012 Blue Lock: System Ten Years Early

"The physical stamina test results have been compiled. Please return to your rooms immediately to check the latest rankings."

A pleasant female voice echoed through every corner of the building with the announcement. Shinichi raised his hand, but the numbers on his arm showed no change at all.

Seeing that Shinichi had not directly risen to the highest-ranked B Building, the entire Team X scoffed at what Ego Jinpachi had said about the Blue Lock having a total of five buildings, ranked from B to Z in descending order.

They really had no clear concept of the overall level of the participants. If they themselves had been thrown into Building Five, Team X probably wouldn't have complained much—but if a guy like Shinichi could only be placed at the very bottom of the overall standard, then all their sports would be unbeatable.

They were just lacking experience, not actually idiots!

'This guy is spouting nonsense. He's definitely trying to PUA us, just like teachers always saying we're the worst class they've ever taught.'

This was the shared inner thought of the entire Team X at this moment.

As for Team Z in the other building, their thoughts were completely different. Isagi Yoichi and Kira Ryosuke, who had jointly eliminated the monk, exchanged glances.

"As expected, that guy Shinichi has gone to a higher level!"

Among them, Isagi Yoichi's mentality had changed even more compared to the original story. Although everyone here had their own specialties, after experiencing Shinichi's brutal domination, in Isagi Yoichi's eyes they no longer seemed that impressive. Now, Isagi Yoichi could look at this group much more objectively.

"That's right. Shinichi is enjoying himself in the topmost Building One right now. You guys with terrible football skills, as the bottom tier, get to enjoy the worst treatment."

"And those ranked near the top live in the high-grade dorm buildings. They have the best food and training conditions. Here, the stronger you are, the more you can have. Those who are good at football are kings!"

"If you want a comfortable life, keep winning and climb upward with everything you've got." Facing Shinichi's team, Ego Jinpachi didn't want to waste a single word. He already knew what bad ideas they were plotting anyway, so there was no need to insult either side's intelligence.

But toward Isagi Yoichi's group, who had been completely led astray, Ego Jinpachi fully unleashed his provocation, continuously instilling in them the concept that victory brings everything. He went to great lengths to stimulate their hunger, granting them the determination and motivation to charge toward higher rankings.

Without Shinichi even knowing it, due to Isagi Yoichi and Kira Ryosuke's praise, he had already become the biggest target in the eyes of everyone on Team Z.

"Now then, Blue Lock, the first round of selection matches begins!"

"The first selection is a round-robin among the 55 players in your Building Five, a total of five teams."

"Based on the final results, only the top two teams will advance smoothly to the second selection, the 'Survival Competition.'"

...

"Actually, I've wanted to say this for a while—aren't all of Blue Lock forwards? How are we supposed to divide positions?"

"It's definitely going to be a total mess."

"So does that mean some people can't play forward? Then what can they even train?"

At this moment, complaints of varying volume rang out from all the rooms. Only two rooms were different—the people inside fell completely silent, secretly casting their gazes toward one person in the room.

Kōken Shinichi and Itoshi Rin! Only these two had completely subdued their entire teams in the very first tag game. Even without saying a word, others would consciously give up the center forward (CF) position to them.

"Football, at its core, is a battle of scoring more points than the opposing team."

"Whether it's the deeply ingrained positions in your minds or so-called tactics, they're merely things that evolved as football continued to develop—optimizations people came up with while thinking of easier ways to win. Nothing more."

"So having all 11 players on the field be forwards is only natural. In fact, this is what football originally looked like. Football was born with everyone as a forward."

"And you are going to return to the origin of football, to create football from scratch in your own minds."

"Don't believe past common sense. Forget it all. Implant new concepts into your brains. What's needed now is not teamwork among 11 people, but only this one individual—"

"A hero!"

"Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar—if even one such player emerges, that single player can continuously change a team, a nation, even the world. That is football!"

"Ah, right, right. In this round of selection, only the top two teams by victory points can stay. All remaining teams will be expelled from Blue Lock, and these people will lose their right to enter the national team, just like those eliminated in the first round."

"However, among the eliminated teams, each team's top scorer may stay. If there's a tie for top scorer, the 'fair play points' system will be used—the side with fewer deductions wins."

"Will you choose to score yourself, or help the team win? In the first selection, the fate of forwards will be tested."

"This is the battle to create football from zero!"

"The first match will begin in two hours—Team X versus Team Z."

The television on the wall went dark. Kōken Shinichi yawned indifferently and, to everyone's surprise, said he was going to play as a defender.

"Shinichi… you're not playing forward?"

Hiori Yo seemed a bit emotionally off, but Shinichi didn't think much of it.

"I told you, I don't care. Even if you guys score 11 goals in the first three matches, I'm confident I can score 12 in the last one."

"I'll change how I play based on my mood and how interesting the match is. You guys just perform well yourselves. Oh, right."

Shinichi turned his head and revealed an especially malicious smile.

"I said this before—the winner decides everything, right? So those of you thinking of skating by should watch out. I don't care about national team spots anyway. Even if I leave here, I can always start from zero in the top five leagues."

"I have that confidence. But what about you? If you completely lose the chance to enter the national team, what will your future look like? So don't play so ugly that you irritate me."

...

Beep—!

"Huh, I didn't see a single familiar face." Shinichi said he'd play defender, but in reality he folded his arms and leaned against the goalpost, casually scanning the people running around nonstop.

"If there are no familiar faces, that means aside from Hiori Yo, not a single one on the field passed the second-stage selection." Shinichi sighed inwardly at his bad luck. If he'd known, he would've used his shareholder status to take the back door.

Naturally, he wasn't actually going to slack off as a defender. After all, he still needed to improve the system's settlement rewards through better performance. But what he wanted more was to borrow some experience from Isagi Yoichi while still putting on a good showing.

Just like how Isagi Yoichi, in the second round, managed to fill in his shortcomings by borrowing the so-called "ordinary person" weapon held by Naruhaya Asahi, taking a single step to the heavens—directly rising from a ball-trash who couldn't fight independently to someone capable of resonating with a Genius like Nagi.

Shinichi had never truly been as disdainful of everyone as he appeared. After all, these were the strongest 300 people, carefully selected from an entire nation.

Everyone had their own unique weapon, their own shining point that caught Ego Jinpachi's eye and earned them an invitation to Blue Lock. That's why Shinichi preferred to spend half a match carefully observing each game, identifying the strengths of these geniuses.

Then, in the second half, he could deliberately choose opponents whose weapons would benefit him, personally experience their application, and then devour and digest them!

As for the system settlement… as long as he could deliver top-tier performance rewards within half a match, wouldn't that be enough?

'It's just a pity—this match doesn't look promising.' Watching the opposing players scramble into a chaotic mess, Shinichi sighed helplessly, stretched his body, and stepped forward to steal the ball.

'Shinichi? Is he making a move?' Seeing the messy brawl on the other side, Hiori Yo had no interest in joining. He was busy thinking about how to ignite Shinichi's fighting spirit, yet before he'd done anything, Shinichi had already taken the initiative.

"Hey, against opponents at this level, you still haven't scored a single point?" Shinichi's calm voice echoed across the pitch.

"And you even got pushed back into this half, by this kind of 'ragtag army'?"

Although only ten minutes had passed in the match, they had already taken three shots at the opponent's goal—just with terrible luck, all of them hitting the post.

Normally, coaches wouldn't say anything about shots on target that were just barely off, but Team X didn't dare utter a single word in rebuttal. Not even the opponents, who were incidentally belittled, came over to trash-talk him.

"Sigh, really—at least have one hotheaded kid come out and argue with me. You guys are way too boring."

Shinichi was genuinely speechless at this bunch with zero 'personality.' No wonder none of them made it to the second round in his memory. Could it be they couldn't even make the leap from 0 to 1 before getting eliminated?

"Let's end this quickly. Rather than wasting time here, I might as well go back and take a nap."

Shinichi shook his head helplessly and surged forward. At that moment, another figure also dashed out, close on his heels.

"Shinichi, I'll become the force that helps you climb to the top!" Hiori Yo stared at Shinichi with utmost seriousness, earnestly declaring his resolve.

"Get lost. I'm a pure, straight-as-rebar ironclad straight guy. Can you not pull this kind of thing? It's kind of gross." However, that blazing determination gave Shinichi goosebumps, almost causing him to lose control of the ball. Still, the firmness in Hiori Yo's eyes was unmistakable, so Shinichi added casually,

"I don't care about first place anyway."

"I know. Shinichi, your goal isn't at the level of this era at all. And precisely because of that, I'm willing to burn myself for it." Hiori Yo replied firmly, crossing runs with Shinichi as he dribbled to shake off a defender.

"So as long as you need it, I'll offer you everything!"

"Are all you sports-anime guys like this? Why do you all talk so weird?" Shinichi said that, but he couldn't help feeling joy at his kingdom gaining its first citizen. As he dribbled, he suddenly flicked the ball with his heel, passed it sideways to Hiori Yo, and spun away from the pressing opponent.

"But getting citizenship in my country won't be that easy." Shinichi pointed at Hiori Yo with one hand. "Hand over the 'materials' you've prepared."

"Yes, Your Highness." Hiori Yo's deep-blue eyes were replaced by tangled lines. The spiral eyes symbolizing FLOW took in the entire field.

Blue Lock's strongest duo was born at this very moment!