Chapter 92 A Certain Level Of Control
After saving that penalty kick from Kim, he was less nervous about penalty kicks but facing a penalty kick against someone like Fernandez would sure get him riled up but given the fact that this was happening in his dream, he wasn't exactly feeling any pressure and in fact, He felt a little confident that he could stop Fernandez from scoring.
The referee blew his whistle as Fernandez slowly took three steps backward before racing toward the ball.
He sent it flying toward the left side while Dave dived toward the right side.
"Oh, Dave's gone the wrong way and that's a goal!" Jim exclaimed as Fernandez raced toward the sidelines to do a knee slide with his teammates quickly heading toward him and the crowd screaming in joy.
"Sometimes I can't help but feel surprised by how real a dream can feel," Dave said as he looked around the full stadium with his hands on his waist.
'There's that carefree attitude of yours again, if this was a real match you would have a devastated look on your face by now.'
"That's the difference Catherine, it isn't a real match and no matter how much I try, I don't think I can feel bad about conceding a goal in my dream especially when it came through someone like Fernandez from the penalty box," Dave said.
'You have to make it feel real if you want to get the point behind the match, this is a Champions League final and although it's in your dream, you should treat it like one that's the point of the whole exercise.' Catherine said.
"I'll try," Dave said, looking around once again.
The match had resumed after his conversation with Catherine in his subconscious mind.
Unique FC had kept the possession for a little while before attempting an attack which resulted in them losing the ball.
"Oh, that was a terrible mistake from Mateo," Jim said.
The ball was stretched to Asensio from the box and all he needed to get rid of Jonas was pace with a little touch of skill.
"Wonderful dribbling from Asensio," Steve commented.
Asensio couldn't run into the box and shoot because he had Adolf blocking his way, but there's always a better option.
He found Fernandez in the box and although he was being marked by Aima, who crossed the ball low to him.
Fernandez found his way past Aima to get to the ball and send it flying toward the top left-hand corner with a single touch.
"Fernandez!" Jim exclaimed.
Dave dived toward the ball and managed to get the tip of his left glove on it but that wasn't enough to stop the shot as the ball smashed past his hand and fell into the back of the net.
"Of course, he's put it away, that's why he is what he is!" Jim screamed enthusiastically.
Fernandez didn't even get the chance to leave the spot as his teammates quickly gathered around him and pulled him down right there inside the box.
"Come on." He sounded a little frustrated as he sat down on the floor.
His main reason for being like that wasn't the goal, sure he was a little upset about the goal but the main reason why he was upset was that he tried using his ball magnet and it didn't work, if the skill had worked, he was certain he would have ended up pushing that ball out.
"Does my system not work in my dream?" He asked as everything that was going on paused for the moment.
"It's your dream, you can bring anything to live here," Catherine said as she slowly appeared in front of him. "You can make anything happen."
"Then why didn't my ball magnet skill work when I tried to use it?"
"You didn't let me get to the but part."
"But part?" Dave said with a confused expression on his face.
"Yeah, it's your dream quite alright but you wouldn't have control over it like this if it weren't for the system," Catherine said. "And for that, I have a certain level of control over things here."
"You're the one that stopped the skill from working." He said in realization.
"Nice guess." She smiled.
"Why would you stop my skill from working?"
"So that you can stop depending on them all the time." She said, "Yes they are part of who you are now but you don't have to be fully dependent on them, your stats are good now and you're still improving, you can be a top-class goalkeeper even in the absence of these skills."
"But they are part of who I am now so why wouldn't I depend on them?" Dave asked.
"Because they will disappoint you in certain situations and then you'll have to depend on your normal abilities as a goalkeeper."
"Disappoint me, you mean like fail to work?"
"Yes." She spelled out.
______ ______
"Well, the only way that Unique FC's current squad is by a miracle." The goalkeeper muttered as he slowly opened his eyes. "We tried our best."
<Yeah, you tried your best by conceding two goals>
'It's not my fault that our defense wasn't able to keep up and two of the goals were even own goals.'
He picked up his phone from the little cupboard below and checked the time to see that the time was 4:55 AM.
'And I've only been in there for thirty minutes.'
He tried to get off the bed but just as he made a little move, Emma pushed her body closer to his and tightened her arms around him.
"Where are you going?" She muttered with a sleepy voice and for a second there Dave thought she was awake until he took a closer look at her and listened carefully to see that she was still fast asleep.
He slowly removed her arms from his body before slowly slipping out of the bed to avoid waking her up.
After successfully getting off the bed, he slowly made his way out of the room.
'In my mind, it feels like I've only been asleep for thirty minutes but I don't feel like going back to sleep again.' He said subconsciously as he walked toward the room where he had dropped his backup freezer.
<Because you've gotten enough rest and besides it's almost 5:00 PM, you might as well start your day early>
[ Daily quest completed ]
[ Drink two liters of bottled water ]
[ +5 exp received ]
[ 30/500 exp ]
As usual, he let the container drop on the floor to join the other five that were lying around the corners, they were there because Emma rarely visited this room.
After taking care of his easiest quest, he turned his gaze to the side where his light lifts were sitting on the metallic bench.
"An early two hours in the gym will be nice."
The time was 5:05 AM as he pulled up the door to his garage with the pair of light lifts in his hands.
He started his training with the lifts and then moved to the exercise bench for some good stretches before moving to the exercise balls.
He made sure to test out all the equipment in the gym and was running on the treadmill now as the time hit 7:05 AM.
[ Quest completed ]
[ Spend two hours in the gym ]
[ +20 exp received ]
[ 50/500 exp ]
"Woahhh, I feel awesome." He expressed as he ran on the treadmill for a few more minutes before turning it off. "Now onto the last part of my daily quest."
He made sure to pick up his running boots before heading to his gym and after putting them on now, he quickly made his way to the road.
"I feel like I can complete that six Kilometers quest now." He muttered.
<The quest will come>
[ Quest received ]
[ Complete six kilometers in not more than twenty-five minutes ]
[ Quest rewards ]
[ +30 exp ]
[ +2 stat boost to endurance ]
'What happened to the two skill points reward?'
<I don't know but look on the bright side, at least you got an exp increase>
'I wanted the skill points.'
<Just complete the quest, you'll get them another time>
'Of course, I'll complete the quest but I'll need a little more help.'
[ +4 stat points added to Dexterity ]
[ Dexterity: 32 ]
<Again> Catherine said as he quickly zoomed off well prepared to smash the quest although he wasn't getting any skill points.
***
Hope you enjoyed the chapter?
If I get up to a hundred golden tickets before the end of the month I will release six chapters on the first of December.
One more day left for the month to end.