Chapter 25 New stage, new teams

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'I want to see my progress right now.', Yoichi thought as he looked at the screen. 
"Alright.", Ego spoke again as the mood inside the hall has calmed down. "Let's begin the second selection. The second selection has now begun. In the first selection, you grew from level 0 to 1. From now on, using state of the art training facilities, you'll grow from level 1 to 100." 
Five pentagons appeared inside his right hand as he continued his explaination, "The second selection consists of 5 stages. Only those who have cleared the previous stage are allowed to move on. Your first objective is to complete the first stage and choose of you who managed to complete the fifth stage and pass the second selection will participate in a training camp with some of the world's best players that I have handpicked." 
"Woah...", Igaguri gaped. 
"And that's everything regarding the second selection. Form on your own.", with that a basket filled with footballs leveled out of the ground. "Only those who are mentally prepared, enter the gate to the second selection individually."
'Sounds like fun.', Yoichi thought and looked around to the room to see the faces of the other participants. Shock displayed them. 
"The first stage is individual. Once you enter, you won't be able to return.", Ego continued. "If you don't make it to the next stage, you won't see anyone from here again. Naturally the second selection is much harder. No matter how successful you were in the past. If you can't pass now, you won't ever. After the second selection, only the real egoists will be left of you trash. Best of luck." 
With that the monitor shut off. 
"Hey, hey... is that all for the explanation.", one player asked another. 
"I don't know about that.", the other one replied. Yoichi just sighed at that and walked to one of the baskets. He picked a ball up and walked up tothe door. 
"See you guys at the finish line.", he shouted before walking through it. If he wanted to continue being part of Blue Lock, there were no other choice anyway. A pitch came in sight. It was empty. Just as he entered it however, a glowing goalkeeper apeared. 
'A hologram...', Yoichi was fascinated with the technology Blue Lock had. Another hologram formed a goal behind the keeper. Light appeared above him. A big circle appeared on the pitch with him in the center. The circle shrinked, signalling a countdown to shoot the ball he had in his hand. 
'So this training is recreating a situation where I'm in front of a goal. Interesting...', Yoichi took in the information and set down the ball. 'Alright, let me assess to the situation and just simply score the goal.' 
With that he rolled the ball to the right side and swung his leg to shoot it at the top right corner. Unfortunately though, it was saved by the Blue Lock man thing. 
"WHAT THE FUCK!!!! HOW THE HELL DID A PROJECTION TOUCH THE BALL!!!!", he cursed under his breath as he watched the hologram rolling the ball into a hidden door. A timer with a task lit up. 
"Score hundred goals... in 90 minutes...", Yoichi read and watched the holograms reseting themselves. "Oh man... what a drag." 
Suddenly he heard a sound comming from the left. Yoichi turned around. A cannon came out of the wall. The goal also moved to the right side. A ball was shot out of the tube. Yoichi placed his left foot and stabilized his upper body, just to volley it into the wall. Each time the ball touched it, it moved a hidden door which collected the ones he scored. The process repeated itself after 30 goals. It slowly grew boring for the raven haired. Then suddenly the score board switched to level 2. Defenders were generated through the light. Yoichi sighed at that sight. It reminded him of those blocking hand things him and his brother did in spike training when they were much younger. The cannon came out again. 
"5 o'clock.", was the last thing Yoichi murmered before he trapped the ball without looking at it. He kept it in the air just to slam it into the goal zone again. Yoichi even went that far, that he was practising the shooting techniques he couldn't during the time in Brazil, such as a curve shot just to raise the difficulty. But after two minutes he even got the hang out of that too. The letters "Level MAX" were put on the core board. This time the defenders weren't just any bords anymore. They came to life in blood in flesh just like the goalie. Yoichi sighed in annoyance as his first shot was deflected by the defenders. The balls from the cannons were faster too. It became much more difficult to trap those simulated crosses. But as soon as Yoichi has adjusted to those given conditions, he managed to go through this stage easily and walked out of the arena with 45 minutes on the clock. 

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