Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 4



Only Krnovel

That day was just like any other day, an ordinary day.

Life teacher Eom Seok-dae (not his real name, but we all call him that) was writing something down in front of the blackboard, saying it was important and that it would be on the test, and the students who were studying hard followed Eom Seok-dae and wrote things down in their notebooks.

Other friends either put their phones away in their desk drawers or stared blankly.

There was no one sleeping. This class was the famous Eom Seok-dae class. Even the world’s best bullies didn’t sleep in front of Eom Seok-dae class.

What am I doing?

Of course I’m staring blankly.

The black one is the writing and the white one is blank paper…

Knock knock-

It was at this moment that a small crack appeared in my ordinary daily life. How dare you open the front door while Eom Seok-dae is teaching?

“Sorry about interrupting class, teacher.”

The man, who neither combed his hair nor looked particularly dignified, was wearing a tracksuit. He was obviously middle-aged, and looked to be the same age as Eom Seok-dae.

The chalk crackled and broke as Eom Seok-dae looked at the intruder.

“Yes. What’s the matter?”

“I heard that there is a student named ‘Kim Min-woo’ in class 3 here. It’s important, so I need to talk to him for about 5 minutes.”

As I was watching from a third-person perspective, I felt like I had been struck by lightning.

I was just chewing popcorn and absentmindedly watching other people’s business, and then it ended up becoming my own business.

“···But who are you?”

“Ah. I’m the soccer club coach.”

An ordinary Eom Seok-dae would have been angry at this intruder who interrupted his class, but he showed weakness to an adult of the same age.

His answer was to blink and then nod.

“Yes. Take him. Kim Min-woo! I’m looking for you!”

“yes···.”

I dragged my chair back and got up from my seat. Why was the soccer coach suddenly calling me? I had recently become interested in soccer, but there was no way the soccer coach would call me for that reason.

As I walked forward, all sorts of thoughts crossed my mind, but I couldn’t figure out why he had called me until I heard something from the director.

“Are you Minwoo?”

“yes.”

“Okay. Follow me.”

I left the classroom and followed the director’s back. I felt a little bit liberated after leaving the classroom during class time.

The coach opened the wooden door that said “Soccer Club Coach’s Office” upstairs and invited me to sit on the sofa.

I did what the director wanted.

The director sitting across from me introduced himself.

“My name is Yoo Jin-ho. I am the soccer coach of Suyang High School.”

“Oh, yes. But why me, Director?”

“You. Did you recently play a game with a junior from the soccer club?”

Oh, that?

“Yes, right?”

“That junior praised you a lot. He said you were better than the goalkeepers in the soccer club.”

At that moment, I realized what Director Yoo Jin-ho was thinking and shook my head.

“It’s just a hobby. I don’t plan on doing it seriously.”

“Haha. You’re really smart, aren’t you? You can tell by the way you cut me off before I even say anything.”

It’s obvious. Seeing you suddenly call me out and say something like that.

Of course, I swallowed those words.

“But I didn’t come here to suggest that you play soccer properly. Isn’t it too late to suggest that to a second-year high school student who is one year away from taking the college entrance exam?”

I stared intently at Director Yoo Jin-ho’s face. It was a signal for him to speak next.

“Can you stand as a mercenary for just a moment?”

“···yes?”

*

During the next break, I also talked to Kim Jun-young, a first-year junior I had been dating. He came to me first and confessed various things.

“Brother. I’m really sorry. It was all because of me…”

“I’m sorry. From what I’ve heard, that director seems like a son of a bitch.”

“······under.”

Perhaps that director happened to watch that game.

The story went like this.

The coach severely reprimanded Kim Jun-young for never being able to get through to me, a mere student, and Kim Jun-young, who had a lot of things built up, exploded with emotions and blurted out what he had been thinking inside, then left the soccer club.

But the story did not end here. It was just the beginning and was still ongoing.

“So, is it true that two out of three goalkeepers in the soccer team were injured?”

“Yes. I think the coach suggested you to him because they had to play a practice match and they didn’t have enough players. Normally, he would have just put you in as a field player goalkeeper… I think he called you in because of this.”

“And you’re running too? You said you came out?”

“The coach called me in separately. He asked if I would regret quitting soccer like this. He said that if I was really going to quit, I should play one last time. Prove it or something. Damn, I have this idiot mentality.”

“Then. Are we on the same team?”

“Yes, maybe.”

“That old man is hitting the nail on the head.”

“Yes. He’s a real tough guy. He has a lot of pride.”

I smiled bitterly.

“You too, you have a deep story. I don’t know whether to call it luck or not.”

“Huh? Hey, no, bro. You don’t have to be sorry. Even if that kid says shit, he doesn’t say anything wrong. Yeah, if you’re going to do it, then-”

Kim Jun-young mumbled and muttered as if he had taken my words completely differently.

I stared blankly at Kim Jun-young, who was talking hard. Should I call him dull or should I say that he was really working hard at soccer?

‘In my opinion, you are a lucky guy.’

A special trajectory that only I could see.

Because it seems like this has been activated since meeting the director. In a way.

[Nominate your running mate!]

Before my eyes, I saw letters that looked like they came out of a game.

It’s neither augmented reality nor an illusion.

It was the reality that was visible to the eyes.

*

In fact, the director spoke a bit nonsense.

I’m not asking you to take football seriously at all, we have two injured goalkeepers so can you step in as a stopgap, that’s all I’m asking for.

Of course I refused.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not even at the level of a stopgap goalkeeper, and I have to study.”

“40 minutes will do. Okay. I’ll give you ten thousand won as mercenary fee. Do you know that the hourly wage is less than ten thousand won these days? Okay?”

“Uh, um···.”

To be honest, I was tempted when they said they would give me ten thousand won. So I was about to reluctantly accept, but out of nowhere, words appeared before my eyes.

[Director’s suggestion!]

[The high school football coach has offered you a mercenary job. If you accept, Football Manager will start. If you decline, the trial will end.]

“Huh!? What is this!”

When I was startled and jumped up like a spring, the director in front of me was also startled.

“Why! Why! Why! What! Oh, this is surprising!”

“Can’t you see this? This? The letters?”

“What? What words?”

At that time, I was so surprised that I pointed to the letters right in front of my eyes. Of course, Director Yoo Jin-ho looked at me like I was looking at a swindler.

“Hey, is this how you reject someone these days? You’re really MZ. You’re MJ. Young and Jet. Yeah?”

“Ah, uh, that, that’s right. Oh. Just a minute.”

I closed my eyes tightly and then opened them.

Nevertheless, the letters were clear. They were so vivid that they could not be erased even if you waved them around with your hand.

[The director’s patience is reaching its limit. Five seconds left until rejection…]

[4···3···2···1···.]

As I watched the numbers dwindle, I became impatient and shouted.

“Ha, I will do it!”

“uh?”

“Ha, you said so! That’s a mercenary!”

So I decided to try my hand at being a mercenary.

What happened after that?

[You have started Football Manager.]

[The GK position has position correction. You can nominate a running mate to grow together.]

It feels like experiencing some kind of virtual reality game 50 years earlier.

Afterwards, after a conversation with Kim Jun-young, I decided to nominate this poor guy as my running mate. Right before the game started.

“Hey. Do your best. Junyoung’s balls will depend on how much you do.”

A guy on the soccer team who was in the same grade but not close to me whispered that to me.

I nominated Kim Jun-young as my running mate without responding.

Okay then.

[Striker position ‘Kim Jun-young’ is designated as the running mate. From now on, ‘Kim Jun-young’ will be assigned the role of a substitute player.]

[Semi-players are granted a growth efficiency of approximately 30% compared to players.]

[If you are no longer on the same team as your running mate, your running mate designation will be canceled.]

[Playing with a running mate grants an additional 5% growth.]

[Training with a running mate grants an additional 5% growth.]

[Running Mate ‘Kim Jun-young’ acquires the trait ‘Progressive Stamina’.]

The letters pour down like rain.

And by this time I was starting to get a little scared.

‘I don’t really have schizophrenia or something, do I?’

I swallowed hard and checked what ‘progressive stamina’ meant. It was easy to check, but I just wanted to check it out, and new letters appeared explaining it to me.

[Characteristic: Increased Stamina]

[Description: Stamina increases slightly.]

[Effect: Stamina stat +2]

==

I don’t know if this will actually work or if it’s just an illusion, but what do I have?

[Characteristic: Eye of Yasin]

[Description: You can preview the trajectory of the shot heading towards the goal.]

==

“ah.”

So, the thing that was given to me as a trial version is my ability.

In that case, it is very likely that the running mate and characteristics given to Kim Jun-young will be activated in real life.

I have already seen the effectiveness of this ability many times.

Beep-!

And then the whistle blows.

It’s after school now.

This match was an internal practice match for the Suyang High School soccer team, but unlike the phrase practice match, there was a referee and a linesman. One of each.

They are not professional people, they seem like fellow students. Or maybe they are coaches.

‘Okay. Let’s focus on this first.’

In fact, I’ve been thinking about this outrageous thing all class, but I haven’t gotten much out of it.

Let’s play a game first, and then think about it again. I don’t know if thinking about it will make any difference.

***

Kim Jun-young ran around the stadium and glanced at Yoo Jin-ho.

He was looking somewhere else with his arms crossed on the track. It was the direction where the goalkeeper, senior Kim Min-woo, was.

Kim Jun-young, biting his lips tightly, continued to pace around the stadium, steeling his resolve.

Although he was an attacker, he moved around almost like a midfielder, but these days, even attackers don’t just stick to the front.

But things that happened before kept coming back to my mind.

‘I’m a crappy striker who can’t even score against normal people anyway, so why am I running so hard?’

‘What’s the point of doing well in this game? I’m going to get beat up anyway. Why am I here now? What about the resolution I made a few days ago?’

Those distracting thoughts were quickly erased by the pass forward after the second-year senior intercepted the ball.

Junyoung changed the flow of the game with one kick of a pass that was clearly coming towards him. The ball was passed to the third-year senior right next to him, and the third-year senior ran forward with the ball in his hands, making a gesture that said he would kill anyone who touched him.

‘Huh!’

Junyoung also ran along. There is no need to think when running. Even the thoughts you were having stop.

He ran to the penalty box in an instant, but unfortunately, his shooting chance was lost.

A hasty shot hit the outside of the right goal post and went out of bounds.

“Phew···.”

I shook my head and went back to my seat.

But something feels strange today.

‘Why do I feel so light?’

No, it wasn’t that I was tired, but rather that I was light. Normally, when I walk around like this, I would be out of breath, but now my breathing was steady. Why?

Are you feeling well today?

The game resumed with a goal kick and was quickly followed by an attack by the opponent.

The flow of the game where the central region is taken away in the blink of an eye and then an attack ensues.

‘Oh my god, shit.’

Actually, I expected it when I saw the lineup. That was Suyang High School’s first team lineup, and this was the second team.

It would be fortunate if we scored at least one goal, and it would be fortunate if the difference is not more than three goals.

Han Seung-woo, the opposing striker and Suyang High School’s star striker, was Yoo Jin-ho’s pride and joy as he scored many goals in matches against other high schools.

A striker who has scored 6 goals and 1 assist in 4 games so far in the National High School Football League, it is no exaggeration to say that Suyang High School’s goals actually come from his feet.

In addition, the striker who was also being watched by professional scouts was now running towards Kim Min-woo.

‘Ah. This will work.’

Even if the difference between the 1st and 2nd teams is severe, is it really this much?

Han Seung-woo’s few false steps sends the second-team players flying out of the water. They’re not in the same age and weight class, but rather the difference between middle school and high school levels.

Seungwoo Han, who created a 1-on-1 situation in an instant, narrowed the distance to the end and calmly scored into the left goal-

“uh?”

Blocked.

Kim Min-woo lay down on his side and blocked the ball with his fingertips.

I thought he had given up when he suddenly fell to the ground, but I was wrong.

“Oh. Hey. You’re right. Block it well.”

The senior attacker next to me taps my shoulder and smiles.

Kim Jun-young also laughed awkwardly.

‘What? Was he really a genius?’

End

ⓒ Doctor Am

=======================================================