After getting dressed in the jersey provided by the club, he made his way towards the pitch dressed in a black and blue jersey.
And as he made his way towards the pitch after getting dressed, he was greeted with yet another unfamiliar face in the pitch.
Another old man who was dressed in a grey tracksuit was seen conversing with Makoto Kenzaki, the youth coach.
“Now who is he?” Hiro blurted out all of sudden while witnessing the appearance of another unfamiliar face in the pitch.
“He’s Nozomi Kenzaki, younger brother of coach Makoto Kenzaki. He’s the manager of U-15 team of Kawasaki Frontale club. And he’s also the assistant of coach Makoto.” Mr. Musashi who was accompanying him, replied after hearing him.
Unlike Makoto Kenzaki, the manager of U-18 team, his younger brother Nozomi Kenzaki had a rather tall and emaciated body.
With a rather emaciated face with revealing cheek bones accompanied by his monolid eyes, the rectangular clean shaven face of manager Nozomi gave Hiro the impression of Frankenstein.
“Go warm up and loosen up your body.” Manager Makoto spoke as he approached him, while setting up the training cones in a zigzag pattern.
Hearing such he began to stretch his body. For about a minute, he stretched his lower body. After that he shifted his focus on his upper body for another minute. And finally for about thirty seconds, he performed an aggressive sprint to complete his warm up.
“Hiro come here.” Manager Makoto yelled while calling his name.
Just as he finished his sprint, manager Makoto called him. Hearing him calling his name, he immediately ran towards him.
“I believe you have finished warming up right? Or do you still need some more time to warm up?” Manager Makoto asked while looking at him.
“No sir! I’ve warmed up enough.” Hiro intoned in a loud voice.
“Good. Then let’s start the test without any delay. We’ll be recording your pace on and off the ball for our first test. Do you see that ball over there?” Manager Makoto spoke while pointing at the ball at the kickoff spot.
“Yes sir!” Hiro intoned while nodding his head.
“For your first test. I want you to sprint from this side of endline towards that ball as fast as you can. And as you reach the ball, I want you to again sprint towards the opposite endline with the ball without pausing in between. Do you understand?” Manager Makoto began to explain him about his first test.
He wanted him to sprint towards the ball which was placed at the kickoff spot from the endline of one side. And after reaching the ball, he was again required to sprint towards the opposite endline with the ball on his feet without stopping.
The test was designed to test his pace both on and off the ball.
‘Well apart from the length of the field, the test doesn’t look that challenging.’ Hiro thought while looking at the ball infront.
Just when he was taking the test lightly, manager Makoto added another condition.
“Also while coming back, you need to come with the ball. And do you see this cones placed infront of you?” Manager Makoto inquired while pointing towards the cones placed in a zigzag pattern.
Hiro nodded his head.
“This cones aren’t here for the show or for the next test. You need to dribble through this cones and shoot the ball inside the net from outside the box. And only after the goal lands inside the net, your time will be recorded. Do you understand??” He continued.
‘The second condition has made the test a little more challenging. But it’s still manageable if I lower my pace in between.’ He thought while looking at the pitch.
[Ding!!]
[New quest unlocked]
[Impress the Kenzaki brothers and complete the test given by manager Makoto in less than 3 minutes]
[Reward on completion: 1 golden roulette ticket.]
[Penalty on failure: deduction of 5 random stat points.]
[Note: The quest is mandatory and thus you cannot refuse the quest.]
‘What!! This freaking system wants me to sprint this whole field without slowing down my pace. If I slow my pace even for a second I’ll fall behind the time set by the system and fail the quest.” Hiro thought while contorting his face, after looking at the quest provided by the system.
While looking at the quest provided by the system, he was lost in his thoughts. And thus, for a while he didn’t reply anything at all. He just kept on staring blankly at the system notification infront of his eyes.
“Do you understand??” Manager Makoto yelled while looking at him.
“Yes sir!!” Upon hearing his voice, he came back to his senses. While coming back to his senses, he yelled on top of his voice
Even though the quest was challenging, he was prepared to challenge himself to his limit. He was prepared to surpass his limits.
Since his growth had became stagnant for quite a while, he had vowed to himself that he would take on any challenges without any complaints.
Thus, despite the challenging quest given by the system, he accepted the quest without any complaints.
Smack!!
“Good!! Then let’s start the test.” Manager Makoto exclaimed while smacking him on his back.
Along with coach Makoto and coach Nozomi, Hiro walked towards the endline of the pitch.
And as he prepared himself to run, coach Makoto questioned;
“Are you ready??”
“Ummm….” Hiro mumbled while nodding his head.
‘System activate skill focus.’
[Skill focus activated]
To immerse himself on the task infront of him, he activated the skill focus. ．𝙘𝙤𝙢
Manager Makoto then lifted the whistle hung in his neck towards his lips.
“3..2..1… Beep!!”
As manager Makoto blew the whistle, manager Nozomi lowered his head towards the stopwatch in his hand and pressed the start button of his stopwatch.
With the sound of whistle, Hiro stormed towards the ball placed at the kickoff spot.
Because of the activation of skill focus, he was solely focused on the ball infront of him.
“He truely runs like a wild horse.” Manager Makoto mumbled in awe while witnessing his run.
“Indeed it hasn’t even been 20 second’s and he’s already approaching the ball.” Manager Nozomi replied while looking at his stopwatch.
It didn’t take him long to reach the ball. Just within 25 seconds, he reached the ball.
“May be he’ll complete the test within two minutes.” Coach Nozomi mumbled while pressing the stop button of his stopwatch.
He then noted down his time on his notebook which he was carrying inside his tracksuit’s pocket.
While looking at his impressive run, coach Nozomi assumed him to finish the test within two minutes.
However, his speed decreased during his time at the ball. And by the time he shot the ball towards the goalpost after dribbling through the cone, 2 minutes 27 seconds had passed on coach Nozomi’s stopwatch.
Beep!!
As the ball landed inside the net, coach Makoto blew his whistle and ended the first test.
And as soon as the whistle sounded, he crashed down on the floor from exhaustion. Contrary to his expectation, sprinting the whole field was much tougher than expected.
His final time was 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
“Quite impressive timing for someone of his age.” Coach Nozomi mumbled while looking at his notebook.
Because of his impressive start, he had reached the ball at just 24.37 seconds. And if not for the ball slowing down his pace, he would have completed the whole test within 1 and half minutes.