When Winston turned around, he saw the head coach nodding his head, observing everything from afar. He also rubbed his rugged chin, observing these two youths giving their all, and their learning of new skills greatly impressed him. All the youths involved in the practice drills were called by him.
"Good job out there, I am happy with some of your progress. Today we will continue with the match we did on our last training, a rematch if you will, remember; this might be a training, but there are people who are observing this match. So give it your all." The head coach shifted his gaze toward the back of the stadium, his head gesturing at the men and women who were wearing suits, holding notebooks on their lap mingling amongst each other. Winston peeked over the coach's shoulder, he remembered what the senior coach said to him. It was true; the senior team scouts would come and see the youth's progress.
Winston felt his body heavy; he also felt his muscles becoming sluggish. He moved toward the medic kit, grabbing an energy drink in the hopes of perhaps waking his body from all the all-nighters he had pulled on that weird simulation he was at earlier. He also attempted some stretches to warm up his muscle fibers. Of course, all that running around the city and doing punishment laps for being late would eventually catch up to him, and awakening two cores at once has drained his energy. He realized he hadn't been paying much attention as before. Nethen essence and voltage core gave Winston a false boost before consuming half his vital energy.
Not now, I have to stay awake…
Jolted by the head coach whistle, Winston forced him a jog over to the same team that was he was on—in the sleep? last training match this time around they were the one starting the match, Oswin came over to Winston and slapped his shoulder forcing Winston to stumble forward a bit. Oswin gave a concerned look at Winston.
"You good bro, you look horrible, did you sleep."
"Yeah, I'm good. Just that I'm a bit exhausted."
"Didn't you get sleep last night?"
"I did, my neighbor was having a party, and I didn't get enough sleep." Of course Winston was lying—he didn't want to tell him that he was playing with silhouettes on a intense game like simulation, and he was running around marking and dribbling across them to pass a system challenge. Looking up the burning summer sun was upon them. And the heat of the sun warmed Winston face, the clothes he was wearing were having a dark tone color. and they were not billowing like other players, He smacked his dry lips.
When the sharp whistle rang out, he through ball to the goal keeper who trapped the ball. and executed a pass to one of the two center backs, and they passed to the left rather than the right. The left back passed to the center midfielder, who also did the same thing the previous youths did. Until it reached Oswin who instead of going along the left side of the field, he stunned the midfielders who were not expecting him to cut straight to them.
As if both Oswin and Winston have been practicing these moves together they started executing a Tiki-taka. And the midfielders on the Winston side joined in at the incredible tiki-taka that got claps from the onlookers. While doing this—the tick-tack allowed Winston to get behind the other youths before they noticed it Oswin was already through ball to him and without waiting to get closer to the keeper. He shot the ball once it tapped the ground once.
Thwack!
Now his exhaustion was too great for him to push aside; before he strode to his position for a match to start again, he went to the drinks area and grabbed a large bottle of water and gulped it until he choked on it. Coaches and assistants were clapping and brushing his back, apparently what they are just displayed was something the coaches were not expecting such a level of class from these youths. To be fair, what Oswin, Winston and the rest of his team just did now was something their coach was hoping to teach them. And that was chemistry, on the previous match the head coach noticed they lack unison and chemistry that why when Winston was substituted on the second half, he did great but he didn't stay on his position he was continuing playing the role of the second striker it was not a bad thing but an opportunity that he can use and seeing Winston performing today just confirmed it.
As the match resumed and Maximilian twisted to pass the ball back to the youth behind him, Winston was in hot pursuit. He overtook Maximilian, surprising the midfielder, who attempted a rapid pass. Winston.
intercepted the ball. He stopped for a while, scouting the field in front of him. Heavy breathing trenched in his sweat, he looked back at the ball and used his outer foot to tap the ball to the side, and he decided to just punt the ball from forty-two meters. Without realizing it, he succumbed to exhaustion and fell backward, his final bit of strength gone.
[The Core: Entering The Vital Restoration process]
Few days passed; Winston woke up, he felt like he had been asleep for days. When he sat up straight and scanned the room. He felt disappointed again. He's in the hospital again, but this time it is not the previous hospital, this time he was in a club hospital. Upon first glance, he realized he was alone in the room; there were no rows of beds.
Dammit, my head feels like a truck has hit me. And my body feels stiff, I'm here again, how long have I been asleep?
Stretching his hands and looking over the large open window, the wind coming through had a mix of cool yet smooth like calm waves. Which gave him this rejuvenated perspective that he can conquer the world, even conquer the defenders. Winston opened the core system.
[The Core: Vital Restoration process]
[Vital Restoration: 50%]
Ding!
[Vital Restoration: 50%]
Ding!
[Vital Restoration: 50%]
Ding!
[Vital Restoration: 50%]
Ding!
[Vital Restoration: 50%]
Ding!
[Vital Restoration: 50%]
This is weird; the system has been acting up ever since that simulation.
"Does this mean I broke the system," Winston murmured to himself, his hand on his chin. He repeatedly opened and closed it about five times. The rattling doorknob startled him, prompting him to shut down the core system. And he stares at the door. He noticed it was the head coach. Feeling like he messed up by fainting earlier.
"How are you feeling?" the head coach said, sitting down, crossing leg while leaning back on the chair.
"I am okay. I'd like to apologize for fainting earlier; there was a party in my neighborhood and it affected my sleeping schedule."
"Yes, a teammate informed us, and we ran a few tests after getting your parents' consent," he added. You were absent for the match.
With a heavy sigh, "Don't bother worrying, we lost that match. It was two, one. Enough with that. Since you haven't been getting much sleep, we decided to give you two days off."
The coach stood up and shuffled toward the door, as he was about to leave. "Your parents will come take you home, so prepare, and after those two days you have to report here for more testing."
Winston gritted his teeth, slapped his head on the pillow, his hand covering his face, disappointed about the game he had missed.
Stupid. stupid. Stupid… dammit, I also just broke through.