Chapter 613: World Cup Preparation

It was Hiro’s first time meeting him and immediately after seeing him, Hiro couldn’t help but feel a sense of foreboding creeping on him.

For a brief moment, Hiro felt as if he witnessed something sinister in his eyes.

[Ding! New Quest Unlocked]

While Hiro pondered about the sinister gleam he had noticed, the notification buzzed in his ears. Hearing the notification momentarily distracted him.

‘A quest?’ Hiro felt a little baffled.

Even though the quests were randomly assigned to him, he couldn’t help but feel curious every time he heard the notification.

From the timing of the notification alone, Hiro could tell that it had something to do with the towering figure with an intimidating gaze before him.

“It must be your first time meeting Hiro, right?” Endo kept the flow of the conversation.

Yamada briefly rolled his eyes at Hiro, sizing him up, and nodded, “Yeah. But I’ve heard about him.”

[Dethrone The King]

[Requirements: Generate more chances and provide more assists than Yamada]

[Duration: Until the group stage of the World Cup]

[Reward on Completion: Your skill “Lightning Steps” can be upgraded]

[Failure: None]

Basically, it was a duel. As for the rival, he was pitted against, it was the absolute ace of Japan and the man who had come close to winning the Ballon d’Or: Kazuki Yamada.

Well, the two played almost similar positions. So, it was rather inevitable for him to be pitted against him. If Hiro wanted to claim the position of ace then Hiro would have to dethrone the current ace- Kazuki Yamada.

The content of the quest failed to surprise Hiro.

With an indifferent attitude, he began to ponder, ‘Having completed more chances than anyone, Yamada had the most assists in Europe’s top five league the previous season. If it was a competition based on goals, I might have been able to complete the quest. But chances creation and assists… It’s going to be difficult.’

Yamada was the type of midfielder who excelled in passing. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Yamada had maxed out his passing stats.

Pondering Yamada’s passing, Hiro felt a sudden surge of curiosity. Hence, he decided to use his skill “Magic Vision” to satiate his curiosity. Although he didn’t feel optimistic about it. ‘Magic Vision!’

Hiro willed in his mind and stared intently at Yamada.

[Insufficient Authority!]

[The player is of a high level! Unable to view the stats!]

[Please upgrade the skill to use the skill.]

Seeing the floating text before him, Hiro let out a sigh, ‘Well, I had expected it somewhat.’

Hiro wasn’t surprised by the outcome. After all, it had happened several times before. Usually, this either happened when he tried to peek at the stats of a high-caliber player or something unfortunate prevented him from taking a peek.

Letting out a sigh, Hiro dejectedly shook his head.

“Is something wrong, Hiro?” Yamada who happened to catch a glimpse of him asked.

Instantly, Hiro composed himself and said, “Ah! No… I just couldn’t help but wonder why the coach hasn’t arrived yet.”

Indeed, now that Hiro mentioned it, the others couldn’t help but feel curious about it. Nanami was indeed taking rather long to arrive.

Driven by their curiosity, the topic changed and they began to talk about the coach.

After a while, some bootlickers arrived and started spewing words of flattery. They praised Yamada and talked with their sugar-coated words.

Uninterested in their words of flattery, Hiro silently faded into the background.

Soon enough, everybody arrived and the pitch got rather noisy with all the idle chatters of the players. Even Yuya, the one with whom Hiro had competed for the prestigious prize didn’t seem interested in Hiro.

In the presence of Yamada, Hiro had turned into a mere background supporting character. Well, even though Hiro was a rising prospect, he couldn’t compete against Yamada in terms of fame.

One was an absolute ace recognized by the world while the other was a regional superstar. Due to Yamada’s performance in the previous season, he was even regarded as one of the contenders for the prestigious individual prize- Ballon d’Or.

Although they failed to lift the Laliga title, they did win the Champions League and the Copa Del Rey. And he had performed well in almost every single tournament.

Soon, Nanami arrived and everybody gathered around him.

“On my way here, I came across an interesting article,” Nanami began to speak in a relaxed manner.

Hearing him, the players looked at him with dumbfounded eyes. They couldn’t tell what he was talking about.

Walking back on forth, he kept talking, “The article was describing the favorites to win the tournament. There were a few mentions of our nation as well.” freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

Halting all of a sudden, he rolled his gaze to the players and swept his gaze, “Do you know what the world thinks of us?”

The players could only stare at him without being able to speak. Some shook their head while some remained indifferent about it.

“Even though they acknowledge the depth of our squad, they still think of us as underdogs rather than contenders for the title,” Nanami exclaimed.

What’s there to feel bad about it?

Why is he overreacting?

Upon hearing the words of Nanami, many couldn’t help but feel as if Nanami was

exaggerating.

Noticing their lukewarm reaction, Nanami couldn’t help but feel infuriated. They weren’t

even furious that the world was mocking them.

He couldn’t find any thirst for victory from them. Furrowing his brows, Nanami growled, “So, you all are okay even if they’re mocking us by saying that you have an impressive squad but you’ll never win. Are you all okay?”

In Nanami’s opinion, one of the main reasons why Japan couldn’t reach the semi-finals or finals despite having a competitive squad that could go against the likes of Germany, Spain, and other world-class countries was because they were okay with their performance.

As long as they played well, winning or losing didn’t matter to them. They clearly lacked a thirst for victory. They weren’t desperate enough for the victory.

He held no doubts about their performance but he held huge doubts over their mentality.