First record

Qi Ce completed the half-year appointment ahead of schedule.

When Qi Jian and Zhang Huafang arrived at the football base to sign the contract for Qi Ce, Qi ce's mum firmly believed there must have been a mistake. It wasn't until Xu Genbao appeared and personally spoke with her that she realized it was true.

Qi Jian was also surprised, but he remained much calmer. When signing the contract at the football base, he maintained a cold demeanor.

However, upon returning home,his father was ecstatic, celebrating by enthusiastically punching the air in an empty room, just like he used to celebrate scoring a goal on the field in his youth.

Meanwhile, the invitation from Teacher Zhao from West Middle School could now be disregarded.

Ms. Zhao expressed regret upon hearing the news, but congratulated Qi ce's mum nonetheless.

His parents invited a group of relatives and friends over and held a small celebration at home to honor their son's entry into the first team. Qi Ce couldn't attend, as the May Day Golden Week was the most intense period for league preparation.

The first game of the season was a home game on May 5th, with Shanghai East Asia hosting the Qingdao Liming team from Shandong.

Qi Ce was undoubtedly in the starting lineup. In the months of training leading up to the game, Qi Ce had proven his abilities, and the doubts from earlier gradually faded away. Qi Ce's name began to circulate among a small number of fans, and he is now known as the "Little genius" of the base.

Today's opponent was from Qingdao, Shandong, known as the province with the highest average height in the country. The Qingdao Liming players were noticeably taller than the East Asian players.

With the sound of a whistle, the first official game of Qi Ce's career began. Shanghai East Asia took advantage of the home court and quickly launched a wave of offense. Qingdao had played in the Chinese League Two for two years and were consistently at the lower levels. Their strength wasn't strong, and Shanghai East Asia quickly took control.

The young men from Shandong were tall and robust, with a tough style. While their technique was quite rough, their fighting spirit was high, as it was the first league game and very important.

The front line of the East Asian team, including Qi Ce, consisted of agile and skilled players. After adjusting to Qingdao's rhythm, they frequently created threatening attacks.

In such a low-level game, Qi Ce did not allow the team's goal to come too late. In the 23rd minute, Qi Ce's partner, Zhu Zhengrong, made a breakthrough in the center, directly penetrating two of Qingdao's defensive midfielders and passing the ball to Qi Ce.

The opponent's defenders were very slow! The frequency wasn't fast. Qi Ce easily controlled the ball and bypassed one defender. Although he could have passed to the advancing Zhu Zhengrong, but Qi Ce chose to take the shot himself.

Facing another Qingdao defender rushing to defend, Qi Ce lightly tapped the ball and shifted his angle. The Qingdao defender, though brave, was overexerted and completely lost his balance.

Two simple moves got Qi Ce past two defenders, leaving him with a clear shot on goal.

With a powerful shot, Qi Ce easily scored his first goal in a league game.

The goal itself had a few flaws. Qi Ce's initial ball control wasn't great, and his attempt to adjust his angle was a bit slow. Qi Ce himself felt that had the opposing defender not overexerted and lost his balance, it would have been difficult to score with a defender in front of him.

Regardless, scoring a goal was a good start, making the rest of the game easier.

Towards the end of the first half, Qi Ce drew two defenders and made a risky through ball to the rapidly advancing Zhu Zhengrong. Zhu Zhengrong evaded the approaching goalkeeper and scored into an empty net, extending the score to 2-0.

This goal was Qi Ce's payback to Zhu Zhengrong for the earlier play. In a training match, Qi Ce would have made a wall pass back to Zhu Zhengrong to create an easy one-on-one chance, but in this game, he wanted to score himself!

That's the true essence of a striker(T/N:

'__')

The second half of the game went even smoother, with Shanghai East Asia scoring four more goals in 45 minutes. Qi Ce didn't score, but he provided another assist. He was substituted in the 60th minute, with a rating of 7.

Inadvertently, the name Qi Ce was now etched in Chinese football history.

Born on July 17, 1991, Qi Ce scored the opening goal in the first round of the Chinese Football League on May 5, 2007. With this goal, Qi Ce became the youngest scorer in the history of the Chinese professional league.

The record he broke was set by his teammate Cao Yunding, who on July 22, 2006, at the age of 16 years and 242 days, scored in the Chinese League Two match where Shanghai East Asia defeated Suzhou Pu pushi 5-2 at home.

Qi Ce advanced the record by ten months and ten days. His first official game broke an insurmountable new record. This was the first milestone for the future record king.

In the virtual stadium, Qi Ce completed the first memorable task and finally received a "valuable" reward: an attribute distribution point that could be added to any attribute.

[Congratulations on breaking the record of the Chinese Football Professional League. You have received an extra bonus of 30 football coins, 30 skill fragments, and one elementary language skill book. Skill: Rising Star.]

[Rising Star is a limited-time skill. In the first 30 official games of the player's career, you can distribute five points to any attribute in a single game. This resets every game, excluding previous games. Remaining games: 30/30.]

A great harvest!

Qi Ce was pleasantly surprised to find that there were additional rewards beyond completing the task.

He had completed many training and miscellaneous tasks during this time. Excluding spending on players, buying shoes, and other equipment, and with the 30 additional rewards, he now had 82 football coins. There was little point in making purchases, so he decided to save them for now.

Qi Ce added a task bonus attribute point tothe "off-the-ball movement", bringing that attribute to 15.

Higher ability values are more expensive. This means that adding this freely assignable attribute point to an already high attribute is cost-effective. Qi Ce chose to add it to off-the-ball movement, which will also double his speed (explosive power and speed).

Speed was sufficient for now, and off-the-ball movement was his greatest strength.

Additionally, there was a language learning skill book, a treasure that couldn't be bought with money. One of the most difficult challenges for Chinese players studying abroad is the language barrier. In this system, he could learn directly. If there's a beginner level, there must be an intermediate and advanced level as well. This way, Qi Ce wouldn't need to spend time learning languages and could focus more on the field.

As for which language to learn, Qi Ce hadn't decided yet. He still wasn't sure where he would go, so he set it aside for now.

What Qi Ce didn't know was that during this time, Xu and Bao had already started taking action. They hoped to find a balance between the interests of the players and the interests of the team.

Prior to this, Xu Genbao had always considered a young potential prospect named Wu Lei, regarded as the treasure of the base,who was his most talented disciple, but Qi Ce surpassed him! He even reached a level where he could unlock his full potential with his own skills!

*On the phone*

"Old Zhou, how have you been in Europe these two years?"

On the other end of the phone was Xu Genbao's old friend, Zhou Feng, also an avid football fan. He played football in China for a while in the early 2000s. Later, for various reasons, he moved to Europe in 2004 after his team was disbanded. He pursued business and expanded his involvement in football.

Not for anything else, just because he loved football~ Zhou Feng had already managed several Chinese players going to Europe to play football.

"Not bad, Mr. Xu, what's going on?"

"I have a player... I want to send him to Europe."

"Huh? Mr. Xu, you have come out from the west side of the sun. I doubt you have a good seed in your football base. Do you really have someone?"

"Don't talk too much." Xu and Bao cursed with a smile: "I do have a good seed, when will you come over?"

"Okay, I'll listen to whatever you say, Mr. Xu. I'm really not joking, I'm really surprised." Zhou Feng thought for a while and said in a serious tone.

"Educating people is like planting trees. Only with the right soil can you grow towering trees." Xu and Bao paused: "Wu Lei's talent is also very high. I also said he is China's Maradona, but that is in China. The good seedling I was talking about is different."

Zhou Feng listened quietly. Xu Genbao almost never praised people in front of the players; it was already good if he didn't scold them. However, in private, he wasn't stingy with comments.

I don't want his talent to be delayed here Mr Xu said

"I see. When's the next game? I'll come right away."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Feng rubbed his temples, reflecting on what Xu and Bao had just said.

Before Xu and Bao's plan to build Manchester United in China took shape, Mr. Xu had not received as much praise as more than ten years later, but he was considered a leading figure in Chinese football. Such a statement from him—"I'm afraid of delaying him"—was significant and carried weight. What could this mean?

This made Zhou Feng decide to set off immediately and return to China to witness the genius described by Xu Genbao.

In the second round of the China League Two, Shanghai East Asia would head north to Tianjin to challenge Tianjin Dongli away from home. Zhou Feng and Xu Genbao agreed to meet directly in Tianjin.

All of this was happening without Qi Ce's knowledge.