Chapter 1 Showdown

"Come on, Maldini, let's go one-on-one!" Chen Hero in the copy shouted, pointing at Maldini's nose.

Maldini smiled. "You seem to be in a bad mood today."

This was a very normal conversation, because Chen Hero's bad mood was written all over his face. It wasn't a secret.

But after hearing this sentence, Chen Hero was shocked. He froze in place, maintaining his original posture!

The copy had always been a virtual place for Chen Hero. Everything here was virtual, unreal, and programmed. This included his interactions with these virtual teammates. They were all pre-set, like issuing commands and normal greetings. He could do that, but he wouldn't receive any other feedback.

For example, if he greeted Maldini like this: "Hello, Paolo."

Then Maldini would smile and respond: "Hello, Hero."

This was a simple self-set program.

But if he said: "You know, I didn't sleep well at all last night..."

The other person would just stand there and smile at him, without any other reaction.

Because the program didn't specify how Maldini should react to this sentence.

Not only that, at least dialogues could be set. But if you didn't speak, just smiled at Maldini, then you would definitely not get any verbal response. Maldini would never suddenly ask, "You seem to be in a good mood today."

He might smile, be angry, or shout, but these were all programmed. He would do what was set, but naturally wouldn't do what wasn't.

It was like playing *World of Warcraft*. If you typed LoL, your character would laugh. But if you typed "laugh your sister," nothing would happen.

Chen Hero had known these things for a long time, so he was so shocked by Maldini's reaction today!

Seeing that Chen Hero didn't react for a long time, Maldini frowned. "Are you surprised?"

Chen Hero was even more surprised...

But his brain reacted.

"You react to my expression?"

"Shouldn't I?" Maldini replied.

Chen Hero was sure that the virtual character in front of him was more intelligent...

So far, he could only think of this explanation. But he didn't know why this was happening. He thought maybe Mr. Aurora would know? Because in his opinion, Mr. Aurora was the system's programmer... A large game like *World of Warcraft* required a company to make, but Mr. Aurora had done this system all by himself. He was really a high-level IT worker...

But for Chen Hero, it was a good thing that the person in front of him was more intelligent. Because his training was no longer so boring. In reality, he liked to chat with his teammates, bicker, and joke around during training. Training was always full of laughter. But in the copy, he only trained and trained. His teammates, besides some necessary reactions, didn't have any other reactions. Of course they would also tell jokes, but there were only so many jokes. Everyone repeated them over and over again. Chen Hero's ears had long grown calluses. Moreover, those jokes were really cold and old. He didn't know if Mr. Aurora had just searched for some jokes on the internet and put them in...

"Then do you know who you are?" Chen Hero asked tentatively.

"Paolo Maldini. Don't you know me?" Maldini asked back.

"Of course I know you... You're so famous..." Chen Hero muttered awkwardly. He felt that Maldini was treating him like an idiot when he asked back—yes, it was a bit outrageous for a football player not to know Paolo Maldini.

"You are also very famous," Maldini smiled.

"You know?" Chen Hero was even more surprised.

"I am a character created by you. I see what you see every day, hear what you hear, experience what you experience, accept what you accept. Of course I also see what you see, hear what you hear, experience what you experience, accept what you accept."

Chen Hero felt that he was now "shocked by every sentence." He thought Maldini would think he was a normal human being, just like Truman, the protagonist in *The Truman Show*, who never knew he lived in a huge studio, living in a reality show.

But listen to these words. Maldini was very clear about his position and knew what his identity was. So... would he have any other ideas?

"I was created by you, or rather, imagined by you, and can only exist in the world you created. So, rest assured, Hero. You will definitely not encounter a twenty-seven-year-old Paolo Maldini on a real football field," Maldini explained, as if he knew what Chen Hero was thinking.

"Uh... that's not what I meant..." Chen Hero scratched his head, a little embarrassed, after being seen through. "But if you could really get out, it would be quite interesting, ha!"

"That's absolutely impossible." Maldini clapped his hands. "Are we training today?"

Chen Hero shook his head. "I just want to chat with you, is that okay?"

"Of course, I obey your orders."

Seeing a legendary figure say "I obey your orders," Chen Hero felt very strange. In real life, could he boss Paolo Maldini around?

※※※

After chatting with Maldini in the copy for an hour, Chen Hero found that Maldini perfectly inherited the knowledge of both himself and Chen Hero. In terms of football, he was worthy of being a legendary figure, and he was also not out of touch with the times.

After exiting the copy, he looked at his watch. It was already eleven thirty. He wasn't in a hurry to sleep. Instead, he directly called Dracula.

"Hey, Dracula. Did you secretly release a new expansion pack again?"

Dracula didn't understand. Then Chen Hero explained what he had encountered, and he laughed.

"So that's what an expansion pack means... No, I didn't release any expansion pack. In terms you can understand, I just applied a patch."

"A patch?"

"Yeah, a small patch that allows legendary players to have independent consciousness."

"Only legendary players can do this?"

"Yes, your ordinary teammates in the team can't."

Chen Hero rolled his eyes. "That's no fun."

"If everyone could, it would be your headache, Hero."

"What's the point of just one or two people being able to?"

"Actually... in your words, I am indeed preparing the next expansion pack. Are you interested?" Dracula pondered for a while and asked.

"Oh, there really is a new expansion pack?" Although Chen Hero was joking about the "expansion pack" before, he was still quite surprised to hear that Dracula really had this plan.

"Since you say it's an expansion pack, we'll use that term. It's actually an upgrade to the entire system. And some more features will be added."

Chen Hero thought this was quite interesting. He didn't expect that his system could be played like this. He liked constantly adding new things.

Young people originally liked to play, and training itself was boring. But if you could make training more fun, like a game, then even the most boring training could be persisted by people who liked to play.

"What are the extra features?"

"Well, what we are currently preparing to launch is... the apprenticeship system," Dracula said.

Chen Hero's mouth was so big that he could directly stuff a light bulb in it...

※※※

The so-called apprenticeship system was to find those legendary football stars who had already retired to learn from them, learn their skills, and also learn their experience. The so-called "the master leads you in, but the cultivation is up to you." This definitely required self-cultivation, but having a good master would definitely give a boost to personal growth.

When Chen Hero was young, he didn't meet a good coach, so he could only rely on his physical talent to conquer the world. Now that he had come to the European football field, this was where the highest level players were concentrated. He would encounter all kinds of powerful enemies. Relying solely on his body wouldn't work anymore. Fortunately, he had such a copy that could improve himself. Otherwise... he was afraid that he would only be a second-rate European center forward no matter how hard he tried now.

The way to obtain those legendary football stars, in addition to the system rewarding him for doing specific tasks, was to exchange them for experience. The different levels of football stars required different amounts of experience. This would definitely affect leveling up and affect the acquisition of talent points.

But at the same time, it was also another way to level up. The effects of talent points were basically just basic abilities. If you wanted to upgrade further and improve yourself, a good teacher was of course indispensable...

"But Maldini, what can I learn from him? Learn how to tackle cleanly?" Chen Hero still didn't quite understand.

"It's not like you can apprentice with everyone. Where those people are, who to learn from, it's up to you to choose. Besides, don't you think it's easy to improve when training with high-level players?"

Chen Hero thought about it and felt that it made sense.

"Okay, so when will this new expansion pack be released?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"The specific time is not yet determined..."

"Do you have to wait for the Press and Publication Administration and the Ministry of Culture to finish arguing before approving it?"

"Cough cough... No, it's just that I'm also quite busy and don't spend all my time building copies. So... please be patient," Dracula defended.

Chen Hero had no choice. Although he was really looking forward to the apprenticeship system... But even if the expansion pack went online tomorrow, he probably wouldn't be able to apprentice.

Because he had used all his experience to level up. He had just leveled up. After this half-year of training, he was already level forty.

He had spent all his talent points on various techniques, and the talents he had initially spent points on had even been upgraded to the second level.

But at the same time, he found that the higher he leveled up, the more experience he needed, and the speed of leveling up gradually slowed down. This was also normal... All games were like this. How could it be easier to level up the higher you went?

There was no such logic in reality either.

But Chen Hero's desire to improve himself was very urgent. Especially since he was about to participate in the Champions League, he didn't know what kind of behemoths he would encounter in the Champions League. It was always good to improve his strength.

But even if he trained hard every day, the amount of experience he could get was basically fixed.

If this apprenticeship system came out, it would really be good news for him.

After finishing the phone call, Chen Hero then prepared to wash up.

Opening the bedroom door, looking at the door of the opposite bedroom tightly closed, he was suddenly a little curious—he closed his door all day long because he had to enter the copy and didn't want others to know that he had disappeared for several hours for no reason. What was this woman doing closing her door all day long?

He leaned against the door, put his ear to the door, and planned to listen to the movements inside.

But unexpectedly, before he could really lean against it, the door suddenly opened.

Chen Hero, who was bending over, looked up a little awkwardly at Cabralia standing at the door.

"That, I was seeing if you were resting... hehe." Chen Hero could only find some random excuses, coupled with a silly smile, hoping to make himself look harmless.

"You're still not sleeping, Mr. Chen. You have training tomorrow," Cabralia said with no expression on her face as always.

"I'm just about to go, just about to go..."

For some reason, Chen Hero felt three points shorter in front of this stern female bodyguard.

He turned around to leave.

"Good night."

Cabralia's greeting suddenly sounded from behind.

By the time he turned around, the door had just clicked shut gently.

"Good night! Christine!" Chen Hero shouted through the door.

Then he turned around and jumped back to his room.

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