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"Remember, our opponents are Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, the European giants!"
"Schalke 04, right in front of us, is just a small pebble blocking our path."
"Let's walk carefully and not be tripped by them. With your strength, you can definitely kick them away!"
"Allez! Woooo—"
Bundesliga Matchday 26, Veltins-Arena.
Schalke 04 vs Bayer Leverkusen.
In the away team's changing room, Sascha delivered an impassioned speech, more excited than the players about to enter the pitch.
When the players walked out of the changing room, Sascha was still vigorously applauding, cheering them on from behind.
Hyypiä wished he could strip the training uniform off his partner, not wanting anyone to know this fool was a Bayer Leverkusen coach.
"What are you doing? Don't say you know me, it's too embarrassing."
"What's wrong? It's perfectly normal. Aren't you nervous?"
"It's just Schalke 04."
"That's still very important, isn't it?!"
Sascha felt his heart rate had already soared to 150.
The job of a coach is truly not for ordinary people.
No wonder so many world-renowned coaches have heart problems.
Even ordinary players playing FM Football Manager games get a little nervous during matches, let alone now, with every point affecting the Bundesliga title and the subsequent Champions League.
How could he be calm?
"Trust the players, they'll definitely do well, especially Lance."
"Exactly!"
Mentioning Lance, Sascha Lewandowski felt much more at ease.
Leaving aside everything else, his hat-trick against Atlético Madrid alone stunned everyone.
Could Lance still evolve in the second half of this season?
That would be truly terrifying.
Lance rested and didn't play in the last match, so today was the perfect chance to test Lance's true strength!
Had his scoring ability made another qualitative leap!
Stepping onto the pitch, the system popped up a notification as usual.
[Please select equipment template]
[Detected "Equipment Slot Trial Card" × 3, do you wish to use it?]
Trial card?
Lance then remembered that there were still items he hadn't used!
Last time, his attention was all on the templates, and he drew a bunch of useless B-rank and C-rank templates.
As a result, with only 1 equipment slot, S-rank templates were definitely prioritised.
The others were purely decorative, with no option to even exchange them for resources, just quietly rotting in his backpack.
So much gold wasted!
Later, when it was late and quiet, Lance had enough time to study the system and remembered that besides [Gold Coin Wish], there was also [Silver Coin Wish]!
One wish cost 160 silver coins, and the 1600 silver coins gifted after the system upgrade were just enough for a "10-pull."
Without hesitation, Lance decisively started the silver coin ten-pull.
[Obtained item: Substitute Paper Doll (3/3) - A × 2]
[Obtained item: Equipment Slot Trial Card - B × 3]
[Obtained item: Protagonist Speaker - S]
[Obtained item: Normal Red Bull - C × 4]
The luck was mediocre; a guaranteed 1 gold S-rank item, 2 purple A-rank items, and the rest were blue and white.
[Normal Red Bull: Speeds up stamina recovery after consumption (drinking during a match immediately restores a small amount of stamina, but the recovery effect is halved)]
[Substitute Paper Doll (Passive Item): When a potential injury occurs, passively consumes 1 paper doll to resist the injury (3/3)]
[Equipment Slot Trial Card: After use, unlocks all equipment slots for the next match, automatically expires after the match]
[Protagonist Speaker (S-rank): Activates the speaker to play the protagonist's exclusive BGM, during which rage value is locked at 100%, effect disappears and enters charging time when power is depleted; battery capacity can evolve]
Lance often surfed the internet and played many games, so he basically understood the concepts of these items at a glance.
Leaving Red Bull and Substitute Paper Doll aside for now, the Equipment Slot Trial Card looked very useful, and the [Protagonist Speaker], as an S-rank item, was simply a divine artefact.
Lance deeply understood the power of being in 100% full rage state.
Each time the full rage state only lasted a few seconds, but during that time he could always find opportunities to score.
Every goal was a crucial goal that changed the tide of the battle during a disadvantage, even affecting the timeline and changing the outcome of championships.
This was just the effect of a few seconds of full rage.
He didn't know exactly how long the "protagonist BGM" state could last, but at least it should be more than 1 minute, right?
In other words, Lance could score more than 1 goal during the invincible time!
In professional football matches, it was practically a cheat within a cheat, a nuclear-weapon-level cheat!
Football is not like basketball, where a few minutes of a small surge can lead to a comeback even after a 20-point lead.
If he led by more than 2 goals during the full rage phase, it was basically a huge advantage that locked in the victory.
The most critical thing was that it could evolve!
Lance didn't even dare to imagine, if the full rage state could last for even 10 minutes, let alone half a match, he could single-handedly lead a lower-division team to victory against peak Barcelona.
Barcelona scores 8 goals, I score 10, let's see who breaks first!
"That's a bit ridiculous! That's too awesome, my friend!"
Of course, Lance didn't need to use this nuclear weapon in the league.
The item description didn't explicitly state the CD duration for charging, and if the CD was a month or so, it would be terrible if he couldn't use it in crucial matches.
Lance simply temporarily sealed this S-rank item in his warehouse; at least for this match against Schalke 04, there was no need to take it out.
Even if the CD was only 1 day, and he could use the cheat in every match, Lance didn't plan to use it often.
Using the item too much would become boring, and if he became dependent on it, his own progress would stagnate.
Lance's ultimate dream was still to stand on the highest stage of football with his own strength, challenging his limits, not the limits of a golden finger.
This was also why he adhered to the principles of a professional player and insisted on training every day.
Lance did not give up training because of the cheat, getting stronger himself was true strength.
For this Bundesliga match against Schalke 04, Lance used 1 [Equipment Slot Trial Card] for practical testing purposes.
In the current system version, Lance could temporarily open two main template slots and 1 sub-template slot.
Main template slots could equip S-rank templates, and sub-template slots could equip A-rank/below A-rank templates.
"Let me think... [Bachira Meguru], plus [Hyuga Kojiro], and also... [Hot-Blooded Football - Raicho]."
Most football anime and game works were from Japan, after looking around, the only Chinese animation football work was "AI Football GGO," which he could experience later if he had the chance.
As for real player and legendary player cards, Lance felt they weren't very useful, or only useful in specific situations.
Equipping Antony's template, would it be consistent crushing of weaker opponents, or just spinning in circles on the pitch like a compass? It was really hard to say.
"Lance, what are you thinking about? Time to go on the pitch!"
After the players shook hands, they prepared to go onto the pitch for the start of the match.
Seeing Lance standing by the sidelines in a daze, De Bruyne patted his shoulder to remind his good brother.
"Coming."
For now, let's use Schalke 04 as a test, and see what kind of effect the first time equipping dual templates will have!