My OP Minion System in the Apocalypse

It was relatively late at night and the offensive operation was set for the next day.

We were told to get plenty of rest since there might not be many opportunities to do so once we start pushing into the vampires' lairs. I decided to take this chance to walk around the commercial district and just have some fun. I had plenty of money to spare and I probably wasn't going to be running out any time soon.

It was pretty dark outside, however, there was plenty of night from the various street lights. It was a short walk from my house to the commercial zone and I took the opportunity to breathe some fresh air. My two swords were clanging as I walked but I had more than gotten used to their weight.

From all the Soul Mark upgrades I've received, I could hardly even notice that they were still there. Walking through the street, I looked around at whatever stores were still open at this time. There was the bar I went to a few days ago and some other random restaurants but I want to find something interesting.

Eventually, I found a group of humans who were playing some soccer on a pitch which was so dimly lit, I could hardly even see the ball. It'd been so long since I last played, but watching them having fun together, I couldn't help myself.

Awkwardly, I asked to join in, and they accepted me without hesitation.

***

A few minutes later, the teams were somewhat evenly distributed. We had one less player but based on the reactions of some of the people, our team was definitely the stronger one. The teams split up and began sorting out the positions to some degree. After some group discussions, they announced that the game would start.

Kick-off was given to the other team.

It was somewhat difficult to run in the weird grass but that also meant it was harder to both defend and attack. On their team, there wasn't a lot of passing as a bulky man began charging toward our goal.

He quickly lost his footing as several of our players tackled the ball off of him. There were a few passes around before the ball was slowly passed back to me. I controlled it and quickly scanned the area before passing it back off.

The pace of this soccer was significantly slower than that of normal soccer. It was like everyone was running in slow motion. I could hear the cheers of the girls on the sidelines, I guess this was a bigger event than I realised.

I stayed back in defence for most of the time. It had been quite a while since I last played and I didn't really want to go all out here.

The ball zipped between players as our team managed to pull off some decent teamwork. Finally, the ball was crossed in and our player managed to head the ball into the back of the small net. He landed splat on the ground, covering himself with sand.

Our teammates rushed to celebrate with him.

"Ugh! Why can't you guys defend better?" Exclaimed the bulky man to his team.

"We're not all pro soccer players you know!"

It seemed he was definitely not a very amiable person.

There was a bit more of a commotion before someone kicked the ball and started the game back up. Their team did a little bit of passing around the back but as soon as the bulky man got the ball, he immediately began charging towards our goal.

He managed to actually dribble past several of our players. As I looked at him, I noticed that he had a very determined look on his face, I guess he was pumped up from all the anger. I drifted toward the centre and prepared to tackle him.

He managed to get past another one of our players but he had lost most of his control of the ball due to the fact that he needed to take a really long touch. The ball began rolling toward me as he charged at full speed. He was determined to get the ball no matter what it took.

He sprinted toward me as I took a small touch of the ball.

When he was close enough to me, he instantly came in for a big slide tackle.

I saw that coming from a mile away and flicked the ball up a little so it went over his body.

Dirt and grass splashed all over the place as I regained control of the ball.

He was really angry now, I dribbled the ball a little so he wouldn't be able to tackle it off me. He kicked my ankle several times as he tried to desperately get the ball.

I passed it off and took a few steps back.

He scrambled up from the ground and began sprinting at the player with the ball.

"Hey, you're pretty good, did you used to play?" asked one of my teammates.

"A little bit."

"That was a clean flick that you just did."

"Thanks."

"Yamada's pretty enthusiastic, isn't he?"

I assumed that he was referring to the bulky man.

"I guess you could say that."

"He used to play in a team with me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but he didn't get selected for the A-team so the two of us ended up splitting up. He was absolutely furious when he heard the news. The reason for him not being chosen was because he was too selfish, he never put trust in his teammates and that resulted in him constantly being out of position."

"Ah, so you guys went to the same club, I guess he's always been like this then."

"Mhm, we still do, he's mad at me because I'm in the A-team and he's in the B-team. I've tried talking to him about it but it seems his anger's not going to go away soon."

"That's not good."

"I was hoping that he'd be able to show some initiative today so I let him do what he wants, however, it seems he's not going to be changing his ways anytime soon."

"Ah."