Chapter 6: Bed time Discussions (2)
"One year ago on a popular video platform, a video became viral. Somebody had posted a video of a boy tripping whilst attempting a simple cross in a school competition. The boy received a lot of stick in the comments.
A day later, when the boy saw that video on his friend's laptop, he felt distraught. The negative comments really got to him. He wanted to quit football.
However, he accidentally saw a single comment that encouraged him for having the guts to get back on his feet and play the rest of the match. His mood brightened up. Curious, he wanted to see who encouraged him.
The comment was made by a lady named Maria. Her profile picture showed a pretty lady sitting in a wheelchair. The boy subconsciously clicked on her name and visited her profile. He found that the lady was a permanently disabled woman who gave online football training to young kids of his age.
At first, the boy scoffed at the idea of someone being able to provide online guidance for football. Nonetheless, his curiosity got the better of him. So, he watched a couple of videos she had uploaded.
The videos were nothing fancy, just teaching the basics of dribbling, passing and shooting. However, there were a lot of details that the boy never knew. Furthermore, the pointers given by the lady were easy to understand.
The boy used those videos to learn the basics correctly and trained accordingly. A week later, he had his friend take his videos while he was training. He uploaded the videos to his friend's laptop. Later, he sent those videos in a message to the lady hoping for guidance.
The next day, the boy received edited versions of his videos where the lady had input her guidance for him and some short clips of famous players doing the basics correctly.
Once again, he trained for a week, took his videos and sent them to the lady for guidance. Once more, he received a reply. The process repeated over the next few weeks. Slowly, the boy began to interact more and more with the lady. He began to see her as his mentor.
Maria was the daughter of a dead football player who played in the lower leagues of the E country of the E continent. She had a tough life. Her mother left this world a year after her birth in an accident. Her father died when she was 15. She herself got in an accident that took her legs away at the young age of 18. That accident ended her dream of becoming a professional footballer.
However, she never lost hope in life. She took football coaching courses as all she knew in her life was football. With no chance to become a player or an on-field coach. She opened an online training football program for young kids. Unsurprisingly, she wasn't popular. Nevertheless, she could make enough for her livelihood with her side job of writing football-related articles. Therefore, she kept the program ongoing for free.
The boy was the only kid to stick around for an entire year under her wing. Hence, she felt he was important enough to give some personal advice.
She praised his diligence and pointed out his vast improvement from such a short time of training. In the end, she convinced the boy that he had talent to become a professional.
The boy felt as if he owed her and decided he should give his all to become a professional. He didn't want to waste his talent either. Hence, he convinced the lady to give him her bank account details. He wanted to one day formally pay her for the guidance she had provided him. Ideally, he wanted to pay her whenever he got his first professional contract."
'Hey, I say you should become a writer. What a foolproof story covering all bases, including the bank account.'
"I am an Artificial Intelligence, don't forget that. Anyway, all videos and chat history of you and I can be found out by those monitoring you. You just have to log in and contact your mentor on your own laptop."
'Phew! With these security problems solved, I feel like some weight on my shoulders has been taken away. For now, I can properly concentrate on my football.'
"You had better sleep first. It's almost 11 now."
'Wait! I just remembered something else. Who was that Frank Lampard look alike??'
"Who else but him, himself. I just pulled your leg a bit, yet you totally believed me that he wasn't. Hehehe."
'I don't believe it. Lampard was coaching the Blue Lions half a year ago. However, right now he is in my village, in my house.' Harry gasped.
"That's life for you. If you don't grasp your chances, you have to start all over again."
Harry did one last thing before sleeping.
He registered his friends on his profile.
*Ding*
*You have received a bonus reward for registering a friend.
*Friendship Perks are now available.
*You have multiple items in inventory
____
Friendship Perks:
1) All friends will get position-oriented training plans.
2) All friends will get attribute-related training plans.
3) All friends will get the same number of skills as the user. The skills will be of similar grade as the user's. The skills will be position-oriented.
4) The attributes of friends will increase steadily like normal people. The maximum increase will be 75% of the user's expected increase in the next 3 months.
5) The Registered Friends can enjoy the effects of Recovery Potion upon consumption.
_____
Inventory:
*Elite Player Skills (New):
1) Save with feet like David de Gea (Goalkeeper)
2) Clinically finish like Harry Kane (Striker)
3) Tackle like Idrissa Gueye (Holding Midfielder)
4) Cross like Dusan Tadic (Right Winger)
*World Class Skills (New):
1) Save like Thibaut Courtois (Goalkeeper)
2) Move in the box like Edinson Cavani (Striker)
3) Break up play like Fernandinho (Holding Midfielder)
4) Dribble like Riyad Mahrez (Right winger)
*Personalised attribute-related training plans for Sherry. (New)
*Personalised attribute-related training plans for David. (New)
*Personalised attribute-related training plans for Ali. (New)
*Personalised attribute-related training plans for Robinson. (New)
* Striker Training Plan (new)
* Holding Midfielder Training Plan (new)
* Goalkeeper Training Plan (new)
* Right Winger Training Plan (new)
* 1 D- Recovery Potion
* 1 D+ Recovery Potion
* 1 C- Recovery Potion
* 1 E+ Healing Potion
* 1 D+ Healing Potion
* 20 System Points
____
"I have to remind you that when you give your friends the recovery potion, just mix a drop of it with real juice. This will only increase their mental and physical endurance. Therefore, they will not find themselves with a sudden increase in ability and become suspicious."
'Okay. It would have been weird if their abilities increased suddenly for three hours every day. There is another thing, how can these skills be given to them without them realising it?'
"I will impart the skills to the boys in their dreams while they sleep. They will than subconsciously use those skills in reality until the skills become second nature for them.
Alright, you can sleep now. I will email the training plans, videos and schedule to the kids."
- - -
The next morning, the five boys went for a run at 4 am. All of them were sleepy and lethargic. Harry had to give them a drop of recovery potion mixed with mango juice after the half-hour mark.
At breakfast, Frank Lampard joined them at the table. Alongside him was the nutritionist Agatha. The kids became fidgety in their seats. A hot blonde and a legendary player were sharing the same table with them. It was nerve-racking for the kids.
Harry nervously asked Agatha to watch their training and make a diet plan accordingly. He gave her the videos and the schedule of their training. Lampard got interested in the training videos. So, Harry sent him a copy as well. Harry built his courage and finally asked for the autograph of Lampard. Lampard was happy to give the boys an autograph each.
After breakfast, the boys did off-the-ball training drills on the field. Lampard and Agatha were joined by Sajid & Jack in watching the kids practice. Occasionally, Lampard gave pointers to the boys.
Up next, at the gym, Harry noticed the adults discussing something about diets and the intensity of training to themselves. This time Jack and Sajid gave pointers to kids.
At noon, the boys got a nice massage from the physio. They took showers and then had lunch with the adults. Surprisingly, an unfamiliar young man joined the table alongside Harry's grandfather.
Later, the boys were asked to stay by the old man as the coaches left. The young man was the agent that the old man hired. The boys, including Harry, signed their contracts excitedly with the agent.
It was a big moment for the kids, joining the nameless agency. Nameless was not good enough. Therefore, everybody chipped in ideas for the name of the agency.
In the end, they named it Village Stars Firm. Harry's grandfather announced he was going to open an office for the agency in the capital of the E country of the E continent. To this, Harry could only praise his guts and extravagance.
After the Agent left, Harry and the boys proceeded to watch two Football Matches. It wasn't a good idea to go out in the afternoons. The summer of the P country has extremely hot conditions.
Next, in the evening, the boys did on-the-ball drills. They practiced various passing scenarios. Short passes & long passes, fast one-touch plays, and slower two-touch plays, etc.
Following that, one of Harry or Ali sent in Crosses to Robinson with Sherry goalkeeping and David defending.
Later, Harry and Ali tried to dribble past David and score against Sherry.
Finally, the boys practiced their shooting in various scenarios against Sherry.
It was the time of the day when they had the most fun. Except for the annoying breaks, whenever Fabio Silva stopped the play. Usually, it was due to the fouls made or to point out their mistakes.
After cooling down, getting another massage and having a shower, the boys had dinner.
Finally, they proceeded to do the last activity of the day. The Visualisation/Image Training.
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One month passed by. Agatha improvised the boys' diet. Jack helped with their gym work. Sajid became their personal masseuse. Lampard, Fabio and Nick supervised their football training.
In addition, on Sundays, which was supposed to be their rest day. The boys played 5-a-side against the 5 substitutes of the under-16 team.
They played in a -:- shaped formation.
Robinson on top, Harry in left midfield, Ali in right midfield, David as a defender and Sherry as a goalkeeper.
Work was constantly being done on the pitch. Hence, every Sunday they had more room to play. 30 X 30 yards on the first Sunday. 50 X 50 yards on the second weekend. 55 X 76 yards, a full half, on the third weekend. They used one half of the pitch on the fourth Sunday. They felt it was large enough.
In every match one team attacked for 10 minutes while the other defended. They played four rounds every time. Harry's team lost every time.
The score was 3-0, 0-0, 3-0 and 0-1 in each round. The match result was a resounding 6-1 defeat for the P team against the AF team.
0-0, 2-0, 0-0 and 3-0. Thus, an even worse result of 5-0. Harry's team couldn't score.
3-0, 0-0, 2-0, 1-0. A 5-1 loss. Harry crossed the ball for Robinson and got his first assist.
0-1, 2-0, 0-1 and 3-0. Final score 5-2. Harry tapped in a goal from a rebound and one of his mistimed crosses went in off the bar.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone