It had been over ten minutes since the statem notified Dave of his failure to complete the quest, and the goalkeeper had been unable to accept that as a fact since then.
His teammates didn't hold back in expressing their admiration because of what he was able to pull off, but none of that seemed to matter to him at the moment.
He was in the goalpost at the moment to practice his goalkeeping against his teammates who were trying out shots from twenty-five yards out.
Well, that was what he was there to do, but so far, he had just been standing there without paying any attention to the balls continuously flying past him. One of the balls even got close to hitting him, but even with the quick gush of wind dashing past his face, he didn't react.
'I mean it doesn't make any sense.' He said inwardly. 'How did that result in a quest failure?'
He had been complaining in his thoughts for a while now, and the whole time, Catherine had been surprisingly quiet.
'You're seriously not going to say anything about this?' He asked, obviously referring to Catherine. 'Say something or I'm just going to assume that this was your doing.'
<Uhhh…what do you want me to say?> She sighed.
'Huh? You might think I'm just whining, and the rewards are indeed nothing to me now but if I don't get to the bottom of this now, it's going to happen again.'
<There's nothing to get to the bottom of, Dave>
'And what is that supposed to mean?'
<The reason why you failed the quest is clearly written there. It said to complete the drill in exactly one minute, but you completed it in fifty-nine seconds>
'And I'm saying that doesn't make any sense; you don't fail for finishing an hour exam a few minutes earlier.'
<I understand what you mean, but it's not my fault, and there's nothing I can do about it>
In response to that, Dave couldn't help but let out a deep sigh.
'I honestly feel like this system has been pulling pranks on me lately, and for some strange reason, it all feels like your handiwork.'
<Well, too bad I don't have anything to do with it>
"Hey, Dave, I'm sending this one to the top right!" Roland yelled before he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying toward the goalpost.
There was no reaction from Dave once again as the ball freely glided toward the top right corner and ended up hitting the crossbar before flying over.
At this point, the fullback seemed to have had enough, and with a sigh, he turned to Minino and Mateo who were standing beside him.
"Are you guys sure he's okay?" He inquired.
"Well, something's clearly bothering him," Mateo said.
"Hmmm, I guess I have no choice but to give him a wake-up call then."
With a mischievous glint on his face, Minino pushed the ball he was holding down under his foot forward.
There was no hesitation in his steps as he quickly closed up on the ball afterwards and sent it flying straight toward Dave.
"Minino?"
He thought a good smack from the ball would be enough to call the goalkeeper back into the real world.
However, just before the ball could make contact with the goalkeeper, he stretched both of his arms and caught it.
"What are you trying to do?" He asked, shooting Minino a sharp gaze.
"Oh, looks like you're back now." The midfielder uttered with an awkward smile.
"Seems so," Dave responded with a forced smile.
Wanting to give Minino a taste of his own medicine, he threw the ball into the air before firing it straight toward the midfielder.
He had to quickly duck to avoid the ball which was carrying quite the force.
"Calm down bro." Minino quickly surrendered, both of his hands in the air.
Seeing that, Dave couldn't help but smile before slowly sitting down on the floor.
"I think I'm perfectly calm."
'I've been standing for quite a while now.'
<Without doing anything>
__________ __________
The Unique FC squad didn't get to train for too long today, and that was because Norman wanted them to get sufficient rest before their game on Thursday.
However, before that, he wanted to talk about their game plan for the match.
At the moment, the players were sitting on the floor, forming some sort of curve while staring at their coach who was standing in front of them with a tablet in his hand.
"I took out my time to study how the Real Sociedad squad plays, and that is why I have concluded that we will be going into the game with the four-five-one formation.
<Hmm, I don't think he or his squad, in fact, has any experience with this. It can be tricky unless he's planning to do what I'm thinking>
'And what are you thinking?'
<Decoy midfield>
"I know you aren't used to this formation and we haven't had any notable practice for it beforehand. However, you'll have to let me explain, and by the time I'm done you'll see that it isn't much different from what you're used to."
"Hey, if we're going to play with five midfielders, does that mean you're getting benched?" Minino leaned closer to Mateo to whisper.
"You don't know this, but I started as a midfielder at the Academy; I did well in midfield before my coach decided it would be better to use me more offensively," Mateo responded.
"Not to mention, coach has played him in midfield a couple of times. Good results were obtained out of those." Ferran chimed in.
"Uhh…looks like you're the one in most danger of getting benched, Minino," Roland remarked.
"Seriously? I just asked a question and you all turn against me like this." The midfielder sighed in defeat before slowly bringing his head down.
While the players were chatting quietly amongst themselves, Norman was busy adjusting certain things in his strategy, and now that he was done, it was time to move on to the next part, the starting lineup.
"Fred will be starting upfront as usual and Ferran will be backing him up from behind as the attacking midfielder. As for the central midfielders, Mateo will be starting on the left and Merino on the right."
Hearing that last part, Mateo turned to Minino with a smile, and the only thing the midfielder could do was roll his eyes.
"We'll have to keep defense tightly sealed for this match, so we'll have Frankie and Minino helping out the defense at the back."
A smile suddenly lit up on the face of Minino just after hearing that, a smile that quickly turned into a smug expression as he turned to Mateo.
"Looks like I was worried for nothing."
"Yeah, did you really think you weren't going to start in a match like this?" The youngster retorted.
"Oh…" Minino muttered in realization as he slowly turned away from him. "That makes sense."
For defense, there wasn't much to talk about, Aima was starting alongside Adolf as always, and Roland was on the left wing of defense.
The only chance was Luis Roberto starting in place of Norman.
Lastly, Dave was the only one for the man in between the sticks.
That was it for the lineup, and the only thing left now was for Norman to explain how he was going to make the most of it in every aspect of the upcoming match.
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