Intermittent applause broke out, and Ego appeared on the screen again: "That was a good show. Let me reiterate it. For all the 'talented gems in rough', here the result is the most important."
"The one who was hit last, go away, you have lost your qualification."
The NPC opened and closed his mouth, but in the end, he didn't say anything, picked up his luggage, and walked out of the room in silence.
Ego picked up a cup of coffee and took a sip expressionlessly: "But not everyone is as sharp as you, so I still have to say what I should say as a routine."
"Does anyone have any idea why the tag game was special?"
Everyone looked at each other, and finally, a blue-haired boy raised his hand: "Well, the size of this room should be the same as the size of the penalty box, and the time limit is also strange. The time left for the game is a bit short."
"Well... Hiori Yo, rank ###, it seems that not all the people here are stupid people with no brains." Ego praised rarely and raised his hand to summon a 3D projection model.
"Yes, this game is testing your ability to handle the ball in the penalty area. The person who escapes needs to have human perception, game ability, and positional sense, and the party that catches the person needs superb dribbling skills and the ability to shoot and hit the target in motion."
"And in a game, the average time each player controls the ball is about 136 seconds."
"Among them, Arthur was the first to discover this, and chose to take the risk of possible elimination in exchange for the initiative of attack, and pressed the time to the last second before shooting, eliminating all possibilities of the opponent's reversal."
"A striker is a person who is fully responsible for the goal and fights to the last second. "
"This is the desire to win that is not influenced by collective common sense, but only by self-desire. It is also what I pursue, the selfish spirit that a striker must have. "
"The world-class players you admire will fight hard with others like this in every game. How is it, the first time in your life that you risk your life? It's scary, right? When being watched by Arthur, it's like encountering a wild beast with bare hands in the wild."
"You are scared, your scalp is numb, and do you have goose bumps? But at the moment when the time is up, are you suddenly relieved? Thinking great, I am the one who stays! Don't y'all think so?"
"In the end, you stayed, and the one unlucky left, because the world of victory and defeat is so unreasonable, and you, now in this first game, are the winners!"
"Remember this feeling you have now, engrave it in your mind, and every time you taste this pleasure, it will amplify your self-awareness, and eventually you will have the opportunity to surpass Arthur and keep approaching the peak of the world's number one striker."
"Surpassing me? Good jokes."
"Arthur, considering your performance, it feels good, right? This feeling of deciding the fate of others and destroying a person's future. "
"I can't lie, it indeed does a little but—
There is no opponent worth fighting in this room, which can help me awaken at all, and I had come here to challenge the best. No matter who it is, whoever stands in my way will die, it's that simple."
"Overconfidence is stupid... But now you should stay the same, the round... Well, the time is almost up. Congratulations, you have passed the test of staying in the blue lock."
"The 11 people in this room will form a team, and from now on will be living together. You are the rivals who sometimes help each other, sometimes betray each other, and sometimes destroy each other's dreams, the X team of the Blue Lock. "
——
"Hey, hey, are you implying that we are just a stepping stone?"
"Just cause you were lucky for the ball to bounce in someone's face doesn't give you the right to judge us."
"Ye, what you think you're the main character or something!"
In a room full of training equipment, a group of people gathered together and whispered. The object of discussion was naturally Arthur, who was being tested.
"All bark but no bite?" Arthur didn't want to be surrounded and watched like a monkey in a circus. A look made the group of people scatter like birds. Only one person still stayed, without saying a word, just looking at him.
"What's the matter? "Arthur put down the dumbbell helplessly and wiped the sweat with a towel casually.
"I'm just curious, why do you play football? You seem very talented, and others must have great expectations of you."
"Other people's expectations? Who cares about them in this life? I alone am the honored one."
"In the end, it's none of their business what I choose to do. I'm just doing what I feel like. Football is thrilling now, and the Blue Lock ignites my excitement, so I'm playing football."
"But didn't you say you wanted to be the best in the world? Isn't this wish important? Is there something you haven't noticed that gives you expectations and makes you--"
"Stop, stop, stop." Arthur interrupted Hiori chattering and pointed a finger at him, "It's not that I want to be the best in the world, but that I will be the best in the world. This is a fact that no one can stop what will come true."
"So your so-called expectations, whether they exist or not, will not change anything. I only act for the 'fun' that interests me, that's all."
Arthur left with a towel, leaving Hiori alone. His family told him to "excel everybody's expectations" himself, but for him, no matter whose expectations it was, it was useless. Just seeing the word "expectation" was enough to make him sick.
As a member of a top athlete's family, their expectation for their children is to be the first, far exceeding their parental love. As long as their expectations cannot be met, the family will instantly collapse and cease to exist.
And he continued to play football in order to maintain his family. Coming to the Blue Lock was just to escape from that family, the longer the better.
But Hiori discovered for the first time that someone could ignore these things. He couldn't do it, and other so-called geniuses who were bewitched by the words of their parents and coaches, who thought they were fighting for their dreams, were just the product of others' expectations.
Only Arthur, this free man, who would not have met if he hadn't come to the Blue Lock. Maybe if he could transfer all his expectations to him. Arthur said he doesn't care anyway.