"Oh, can we eat before we get down to it?"
"All right, then I'll pick a room first."
"Why bother picking a room? Isn't the living room fine? Convenient for everyone." Lina threw Zhang Kuang a flirtatious wink.
"Holy crap, you make a damn good point. Come on, come on, once we've eaten, we'll battle for three hundred rounds."
"Don't go that hard. My legs were trembling when I got up today. I had to hold on to something just to get to the bathroom. I've only just recovered a little strength."
"Haha, sure."
As he spoke, Zhang Kuang walked over to the dining table, tossed his luggage aside, then hugged Aïssa and Matidal in turn before sitting down to eat.
"How is it? Authentic?" Lina asked curiously.
Zhang Kuang curled his lip. "Not authentic at all, but better than bread and French food. I've been here several days, and I finally get a normal meal.
"Anyway, I'll go buy groceries at the Chinese supermarket tomorrow and make you some authentic Chinese food. Do you want spicy or non-spicy?"
"Huh? You can cook?"
Aïssa cried out in surprise.
Zhang Kuang spoke as though it were only natural. "Is it surprising that Chinese men can cook? Forget it, you wouldn't know. In most places in China, the men do the cooking at home."
For someone who had spent years delivering takeout, stir-frying was a basic skill. To save time, they often cooked for themselves.
And according to his memories, the original owner of the body he had transmigrated into could cook too. After all, he and his father had only each other to rely on. Wouldn't it have been pretty inconsiderate not to know how to cook for himself?
At that, Zhang Kuang glanced at the open kitchen. "There's a range hood, but no wok or seasonings. I'll buy those tomorrow too."
"Huh? Really? Then we can try authentic Chinese food! Oh, right, you're an athlete. Aren't you supposed to follow a scientific diet? Can you eat Chinese food?"
Zhang Kuang said, "Chinese food is scientific. It doesn't have to be Western food to be scientific. Besides, other people have to watch their diets, not me. I'm the special one. All I need is to eat well, drink well, and sleep well, and I can surpass everyone else."
Zhang Kuang wasn't one of those people who only had a [Heaven Rewards Diligence] system and relentlessly squeezed themselves dry.
Life was already so hard. Couldn't he at least enjoy some good food?
Was there any justice left in this world? Any law?
"Mmm... all right, I'm done. Come on, who's first?"
Zhang Kuang winked at the three of them. The three women exchanged glances, looking very excited.
"Let's draw lots," Aïssa said.
"Okay!"
... (100,000 words of VIP content [click here to expand]) ...
The next day, Zhang Kuang kept his word. He got up early and went to the Chinese supermarket to buy an iron wok and some groceries, mainly seafood, fresh meat, chilies, and seasonings. Of course, an iron wok and a rice cooker were essentials.
Unfortunately, neither system had given him any portable storage space. Wouldn't that have made things even sweeter?
It was almost noon when he got back to the house. The three women had gone to school. Zhang Kuang made himself a simple serving of mapo tofu over rice, and eating it felt so good it struck straight at his soul.
The ancients truly didn't deceive me. Food and sex are human nature, and food comes first!
After eating, Zhang Kuang went to the indoor training room his agency had booked for him. He wasn't really going there to train, just to go through the motions. He was afraid that if the agency saw him slacking, it would dampen their enthusiasm for arranging specialized training for him.
Qi and Blood Points were the foundation of his improving football skills, not training.
Speaking of which, he really couldn't work up any interest in spending those nine Qi and Blood Points right now. Adding so few wouldn't really make a difference to his attributes.
The point allocation was just too much of a rip-off. He could only add them to the subcategories.
He needed to slowly save up Qi and Blood Points, then put them into heading. Right now, [Positioning] was the lowest component of his overall striker rating. Of course, [Shooting] was starting to fall behind too. A [Shooting] score of 70 was no longer enough.
He had to get [Positioning] above 70 first, then raise [Heading Accuracy] under [Heading]. That needed to reach at least 75, and right now it was only... 66?
Huh, wouldn't adding the nine newly earned Qi and Blood Points bring it to exactly 75?
Add points, add points! System, I want to add points.
In an instant, he raised [Heading Accuracy] from 66 to 75. That brought his overall [Heading] rating straight from 79.5 to 81.75, while his overall [Striker] rating rose from 79.63 to 80.19. He had broken 80.
Tsk, tsk. I haven't even stepped onto the pitch yet, and I'm already at 80?
Good, good, good. This is good.
Zhang Kuang immediately felt delighted and spent a little time idly keeping a ball up with his head in the training hall.
After training, he would return to the apartment to make dinner, then cultivate and have some in-depth exchanges with the three women. It truly was the life of an immortal.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Leblanc was deep in discussions with his colleagues at the agency, analyzing which team they should send Zhang Kuang to.
The agency's head of scouting, Luca Moretti, said, "It depends on which league we're considering. If we're talking Ligue 1, Auxerre might be the best fit, because they rely too much on defense. Their forward line... with all due respect, it's not even as good as relegation battlers Le Mans. It's absolutely dreadful.
"The problem is, Auxerre can't afford high wages. I think sending a forward like Zhang Kuang, who's close to an 80 rating, there would be a bit of a mismatch."
The agency's commercial director, Clara Leroy, cut in. "If we're talking wages, then none of Ligue 1 is suitable. Since the 2008 financial crisis, none of the top five leagues have been able to afford high wages.
"Ligue 1 is widely recognized as having the lowest wages among the top five leagues, lagging far behind the Premier League and La Liga. Take this year's Ligue 1 star salary rankings, for example. You can barely find any Ligue 1 players on the list.
"The threshold for making the list is an annual after-tax salary of around £2.5 million, and in Ligue 1 today, that's already what key players at powerhouses like Lyon and Marseille earn."
Jonathan smiled. "What Zhang wants right now isn't money, but fame. Ligue 1 is just a stepping stone, not the destination."
Luca said, "Then why not send him to Serie A, La Liga, or the Bundesliga?"
Jonathan said, "First, our connections in those leagues are nowhere near what we have in Ligue 1. Getting a Chinese player into those major leagues would be very difficult for us.
"Second, time. If we send Zhang to a Ligue 1 team, we can sign a one-year contract, or one with a low barrier to a transfer. Since they can't offer good wages, they can offer lenient transfer terms instead.
"Third, if we arrange a move for Zhang to one of the other four major leagues now, he might earn a little more than in Ligue 1 for the time being, but the contract length and breach-of-contract clauses would end up tying our hands later.
"So I'm more inclined to send Zhang to a Ligue 1 team. What we need is to make his particular strengths stand out as much as possible when we sell him to another league. Also, although his test data is excellent, he hasn't actually played a match. Who knows what he's really made of?"
At that point, the agency's young owner and CEO, Messa Ndiaye, clapped his hands. "Wow, Jonathan, you really are the steady, seasoned one. That is precisely our best option.
"Zhang's test data is excellent, but we need to see what he's made of-not just for ourselves, but for the market too.
"If he really does prove sensational after half a season, then... hehe, perhaps he'll be the next Mario Balotelli, a superstar in the making.
"All right, let's keep looking into which Ligue 1 teams would give Zhang a suitable stage to perform on."
Luca said, "Then Auxerre is the best fit. No one else comes close."
Messa nodded. "What do the rest of you think?"
They all nodded. "Auxerre, of course."
Messa said, "All right, use our connections to get in touch with Auxerre. Of course, we also need a few backup teams. You all know how it is-don't hang yourself from a single tree."