Start Practicing from the Basics

Not long after Luo Kai, Chu Yifan, and the others arrived, the second- and third-year players gradually trickled in as well.

Finally, the school team's head coach, Li Ziqiang, appeared before everyone.

He wore a neat, crisp tracksuit and professional soccer cleats, with a whistle around his neck and a clipboard tucked under his arm.

His first impression was that of an exceptionally professional and capable soccer coach.

Combined with his unsmiling face, the chatter on the field gradually died away, and everyone looked at him with respectful awe.

After silently sweeping his gaze over everyone, Li Ziqiang lowered his head to look at the clipboard in his hand. "Roll call begins now."

Starting with the returning second- and third-year players, every player whose name was called answered loudly, "Here!"

When it came to the new players, they shouted even louder than the returning players.

"Here!" rang out across the soccer field, one after another.

After Luo Kai answered, a huge cheer erupted from the sidelines.

The cheers were even louder than when Chu Yifan had answered earlier.

Li Qingqing was completely oblivious to the noise. Her eyes remained fixed on Hu Lai.

At last, her father called Hu Lai's name.

"Here—cough, cough, cough!!"

Hu Lai puffed out his chest, raised his head, and answered at the top of his lungs. But he shouted so loudly that his voice cracked, and he ended up coughing uncontrollably.

It amused everyone present. Laughter spread across the soccer field, from those on the pitch to the spectators at the sidelines, even drawing curious, puzzled looks from the basketball court—they had no idea what had happened on the soccer field to make so many people laugh at once.

There were not many people Hu Lai failed to amuse, and Li Ziqiang was one of them. He glanced at Hu Lai, unsure whether this kid was deliberately acting strange.

After the laughter gradually faded, he kept a stern face and turned his gaze toward the first-year students who had just joined the team.

His expression affected the players as well. Their smiles vanished, and they looked somewhat at a loss toward their head coach.

"Congratulations on joining the team. As the head coach of the school team, I welcome you on behalf of the entire team." Once everyone had quieted down and turned to look at him, Li Ziqiang spoke. Though he said congratulations, there was no hint of joy on his face.

"But don't celebrate too soon. Joining the team doesn't mean you can rest easy."

Sure enough, what Li Ziqiang said next perfectly matched his expression.

"If your performance in training fails to satisfy me, then I'll have no choice but to ask you to leave. So don't think getting in means you've won. Joining the school team is only the beginning."

As he said this, his eyes remained fixed on Hu Lai in the crowd.

But the person under his gaze seemed to have no sense of crisis at all. The smile from earlier was still on his face, as though he were simply delighted to have finally joined the school team.

Li Ziqiang snorted inwardly before shifting his gaze away and continuing, "...Because of the coaching change and the recruitment process, our preparation time has been greatly reduced, and the provincial qualifiers for the national tournament are about to begin. So the upcoming training will be extremely intense. If anyone can't handle it, you may voluntarily leave the team. Don't worry—I won't put any obstacles in the way of anyone who wants to quit."

The new players exchanged glances at those words.

They had indeed been overjoyed to make the school team, but they had not expected to face such a situation after joining.

The training would be extremely intense? If they performed poorly, they would be kicked out? And if they wanted to quit, no one would stop them?

Why did it feel like the coach did not welcome them at all?

While everyone was stunned, none of them noticed that as he finished speaking, their coach glanced once more in Hu Lai's direction.

This time, Li Ziqiang saw that the smile had finally disappeared from Hu Lai's face, replaced by a deeply furrowed brow.

That made him feel slightly better—this kid finally knew fear!

Hu Lai actually had no reaction to remarks like "the training will be extremely intense," "you may be kicked out," or "you're welcome to leave the team voluntarily."

He was not afraid of intense training. Before coming to report to the team, he had found an opportunity to slip into the restroom and drink the [Training Boost Potion]. Over the next thirty days, the more intense the training was, the greater the improvement in his training results would be.

As for voluntarily leaving the team, he was not an idiot. Why would he do that?

Besides, a new coach had arrived—he had to say something to establish authority, right? Those words sounded scary, but they might just be meant to scare people...

Just then, that emotionless voice suddenly rang out in his mind:

Mission: Successfully remain on the school team for the next thirty days. Mission Reward: Points ×3000.

This mission...

The moment Hu Lai saw it, he could not help frowning.

He was not particularly surprised that a mission had appeared at this time. The system would naturally issue missions based on things happening in reality, and this was not the first time Hu Lai had seen it happen.

But the reward for this mission...

Wasn't it a little too perfunctory?

What was with only three thousand points?!

At least the previous missions had offered tangible rewards—either enhancement potions or wearable equipment.

Only this mission offered just three thousand points.

The previous mission had required him to score a hat trick in the team selection match. The three thousand points had only been one part of its reward; it had also included one [Marrow-Cleansing Potion] and one [Training Boost Potion].

Was this basically an advance spoiler, so the mission was too easy and the reward wasn't that high either?

He had been looking forward to it when he heard there was a mission, but now it seemed the biggest reward wasn't the three thousand points—it was being allowed to stay on the school team itself.

He curled his lip inwardly. Fine, even without this mission, I'd still have to stay here. I'll just treat the reward as a windfall...

If he saved up more points, he wouldn't feel so heartbroken when he drew another "Thank You for Participating" in the lottery later.

Li Qingqing stood in the stands. She couldn't hear what her father was saying to the players in the distance, and she was still worried about Hu Lai's fate after joining the school team.

She knew her father was a very demanding coach. That showed in the way he had raised her, as well as in the players he had coached before.

Li Qingqing truly had no idea whether Hu Lai could meet her father's harsh standards.

As she drifted off in thought, she suddenly heard Song Jiajia beside her say in surprise, "Hey, why aren't they letting Hu Lai train with everyone?"

Only then did Li Qingqing come back to herself and notice a new development on the field below.

Under her father's lead, the entire school team had finished warming up and now seemed to be receiving their specific training assignments.

Some of them had already started training in groups.

But Hu Lai wasn't in any of those groups. He stood alone at the edge of the field.

As Mao Xiao went off to train with his teammates, he couldn't help glancing toward Hu Lai several times.

He was puzzled. Everyone had been assigned training tasks, so why hadn't Hu Lai?

It was as if the coach had forgotten there was one more person. After assigning the training tasks, he blew his whistle sharply. "Training starts now! No slacking off! Your principal didn't hire me to come here and play games with you!"

With that, he was about to head toward the training area.

Hu Lai had been a little dazed earlier, unable to figure out what was going on. Why did everyone else have a training assignment except him?

Now that he saw the head coach simply walking away, he finally came to his senses—Coach, did you forget about me?

So he raised his hand and called out, "Coach!"

Hearing Hu Lai call out, Li Ziqiang stopped, then turned back to look at him without saying a word.

Hu Lai pointed at himself. "Um... Coach, what about me? What am I supposed to train?"

Li Ziqiang turned around and walked step by step toward Hu Lai. Looking down at him, he asked, "What's your name?"

"Hu Lai, first year—"

"Oh, Hu Lai?" Li Ziqiang nodded before Hu Lai could finish, clasping his hands behind his back as the whistle tied to his wrist swung back and forth. "You're the one who scored three goals by luck in the test match?"

Hu Lai puffed out his chest and said solemnly, "Coach, that wasn't luck..."

"If your football skills weren't so terrible, perhaps I'd believe you." Li Ziqiang cut him off again, pointing at the players who had already begun training. "Your training is different from theirs."

"Different?"

"You need to start with the fundamentals."

"Huh? Fundamentals? Coach, my fundamentals are actually pretty good. I want to train with everyone..." Hu Lai was getting anxious. He knew there wasn't much time left before the qualifiers began. If he had to start with basic drills now, when would he ever get to play in a match?

"Your fundamentals are good? Come on, receive one of my passes first." Li Ziqiang looked him up and down, dragged a football over with his foot, then waved Hu Lai back ten meters. Once Hu Lai was in position, he kicked the ball at him with tremendous force.

Hu Lai instinctively raised his leg to trap it. The ball struck the slightly raised inside of his foot, but instead of stopping, it bounced upward before slamming solidly into Hu Lai's chin...

With a BANG, Hu Lai's head snapped backward as if he had taken an uppercut. Fortunately, he managed to keep his balance and didn't fall flat on his back, but he still looked utterly pathetic.

Laughter erupted across the football field. Whether they were spectators watching from the sidelines or players training on the field, everyone had been entertained.

Song Jiajia vaguely heard Li Zhiqun's gloating laughter carrying over from afar. "Ha... ha... Don't celebrate too soon... This is... completely humiliating yourself... Hahaha!"

He lowered the hand covering his face and turned to glare in that direction. But Li Zhiqun didn't notice at all. One hand clutched his stomach while the other pointed at Hu Lai on the field, laughing so hard he could barely stand.

Even amid the crowd's laughter, he was being a bit over the top.

Li Qingqing didn't laugh. She stared at her father's figure, pressing her lips together and frowning.

"I could simply tell you that anyone who disobeys my orders can leave the team. But I'm afraid you'd think I was being unreasonable." Li Ziqiang looked coldly at the thin figure ten meters away, who was covering his chin and mouth with one hand. His voice remained calm. "So I used this method to remind you: this is the kind of ball you'll have to receive in a match. Do you still think your fundamentals are good?"

He got no answer, because Hu Lai was in too much pain to speak—he had bitten the tip of his tongue just then, and the pain had brought tears to his eyes.

"Go train properly. When you're allowed to join the group training is up to me. Of course, if you don't want to train, you can leave."

After saying that, Li Ziqiang turned and walked toward the team, then beckoned to someone in the crowd. "Yan Yan, come teach him the fundamentals! Start with the most basic drills!"

Yan Yan ran over and looked at Hu Lai, who was still covering his mouth and unable to speak.

To be honest, he couldn't understand why the coach had given this person a spot on the school team either. Talent? Maybe he had some, but looking at those fundamentals, wasn't his ability far too lacking?

Well, since he had been recruited, perhaps the kid really had stepped in dog shit—his luck must have been through the roof for him to make the team.

But he had only just joined the school team and had already embarrassed himself in front of so many people, becoming everyone's laughingstock. Did he regret joining now?

With an inward sigh, Yan Yan said to the person before him, "Let's start with juggling. Stop dawdling."