Chapter 32: Lv3 Simulation (4k Combined Chapter)

"Verification... damn, this is so troublesome."

Tang Ye grabbed his head; to verify himself as a professional player on Instagram, he needed to provide his market value data from Transfermarkt Germany.

This question completely stumped Tang Ye.

Because last season his playing time in the Dutch Eerste Divisie didn't even reach half an hour, plus Utrecht's reserve team kept training strictly confidential, the Transfermarkt staff had no way to gauge Tang Ye's potential.

Currently, the line for Tang Ye's market value displayed only two dashes.

——

That was his market value.

Verification failed; Tang Ye could only register on Weibo instead.

Verifying as a professional player on Weibo was simpler; Tang Ye took out his National Level-2 Athlete Certificate earned during middle school, snapped a photo, and uploaded it.

Half an hour later, a conspicuous yellow badge appeared on his Weibo profile.

【National Level-2 Football Athlete】

Currently, Tang Ye's follower count was still in the single digits; those were just the default followers provided by Weibo itself.

Recalling what Ale had said earlier, Tang Ye messaged Amrabat on WhatsApp to ask for a few match photos.

He compiled them and posted them on Weibo, hoping to gain some attention.

It was evening in the Netherlands; it should be early morning in China, but for some fans, whether it was early morning or not made no real difference.

Less than ten minutes after posting the photo album, Tang Ye's backend started popping up with notifications, so he quickly grabbed the mouse and opened the message panel.

【Bro, are you also a Tang Ye fan? Why don't your photos have watermarks? Can you teach me how to do that?】

【Someone else sent these to me; if you want them, just take them.】

Tang Ye was generous and immediately forwarded the few photos Amrabat had sent him to this netizen.

The other party wanted Tang Ye to teach him how to remove watermarks, but Tang Ye claimed he didn't know how, stating these photos were given to him by someone else.

【Alright, then do you have any other photos? I've been a Tang Ye fan for twenty years; I've really supported him for so long.】

Other photos...

Tang Ye scrolled through his phone's photo album.

He wasn't in the habit of taking photos to document things usually, so now that a fan was asking for pictures, he came up empty-handed.

【Wait, I'll take one for you.】

【Huh?】

Ignoring the notification sound from his laptop, Tang Ye pulled out his phone, used the front-facing camera to snap a close-up selfie, and transferred it to his computer.

【????? Wait, where did you get this photo? Did Tang Ye post this? Does he have an Instagram account?】

【Yes, yes he does.】

Tang Ye sent over the Instagram account he had just created, only to get cursed at immediately.

【A new account? Scram, you liar! Are you trying to scam money?】

Huh?

【No, this really is my account! Believe me; follow me now, and when I have more followers later, I'll follow you back and make you an internet celebrity!】

【Fuck off!】

The fan on the other end flew into a rage.

Wasn't this just that "I am Qin Shi Huang, send me money" scam?

【You're so unprofessional; if you're going to scam me, at least use an account with some followers. I'm done. I actually thought you were a Tang Ye fan.】

【No, I really am Tang Ye! Believe me, okay? Just give me a follow.】

【You're a Tang Ye fan? Then let me ask you a question: what type of player is Tang Ye?】

What type of player?

Hiss—

Tang Ye took a deep breath.

This was a question worthy of discussion.

【A ball-controlling midfielder!】

【Trying to scam people without any knowledge base! My brother Meng is a positioning-type midfielder; do you even know what a positioning-type midfielder is? He just needs to walk around on the pitch to win MVP!】

Damn, this guy is a hater!

【How can you say that!】

Tang Ye felt somewhat angry.

【I fucking run very hard, okay!】

【Using a single Tang Ye selfie to scam people everywhere; today I'm going to straighten you out. Holy shit, your profile even displays a National Level-2 Athlete badge. Haha, hilarious. My King Tang Tang Qiuwang is a starter for an Eredivisie team, and you're using a National Level-2 Athlete title to impersonate him?】

"..."

【Go wash up and sleep, you silly boy; you'll never experience the greatness of my King Tang Tang Qiuwang in this lifetime.】

"..."

Tang Ye clasped both hands behind his head.

According to the theories of Ale and Di Di Bala, creating a social media account was extremely useful for a player.

But Tang Ye's situation was a bit special.

He had too many haters!

After getting scolded by a fan, Tang Ye felt somewhat upset and went to sleep relatively early that day.

The next morning, he woke up, looked at the time showing 10:12, and saw 21 missed calls from Ten Hag.

The sky has fallen!

Today was Sunday in the Netherlands, normally a day off, but due to the match schedule, Ten Hag had swapped Sunday's work with next Monday's.

And Tang Ye's alarm only rang on weekdays; with this back-and-forth swap, he was now late.

And not just a little late—nearly two hours!

He scrambled out of bed, skipped breakfast, and rushed straight to the training ground.

"Tang, you damn fool, get over here, get over here right now!"

Before he had even fully stepped onto the training ground, Ten Hag's voice flew straight at him.

"Holy crap, hiss—"

Tang Ye took a deep breath, looked at Ten Hag's darkened face across from him, and slowly walked over bit by bit.

"Erik, actually I forgot today was training..."

"Are you trying to tell me you forgot today was a training day?"

"..."

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Screw you, so now that you can enter the canteen, you've started treating training times as meaningless, is that it?"

Ten Hag, furious, kicked Tang Ye right on the buttocks: "Honestly, the sows in the neighboring town are more diligent than you; at least they wake up on time in the morning to eat. You haven't had breakfast yet, have you?"

"Not yet..."

"I knew it, you lazy pig!"

Ten Hag was truly furious now, and Tang Ye felt deeply wronged.

Yesterday, he had been attacked by anti-fans on Weibo, causing him to completely forget to set his alarm.

"Mr. Erik, believe me, this was truly a mistake; it won't happen again next time,"

Tang Ye said.

"It won't happen again next time?"

Ten Hag looked into Tang Ye's eyes, seemingly waiting for a definite answer from him.

"Of course."

"OK."

Ten Hag nodded, pulled his phone out of his pocket,

and then played a recording for Tang Ye.

【Mr. Erik, believe me, this was truly a mistake; it won't happen again next time】

"Th-this is..."

"These are the words you told me last week, remember?"

"Oh right, and there's also the ones from the week before last."

Ten Hag played another recording; apart from the speaking speed, every other part of the sentence was exactly the same.

"..."

Ten Hag patted Tang Ye on the back: "Make up for the missed training time tonight; skip this morning's session for now, and hurry to the canteen to eat."

Watching Tang Ye's retreating figure, Ten Hag shouted after him: "The sows in Montfoort Town get up at 7:30 in the morning to eat, Tang; when will you ever surpass those sows?"

The moment Ten Hag finished speaking, Tang Ye's system reacted.

【At 37 years old, your body can no longer keep up with training and requires more sleep, but the head coach does not understand your plea; he treats you like a 16-year-old youth, unaware that you are long past that age of boundless vitality】

【Start in an Eredivisie match and achieve results (rating, goals, assists)】

Reward: Portugal Chest (Chest level is positively correlated with starting match performance)

It's here!

Tang Ye's eyes lit up, but the smile that had just appeared immediately returned to calm.

For Ten Hag to let him start in the KNVB Cup was already a miracle.

Starting in an official Eredivisie match? Don't even think about it; even if Tang Ye stopped being late every day and arrived at the training ground 30 minutes early every day, it would still be useless!

That night at 8:30, Turus and Tang Ye said their goodbyes in the gym; shortly after, Turus received a phone call from Ten Hag.

"Mr. Erik."

Turus greeted Ten Hag; the coaching staff hierarchy at Utrecht was very distinct, and as the fitness coach, Turus was Ten Hag's subordinate, and a direct one at that.

This was also the reason why Turus had not refused when Ten Hag requested him to add extra physical training for Tang Ye.

Ten Hag had timed this call precisely; he knew that at this moment, Tang Ye had just finished training.

"How was tonight's training?"

"It was alright; today we worked on strength. As you know, Tang generally doesn't resist strength training, and moreover, my training intensity was relatively low."

"Relatively low training intensity, huh..."

Ten Hag thought for a moment, then voiced the doubt that had been accumulating in his heart: "Let me ask you a question: for a player like Tang, who is only 16 years old, can we increase the training intensity?"

"No, that is absolutely not possible."

Turus shook his head repeatedly: "Mr. Erik, this isn't about me not wanting to work overtime; it's that Tang is only 16 now, his bone development isn't even complete yet, and subjecting him to heavy strength training at this stage would ruin his growth and development!"

Turus's meaning was very clear.

Tang Ye was only 16; he couldn't perform squats with over 100kg like those adult players in their twenties.

Under increased body weight, Tang Ye could lift a barbell of over 100kg.

But this would absolutely affect his future.

"I know strength training is out of the question; I'm talking about stamina, training stamina, making him run more."

"You want him in the starting lineup?"

"Ten Hag, you don't need to worry about what I'm doing; you just need to answer my question: is it feasible to increase the intensity and volume of Tang Ye's endurance training?"

"Of course it is."

Ten Hag agreed without a second thought: "As for intensity, let's leave that alone; I can increase his training volume by 10% on top of the current baseline, and as long as we do a good job with massage, he won't get injured."

"10%? No, no, no, he's only 16 years old; you shouldn't train his endurance like he's a player in his thirties; now is the time when he's best at running, so you can push the pace faster."

Ten Hag said: "You have to find a way to make that lazy pig run, understand?"

"But you're asking him to fly."

"Then make him fly!"

Ten Hag shouted, and that final sentence left Ten Hag utterly speechless.

"So you're getting anxious after all."

While Ten Hag was on the phone with Ten Hag, Fan Fan Dejiahe stood right beside him; the two were currently on the balcony of Ten Hag's home, looking out at the scenery.

"This is my first season in Utrecht; I must get everything right."

Ten Hag's expression was resolute: "Getting a team where everyone is in poor form into the top twelve of the league—Michel, you know our mission this season is arduous!"

As time gradually moved forward, after concluding the KNVB Cup match, Tang Ye felt his training volume being incrementally increased.

During this period, Tang Ye spoke with Ten Hag once about the matter of training volume; the Dutchman's response was that if Tang Ye still wanted to enjoy the privilege of exemption from cultural coursework, then he had to accept the coaching staff's arrangements.

That single sentence from Ten Hag completely checkmated Tang Ye.

The good news was that the two goals scored against Snek in the KNVB Cup earned Tang Ye 30 counterattack points in wealth, equivalent to six glasses of Grealish's draft beer, meaning Tang Ye didn't have to bear the pain brought by the endurance training.

The bad news was that the system's draft beer was essentially fortified alcohol; it treated the symptoms but not the root cause, so every night when Tang Ye returned to his dormitory, he was in a state of extreme exhaustion.

Unless he purchased Kante's hot chocolate milk.

Tang Ye really wanted to buy the hot chocolate milk, but alas, that stuff was simply too expensive!

Soon, under this new training intensity, Tang Ye, who was drinking draft beer every day, discovered a very serious problem.

The reward for the daily mission was only 3 counterattack points, while one glass of Tang Ye's daily draft beer cost 5 counterattack points.

In other words, if Tang Ye maintained this training intensity going forward, he would have to score goals or provide assists during matches.

Otherwise, he wouldn't even be able to afford a five-yuan draft beer!

Avoid great suffering by accepting minor suffering?

It now seemed matters were not that simple.

"Go, go, go, move forward!"

Tang Ye shouted loudly, and ahead, Di Di Bala began making his run.

Slap!

A through ball was struck out, sliding just in front of Di Di Bala.

Because insufficient backspin was applied at the moment of impact, the ball did not decelerate as expected upon hitting the turf.

Di Di Bala stretched out his foot, but he couldn't reach the ball in time.

【De Bruyne's Curved Through Ball, Lv2: Similar】

Proficiency: 49.5/50

"Beautiful!"

Tang Ye cried out, while Di Di Bala ahead spread his hands: "The angle was great, but the ball was too fast; Tang, can you slow the ball down a bit?"

"Let's end the passing drill for now!"

Fan Fan Dejiahe said.

Tang Ye had already taken enough long passes today; the effects of overtraining wouldn't be obvious, so it was better to switch to a new exercise.

"Try one more."

Tang Ye raised his hand to signal, and Fan Fan Dejiahe naturally wouldn't refuse, immediately kicking the spare ball at his feet over to Tang Ye.

This Utrecht training session was a match simulation; Tang Ye wasn't passing directly; he needed to break through Amrabat's defense.

"Sofyan, ease up a bit, give him some space!"

Fan Fan Dejiahe reminded, and sure enough, after receiving the ball, Tang Ye began moving laterally, using a feint to shake off the deliberately lenient Amrabat.

No rush, create a little more distance.

That's about right!

Tang Ye spotted Di Di Bala ahead, who had also shaken off his defender; he wrapped the ball with the inside of his foot and sent it out with a "slap."

The trajectory was similar to the previous long pass, but this time Tang Ye deliberately added heavy backspin to the ball.

The ball hit the turf, and the backspinning sphere instantly lost speed, arriving right in front of Di Di Bala.

Di Di Bala volleyed the ball into the net!

【De Bruyne's Curved Through Ball, Lv2: Similar】

【Proficiency: 50/50】

【Lv2: Similar → Lv3: Simulated】

【Passing: 72 → 74】

(End of Chapter)