Bab 2: A Game of Tag
"Now, time for some tag."
In that singular moment, the expression on Ego's face was so disturbing that even Dennis felt worried. The intentions behind those words were no good; something was telling everyone in the room that this game of tag would be special.
Indeed, it appeared so. On another screen inside the room, the timer was set to one hundred and thirty-six seconds, and the main objective of this game was survival. To achieve that, you shouldn't be the last one to touch the ball until the game is over.
By the way, another detail to be noted on the screen was the rank and player it showed. Dennis Kemp, the German's full name, was finally revealed. The brown-haired was also "it." Was it a coincidence since he was ranked 300th? 'I don't think so.' Kemp said in his mind.
The ball was dropped in the center of the room, exactly where Dennis was standing, as Ego continued to explain the rules. The German technically caught the ball barefoot, showing the excellent control he had.
"Excellent control, Dennis Kemp. Let's see how you deal with the situation and prepare yourselves for the battle. This is no ordinary game of tag." The screen shut itself, and silence returned to the room.
Anyone would expect Dennis to act up instantly and shoot at someone else while they were unconcentrated, so everyone in the group of eleven was tensed up. "Of course, this isn't your average game of tag... " Kemp muttered to himself in German, "If you stay it until the end, you're out of the project."
He juggled with the ball,
'What the fuck is he doing?' Everyone was shocked by Dennis's actions; the dude was literally playing with himself.
"Hey! We are supposed to shoot at each other." Kunigami was the first to remind the German roommate; his righteous persona didn't let him just look over this. Since he was a foreigner, he might not have understood what Ego said.
Dennis looked up and said, "Yeah, I know. But don't worry, I have time. I'm just looking for the highest-rated guy."
Rensuke flinched and also looked around; he wasn't the highest rated, but who was? Kunigami's eyes met with the white-haired guy, Ryosuke Kira; he was rated 289th, and in this room, he had the highest rating.
"Do you guys seriously believe in this thing? About representing Japan, he is just bluffing, right?!" On the other side of the room, the brown-haired fellow was trying to calm down the chaos. But secretly he wanted to just escape the room; unfortunately for him, it was locked. "Damn, it's locked..."
"Good thing; I don't really care about representing Japan, haha. Anyway, it's time to start, and I can't let myself loose." Dennis spoke jokingly, but in the end, his face turned serious. His eyes were locked on the number 289.
"Dude, we can work this out; we are teammates; we have to stand together; we're like Reese's Pieces!" Kira said nervously when he noticed Dennis' eyes on him. "We ca-"
The brown-haired German raised a finger, a single one, "There is only one person who is over the limit. A team can only have eleven players, meaning someone has to be kicked out." He said, before stomping on the ground and kicking the football toward Kira with his right foot with great force.
The air whizzed by, and the trajectory was perfect. Its speed was so high that Kira couldn't even blink or shield himself; it hit his right thigh and almost knocked him off balance. "Ouch!" He felt the pain.
'Fuck! This guy is nuts!' Why would he kick the ball with such power when they were already in a close environment? "Are you crazy?! It could've hit me in the face!" Kira was at a loss, his thigh was burning.
"No hard feelings, mate! But we've got to do all we can to survive!"
Kira ran to the ball, "I won't let anybody else destroy my future in two-minute games of tags!" He looked for the person who had previously shot him. Dennis was at some distance from him, but that didn't stop him. "It wasn't me who started this!"
The ball was sent flying; unfortunately for Kira, he didn't hit anybody else; it was off the target. 'Fuck!' He cursed and ran after the ball; others, meanwhile, were running away as far as they could in this close environment. 'I'll definitely get that guy!'
"Gotcha!"
"What the hell?!" Yosuke Kira was tacked to the ground by someone else and wasn't allowed to stand up. "Hey, you can't be doing this?!" The person was grappling with him, especially on the legs, and not letting him move.
"Why not? We are not allowed to touch the football with our hands only, right?" Dennis already thought Meguru Bachira, the shorty with long hair, was the oddest person in the room. He didn't even know his name yet, though. But his sleeping on the floor was enough.
"How do you even know that!? Weren't you sleeping?"
"Hehe, you see, I have a very good ear-" Kunigami approached the two wrestlers and with brute force separated them, saying, "I hate these dirty methods; let's fight fair and square."
Meguru was disappointed in Kunigami. "Well, aren't you a goody-goody?" However, Kira was grateful for him, the latter wanted to thank him for that,
But Kunigami slapped his hand away, "Save those for later; don't waste time, or you might actually get kicked out." Kira nodded and again continued to chase the ball.
Meanwhile, the timer was running down; it was exactly 1:30 on the board, and Kira had reached the football at 1:27. His speed was good, but his mind was in total chaos. Was he disoriented? Maybe; Dennis couldn't really say. These people should've supposedly played on nationals, in front of hundreds of people.
'Is he still after me?' The German could see how angry Kira was; besides, the way he placed his foot next to the ball before kicking it only indicated that he was the target. However, this was already predicted, 'You'll have to trick me before I predict what you do.'
The ball moved past him and ricocheted off the person next to him; it was the dark-blue-haired boy with blue eyes. "Isagi! I'm very sorry, I aimed at him!"
'That's becoming way more interesting than I thought it would be, so what are you going to do, Kira?' Dennis had seen those two talk to each other before, and he had no idea if they were former teammates, but they knew each other for a fact. 'What is HE going to do?' Dennis' eyes moved to the person named Isagi.
Isagi lacked confidence, the ego that Jinpachi was searching for, so this facility should give birth to the boy's ego. Currently, there was still time left, and Isagi hoped that others would tag people instead of him doing it.
"Nothing personal…" Muttered the blue-haired boy before kicking the ball and hitting the German.
'I feel like these people hate me; what did I do, I don't understand.' Dennis lied to himself this time, as if oblivious to the situation. Everyone was thinking this guy was the craziest; he was juggling the ball when there was less than a minute left on the timer.
"Hey! You can't have all the fun." Meguru Bachira jumped in and stole the football when it was in the middle of the air. Dennis had to admit that this pipsqueak had the flexibility and the speed of a cheetah, and was jumping around like a wild animal.
'This guy is more nuts than me; he just tagged himself.' Dennis narrowed his eyes,
Buzz cut exclaimed, "No! This guy again." Meguru was moving toward him, and he was scared to get kicked out of the competition. "No, I won't go back to the temple! I won't!' He was shouting internally.
Meguru kicked the ball!
"Yes!" said Buzz Cut as he jumped in time to avoid the ball. "Take that; now there's only half a minute!" However, another shot never came, which was weird. Then he saw that he wasn't the target.
Meguru Bachira was also aiming at the highest-ranking person in the room. The German grimaced. He liked the way this guy thought. It was a brilliant mindset that he could respect; more people should be like him. "You are picking on me again!"
"Haha!"
Meguru laughed as he sprinted and got closer to Ryosuke despite dribbling with the ball; those were some quick legs. Bang! The little guy still had considerable strength in his legs, and there was the loud noise of the flesh hitting the football.
Swish!
"Fuck!" yelled Kira as a football smashed into his shoulder. The timer now had 20 seconds displayed, and it wasn't the best situation for him. What could he do at the moment? His hands were tied; he could only hope to tag someone else. By this time, he was enlightened enough to understand that this game was actually going to cost him a big opportunity.
"Rahhh!" Yosuke finally lost it and didn't care who he would hit, he just wanted to survive until the end.
15 seconds on the display, and Kira was still running around trying to get good footing and definitely hitting. "Sorry, Isagi!"
"Ah!"
Isagi attempted to jump away, but Kira shouldn't be underestimated; he is a very talented footballer indeed. His shot touched Isagi; it just scraped, but it still counted, as the display now switched to the blue-haired boy. 'No! I can't let that happen!'
Dennis was finally into it; his heart was beating fast. Just like everyone else's, Bachira's was about to jump out and kick the ball itself! Isagi was feeling the worst right now. The betrayal didn't come from someone he didn't know, but from someone, he considered the closest in this room. 'I wanted to become a world-class striker, I don't want to be losing on the first stage of my course!'
Isagi ran as he gasped for more air; his mind turned into that of a beast. Fuck that guy; that's how his expression looked right now. The dark emotions and energy couldn't be contained in that eye, and Dennis could see how angry Isagi was.
'Go, Isagi, there are just five seconds left!' Truly, from the bottom of his heart, Dennis wanted that guy to kick Kira off the project. The white-haired guy wasn't the type of guy with whom he would get along, so supporting Isagi was the best option.
"Hehe, this is funny, isn't it?" Dennis looked down; Meguru was standing next to him smiling with an innocent smile, and he had to agree with him that this was fun. But mainly, it was thrilling.
The last three seconds were the only ones where Isagi was guaranteed to hit someone else.
Kick!
'No!' Isagi's face turned ugly at that moment; he placed his foot wrong, and due to that, the ball curved in a bad way so that it didn't hit anybody else but only ricocheted far away. 'How could I miss?!'
Before Isagi could do anything, the timer struck zero, and Kira exclaimed, "Time is up!" He fell to his knees in relief.
Bang!
Splurt!
Whistle!
The football hit Kira's face nastily, even causing him to bleed through his nose. The boy fell on his back, and he could've had brain damage due to the power of that kick sent by none other than Dennis.
"Oi! That was too fucking strong!" Someone else shouted before kneeling beside Kira to check on him.
"I know; that's why I aimed it at him," Dennis said, nodding, and before others could even say that the time was already up, the display switched from Isagi to Kira. Which was exactly what Dennis wanted.
Kira was maybe too shocked to comprehend what happened in the last three seconds, but when he got up, he stared at the screen, shocked. "This... but the time was up!"
For a moment, Dennis was really concerned, but Kira's shouting made it clear he was in good condition. 'Nah, he is good.'
The previous screen, where Jinpachi was displayed, lit up again. His expression was just as crazy as it was before that. His eyes were, however, exceptionally enlarged. "Loser, have you ever watched a football match? Otherwise, I don't know how you could be…"
Kira looked up at the screen, "The time was clearly up! This shouldn't count." He kept shouting angrily at the screen. The white-haired adolescent was not giving up on his attempts to shift blame elsewhere. He considered this type of test to be just a waste of time. "How can this even be related to football?!"
"Everything in Blue Lock is related to football, but dumbasses like you can't seem to notice the details." Ego put his hand on his forehead and scratched it while thinking. "So, before you leave, I might enlighten you more."
"That room is the same size as the penalty area. The time assigned to you for this test was the average amount of time that footballers spend with the ball during a 90-minute match. How well you position yourself in this area in this amount of time determines how good you are as a striker."
Ego's explanation still didn't satisfy the teenager, so he proceeded to bring up more arguments: "But the timer was already finished! Why am I the loser? It was definitely Isagi!" and even here, the director of Blue Lock had an answer.
"Which referee would blow a whistle exactly on ninety minutes? If you have ever watched football, you must know they will add additional time. Nobody would blow a whistle, especially in the penalty area." Jinpachi was getting tired of this, so he sighed and said his last words,
"Now, Ryosuke Kira, fuck off from my project."
The youngster was angry. He was so furious that when he bit his lips, a thin stream of blood came out. The pain was overwhelmed by his negative emotions, but for the rest of the team, it didn't matter except for Isagi. The teenager with blue eyes was still on his knees and in shock over his survival.
Moments ago, Isagi believed he was going to be kicked out, but he was saved by someone else. He despised the fact that a total stranger had to intervene to save his ass.
"Ehe, don't dwell on it!" Someone came over to him and sat down, "Results are everything here, right? So it means that we passed!"
"I can't believe… the Jewel of Japanese Football got kicked out before me." The buzz-cut guy was still out of this world; he didn't know what to think about this project just like anybody else. But mainly, their attention was still on the only foreigner in the room.
Everyone had the same thought, 'This guy… he is good.'
Meanwhile, Jinpachi Ego creepily smiled through the screen. This team had big promises; the project would have a lot more competitors than just five... The world would be witnessing new legends born from this cell.
And who was going to make them legendary?
Him.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone