0 save. Prologue
“······Where is this?”
He looked around.
When he came to his senses, he was in an incomprehensible place. No, if he looked at the location alone, it was familiar.
Green grass.
At its end, white lines were drawn.
Sin Uison stood before a rectangular frame.
“The goal?”
Yes. It was the goal.
This place was a soccer training ground.
1 save. West Ham Reserves
“Haaaah.”
2013.
England, London.
The man yawning wide enough for his jaw to drop was named Sin Uison.
“A fly’s gonna fly in there.”
“Hup.”
At the words from beside him, Sin Uison closed his mouth. The one who spoke was an elderly white man, though he was more often called by the nickname Bob instead of his real name.
“Did you not sleep well?”
“A little. I had a restless night, you see.”
Scratching his head and furrowing his face, he recalled the dream he’d had last night.
Was it because he’d been so stressed lately? He’d never imagined the training ground would appear even in his dreams.
“A player needs to manage his sleep too. Go change your clothes.”
“Yes, sir.”
He nodded and entered the locker room. Though there were quite a few people inside, most pretended not to know him.
At least one guy waved his hand.
“Yo, Son.”
“Norris?”
“Gloomy as ever today, huh?”
The black youth who’d arbitrarily shortened his name was Norris. He was about as close to a friend as Sin Uison had.
Depending on the person, Norris’s words could look like picking a fight, and he probably was picking a fight… but Sin Uison just shrugged without answering.
He didn’t have the energy to play along because of the strange dream.
When he changed into his training kit, his appearance was a little out of place compared to the other kids.
It wasn’t his skin color. True, he was the only Asian here, but what mattered was the gloves on his hands.
Goalkeeper.
Because Sin Uison’s position was goalkeeper.
And if there was one more thing that set him apart.
“Whew.”
Sin Uison, wearing a brace on his right knee, let out a long breath.
He wasn’t currently injured or anything, but it was a very important psychological safety device for him.
Sin Uison.
Nationality: Republic of Korea.
A goalkeeper prospect who couldn’t live up to his name, who had yet to make his debut.
That was his current position.
“Alright! Is everyone here?!”
The West Ham reserves manager shouted, gathering the players on the training ground.
This reserve team was a mix of players who hadn’t gotten opportunities with the first team, those who were too old to stay with the youth team, or promising prospects who were highly regarded.
Of course, Sin Uison was one of those who’d aged into the reserves.
“Adrian! Sin!”
Two keepers were called.
Adrian had been signed on a free transfer during the summer transfer window, but he was pushed out by the veteran goalkeeper Jussi Jääskeläinen and could rarely grab a starting chance.
Because of that, he occasionally participated in reserve team training to manage his condition.
“How’s your condition?”
“Not bad. It’s not bad, but……”
Adrian trailed off with a bitter smile.
He had been brought in to prepare for the aging of the current first-choice keeper, Jussi Jääskeläinen.
Jussi had even been nominated for West Ham’s Player of the Season last year, but who’d have thought the competition for the starting spot would be this fierce?
“Hang in there.”
“You too.”
The conversation between keepers who hadn’t secured a starting spot and hadn’t even made their debut was hardly bright.
The two of them stood side by side in front of the goal.
Goalkeeper training didn’t mean setting up only one keeper at a time. Having several stand in goal was also a common training method.
*Beep!*
With the whistle, one of the players participating in training took a shot.
Adrian was up first. He blocked it without difficulty, showing a stable form.
“Next!”
Immediately, it was Sin Uison’s turn.
But the shot easily rippled the back of the net.
“Way too easy.”
“*Ptui.*”
Norris, who’d stepped up to take the shot, cracked jokes to the coaches with an attitude that showed Sin Uison was already beneath his notice. Sin Uison himself spat out the grass that had gotten into his mouth.
‘His kicking power is pretty good, so blocking with reaction speed alone is tricky.’
“Next.”
As he organized his thoughts and stepped aside, it was Adrian’s turn again.
Likewise, the kicker had changed too; just like the keepers, the kickers rotated in order.
Adrian showed consistent stability, making the coaches nod their heads.
Indeed, he was a player who could seize the starting spot in the first team whenever the opportunity came.
On the contrary.
Sin Uison’s outstretched hand, diving through the air, failed to stop the ball.
“*Tsk.*”
He heard someone clicking their tongue, though he didn’t know who. Even so, Sin Uison got up without minding it. Someone’s contempt was familiar to him by now.
Sin Uison dove once more.
***
“*Sigh.*”
Sin Uison sighed after returning to his lodgings.
He roughly dropped his things and threw himself onto the bed.
Should he say today’s training was the same as ever? The coaches shook their heads with dissatisfied faces.
‘You’re so different from your brother.’
A coach’s whispered words, spoken as if in pity, became a dagger that pierced Sin Uison.
He turned his head slightly and saw a picture hanging on the wall. It was a photo of two little kids.
It was him when he was young.
The kid next to him was his older brother.
‘Can the same bloodline be this different?’
The coaches weren’t wrong. His older brother was a true talent, a so-called wonderkid.
Countless big clubs had drooled over him, and his brother hadn’t feared the challenge.
Sin Uison had been there too.
Even though the brothers had advanced to Europe together, the difference was clear. Even Sin Uison himself knew he was essentially a 1+1 service to secure his brother’s commitment.
Perhaps he’d been close to a hostage.
‘Though that hostage life ended a long time ago.’
His brother’s growth had been fearsome. It hadn’t been a few years before he left behind an expensive transfer fee and departed.
Then the remaining hostage was no longer needed.
Soon after, Sin Uison was released to West Ham.
West Ham, who had taken a gamble on him just in case, had also given up on him after a devastating injury.
“…….”
Sin Uison unconsciously touched his right knee. It was a habit he had whenever self-loathing came over him.
He had originally been a midfielder.
After injuring his knee, he had to change positions to continue playing soccer, but truthfully, even when he’d played as a midfielder, he’d had no real talent.
‘Uison, why……’
‘This is……’
‘Pathetic.’
Who had said that?
Had it been his brother? Or his parents?
Or perhaps it was what he said to himself every day in the mirror.
The wall of talent made him feel the reality of it. He realized there were people he could never approach no matter how hard he tried.
It wasn’t a big deal now that he looked back, but when he was young, he’d craved even a single word of praise so badly.
He hadn’t wanted to give up. He’d wanted to be acknowledged. But things didn’t go his way, and they were disappointed when they looked at him.
In a way, it was a vicious cycle.
A shackle he still hadn’t broken.
‘I should just sleep.’
To clear his complicated mind, Sin Uison closed his eyes.
And.
When he opened them.
“What?”
It was that dream again.
“That hurts.”
Sin Uison pinched his cheek and muttered quietly.
It hurt.
This sensation, it was real.
‘But how?’
Sin Uison was confused. Just like yesterday, he stood in front of the goal. It was clearly a repeat of yesterday’s dream. Could a lucid dream be like this?
‘Or maybe I was kidnapped.’
As hard as it was to believe, negative thoughts crept in. But if he were kidnapped, they wouldn’t leave him to roam free like this.
“Whew.”
Taking a deep breath, Sin Uison looked around.
Since there were no restrictions on his movements, he planned to look around this place until he woke up from the dream.
The scenery was no different from yesterday.
It was definitely a repeat of yesterday; that much was certain.
“As I thought, it’s a training ground.”
It was a place anyone aiming to be a pro player would be all too familiar with.
The feeling of stepping on the grass was good, so they seemed to be using high-quality turf. Though it was funny to be evaluating such things in a dream.
“But……”
Sin Uison lowered his head and looked at the gloves on his hands. Finding a goalkeeper wasn’t hard. But where was the kicker? There were no coaches, not even a ball-launching machine in sight.
‘A shoddy dream.’
What could you do in a training ground with only a goalkeeper?
Sin Uison smirked and started walking.
The training ground wasn’t very large. It couldn’t handle a large number of people; four or five would be about right.
It wouldn’t take long to look around this small place.
“As expected.”
Before long, Sin Uison stopped and shrugged. The few doors were all locked.
There was no exit.
Since it was a dream, he considered forcing a door open or breaking one, but an instinctive anxiety crept over him and he couldn’t.
‘To summarize.’
Sin Uison confirmed a few things as he looked around.
First, there was no one here. At least, not right now.
And second.
A suspicious hourglass.
Finding it hadn’t been difficult. It wasn’t small, and it was placed somewhere conspicuously obvious. He was about to find out what this hourglass meant.
‘And if there’s one more thing.’
It was Sin Uison himself, strangely calm. Was it because he knew this was a dream? Even so, it was strange how familiar this place felt.
“Ah.”
Right on cue, one side of the hourglass was nearly empty.
Wondering what change would occur, Sin Uison watched it intently before soon tilting his head.
Nothing happened.
Just as he scratched his cheek in disappointment and turned his head slightly. In that moment, his eyes went wide.
Something was there.
Something pitch-black and human-shaped.
A soccer ghost? When Sin Uison’s face turned pale, thinking it was ultimately a nightmare where a ghost appears—
【Challenge Complete!】
Something rang in his head, but he had no time to care about it.
Because his consciousness was fading as if being sucked away while he took steps backward.
“*Gasp!*”
With a short scream, he woke from the dream.
Wiping cold sweat, Sin Uison looked around. It was his room, the one he’d seen before closing his eyes.
“…What the hell kind of dream was that.”
What on earth was that? It might have been a monster created by stress.
Checking the time, it was still dawn. Sin Uison closed his eyes again as if passing out.
He ended up having a restless sleep.
***
“Are you alright?”
“Yes.”
“Uison, are you really alright? If you’re sick, you should go to the hospital.”
“I’m fine. Really.”
The next day.
Sin Uison’s complexion as he entered the training ground was even worse than yesterday. Even the usually indifferent coaches expressed concern, and even that Norris didn’t pick a fight and disappeared. Bob even suggested he should rest.
“I’m fine. I’m not hurt or anything, so—”
Sin Uison waved his hand saying it was no problem, then tilted his head.
Then he rubbed his eyes.
And soon asked with a serious face.
“Hey, Bob.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I think my condition really isn’t good after all.”
“Right? You should go to the hospital even now……”
Unfortunately for Bob, his words didn’t enter Sin Uison’s head. Right now, Sin Uison was seriously tormented by whether he was seeing things.
【Challenge Complete!】
【Challenge: First Visit】
-> You who haven’t even taken your first step! But starting is half the battle! A long journey toward becoming a great player awaits you!
-> Obtained 10 Points!
“……?”
It seemed.
It wasn’t just a simple dream.