Training and Good News

The players from Team Z were at their training ground, going through their classic training routine, which had now turned into a friendly 4x4 game where attackers rotated based on mistakes. Initially, the plan was for Arata to stay fixed as an attacker while the others rotated, but he wanted to play a bit in his favorite position during practice.

"The next team will be Me, Kunigami, Raichi... and we need someone to be our goalkeeper. None of us like rotating to goalkeeper position," Arata said thoughtfully.

"I have an idea, Gagamaru-Kun, come play as the fixed goalkeeper for us, please," Arata pleaded.

"Me? Why?" Gagamaru asked.

"Oh, you don't need to be a genius to see that your skills are perfect for a goalkeeper. You've got good height, lightning reflexes essential for the position, and insane flexibility. If you ask me, you've got all the characteristics an elite goalkeeper needs. Plus, being accustomed to playing on the field, you'd have above-average footwork, something coaches nowadays often value highly," Arata added.

"Okay, count me in."

The first mini-match for Arata's team was against Isagi's team, which included Bachira, Igarashi, and Lemon. The ball started with Arata's team, who was dribbling the ball until Bachira came at him with a tackle to try and steal the ball. Arata lifted the ball over Bachira and jumped over him.

"Hey, why do you always have to start like that?" Arata asked.

"What's wrong with my special entry?" Bachira retorted.

Arata left Bachira behind as he advanced with the ball, only to be confronted again, this time by Igarashi.

"I won't let you nutmeg me again," Igarashi declared.

Igarashi hated getting nutmegged, so whenever Arata had the chance, he made sure to use that move against him. Igarashi was visibly nervous, desperate to avoid it again, and ended up recklessly trying to steal the ball, only to ultimately get nutmegged.

"Damn it! Every time," Igarashi exclaimed in frustration.

After getting past Igarashi, Arata noticed Kunigami sprinting towards the penalty area. He delivered a beautiful through pass to him. However, Isagi, using his Meta Vision, also spotted this move and went to contest the ball with Kunigami. Despite Isagi's effort, Kunigami managed to win the duel with his physicality, gaining an advantage over Isagi and scoring, putting Arata's team ahead.

"Damn it! Despite being able to read and understand the play perfectly, I couldn't outmuscle Kunigami," Isagi thought.

The game restarted with Isagi's team in possession, with Bachira dribbling the ball into the opponent's half, quickly receiving pressure from Raichi.

"Come on, try to get past me!" Raichi shouted.

"Sure thing," Bachira replied, performing some high-speed stepovers until he pushed the ball a bit ahead to attempt a run towards the goal line, with Raichi trying to catch up. When Raichi managed to reach him, he attempted a slide tackle to send the ball out of play, but Bachira executed a chop to evade him, sliding past Raichi and passing to Isagi, who was a bit behind the edge of the penalty area.

After controlling the ball, Isagi immediately faced Arata's tight marking, leaving him no room to make any play. Isagi used his arms to create some distance from Arata while executing a few ball rolls to the right. What he did next surprised everyone – he attempted a long-range shot from about 28 meters, only to be saved by Gagamaru.

"Damn!" Isagi cursed inwardly.

"Wow, what was that? Some kind of long-range Direct Shot?" Arata asked, surprised.

"More or less, it's a new weapon I'm trying to develop, but as you can see, it still needs a lot of work. I need a bit more power, and the curve I'm trying to achieve isn't coming out as planned," Isagi explained.

"Probably, with a little more time, you'll be able to solidify it as one of your main weapons," Arata added.

"Yeah," Isagi agreed.

"Interesting. This Isagi from this world is a bit different from the one in my universe. He's progressing much faster than I thought. His Meta Vision is almost at the same level it was during the Neo Egoist League, and he's developing a new weapon to score more goals. Of course, with my presence and my advice, he would evolve," Arata thought proudly of himself.

"Hey, Gagamaru, pass it here!" Arata shouted.

"This time, I'll score solo," Arata decided.

As Gagamaru launched the ball towards Arata, Bachira was already on his tail even before he received the ball. So, when the ball was about to reach Arata, he used his heel to flick the ball over Bachira like a Sombrero flick, surpassing him (also known as the Suarez Flick).

"What a creative dribble. I'll steal that one later..." Bachira said, chuckling.

Now it was Igarashi's turn to come at him...

Arata dribbled the ball, lightly tapping it with the outside of his foot, while anticipating Igarashi's move. Igarashi attempted to tackle him to steal the ball, but Arata used an elastic move that went under Igarashi's legs.

"What? Now it's not enough to just nutmeg me, you have to add an elastic too?" Igarashi exclaimed.

Arata continued running towards the opponent's field, only to be stopped by Isagi just before the edge of the penalty area. Arata used his hand to create space between them, executed a few ball rolls to the right, and struck the ball towards the goal from a distance of 28 meters, sending it perfectly into the top corner of the net.

"WHAT? He just pulled off the exact same move I was trying... I'm really far behind Arata-Kun..." Isagi thought, feeling powerless.

"You only realize how frightening Arata's skills are when you play against him. Thank goodness we're on his team," Kuon said to the rest of the players who were watching the training.

"Yeah," all the players agreed unanimously.

"Greetings, rough gems," Ego said. "I'm here to inform you that the sixth match of this block has ended, and this is the current partial ranking."

"1st place: TEAM Z with 6 points (13+) 2nd place: TEAM V with 6 points (12+) 3rd place: TEAM W with 3 points (-1) 4th place: TEAM Y with 3 points (-15) 5th place: TEAM X with 0 points (-12)"

"TEAM Z is in first place for now," Ego announced.

The players of TEAM Z cheered at this information, exchanging looks and signs of approval.

"Your rankings have also been updated based on the number of goals scored," Ego continued.

Arata noticed his number had increased to 221 and thought maybe he had surpassed Nagi.

Ego concluded by telling them to continue perfecting their own weapons until they become exceptional, and he warned them that the next game against TEAM W would take place in 24 hours.

"One more thing, Arata, aren't you going to show them your main weapon?" Ego asked.

Arata was momentarily confused because he had never told anyone about his main "weapon".

"Kid, you might hide that from them or from other mediocre analysts, but you thought you could hide it from me," Ego remarked.

"It's not like I'm trying to hide it," Arata replied.

"Yeah, in the end, I agree. It's not something you can see with the naked eye, but it's indeed what sets you above everyone here, even more than rough gems," Ego added.

"What was he talking about? So, you have a main weapon?" Kuon asked.

"Yeah, but when the time comes, I'll explain it to you guys," Arata said.

After that, TEAM Z went back to practicing.