Dracula's proposed conditions made it impossible to continue negotiations. Sasania suspected the other party's sincerity, wondering if they were just using this as leverage to force Zenit to release Chen Hero—did other teams already have their eyes on Chen Hero?

The first negotiation ended in discord after only ten minutes.

Dracula was leisurely and composed. He turned to leave, unfazed by the unsuccessful negotiation.

After he left, Sasania flew into a rage in the meeting room, throwing Dracula's offer onto the solid wood conference table.

"Does he really think he's a vampire?!"

Dracula returned to Chen Hero to report that the matter hadn't been settled.

Chen Hero was puzzled. His performance had been perfect. He thought his request for a raise wouldn't be rejected, right?

He asked for the reason, and Dracula showed him the offer.

He was stunned.

"Forty thousand euros a week? And another ten thousand for winning? Holy shit... that's awesome?"

"But Zenit doesn't agree," Dracula said.

"Huh? Why?" Chen Hero didn't know the overall salary situation at Zenit. Other people's weekly wages were private, and he hadn't inquired about them. So, he didn't understand why it would be rejected, even though he thought forty thousand a week... was indeed very high. But who doesn't want more money?

"Because, this is the highest salary in Zenit Saint Petersburg."

Dracula's words startled Chen Hero.

He finally understood why Zenit Saint Petersburg wouldn't agree...

"However, it doesn't matter, we can continue to negotiate," Dracula said. "Zenit's overall salary level is actually not that high. This season they received sponsorship from Gazprom, and their financial situation has greatly improved. I think they should bleed a little."

Chen Hero felt that the Dracula in front of him was completely different from the previous Yesenin, at least in terms of temperament. Yesenin was a bit stuffy, with a scholarly air due to his glasses. Dracula? From his speech to his actions, he was every bit the cunning agent.

It seemed he hadn't chosen the wrong vampire image...

This was a blatant attempt to bleed the club dry!

"However, this requires your cooperation," Dracula said to Chen Hero.

"How do I cooperate?"

"Perform well on the field, continue your good form, and I'll have more leverage to ask the club for a higher price."

"I thought you'd just flash before their eyes, and they'd all obediently sign the contract..."

"This isn't a fantasy novel!"

"Huh? It's not?"

Dracula's request for Chen Hero to perform well on the field was perfectly reasonable. Although Chen Hero made a few jokes, he didn't think there was anything wrong with the request. As long as he kept scoring goals, his agent would have plenty of leverage to demand a high price from the club. Accept the price? Don't accept it? If you don't accept it, I'll transfer!

But he soon discovered that things weren't as smooth as he had imagined...

On October 14th, the twenty-second round of the league saw Zenit Saint Petersburg challenge Spartak Moscow away.

Before this, the two teams were ranked fourth (Zenit Saint Petersburg) and third (Spartak Moscow).

If they could beat Spartak on the road, they could close the gap with Spartak.

The top three teams in the league would ultimately qualify for next season's Champions League, and even if the third-place team had to participate in the Champions League qualifiers, that would still be good.

Chen Hero started again in this game. Although his agent and the club had temporarily had a falling out, it didn't affect Chen Hero's position in the team.

But after ninety minutes, Chen Hero, who had been scoring in every game before, was silent in today's match.

He encountered the most stubborn resistance.

Spartak Moscow didn't just have their center backs double-team Chen Hero, their defense was three-dimensional and all-encompassing. They not only guarded the center but also strictly defended against crosses from the wings, cutting off the connection between Chen Hero and his teammates. When he fell back, they allowed him to use his header to pass the ball, as he posed no threat far from the goal.

Dick Advocaat, watching Chen Hero's helplessness against the opponent's defense from the coaching bench, knew that Spartak's coaching staff must have put a lot of effort into studying Chen Hero.

In fact, Chen Hero's weaknesses were obvious, and anyone who studied him a little would know them. It wasn't a secret. Initially, Advocaat was willing to give Chen Hero a chance only because he wanted to rely on him to get through the period without Tekke. He didn't expect him to complete the task so well, exceeding Advocaat's expectations.

He had scored in three consecutive games, and he had scored five goals... such a record was quite impressive.

But... that hat trick, while making him a focus of discussion in Russia, also exposed Chen Hero's weaknesses. Faced with tall, strong opponents who were good at heading, but slow to turn around and inflexible, Chen Hero still chose to use his head and body to fight. What did that mean? It meant that his other abilities were not good enough!

Such a striker was simply too easy to defend for those coaches who studied tactics all day long, and for those experienced and capable center backs from wealthy teams...

Seeing Chen Hero on the field for more than seventy minutes, unable to do anything against Spartak's defense, other than brute force, Advocaat had no choice but to replace him.

The substituted Chen Hero walked towards the sideline with his head down.

The commentator said, "Hero has been substituted! This means that his dream of scoring in four consecutive league games has been shattered!"

This game was different from the three games he had experienced before. It was broadcast live nationwide, so if Chen Hero could score, he could become famous throughout the country. Unfortunately... he didn't score a single goal in this game.

Many media outlets and viewers had been very interested in this game, wanting to see what the young man who had scored a hat trick in the previous game was capable of.

But Chen Hero's performance disappointed them.

They only saw a brute who, apart from being tall, strong, and good at heading, was useless in everything else.

"His performance is disappointing... The previous magical aura seems to have disappeared overnight. He seems helpless against Spartak's defenders!"

The national television commentator criticized Chen Hero's performance mercilessly.

Chen Hero sat on the bench, and Igor Denisov, who was also sitting on the bench, nudged him: "Hey, Hero, don't take it to heart. This is normal. If you scored in every game, how would anyone else survive?"

Chen Hero knew that his friend was comforting him. He forced a smile and said to Denisov, "Thank you, Captain."

After speaking, he turned his head back and stared blankly at the game in progress on the field.

Seeing him like this, Denisov was also helpless. He didn't know what to say, so he just sighed. The team was still behind, his friend's performance wasn't good, and he was still sitting on the bench... today was just unlucky!

Chen Hero experienced the cruelty of professional football for the first time—even if he had performed well before, scoring five goals in three games, scoring in every game, and even completing a hat trick. Once he didn't perform well in this game, he would be unhesitatingly replaced...

What did the previous honors count for?

He could completely imagine what the television commentators were saying and what the media would write after the game...

As long as you have one bad game, you will be cursed to death...

This is professional football.

He had been too smooth sailing, and he seemed to have imagined the world too simply...

He thought of how excited his father was when he called home to report the good news after completing the hat trick... Now he was very glad that people in China couldn't watch the Russian league, otherwise, how disappointed would his hopeful parents be if they saw this game on TV?

In the end, Zenit Saint Petersburg lost 0:1 to Spartak Moscow on the road.

Their winning streak was ended, and Chen Hero's scoring streak was also ended.

Dick Advocaat looked at Chen Hero. The big guy had walked into the player tunnel after the game, disappearing from everyone's sight.

The television broadcast camera originally wanted to take a close-up of Chen Hero to see what expression the forward, who had performed a hat trick in the previous league game and was infinitely glorious, had now. But Chen Hero didn't give them that opportunity.

Dick Advocaat didn't know if this would hit Chen Hero hard.

However, he felt that it might not be a bad thing for Chen Hero to encounter a setback once in a while. His development had been too smooth before, so smooth that even he, the head coach, felt a little unreal and worried. Today's incident actually made him breathe a sigh of relief.

What he had to do now was to wait quietly for Chen Hero to respond. He didn't believe that Chen Hero was the kind of person who would be crushed by a setback.

Since he could complete a hat trick under such difficult circumstances, what surprising answer could he give this time?

Chen Hero knew very well where he had gone wrong—in the final analysis, he had too few weapons to use. It was like playing World of Warcraft. At the beginning, you only have white novice weapons. You finally get a green one-handed sword, and you can still show off against low-level monsters. But as your level increases, the level of the monsters you encounter also increases, so that green weapon with low DPS and attack upper limit, and few additional attributes, doesn't seem so good anymore...

He needed more diverse offensive means, he needed more scoring weapons, not just a header!

Returning from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, the figure of agent Dracula was missing from the dormitory. The person sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper was still that middle-aged man with round glasses and a wretched, balding head, Yesenin.

"Is Count Dracula going to disappear for a while? Because my performance was terrible, so there's no leverage to demand a high price from the club?" Chen Hero sat on the opposite sofa and said unhappily.

"Not really," Yesenin put down the newspaper and pushed his glasses up his nose. "We just broke off negotiations with the club. If we take the initiative to negotiate again immediately, we can only lower our price. So we have to wait for the club to come back to us, and then it will mean that they have to accept our terms."

What Yesenin said made sense, and Chen Hero had nothing to say. He just sat there blankly on the sofa for a while, then got up and walked out again.

Yesenin watched his back, not asking "Where are you going?" nor following him out.

Because he knew.

Chen Hero kicked the football into the net as if to vent his anger.

His shooting action still seemed a bit stiff. Such stiffness had little impact in individual training, but it could be fatal in matches. In the game against Spartak, after realizing that his headers were being suppressed by the opponent, he tried to shoot with his feet, but the opponent's slight pressure caused his shots to lose their accuracy.

For this reason, he even heard laughter from the stands of the Luzhniki Stadium, as the home fans mocked his poor shooting skills.

He now realized that his method of leveling up by grinding might not last long, because with only him and Yesenin, they couldn't practice many things. For example, they couldn't train passing and cutting, which required tactical awareness, and many other training exercises lacked the element of confrontation. Football matches were not just for show, making pretty moves didn't guarantee a win.

This was why he had been practicing shooting for so long, but his progress wasn't obvious...

Yesenin didn't know when he had appeared next to the goal. He walked into the goal, scooped up the football, and then held it to his side.

"I want to become stronger, faster!"

Chen Hero shouted at him.