My Goalkeeping System

[ Achievements ]

[ Congratulations on keeping the first clean sheet in your career ]

[ Congratulations on winning the first man of the match award in your career ]

[ You will receive a few rewards for these achievements ]

[ Rewards ]

[ Inventory has been unlocked ]

[ Career info and records have been unlocked ]

[ You will now receive (+10) exp for every training session completed with your teammates ]

'These aren't exactly the kind of rewards I was expecting.'

<What were you expecting, a plus five skill points reward?>

'Exactly.'

<It's not a quest completed reward and instead of saying the rewards aren't good enough why don't you check them out?> Catherine said. <You can start with the CIR tab above>

'Oh, a new tab.' Dave said subconsciously as he spotted the CIR tab which was circled above and just like Catherine suggested, he decided to check it out.

[ Career info ]

[ Name: Dave Richards ]

[ Age: 21 ]

[ Height: 187 cm ]

[ Position: Goalkeeper ]

[ Strong foot: right ]

[ Developed qualities: Shot stopper ]

[ Developing qualities: Sweeper Keeper, ball playing keeper. ]

[ Current Team: Unique FC ]

[ Status: Starter ]

[ Market value: €10,000 ]

[ Matches played: 75 ]

[ Goals: 0 ]

[ Assists: 2 ]

[ Shots faced: 98 ]

[ Goals conceded: 75 ]

[ Saves made: 23 ]

[ Penalties faced: 17 ]

[ Penalties saved: 01 ]

[ Clean sheets: 01 ]

[ Career average rating: 5.9 ]

[ Awards ]

[ Man of the match: 01 ]

[ Trophies: 0 ]

[ Records set/broken: none ]

'Waooh.'

Dave had a stunned look on his face as he ran his gaze through all the information that had just popped up on his screen.

'When I saw career info and records I didn't expect it to be like this.'

<I could tell>

'Everything is pinpoint accurate, the market value, the market value, I'm not so sure about the career average rating though.'

<Well, if the other info you have seen is accurate then it has to be accurate too but don't worry, it will increase as you perform better in future matches>

'I know.' Dave replied. 'I have a question?'

<What?>

'How will the system know when my market value increases or falls because that's not decided by me and I may not even know until later?'

<I cannot go into details in answering that question but the system in a certain special way so it will definitely find out even before you do and update it here>

'Of course, you can't go into details.' Dave replied. 'That answer wasn't satisfying in any way.'

<I'm sorry but I answered it at least>

'Vaguely, like you always do whenever I ask you questions about how the system works in certain ways.'

There was no response from Catherine as Dave went on to exit from his Career info page.

'I don't see any tab for the inventory.' He said subconsciously with his gaze on the top sides of the achievements page.

<Go to the main page>

'Okay.' He replied before exiting to the main page to see that the inventory tab had appeared just beside the achievements tab.

[ Welcome to your inventory ]

[ 0/2 slots occupied ]

'Only two slots available.'

[ You will unlock one slot per each level up ]

'I see, so how does this inventory work?'

<Try touching anything and saying the word in, subconsciously or anyhow you want to say it>

'Okay.' Dave replied before reaching for the empty container on the table. 'In.'

As soon as he thought of the word, the container disappeared and now he could see it in his inventory.

[ ½ slots occupied ]

'Waooh.'

<The inventory is for keeping things that you may forget, like your boots or gloves, snacks, or anything at all>

'I can clearly see that, it's awesome.' He replied. 'So how do I get this thing out of the inventory?'

<Exactly>

'Huh?'

<The last word you said in your question>

'Oh, out.'

He didn't realize that Emma was already on her way down the staircase before saying the word and she had stopped moving as soon as she saw the container drop to the floor from his hand.

He paused as the way she was staring at him now was making him think that she had clearly seen what had happened there.

'She saw it.'

<I don't she did>

'Then for what other reason would she be looking at me like that?'

"So dropping water bottles on the floor after finishing them has now become a habit for you," Emma said before continuing her walk down the staircase.

'She didn't see it.' His subconscious voice sounded a bit disappointed.

"I wake up every morning, walk to the kitchen, and always find an empty container lying around on the floor." She said as she walked up to him and picked up the container. "Did you decide to unlearn everything you know about recycling?"

"I don't think I've ever learned anything about recycling," Dave said with his hand placed on his chin.

"Even if you haven't, it says throw in the bin." She said pointing at the illustration on the container.

"Yeah, but I have you to do that for me don't I?" Dave said with a smug look on his face.

She let out a sigh before she turned and made her way to the kitchen where she threw the container in the bin beside the back door before making her way back to the living room.

"You were about to tell me about your mother before I left to attend to some work-related issue." She said as soon as she sat down beside him on the couch.

"Was it your boss?"

"No, Matthew."

"Matthew?"

"Yeah, he's my colleague in the sports department, football specifically, he wanted to ask me a few questions about work and then a few other questions that didn't have anything to do with work." She said,

"Okay."

"So what were you saying?" She said before relaxing her head on his thighs. "About your mother." She added before adjusting herself so that she was looking at him from below now.

Dave didn't say anything for about thirty seconds before letting out a sigh.

"My mother was the biggest push I ever had in my life. When I was six, I told her I wanted to be a goalkeeper just like my grandpa, and from that day she began to do everything possible to make sure that my dream came true. My father wanted to become a midfielder just like him or a winger and didn't support my idea of becoming a goalkeeper. That's one of the reasons why I'm glad I had a mother like her.

"She played a big role in my path to becoming a professional goalkeeper, sometimes I would feel like slacking off, normally I have this bad habit of slacking off."

"I'm aware," Emma muttered with a little nod.

"She would always encourage me to go to training even when I didn't feel like it, her words always acted like fuel to my spirit, and after she left us for a better place, I began to slack off again, not getting over her death fast enough was one of the main reasons why I drew back into my habit of slacking again and even after convincing myself that I was over it, I just couldn't pull myself out of the habit until I met you."

As soon as that last part left his mouth, a smile appeared on Emma's face.

"That's why I said you remind me so much of her although you don't have much of her energetic and wholesome vibes." He said before looking down at her with a smile on his face.

<You know she's not the main reason why you're out of your slacking habit now>

'Do you want me to tell her about the system?'

<No>

'Then she is the main reason why I am out of my slacking habit.' He replied before leaning closer to kiss Emma's soft pink lips just like she wanted him to.

_______ _______

Just twenty minutes into his sleep, the goalkeeper found himself in the endless white space, and just like he expected, Catherine was there.

"You're putting on glasses now, nice." He said with a nod while looking at the pair of nice-looking glasses she was putting on now.

"I won't be surprised if you buy your girlfriend glasses and force her to put them on," Catherine said.

"I can buy the glasses but I'm not sure I can force her to put them on," Dave said. "So what's for training tonight?"

"You have unfinished business."

As soon as those words left her mouth, the stadium began to return, the stands, the fans, Unique FC players, and Real Madrid players and now he was standing in the middle of his goal line with Fernandez standing over the ball which was sitting on the penalty spot.

"Unfinished business," Dave muttered.

****

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.

I would love to have anyone who could help me properly organize my discord channel for the novel, the server's available but I just don't know how to properly organize it.