Chapter 36 - 34: Let’s Eat First

Chapter 36: Chapter 34: Let’s Eat First

The match was over.

Mostar Zrinjski defeated the Sarajevo Railway Workers 3:1.

This victory allowed them to break free from a tight pack of teams with the same number of points and smoothly enter the upper half of the league standings.

Moreover, this match relieved a great deal of pressure from Head Coach Van Stiake.

During the post-match handshakes, both teams lined up to shake hands one by one.

Suk, huffing and puffing, followed at the end of the line, high-fiving the Sarajevo Railway Workers’ players.

After high-fiving Suk, Bosschenoqi turned to look at the short kid.

The little guy who had left a deep impression on him and made him look utterly miserable.

"Stop staring. We’ll win next time!"

Vukocic patted Bosschenoqi’s shoulder, consoling him.

Bosschenoqi was silent for a moment before saying, "He’s not old. He should still be growing."

"Hmm?" Vukocic was confused.

Bosschenoqi lowered his head and said, "If he gets taller, and develops physical strength and heading ability..."

At his words, both fell silent for a moment.

Neither of them dared to imagine that scenario.

But fortunately, the current Suk was still just a short kid.

"Let’s go, time to thank the fans!"

With both vice-captains absent, goalkeeper Kish served as the on-field captain.

He scooped up Suk, placed him directly on his shoulders, and laughed heartily. "Let’s give them a good look at our best player!"

Suk, who was a little afraid of heights, clung tightly to Kish’s neck, scared he would fall.

But soon, facing the enthusiastic fans, he completely let loose.

"Suk, you played great!"

"We’ll be here to support you at the next match!"

"That was a spectacular goal-line save!"

"Kish, Suk saved your life!"

Kish laughed and retorted, "I know, that’s why he gets to sit on my shoulders!"

Everyone burst out laughing.

Suk was also happily waving to the crowd.

Gaining the fans’ approval in his very first match was extremely important to Suk.

When they returned to the coach’s bench, Head Coach Van Stiake gave Suk a big hug.

Van Stiake didn’t say a word, but Suk could feel the man’s heart pounding wildly.

Finally, Van Stiake patted Suk’s back firmly before moving on to the other players.

However, he had only hugged Suk, which revealed just how much he valued and admired the boy.

"You played great!"

Kosopech walked over, extending his hand toward Suk.

Suk jumped up and slapped his hand forcefully.

"Captain, I got revenge for you, HAHAHAHA!"

Hearing this, the people around them couldn’t help but chuckle.

Mashovich couldn’t resist teasing, "Kosopech was about to go crazy from being shut down by Bosschenoqi, but you drove Bosschenoqi crazy. You’re stronger than the captain!"

Suk immediately waved his hands humbly. "No, no! The captain is the strongest. I’m just a tiny bit weaker."

Everyone roared with laughter again.

Winning a match is always a joyous occasion, especially when it was such a satisfying, hard-fought game.

They had faced difficulties and troubles, but they had successfully overcome those problems and secured the victory.

Most importantly, their new tactics had been put to the test.

Although they had only tried it a few times, its effectiveness during the match was surprisingly good.

Head Coach Van Stiake was in high spirits. With a wave of his hand, he announced, "You have tomorrow off. Training camp starts the day after."

WOOHOO!!!!——

The crowd of players cheered once more.

They left happily, singing all the way.

On the bus ride back to the training facility, exhausted from the intense match, most of the players had already fallen into a deep sleep.

Beside Suk, Modric was also asleep, his head lolling to the side.

Suk wasn’t very tired; he was a bit more energetic than the average person.

Taking advantage of the quiet time, Suk immediately pulled up his card-drawing system.

’My first card draw after making it to the Bosnia and Herzegovina Super League.’

When Suk pulled up the card-drawing system, the screen trembled slightly, then ripples spread out from the center, like a droplet hitting the surface of water.

Where the ripples passed, the system panel changed slightly.

The once-bare panel now had a special texture, with streaks of light occasionally flashing within the patterns, giving it a more futuristic feel.

’A system upgrade?’

Suk’s heart skipped a beat.

He immediately checked the system.

Overall, not much had changed, but a new page had appeared.

Before, there were a total of three pages: the personal panel, the attribute panel, and the card-drawing panel.

But now there was a new, unfamiliar panel. Unfortunately, it was locked by two thick, crossed chains, clearly in a sealed state.

Its specific functions were unknown, its properties couldn’t be investigated; it was basically in an undeveloped state.

Suk tried a few times, but found he couldn’t break the two thick chains no matter what, so he eventually gave up.

’I probably haven’t reached a high enough league level to unlock it.’

But the pleasant surprise was that as his league level increased, the system panel would also update, and more functions would surely appear.

Perhaps these new functions could even solve his problem of only being able to equip six cards at a time.

Shaking his head, Suk stopped thinking about these future issues. He needed to focus on the present.

Suk immediately pulled up the card-drawing panel and prayed silently.

SHUFFLE! SHUFFLE! SHUFFLE!

The familiar sound of shuffling and the image of cards being cut appeared.

Soon, five cards materialized before him.

There were five cards in total. A faint red glow emanated from four of them—they had to be Red Cards.

Suk checked them one by one.

[White Card (Skill Card) — Barry’s Footwork Speed. Barry, who plays in South Africa, has excellent footwork, and his ability stems from his swift foot frequency. P.S. Increases Speed by 5.]

’Useless!’

Suk rolled his eyes. Since he already had Andre’s Flying Leg, he had no use for this thing at all.

Next up, they were all Red Cards.

[Red Card (Skill Card) — Vukocic’s Archery Skill. As the core player for the Sarajevo Railway Workers, Vukocic possesses exquisite shooting ability in front of the goal, and is particularly adept at aiming for the far corner!]

Suk’s eyebrow twitched.

’Vukocic... that guy caused us a lot of trouble in the last match.’

’He can pass and shoot well, and his long-range shots were extremely dangerous.’

’Among my current skill cards, my Shooting is a bit weak. This would be a perfect replacement.’

Suk tentatively tried to equip it, and with a KACHA sound... it didn’t go on!

Looking at the card floating nearby, Suk gritted his teeth and tried again.

KACHA!

The card just wouldn’t slot in.

Suk was about to lose his mind.

’To finally get a decent Red Card and not be able to equip it is so frustrating.’

Suk immediately pulled up his attribute panel to check.

All the required values were met, except for a red ’-2’ under his Strength Attribute.

This meant his Power was two points too low.

Suk rubbed his head. He really coveted this Skill Card; whether he could score more goals depended on it.

But being two attribute points short, and having no Attribute Card, was truly painful.

Right then, Suk decided that when he got back, he would eat hard and add some strength training to his routine.

’This card will be mine!’

Suk checked the remaining three cards, and the result made his jaw drop.

Three Status Recovery Cards!

A full three of them!

’Oh, System!’

’How scared are you that I’m going to get crippled?!’

In the last draw from the Bosnia and Herzegovina Cup, Suk had pulled two. Combined with one he had before, that made three in total.

And now he got another three.

’Six Status Recovery Cards in total. Are these things really worthless now?’

Suk felt both frustrated and amused.

If they kept appearing at this rate, Suk could afford to be a little more wasteful with his Status Recovery Cards.

Around 6 o’clock, the bus returned to the training facility.

Because the team had been dismissed early, there were only a few people on the bus.

Suk, Modric, Boamei, and Skolc.

The four of them lived in the team dormitory; the others either rented or owned houses in town.

Modric woke up groggily, only to be yanked to his feet by Suk.

"Let’s go! Time to eat!"

Modric wasn’t even fully awake as Suk dragged him along, and they dashed into the cafeteria.

Suk asked for a large bowl of rice and two slices of beef.

Just as Suk was eagerly about to take his tray back to eat, someone held him back.

Van Stiake grabbed Suk’s shoulder, frowning slightly as he looked at the food on his tray.

He used a spoon to scoop out half of the rice, then added several more slices of beef and some vegetables for Suk.

"Focus more on meat and vegetables. That’s how you’ll get the nutrients you need!"

Suk had lived a hard life for too long, and his body was clearly malnourished.

Rice contains calories and can make you feel full, but it doesn’t have much nutritional value.

But Suk just loved eating rice.

Watching a huge pile of his rice being taken away, his heart bled.

In the end, Suk could only return to the table and start eating, taking a small bite of rice and a large bite of beef.

Suk had burned a lot of energy during the match, so he desperately needed to refuel.

His stomach had been growling for a while, and he couldn’t help but start wolfing down his food.

Watching the way Suk ate, Modric’s own appetite was whetted. He started shoveling food into his mouth just like Suk, and he had to admit, it tasted really good.

Just as the two were eating like they were starving, a timid voice spoke up.

"Hello, may I sit here?"

Suk and Modric looked up. The latter glanced over for just a second before going back to his meal.

With his mouth stuffed with a large piece of beef, Suk nodded nonchalantly and said, "Go ahead."

Skolc happily sat down.

Suk didn’t have a strong impression of Skolc. He looked to be around their age, about 19 or 20, stood around 175 centimeters tall, and had a lean, well-built frame, not at all bulky.

And during warm-ups, Suk had noticed that Skolc was very fast.

Although not as fast as Suk, he wasn’t much slower either.

"Your performance today was amazing."

Skolc praised, proactively trying to start a conversation.

Suk kept his head down, eating, and didn’t respond.

Skolc pressed his lips together and continued, "We have the day off tomorrow. Do you guys have any plans? Can I tag along?"

Suk continued to shovel his food.

Modric also gave no reaction.

Skolc felt a little dejected. He tried again. "I won’t be any trouble."

This time, Suk finally responded.

Still with his head buried in his food, he freed one hand, picked up a nearby fork, and tapped it on the edge of Skolc’s tray.

’Eat first!’