

[Utility: You believe you can create more opportunities through running, enhancing the defense on the same side. You keep running, running, gradually reaching the top level, with muscle endurance and lung capacity approaching human’s peak standard!]

Keep running, keep running... Ma’el chuckled slightly, feeling some of the discomfort within his body dissipate.

This description, for him, wasn’t just about training endurance, but what he had been doing ever since he gained his skill level panel!