Chương 3: The System

The floating words disappeared and everywhere became engulfed with complete darkness.

Sung Min felt like he was lying down on something soft before he opened his eyes to see himself in a hospital bed.

'How did I get here?'

He looked around in confusion, 'I am pretty sure I died back there.'

"Sung Min!!" A familiar voice called out his name, "my dear son you are finally awake!" His mother hugged him with tears running down her cheeks. "I thought I have lost you forever."

After the hugging was over, Sung Min sat up still very confused at the whole situation.

"Mum what happened? How did I get here? How long have I been sleeping?"

Suddenly his mum started to continuously hit him on the shoulder while crying, "Why will you do that to me Sung Min, why? Why? Why?!! How could you be so selfish?!"

"Do what? What did I do?"

"Did you forget? Na-ri broke up with you so you decided to commit suicide!"

"Ehhh?!!!" Sung Min screamed in shock, "That's not what.."

"I know life has been tough for you Sung Min, but always remember, if there is no way forward for you, you can always come back to me. I do not want to lose you my dear."

"That's wrong I didn't try to kill myself.... I only slipped and fell."

"Don't try to make me feel better by lying to me!"

A nurse walked into the room, "Please go easy on him, he still needs to rest."

"Can any of you see this?" Sung Min points at the floating words infront of him that reads;

[ Welcome *Player* you have one unread message ]

His mother and the nursed looked at him like he lost some screw, "see what?" His mum replied while looking at the empty space he was pointing at.

'They can't see that?'

"You need more rest, it is even a miracle that you are still alive right now." The nurse said, then she turned to his mum, "We should leave him to rest a bit more."

Sung Min's mum nodded and the two left the room.

He kept looking at the floating words that refused to vanish no matter how many times he closed his eyes.

'It said one unread... message.. how do I open the message?...'

He lifted his hand and tapped on the message and another set of words appear.

'Wowww I can touch it, this is crazy."

The new set of words reads.

[ Welcome Player, the system will now begin the process of making you a legend.]

'Okay..'

The words vanished and another set appeared.

[ Failing to comply with the systems instructions will result in potential penalties. ]

'What is this rubbish?' It was at this point that he remembered that the voice reading out these words was the same voice he heard just before he 'died'.

[ Your rewards have been delivered.]

'What rewards?'

Another window opened:

[ Player Stats ]

☆ATTACK

* Crossing: 0/100

* Finishing: 0/100

* Heading Accuracy: 0/100

* Short Pass: 0/100

* Volley: 0/100

☆SKILL

*Dribbling: 0/100

*Curve: 0/100

*Freekick Accuracy: 0/100

*Long Pass: 0/100

*Ball Control: 0/100

☆POWER

*Shot Power: 0/100

*Jumping: 0/100

*Stamina: 0/100

*Strength: 0/100

*Long Shots: 0/100

☆MOVEMENT

*Acceleration: 0/100

*Sprint Speed: 0/100

*Agility: 0/100

*Reaction: 0/100

*Balance: 0/100

☆MENTAL

*Aggression: 0/100

*Interception: 0/100

*Attacking Positioning: 0/100

*Vision: 0/100

*Penalties: 0/100

*Composure: 0/100

There was other categories left, then just underneath everything he saw this;

[ Bonus Points: +100 ]

'It's just like a game... I guess I am supposed to use the points to fill up some of those empty categories."

Of all the things he lacked, what hurt him the most was how slow he was, no matter how fast he ran, the opposing defenders always caught up to him. Because of this he tried learning to dribble but he failed awfully at that too.

'If I was fast, I will easily beat any defender."

☆MOVEMENT

*Sprint Speed: +100

'What am I even doing? This is stupid...."

[ New Message ]

He opened the message.

[Daily training: Preparation to become a legend.]

Press-up, 50 times: Incomplete (0/150)

Sit-up, 60 timed: Incomplete (0/160)

Squat, 50 times: Incomplete (0/150)

Running, 20km: Incomplete (0/20)

¤ WARNING: Failure to complete these training tasks will result in appropriate level of punishment.

'Yeah this is stupid.' He yawned and then went back to sleep.

¤ WARNING: Failure to complete these trainings tasks will result in appropriate level of punishment!!

[ YOU HAVE 5 SECONDS LEFT TO COMPLETE THE TASKS ]

*4*

*3*

Sung Min opened his eyes with a yawn, it was already 7:00 in the evening.

'How long have I been sleeping?'

*2*

'Why is this sh*t counting down?'

*1*

*0*

Everything inside the room slowly dissolved and turned into a football pitch with the green grass, standard goal post. And a person without a face standing at the center of the post, wearing a goalkeeper's glove.

¤ PUNISHMENT: Score a penalty kick, you have 5 tried, if you fail to score 5 times, your heart will automatically stop beating.

'What? You can't be serious.' Shira looked around the empty pitch with just him and the stranger in the goalpost.

[ Penalty: 5/0 ]

"Okay this looks way too realistic to be a joke..."

He walks to the penalty box, there was already a ball sitting in the penalty spot. The ball reminded him of the ball at Kurzawa's House, the ball that made him fall off the apartment. They looked strikingly similar.

He then took some steps back, the irony of the penalty being a penalty kick made him giggle. He ran to the ball, then he struck it with all his might completely missing the goalpost.

Suddenly he felt an intense pain spread through his body, it was like he was being electrocuted. He found his knees on the floor as he cried put in pain.

¤ PUNISHMENT: For every penalty you miss, you will be punished until your last penalty. Then your heart will stop.

Another ball popped up at the penalty spot.

[ Penalty: 4/0 ]

'This sh*t is not playing around ' Cold sweat trickled down his face, and goosebumps started popping out all over his body.

'Is this where I really die because I suck at penalties, I already created death once, maybe I won't get to do it again.'

He walked to the ball and kicked it, this time, the miss was even more profound. It was miles off target. He felt the pain once more curse through his body, the pain he felt this time was twice the one he felt earlier. He fell to the floor gasping for breath as his whole body vibrated.

'I can't do this.'

[ Penalty: 3/0 ]

As Sung Min knelt on the floor with all hope lost, he started to remember his past. How he started as a footballer, how no single team would take him because of bad at it he was. How everyone laughed at him, reporters, fans, opponents and sometimes even his teamates. How he always sat on the bench watching others do what he wanted to do all his life.

'I want to play football... I cannot die yet.'

He got back up to his feet walked to the ball and kicked it, this time it hit the woodwork. He fell to his knees once more and grit his teeth in pain, the pain this time was double the pain he felt earlier.

[ Penalty: 2/0 ]

Another ball popped up at the center, he got up and kicked it, he aimed for the bottom left corner of the goal post and the ball went straight to there. The goalie followed the direction of the ball, stretched out his hand to block its path, but the ball got into the net grazing his finger tip before his hand could get to it.

[ Penalty: 1/1 ]

He feell to his knees once more, not in pain this time but in relief.

¤ PUNISHMENT: Completed. You will now be transported back.

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Chương 4: The Journey Begins

A portal opened from underneath him and he dropped into it, then the same portal opened on the ceiling of the hotel and Sung Min fell out of it, slamming his body against on the cement floor.

The nurse barged in immediately, "Are you okay? I heard a noise... Why are you on the floor?"

Sung Min raises his head to look at her, while trying to hide the pain from the fall from showing on his facial expression, "I'm okay, I just slipped and fell from the bed."

"Oh..." The nurse glanced at him, then at the bed trying to calculate how possible it is for someone to fall from such small height, and make a loud noise from the fall.

"Do you need any help?' She added.

"No... not really, I can get up just fine" Sung Min slowly staggered up to his feet and walked to the bed.

Another nurse walked in, "Mr Lee Sung-Min you have some visitors, will you like to see them?" The nurse asked.

"Sure, let them in." He replied and the nurse left, 'who would that be?"

"Will you like me to bring anything for you Mr Sung Min?" The other nurse asked.

"No, I'm alright."

The nurse walked out, then some minutes later, the door opened and his teamates trooped into the room.

"You survived you lucky bastard!" Ginjoru said with a big smile on his face.

"He wasn't lucky, he outrightly cheated death." Tae Hyun said smilling.

"How are you kiddo," the coach Kim Man-Su said as he placed his palm on Sung Min's forehead to check his temperature.

"It looks like you all are coming from somewhere." Sung Min said after observing that all of them was wearing a backpack, some was even holding a leather bag.

"Yes, we played our first game today." the coach

"First game? A pre season match? Damn... how long was I asleep."

The coach looked at Sung Min with concern, "No, not a pre season match. The season has actually started and today was our first game." Sung Min's jaw dropped.

"THE SEASON HAS STARTED?!"

"Yes, and you have been in coma for more than a month." Tae Hyun added.

"A month? Wow." Sung Min stared up at the ceiling.

"Don't worry, you didn't miss much." Tae Hyun said as some form of consolation. Then they brought out a food flask and dropped it on the table, "We bought you some food as we were coming, it is your favourite."

"Thank you," Sung Min replied with a smile.

"We will be going home now because we all are exhausted from the game, its good to see that you are doing fine. Take good care of yourself Sung Min." The coach said.

"Goodbye bro, see you later." His teamates waved at him as they all walked out of the door. The coach was the last person to leave the room, before he stepped out, Sung Min asked;

"What was the score?"

The coach looked at him, confused, "what score?"

"The game, did we win?"

"No, we lost."

The coach walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

'I need to help the team, let's see if that stat increase worked.'

☆MOVEMENT

* Sprint Speed: 100/100

He leaped up from the bed and walked out of the room.

"Where are you going to Mr Sung?" The nurse asked him the moment she saw him about to walk out of the hospital."

"I just need to get some air."

"It's 10 PM sir."

"I know, I won't waste much time."

He walked to a children's park close by, jumped over the fence because the gates were now closed.

'Let's see if those points actually changed anything in me.'

He started to run round the park in circles, by 15 seconds he hit his usual top speed. Then surprisingly, he speed continued to increase, the frequency at which he swung his legs kept increasing. He was getting faster and faster it was beginning to feel like his legs was barely touching the ground until his legs suddenly gave up and he crashed to the ground, the momentum from the run made him roll over on the floor like a car tire until his back slammed against the fence.

'Arrrggghhh" He groaned in pain while trying to catch his breath, he looked down at his leg and his knee was bruised and bleeding.

'This is insane,' While stabilizing his breathing, Sung Min didn't know if he should be happy or terrified.

'That puts me in the top ten fastest footballers alive, I can easily go faster than that.... and this is just one skill stat, what happens when I max out everything?'

He got up, jumped over the fence and went back to his hospital room.

'Is this fair? Am I cheating?'

He fell asleep with those thoughts in his head, the next morning he woke up to his phone ringing nonstop. He grabbed it to see who was calling, and it was his sister Lee Cho-Yung.

"Hello?" Sung Min said to the phone in a musky voice.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??!! I'VE BEEN CALLING YOU SINCE YESTERDAY!!!!" The pitch of her voice almost gave Sung Min temporal deafness.

"You don't have to scream, I can hear you."

"Immidiately mum told me you were awake, I kept calling you and you refused to pick. I was so worried Hyung!"

"I am sorry, I kind of forgot I had a phone."

"How are you?"

"I'm doing good."

"You decided to kill yourself because of a girl, I already told you that I am the only girl allowed to kill you!!!"

Sung Min giggled, "It's not like that, I didn't try to kill myself. I just slipped and fell."

"You've always worked hard for everything you have, and you never give up even when the odds overwhelmed you. So it was so strange when I heard that you wanted to kill yourself, I knew my Hyung will never do that." Cho-Yung quiet sobbing could be heard through the phone's speaker as she spoke.

"I'm fine now Cho-Yung, I will never dream of leaving you alone in this world."

"I'm sorry I couldn't come visit you, we are in the middle of our semester exams. I barely had time for anything else except studying."

"Then you should go back to studying, we'll speak again tomorrow."

"Okay, take good care of yourself Hyung."

"Before you go, Cho-Yung, there's something I want to ask you."

"What's that?"

"Do you think it's unfair to others if you become ridiculous good at a sport."

"Um... not really, in basketball there are 7ft players competing against players under 5ft. Is that unfair? Some people are blessed, while others aren't, life in general is unfair, so to succeed you have to work with what you are given. Why are you asking this?"

"It's nothing, talk to you tomorrow." He cut the call and relaxed his back on the bed.

[ New Message ]

He tapped on the floating screen that popped up infront of him and another window opened.

[Daily training: Preparation to become a legend.]

Press-up, 150 times: Incomplete (0/150)

Sit-up, 160 timed: Incomplete (0/160)

Squat, 150 times: Incomplete (0/150)

Running, 20km: Incomplete (0/20)

¤ WARNING: Failure to complete these training tasks will result in appropriate level of punishment.

'I worked so hard to become the best, yet I couldn't achieve that because no matter what I did I never improved in anything. But with this system I can improve in everything and actually become the best, a jack of all trades and master over all.'

He got up to his feet, 'from now all I am going to do everything in my power to become a legend using the system.'

He starts to do press ups in the hospital room.

'My journey has finally begun.'

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