"Good morning, you uncut gems of strikers. Are you enjoying your life in Blue Lock?"
Ego Jinpachi's face soon reappeared on the screen. He waved at the players in the room through the screen.
"Are you kidding? This environment sucks. Can our skills really improve here?"
Raichi Jingo was a hot-tempered person, like a barrel of gunpowder, igniting at the slightest spark.
"Yeah, can't the food be a little better?" two others also complained.
But Ego Jinpachi ignored all of this.
"Your skills suck, so of course the environment sucks, you idiots."
"Get this straight. You're here to participate in an experiment and become the world's number one striker, not to go on vacation."
"I'll be direct with you. There are a total of 25 teams in Blue Lock, from Team B to Team Z."
"These teams are housed in five separate buildings, with five teams in each building."
Well, now it's really become the Pentagon.
"By the way, after the first round of the tag game, 25 people have already been eliminated."
As expected.
Isagi's own guess was completely correct; his rank hadn't improved at all. Including Tendou and the others, everyone's rank had remained stagnant.
"25 teams, and we occupy the last 11 spots. Does that mean there are 24 teams stronger than us?"
That bastard.
Just imagining it, Isagi felt immense pressure.
Ego Jinpachi's next words confirmed his suspicions.
"The first to eleventh-ranked players are in Team B, located in Building 1. And so on. In other words, you guys are in the lowest-level building, Building 5."
As soon as these words were spoken, it caused an uproar throughout the room. After yesterday's physical fitness test, everyone had more or less gotten a preliminary understanding of each other. Now, they looked at the players they thought were strong and thought to themselves, Even a guy like that can only be placed in the weakest Team Z?
This was the effect Ego Jinpachi wanted.
Competition among players!
If you want better food and a better living environment, then work hard to climb up. Otherwise, the ranking he specifically created would be meaningless.
"Alright, since you've all had enough rest, let's begin the first selection."
...
On the other side.
Itoshi Sae was in the middle of an exclusive interview.
"Itoshi-san, as a genius midfielder playing for the youth team of the world-class powerhouse Real Madrid, according to regulations, you are temporarily unable to play for the first team, so you have returned to Japan."
"Does this mean we'll have a chance to see you play in the domestic league?"
Exported and then re-imported. This kind of operation was no longer fresh in the world of football. For a time, lower-level leagues would put great effort into sending so-called geniuses to the top five European leagues to get some "gilding," then bring them back after a year or two and sell them at a high price to local teams for their own consumption.
The reporter's question was not without a probing intent; he also wanted to see if this genius midfielder, Itoshi Sae, was a product manufactured by the JFU.
But Itoshi Sae replied, "I'd rather die. I'd rather play with German university students than play in a country like this."
"...Uh, well then, may I ask if you have any particular expectations or ambitions about representing Japan in the future?" the reporter asked, not giving up.
"I'm not interested at all," Itoshi Sae said bluntly. "Playing for the national team of a football-weak nation like this, I'll never become the world's number one."
He stood up, not intending to continue this utterly boring interview.
"My dream is to win the Champions League. None of the forwards on this national team can receive my passes..."
At this point, he suddenly paused. That high school student he met at the pickup field a week ago... perhaps he could.
In any case, Itoshi Sae left very abruptly, with his agent chasing after him. The agent complained, "Sae-chan, you'll be hated by the media if you act like this!"
"The media in this country is completely unimportant. I only came back because my passport expired."
These years abroad had greatly changed Itoshi Sae's perspective. He had switched from being a forward to a midfielder because he had seen his own limits. Itoshi Sae knew very well that he could never become the world's number one striker. His talent did not allow him to become someone like Noel Noa.
So Itoshi Sae made a change, moving his position from the front line to the midfield, hoping that his younger brother, Itoshi Rin, could become the world's number one striker, while he would become the playmaker who passed to him.
Who would have known...
He had found his younger brother as soon as he returned from Spain. When he told him that he had given up on becoming the world's number one striker and intended to become the world's number one midfielder instead, that idiot had only shouted things like "I don't want that!" and "I have no motivation to play without my brother!" like a complete moron. He had already explained it so clearly, why couldn't that idiot understand human language?
The thought of Itoshi Rin made him irritable.
At that moment, he passed by a room where a press conference was being held.
The Blue Lock project was finally being officially announced to the public. After all, there were 300 young forwards, representing 300 families; they had to give these parents an explanation.
"In summary, the goal of this Blue Lock project is to cultivate a striker who can lead Japan to a World Cup victory," a JFU official spoke eloquently.
"Just by cultivating a first-class striker, can you guarantee that Japan will win the World Cup?" a reporter eagerly asked.
"And, do you mean to sacrifice the remaining 299 people, to sacrifice their lives, just for the sake of one person? Have the parents of these children agreed to this?"
"Sacrifice their lives?"
Hearing these reporters' questions, Anri Teieri slammed the table. She announced domineeringly, "That's right! For the sake of advancing Japanese football, this crazy plan is essential!"
"Don't you want to see it? The moment a hero is born in the Japanese football world!"
Compared to the timid JFU official next to her, who was carefully choosing his words for fear of taking the blame, she was as domineering as a goddess of war.
"In the past 25 years, Japanese football has also made hard-won progress on the world stage."
"We are just one step away from joining the world's top ranks. But for this one step, Japanese football must die once now."
Translated, it means to be reborn from the ashes, to break and then rebuild. But Anri Teieri deliberately used such "stimulating" words. It had a feeling of facing death with equanimity.
Then, after she finished speaking, she even had the reporters' press passes revoked on the spot. She and Ego Jinpachi were dead set on implementing Blue Lock. This press conference was merely to give an explanation to the parents of those children, to put their minds at ease. They would choose to ignore all external pressure, interference, and influence until Blue Lock was completed.
Everything would be judged by the results.
If they failed, they wouldn't need others to tell them; they would leave the JFU and Japanese football forever on their own accord. If they succeeded, it would be even simpler. The fans, seeing the results, would naturally support them to continue this project.
"The Blue Lock project?"
Itoshi Sae watched the entire thing and suddenly became interested.
His younger brother... and Tendou. Would they also be participating?
"Sae-chan, let's go. Don't we have to catch a flight back to Spain?"
"Cancel it."
"Huh?"
"Cancel it. And while you're at it, investigate for me whether Tendou Kageyoshi is in the Blue Lock project."
What kind of monster will be born in this country?
...
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