lv3 Simulation (4k Double Chapter)

lv3 Simulation (4k Double Chapter)

"Verification... Damn, this is such a hassle."

Tang Ye scratched his head. To verify himself as a professional player on Instagram, he had to provide his market value data from Transfermarkt.

That problem stumped Tang Ye immediately.

His playing time in the Eerste Divisie last season had not even added up to half an hour, and Utrecht II kept their training tightly confidential. Transfermarkt's staff had no way of knowing Tang Ye's potential.

At the moment, his market value showed nothing but two dashes. That was his value.

The verification failed, so Tang Ye could only register on Weibo instead.

Verifying himself as a professional player on Weibo was much easier. Tang Ye took out the National Level Two Athlete certificate he had received in middle school and snapped a photo of it.

Half an hour later, a conspicuous yellow badge appeared on his Weibo profile.

National Level Two Football Athlete

Tang Ye's follower count was still in the single digits. Those were followers automatically provided by Weibo.

Remembering what Haller had said before, Tang Ye asked Amrabat for several match photos on WhatsApp.

He put them together and posted them on Weibo, hoping to attract some attention.

It was evening in the Netherlands. It should have been the middle of the night in China, but for some fans, midnight or not did not really matter.

Less than ten minutes after the photo set went up, notifications started popping up in Tang Ye's inbox. He quickly moved the mouse and opened his messages.

Bro, are you also a Tang Ye fan? Why don't your photos have watermarks? Can you teach me how to remove them?

Someone else sent these to me. If you want them, just take them.

Tang Ye was generous and directly sent the netizen the photos Amrabat had given him.

The other person wanted Tang Ye to teach him how to remove watermarks, but Tang Ye said he had no idea. Someone else had given him all the photos.

Alright, do you have any other photos? I've been a Tang Ye fan for twenty years. I've supported him for so long.

Other photos...

Tang Ye opened his phone gallery.

He did not usually have a habit of taking photos to document things, and now that a fan wanted pictures, he had nothing to offer.

Wait, I'll take one for you.

What?

Ignoring the notification sounds coming from his laptop, Tang Ye took out his phone, used the front-facing camera to snap a close-up selfie, then transferred it to his computer.

????? Wait, where did you get this photo? Tang Ye sent it to you, right? Does he have an Instagram account?

He does, he does.

Tang Ye sent over the Instagram account he had just created, only to get cursed at immediately.

A new account? Get lost, scammer. Are you here to con me out of money?

Huh? No, this really is my account. Believe me. Follow me now, and when I have lots of followers later, I'll follow you back and make you an influencer!

Fuck off!

The fan on the other end completely lost it.

Isn't this just that "I'm Qin Shi Huang, send me money" scam? You're so unprofessional. If you were going to scam me, you should at least have made an account with followers. Damn it, I thought you were a Tang Ye fan.

No, I really am Tang Ye. Can you believe me? Just give me a follow.

You're a Tang Ye fan? Then let me ask you something. What type of player is Tang Ye?

What type of player?

Hiss—

Tang Ye took a deep breath.

That was a question worth discussing.

A possession-based midfielder!

You don't even have basic football knowledge, yet you're here trying to scam people. My Lucky Bro is an off-the-ball midfielder. Do you even know what an off-the-ball midfielder is? He only needs to walk around the pitch to get MVP!

Damn it, this guy was a hater!

How could you say that?

Tang Ye was a little angry.

I run my ass off, okay?

You got one Tang Ye selfie and started scamming people everywhere. I'm sorting you out today. Holy shit, you even have a National Level Two Athlete badge on your profile. Hahaha, I'm dying. My Tang King starts for an Eredivisie club, and you're trying to pass yourself off with some National Level Two Athlete certificate?

"..."

Go wash up and sleep, idiot. You'll never understand the greatness of my Tang King in your whole life.

"..."

Tang Ye clasped both hands behind his head.

According to Haller and Balazhit, creating a social media account was very useful for a player.

But Tang Ye's situation was a little special.

He had way too many haters!...

After getting cursed out by a fan, Tang Ye was in a bad mood and went to bed early that day.

When he woke up the next morning, he saw the time—10:12—and twenty-one missed calls from Erik ten Hag.

The sky was falling! It was Sunday in the Netherlands, which should have been a rest day, but because of the schedule, Erik ten Hag had swapped Sunday's work with the following Monday's.

Tang Ye's alarm only went off on workdays, so he was already late.

And he was nearly two hours late! He hurriedly climbed out of bed and rushed to the training ground without even eating.

"Tang, you bastard, get over here! Get over here right now!"

The moment he stepped halfway onto the training ground, Erik ten Hag's voice came flying over.

"Damn it, hiss—"

Tang Ye took a deep breath and slowly walked toward the dark-faced Erik ten Hag.

"Erik, actually, I forgot there was training today..."

"Were you about to tell me you forgot today was a training day?"

"..."

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Fuck you. Now that you can eat in the cafeteria, you've started treating training time like it doesn't matter, is that it?"

Erik ten Hag was so angry that he kicked Tang Ye in the butt. "Seriously, even the sows in the neighboring town are more diligent than you. At least they wake up on time in the morning to eat. You haven't had breakfast yet, have you?"

"Not yet..."

"I knew it, lazy pig!"

Erik ten Hag was truly furious now, and Tang Ye felt wronged too.

He had been torn apart by haters on Weibo yesterday, which made him forget to set his alarm.

"Mr. Erik, believe me, this really was an accident. It won't happen again."

Tang Ye said.

"It won't happen again?"

Erik ten Hag looked into Tang Ye's eyes, seemingly waiting for a definite answer.

"Of course."

"Okay."

Erik ten Hag nodded and took out his phone from his pocket.

Then he played Tang Ye a recording.

"Mr. Erik, believe me, this really was an accident. It won't happen again."

"This, this is..."

"This is what you told me last week. Remember?"

"Oh, and there's the week before that too."

Erik ten Hag played another recording. Other than the speed of speech, the entire sentence was exactly the same.

"..."

Erik ten Hag patted Tang Ye on the back. "You'll make up the missed training time tonight. Don't join the morning session for now. Go eat in the cafeteria."

As Tang Ye walked away, Erik ten Hag shouted after him, "The sows in Montfoort get up at 7:30 in the morning to eat. Tang, when will you finally surpass those pigs?"

The moment Erik ten Hag finished speaking, Tang Ye's system reacted.

At thirty-seven, your body could no longer keep up with training and needed more sleep. But the head coach did not understand your needs. He treated you as a sixteen-year-old youngster, unaware that you were long past that energetic age.

Start in an Eredivisie match and achieve results (rating, goals, assists).

Reward: Portuguese Treasure Chest (chest level positively correlated with starting-match performance)

It was here!

Tang Ye's eyes lit up, but the smile that had just appeared quickly faded.

Erik ten Hag letting him start in the Dutch Cup had already been a miracle.

Starting an actual Eredivisie match? Forget about Tang Ye being late every day—even if he arrived at the training ground thirty minutes early every day, it would not help!

At 8:30 that evening, Tulus said goodbye to Tang Ye in the gym. Soon after, Tulus received a call from Erik ten Hag.

"Mr. Erik."

Tulus greeted Erik ten Hag. Utrecht's coaching hierarchy was extremely clear. As the fitness coach, Tulus was Erik ten Hag's subordinate, and a direct subordinate at that.

That was also why Tulus had not refused when Erik ten Hag asked him to give Tang Ye extra physical training.

Erik ten Hag had timed the call perfectly. He knew Tang Ye had just finished training.

"How was tonight's training?"

"Not bad. We worked on strength today. You know Tang usually doesn't resist strength training, and my training intensity was relatively low."

"Relatively low intensity..."

Erik ten Hag thought for a moment before voicing the question that had been building in his mind. "Let me ask you something. For a player like Tang, who is only sixteen, can we increase his training intensity?"

"No, absolutely not."

Tulus repeatedly shook his head. "Mr. Erik, it's not that I don't want to work overtime. Tang is only sixteen. His skeletal development is not even complete yet. Heavy strength training at this stage would damage his growth and development!"

Tulus's meaning was obvious.

Tang Ye was only sixteen. He could not do squats over 100 kilograms like adult players in their twenties.

If he increased his body weight, Tang Ye could lift a barbell over 100 kilograms.

But it would definitely affect his future.

"I know strength training won't work. I mean endurance. Endurance training. Make him run more."

"You want him to start?"

"Tulus, you don't need to care what I'm planning. You only need to answer my question. Is it feasible to increase Tang's endurance training intensity and workload?"

"Of course it is."

Tulus agreed without even thinking. "Forget the intensity. I can increase his training volume by 10% from the current baseline. As long as he gets proper massages, he won't get injured."

"10%? No, no, no. He's only sixteen. You shouldn't train his endurance like he's a player in his thirties. This is when he should be able to run the most. You can push him faster."

Erik ten Hag said, "You need to find a way to make that lazy pig run, understand?"

"But you want him to fly."

"Then make him fly!"

Erik ten Hag shouted. That final sentence left Tulus speechless.

"So you were getting anxious after all."

While Erik ten Hag was on the phone with Tulus, Mitchell van der Gaag stood beside him. The two were watching the scenery from the balcony of Erik ten Hag's home.

"This is my first season at Utrecht. I have to do everything right."

Erik ten Hag's expression was resolute. "Take a team where everyone is out of form and get them into the top twelve of the league, Michel. You know how difficult our task is this season!"

Time passed bit by bit. After the Dutch Cup match ended, Tang Ye felt his training load gradually increasing.

During that time, Tang Ye spoke to Erik ten Hag once about the training volume. The Dutchman's response was that if Tang Ye still wanted to enjoy the privilege of being exempt from academic homework, then he had to accept the coaching staff's arrangements.

That one sentence from Erik ten Hag completely finished Tang Ye off.

The good news was that his two goals against Sneek in the Dutch Cup had earned Tang Ye thirty Comeback Points, worth six cups of Grealish's Lager. Tang Ye did not need to suffer through the pain brought by endurance training.

The bad news was that the system's lager was merely enhanced alcohol. It treated the symptoms rather than the cause. Every night when Tang Ye returned to his dormitory, he was utterly exhausted.

Unless he bought Kanté's Hot Chocolate Milk.

Tang Ye really wanted to buy the hot chocolate milk, but the stuff was simply too expensive! Soon, under this new training intensity, Tang Ye discovered a very serious problem while drinking lager every day.

The daily mission reward was only three Comeback Points, while one cup of lager cost Tang Ye five Comeback Points.

In other words, if Tang Ye maintained this training intensity, he would have to score or assist in matches.

Otherwise, he would not even be able to afford a five-point cup of lager! Endure less pain instead of more pain? Things did not seem that simple now.

"Go, go, go! Move forward!"

Tang Ye shouted, and Balazhit started making his run ahead of him.

Smack! He played a through ball, sending it ahead of Balazhit.

Because he had not put enough backspin on the ball at the moment of contact, it did not slow down as expected when it hit the grass.

Balazhit stretched out his foot, but he could not reach the ball in time.

De Bruyne's Curved Through Ball, lv2: Similar

Proficiency: 49.5/50

"Beautiful!"

Tang Ye shouted. Balazhit spread his hands. "The angle was great, but the ball was too fast. Tang, can you slow it down?"

"Let's end the passing training for now!"

Mitchell van der Gaag said.

Tang Ye had already played enough long passes today. Overtraining would not have much effect, so they might as well switch to something new.

"One more try."

Tang Ye raised his hand to signal, and Mitchell van der Gaag naturally did not refuse. He immediately kicked the spare ball at his feet over to Tang Ye.

This Utrecht training session was a simulation of real match conditions. Tang Ye could not simply make a pass; he had to break through Amrabat's defense.

"Sofyan, ease up a little. Give him some space!"

Mitchell van der Gaag reminded him. After receiving the ball, Tang Ye began moving laterally, using a feint to shake off the deliberately lenient Amrabat.

No rush. Open up a little more distance.

Almost there!

Tang Ye spotted Balazhit ahead, who had likewise shaken off his marker. He wrapped the ball with the inside of his foot and sent it away with a sharp snap.

The curve was similar to the previous long pass, but this time Tang Ye deliberately added heavy backspin to the ball.

The ball struck the grass, and the reverse-spinning ball instantly slowed, rolling right in front of Balazhit.

Balazhit blasted it into the net with one shot!

De Bruyne Curved Through Ball, lv2: Similar

Proficiency: 50/50

lv2: Similar → lv3: Simulation

Passing: 72 → 74

...