My Goalkeeping System

"Fifty-seven." The goalkeeper muttered with a groaning voice as he slowly pulled himself up again with shaky hands. "Fifty-eight."

He was sweating profusely now as the sun was beginning to get intense on the spot he had chosen and he couldn't shift to a place with a little shade because that would result in him getting punished by his system for six straight months.

"Sixty-five." He muttered as he slowly pulled himself up with his shaky hands.

Catherine had been quiet so far in his period of struggling as she didn't want to cause him to lose focus.

The goalkeeper was breathing quite heavily now and the shaking of his hands seemed to have increased now that he had less than twenty more push-ups to complete the quest and escape getting punished.

"Eighty-five." This time he was gritting his teeth as he pulled himself up.

[ 35/105 Energy ]

<Just a few more to go> Catherine said to give him a little sense of determination and also remind him that it was almost over.

'Ninety!' He screamed inwardly as he bit his lower lip while pulling himself up.

The goalkeeper was getting way slower now as every ounce of energy he had was slowly disappearing.

[ 15/105 Energy ]

"Ninety-five." He muttered as he pulled himself up to count ninety-six but just as he was pulling himself up, he got stuck in the air as he didn't seem to have the strength to pull himself up again.

'I don't think I can do it, Catherine, I'm on my last legs.'

<You've made it so far, if you had decided to give up before getting to fifty that would have been okay because you had not even started then but now you just have five push-ups left, just four push-ups to avoid these punishments, and get rewarded instead>

'Just five push-ups left.' He gritted his teeth before pulling himself up with whatever strength he had left to complete the ninety-sixth push-up.

He continued that way until he was down to his last one,

His body was covered in sweat with the muscles in his hands and legs looking like they were going to burst out anytime.

"Just one more!!" He screamed as he used all that was left of his strength to pull himself up. "One hundred." He muttered before crashing onto the floor.

[ 1/105 Energy ]

He was breathing heavily as expected with his hands covering his face to prevent the sun from blinding him.

<I knew you could do it>

[ Quest completed ]

[ Congratulations, you have successfully completed a hundred push-ups and escaped getting punished ]

[ Quest rewards ]

[ +60 received ]

[ Energy has received a (+10) upgrade ]

[ +5 stat points added to strength ]

"Please tell me there won't be any more quests like this?" He muttered under his breath.

<If you learn not to challenge the system, then there won't be any more quests like this>

'Challenge the system?'

<Yeah, you made reference to getting a physical quest from the system with good rewards before saying you could do a hundred push-ups, you may not have done it intentionally but to the system that was a challenge>

'And the punishments were to make sure I completed the quest.'

<Yeah, you should be more careful of what you say while making references to receiving a quest, you're lucky you got a quest>

'Yeah, apart from quests like this, are there going to be any other quests with punishments?'

<Well, that depends on the importance of the quest and how much influence you have in completing it but I don't think you'll be getting another quest like that anytime soon unless you make another mistake just like the one you made today>

[ 12/115 Energy ]

'I think that actual punishment of a quest has covered every other training I wanted to do.' The goalkeeper said subconsciously as he slowly got up from the floor. 'And I have succeeded in almost expelling all of my energy.'

<You know you're quite lucky you made that little upgrade on your energy if not you would have passed out before you got to a hundred>

'And then wake up to punishment messages.' He replied as he staggered toward the door.

<Yeah and that would have been really bad>

Dave didn't say anything as he made his way into the house and made his way to the kitchen to grab himself a glass of chilled water.

After drinking to his fill, he dropped the glass cup in the sink before making his way up the staircase and straight to his room.

"My hands and legs feel like busted balloons." He muttered as he walked into his room.

<How exactly do you know what busted balloons feel like?>

'Don't ask me.' Dave replied as he walked straight to his bed and crashed down on it.

<Humans and their weird metaphor>

The goalkeeper brought his phone out of his pocket to see that the time was 1:50 PM which meant that he had an hour and ten minutes to get to the stadium for the evening training session.

[ 15/115 Energy ]

"I feel so tired." He muttered.

<Like you should but you'll be back to normal with proper rest and of course some food later>

"I think I'll just close my eyes and get a little rest before heading to the stadium." He said before slowly closing his eyes.

For him, it was just a few seconds before he found himself in a dark endless space.

"So, it's the endless dark space for me today." He muttered while looking around the area.

He expected to see Catherine around the area but for some reason, she wasn't there.

"Maybe she's somewhere down there." He said to himself before he began to walk down the area.

He had only walked a few distances when he began to hear little voices in his head and he couldn't make anything of them until…

"Wake up!" A deep voice screamed in his head as a large red skull quickly popped out from nowhere in front of him causing him to quickly spring up from his bed.

<Finally>

"What happened?" He asked, looking around the area. "I was in a dark…."

"I don't know what happened Dave> Catherine said, cutting him short. <But you should start heading to the stadium fast>

"Why? I've only been asleep for twenty seconds." The goalkeeper said but then he realized that time moves way slower in his dreams.

He quickly picked up his phone to check the time and looking at the time displayed on the screen now, a horrid look had suddenly appeared on his face.

The time displayed on his phone's screen was 3:40 PM which meant that he was already forty minutes late to training and he had not even washed up from that tedious exercise yet.

****

I know I promised six chapters today but my writing schedule took a serious hit yesterday due to some personal issues and although I can still release six chapters today, the update will be very late.

Just hang on to these two chapters and wait for the six chapters tomorrow. Sorry for the delay, it wasn't intentional.