Great Sword Without Edge

Ever since Path to the King of Football unlocked the System Store, Su Dong had kept himself restrained.

He was not accumulating King of Football Points slowly, and a Star Ability Card costing 100,000 points was not something he could not afford, but he had always remained cautious, preferring to go without rather than settle, striving for perfection.

The two Star Ability Cards he had absorbed so far had both been gifts from the system: War God Batistuta's [Batty Goal] and Lone Wolf Romario's [Wolf of the Penalty Area]. Both Star Ability Cards had brought him enormous help and improvement.

But do not, because of that, mistakenly think Su Dong was the type who only took freebies.

Quite the opposite. Su Dong had not made a move before only because he had been too cautious. Once he figured things out, he would act without hesitation, just as he was doing at this very moment.

There were many Star Ability Cards for center forwards, old and new, with players of all kinds of different traits, but Su Dong only focused on those that suited him. So he roamed through the Star Ability Card shop, putting only the ones that met his needs into his cart.

For example, Vieri, Van Basten, and even Bergkamp.

Strictly speaking, Bergkamp was not a center forward, but his ability to receive the ball with his back to goal and turn was truly exceptional.

These Star Ability Cards were not a perfect fit for Su Dong. Take Bergkamp, for example—this ability placed extremely high demands on first touch.

According to the notes in Path to the King of Football, with Su Dong's current strength, he simply could not make it threatening.

Vieri's Star Ability Card placed extremely high demands on a player's physical qualities. He was a player who was very good at using his body. To some extent, his ability came from his powerful physique.

As for Van Basten, that went without saying. It looked light and elegant, but in reality, the difficulty was very high.

Su Dong was filled with longing for these seniors. In fact, his shopping cart had always contained his idol Ronaldo's Star Ability Card, [Celestial Being]. From the name alone, one could guess that it came from Ronaldo's nickname, Alien.

This was likewise an Ability Card with very high requirements for a player's abilities. Su Dong asked himself and knew that he still did not have the ability to bring out its power. Rather than force it, it was better to leave it there for now.

He regarded owning this Ability Card as his goal. He hoped that one day in the future, he would possess the strength to unleash this Star Ability Card's power and then buy it. This had been his dream since childhood.

He longed to be like his idol Ronaldo, to gallop across European football and sweep all before him.

Every time he entered the Star Ability Card shop, Su Dong would stand in front of this [Celestial Being] for a long time, his heart full of yearning.

This was his way of encouraging himself.

After that, his gaze shifted slightly to the side, landing on another Star Ability Card.

Kluivert's [Great Sword Without Edge].

Like [Wolf of the Penalty Area], this [Great Sword Without Edge] mostly condensed Kluivert's awareness and footballing intelligence, as well as some of his performances on the pitch. But from the name, it was clear that it did not include Kluivert's scoring ability.

Of course, the Dutch center forward's scoring ability was not exactly strong.

As the saying went, a great sword had no edge; great skill required no craft.

As a center forward, Kluivert interpreted this saying very well.

He did not have overly dazzling technique, nor did he possess a sharpness that showed its edge, but he was the core of the front-line attack for Ajax, the Netherlands National Team, and even Barcelona, making numerous superstars, including Rivaldo, play around him.

His body was not stronger than Vieri's. His speed was not faster than Owen's. His individual dribbling and breakthrough ability were not as good as Ronaldo's. Even as a scorer, his efficiency was not as high as Manchester United's Van Nistelrooy or Super Depor's Roy Makaay.

But he was the closest thing in the world to a perfect center forward.

That night, Cruz told Su Dong that Kluivert had peaked as soon as he debuted, but in reality, he still had considerable potential to tap into. In fact, everyone's expectations of him were not the slightest bit inferior to their expectations of Ronaldo.

The two of them landed in Serie A in the same year. Back then, Milan Sports Daily ran photos of the two on its front-page headline, believing that both would become princes of the city of Milan. That showed how much importance and expectation AC Milan placed on Kluivert at the time.

Unfortunately, at the wrong time, he chose the wrong team.

That year at AC Milan completely broke Kluivert's stride toward further elevating his career, leaving him stagnant from then on. Even after joining Barcelona, he never managed to return to the peak he had reached at Ajax.

This fell far, far short of what the world had expected of him.

If not for that Waterloo in the city of Milan, what heights would Kluivert have reached?

No one knew.

But one thing was certain: Kluivert was the template closest to a perfect center forward.

Thinking up to this point, Su Dong no longer hesitated and directly bought this Star Ability Card.

"Congratulations, you have obtained the Star Ability Card [Great Sword Without Edge], consuming 100,000 King of Football Points."

"Friendly reminder: the next Star Ability Card will consume 500,000 King of Football Points."

The system information flashed past. Su Dong did not pay too much attention to it, but instead made his preparations.

Very soon, he felt a warm current surge up from the soles of his feet, quickly spreading and flowing through his entire body, finally reaching the top of his head. His whole body seemed to be bathed in warm sunlight, especially comfortable.

Some knowledge and understanding he had never possessed before gradually surfaced in his mind as well. Many things he had not figured out in the past now suddenly became clear, and at the same time, he had an extremely strong feeling.

He longed to play football.

To prove the effect of this Star Ability Card on the pitch.

So far, Su Dong had already absorbed three Star Ability Cards: [Batty Goal], [Wolf of the Penalty Area], and [Great Sword Without Edge]. But in fact, even now, he still had not been able to bring these three Star Ability Cards to their limits.

Even [Batty Goal]—he could only bring out part of its power.

In the end, it was still a matter of his own strength.

But even so, his performances had already been eye-catching enough.

In just over half a year, he had gone from a rookie who could not even get a game at amateur level to a main player for Sporting Lisbon B. That was already enough to make everyone's jaws drop.

Now, with Kluivert's [Great Sword Without Edge], Su Dong was very much looking forward to his next performances.

He firmly believed that this Star Ability Card would definitely raise his overall performance another level.

But that alone was still not enough.

Andre Cruz had given him a gift, so he ought to give something back in return.

It had been more than a month since he joined Sporting Lisbon, and so far, he had never managed to gain even the slightest advantage over Andre Cruz. That left him very depressed.

Now, he had decided to give the Brazilian veteran a return gift.

So he browsed through the system shop, bought an item, and spent ten thousand King of Football Points.

It was indeed a little expensive, but when it came to King of Football Points, Su Dong was still rather flush.

Although he had been with the First Team for more than a month, in truth, Su Dong did not know many people well.

On ordinary days, in the locker room, he basically only talked with Rony and Viana.

After the last gathering, Su Dong's relationship with Cruz had grown much closer, but most of it was still just verbal exchanges. It was not actually very deep, after all, there was a huge age gap between the two of them.

No one could make a thirty-three-year-old middle-aged man and a seventeen-year-old youth become close friends.

The things and topics they were interested in were not on the same wavelength at all. On the contrary, Cruz and Jardel, the two Brazilians, had an excellent relationship. That was probably also why Cruz had been willing to give him pointers at the gathering and had agreed to help him with special training after matches.

"When we do the squad training later, I've prepared a gift for you."

Su Dong suddenly walked over, sat down beside Cruz, and said with a grin.

The Brazilian center back frowned. "What is it?"

"You'll know in a bit," Su Dong said provocatively.

As for this gift, he still found it especially interesting. Of course, as for how much power it could actually unleash, he had no idea either.

But he was willing to try it out on Cruz.

As long as it worked on Cruz, then Su Dong was confident that it would also be effective against defenders whose strength was about the same as Cruz's, or a little worse than his. In that case, he would have one more trump card for defeating his opponents in the future.

To a certain extent, he was using Cruz as a touchstone.

"So mysterious. Hurry up and tell me," Cruz said with a laughing curse.

He was still quite optimistic about Su Dong.

"Just you wait and see." Su Dong stood up and left.

"You've got some nerve, kid. You're dead later," Cruz threatened.

Su Dong shrugged indifferently. He was actually eager for Cruz to go all out, so he could test just how much of a threat he could produce after absorbing three Star Ability Cards.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.

"What did you say to Andre?" Rony asked, very puzzled.

It was not only him. The others in the locker room were also very curious.

Su Dong smiled and said softly, "Nothing. I just told him that I'm going to take him down later."

Rony's eyes widened. "Are you crazy?"

"I'm not crazy. I'm serious."

Rony slapped his own forehead hard. "That's Cruz. In one-on-one situations, no one on the whole team can get past his defense. Do you know that?"

This was a fact acknowledged by the entire team.

Including Quaresma and Rony, no one could break through Cruz's defense.

"I know."

"You know? Then you still went and challenged him?" Rony sounded a little exasperated.

"I've suffered under his feet for more than a month. It's about time I got some interest back from him," Su Dong said with a smile.

Just then, he happened to see Cruz looking at him with a "malicious" gaze. Su Dong immediately grinned and waved at him, while the latter pointed at him from afar, his eyes full of menace.

Now the two of them were really not going to let this go.

"Just you wait and see. Even if he really is an iron wall, I'm still going to chisel a hole through it," Su Dong said, brimming with confidence.

Rony really wanted to ask, just who gave you that confidence?

He simply could not understand it, because even he himself did not dare to take the initiative to provoke Cruz.

However, when he thought again of Su Dong's past, Rony could not help suspecting that this guy's addiction to taking a beating had flared up again.

Back then, when his skills had been inferior, hadn't he done everything he could to pester him?

And now, he no longer had much of an advantage in front of him.

Could it be that taking a beating really could make him stronger?

Rony was so conflicted he wanted to claw all his black hair bald.