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Three days remained until the second leg of the Champions League knockout stage, following Bayer Leverkusen's 24th Bundesliga win against Paderborn.
That night, under the cover of darkness.
Lance went to the hotel balcony, holding a glass of non-alcoholic champagne, enjoying the evening breeze, and listening to the swimsuit-clad beauties frolicking in the infinity pool below.
However, he wasn't in the mood to admire the long legs of the women in swimsuits.
All his attention was on the system panel in front of him.
Personal Status
Template Equipment
GOAT Wishing Pool
Compared to the previous unclassified interface, the system's upgraded interface was much clearer.
"Personal Status" naturally displayed his current basic information.
Player: Lance
Age: 17
Physique: 183cm / 78kg
Template 1: Nagi Seishiro - S (Fusion Value 100%)
— (Click to view detailed skill description)
Template 2: Bachira Meguru - S (Fusion Value 100%)
— (Click to view detailed skill description)
Template 3: Unlockable (Please draw template from Wishing Pool)
Template 4: Locked
Player Overall Rating: B
Rage Value: 0%
Wishing Gold Coins: 1
Wishing Silver Coins: 1600
Held Item Cards: 0
Compared to the previous content, some new items were added.
For example, "Wishing Gold Coins", "Wishing Silver Coins", "Item Cards"... It was obvious these items were related to the new module, "GOAT Wishing Pool".
The "Template Equipment" interface was temporarily set aside.
As before, equipment templates were changed before each match.
The only difference was that previously, only 1 template could be equipped per match, with only 1 equipment slot.
Now there were two equipment slots!
Template Equipment Slot 1: Bachira Meguru (Fusion Value 100%)
Template Equipment Slot 2: Collectible fragments to unlock
Template Equipment Slot 3: Not yet open
The main focus, of course, was the newest section, and Lance quickly clicked on it to see what the Wishing Pool was all about.
"Gold Coin Wish" × 1 | "Gold Coin Wish" × 10
"Silver Coin Wish" × 1 | "Silver Coin Wish" × 10
Just like a crudely outsourced mobile game interface, the section only had two pools, gold and silver.
Under each pool, one could wish once or ten times.
If it were a player familiar with gacha games ten years later, they would naturally be no stranger to this system.
But it was only 2015, and gacha games were an unheard-of concept for Lance.
He stared at the system and studied it for a long time before understanding the situation.
"Do you want to spend 1 Gold Coin to make a wish?"
"System Upgrade Limited-Time Benefit: Newcomer Experience Gift Pack Signed In! Reward: Gold Coins × 10!"
Lance was about to make a wish when a sudden pop-up made his eyes light up!
Compared to single draws, a 10-draw was clearly more satisfying!!
Since it was a free gift, he might as well draw!
"Do you want to spend 10 Gold Coins to make a wish?"
Confirm!
He had money, so he could spend it freely!
The moment he clicked the 10-draw button, four colours of light — gold, purple, blue, and white — emerged from the Wishing Pool, intertwining and flashing continuously.
Immediately after, the Wishing Pool began to vibrate, and the light soared into the sky!
One golden light was the most prominent, whilst the rest were blue and white.
"Obtained Template: Raichang (Hot-Blooded Soccer) - B"
"Obtained Template: Cannavaro (Legendary Star) - C"
"Obtained Template: Meteor (Super Intelligent Football) - B"
"Obtained Template: Alan Shearer (Legendary Star) - C"
"Obtained Template: Zekeriş (Active Star) - C"
"Obtained Template: Aoi Ashito (Ao Ashi) - C"
"Obtained Template: Louis Napoleon (Captain Tsubasa) - B"
"Obtained Template: Hyuga Kojiro (Captain Tsubasa) - S"
"Obtained Template: Bukayo Saka (Active Star) - C"
"Obtained Template: "Top Spinner" Antony (Active Star) - B"
???
What was all this?!
For a moment, Lance was a bit dizzy and couldn't take it all in.
There were retired legendary stars, active stars, future stars he'd never seen, and even characters from anime and games!
Was the system template database a bit too messy?
What a hodgepodge!
Though there were many templates, few were actually useful on the pitch.
For example, the character from "Ao Ashi", "Aoi Ashito - C".
The next day.
At the Bayer Leverkusen training base, the entire team was intensely preparing for the second leg of the Champions League knockout stage.
After training, Lance stayed on the pitch for extra practise.
He mainly wanted to verify the actual capabilities of each template.
The result was unsurprising; C-rank templates were simply... C-rank templates!
"Aoi Ashito - C" had strong stamina and willpower; after equipping it, he felt he could run endlessly, and his reactions and game reading ability in the attacking third were decent.
However, his overall strength was, at most, that of a top youth academy player, not even qualifying for the first team.
Lance's current true strength was at least B-rank.
If a template was even weaker than his own strength, then why bother equipping it?
Including active stars like "Top Spinner" Antony and legendary stars, Lance experimented with them all, one by one.
They didn't significantly boost his combat power.
Especially the "Cannavaro" template, what use did he have for a centre-back template?!
It could only be said that out of the 10 cards drawn, only the golden S-rank template "Hyuga Kojiro" could provide him with an immediate boost in combat power.
And based on the pattern of acquiring new templates at 100% fusion value, only this template was worth cultivating.
The other templates were merely better than nothing, to be used in specific situations to achieve particular effects, acting as a surprise weapon.
Template: Hyuga Kojiro - S (Fusion Value 0%)
— Skill: Unlockable at 25% Fusion Value
— Skill: Unlockable at 50% Fusion Value
— Skill: Unlockable at 75% Fusion Value
Rage Value: 0%
After equipping the "Hyuga Kojiro - S" template, Lance clearly felt his shooting ability had greatly improved!
Furthermore, his dribbling, physical fitness, and off-ball movement all showed improvement.
At least his shooting attribute surpassed that of Bachira Meguru and Nagi Seishiro, with insufficient marking in the penalty area, his shooting accuracy was practically 100%!
In that day's training match, without any skills unlocked, Lance completely shattered his own goalkeeper Bernd Leno's morale.
"Beep —"
"Gooooal!! Lance!"
"Team 1's goal is valid!"
"Beep —"
"...Gooooal!! Still Lance!!"
"Goal is valid!"
"Beep —"
"Uh... Lance already has a hat-trick, how are you lads defending?"
The defensive unit conceded 3 goals in 7 minutes?
Even against Lance, that shouldn't happen!
Facing Sascha's reprimand, Rüdiger of the defensive unit felt very wronged.
"Coach, Lance is too strong, I can't stop his shots at all!"
"Yes, his shots are too fast, I couldn't see them clearly!"
Goalkeeper Leno was also very distressed.
He used to be able to save some of Lance's shots, but today, Lance had turned him into a sieve.
Could his progress be so significant in just one day?
The only explanation was that his goalkeeping skills had deteriorated?
Leno began to doubt himself.
"Leno! You're still very strong. Today I was purely lucky, just luck."
Lance quickly comforted the goalkeeper.
He didn't want to further dampen his teammates' confidence and affect tomorrow's match.
Fortunately, Leno was easily placated and quickly regained his confidence.
After training, the entire team returned to the hotel to rest and recuperate, preparing for tomorrow's do-or-die Champions League match.
That night, Lance came to the hotel balcony again, relishing the feeling of equipping the "Hyuga Kojiro" template today.
"If I could have this kind of shooting efficiency in a match as well..."
Lance reached out into the night sky, trying to grasp the bright moon above.
"Tomorrow, we will definitely win!"