Before the test, he would allocate his points first. He wanted to blow the agency staff's minds and show them just what a bargain they had picked up...
He closed his eyes, sank his consciousness into his mind, and called up the system.
[Qi and Blood Points: +9 in total] [Current total Qi and Blood Points: 109] (The Heaven Rewards Diligence System had awarded 100 points)
Zhang Kuang stared at the number 109, his mouth slowly spreading into a grin.
He had basically figured out the system's initial functions. Next up... allocating points.
"So that means..." he muttered to himself, "if I had more... ahem, I could hit the daily cap in a single day?"
This was far more efficient than playing football.
In football, scoring a goal in a first-tier league earned him just 1 Qi and Blood Point, and an assist only 0.5. To earn 9 points, he would have to score nine goals or make eighteen assists-how many matches would that take?
Cultivation, on the other hand, only took one night.
Who the fuck would bother training hard, then? Zhang Kuang could not help grumbling inwardly. Isn't dual cultivation the better deal?
But the next second, he remembered the stats in the Football King System-shooting 70, off-the-ball movement 56, heading 54... If he maxed out every ability for the striker position, how high would his overall rating soar? If he won the Golden Boot, a championship, and MVP, just how precious would those Upgrade Cards be?
Cultivation earned Qi and Blood Points; Golden Boots and championships earned Upgrade Cards.
Neither could be dispensed with.
"System, I want to allocate points."
[Please select the category to which you wish to allocate points]
Zhang Kuang thought it over. His first objective right now was to sign with a team, so the most important thing was to demonstrate his outstanding abilities. Of his current three positions-striker, winger, and attacking midfielder-his striker abilities stood out the most, so he would strengthen those.
Among the striker attributes of [Shooting], [Off-the-ball movement], [Heading], and [Physicality], only [Shooting] was passable. The others were all lacking.
But when he took another close look, something was off. The Dragon-Tiger Pill had transformed his body, so the stats in the three fields of [Physicality], [Explosiveness], and [Speed] had changed enormously.
This was the effect of the changes the Dragon-Tiger Pill had brought to his basic physical qualities.
Only, something still was not right. Why had his [Speed] increased to 86.5? How had that 86.5 been calculated?
For the moment, Zhang Kuang could not figure out what was going on.
Whatever, he would allocate his points first. His striker [Physicality] had risen to 99.38, leaving him with only two weaknesses: [Off-the-ball movement] + [Heading]. [Heading] could wait, because no matter how good he was at scoring headers, he would have no chance to show it if he could not get into position.
So his immediate priority was [Off-the-ball movement]. Only by improving that could he turn his shooting ability into actual goals.
"Add to [Off-the-ball movement]. Add... 44 points." He intended to max out [Off-the-ball movement]. Only then would he truly be a striker capable of seizing opportunities.
"Sorry, please select the category you wish to increase again. [Off-the-ball movement] contains eight subcategories. Which of its eight subcategories would you like to increase? You may also use [View] to examine the subcategories in detail."
"Huh? What? [Off-the-ball movement] isn't a standalone category? It's an overall category? And it contains eight subcategories? You've got to be kidding?"
A powerful sense of foreboding welled up in Zhang Kuang's heart. With a mental command, he clicked the little downward-pointing triangle at the bottom right of [Off-the-ball movement]. So that was where he could expand its submenu.
Once he clicked it, a submenu dropped down below:
Attacking awareness: 50, reactions: 60, forward-run awareness: 65, positioning to meet the ball: 62, striker's instinct: 68, beating the offside trap: 54, first touch: 51, formless shooting: 38, overall rating: 56.
"Hiss! So that's what it means? Doesn't that mean every skill has subdivisions? So when I allocate Qi and Blood Points, they don't go toward the skill's overall rating, but toward these subcategories?"
At that thought, Zhang Kuang felt utterly miserable.
Because... if it worked the way he thought, his Qi and Blood Points had been devalued! If [Off-the-ball movement] had eight subcategories, then each Qi and Blood Point he allocated was effectively worth eight times less. In other words, he needed eight Qi and Blood Points to increase [Off-the-ball movement]'s overall rating by one point.
"Holy fucking shit, you motherfucking bastard, fuck..."
Zhang Kuang wanted to curse someone out. No, he wanted to hit someone.
To test his idea, he tried adding one point to [Forward-run awareness] under [Off-the-ball movement]. When he saw the tiny increase in its overall rating, sure enough, that was how it worked.
Then he immediately checked the subcategories of the other skills. Sure enough, every skill had a different number of subcategories beneath it.
[Shooting] had the most, with ten, including [First-time shooting], [Outside-foot curling shots], [Long-range curling shots]... [Long shots], [Penalties], and so on, for ten subcategories in total.
So shooting actually encompassed this many individual techniques. This was the first he had heard of it. Even things like [Heading] were the same, with [Heading accuracy], [Aerial challenges], [Aerial duels], [Positioning anticipation], and so on.
Numb, numb, numb... he was utterly numb.
He would have to work himself to death every day. Even then, how long would it take to fill all these stats? Every cultivation realm advancement also required a huge sum of Qi and Blood Points...
Holy fucking shit, this is going to kill me.
Even so, after a furious bout of cursing, Zhang Kuang still had to allocate his points. He had to spend those 109 points. He stuck with [Off-the-ball movement], and after checking repeatedly, he allocated them to seven of its eight subcategories, leaving only [Formless shooting] untouched.
That was because [Formless shooting] referred to miraculous goals such as backheel shots and shots from bizarre body positions. It was not a skill he urgently needed right now.
So [Attacking awareness] gained 20 points, reaching 70, and [Reactions] gained 16 points, reaching 76... In the end, he spent all 109 Qi and Blood Points without leaving a single one.
Afterward, his [Off-the-ball movement] overall rating reached 69.63, and his four striker ratings now stood at [Shooting] 70, [Off-the-ball movement] 69.63, [Heading] 79.5, and [Physicality] 99.38. His overall striker rating was 79.63.
Huh, why is it so high? Almost 80? What got stronger? Zhang Kuang checked everything carefully again.
It turned out that [Heading] had improved. It had originally been only 54, but after he took the Dragon-Tiger Pill and his physical qualities improved, the [Aerial challenge ability] and [Aerial duels] subcategories under [Heading] had both been pushed to 100. That had sent his [Heading] overall rating soaring straight to 79.5.
Hiss, this is good, this is good. Over 75, almost 80. Eighteen-year-old Mbappé only seemed to be a little over 80. I remember reading somewhere that he was rated 83.
He had never expected that merely claiming a beginner gift pack, cultivating for the first time, and adding some stats would bring him close to eighteen-year-old Mbappé's abilities.
These stats no longer merely qualified him as a substitute striker in Ligue 1. They made him a starting striker-and not for a mid- or lower-table team, but for a team competing for UEFA Champions League qualification.
A rating above 75 meant he could be a starting striker for a team competing for UEFA Champions League qualification in the top five leagues. Wasn't he about to take flight?
So now he had absolutely no need to try out for some Ligue 2 team. He could start directly in Ligue 1. Tsk, tsk. Although he had complained about the devaluation of Qi and Blood Points, when his abilities actually improved, he was still happy.
He checked the Ballon d'Or-level players. Their eleven skills, including [Shooting] and [Off-the-ball movement], averaged above 90. Some players had particularly weak areas. Cristiano Ronaldo, for instance, had a low [Defending] rating of just 42, but all his other ratings were between 85 and 95, with skills rated around 90 accounting for three-quarters of them.
Alas, becoming a man like Cristiano Ronaldo was a heavy burden and a long road ahead. He needed far too many Qi and Blood Points.