Soccer: If they're using these kinds of cheats, what's the point of training?

At 8:23 PM on December 13, 2009, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France, in the alley next to the [Sekin Voice] bar, Zhang Kuang leaned against the wall, covering the back of his head, looking somewhat bewildered.

"What does this mean? I've transmigrated? And I've transmigrated into a soccer player? And I even got a system? This is amazing!"

But... God, can you tell me what's wrong with my system? Why are there two systems? And each is half of the same thing?

Zhang Kuang's mind was a bit of a mess. He needed to sort things out first. Where should he start?

Let's start from before we time-traveled. Just go through it gently, and don't uncover anything that shouldn't be there.

In 2027, he was a hardworking food deliveryman. One evening, he was waiting for his meal outside a restaurant when he saw the beginning of a novel about a man who was hit by a yellow car and passed through a green belt.

He was so angry at the novel that he laughed: This author is obviously a hater, there's nowhere else to hate, he'll hate on everything, he only focuses on other people's problems and can't see their strengths.

However, at that moment, Zhang Kuang, who was leaning against the pedestrian streetlight, was hit by a speeding, bright green car and sent flying into the air.

Okay, he's only thirty years old. He's hardworking and conscientious, he can't afford a house or a wife, he doesn't cause anxiety for society, and he's a loyal fan of Yutian. Why did you have to run into him? Why didn't you run into those haters?

Oh no, what if his parents find out? What if Red Romance No. 38 finds out? How heartbroken they will be!

No, why was he transmigrated into the body of a soccer prodigy? His only connection to soccer in his life was when he was 16 and went to a soccer academy for a year of intensive training. This was because he had a good feel for the ball, and the school teachers said that with more training, he might be able to become a professional player. After that, his academic performance plummeted. The key point is that after a year of training, the training school discovered that he was an injury-prone person and advised him to quit.

From then on, his only connection with football was watching matches. He rarely watched the top five European leagues, but he did watch the World Cup, the Chinese national team, and the Chinese Super League before 2019. He was a huge fan of Guangzhou Evergrande.

After Evergrande disbanded, he basically stopped watching football and focused on delivering food.

After many years, he finally saved up some money and wanted to buy a house and get married, but then he was hit by a car and time-traveled.

He's not familiar with football, so what's the point of dressing him up as a football player?

Okay, let's review this arrogant guy again. That's right, this soccer prodigy is also called Zhang Kuang. He's 18 years old this year and was born on August 18, 1991.

Fifty days ago, he was a U20 national team player. Although he was in the national youth team and the members seemed to come from wealthy families, his background was not so good. His mother died early, and he and his father, Zhang Jianguo, depended on each other for survival.

His father was a steelworker on a construction site, who raised him with great hardship. The reason he became a football player can be traced back to his father. His father used to be a professional player in the second division (Jia B). When he was controlling the score of a game, he got excited and scored a goal, causing the bookmakers and many players to lose money.

Then, amidst everyone's anger, his professional career was ended. Which team would dare to take such an uncontrollable player?

Zhang Jianguo, who left the professional football scene in disgrace, had been involved in football all his life and had not received much formal education or acquired any skills. Therefore, after leaving football, he had no way to make money and could only work as a laborer, such as screwing screws in factories.

Don't assume he used to fix matches or gamble on games; the lion's share of the winnings didn't go to the players. At most, they'd get a few thousand dollars in bonuses.

Zhang Jianguo met Zhang Kuang's mother when he was still in football school. At that time, Zhang Jianguo was only 18 years old. As a football player, although he could not make a fortune, his income was still good. In 89, he would often play a few commercial football matches, so after playing, he would treat his teammates to barbecue.

Zhang Kuang's mother was a waitress at a barbecue restaurant. She was young and pretty at the time, only 17 years old. She hadn't received much education, having started working after graduating from junior high school. That's why Zhang Jianguo easily tricked her into marriage.

His parents got married because he was pregnant. Strictly speaking, neither of them was of legal marriage age at the time. Later, when the professional league was established in China, Zhang Jianguo was selected and joined a team in the Jia B league.

However, Zhang Kuang's mother died when he was as old as he could remember. It seems that after giving birth to him, his mother went to work in a factory, and then when he was 5 years old, she was hit and killed by a truck rushing to deliver goods in the industrial area while she was getting off her night shift. Anyway, they paid some compensation.

In 1996, Zhang Jianguo lost his wife and his career. Then, he and his only son, Zhang Kuang, began a dissolute life together.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly until one day Zhang Jianguo received a renovation job at the football school he used to attend as a child.

Then, Wu Guohua, the coach of the football school, was very saddened when he heard about Zhang Jianguo's story. While they were chatting, Zhang Kuang, who was very young, looked at the students on the football field with shining eyes. He then went up and kicked a few times. Wu Guohua saw this and praised Zhang Kuang for his football talent.

In this way, Zhang Jianguo supported Zhang Kuang's training at the football school by doing manual labor. In 2009, he finally saved enough money to give some gifts and sent the 18-year-old Zhang Kuang to the U20 training team.

There's a reason for sending Zhang Kuang to the U20 team: to pave the way for his future career. Once he's in the U20, he'll most likely sign with a Chinese Super League or China League One team and become a key player. Then everything will be fine.

Several teams from the China League One and the Chinese Super League are in contact with Zhang Kuang. Wu Guohua and Zhang Jianguo are overjoyed. Their years of training are finally about to bear fruit. After he finishes this training camp and plays a few warm-up matches, he may become a key player in the 2010 AFC U-19 Championship.

If Zhang Kuang can score a few goals in warm-up matches or AFC U-19 Championship qualifiers and showcase his unique style, his market value will skyrocket, making all his hard work and years of waiting worthwhile.

After all these years, it's not like no team has wanted to sign Zhang Kuang, but they've been holding back. If Zhang Jianguo hadn't been unable to raise the money, Zhang Kuang would have been able to join the national U-series team long ago, and probably would have become famous and signed with a Chinese Super League team much earlier.

But Chinese football in this era is just so messed up. No matter how good you are, without bribes to pave the way, you can't get in.

Zhang Kuang does have some talent, but the problem isn't with his football skills; it lies in his interpersonal relationships, or rather, in his competition.

He had only been there for a month when people started to oppose him. There were always some conflicts, but they weren't serious. Sometimes people would call him a wild child, but he wouldn't argue back.

Until 50 days ago, that person not only called him a wild child, but also deliberately shoved him. So the honest man finally snapped and pinned the man to the ground and beat him to death.

Finally, the coach made a phone call to his father, who rushed over in a panic, only to be involved in another car accident that took his life.

At this point, Zhang Kuang couldn't help but burst into a tirade: "Besides car accidents, can't you come up with any other kind of 'accident'? Don't you know how? If you don't, just say so!"

What happened next is clear: Zhang Kuang was expelled and banned from competition for 5 years.

What should be done about an arrogant 18-year-old who can only play football but has been banned for 5 years?

After receiving 200,000 yuan in compensation from his father for the car accident, the much older coach, Wu Guohua, suggested that he go abroad.

But he doesn't know anyone abroad, how can he get out of the country?

Wu Guohua's suggestion was: go out first, then find a local football agency, give them an agency fee, and let the agency help him arrange trials with teams.

If he can successfully complete his trial during this winter transfer window, he will have successfully gone abroad to play.

If he fails the trial training, Wu Guohua suggests that he use the remaining money to enroll in a car repair training course.

Wu Guohua suggested that he come to France, as Ligue 1 is the weakest of the top five leagues, making it the easiest to get started, and it doesn't require a work permit.

Of course, he couldn't get a trial in Ligue 1, but he might succeed in Ligue 2. After all, Zhang Kuang's skills are decent, otherwise he wouldn't have made it into the U20 team. What level of skill is "decent"?

Wu Guohua believes he is not much worse than Wu Lei from Shanghai.

Fortunately, I didn't learn much about other aspects of culture at the football training school, but I did manage to improve my English to the point where I could barely communicate.

That's what gave him the courage to go abroad.

He'd only been here three days, and he'd just made an appointment with the [Sport Cover] football agency tomorrow to discuss agency matters. And today just happened to be the day of the Paris Saint-Germain vs. Saint-Étienne match, so he came to watch the game.

I never expected that the developed West would be so chaotic. I was robbed after being knocked out of the room right after watching the game.

And so, the arrogance of 2027 traveled through time.

Okay, the cause and effect have been sorted out, and nothing inappropriate, such as a fishy liquid, has been found.

Let's talk about the system he saw. He was lucky; he got the system after transmigrating.

But unfortunately, he obtained two... no, two halves of a system. One of these systems is called the "Dual Cultivation to Immortality System," which is supposed to send him to cultivate immortality on some other continent, specifically to the Hehuan Sect.

Another system is the "Hard Work Pays Off" system, which allows players to train diligently, earn training points, improve their skills, and eventually become a football king.

Both are good systems, both are excellent.

But the key point is that now both systems are half gone, and then they've strangely stuck together. What kind of system is this?

The key question is: is it even useful? And how do you use it?

For example, the "Heaven Rewards Diligence" system only introduces: "Heaven rewards diligence; you gain experience points through training. Every minute of effective training earns one experience point, and every 10,000 experience points can be converted into one skill point..."

And then? And then there was nothing more. Oh right, there was something else.

The article introduced what top-tier, first-tier, second-tier, third-tier, and fourth-tier competitions are. Everyone knows this, so there's no need to explain it further, right?

Top-tier competitions: Champions League, European Championship, World Cup

First-tier competitions: English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A

Tier 2 competitions: English Championship, Portuguese Primeira Liga, Dutch Eredivisie, Russian Premier League, Brazilian Serie A, Argentine Primera División, Turkish Super League, etc.

Tier 3 competitions: English League One, German Second Division, Spanish Second Division, Italian Serie B, MLS, J1 League, Belgian First Division, Ukrainian Premier League, Liga MX, etc.

Tier 4 competitions: English League Two, Chinese Super League, Saudi Arabian League, K League 1, A-League, Brazilian Serie B, etc.

There are also introductions, such as his data as a forward: shooting 70, positioning 56, heading 54, speed 78, explosiveness 71, physique 63, passing and receiving 57, dribbling 58, defense 43, ball control 57, free kicks 51, mental strength 62, vision 59.

These are the main statistics for a forward. His stats are pretty good; he has a 70 in shooting alone, and his speed and explosiveness are also decent.

But upon closer inspection, something's not right.

How come his overall rating as a striker is only 60.74? As a winger, his rating is only 59.74? And as an attacking midfielder, his overall rating is only 55.8?

Didn't he already have shooting, speed, and explosiveness all above 70?