Chapter 312 - First Session Of Training With The Team.
In five minutes, Felix and the rest had reached the VR training building that appeared more like a standard modern ten-story structure.
"Go to your rooms. I will send you the invite in two minutes." George informed them while entering one of the many rooms in this building.
Sasha, the a.s.sistant instructor, followed him inside and closed the door behind them.
Upon seeing so, everyone split up and went to their designated rooms. Each room had only ten beds placed next to each other. Five on one side and five on the other.
Since the paint was white and the bedsheets were also white, those rooms truly appeared like hospital wards.
After Felix laid on one of the beds, he closed his eyes and logged in to the UVR. He then went to the Ivy League city"s teleportation circle and used the invitation link of George.
Soon, his body disintegrated and was constructed in George UVR"s room.
The moment he opened his eyes, he found that George was in the process of modifying his room to the Galactical Elemental Football Stadium.
Honestly, he didn"t need to do it manually as he could request the Queen to copy-paste the stadium here.
Obviously, all of those modifications done weren"t cheap. Felix knew that after the modification, the Queen would calculate the length, height, width, thickness, and added detail from the basic white room.
Then, she would smack George with the bill of the modification. For an Elemental football Stadium, the bill could reach up to millions of coins!
Nevertheless, the modification would remain permanently until George decides on remodeling again.
This was the reason Felix preferred using the Training Center rooms instead of his UVR"s room. It was much cheaper as he only needed to pay 200k or so for a year.
However, UVR"s rooms were also not useless as the owner could invite as many people as the room could fill. This made it the perfect training ground for teams, hosting wild parties, and such.
If it wasn"t for the ESG Organization knowing that the price of hosting the World Compet.i.ton inside those rooms would be too much to stomach, they would have done it already.
In their eyes, it was better to use an Earthling forest than spend tens of millions to recreate one in the UVR"s private room.
Even if they destroyed the real forest, they could always recover it using the cheap resources of the UVR.
Currently, George had most likely been given a budget by the ESG Organization to recreate the map games in his room and use them as training grounds.
It was a hundred times better than training in reality as those juniors could get hurt, killed, and have their energy wasted each time.
While it was good for the rest of the team, Felix would have a big problem to deal with.
That was teleportation fees!
Felix couldn"t possibly be teleporting from the Ivy League and George"s room every day since the fee was 200 GP, not 200 SC.
Felix wasn"t planning on wasting that kind of amount to practice with the team every day.
Thus, he swiftly sent George a mind message since everyone was already in the room. "I will practice with the team today, but I will not be showing in the practice runs for the next week since I have some business matters to take care of in the Mariana Empire."
George immediately stopped his modifications and turned to glance at Felix.
Seeing that he had a forced smile and a sincere look, George knew that Felix didn"t just want to skip practice to laze around.
He spent enough time with him to understand that if Felix ever felt lazy he wouldn"t even bother to lie as he would say so to his face.
However, it was still quite irresponsible for the team captain to skip a whopping seven days of practice.
Not to mention, they were the first-ever days of practice. He knew that would leave a bad impression on the rest.
"I don"t mind, but make sure to act sick or something." George shrugged his shoulders and sent a message, "Otherwise, it might appear like you are putting your private matters above the team and the planet. No one will like that."
"Don"t worry. I will take care of it." Felix smiled faintly as he nodded his head in appreciation.
This was why he was glad that George was their main instructor. They spent enough time together to form a bond.
If it was any other instructor, they wouldn"t hesitate to reject Felix"s request.
Although George fulfilled all of his requests, Felix knew his limits.
Thus, he planned to spend those days practicing the three tail techniques in Silver Hammer school until he wouldn"t need the instructor to fix his mistakes.
Then, he could start training them in the Training Center in the Androxa Capital. After all, the machines or the Monkey Path weren"t unique designs or such. They could totally be recreated in the center.
Just like that, Felix would be training his tail techniques while not missing his team"s daily practices since the teleportation fees would be just 200 SC.
After a couple of minutes, George dusted his hands after placing the final touches in the stadium.
Felix, who was sitting on the l.u.s.trous green gra.s.s of the field, turned his head around in an attempt to inspect the erected stadium.
Well, it shouldn"t be called a stadium since George had just copied the football field and not the spectators" seatings to save costs.
The football field was the same as earthling"s football field besides some exceptions.
Firstly, the entire field was encased inside a humongous gla.s.s dome, making it impossible for the ball to leave the field.
This meant, in the Elemental football, there were no throw-ins or corner-kicks!
The players could hit the gla.s.s dome with the ball and it would return to the inside keeping the game in play.
This dome was placed since the players" strength was more than enough to kick the ball out-bound every time they attempt to kick.
Secondly, there were four transparent small domes at the corners of the fields. Their size was big enough for five people to lay down.
Naturally, those were the "healers clinics" inside the match.
Thirdly, the goalposts were a lot bigger than the earthling known dimensions (7.32m x 2.44m).
It was made as such to make it easier to score goals. Especially when there were Eelementalists that could create walls, barriers, and such.
The material used for the field was natural gra.s.s that was tough enough to handle some elemental abilities.
If an area got destroyed, the gra.s.s could recover to its previous state in mere seconds. After all, it was going to be impossible to play in a ruined field.
Clap Clap!
"Alright, gather around me." George clapped his hand twice to attract the team"s attention who was spread in the field, touching here and there.
After they grouped around George, he snapped his finger and created a large basket filled with white b.a.l.l.s stripped in black and had an SG logo on them.
He lifted a ball and placed it under his armpit. He looked at the team and said, "In my team, I never pick the strongest member but the most useful member depending on the situation."
"So, you can expect that I will be replacing the main team members with reserve members incase they demonstrated better results than their peers."
Well, Felix and the rest of the national team weren"t surprised as they expected nothing less from George.
After all, he willingly kicked Amelia from the national team and kept Nathan even though she could totally win against him.
However, the rest had different reactions as the reserve members were clearly more excited and appreciative while some members from the main team didn"t seem like they liked George"s method.
Not bothered by their disgruntlement, George threw the ball to the ground and said, "The first practice will be for testing your current football skills without the use of elemental abilities." He shrugged his shoulders, "Since I am not really a football coach, the Organization is going to send a coaching team tomorrow to take care of your football drills."
Naturally, The ESG Organization wasn"t going to make a total amateur like George teach the team how to play football properly.
It wasn"t just football but any other sport that he had no experience in. The team needed professional help and the Organization was going to provide nothing but that.
Sasha stepped forward and said while pus.h.i.+ng her gla.s.ses upward her nose, "Me and Mr. George would be mainly responsible for figuring out the best use of your abilities in the field. So, you can expect that some of you will be natural strikers while some will be best for defending."
"Alright, let"s begin!"
After saying so, George snapped his finger and they were all teleported in front of the Goalpost.
Then, he went to place the ball on a white circle that represented the penalty kick.
"Captain Felix, how about you kick off the practice with a goal?" George grinned widely while pointing at the empty goalpost.
"Why not?" Felix smirked confidently and broke off the pack, heading to the ball.
After reaching it, he tried to lift it with his foot for a quick dribble. Alas, he hit it barely twice before it fell to the ground.
"Cough, it"s a bit difficult to control my strength for a soft dribble." Abashed by his trash skills, Felix swiftly created an excuse for himself.
While the girls curled their lips in scorn at his excuse, the boys didn"t dare to comment as they were planning to use the same excuse when they fail as well.
Unbothered by those looks, Felix fixed the ball on the white circle and stepped a few meters back.
After glancing down and noticing that his shoes were for running and not football, he opened the VR store and did quick browsing.
Upon seeing this sight, everyone realized that they were unequipped to play football. Even George!
Thus, they all started browsing for shoes. As for the outfit? The sports outfit they had was good enough.
Meanwhile, Felix had just picked black shoes and closed the window.
"Let"s start with 80% strength."
After making up his mind, Felix took a deep breath while narrowing his eyes at the ball. It appeared like it was zoomed right in his face.
After marking where he would be kicking, Felix sprinted in those few meters for momentum and swiftly kicked the ball with his footbridge.
He couldn"t miss the ball with those eyes of his!
PEEENG!!! WHOOs.h.!.+
Alas, scoring a goal was a completely different matter as the ball had struck the upper metal post and flew into the sky!
"For real?" Stunned, Felix"s widened eyes kept following the flying ball as it traveled in its journey.
Everyone else was also paying attention to the ball with lips parted slightly in disbelief.
They could see that the ball wasn"t heading to the gla.s.s ceiling but the other side of the field!
The more they looked at its path the wider their eyes got. They knew what was about to come and they didn"t dare to believe it.
Alas, the ball didn"t care about any of their thoughts as it simply landed on the ground and bounced twice before smas.h.i.+ng into the net of the other goalpost!
Dumbfounded and quite speechless, everyone started glancing between the ball lying on the net"s embrace and Felix"s stupefied expression.
However in a split second, Felix coughed twice and said nonchalantly, "Just as planned."
He then walked back inside the pack with his hands in his pockets, completely erasing the memory that he had just missed an empty goalpost.
"Shameless!"
Everyone scoffed at Felix"s attempt to play it cooly. But, they didn"t dare to mock him for it since he still ended up scoring a goal!
George didn"t know whether to laugh at Felix"s garbage aim or applause at his G.o.dly luck. Whatever it was, this goal was the perfect one to kick off the practice!