Middle-Aged Health Care? No, This Is Forced Growth!

Middle-Aged Health Care? No, This Is Forced Growth! Veterans never die. You scored your first goal in a warm-up match after coming out of retirement.

You received a reward: Bone Density Growth Capsule ×1

Hearing the system's voice in his head, Tang Ye activated it with a thought.

Middle-aged players need health supplements. Using Bone Density Growth Capsule...

Actual age: 16 years 4 months; bone quality: 17 years 4 months; bone age: 16 years 3 months

Physical strength: 40 → 52

What the hell? Tang Ye frowned. This Bone Density Growth Capsule had directly increased his bone quality by a full year.

Actual age of 16 years and 4 months, but bone quality of 17 years and 4 months? Bro, this wasn't middle-aged health care.

This was forced growth!

Wait!

Tang Ye suddenly realized something was off. Taking advantage of the goal celebration while he was hugging his teammates, he compared his height with Zaka's.

His bone quality had increased by a year, but his height hadn't suddenly shot up, which made Tang Ye breathe a sigh of relief.

It would be bad if people found out he was secretly using cheats!

"Beep, beep-beep—!!!"

The match ended, and Tom Cat's name rang out across Utrecht Youth Stadium.

It might have been a fluke, but as long as Tang Ye could pull off one of those outside-of-the-foot shots every match, the fans would have nothing to complain about.

That was genuinely fucking amazing!...

"Fluke Brother is here! Utrecht II beat Sparta Rotterdam 3-0, Tang Ye with 1 goal and 1 assist!"

"Were the player-version shorts too tight, or was he trying to show off? Tang Ye wore fan-version Utrecht shorts against Sparta Rotterdam and scored with his hands in his pockets."

Looking at the pinned news on the Dongqiudi App, Chinese fans felt somewhat dazed.

Around this time last year, Dongqiudi had been flooded with news about Tang Ye, calling him a genius youngster who had arrived in the Eerste Divisie. Yet less than two months later, both the club and domestic fans had concluded that Tang Ye was a fraud.

A full year later, similar news had made the headlines again.

So should they believe in Tang Ye this time?

Happy Bean Player: I do!

After the match, the reserve team players returned to the training base, only a ten-minute drive from the stadium. They needed to receive massages from the team physiotherapist there, after which they could go home and rest.

An old warhorse still dreams of galloping a thousand miles. You scored in a warm-up match, and the fans marvel at how sharp your instincts remain at the age of 37. You are now just one step away from officially returning.

Mission: Appear in the squad list for an official match and announce to the fans the return of a king in his twilight years!

Reward: Brazilian Chest (rewards vary according to league level)

Reward tiers: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Superstar, Legendary

Since rewards varied according to league level, Tang Ye realized that the reward offered by the system for this mission was somewhat special.

According to the system's description, if Tang Ye could appear in Utrecht II's Eerste Divisie matchday squad, he would receive an Intermediate Chest! Of course, because of this mechanism, Tang Ye had a fallback option. Even if he went down one level below the Eerste Divisie, to the Dutch reserve league, he could still receive a Basic Chest.

"Tang!"

Zaka called out, "Tang, are you even listening to me?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry. What is it?"

Tang Ye was walking back to the dormitory when he came back to his senses and found Zaka looking at him.

"Do you think you've gotten taller?"

Zaka held out a hand in front of Tang Ye to demonstrate. "I remember you only used to come up to my nose. Now you're almost up to my eyes."

"Really?"

Tang Ye looked down at the ground, trying to figure out whether he had truly grown taller like Zaka said.

Unfortunately, without a specific reference point, Tang Ye couldn't tell by himself.

"Believe me, you've definitely gotten taller."

Zaka said it with absolute certainty, then asked Tang Ye a question. "Can you teach me how to grow taller? I want to get taller too."

As a winger, Zaka really hoped he could become taller. That way, he would have a longer stride—one long enough to leave defenders behind! "Do you want to know why I can grow taller?"

Tang Ye didn't intend to dwell too much on whether he had grown taller, so he simply accepted it.

"Why?"

"Because I sleep more. At our age, sleep is what we need most!"

"Alright, then I'll go straight to sleep when I get back!"

Zaka did as he said. The moment he returned to his room, he turned off the lights. Tang Ye did the same, of course. He was used to going to sleep at nine every night.

Middle-aged players returning from retirement should hold themselves to strict self-discipline.

Random Daily Mission: Jog 5 km

Reward: Comeback Points ×3

"What the hell?"

Hearing the system's familiar voice, Tang Ye showed a disdainful expression.

A daily mission—this was probably the system's way of telling Tang Ye to do extra training.

Three Comeback Points were certainly tempting, but Tang Ye clearly wasn't someone who could be tempted so easily.

Random Daily Mission: 200 Bodyweight Squats

Reward: Comeback Points ×3

The next morning, Tang Ye discovered that his mission had changed. Sure enough, this thing was different every day.

But Tang Ye didn't care at all. After washing up, he headed straight to the cafeteria for breakfast.

While eating in the cafeteria, Tang Ye learned from his teammates that the first team needed to work on its new lineup before the season began, so everyone from the reserve team had to go serve as sparring partners for the first team that day.

They called it sparring, but in reality, it was simply an eleven-versus-eleven practice match against the first team.

This was Tang Ye's favorite type of training, because whenever this happened, he could sit on the bench for an entire morning. It couldn't get any better! Arriving at the first team's training ground with his teammates, Tang Ye very consciously took a seat on the bench as usual. To his surprise, first-team manager Erik ten Hag walked straight toward him. "Tang, get on!"

"Hm?"

Tang Ye didn't get up immediately. Instead, he looked at Merent beside Erik ten Hag. Only after Merent gave him a nod did Tang Ye finally put on a yellow bib.

"Beep!"

Assistant coach Mitchell van der Gaag blew his whistle, and the practice match between the reserve team and the first team officially began.

Utrecht's first team loved getting to the byline before sending crosses in from the wings. They were a team skilled at using the width of the pitch to create opportunities.

With that in mind, Merent had deliberately changed their usual 4-3-3 formation to a 4-4-2, intending to stop the first team from getting down the wings.

They did manage to limit them, but the other side was still the first team. Their players' attacking force was on an entirely different level from the reserve team's. Just three minutes into the practice match, the first team had already taken two shots, one of them on target, leaving the reserve goalkeeper completely rattled.

"Phew..."

Erik ten Hag sighed. Seeing that this wasn't working, he told Mitchell van der Gaag to stop the match.

"Make some changes, make some changes!"

"Swap two players!"

After shouting that, Mitchell van der Gaag looked at Erik ten Hag beside him. "Which two players?"

"Send Milner and Tang over. Yes, that Chinese kid—move him over there."

"Th-this... Erik!"

Merent came over after hearing the commotion. "The first team's pressing is just too strong. We can't play the ball out. You could take away a striker. If they have one fewer player, we can actually build attacks."

"It's fine. Moving Tang over will have the same effect."

With one fewer player, they wouldn't be able to simulate a real match, and Erik ten Hag was quite particular about that.

"Moving Tang over will have the same effect? Why?"

"Because he never presses."

!!!

That actually made some sense!