章 10: [10] Tag

[Blue Lock First Stage, Commence]

[Scheduled Settlement Time: End of the First Selection Round of Blue Lock]

[Performance during this period will affect the grade of rewards and the number of reward choices available upon final settlement. Make the most of this opportunity and perform well.]

The system's voice echoed in Shinichi's mind as he reclined in his seat on the bus, eyes closed in rest. A smirk crept onto his lips.

As expected! Once the main storyline starts, the number of reward choices opens up!

"Well then, my apologies to those unlucky enough to share the same building as me. I'm going to—"

"—crush you all completely."

...

"This bodysuit is ridiculous," Shinichi muttered with disdain, eyeing the strange patterns on the navy-blue garment. Reluctantly, he pulled it on.

"Player X, ranked third in Building 5, with an individual Class ranking of 243. What nonsense," he scoffed, utterly indifferent to the placeholder ranking.

Take Isagi's building, for instance.

Ignoring Kunigami, who clearly wasn't in the weakest category, even players like Barou Shoei, with their personal skill levels, wouldn't rank below the likes of Zantetsu or Reo.

Yet, they were grouped into the X building.

It was clear that while the groupings might show some disparities in overall strength, each room deliberately included a standout player.

Otherwise, clustering all the strongest players together would defeat the purpose of the selection.

"Yo, looks like everyone's here, 'diamonds in the rough,'" Ego's lethargic face appeared on the room's screen. "The people in this room are both your teammates and your rivals for improvement."

"I've personally quantified your abilities through my arbitrary bias and ranked you. Those numbers on your suits? The bigger they are, the worse your rank. Simple and easy to understand."

"Rankings will be adjusted based on the results of training and matches. The top five will automatically qualify to participate in the U-20 matches."

"Oh, and one more thing—anyone eliminated from Blue Lock will never have the chance to join the national team."

Shinichi sneered.

In this world, his previous country remained a complete mess when it came to football.

It could even be said that the country had practically abandoned the sport.

He had no intention of indulging in some absurd patriotic fantasy of revitalizing football there.

Even in basketball, a sport with only five players on the court, one weak link could make it almost impossible to win a championship.

Football, with its 11 players, was even less forgiving.

Reviving a nation's football scene through the efforts of one individual?

Utterly unrealistic.

For example, take basketball in that country. They once had an NBA star who managed to carry the team for a while, but even he couldn't shoulder the burden forever and eventually broke under the pressure.

Once he retired, the team reverted to its former mediocre state.

The same principle applies to football. Without the entire nation making it a priority, a single person could never achieve anything meaningful.

Shinichi had no intention of stepping into such a hopeless situation.

Of course, he also had no plans to play for this country or compete for its glory.

There were plenty of nations that could qualify for the World Cup, and in the end, he could simply choose whichever one suited him best.

As long as he was strong enough, there would always be countries willing to naturalize him as a foreign player.

This so-called "threat" of exclusion from the national team meant nothing to him.

Besides, it wasn't even up to Ego to enforce.

The football association wouldn't listen to him, and he didn't have the authority to make such decisions.

For instance, what if a player eliminated from Blue Lock went on to excel in the future, winning countless honors in Europe's top five leagues?

Could they really stop him from joining the national team?

It was nothing more than scare tactics, a bluff to manipulate naive kids who didn't know any better.

"As I just mentioned, football is a sport for egoists. If you want to succeed here, you need to embrace selfishness. Now, we'll conduct a test to measure just how selfish you are."

"Alright, it's time for a game of tag."

A football dropped from above, and Ego began explaining the rules: "You have 136 seconds. Whoever touches the ball becomes 'It.' When the countdown ends, whoever is 'It' is eliminated and sent packing."

"Oh, and handballs are strictly forbidden. If you touch the ball with your hands, it's an instant Game Over. That's all." With that, Ego's face disappeared from the screen, replaced by a simple drawing indicating who was currently "It."

"I guess I'm 'It,' being the lowest-ranked player in the room," an unremarkable player muttered bitterly, walking toward the ball.

But before he could reach it, Shinichi stepped in his path, picked up the ball, and started juggling it effortlessly.

"Huh? You…" The unremarkable player stared in disbelief at Shinichi, who had stolen the ball. The screen promptly updated to show that Shinichi was now "It."

"I thought I'd at least have to put in some effort, but it looks like no one's even trying to take the ball…" Shinichi said lazily, juggling the ball without a care.

He glanced around the room, tilting his head. "Looks like I really hit the jackpot—stuck with a bunch of idiots for teammates."

Ignoring the angry glares from the others, Shinichi placed his foot on the ball. "Did I say anything wrong? In a game of 'Hot Potato,' the goal is to keep passing the 'potato' to the next person, avoiding it as much as possible. That's what you're all thinking, isn't it?"

Seeing no one refute him, Shinichi shook his head again, wearing an expression of utter disappointment, as if lamenting the hopelessness of his teammates.

"How foolish. While 'Hot Potato' does involve some strategic play, it's largely a game of chance, relying on the random variable of when the music stops."

"Do you really think a facility designed to select the strongest striker would use a luck-based game to eliminate people?"

"The moment that guy set a countdown timer on the screen and announced the exact time the game would end, this stopped being anything like 'Hot Potato.'"

Shinichi pointed to the screen above, where the timer had already ticked past a minute, leaving only 50 seconds remaining. "Whoever gets hit by the ball becomes 'It.' In other words, in this game, only the person with the ball has the right to attack, while everyone else is left with no option but to dodge."

"In short, this is a completely asymmetrical survival game, like Dead by Daylight!" Shinichi laughed loudly as the clock ticked down to 20 seconds. "And how could anyone let someone else's actions decide their fate?"

"As a striker... you naturally need to keep the ball under your control until the very last moment and let your own shot decide the outcome of the game!"

With 10 seconds remaining, Shinichi finally started moving with the ball.

He dashed aimlessly around the room, chasing anyone who dared approach him, but strangely, he made no attempt to kick the ball.

Is he just a loudmouth fool?

This thought crossed more than one person's mind in the room. But the next moment—

Shinichi suddenly flicked the ball into the air and leaped after it himself.

2 seconds remaining!

In mid-air, Shinichi twisted his body dramatically, nearly horizontal, and performed a spectacular 180-degree volley shot.

The ball flew like a bullet and struck someone hiding in his blind spot behind him, leaving no room for doubt.

At the exact same moment, the countdown ended. The large screen displayed the identity of the unfortunate person who had become 'It' in the final second, perfectly timed to the game's conclusion.

"What? I… I'm eliminated? Why? Why?! Why did you shoot me? I was already hiding behind you! I was just one step away from surviving! There are players ranked lower than me, aren't there?! Why did you eliminate me?!"

The eliminated player knelt on the ground in disbelief, ignoring the blood streaming from his nose as he howled in frustration.

Shinichi scratched his head. "Isn't it obvious?"

As the player turned his gaze toward him, Shinichi shrugged nonchalantly. "There are 12 people in this room, which means one person had to be eliminated, leaving 11 behind."

"And the fact that we were divided into groups of this size—12 players per group—matches a particularly significant number in football. Do I need to spell it out for you?"

"This means, whether I like it or not, the remaining players here will be my teammates for the foreseeable future."

"Then why eliminate me?! If it's about having teammates, wouldn't it be better to keep the stronger ones? We're in the weakest group, Building 5! If your teammates are weak, won't it make things harder for you? Besides, my rank isn't that low! Look, it's only two places below yours—"

"I don't care."

"Huh?"

"I said I don't care. These rankings? They mean nothing to me."

"In the end, I'll be number one, so it doesn't matter how strong or weak my teammates are."

"If I have to rely on good teammates just to avoid elimination when playing against a bunch of high schoolers from a football-weak nation, then I have no business aiming for the title of the world's best."

Shinichi stepped closer to the eliminated player, his dark eyes like unfathomable black holes.

The intensity of his gaze was suffocating, forcing the player to look away, unable to meet his eyes. "I just don't like the idea of having deadweight in the group. My movements in the last 10 seconds weren't aimless."

"While I was chasing others, I was also observing all of you—your positioning choices, spatial awareness, strategic thinking, and so on. Out of everyone, there were three people who, at least in this game, I deemed unfit to stay and deserving of elimination."

Shinichi pointed to three players in the group. Surprisingly, none of them were the one who had been eliminated.

Without dragging it out, he continued, "But in the final moments, I changed my mind. I noticed something about you. While some others showed slight lapses, only you were standing there with a smug, self-satisfied look, convinced you had already passed, even gloating at others' misfortune."

"In the most critical moments of the game, while the match was still ongoing, the whistle hadn't blown, and the outcome was undecided, you… had already decided you'd won."

"You! You completely let your guard down. Was it because you were behind me? Because I wasn't chasing you? Because you thought the distance was safe?"

"In the final, most critical moment, the moment that determined life or death, you relaxed. Someone like you, who gave up trying at the very last second, who disrespected their own fate…"

"You're an eyesore. That's why I changed my mind. If you don't care about your own future—"

"Then let me be the one to destroy it for you!"