We'll Win This Tournament
Soccer Genius
Effect: Stat growth speed increases by 40%.
Jung Hyuk’s forehead beaded with cold sweat as he stared at the newly acquired Soccer Genius trait.
He was flustered.
Is this even allowed?
Before the regression, Jung Hyuk had carried S-class talent for about three years. He knew exactly how terrifying that growth rate could be. He knew precisely how fast it felt.
While everyone else was pedaling bicycles, I was the only one tearing down the road on a motorcycle.
That was why the shock hit so hard. The moment he obtained Soccer Genius, the growth speed he could already feel far exceeded anything he had expected.
This is… basically me alone racing a sports car.
Jung Hyuk let out a hollow laugh and shifted his gaze sideways. The messages that had just floated up were lined up there.
Shooting has increased by 1.
Agility has increased by 1.
Passing has increased by 1.
Dribbling has increased by 1.
Individual Skill has increased by 1.
I thought I’d need at least two more matches before those went up…
Jung Hyuk shook his sweat-soaked hair and sighed.
“Aigoo. At this rate I have no choice but to run even harder than I already am. And it’s already plenty tough.”
The more he ran, the more he shone, the faster he would grow—that much was obvious. The words he muttered were half-complaint, but a deep smile had already settled on his lips.
“Ah… now I feel a little bad for the Chungjeon High kids.”
Jung Hyuk looked toward the Chungjeon High players and offered an apology so quiet no one could hear it.
“Hyung’s sorry… I’ll only score two more goals.”
There was not a single shred of sincerity in the apology.
Tweeeet!
The whistle signaling the end of the match rang out across the field. The game between Jeongun High and Chungjeon High finished in a crushing defeat for Chungjeon High.
Final score: 8–1.
Jung Hyuk scored four goals, Oh Jung-hoon three, and Lee Jin-hyung one. On top of that, Jung Hyuk had been involved in every single one of the other four goals as well.
Four goals, four assists.
That was Jung Hyuk’s record against Chungjeon High. Even though they had conceded one goal, Jeongun High’s overwhelming performance left the team in a festival mood.
Only the Jeongun High head coach kept adjusting his sunglasses, trying hard to manage his expression. He still could not stop the corners of his mouth from twitching upward on their own.
Coach Lee Jun-seok, on the other hand, made no attempt to hide how much he was enjoying the atmosphere.
“Hahahaha! Oh my, our treasure! Nothing hurts, does it?”
Coach Lee Jun-seok kneaded Jung Hyuk’s shoulders as he asked.
“Yes. I’m perfectly fine.”
“How’s the stamina? Tired? Just finish your stretching and head back to the dorm to rest.”
“I’m a little tired, but a good night’s sleep will fix it completely. You know that, right? I’m eighteen.”
Jung Hyuk answered with a wide grin. It was no joke. Being eighteen really was an absurd advantage. The same training load that would have left him unrecovered during his professional years now fully restored itself after one solid night of sleep.
So this is why they say age is a cheat code.
Just then, while sharing the joy of victory with his teammates, Jung Hyuk scanned the surroundings.
They should start approaching any second now.
He was certain. Scouts from K League clubs would begin making contact soon. In the original timeline they had only approached Oh Jung-hoon. This time they would come for him as well.
Assuming they have the eyes to qualify as scouts, that is.
Recognizing the level he had shown today would not have been difficult. Jung Hyuk’s prediction was not wrong. Scouts who specialized in approaching talented young players, handing over business cards, and marking them early would never leave someone like him alone.
And right now, scouts from various clubs were already beginning to gather around him. The Jeongun High head coach and Coach Lee Jun-seok made no move to stop them. A player from their school turning professional was a point of pride for the school. They had no reason to interfere. If anything, the relationship between high-school soccer coaches and scouts was generally amicable.
“The only ones you’re looking for are Hyuk and Jung-hoon?”
“Yes, that’s right. The others… we’ll need to keep watching a bit longer.”
The only players the scouts wanted were Jung Hyuk and Oh Jung-hoon. It was cold, but there was nothing they could do about it. Only players who stood clearly above their peers could enter a professional team. The head coach and the coaching staff knew that as well, so after a brief word of caution they stepped away for a moment.
“The kids are tired, so we’ll take them in thirty minutes.”
Once the coaches and the rest of the players had left, the scouts each held out their business cards to Jung Hyuk and Oh Jung-hoon. Every one of them tried to persuade the two with a different style of pitch.
Jung Hyuk simply stood there with an expressionless face.
They talk a good game, but in the end they’re just telling us to join their clubs under conditions that aren’t even that great.
Aside from a small handful of scouts, they all shared the same habit: dressing up mediocre contracts as if they were fantastic deals. To high-school players whose dream was simply to turn professional, those words would sound impossibly sweet.
But Jung Hyuk was a veteran.
Not even funny.
He had more than enough experience to let their words wash right over him. Still…
I’m worried about Jung-hoon.
In his first year, when his body and his game were still raw, Oh Jung-hoon had never received a single professional offer. That meant this was the first time he was experiencing anything like this.
To the scouts, Oh Jung-hoon was the easiest prey to cook.
“Hehehe! Thank you so much! I’ll work even harder!”
Oh Jung-hoon bowed at a perfect ninety degrees to the scouts. His hands were full of business cards from domestic K League clubs.
Look at him, all excited.
Jung Hyuk clicked his tongue. Showing that much excitement in front of scouts was dangerous. It was the same as hanging a sign around his neck that said “I know nothing—please take advantage of me.” On top of that, scouts in this era often tried every trick they could to lowball rookies’ contracts.
Of course, playing in the domestic league isn’t bad either…
The K League was a fine league. It was packed with strong teams—strong enough that you could call it nearly the best in Asia. Plenty of young players dreamed of playing there. The problem was making a debut. No matter how good the league was, it was still a domestic one. Stay in a small pond long enough and your vision shrinks; the senior players inside the team start to look enormous. Confidence drops, and debuts get delayed.
In reality the opportunities will mostly go to the veterans first.
That period would not last forever, though. A sharp awl always finds a way to poke through the pocket. And the Oh Jung-hoon Jung Hyuk knew was no ordinary awl.
He’s an extremely sharp one.
Still…
Oh Jung-hoon is a guy who needs to go to Europe.
Jung Hyuk wanted his closest friend to play on a bigger stage. In the past life, that friend had suffered through injuries and eventually been forced to give up soccer. This time, Jung Hyuk wanted him to become a magnificent player on the world stage. Of course he had no intention of forcing anything.
If he really wants to play domestically, then so be it.
If Oh Jung-hoon said he wanted to gain experience in the K League, Jung Hyuk would tell him to go ahead. In the end, a person’s life was theirs to decide. Even so…
I still have to tell him.
Jung Hyuk intended to make sure Oh Jung-hoon understood just how extraordinary his talent was—and that he had every right to dream bigger.
“I’ll definitely contact you! Huh? Sign a contract right now? I think I should talk to the coach first… My parents’ number? Of course I should give it to you. It’s 010—ugh!”
“Excuse me for a moment. I’ll just talk with my friend for three minutes.”
“Gyaaak!”
Jung Hyuk suddenly locked Oh Jung-hoon’s neck in a headlock and dragged him away with everything he had. He wanted to get as far from the scouts as possible. If the monster-physique Oh Jung-hoon had planted his feet and resisted, even Jung Hyuk would have been helpless. Fortunately, Jung-hoon was too flustered to fight back and came along easily.
“Hey! What the hell are you doing? Couldn’t you see I was talking to the scouts?”
The dragged-away Oh Jung-hoon finally exploded. The way he snorted like he was about to charge made him look genuinely threatening.
“Just calm down for a second and listen to me.”
Jung Hyuk soothed him with the careful air of a matador facing a bull.
“I know how desperate you are, so I get why you’re mad. But Jung-hoon.”
“What, you bastard!”
“Do you think I dragged you over here for no reason? No—let me rephrase. Do you think I pulled you out of a pack of hyenas for no reason?”
“……What are you talking about? Hyenas?”
“Coming right after the match to hand over business cards is fine. But trying to lock down a contract on the spot—does that seem normal to you? To a player who just played full time and can barely breathe? Think about it coldly for even a second and you’ll see it’s ridiculous. Even if this industry still does a lot of handshake deals, a minor like you should be sitting at a proper table with your parents present.”
“……Now that you say it, yeah. But you’re a minor too, you know?”
Ahem.
Jung Hyuk cleared his throat and continued.
“……True. Anyway, the choice is yours. But if I were you, I’d just take the cards for now and say I’ll contact them later.”
“But if I say that, doesn’t that mean I won’t be able to play in the K League later?”
Oh Jung-hoon asked with an anxious face. Jung Hyuk grinned at him.
“Jung-hoon.”
“……What? Why are you calling me like that? It’s creepy.”
“Do you want to stay in Korea?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t you want to play in Europe?”
“……!”
“I heard a rumor that overseas scouts are coming.”
“What?! Where did you hear that?”
“Shh. This is a secret. I heard it from Coach Lee Jun-seok yesterday.”
Jung Hyuk covered it with a lie. He felt a little guilty for using Coach Lee’s name, but he could hardly say he knew because he had regressed from the future.
“Whoa…… But why would he only tell you?”
“He’s been treating me pretty well lately. In private we even call each other hyung and dongsaeng.”
“Really? So when are the overseas scouts coming? Which clubs?”
“They’re coming for the final. I don’t know exactly which clubs, but from what I heard, teams from the English and Belgian leagues, Germany, and Portugal are sending people.”
“What?! Then that’s huge!”
“It is huge. Catch their eye and you can go overseas right away.”
“But…… there’s a problem, isn’t there?”
“What problem?”
“You said the overseas scouts are coming to watch the final. If we don’t make the final, there’s no chance. That’s the problem.”
Jung Hyuk tilted his head at the dejected way Oh Jung-hoon spoke. He could not understand him at all.
“Why is that a problem?”
“Huh?”
Oh Jung-hoon lifted his head and looked at Jung Hyuk. Jung Hyuk still wore an expression of pure incomprehension as he asked again.
“Why would making the final be a problem?”
Oh Jung-hoon flared up.
“Hyuk, what are you even saying right now? Don’t you know Jeongun High has never even made the quarterfinals, let alone the final? And look how many strong teams are in this tournament! The favorites Unnam High and Boeon High are both here! You seriously think our Jeongun High can reach the final in a tournament like this? Are you for real?”
At that, Jung Hyuk nodded. He finally understood what was going through Oh Jung-hoon’s mind. The guy currently believed the team he belonged to was a weak team. He believed it would be difficult to beat the schools everyone called powerhouses.
Fair enough. Jeongun High has always been a weak team.
But there was something Oh Jung-hoon did not know. He did not know just how extraordinary a player was on his own team. He did not know that a player of an entirely different class was standing right in front of him.
And now, that player of a different class answered him.
“Making the final is the bare minimum. We’re winning this entire tournament. I’ll make sure of it.”
Jung Hyuk’s eyes were filled with absolute certainty.