Chapter 100: Activating the Second Talent
After returning to Werder Bremen, Lin Quan immediately went to the team doctor to inquire about De Bruyne's injury.
De Bruyne's ankle was injured, but fortunately, the injury wasn't too severe.
After examination, the team doctor determined that he needed two to three weeks of rest.
Lin Quan didn't fully trust the team doctor's judgment, so when De Bruyne went home to rest, he contacted the medical expert recommended by Guardiola earlier to help reassess the situation.
"There's nothing serious, just some muscle and soft tissue injuries. No need to worry too much."
De Bruyne himself didn't seem too concerned, whether he genuinely wasn't worried or was just putting up a front in front of his friend.
Regardless of what De Bruyne thought, Lin Quan forcibly took him and hailed a cab, bringing him to the medical expert for examination.
"The injury isn't too severe, just some minor ligament damage. With some rest, it should heal."
The medical expert's assessment was almost identical to the team doctor's.
"See, I told you it's nothing!"
After hearing the expert's words, De Bruyne felt relieved.
Although he felt like he had made a fruitless trip, he was still touched by Lin Quan's gesture of bringing him for a reexamination.
"For young people, recovering from this kind of injury isn't difficult, but you must remember, you shouldn't get injured in the same spot again in a short period. Otherwise, it could easily become a habitual injury, which could have serious consequences for your athletic performance and even your entire career."
This statement made De Bruyne lose his smile. He was only 21 years old, with a long professional career ahead of him!
If his career were to be ended because of this injury, wouldn't that be a huge loss!
"Alright, alright, I'll be careful!"
De Bruyne initially planned to rest for two weeks and then return to play, but after hearing the expert's advice, he didn't dare to do so.
Maybe it's better to rest for three weeks first...
However, by doing so, he felt like he would miss at least three games.
During his absence, the team could only rely on Lin Quan.
"It's up to you now, I'll be cheering you on!"
De Bruyne made a cheering gesture, and Lin Quan rolled his eyes in response.
"Take care of yourself and don't overexert yourself!"
"Cough, what are you saying? I can't understand!"
"If you can't understand, why are you blushing?"
Lin Quan patted his friend's shoulder, gave him a look of 'be moderate,' then greeted Caroline before leaving.
Watching Lin Quan's departing figure, Caroline handed a glass of water to De Bruyne and casually asked:
"Is that the teammate you often mention?"
"Yes, he's my best friend at Werder Bremen and also the most talented young player in the world!"
De Bruyne said proudly. Every time he heard praise for Lin Quan's talent, such as being compared to Messi, or being called the future football king, he felt proud.
As for the praise he himself received from the outside world, he didn't care much.
"Really? How talented is he?"
Caroline didn't know much about football, so she needed De Bruyne to give her a reference to have a more intuitive feeling.
"Do you know about the Golden Boy Award? This year's Golden Boy Award is uncertain, but next year's, if nothing unexpected happens, it will definitely be his!"
Caroline was somewhat surprised. The Golden Boy Award is the highest honor for young players. Even her boyfriend, De Bruyne, hasn't won the Golden Boy Award, yet this teammate who is four or five years younger is expected to win it next year?
...
Although they won the crucial battle against Schalke, the atmosphere within Werder Bremen wasn't entirely joyous.
De Bruyne's injury cast a shadow over their upcoming matches.
The second half of the game proved that Lin Quan could indeed play as an attacking midfielder, but his teammates felt that his threat upfront would be even greater.
Leaving such a top striker unused was truly wasteful.
However, apart from Lin Quan, no one else in Werder Bremen possessed the playmaking ability of De Bruyne.
De Bruyne's defensive skills weren't strong, and his ball control wasn't exceptional, but his ability to deliver threatening final passes in open play was commendable.
He was an attacking midfielder whose offensive prowess far exceeded his defensive abilities.
Without him, the team's offensive firepower immediately decreased.
If they didn't let Lin Quan play as an attacking midfielder, who else could replace De Bruyne?
No one could!
De Bruyne's injury also made the club start to worry: now that one of the Twin Stars was injured, they still had one to hold the fort.
But what if both of them were injured?
Since Lin Quan and De Bruyne joined the team, Werder Bremen had become accustomed to a playing style centered around them.
If both of them were absent from the field, the players on the pitch would likely lose their backbone and wouldn't even know how to play anymore.
This made the coaching staff extremely worried. During daily training sessions, they wished they could watch Lin Quan's every move to remind him to be careful and not injure himself.
This level of concern even surpassed that of his foster parents...
Lin Quan was speechless. During the team's training matches, his teammates were holding back, so they wouldn't injure him. The coaches were obviously overly worried.
No matter what he said, the coaches wouldn't change.
There was no way around it; injuries were unpredictable.
You never knew if you would get injured in the next game!
Their worries even made Lin Quan anxious.
With De Bruyne sidelined for three weeks, if he were to get injured, he would also miss several games.
These were points at stake!
If he and De Bruyne were both suspended, the probability of Werder Bremen losing would greatly increase.
Losing a game meant losing two points.
In a season where points were hard to come by, losing them like this would be a big blow.
So, without delay, he decided to buy an injury-related talent!
Opening the system panel and checking his personal attributes, Lin Quan sighed.
His height hadn't changed for several months, stuck at 173cm, and it seemed unlikely to grow any taller.
Shifting his gaze to the system store, he immediately targeted the injury-related talents.
The highest-priced talent in this category was the 100-point Injury Immunity talent. Activating this talent would keep players away from injuries, never having to worry about getting injured again.
After the match against Schalke 04, Lin Quan currently had a total of 28 points in his account, far from the required 100 points.
So, such top-tier talent was out of reach for him.
Among the 10-point and 20-point talents, he deliberated for a long time.
In the end, he made up his mind and purchased the 20-point Rapid Recovery talent.
This talent had two effects: reducing damage and reducing cooldown.
Specifically, it reduced 30% of the direct damage the player received on the field.
If a player got injured, it could also shorten the recovery time by 30%.
Both effects were decent, especially the first one.
In a match, collisions with defensive players were inevitable, and it was normal to be bumped, kicked, or tackled.
Sometimes, even though some injuries weren't serious, they were very painful and could greatly affect the player's performance during the game.
Under the pain, many technical moves that could usually be executed would become deformed or even impossible to perform.
If this kind of pain could be reduced, the impact of these hard injuries on the game's performance would be significantly reduced.
After confirming with the system that the injury talent could also be upgraded by paying the price difference, Lin Quan spent 20 points to activate this talent.
There wasn't any special feeling after activating the talent, which was quite different from the previous physical talent.
But since it was a talent related to injuries, it would only be reflected in injury-related aspects.
Thinking of this, Lin Quan pinched himself.
Hiss! Huh? It doesn't hurt much? Lin Quan was somewhat surprised. He tried again and found that it really didn't hurt much.
Carefully feeling it, he felt like there was a thin layer of soft cloth covering his skin, providing some cushioning effect.
He increased the force and found that he needed to use twice the normal force to feel pain beyond the normal level.
In other words, does this injury reduction effect stack with the protection of his skin and muscles, better than what was stated in the system talent description?
This discovery made Lin Quan somewhat excited. He couldn't wait to try it out on the field.
During the afternoon's internal team scrimmage, Lin Quan dribbled on the sideline. The reserve team sent two players to double-team him. When Lin Quan passed the first defender, he exerted slightly more force on the ball.
The ball moved away from him by over a meter, temporarily out of his control.
Seeing this opportunity, another reserve defender immediately slid in, trying to clear the ball out of bounds.
It was originally a clean tackle, but Lin Quan's line of sight was obstructed, so he couldn't react immediately, and he was tackled along with the ball.
The pitch erupted in commotion. Both the first team and the reserve team players, as well as the coaching staff on the sidelines, became tense.
"Damn it, why did you make that tackle? What if you injure Lin?"
Petersen was the first to rush over, pushing the reserve team defender to the ground, then quickly turned to check on Lin Quan, who was still on the ground.
Other first-team players also crowded around. Although they didn't verbally reprimand the young reserve defender, they didn't comfort him either.
Lin Quan was the absolute core of the team. With De Bruyne sidelined due to injury, he must not be harmed.
"If he gets injured again, how will the team play in the next few matches?" "Lin, are you okay?"
Several teammates helped Lin Quan up from the ground, expressing concern about his condition.
The coaching staff on the sidelines had already called the team doctor to come and assist Lin Quan with his injury assessment.
Limping a few steps, Lin Quan tested his ankle.
He found that it wasn't as painful as he imagined. Peeling off his sock to take a look, the area where he was kicked was only slightly red, not even a skin injury.
"I'm fine, didn't get hurt!"
Glancing at it, the team doctor breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed that icing to reduce swelling wasn't necessary after all.
"Heh, fortunately, Simo just pulled back, didn't really hit me. Don't blame him, it was my fault for not seeing it and not being able to avoid it in time."
Walking over, Lin Quan rubbed Simo Rock's head and comforted him:
"The tackle just now was well done, don't feel burdened, keep playing like that in the future!"
Simo Rock was a newcomer promoted from the U19 team of Werder Bremen, only 18 years old this year.
Although he was two years older than Lin Quan, he treated Lin Quan like an elder brother, completely regarding him as the leader.
Initially feeling a bit wronged, Simo was almost in tears after being pushed and blamed by his teammates.
At this moment, after receiving comfort from Lin Quan, he was moved to tears: he wished he could die for Lin Quan!
"I will, thank you, Lin bro!"
...
On the sidelines, Shauf and the others saw Lin Quan bouncing around as if nothing had happened, and they also breathed a sigh of relief.
This kid just couldn't sit still!
About to play a game, he still managed to scare people like this, trying to give everyone a heart attack!
So they decisively substituted Lin Quan and didn't let him continue playing.
Keeping him healthy was more effective than any training match!
A few days later, the 12th round of the Bundesliga began.
Werder Bremen hosted Dusseldorf at home.
The latter was one of the three newly promoted teams from the Bundesliga 2.
Except for Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Furth's performances weren't ideal.
After 11 rounds, both teams were at the bottom of the standings, one in last place and the other in third last, both in the relegation zone.
In this match, Werder Bremen's midfield core De Bruyne was absent due to injury, which made Dusseldorf harbor some thoughts.
Playing on their home turf, they took the initiative to attack right from the start, seemingly wanting to overturn Werder Bremen on their own turf.
However, they seemed to have underestimated Werder Bremen's strength.
Although lacking De Bruyne, with Lin Quan commanding the midfield, Werder Bremen's offensive firepower remained strong.
In just 30 minutes into the first half, Werder Bremen was already leading by two goals.
The goals were scored by Arnautovic and Petersen.
In this match, Hunter accumulated enough yellow cards to be suspended, giving Petersen another chance to start.
After scoring in two consecutive matches, the former lost Bayern striker who had once lost himself in the team regained his confidence.
In the second half, although Dusseldorf managed to pull one goal back through a sneak attack, Werder Bremen's substitute Philkrug scored another goal.
In the final stages of the match, Petersen found an opportunity in front of the goal and scored another goal on a rebound, ultimately helping the team win 4-1 against Dusseldorf.
In this match, Lin Quan didn't score any goals, but he contributed three assists. His assist count for the season also reached 8, ranking second in the Bundesliga assists chart, second only to his teammate De Bruyne.
On the top scorer chart, he currently led with 15 goals, five more than the second-placed Manzukic, with a huge advantage.
In the system's rewards, getting 10 points for leading the league in assists and 20 points for leading in goals.
This made competing for the top scorer a bit more profitable under the same circumstances.
However, in ensuring that he securely won the top scorer title, competing for the assists chart to get the 10 points for the assist king seemed like a good idea, didn't it?
Moreover, with his direct competitor De Bruyne injured now, if he didn't take advantage of this opportunity to quickly narrow the gap with him, when De Bruyne returned, wouldn't he be feeding him free points like crazy?
He wasn't one of those forwards from Manchester City. For them, things like scoring goals weren't important; just being happy was enough!
So, Lin Quan began to rack up assists on the field.
In the 13th round, Werder Bremen challenged Wolfsburg away.
Due to Bayern Munich's unexpected draw with Nuremberg in the last match, Werder Bremen was only two points behind Bayern Munich in the standings.
If Werder Bremen could beat Wolfsburg in this round, they would temporarily lead the league.
After the start of the match, Wolfsburg, aiming to avoid relegation, didn't want to drop points at home.
In the cheers of the fans at the Volkswagen Arena, they launched a fierce attack against Werder Bremen.
But their attacks seemed to hit a solid wall and had no effect.
Instead, Werder Bremen's counterattacks were clean and sharp, making Wolfsburg's fans break out in a cold sweat.
In these counterattacks, Lin Quan's commanding and incredible passing were impressive.
Realizing his threat, Wolfsburg sent two players to double-team him, intending to freeze Werder Bremen's midfield.
But Lin Quan played smartly. When the opponents pressed tightly, he didn't stick to the ball, but passed it directly.
When the opponents relaxed a bit, he immediately dribbled past them, then passed the ball to his teammates after getting past the defending players.
This made Wolfsburg's players feel very annoyed; it seemed like they couldn't contain him.
So they simply resorted to dirty tricks, using fouling tactics to restrict Lin Quan.
In the 25th minute of the match, after Lin Quan dribbled past Wolfsburg's midfielder Olecch, he was about to pass the ball to his teammate.
However, Olecch, who was embarrassed and angry after being dribbled past, viciously tackled him from behind, knocking him down.
This tackle was clearly aimed at the player, not the ball at all.
The main referee didn't hesitate to show Olecch a yellow card, a decision that made Werder Bremen's players somewhat dissatisfied.
They felt that it was a malicious foul and should have been given a red card, directly sending him off the field.
But the main referee insisted on his decision and didn't change it.
Olecch didn't protest, but instead felt somewhat lucky.
When he made that tackle, he knew that his action would definitely earn him a card, and it was likely to be a red card.
The result was that the main referee only gave a slight punishment, not showing a red card, just a yellow card.
One yellow card for the opponent's main player being injured and leaving the field, he felt that this exchange was quite profitable.
But what surprised him was that the opponent's number 10 didn't leave the field.
After Werder Bremen's team doctor came on to check and treat Lin Quan's injured position, he continued to limp around on the field.
How is this possible?
I kicked him just now, and he's fine?
Olecch was very surprised. Could it be that the kid was pretending just now?
He felt angry. How dare this kid act against him? Wait until I kick your leg off!
But before he could act, Werder Bremen's players took action first!
(End of this chapter)