My Goalkeeping System

The goalkeeper pushed the door open to find his wife in the living room working on something on her laptop.

"Oh, you're back." She quickly turned her gaze to him and said as soon as she heard the door open.

"Yeah." He said as he quickly made his way to her and dropped the bag on the couch beside her. "That's everything you wanted."

She quickly grabbed the bag and brought out the orange soda before checking again to see that everything she asked for was in there.

"Oh, Dave, you're the best." She said before quickly pulling Jim down for a hug. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." He said before turning toward the staircase. "I'll be upstairs in case you need me."

"Okay."

With that said, the goalkeeper made his way upstairs and straight to the room, and after getting there, he crashed down on the bed.

'Now, back to what we were doing before she got back.' He said subconsciously after letting out a few muffled breaths.

<It didn't work again>

'Yeah, but this time I went through a minute without feeling any pain, the pain started when I thought of something and it only lasted for two minutes.'

<So, what are you saying?>

'The pain isn't triggered by only trying to talk to you, it's triggered by trying to use my mind in any way during the pain duration, that means no thoughts or using my mind to do anything.' He expressed subconsciously.

<Took you long enough to figure out>

'Huh?'

<I said it took you quite a long time to figure out>

'Wait, are you saying that you knew about it all this time?'

<I found out on the first try when nothing happened until you tried to talk to me and also have you forgotten that I am linked to the system? I can see whatever that's going on with its functions from in here>

'If you knew about it, then why didn't you just tell me about it?'

<There's nothing interesting about doing that, I wanted to see how long it would take you to figure it out or if you would be able to figure it out>

'Catherine.' The goalkeeper grumbled inwardly.

<There's no need to get angry now, you know what you need to know so just go outside and see how well it works>

'How well it works?'

Yeah yeah <Yeah, this is going to do well in getting you through the duration which isn't long in any way but there's no guarantee that you won't feel some pain>

'And why is that?'

<Because no matter how much you try to stop thoughts from getting into your mind, they always find their way in there even when you're sleeping. The thoughts that trigger the pain are the major ones, the ones that you're consciously thinking of, but the minor ones could have an effect>

'Well, I hope they don't.' He said subconsciously before getting up from the bed.

He made his way downstairs where he saw Emma who had put her work on hold and was about to dig into her cake.

"If you're going to mess that up, then you should consider taking that white vest off first." He said after stepping down the staircase.

"Hey, I'm not a little girl." She said before quickly shooting a glare at him.

"Really, then why is that on your vest?"

"What?" She quickly checked the vest to see that she had gotten a drop of orange soda on it by mistake. "Oh."

"Don't stain your vest with cake." He said before quickly making his way to the door.

"Hey…." She didn't get to say what she wanted to say as he opened the door and left the house.

She stared at the door for a while before she dropped the cake on the table and got up from the couch.

After getting outside, the goalkeeper picked up all the balls which were scattered all over the area before returning to the ball blaster to put all of them in there.

After putting in all of the balls, he closed the cabinet and strapped on his gloves before pushing the start button.

After pushing the button, he quickly made his way to the goal line to start the test.

"I hope this one doesn't go wrong." He said before letting out a deep sigh.

[ Focus activated ]

By the time his test began, Emma had already gotten to the room and was now observing what he was doing from the window.

She was a bit suspicious about what happened outside when she got home and found him on the floor and now that suspicion was what led her here now.

With the extra focus obtained from the focus skill, the goalkeeper was able to keep out all the balls swiftly up to the sixteenth ball which he allowed to go into the goalpost as the skill had been deactivated now.

"Why did he stop? He's just standing there now." She mumbled.

The goalkeeper stood there, trying hard not to bring anything into his mind consciously.

The duration was three minutes but he crossed into the fourth minute just to be safe.

'I think this should do it.'

As soon as he said that, he felt a stinging pain in his head, but before he could place his hand in his head, the pain was gone, it was very brief.

"It looked like he was about to place his hands on his head there."

<You felt pain there, didn't you?>

'Yeah, but it was very brief like it never happened.'

<I told you it wasn't guaranteed that you were not going to feel any pain>

'Yeah, but this isn't bad, if this is the way that it's going to be then I think it's time to put the skill in the same category as Ball magnet.'

<Skills you will use in a match>

'Yeah.'

<Looks like you finally found a way around it>

'I couldn't have done it without you.'

Emma was still watching him from above when his phone began to ring in the room.

She quickly turned back to see the phone lying on the bed.

She picked up the phone and picked up the call before it would be registered as a missed call as she made her way downstairs.

"Hello, Mr. Norman."

"Oh, hello, Emma."

"Hold on, he went outside and forgot his phone here."

"Okay."

She made her way downstairs and outside to give the phone to Dave.

After collecting the phone from her, the goalkeeper checked the name of the caller before putting the phone against his ear.

"Hey, coach, what's up?"

"I'm okay, you?"

"I'm doing great, coach." The goalkeeper replied.

"That's great."

"Yeah, so why are you calling, coach?"

"Um….Can I see you?"

"See me?"

"Yeah, I'm at the stadium now and I want to see you," Norman said.

"Is something wrong?" Dave asked.

"No, there's nothing wrong, I just want to see you."

"Okay, coach, I'll be right there."

"Okay," Norman said before ending the call.

<What do you think he needs you for?>

'No idea.' He replied subconsciously before shaking his head.

***

Mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.