Have You Seen Lisbon at 5 A.M.?

"King of Football Points: 25184."

When he saw this number, Su Dong became incredibly excited.

He actually had more than twenty thousand King of Football Points. Rony, this god-tier trainer, was truly extraordinary.

However, this only made Su Dong even more curious.

Just how strong was Rony?

Also, was he a professional player? Which team did he play for?

As Portugal's capital, Lisbon had dozens of football clubs. Benfica and Sporting Lisbon, the two teams most people were familiar with, were merely the two most famous Portuguese Super League clubs. Belenenses was relatively less prominent, while the second-, third-, and fourth-tier leagues also had no shortage of Lisbon teams.

For example, in the third-tier league where Su Dong's Sporting Portugal played, there were five or six Lisbon teams.

Which team did he play for?

If a young player Su Dong had never even heard of was already this powerful, then how strong were the other professional players?

And super-geniuses like the legendary Ronaldinho and his idol Ronaldo—just how strong were they?

For a moment, Su Dong's heart was filled with admiration.

At the same time, his determination to become stronger grew even firmer.

With more than twenty thousand King of Football Points, the first thing Su Dong wanted to do was level up.

"Current Level: Ball Zero. Next Level: Ball One. Leveling up requires 10,000 King of Football Points. Level up?"

Su Dong selected the [Yes] option without the slightest hesitation.

"Leveling up. Please wait..."

A black-and-white football began spinning in his mind. Clearly, it was in the process of leveling up.

Before long, when the football stopped spinning, Su Dong received a message.

"Congratulations. Level-up successful."

"Current Level: Ball One. Next Level: Ball Trunk. Leveling up requires 50,000 King of Football Points."

"Congratulations on successfully leveling up to Ball One and officially becoming an amateur player. Path to the King of Football has automatically unlocked the Potential System."

The Potential System?

Su Dong was a little surprised after reading this. What was this supposed to be?

When he entered the personal attributes interface, he immediately noticed the difference.

At the Ball Zero level, the personal attributes interface had been extremely shabby. There had only been three attributes: [Attack], [Defense], and [Physical]. It had even claimed to have integrated various attributes, but in reality, it was simply looking down on Su Dong because he was only at the Ball Zero level.

After leveling up to Ball One and officially entering the ranks of amateur players, his personal attributes also underwent an upgrade.

The three major attributes were each split into two. Attack was divided into [Technique] and [Shooting], defense into [Positioning] and [Tackling], and physical ability into [Speed] and [Strength].

Not only that, every attribute now had two numbers. One represented his current ability, while the other represented his potential points.

Su Dong carefully studied the system's explanations of the attributes and gradually began to understand the rules of the newly unlocked Potential System.

There was no need to explain current ability. It was the ability he possessed at that moment. Potential points were also easy to understand: they represented the level of ability he could reach after fully realizing all his potential.

However, the two were vastly different. Ability points could only be increased through Su Dong's own hard training, while potential points could be increased by injecting King of Football Points.

Simply put, after the Potential System was unlocked, Su Dong could consume King of Football Points to raise his potential.

Of course, after his potential increased, how much of it he could realize still depended on his own hard work.

There was another matter that left Su Dong extremely depressed. After leveling up, his personal attributes had actually dropped dramatically.

For example, his attack before leveling up had been 33 points. But after it was split into two attributes, his Technique was 15 points [Potential Points: 29], while his Shooting was 18 points [Potential Points: 37].

His defense before leveling up had been 28 points. After leveling up and splitting into two attributes, his Positioning was 13 points [Potential Points: 25], while his Tackling was 15 points [Potential Points: 31].

His physical ability before leveling up had been 29 points. After leveling up, his Speed was 18 points [Potential Points: 33], while his Strength was 11 points [Potential Points: 25].

Su Dong basically trusted the system's assessment of his ability and potential. The only exception was his speed.

He knew his own strengths very well. He was not slow. Even among the players in Sporting Portugal's youth academy, he could not claim to be the fastest of his peers, but he was at least above average.

Yet his Speed had only been given 18 points, with a potential of 33 points—not even enough to pass.

Since the system's assessment could not be wrong, the only explanation was that Speed did not refer solely to running speed. It also included dribbling speed, movement frequency, physical flexibility, and various other factors.

In that case, the assessment was indeed accurate.

But why had Su Dong's ratings for every attribute fallen after he advanced from Ball Zero to Ball One?

The explanation provided by the system was that the ratings were assigned in reference to players of the same level.

In other words, among all amateur players in the world, the player with the best Technique had the full value of 99 points. Su Dong's Technique could only be rated at 15 points. The same applied to his other attributes.

The system had also issued a special reminder: his ability and potential values before leveling up would affect his potential assessment after leveling up. Moreover, as his level rose, the King of Football Points required to increase his potential would also increase.

After seeing this, Su Dong understood the rules of the Potential System.

Continuing to level up blindly would not greatly improve his abilities. It might even have the opposite effect.

Instead, he needed to stay grounded, improve his ability and potential at every level, and only level up when the time was right. That was the ideal path to leveling up.

Having thought this through, Su Dong made a decision.

After spending ten thousand King of Football Points on leveling up, he had 15,184 points remaining.

Every point of potential required one hundred King of Football Points.

Thus, Su Dong directly exchanged all his King of Football Points for 150 potential points. He invested 40 points each into Technique, Shooting, and Speed, then invested another 30 points into Strength.

As a forward, defense was certainly useful, but it was not especially necessary. Technique, Shooting, Speed, and Strength, on the other hand, were all the most important attributes for a forward and needed to be improved as soon as possible.

After finishing all this, Su Dong's actual ability had not changed much, but his potential had undergone a tremendous transformation.

His Technique potential reached 69 points, his Shooting potential reached 77 points, his Speed potential reached 73 points, and his Strength potential also reached 55 points.

And this was only temporary.

Next, Su Dong still had to continue training hard.

On one hand, he needed to accumulate more King of Football Points to increase his potential. On the other hand, he needed to slowly realize that potential and convert it into current ability, thereby increasing his strength.

After thinking of this, Su Dong was already eager to begin.

He went outside the park, found a random spot, wolfed down some food, then returned to the park and buried himself in hard training.

"You're still here?"

When Su Dong was drenched in sweat from training, Rony's voice sounded from behind him once again.

The Portuguese youth looked at Su Dong and could not help feeling a trace of admiration.

With this level of focus and dedication, the person before him deserved respect.

And in Su Dong, he seemed to see his former self.

"Why are you so late?" Su Dong stopped, panting heavily, and looked at the player his own age. "I thought I'd scared you so badly that you didn't dare come back."

"Ha, what are you talking about?" Rony could not help bursting out laughing.

Who was really afraid of whom?

After walking onto the pitch, Rony noticed several bottles of water and some bread beside the field. It looked like they were Su Dong's lunch and the dinner he had prepared in advance. His admiration grew even stronger.

This guy was absolutely crazy!

Even crazier than he had been back then.

Su Dong also noticed Rony's gaze and smiled provocatively. "I even bought your share. Now you have no excuse to run away again. Today, I'm going to beat you until you submit."

Rony smiled playfully. "Shouldn't I be the one saying that?"

His ability was nothing special, but his mouth was certainly big.

"Then show me what you've got."

Rony said no more. He simply took off his clothes and stepped onto the field.

The two of them battled fiercely once again, kicking up dust and raging on until the sky grew dark and the sun and moon seemed to lose their light.

When they were tired, they rested beside the field. When they were thirsty, they stopped for water. When they were hungry, they gnawed on bread for dinner...

After leveling up to Ball One, the upper limit of King of Football Points Su Dong could obtain from each duel rose to 200 points. This was undoubtedly a huge surprise, because it represented greater efficiency.

It also filled Su Dong with even more fighting spirit.

He did not know how long they had been playing. It was only after both of them were exhausted and collapsed that they lay on the field, panting like oxen.

"It's been a long time since I've sweated this much or played this satisfyingly." Rony panted, smiling with deep satisfaction.

Su Dong did not pay much attention to him. He was more focused on watching his King of Football Points, grinning so happily that he could barely close his mouth.

Fighting this guy really was the fastest way to accumulate King of Football Points.

"Hey." Rony saw him grinning mischievously without saying anything and could not help nudging him with his elbow. "Are you a student at Lisbon University?"

This was Edward VII Park, and several Lisbon University campuses were nearby.

"No." Su Dong shook his head.

"Then which team do you play for?" Rony asked curiously.

Su Dong's expression dimmed. He sighed with mixed emotions but did not answer.

Looking at him, Rony's heart gave an abrupt jolt. This was someone with a story.

However, since Su Dong did not say anything, it would not be appropriate for him to press further.

After all, they had only just met. They merely knew each other's names.

"After playing against you, I noticed that your technical movements are really unpolished. Did you used to play street football?" Rony pointed out one of Su Dong's problems.

Su Dong nodded, then shook his head. "It wasn't street football, but it was similar. The youth training in my hometown was terrible."

"Then do you want me to teach you a couple of tricks?" Rony asked jokingly.

In his eyes, someone as competitive as Su Dong would never accept.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, Su Dong nodded without hesitation. "Sure. You said it yourself, so it's settled. Starting tomorrow, I'll train with you. You'll be responsible for correcting my technique."

Rony froze. "You're serious?"

"Of course. Unless you're afraid I'll become stronger than you." Su Dong would not let him take back his words.

"Just kidding. Do you think I'm afraid of you?" Rony was fired up as well.

"Then it's settled. Tomorrow morning, same place. Don't be late."

"Fine. What time?"

"Five in the morning."

Rony froze.

Seeing him at a loss, Su Dong threw his head back and laughed triumphantly.

"Have you ever seen Lisbon at five in the morning?"

"I have."