Elian took a quick glance away and his eyes caught Asher, his only friend in the team staring at him, clearly feeling bad. That didn't mean that Elian didn't relate well with the other members of his team. He did, quite well. But he was a reserved person, and it would be quite hard before he considered them friends. That being said, they probably considered him friends.
Elian stared at Dawson as the boy kept on ranting. Elian suddenly had an urge to reply him and he could only think of sassy things. But he dared not, he knew that he was in the wrong, even though Dawson was taking it too far.
"Is there any problem?" Elian asked Dawson.
Dawson feigned surprise. "Huh? Is there a problem? There is, sorry, there are! You have been on a backtrack this entire season, we're No6 in the league and what? You still come late? Could you be any more undisciplined?"
Elian stared at him, wondering why Dawson was taking it personal. He had never had a fight with Dawson before.
Elian was about to speak again when Meta spoke. "Don't reply him, he's clearly after something, can't you see? You'll only aggravate the situation. He won't stop talking, he's out to get the coach's wrath on you."
Elian bowed to the coach. "I'm very sorry sir. I promise this won't repeat itself."
Mateo shook his head. "That won't do. Go run five laps and join the training." Elian was happy that that was where the matter ended. He saw the angry look on Dawson's face and he was even more confused. Was Dawson angry at him because he had been playing rubbish recently? Or was it something else?
Meta spoke. "Why are you pondering on that? Isn't Dawson the second RF of this team? Of course he wants to bench you."
Elian was still not satisfied. That wasn't how players worked. Elian didn't have time to think more about that because he was preoccupied with himself immediately. "Why do I feel so weak? What is happening to me?"
"It's the backlash of Body Enhancement, the same thing that made you sleep so much." Meta replied.
Elian was annoyed. This silly bot had pulled a fast one on him again. If it had been a human, then Elian would have thought that it was a mistake, but no, it was an AI. It couldn't make mistakes, it could only do things on purpose. Meta had again tricked him into doing something stupid.
Elian was working home thirty minutes later, he had been asked to go home by the coach. Since for some reason, he had been too tired to keep up with the day's fitness sessions so he had been asked to go home and come back in the evening for the drills sessions.
Elian knew it was Meta that tricked him into using Body Enhancement, but he had only one question. "Why, Meta? Why would you do this?"
Meta sighed. "Isn't it Obvious? So I can train you and guide you on your path to becoming a legend. I am no doubt better than your coach. It would be even better if you could start missing their fitness sessions often while I train you during that period. It would be a lot more productive."
Elian sighed, he was a bit relieved and no longer that angry at the bot. "That's impossible. I'm done with high school. I have free time, we can train anytime. You don't have to trick me or make my coach angry at me."
"Fine. I understand." Meta said resignedly.
****
Elian walked into an open field not far from the stadium. Thankfully, the field was empty and he quickly locked its gates. No one had to mistake him for mad. He couldn't have such weird rumors going about him.
Elian brought a ball out of his bag, he placed it on the floor, and placed his foot on it. Then his mind flashed back to when he was in the stadium few minutes ago, the look Asher had given him.
"Say…Meta. If I tell anyone about you…this system in the real-life world, how smart of an action do you think that'll be?"
Meta responded coolly. "To be honest with you, it won't be that much of a smart idea. It's actually a very foolish one. It could jeopardize you, your family and everything you hold dear."
Elian sighed a bit, as if already expecting this answer. "What is it's someone I trust…"
Meta cut him short. "Humans and things associated with them can't be trusted"
Elian was quite surprised, hearing that coming from a bot.
Meta sighed in his robotic mind, then he spoke to himself. "Even their creations can't be trusted. I'm sorry…Elian."
Elian took a deep breath, when he exhaled, the somber tone was gone. "Okay! Let's forget about that. Enter training mode, Meta."
If Meta had eyes, then it was definitely rolling them now. "Okay, let's begin." There was a quick pause and Meta continued. "While you were asleep, I ran a data analysis on you and checked your previous matches. Your fitness level is quite amazing already, your dribbling is good enough, your pace is excellent, your control is good and you have ball sense. But something's lacking, and it's the most important."
"What's that?"
Meta replied. "Your tactical sense, the tactical aspect of your gameplay is totally dead, it's at a zero. That's why the first aspect we'll improve on is the tactical aspect of your gameplay."
"I'm listening." Elian said, unable to hide the excitement that painted his voice.
Meta continued. "Firstly, you're going to have to convert to a striker instead of a winger, you're more suited for the striking position."
"Noted." Elian said, like an overzealous student.
Meta spoke again. "According to my analysis, these tactics would suit your game pattern very well."
*Ding!*
Notification from system, Accept or Decline?
Elian accepted it and a series of tactics suddenly appeared in his vision.
-Set Piece Expertise(Lv 1): Mastering free kicks, corners and other dead-ball situations. This would increase your goal scoring chances, enables you to score from extremely difficult angles.
-Long Ball(Lv1): Using long passes to quickly transition from defense to offense. This enables you to coordinate better with the defenders and allows you move into space easily and read situations.
-False 9(Lv 1): Employing a striker who drops deep, creating space and confusion among the opponent's defense lines. This enables you to slip in and out of a defense, breaking the opponent's defense even without the opponents knowing that their defense has been breached.