12 Greed For More

The day after.

When waking up Haruo stretched himself out and went to do his morning stuff like getting his face washed and put his lose hair back into a ponytail..

While brushing his teeth some of the others joined.

"Good morning..." The one walking in first with a sleepy face was Bachira.

"Mornin', man you look beat." Haruo's words were not aimed at Bachira but towards Isagi who looked like he didn't get even the slightest bit of sleep. There were even slight dark bags under his eyes.

"Igarashi was kicking around the whole night...." Isagi could only sigh at his predicament of being sleep deprived because someone had a damn weird sleeping pose while everyone had about as much space to sleep as a futon could manage to give.

"You know. When I first got hit by him I immediately rolled him up like some tuna into the corner. You are too nice for your own good, Isagi." Haruo grinned and could relate to moonshine's nightly assaults.

"Hey, guys. If you are finished then meet up first. Kuon wants to talk with us about our tactics.

Haruo looked over at Kunigami who gave them that info and nodded.

After spitting the rest of the toothpaste out of his mouth and cleansing it with water Haruo was finished up and went back to their sleeping quarters.

Sitting down on his own futon he waited until everyone gathered up.

"Alright, looks like everyone is here. Now, then. I thought this through and took into consideration that everyone wants to score and play as a forward." Kuon showed them a rather offense-oriented formation just like their last one.

The defense basically stayed the same. But what changed most was that this time though there was no deep sixer. It was a 4-5-1 with one CM, two OFM, and an RM and LM supporting from the sides.

Haruo could only sigh. This formation was way too exploitable with counters. Especially if they committed too much to the attack.

But Haruo also knew the others would definitely use this tactic to get a chance in scoring and showing that they were better strikers. Some of them even glanced over to him to see his reaction.

Haruo just shrugged his shoulders. "You can do you, but I will play in the defense if you are going with that trash-name tactic. Don't want to waste our good form with risks."

Kuon seemed to flinch lightly because Haruo just said what most of them probably had in mind after hearing the name of the tactic. Otherwise, he stayed stoic and calm. "Good. It's settled, then. We are going with the *I'm the next 9* tactic."

That meant every 10 minutes everyone would rotate their position clockwise beside the two central defenders that were Haruo and Chigiri.

It was also alright because they had volunteered to stay back this game. Even Iemon volunteered to be put as the goalkeeper this time around so that Gagamaru could go into the field as a striker.

"Alright, if the talk is all done, then we should get moving and train our tactics on the training field. But first I will get something to eat." Haruo stood up after the talk was done and went ahead to get something to eat.

In the canteen that was in the middle of each stratum, he pressed his little id sticker on his left shoulder against a scanner that delivered him his stir-fried menue with some leek. It was the food the one ranking 265th got. It didn't really change from when their rankings were lower.

But it beats most of the other stuff at the lower ranks. Especially the Natto that Isagi always gets to eat. Say what you want but Haruo still had to get used to eating Japanese cuisine. Some things were amazingly nice and others.... let's say it was debatable.

Some others also got good food that he would trade from time to time. Like the curry that Kunigami gets or Imamura's bacon with eggs.

Anyway, today was also a special day since there was a new option for him and the others.

Since he had scored goals he could exchange his points gained from said goals for a nice juicy steak.

But that would be a waste and what he was aiming for was the luxury bed with 5 points. Maybe he should let Isagi know about that option as well since it could help him with his sleep problem.

Though 5 goals for that was really something. For now, he would take his smartphone back for 3 points. That was after all his first idea and he knew now what Ego meant with his words back then.

Scanning his id again at the specified counter he exchanged 3 of his 4 points for his smartphone.

Haruo then had an incredible grin on his face and while eating he connected to the wifi inside the building and browsed what he wanted to do since he had those special devourers still sitting idle.

Opening a video of a certain martial artist he stared at the screen looking at the person doing beautiful moves of fast and strong punches and kicks.

'Come on, please work...' His stare intensified and soon a message appeared.

[Special Devour applicable on -[Bruce Lee]-. Would you like to devour *White Muscles of Transcendence: W+3* into your own talent pool?]

The grin on Haruo's face became creepily big.

'Yes, of course. JUST DO IT!'

[Talent pool *Football Prodigy A+2* is too low for full absorption of *White Muscles of Transcendence W+3*.]

'What!? No, no, no. Not now. A damn limit?'

[Greed is activated.] But his power was still not done and seemed to go haywire.

[Three-Lunged Stamina dropped to S- for the duration of 30 days.]

[Developed *Enduring Red Muscles: S-*]

[Developed *Powerful White Muscles: S-*.]

[Combination of Power and Endurance created *Intermediate Hercullean Muscles: A+3*

[*Sprint Burst* upgraded to *Lighting Starter: A+3*]

[*Quick Feet* upgraded to *Phantom Fast Legs: A+3*]

[*Sturdy Body* upgraded into *Stone-Hard Body: A*]

[Time remaining for full devour of *White Muscles of Transcendence: W+3* is 30days. WARNING: Injury susceptibility level is increased to Intermediate for the next 30days. The player is advised to play safe until the body is acclimated and Greed has done its job.]

Haruo could only stare flabbergasted at the outcome. He even coughed lightly after he choked lightly on his food.

Just that one action just bombarded him with physical improvements. Well, he lost some stamina but he guesses it was used up to developed his body in other areas.

And he didn't even want to know what would happen the moment 30 days passed. His speed would probably break into S easily as well.

'Wow, the devil sure has really enticing powers to offer. Who said sins don't pay off again?'

Haruo seemed to contemplate something though. 'The injury warning is a little bit bothersome actually. I did volunteer to go into defence and that could come to bite me now.'

Just the fact that his power had limits showed him he needed to upgrade his innate talent first if he really wanted to improve everything. Just now he only got this done because it gave him a debuff and restriction.

Thinking about that Haruo started thinking about the other things he wanted to absorb for now.

Since he already fulfilled a lot of criteria and still had them at the back of his mind it was about time to let loose.

From the game of 90 minutes, he could now absorb one talent of each of his teammates and some of the lower-ranked guys in Team X. Then there was Baro.

Contemplating in his mind he started going completely nuts and devoured all the talent from everyone in his team. He still had the chance for the other stuff in the next games that had the same criteria of playing 90 minutes.

And that let his potential break to the S rank.

[*Football Prodigy A+2* upgraded to *Football Genius: S-*]

[Absorbtion of previous Talent is halved to 15 days. Injury susceptibility reduced to 15 days.]

'Just as I thought...'

[*Dribble* upgraded to *Phantom Like Dribble: A+2*]

[*Sticky Ball Control: A+ developed.]

That happened after he devoured Baro's lightning dribble and Bachira's snake-like flexibility. Seems like because of his muscles now being more elastic it improved that department of his play. Maybe it was also because his brain started thinking differently as soon as his talent pool was increased.

[Talent of -Yoichi Isagi- devoured and combined. Developed *Eagle Vision: A+2*. *Experienced Football Intelligence* upgraded to *Flow-Manipulating Football Intelligence: A*.]

There was so much experimentation potential with this and he surely would need to get used to his new body.

Different talents could have chemical reactions with other talents but also need a certain talent for that to happen.

Meaning he would need to upgrade certain areas first and then after bringing them to a decent level try to combine them. Effectively open up the free talent pool for other things.

Well, right now he felt like a massive cheat but his smile still was saying rather different things. His eyes also seemed to glow with utmost greed and his hunger for more was woken up.

'Special devours are such an incredible thing...' Haruo made sure to concentrate on always fulfilling those criteria whatever may be the case.

Looking at his phone again he browsed some other videos and found one of the top charismatic players many knew because of either their talent or other things like their good looks.

Haruo only proceeded with his shenanigans.

[*Charismatic Model Looks: S* devoured from -David Beckham-. *Charismatic Model Looks:* upgraded into *Alluring Model Looks: S+2*]

'Well, that was unexpected? Am I actually good looking already?' Shrugging his shoulder it should definitely help with the things Haruo was about to do later anyway.

That being said, his phone was already downloading the apps for basically all social media sites and one for uploading videos.

And the first thing he did was make a video about the canteen area and then made a few pictures of his meal before it was completely gone.

It felt weird because he never really did something like this before but there is always a first time for everything.

Then he sent a message to Jinpachi Ego's number that every player in Blue Lock had already saved up in their phones. The content was generally asking for permission to record certain training sessions and other small things.

It was after all not yet completely decided if you had the permission to show videos after getting your smartphone back.

Finishing up with his meal he stood up and went ahead to get to team training. The others probably waited for him. Haruo kinda wondered why they didn't eat and directly went straight to training.

Even the other teams were visiting the canteen. Like Team X that he saw at another table. Well, it was not his problem.

Right now he was eager to get his body acclimated to his new skill level.