007 Blue Lock: System Ten Years Early

"Mr. Ego, you should at least eat some proper food once in a while, hmm? Are you watching highlights of the players' matches?"

In the dimly lit room, Anri Teieri placed a stack of documents aside and, seeing Jinpachi Ego staring intently at the screen, asked instinctively.

"Yeah. I didn't expect that in a country that's basically a football desert, there'd still be such an overlooked gem waiting to be discovered."

Jinpachi Ego picked up a forkful of mixed noodles and swallowed them in big bites.

"Anri, what do you think if you take a look?"

Anri Teieri was startled. Jinpachi rarely asked for her opinion, so she immediately bent forward and watched the footage carefully.

"Ah, so cool— ah, no! I mean, so fast… What? So fast! Huh?! What is this?!"

Anri tried to cover up her slip of the tongue, feeling a bit flustered, but the scenes that followed made it impossible for her to stay calm, and she shouted exaggeratedly.

"Mr. Ego! Look at that turning speed and footwork! And isn't the opposing player that recently hyped 'treasure' of Japan football? He got past him that easily! And this shot too! One person taking on the entire back line!"

That's right—the footage Jinpachi Ego showed Anri was the match where Shinichi beat Kira Ryosuke with a step-over followed by a Marseille turn. That nimble figure deeply captured Anri's gaze.

"Mr. Ego, this—this player is amazing! Even Itoshi Rin, Itoshi Sae's younger brother, wouldn't be able to match him, right? And yet a player like this was unknown for so long—those guys in the football association!"

Thinking of this made Anri grit her teeth. They were supposed to be saving the country, yet there were parasites constantly dragging them down.

Jinpachi Ego, however, indifferently adjusted his glasses. After the footage finished playing, he clapped his hands to interrupt Anri's angry rant.

"Alright, Anri. First, tell me what you think of him."

"Uh… as for me, I think his technique is excellent. His dribbling is outstanding. Oh, right! His defense is great too—he can actually guard half the pitch by himself! And of course, as a striker, his shots are very threatening. Most of his shooting angles are excellent!"

Anri tapped her chin with a finger, thought for a moment, and then shared her impressions. As she spoke, she grew more and more excited, unconsciously clenching her fists.

"So what we're doing really isn't meaningless! As long as we give them the right environment, we can definitely cultivate the world's number one striker!"

"I see. So that's how an outsider thinks…"

Jinpachi Ego showed none of Anri's sentimental excitement. He leaned back casually against the chair.

"Well, from the perspective of mediocrities, that's probably how it looks."

'Guh… outsider… mediocrity…'

Ignoring Anri's resentful glare, Jinpachi Ego dragged the progress bar.

"In my view, he's like a child—immature, simple, with straightforward thinking."

"Huh? But I think he's really impressive…"

Anri murmured softly, noncommittal, then cautiously glanced at Jinpachi Ego.

"Mr. Ego, don't you rate him highly?"

"Don't rate him highly? How could that be? Do my words just now really sound that ambiguous to ordinary people?"

Jinpachi Ego stopped the mouse, and the screen scrolled again. This time it showed the moment Shinichi's attention was drawn by Isagi Yoichi. After it finished, Ego dragged the mouse again—once, again, and again—replaying it repeatedly.

'Ugh, mocked again—and each time with a different description!'

Anri pouted unhappily, but noticing Ego's strange behavior, she couldn't help but observe more closely.

"Um… is there something special here?"

After watching for quite a while and still seeing nothing, Anri could only give up and ask.

Jinpachi Ego hadn't expected Anri to see through it anyway. He raised his hand and pointed at the screen.

"Look. This guy is the opponent's strongest attacker. When the opponent avoids a direct confrontation and starts moving instead, Shinichi's attention is very casually drawn away."

"Especially when the opponent uses the defender's body to shield himself—looking at the current position of the ball carrier, it's easy to conclude that the opponent's ace is in a situation where he absolutely cannot receive the ball with a single pass."

"But Shinichi still instinctively prioritizes blocking that non-threatening direction. His attention isn't focused on the ball carrier, which gives the ball carrier space to pass, leading to the positional mistake afterward."

"As for his defensive positioning, it relies on his superior physical qualities, trying to expand his defensive coverage. To an insider, this kind of 'wanting everything' defense is full of holes—only barely usable when bullying mediocrities."

The light reflected off his lenses obscured Ego's eyes, making his expression unreadable, but the fists he clenched unconsciously still revealed his excitement.

"However, it's precisely because of these flaws that his talent shines even more!"

"You could even say that in terms of football, he's completely an outsider—third-rate at best. But his physical qualities already far exceed that level. Even against the current top-tier players, he'd only be at a slight disadvantage, and in some abilities, he even surpasses them."

In truth, Jinpachi Ego was already being generous. Although Shinichi possessed a gold-grade Genius trait that allowed him to match what ordinary people achieve after ten years of grueling training with just a bit of practice, in Ego's eyes, even if ordinary people trained for a hundred years, they'd still be trash.

After all, even among the 300 people selected for Blue Lock—where geniuses gathered, many of whom had been playing football since childhood—in his view, they were still a bunch of uncivilized wastes destined to be eliminated if they failed to awaken.

Not to mention that over the past year, Shinichi had only focused on practicing dribbling past opponents. After all, once you enter Blue Lock, you have to reshape your football philosophy. So Shinichi simply didn't bother learning those things beforehand, saving himself the trouble of tearing it all down and rebuilding it—and avoiding being led down the wrong path by mediocre coaches, like Isagi Yoichi was at the beginning.

"So that's how it is… so he's very talented."

Anri Teieri flipped through the files with interest.

"Hmm—found it. Kōken Shinichi… huh?! Isn't this our biggest sponsor?!"

Anri didn't recognize the face in the photo, because Shinichi had only sent an agent to negotiate the contract, and she had never met him.

But someone who casually threw out two billion was impossible to forget. Even though Anri had been running around nonstop for Blue Lock recently and reviewed countless contracts, she remembered it instantly—though it made her frown slightly.

"Mr. Ego, but I feel like he doesn't seem to be the type who's very serious about football."

Anri recalled the intentions conveyed by the agent during negotiations.

"He said he was very interested in your concept and planned to come in and play around, didn't he? And then—"

Anri complained as she continued flipping through the materials, but then suddenly let out a sharp cry.

"He only started playing football a year ago and he's already this good?! Mr. Ego, this is absolutely a genius!"

Jinpachi Ego sat in his chair, plugging his ears with his fingers. Only after Anri calmed down did he weakly speak up.

"I know. But don't worry—he won't lose interest so easily."

Jinpachi Ego stared fixedly at the screen, which showed Shinichi practicing the use of dead angles in the remaining matches.

"Guys like this are like wild beasts. Even if they themselves haven't realized it, once they feel hunger, they absolutely won't stop moving forward."

"In other words, unless they win to the point of boredom, as long as there's still a target ahead, they'll tirelessly tear into it."

"This is what they call a 'beast'… a monster with endlessly swelling ambition!"

"Eh—then what if he keeps winning? Wouldn't he lose interest?"

"Anri."

"Yes?"

"I really didn't expect your brain to be this slow."

Even Jinpachi Ego was a bit speechless. He tapped his temple.

"If he keeps winning, doesn't that mean he's become the world's number one striker? Then our wish is fulfilled too."

After saying that, he didn't wait for Anri to argue and immediately sent her off to work. Still, out of professional habit, Anri asked after seeing what Jinpachi Ego wanted.

"The phone number of the person in charge at the German club Bastard München? Mr. Ego, was there something that didn't get communicated properly?"

"No. It's just that after seeing him, I feel some of my previous plans were a bit too conservative. I intend to make some small adjustments."

Jinpachi Ego pushed up his glasses, revealing an eerie smile.

"To give our 'beast' the greatest possible sense of hunger, I want the real 'world number one' to give our 'raw gem' a lesson he'll remember for life."

...

Back to our protagonist—Shinichi naturally had no idea that his match was being closely observed by Jinpachi Ego, or that Ego had even changed his original plans because of him.

Even if he did know, he wouldn't care.

Because right now, he was facing an even bigger problem—