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

Jonathan LeBlanc parked his car and walked arrogantly into a training base located in the suburbs of Paris.

The venue is small, but fully equipped. It has a standard 11-a-side natural grass football field, next to which is a row of low-rise functional buildings, complete with changing rooms, physiotherapy rooms, and equipment rooms.

There were already three people standing on the sidelines of the field.

A balding man in his forties, dressed in sportswear, held a stopwatch and a whiteboard—this was Jonathan's testing coach. Beside him were two young men, one carrying a video camera, the other a bag full of training equipment.

"This is Pascal, the former youth coach of Lyon, who now specializes in assessing our players' abilities," Jonathan explained. "His reports are trusted by the scouting directors of several Ligue 1 clubs."

Zhang Kuang nodded and shook hands with Pascal.

Pascal looked him up and down, his eyebrows slightly raised—this young Asian man's proportions were indeed unusual. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, thick thighs but long calves, a typical physique that was "explosive yet agile."

"Change your clothes first, we'll start in ten minutes," Pascal said. "We'll do a full physical and technical test, which will take about two hours."

Zhang Kuang went to the locker room to change into the training clothes he had brought—pure white Nikes without a team logo, which Coach Wu Guohua had stuffed into his suitcase before he left.

"I brought these from China to France. I don't know where they came from, but I'll just wear them as is." That's what Zhang Kuang said at the time.

He stood in front of the mirror and glanced at himself—his body, modified by the Dragon Tiger Pill, stretched the ordinary training suit to a completely different shape. The lines of his shoulders, the muscles in his arms, the thickness of his chest and back…

"Damn, it's a shame he's not playing Superman with that physique," he said narcissistically, then pushed open the door and left.

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The first item: physical fitness test.

Pascal didn't waste any words and went straight to the instruments.

"First, measure static data—height, weight, body fat percentage, and wingspan."

Zhang stood arrogantly on the measuring instrument, and the numbers popped up—

Height: 185cm

Weight: XNUM X kg

Body fat: 9.2%

Arm span: 188cm

Pascal jotted down the numbers in his notebook, his expression calm. These statistics were good for a professional player, but not exactly impressive.

"Next, the explosive power test—standing long jump and standing vertical jump."

Zhang Kuang thought for a moment. With his current physical abilities, he could definitely measure some superhuman parameters, so... he should keep a low profile when necessary and just show some amazing but not outrageous data.

Having made this decision, he knew what to do.

Standing long jump: 3.02 meters

Vertical jump: 78 cm

Pascal paused for a moment.

A standing long jump of over 3 meters and a vertical jump approaching 80 centimeters—that's NBA-level jumping ability. Among football players, that's top-tier, comparable to Cristiano Ronaldo at his peak.

"Not bad." Zhang Kuang dusted off his hands after landing, his tone as casual as if he had just finished warming up.

Pascal didn't say anything, but put an asterisk next to the data.

"Speed ​​test - 30-meter sprint, 10-meter shuttle run."

Zhang Kuang stood on the starting line, and Pascal raised the starting flag.

The moment the flag fell, Zhang Kuang shot out.

30-meter sprint: 3.65 seconds

10-meter shuttle run: 7.12 seconds

Pascal glanced at the stopwatch, and this time he was no longer calm.

3.65秒的30米冲刺，换算成百米大概在10秒8到11秒2之间——放在职业足坛已经是速度型前锋的配置。10米折返跑7.12秒更是惊人，这意味着张狂的急停变向能力极其出色。

Pascal looked up and gave Zhang Kuang a serious look for the first time.

"Were these data measured during your previous training?"

Zhang Kuang thought for a moment, and there were indeed physical test records in the original owner's memories: "Three months ago, when I entered our country's U20 training camp, I took a test once, and I think it was 3.9 seconds for the 30 meters."

"3.9 seconds." Pascal repeated the number, then looked at the 3.65 in his hand, and his expression changed.

In three months, his 30-meter sprint time improved by 0.3 seconds.

In professional sports, this level of improvement is usually measured in "years". Moreover, by the age of 18, most people's physical abilities are basically set, making it difficult to achieve a qualitative leap.

But this Chinese man...

Pascal said nothing and moved on to the next item.

"Endurance test—Yo-Yo interval recovery test," Pascal pointed to the marker cones set up on the field, "run until you can't run anymore."

The Yo-Yo test is the most commonly used endurance assessment method in professional football, and it can better simulate the intermittent high-intensity running during a match than a simple shuttle run.

Zhang Kuang took a deep breath and began.

The 20-meter shuttle run, with the beeping of the tape recorder, saw the speed gradually increase.

Level 10, Easy.

Level 15, I can still keep up.

Level 18: Breathing begins to become rapid.

Level 20, Pascal's eyes were wide open.

Zhang Kuang glanced at Pascal and, seeing his expression, knew he was about to run out of energy.

Final level: 20.5

Pascal looked down and wrote a number in his notebook, then looked up and stared at Zhang Kuang with the eyes of someone looking at a monster.

Do you know what level 20.5 means?

Panting heavily, Zhang Kuang braced himself on his knees: "Does that mean my stamina is still good?"

"That means your VO2 max is close to the level of a professional endurance athlete," Pascal said. "Most professional athletes are considered excellent if they can reach level 18. I've only seen levels above 20 in players who run more than 12,000 meters per game."

Zhang Kuang straightened up, wiped his sweat, and didn't reply.

That's enough for now; remember not to perform any better in the future.

---

Next up is the technical testing.

Pascal had his assistant set up various training equipment on the field—markers, a human wall, passing targets, and a shooting speed meter.

"Controlling the ball, dribbling, passing, and shooting—four steps," Pascal said. "Each step has a scoring standard, with a maximum score of 10 points."

Zhang Kuang nodded and walked to the first location.

Pascal was quite surprised by his poor ball control, dribbling, and passing skills. He possessed top-notch physical attributes, but his technique was somewhat lacking, far inferior to European footballers of the same age.

The shooting was alright.

Pascal had Zhang Kuang stand in different positions, such as the top of the penalty area, the sides of the penalty area, and the penalty spot, and shoot in different ways—volley, push, chip, and header.

Zhang Kuang took a deep breath and began.

First goal: From the edge of the penalty area, a right-footed shot with the instep of the foot, at a speed of 122 km/h, grazed the bottom edge of the crossbar and went into the net.

Second goal: Left corner of the penalty area, left-footed shot into the far corner, going in into the net.

The third goal: From the right corner of the penalty area, a right-footed curling shot went around the wall and into the top right corner of the goal.

Fourth goal: Penalty spot, calmly slot the ball into the bottom right corner.

Fifth goal... Sixth goal... Seventh goal...

Ten shots, eight on target, seven goals.

The shot speedometer opposite Pascal showed a maximum ball speed of 122 km/h. This shot power was approaching that of a striker with a powerful shot, and his flamboyant footwork showcased different types of shooting techniques.

"Header," Pascal said, signaling to his assistant to send the cross into the penalty area.

Zhang Kuang's original base stats for headers were only 54 points, which was his biggest weakness. However, after adding points, his ability reached 79.5. He was stronger in aerial duels and aerial battles, but not in header accuracy.

However, the [Cristiano Ronaldo Heading Skill Card] rewarded by the system began to take effect at this moment. The card did not directly improve his heading ability, but gave him the "awareness" of Ronaldo-style heading - how to judge the landing point, how to position himself, and how to use the strength of his waist and abdomen to smash the ball towards the goal while in the air.

The cross came flying in, Zhang Kuang accurately judged its landing point, took small steps to adjust his position, and jumped—

His jumping ability was fully displayed at this moment, and the height of his jump made Pascal slightly open his mouth.

With the ball slammed into his forehead, he twisted his waist and abdomen with force, slamming the ball into the ground. After bouncing, the ball went into the bottom left corner of the goal.

"Beautiful!" the young assistant next to him couldn't help but exclaim.

However, the accuracy of headers is a bit low, far less efficient than shooting. It can only be said that there is great potential, but there are still technical flaws at present.

Pascal wrote 79 in the shooting column and added a note next to it: "Well-rounded shooting technique, equally good with both feet, average heading ability, but has great potential."

Next, we conducted other tests, including dribbling, free kicks, and defense. Basically, we tested all the necessary skills in the attacking positions.

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