26. Bluelock Man

The room was... strange.

Y/N didn't exactly know how a place like this could exist in real life. It was something out of an anime, something out of a book, out of a video game.

White walls on all sides, made from large individual panels. Each panel was moveable, able to retract from the wall in a split-second. A cannon would always follow, firing off a soccer ball into the room. As Y/N had found out, the balls could come from any direction, at any time.

There was no physical goal. Every shot, a hologram of a goal would appear on one side of the field, as well as a tall, animated figure called 'Bluelock Man'.

Y/N hadn't bothered kicking the first few balls. Instead, he was simply watching, observing how the system worked. The soccer ball was physical, and he could kick it like any other. But somehow, the holographic goal and goalkeeper could also both touch the ball, with Bluelock Man able to punch the ball aside at a level Y/N only expected from world-class goalkeepers.

There was a speed element to it. The room was quite large, and before a panel retracted and a ball shot out, a small red dot would glow on the floor, like a laser sight.

Y/N would have to dash to that dot, accelerating quickly in a completely random direction. The ball would shoot out a moment later, and he would have to trap it, before firing off a shot.

He missed the first few shots. If he didn't fire a shot within a second of trapping it, the goal would completely disappear, and Y/N would have to pass the ball to the goalkeeper and give up the attempt.

High up on the wall, a timer was counting down. Y/N had 90 minutes to score 100 goals. If he didn't he assumed his Bluelock journey was over.

Once he'd figured out how it worked, he stood directly in the centre of the pitch, waiting for a tiny red dot to appear. He was going to beat this challenge.

There! In his peripheral vision, a small red dot sprang to life, glowing on the floor. Y/N felt his feet move before he'd even registered the dot, sprinting by instinct to the spot.

He accelerated fast across the field, reaching the dot fast. It blinked out of view as he reached it, and a hatch opened up behind him at the same time as the holographic goal spawned.

The ball fired out fast, spinning in the air as it flew towards his back. He'd heard the noise of the panel, and sidestepped to one side, using the outside of his foot to slow the ball and send it up into the air.

Exhaling calmly, he moved so the goal was in front of him, and drew back a leg. He hit a clean shot, the top of his foot connecting solidly and sending the ball flying towards the top right corner.

The goalie reacted faster than he'd expected, crouching and leaping across the goal, but it wasn't fast enough to stop the ball hitting the back of the net. A small spray of digital confetti flew into the air, and high above, the number of goals needed went from 100 to 99.

"'Kay." He once again readied himself in the centre of the room, jogging over to the spot where it would be easiest for him to receive a ball. The holographic goal blinked out of existence as he did so, with the physical ball just dropping to the floor.

He waited, eyes flickering around the room.

Within a few seconds, the red dot appeared, in the far corner of the room. Y/N was sprinting for in as soon as he registered, barely making it there before a hatch opened up and the ball fired out.

He spun on the ball of his foot, doing a simple trap by tapping the ball midair. A quick glance over the room revealed the goal on the complete opposite side, and he fired a shot along the ground.

Beep! A second spray of confetti flew into the air, and Y/N felt a smile grow on his face as he made small progress towards beating the stage. The time read 85 minutes remaining.

One by one, he slowly cleared the stage. A dot would appear on the floor, and he would run towards it. The goal always came at the same time as the ball, and it was an easy task to locate and shoot.

It was an amazing simulation. Nothing like Y/N had ever seen before, with the entire thing feeling like a video game as he scored goal after goal.

Though, it didn't challenge him. It would've probably been difficult for many other people, but there was nothing to it. He didn't have to try his hardest on speed, and the goalkeeper didn't have enough skill to stop his shots.

When he'd scored thirty goals, the room kicked into stage two. The next ball that came out came from a ceiling panel, which retracted to fire a ball straight down at him.

Blinking with surprise, Y/N ducked to one side, receiving the ball with one foot as he looked around for the goal.

Before he could shoot, though, something yellow appeared in his way. He frowned, hesitating for a second, and in that time, the holographic goal disappeared and he had to concede the ball.

"Wait, what?" Y/N realised. "There's defenders too?"

He tried to conjure the brief image of the goal he'd just seen. Four yellow holograms in the vague shape of people moved extremely slowly in front of it, and Y/N assumed they would block his shots. The goal itself had also changed, with only one half of it being highlighted blue. The other half was a dull grey.

"So I have to hit it past defenders, and into that half of the goal?" He wondered aloud, even though there was nobody to hear him. "Sure."

Walking back to the centre, he took a deep breath, prepping himself. Before he could reach the middle, the red dot had already appeared in the furthest corner of the room, forcing him to run for it.

"What a mean simulation." Y/N complained childishly, reaching the spot easily. The goal popped up on a close wall to him, with a tight angle making it difficult for him to shoot, and even more difficult by the fact the highlighted half was on the close side.

The ball flew out from another hole in the ceiling, and grunting with effort, Y/N tapped the ball a little bit outwards, giving himself more space. The defenders all turned towards him.

Using the outside of his foot, he shot, putting huge amounts of spin on it. Even though the Bluelock Man had reacted faster, it didn't help as the ball curved, going into the blue part of the goal and sending up a spray of digital confetti yet again.

🥕🥕🥕

"W-wait, just how good is that guy?!"

Anri and Ego were surrounded by monitors, but both of them were just watching the one screen. On it showed Y/N, slamming yet another goal into the back of the net.

Anri nervously gulped, scratching her neck. "Ego, I turned up the difficulty by a crazy amount. Four moving defenders, half the goal size, faster Bluelock Man, and even added in the ceiling panels! Did we make this stage too easy?"

"No." Ego responded drily, both eyes fixed on the screen. "The stage is a good challenge, adapted to each person's talents."

He pointed at another screen without taking his eyes off Y/N. "For example, Kuon Wataru is being challenged on his ability to jump, with aerial balls coming at him. There is very little that stops him from scoring except his own talents."

"So why is Y/N still scoring so much?" Anri questioned. "I've added in a lot."

"The only people that will pass this stage are the ones with overwhelmingly powerful weapons, weapons that can be tested and still work even when there are obstacles." Breathing slowly, Ego explained.

"Y/N L/N is currently being tested on his agility, and reactions. It is not his main weapon, but it is the easiest to test." Ego watched as Y/N spun 180 degrees, perfectly trapping the ball under his foot before he slammed it into the back of the net in less than a second.

"Though, his weapon of agility is so powerful that it is able to get him goals, even under these circumstances." Y/N's timer read 60 minutes remaining, out of the original 90. He only had 43 goals left.

Anri hummed thoughtfully. "I see. He was the boy from Ascension, was he not?"

"Yes."

"Do you think he still remembers that?"

Ego pursed his lips, at the memory of Y/N's face completely shutting down when he'd mentioned Ascension. At the thought of the boy breaking down in the dorm room, haunted by the past. "Whether he likes it or not, he remembers everything."

"He'll remember Julian Loki, right?" Anri tilted her head. "When he passes the second selection, he'll get to meet him. In their files, it said they were best friends."

"Hm."

"Hm what?"

"If he wants to become the best striker in the world, I don't think they can be friends." Ego said flatly. "They're rivals, that's for sure. Both with incredible skills."

"They can be friends at the same time, right?" At Anri's question, the muscles in Ego's neck tightened just a bit, and he exhaled quietly. Completely ignoring the question, he gave her an order instead.

"Turn up the difficulty even more. Maybe we can give him a small challenge."

🥕🥕🥕

When he'd hit 40 goals remaining, the room changed into something called 'stage max'. Y/N froze, waiting for the inevitable changes that would make it much harder to score.

The first change was the dot always appearing in the far corner of the room. Y/N dashed towards it, only to find multiple yellow defenders blocking his path.

They followed his movements, surrounding him and forcing him to move backwards. Y/N just tried running through them, but as soon as he did, all of the holograms disappeared along with the red dot.

I have to get past them...?

On his second attempt, Y/N was once again confronted by a small army of defenders. He dashed to the side, making it past a few of them and closing in on the red dot.

It disappeared faster than he'd expected, and a soccer ball flew out of a ceiling panel, quick as a bullet as it flew straight towards the dot. He barely managed to receive the ball, and spun around to locate the goal.

The goal was different as well. Only a quarter of it was highlighted blue, with the rest of it being greyed out. Defenders crowded both him and the goal area, a few actively moving towards him while others attempted to block off his shot course.

He tried a shot. It didn't go very far, as two yellow defenders moved fast into the way of the ball, knocking it to the side. Y/N swore harshly under his breath as the holograms disappeared to signal he'd failed that attempt.

"No way other people are going through the same room as me."

He breathed slowly, trying to keep calm as he walked back into the middle of the room.

Within his first ten steps, the red dot appeared, this time on a wall. Y/N froze momentarily, not expecting it, and in that time he was swarmed by yellow holograms. They covered all his movement routes, making it impossible for him to even run, and he couldn't even get close to the dot before he'd failed the attempt. "What the fuck?!"

The red dot appeared again, on a different wall. Y/N reacted fast, dodging past the first few defenders that came barrelling for him, and ran for the wall. Another defender literally threw its digital self in front of him, and Y/N jumped, barely clearing the yellow hologram.

With a dull thump, the ball was fired again, spinning as it hit the wall directly where the red dot was. It bounced off, and Y/N was forced to leap a second time, using his head to keep the ball close to him.

The defenders were perfectly in sync, seemingly all controlled by the same AI. In a real game, defenders would slip up, leave gaps, and double up over each other. But these bots were perfect, three of them attacking Y/N while more moved to block his shot.

"Not quite perfect..." He spat out through clenched teeth. Taking a second touch with his foot, he knocked the ball backwards, briefly escaping the defenders.

The goal was well open, but the blue highlighted zone was covered by two yellow holograms. Y/N aimed for the grey zone, his mind working furiously as he calculated angles.

He fired off a shot, the ball spinning between two defenders' heads. It curved mid air, bouncing off of a goal post, and barely, just barely clipping the edge of the blue zone.

Y/N was rewarded with a small spray of confetti, and he let out a relieved sigh. "I can do this..."

He turned to walk into the middle of the pitch, taking a few seconds to catch his breath and completely ignoring the next red dot that sprang to life. "Only..." Y/N's face dropped. "39 more...?!"