I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 154: Chapter 52: New Badge, New Coach, New Developments

[Congratulations, your badge has been upgraded. Please check it.]

[New badge extraction has been opened, please proceed quickly.]

After the match ended, Chen Zhong noticed these two messages and was quite baffled, because he always thought that badge upgrades were a long process, but judging from the situation of the [Anticipation] badge, it seemed a bit different.

”Could it be that if you continually use the badge’s corresponding abilities, the upgrade speed might increase?” Chen Zhong’s speculation wasn’t without basis. After all, on the field, he often relies on the [Anticipation] badge’s abilities to position himself in advance and then use his body to intercept.

After a small gathering with his teammates, Chen Zhong returned to his dormitory and immediately opened the system interface, intending to start the new badge extraction. Upon opening the interface, the first thing he saw was a mass of golden light and then a golden badge engraved with an eye.

[Badge: Anticipation]

[Quality: Gold]

[Description: Improves your defensive awareness, increases the speed of your footwork.]

Compared to silver quality, the word ”slightly” was removed for gold quality.

The badge interface compared to last time was no longer empty. Instead, it had a golden badge shining brilliantly on the left, and the circle in the middle still had a ”1” written on it to represent extraction times.

Chen Zhong chose to use the extraction time, and at that moment, the system prompt appeared in front of him.

[Do you want to clear the previously retained badges and re-extract?]

”Previously retained?”

Chen Zhong recalled for a moment, the previously retained ones were the [Burly Man] which improves the body’s resistance, and [Durability] which reduces stamina consumption and increases recovery speed.

These two badges were quite useful, but men are always drawn to the unknown.

”Won’t retain them.”

[Note: The new badge extracted may not be of silver quality.]

[Do you want to clear them?]

Chen Zhong’s eyebrow twitched, and he quickly changed his mind.

”After all, I’m a nostalgic person.”

”Having one unknown option seems pretty good too.”

After choosing to retain, two silver-glow badges and one copper-glow badge lined up and floated in front of Chen Zhong.

The first two were old acquaintances.

The first badge had a muscular upper body engraved on it, the [Burly Man] badge.

The second badge had a lightning symbol on a battery, the [Durability] badge.

The third one, which was the new badge, had a bronzed surface engraved with a sliding man, and its name was succinct, [Slide Tackle].

[Badge: Slide Tackle]

[Quality: Bronze]

[Description: Slight chance to increase your sliding tackle speed.]

”Hehe.”

”This slight chance.”

”It’s just so mystical.”

Chen Zhong immediately moved his gaze away from the Slide Tackle badge. He wasn’t a center-back for the team anymore, and he already had decent interception abilities. However, this did provide him with a thought.

The player’s individual ability limit is 99, but after reaching the limit, with the corresponding badge, could one display abilities beyond the limit?

Gathering his thoughts, Chen Zhong focused on the [Burly Man] and [Durability] silver badges. The former could enhance Chen Zhong’s body resistance ability, and the latter could bolster his stamina endurance on the field.

After hesitating for a moment, Chen Zhong chose [Burly Man].

”On one hand, it can make my body resistance stronger, and on the other, choosing the Burly Man badge might have a faster upgrade than [Durability]!”

Chen Zhong mumbled to himself, because now on the field, he often seeks physical confrontations with opponents. If he had the [Burly Man] badge during the last Spanish Derby, perhaps in the confrontation with Yaya Toure, he could have had the upper hand.

Moreover, upgrading the [Burly Man] badge to golden should also be faster than [Durability].

...

The next day, Chen Zhong awoke from his dreams and headed straight to the training ground, eager to feel the changes brought by the [Burly Man] badge. His body indeed showed some improvement, at least now Baptista was completely outmatched in physical confrontations with him.

And in the days following the Spanish Derby, Chen Zhong heard some news about Barcelona.

”What? Barcelona wants to hire Mourinho as their coach?”

”Mourinho has already arrived in Spain?”

The 2003-2004 European Champions League saw Porto as the biggest dark horse. As this Portuguese team lifted the big-eared cup, two names emerged, becoming new stars in world football.

One was Mourinho, the other was Deco.

After achieving success at Porto, one moved to Chelsea, the other joined Barcelona. When Mourinho was coaching Chelsea, he once mentioned swapping Lampard for Deco, but at the time, Lampard was quite popular at Stanford Bridge, and Abramovich believed a pure swap wasn’t possible.

If Barcelona wanted Lampard, they had to offer Deco plus cash in exchange.

Barcelona naturally wouldn’t agree to such demands.

The road for the two to reunite was thus blocked.

However, now everything seemed to have new ”hope,” as Barcelona lost at home to Real Madrid, with the point gap between the two teams pulling to 7 points, Rijkaard’s managerial position at Barcelona was on shaky ground.

It’s said that after Barcelona’s loss to Real Madrid, the club’s executives held an emergency meeting, where the main focus of discussion was the coaching change issue.