My Goalkeeping System

<I've been waiting for that quest to appear>

'Avoid junk food for three months.' Dave read the quest subconsciously to make sure he was seeing it right. 'Three months!'

<Yeah, junk food is not good for anybody's health, especially an athlete like you>

'Does pizza count as junk food?' Dave asked, looking at the pizza package he was holding.

<Don't ask me silly questions Dave, the quest isn't compulsory so if you want you can go ahead and eat and then miss out on lots of JUICY REWARDS>

She made sure to stress the part about the rewards being juicy.

"Come on." He said with a sigh as he dropped the pizza package back into the freezer and slammed it shut.

'What am I supposed to eat now that my stomach is starting a riot?'

<Something healthy, vegetables, grains, meat is also good you need protein>

'Yeah but none of those things have been made into a meal yet in this house.'

<Then wait for one to be made into food>

'I'll probably be dead by then but...'

He let out a sigh as he turned his gaze toward the staircase.

'Who knew that she would start slacking off in making early breakfast on a day like this.' He said subconsciously before making his way toward the staircase.

He got upstairs and headed to the room to discover that she was on a phone call.

"Okay, we'll be there early." She said just a few seconds after he had entered and then ended the call.

She turned toward the door and was quite surprised to see Dave standing there.

"You're back." She said with a smile.

"Was that your mother?" He asked, walking closer to her.

"Yeah, we were just talking about the family dinner tonight." She said sitting up on the bed.

"Oh, the dinner which your father will also be part of," Dave said with a not-so-pleasant look on his face.

"I promise he won't be any trouble to you, I've already spoken to him yesterday." She said standing up in front of him.

"You made a similar promise last month but you weren't able to do anything as he verbally murdered me." He said.

"At least he didn't physically murder you." She said, placing her hand on his chest. "Just try to reply to him wisely, you're currently a better goalkeeper than you were last month, you can use that to your advantage when he starts the football talk."

"I know but that's not the only thing he used in killing me," Dave said.

<Now, I want to meet this man>

"Like I said reply wisely and he'll shut up, I'll also try my best to make sure that he doesn't make you the topic of the night," She said.

"We are both definitely going to fail but it's okay," Dave said before crashing down on the bed.

"Yeah, but he doesn't really mean any of those things." She said, turning her gaze to him.

"He says it like he does."

"But he doesn't." She said, shaking her head. "I'm going to go see if I can make anything downstairs." She added, Pointing backward with her thumb.

"Yeah, I'm starving."

"There's a leftover pizza in the freezer, you can hold yourself with it before I'm done." She said,

"No," Dave replied, staring at the ceiling.

"Why not?"

"I'm on a diet." He said.

"A diet? You ate pizza last night."

"Yeah, I started this morning." He said.

"Okay, so what are the requirements for your diet so that I can know what to make for you?"

"Grains, vegetables, meat, and other healthy stuff." He listed.

"Okay." She said before making her way out of the room.

"I hope I don't die before she's done." He muttered with his gaze still fixed on the ceiling.

<If you have fruits, they are also part of your diet>

'Oh, well then it's a shame I don't.'

____ ____

The goalkeeper had survived long enough for Emma to finish making something healthy for him.

After that, he spent a little time with her before making his way to his personal gym.

He took a little break in the garage after completing his daily two hours and right now he was pushing his ball blaster into the lawn.

"I hope I get another quest today." He said before dropping the bag of balls on the floor.

<If you want a quest then I suggest you directly attempt level four>

'I got last time in level three and my dexterity hasn't increased since then.' Dave replied as he began to fill the balls into the blaster.

<True, but I don't think you're going to get a quest at that level>

"Okay." He muttered before getting up from the floor.

He stared at the level options for a while before clicking the level four button.

He picked up his gloves from the floor and put them on before clicking the start button.

He quickly made his way to the goal line while expecting a message to pop up in front of the screen anytime now.

[ Quest received ]

[ Keep out six of the balls ]

[ Quest rewards ]

[ +5 boost to all stats ]

[ +10 exp ]

As soon as he received that quest, a smile appeared on his face as an idea quickly popped into his mind.

[ +4 stat points added to Dexterity ]

[ Dexterity: 17 ]

<I was not expecting that>

The first ball came flying low toward the right-hand side and all the goalkeeper needed to do was stick his leg out to block that.

The second one was also easy for him to save as it was shot directly at him.

The third ball was shot toward the top left-hand corner and once again he was pinned to the spot as the ball fell into the back of the net.

He felt faster after dropping four stat points into his dexterity but balls placed there just seemed too difficult for him to do anything useful about, he's saved shots from that side before on a few lucky occasions.

<At least try jumping toward it, with ball magnet you will be able to keep the ball out>

'Yeah, ball magnet.'

[ Ball magnet-activated ]

The fourth ball was shot toward the top right-hand corner as Dave quickly dived toward it.

He almost had his hand to it when he saw the ball move a little toward his hand and that made knocking it over the bar easier.

"Waooh." He said looking at his gloves.

<If that shot had more power it would have gone in>

The fifth shot had also been placed at the top right-hand corner and with his ball magnet skill, he had been able to take care of it.

[ 2/2 tries completed ]

[ Ball magnet deactivated ]

[ Cooldown time: 20 minutes ]

'You didn't tell me it had a cooldown time.'

<I don't have to tell you everything>

The sixth shot was placed at the bottom left-hand corner and Dave had dived toward it but he wasn't fast enough as the ball had rolled into the net before he could get his hand to it.

<That's four over six now, you'll have to save these last two, to complete the quest>

[ Error, stat points cannot be assigned at the moment ]

"Come on."

He tried to add his two remaining stat points to dexterity but the system seemed to be one step ahead of him this time.

The seventh shot was placed at the bottom right-hand corner as Dave dived toward it at the right time to knock it off.

"Just one more." He muttered as he walked back to the center of his goal line.

The last shot was placed at the top left-hand corner just like he half expected.

He dived toward the ball but it looked like he was going to get there as he didn't jump quite high enough.

[ Double jump activated ]

He felt that sudden thrust as he formed his hand into a fist and punched the ball out.

He let out a sigh of relief as he fell to the floor.

Finally, he had completed a quest based on the ball blaster.

[ Quest completed ]

[ All stats have received (+5) boosts ]

[ +10 exp received ]

<Congratulations you have successfully cheated your way to victory>

"It's not cheating, Catherine, it's called playing smart," Dave said, looking up at the sky.

****

Hope you enjoyed the chapter?

If I get up to a hundred golden tickets before the end of the month I will release six chapters on the first of December.