"You've grown taller?"
That was the first thing Moric said when he saw Lu Yang.
At just 172 centimeters tall, Moric was a tiny midfielder who was extremely sensitive about his height.
The two of them were so close, perhaps, because they shared the same affliction.
After all, they were both the shortest in their respective fields.
But now, Lu Yang seemed to be turning traitor.
"Moric, back in my hometown, there's a song called 'When You're Lonely, Who Do You Think Of?'" Lu Yang began.
Moric froze. "What do you mean? I'm used to living far from home. I'm not afraid of being lonely."
"Good," Lu Yang said. "Because the sky always gets dark, and people always have to part. No one can stay by anyone's side forever."
Moric stared at him. "What are you even talking about? Are you leaving San Remo?"
"Silly boy." Lu Yang patted Moric on the head. "I'm leaving the realm of 170 centimeters behind and breathing the fresh air up here at 180! From now on, we'll live in different worlds."
As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Yang ran off.
Moric chased after him, trying to beat him up.
What had people who were 170 centimeters ever done to you?
So people who were 180 centimeters could breathe the air in the troposphere, could they?
"Lu Yang, Moric, come over here for a moment." Soto called the two of them over from the edge of the pitch. A man in his thirties stood beside him, dressed in a suit and smiling.
"Coach." Lu Yang and Moric walked over.
Soto introduced him. "This is Arthas, Maniero's younger brother. He's a professional agent."
"Maniero's younger brother?" Moric was surprised.
"An agent?" Lu Yang, however, was more interested in that.
"Hello. I'm here to discuss working together with you," Arthas said, smiling steadily as he looked at the two of them.
Ten minutes later, the four of them were in a café in San Remo.
"Could you tell us why you came looking for us?" Lu Yang took the initiative. "I can't imagine a big-time agent who only handles star players' contracts having time to pay attention to Serie D."
Arthas stiffened at Lu Yang's words.
Sharp and aggressive—those were Arthas's first impressions of Lu Yang.
Lu Yang's words clearly told Arthas that even with only ten minutes to spare, he'd used his own channels to look into him.
It remained to be seen how much of what Lu Yang had learned was true or thorough; ten minutes was a very short time.
But that attitude alone was enough to make anyone take him seriously.
This was absolutely not someone easy to fool. He had his own judgment, and while he was willing to listen, he would never let someone else make decisions for him.
That was an especially sensitive issue in any player-agent relationship.
If they couldn't handle it well, their partnership would never be a happy one.
Arthas kept smiling. He really did love to smile. "To be honest, I'm not particularly interested in being an agent. Most of the players I represent only signed with me because of my brother."
"If you pay close enough attention, you'll see that I haven't signed any new players since my brother, Maniero, retired."
"My career as an agent began because of my brother. I only became his agent because he didn't want someone else earning that money—especially when he saw me sitting around doing nothing."
"Once I became his agent, I started learning a lot. That meant I could be useful when one of my brother's friends needed help."
"That's how I ended up representing a few more players. But essentially, I'm not interested in them."
Arthas had explained his background quite clearly.
But if this conversation had taken place in public, it would have caused a sensation.
The truth was that Arthas was one of Italy's ten leading football agents. He represented more than five star players, four of whom played for Juventus, AC Milan, and Inter Milan.
His influence was plain to see.
And when someone like him said he wasn't interested in star players, didn't it make you want to punch him?
Talk about humblebragging.
"I'm only interested in players like my brother." Arthas looked at Lu Yang.
"You're only interested in midfielders?" Moric asked, a little confused. What did that have to do with Arthas coming to see Lu Yang?
Lu Yang shook his head and looked at Arthas. "No. He's only interested in talented players. The exceptionally talented kind!"
Arthas's smile grew brighter. "Exactly."
Moric suddenly understood. "Because you want to watch a talent grow step by step and enjoy the satisfaction of being the one who recognized him?"
Lu Yang shook his head again. "No. It's because the profit one genius can bring him will be ten or a hundred times greater than what he'd earn from other players—even star players!"
Arthas slapped the table in delight. "I have to sign you, Lu! And of course, Moric, you're excellent too. I'll sign you as well."
For some reason, Moric didn't seem too happy. He felt like the one who came free with a purchase.
Arthas had been spoiled by Maniero.
Maniero had brought him more money than all the other stars he represented put together, even to this day.
That was the difference between a superstar and an ordinary star.
It might not be particularly obvious when you looked at transfer fees.
But in terms of celebrity, the gap was terrifying.
On the pitch, among players of the same level, no one superstar could do the work of more than three players. Otherwise, a team of eight would never lose to a team of eleven.
But sometimes, a superstar's yearly earnings surpassed the combined income of every player on a team of the same level.
And his agent... naturally made a fortune too.
"But why should I choose you, Mr. Arthas?" Lu Yang asked.
Moric was completely baffled.
Was it really their place to choose?
This was Arthas!
He had tremendous influence in Italian football. He could even help them reach Serie B or even Serie A in a couple of years.
Lu Yang patted Moric on the head. "I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong. Moric, remember: the only thing that can get a player into a top league is his own ability."
"Otherwise, even if he makes it there, it'll be a disaster."
Arthas applauded. "I completely agree with you, Lu Yang. In fact, if I hadn't used my brother's computer without permission and found all the videos of your matches and the related news in his personal files, I never would have imagined there was such a talented player in Serie D."
"I've seen a spark in both you and Moric."
"Moric is very good. He'll definitely become an excellent midfielder. In fact, Coach Soto and I have already agreed on that."
"Because the way Moric plays reminds us of Maniero when he was young."
Moric was flattered.
He was good enough to be compared to Maniero?
"You're already playing the way Maniero did, kid," Soto explained. "You play as a defensive midfielder, tasked with organizing the midfield and creating attacking opportunities. You're the heart of the team. You're San Remo's brain."
"Maybe you're not as good as Maniero yet, but when he was your age, he wasn't as good as you are now. Back then, he couldn't help the team defensively."
Moric's eyes nearly turned red.
Anyone would feel that way when someone told them they were already as good as their idol had been at their age.
"And you, Lu Yang." Arthas's eyes gleamed. "I can't see what your future will look like, because it has unlimited possibilities. I don't believe center back will be your final position on the pitch. Of course, playing there for a while may not be a bad thing."
"Every position on the football field has its own unique qualities. If you can understand them all... you might become different from every other player."
Lu Yang nodded, took a sip of coffee, and said, "The fact that you can see what makes me special puts you closer to understanding me than other agents. But I need a more direct reason—or, rather, an offer."
Soto looked at Arthas and Lu Yang, feeling as if he were watching a corporate negotiation.
Couldn't they just speak plainly?
Why did every sentence have to be as cryptic as something Maniero, that scoundrel, would say?
Wasn't it exhausting?
Arthas held up three fingers. "How about this? I'll only take this much! Just this much from your transfer fees and commercial endorsements! And I'll represent you for free until you make it to a higher division!"
Three percent!
An exceptionally low percentage.
A normal football agent charged around ten percent of a transfer fee.
For a player's commercial deals, the commission was around fifteen percent.
Three percent!
That was an absolute bargain.
No agent would agree to a commission that low.
Unless they were representing... a superstar.
Even at just three percent, a superstar's agent could earn far more than an ordinary player's agent. And besides... the work was completely different.
Superstar deals usually came to them. The other party offered the highest terms, and all they had to do was agree. They could ask for anything else they wanted. So a superstar's agent mainly had to think up new demands.
Deals for ordinary players came with plenty of tedious details. The agent had to fight for every little concession, and every clause felt like a battle. They really did earn their money through blood and sweat.
Arthas had shown Lu Yang through his actions that he truly believed in him—believed he could become a superstar.
Only then did Lu Yang smile. He held out his right hand. "In the next few years, some people may marvel at how lucky I was to meet a great agent like you. But many years from now, I think you'll marvel at how hard you worked and how you didn't let a player like me slip through your fingers... Mr. Arthas, it's a pleasure working with you."
Arthas immediately reached out and shook his hand. "I look forward to that day. And since we're signing together, I'll show my sincerity by representing Mr. Moric for free until he reaches a higher division as well."
Moric looked dazed. He had no idea what that meant, but he stood up and shook Arthas's hand.
"Is that all?" Lu Yang said with a smile, looking at Arthas with a sharp glint in his eyes.
Arthas gave him an awkward smile. "All right. I'll give him the same commission rate as you, Lu Yang."
He was reluctant because if Moric didn't turn out to be at least a star-level player, Arthas would definitely lose money on him.
As for Lu Yang, Lumberjack Shot and that incredible thirty-three-meter bicycle kick had already given Arthas some ideas.
Players who knew how to make headlines were never short of attention. Once they had that attention, an agent could find plenty of ways to turn it into money.
Over the next month and a half, San Remo went on a tear. They won four and drew two of their six matches, grabbing fourteen points!
Add that to their previous three straight wins, and they were now unbeaten in nine matches!
The second half of the season was exactly halfway over, and San Remo had already earned twenty-three points.
For context, they'd only managed twenty-five points in nineteen matches during the first half of the season.
How good was that?
This unbeaten run sent San Remo soaring from fifteenth to seventh in the standings.
They'd climbed out of the relegation zone and were now not far from the promotion places.
Serie D had three promotion spots and three relegation spots each season. The teams in fourth and fifth place, as well as those in fifteenth and sixteenth, had to play promotion and relegation playoffs respectively.
San Remo weren't far off fifth place.
It was the wildest adventure Serie D had ever seen.
Even a scripted story couldn't have been this outrageous.
The lethal Lu Yang, the most attack-minded center back in Serie D history—without his incredible performances, San Remo's legend could never have gotten started.
Across those six matches, Lu Yang's scoring rate dipped slightly. He recorded three goals and one assist.
Combined with the first three games, that made seven goals and three assists in nine matches—more than one goal contribution per game.
His defensive stats were just as impressive: 6.1 tackles per game, three interceptions per game, and 2.2 clearances per game. Aside from clearances, every one of those defensive stats led Serie D.
Calling him the best center back in Serie D so far in the second half of the season was no exaggeration.
He could attack and defend!
But San Remo's surprises didn't stop there.
Starting with the twenty-fourth round, the way San Remo played underwent a transformation.
After finding his rhythm with his teammates, Moric started showing the qualities of a midfield conductor. "He gave San Remo back its midfield!"
He created chance after chance with all kinds of unexpected passes.
He led San Remo in key passes, and also ranked first across Serie D over the same period.
Across nine appearances, he racked up seven assists and scored two goals, averaging more than one goal contribution per game as well.
And the biggest beneficiary of Lu Yang and Moric's sudden rise... was Vedian!
In the last six matches, Vedian scored five goals and provided two assists, stunning everyone. In nine matches so far in the second half of the season, he'd recorded seven goals and two assists. His scoring rate matched Moric's and was second only to Lu Yang's, leading all of Serie D.
What made it even more impressive than Lu Yang's or Moric's stats was that Vedian's numbers had already been good in the first half of the season: twelve goals and five assists.
Now, after playing in the second half of the season, he had nineteen goals and was firmly at the top of the scoring chart.
That put him five goals ahead of Arnold, who was third.
That's right: Arnold had returned in the previous round, but then went two games without scoring. Other players had overtaken him by a goal, leaving him in third place.
Those explosive numbers left the long-quiet fans of Serie D ecstatic.
They gave Lu Yang, Moric, and Vedian an imposing nickname: San Remo's Golden Axis!
A prodigy beyond the league's level at each of the three lines—forward, midfield, and defense.
San Remo deserved to challenge for a promotion spot!