Upgrade: Ball Trunk

Over the following week, Su Dong never saw Rony again.

It felt strange to him.

He still went to Edward VII Park every day to train, still meticulously carried out Pontes's drills without daring to slack off, but without Rony by his side, something always seemed to be missing.

Jose Semedo did come by a few times, but he was different from Rony. It was clear he had a good personality and was a genuinely nice guy, just a bit lazy. Every time he sparred with Su Dong, he was the one to call it quits first.

That left Su Dong, who was thoroughly enjoying racking up King of Football Points, feeling rather unsatisfied.

Of course, Su Dong was still grateful to Jose Semedo.

This simple, monotonous yet fulfilling routine carried on until mid-August.

Sporting Portugal was about to kick off the new season in the Portuguese Second Division, and the youth team had its own league obligations. Su Dong's training period had also come to an end.

Except for the first few days, Su Dong had mostly trained at Edward VII Park and hadn't reported to the club. So when the club's coach called to notify him, he even asked if Su Dong was still in Portugal.

After receiving a confirmation, the coach finally gave him the date and time for the assessment.

Su Dong couldn't help but feel helpless dealing with such an unreliable semi-professional team.

The night before the assessment, Su Dong called his parents back in China. He didn't tell them the truth, instead saying that he was doing well there and that his skills had improved a lot.

"There's a coach named Pontes who designed a training plan just for me. I also made a friend called Rony. Remember that name—he's a genius, the best young player in Portugal. One day, he'll shock the whole world."

"I'm still not good enough; I need to work harder. Even if I don't pass the assessment, I want to try out for other teams and fight to stay."

On the phone, Su Dong only mentioned the good things. He didn't want his parents to worry too much about him.

After hanging up, he sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the bright, clear moon outside the window. He missed home.

He was an only child, carrying his parents' earnest hopes since childhood. They always gave him the best of everything, and he didn't want to let them down. He wanted to bring them pride and honor.

He entered the Path to the King of Football system and looked at his personal stats panel.

Over the past month or so, he had trained almost nonstop, and the results were significant.

His current Technique, Shooting, and Speed had all maxed out at 99. Strength was a bit behind at 87. Defense was the weakest, with Positioning at only 63 and Tackling at 71.

That was partly because Rony hadn't come in the last week. If they had kept up their one-on-one sessions, Su Dong believed his defensive stats would have improved quickly too, since Pontes's training also included defensive drills.

As a straightforward and disciplined Virgo, Su Dong's original plan was to max out all stats at 99 before leveling up. But now, time didn't allow it, so he had to level up early.

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

Su Dong selected [Yes].

"Leveling up, please wait..."

The black-and-white football spun slowly for a while before prompting again.

"Congratulations, level-up successful."

"Current Level: Ball Trunk. Next Level: Ball Three. Leveling up requires 250,000 King of Football Points."

Seeing this, Su Dong suddenly felt a bizarre sense of absurdity.

After Ball Zero, Ball One, and Ball Trunk, the fourth level was Ball Three.

Why?

Just because the character for "three" has an extra stroke compared to "trunk"?

Who came up with these names?

But soon, that absurd feeling was swept away by the system's notifications.

"Successfully upgraded to Ball Trunk. Mall System unlocked."

"Mall System is now active. You can exchange items at any time."

"First-time activation of the Mall System. Reward: one Star Ability Card. You can redeem it in the mall."

A series of system messages came through, catching Su Dong off guard.

He first checked his personal stats.

After leveling up from Ball One to Ball Trunk, the stats panel had also upgraded significantly, with major changes.

The most obvious difference was that many more stat categories had been added.

They were still divided into three main categories: Offense, Defense, and Physical.

Offensive stats were further broken down into Passing, Ball Control, Dribbling, and Shooting. Defensive stats were split into Tackling, Marking, Teamwork, and Defensive Positioning. Physical stats were similarly divided: Speed into Speed and Acceleration, and Strength into Strength and Stamina.

Each stat came with an explanation in the system.

Offensive stats were self-explanatory—passing, controlling, dribbling, and shooting were the basics of football, easy to understand.

Defense, while involving individual battles, relied more on the team as a whole, so Teamwork and Defensive Positioning were crucial.

As for Speed and Acceleration, the former referred to the maximum speed a player could reach, while the latter was the time it took to go from a standstill to top speed. The stronger the acceleration, the quicker the player's burst off the mark.

It was clear that each level-up further refined a player's various abilities.

Now that Su Dong had reached the third level, Ball Trunk, which roughly corresponded to a semi-professional player, his abilities were being broken down even more. This gave him a premonition: he probably wouldn't be able to max out all stats like before. He would have to make some choices—deciding on a personal career development path.

For example, if he wanted to become an attacking player, he could set aside defensive attributes to some extent.

But beneath the personal attribute panel, the system also gave a reminder: from now on, to level up further, every attribute had to meet the requirements.

That was understandable, because that's how professional football worked.

Take Rony, for instance. He was actually very well-rounded, and his defensive ability was strong too; it was just that his offense stood out more by comparison.

And then there was Jose Semedo. He was a big, strong, dark-skinned center-back, but in reality, his speed, technique, dribbling, and finishing ability were also very strong—Su Dong simply couldn't stop him.

This showed that a professional player's strengths were built on a foundation of all-around ability.

The Path to the King of Football's design was undoubtedly based on this consideration.

Su Dong didn't dwell on it too much. He quickly noticed that after leveling up, his potential had increased much more than last time.

Passing: 38[57]; Ball Control: 43[60]; Dribbling: 45[61]; Shooting: 47[64].

Tackling: 31[52]; Marking: 27[48]; Teamwork: 21[42]; Defensive Positioning: 23[45].

Speed: 51[73]; Explosiveness: 46[71]; Strength: 37[50]; Stamina: 44[69].

After the breakdown, Su Dong's characteristics gradually became clear.

That was that his speed was indeed quite good, and his stamina was decent too, but his strength was poor, which was related to his lack of strength training.

His various offensive techniques were decent, but his defensive ability was lacking.

From the upgraded current values and potential values, it was clear that the pre-upgrade numbers did affect the post-upgrade numbers.

And worth mentioning was that after leveling up, every point of potential gained required consuming 500 King of Football Points.

That was a full five times the cost before leveling up.

When Su Dong realized this, he secretly felt relieved that he hadn't rushed to level up earlier, but had instead steadily built his foundation step by step. Looking back now, it was undoubtedly a very wise choice.

After reviewing his upgraded personal attributes, Su Dong was fairly satisfied.

He had a feeling that if he fully tapped into all his current potential, he would reach an upper-middle level among semi-professional players, roughly on par with the main squad players of Sporting Portugal's first team.

And his advantage was that he was only sixteen years old.

After finishing with his personal attributes, Su Dong entered the Mall System that had unlocked after leveling up.

As soon as he entered the mall, a dazzling array of goods greeted his eyes, making him feel overwhelmed and unable to take it all in.

"Here, there is no item that King of Football Points cannot exchange for."

"If there is, then it must be that your King of Football Points aren't enough or your level isn't high enough."

"All items sold in this mall are clearly priced—no discounts, no haggling."

"Once an item is exchanged, no warranty is provided, and no returns are accepted for any reason within seven days."

Reading through the rules one by one, Su Dong could only smile wryly.

Whoever set up this mall was really something else, and these rules were way too harsh.

But once he read the product descriptions clearly, he realized he had struck gold.

In the daily necessities category, the mall sold a Man Bull Sports Drink with many different flavors. The tagline below read: Its energy is beyond your imagination!

There were also many different flavored foods: Chinese cuisine had Grain Rice, Western cuisine had Tomahawk Steak, Korean style had Popeye Eating Kimchi, Japanese style had Chibi Maruko-chan...

In short, all kinds of delicious food could be exchanged in the mall using King of Football Points.

Su Dong took a rough look; the prices weren't high and were well within his budget.

In Portugal, he had to cover all his daily expenses himself, and that money came from his parents' hard-earned wages. Now that he could exchange for things from the mall, he certainly wouldn't refuse.

As for food, his standards weren't high—just enough to fill his stomach would do.

Besides, the food and drinks in the mall all looked quite tasty.

Apart from food and drinks, the mall also sold various concoctions, which were much more expensive than food but had amazing effects.

For example, there was a Titan Concoction that could temporarily boost the user's strength for two hours.

And an Energy Concoction that could temporarily boost the user's stamina for two hours.

There was also a Swiftness Concoction that temporarily boosted speed and explosiveness, also lasting two hours.

Clearly, these were all one-time-use items that could be used in matches. The effects looked very practical, but they were a bit pricey.

"As your level increases, the mall will unlock more affordable and miraculous concoctions and items. Stay tuned."

Affordable?

Each concoction was priced at 10,000 King of Football Points, and that was called affordable?

After a wry laugh, Su Dong quickly remembered that after leveling up to Ball Trunk, the system had unlocked the mall and rewarded him with a Star Ability Card. What was that about?

During the new book period, I humbly beg for tips, collections, and recommendation votes! Thank you!