Soccer: I became Bruno Fernandes.

Chapter 2: Training Master System

Borghetti and Ribalta quickly left, leaving Bruno waiting for his ride.

After a while, a somewhat old Renault pulled up in front of him. The window rolled down, and the youth team coach, Marlinho, called out to him, "Get in!"

Bruno chuckled, "Hey, boss! Sorry to trouble you for the ride again."

Marlinho replied, a bit annoyed, "Who else would you be waiting for here? Enough chitchat, get in the car!"

It was already evening, and the team's afternoon training had ended two hours ago. Most players had already left. Bruno had stayed behind to train for an extra ninety minutes before preparing to go home.

At this time, besides a few dedicated players, there were only some coaches and staff from the club who hadn't left yet.

Marlinho had a great appreciation for the young man in front of him. Not only was Bruno technically skilled and intelligent on the field, but he was also humble and had a good personality off the field. He had recommended Bruno to the first-team coach, Petit, more than once, but Petit hadn't responded.

Marlinho found this puzzling.

As a former player who had won the club's first and only Primeira Liga championship, Marlinho had deep feelings for the team. Even in the team's toughest times, he never thought about leaving. Even after retiring, he had turned down invitations from other teams and accepted a low-paying job as the youth team coach, taking on the responsibility of developing young talent for the club.

As one of the outstanding talents he had taken under his wing since joining the club, Marlinho believed Bruno Fernandes had great potential. His technical skills and vision gave him the potential to be a midfield commander, and his strong sense of responsibility made him a candidate for an excellent team leader.

Therefore, out of personal emotion, Marlinho was very keen for Bruno Fernandes to stay with the team and lead the team to rise again.

However, if the head coach Petit didn't favor Bruno Fernandes, there was nothing Marlinho could do.

Perhaps leaving Boavista to seek opportunities elsewhere was the only choice for this young man.

However, he couldn't bring himself to say it.

After dropping Bruno off at the intersection near his house, Marlinho, who had been hesitant to speak several times, ultimately didn't say anything and drove away.

...

Bruno had no idea about Marlinho's inner struggles. After bidding farewell to the respected coach, he happily headed home.

He didn't tell his mother about his upcoming trip to Italy, as the matter hadn't been finalized yet. He thought it would be better to surprise her once the transfer was settled.

After spending a week together, Bruno had truly accepted his counterpart's mother. On one hand, he had merged with his counterpart's memories and knew about the sacrifices she had made for him over the years. On the other hand, he had felt her genuine care for him during this week.

To be honest, Bruno was very envious of his counterpart having such a reasonable and caring mother.

His original mother, Ruixi, was a very strong-willed person who didn't listen to anyone's opinions. She was a complete dictator at home.

This made Bruno and his father, Pugu, quite awkward at home. Whenever they disagreed with her, they basically had to give in.

After all, they couldn't always argue with her and disturb the peace at home.

Over time, his father, Pugu, became known as a "henpecked husband," and Bruno was seen as a "mommy's boy," which was very distressing for him, especially since he had graduated from a top school in China.

But, with a mother like that, what could they do? They couldn't just disown her!

She wasn't an unforgivable person; she was just too stubborn.

...

After dinner, Bruno took his football to the streets of the neighborhood for a while before returning home at eight o'clock and preparing for bed.

For him, life was very simple; besides football, there was almost nothing else.

Although he was nominally a high school student, as a complete academic underachiever, he rarely showed up at school.

Originally, his mother had strong opinions about this and even threatened to stop him from playing football if he didn't study well. However, he retorted that stopping him from playing football would only make his grades worse. After that, his family basically gave up on his studies.

The free-spirited Bruno Fernandes almost entirely focused his energy on playing football, not only playing for the team but also playing street football in his free time.

However, even in such a laissez-faire situation, he managed to complete his basic education (equivalent to primary school in China) and three years of secondary education (equivalent to junior high school in China), and was currently studying a two-year remedial course.

Of course, his grades were nothing to write home about, especially compared to his counterpart, who had graduated from a top Chinese high school.

...

Lying in bed, Bruno commanded the system, "Old Bruno, activate sleep training mode!"

After a few seconds, the Bruno on the bed began to breathe evenly. In his dreams, he appeared on a football field with soft green turf, goalposts on either side, white lines on the pitch, and empty stands...

"Welcome to the Super Training Ground."

A mechanical-sounding voice rang out, the voice of the Training Master System.

"Old Bruno, what's the training plan for today? More keepy-uppies?" Bruno asked.

Although he knew the other party was the system, Bruno always had a strange feeling when facing it, so he continued to call it "Old Bruno," even though the system disagreed with it.

For the past week, Bruno had been practicing keepy-uppies every night.

According to the Training Master System's arrangement, except for his decent physical talent, Bruno needed basic training in all other aspects.

At first, Bruno had objections to this. After all, the original Bruno Fernandes was a world-renowned football star, known for his excellent passing and scoring abilities. If he was just average, then there were no geniuses in the world.

Currently, although he was still somewhat immature in various aspects, he was the most technically skilled player in Boavista's youth team and had even been selected for the Portuguese U18 national team.

So, Bruno thought the system was deliberately downplaying him, and he didn't need any basic training. It was a complete waste of time.

However, after battling a virtual character created by the Training Master System, modeled after him, for three hundred rounds, Bruno sadly discovered that, apart from being able to run a bit, he was indeed quite ordinary in all other aspects.

In every aspect, he was slightly inferior to the system's character. As a result, during their confrontations, he was always pinned down and had no way to fight back.

...

Having been harshly taught a lesson by the system, Bruno reluctantly accepted the basic training plan given by "Old Bruno."

After a week of keepy-uppies training, in last weekend's U19 match, Bruno truly felt the benefits of mastering almost perfect keepy-uppies: his ball control and first touch abilities had greatly improved!

Bruno started to like keepy-uppies training!

However, the system had a different answer: "After more than a hundred and eighty thousand different keepy-uppies training sessions, your keepy-uppies have reached the top level, and there's no need for further specialized training. From now on, you only need to do daily practice. Today, we move on to the next item—ball control!"

Hearing "Old Bruno's" words, Bruno was somewhat surprised but also greatly relieved.

Long, tedious sessions of keepy-uppies training really tested one's patience!

Especially when he had to do at least twenty thousand keepy-uppies exercises every night, he almost felt like throwing up!

You have to understand, these weren't just ordinary keepy-uppies; this was specialized training!

There were strict requirements for every aspect of each keepy-uppy—the method, the part of the foot, and even the height!

It was something that normal people couldn't do!

Although this training took place in his dreams, the feeling was etched into his memory, making him feel uncomfortable even after waking up!

(End of Chapter)