To improve himself, he trained hard! To level up, he voluntarily stayed behind for extra training after the regular session! In order to take back what he had lost as soon as possible, Chen Hero even sneaked into the training base at night under Yesenin's guidance...

For experience points, he disregarded everything else and trained, trained, trained like a madman!

His frenzied enthusiasm surprised even Yesenin.

But in reality, Chen Hero was equally surprised by Yesenin—because he discovered that there seemed to be nothing this Mr. Aurora couldn't do.

He was an excellent translator, capable of translating even the most complex sentences into easily understandable language, rendering Russian in a way that perfectly suited Chinese habits. He was also an outstanding language teacher, under whose tutelage Chen Hero's Russian improved rapidly. Now, he had transformed into an excellent soccer coach, accompanying Chen Hero in training every night, correcting the bad habits and flaws he had developed in the domestic club, while also offering many beneficial suggestions. Currently, the two were engaged in simple, basic passing and receiving drills, which didn't require a large field or any special training facilities; all it took was two people. During the training with Yesenin, Chen Hero was shocked by Yesenin's footwork—in his opinion, Yesenin's passing and trapping skills alone were world-class...

In addition to all this, he was also a great cook. Since the two of them lived together, Yesenin took care of all the cooking, and the food was quite delicious. Chen Hero even thought it was better than some restaurants. Fortunately, there were no 'love-filled fried eggs' that made him cringe, so he ate without any psychological barriers.

One night, while "AFK" (away from keyboard), Chen Hero asked Yesenin, "Is there anything you *can't* do, Mr. Aurora?"

Yesenin thought for a moment. "World peace."

Chen Hero nodded. "Thank you."

"Why are you thanking me?" Yesenin asked, puzzled.

"I'm glad you didn't say 'China wins the World Cup.' That joke is so old and stale."

"Hahaha!" Yesenin laughed.

Chen Hero was speechless.

In the blink of an eye, it had been almost a week since Chen Hero had been transferred to the first team. During this time, Zenit Saint Petersburg's roster revamp hadn't stopped. Advocaat brought in three South Korean players and promoted a Chinese player from the youth team to the first team. The result of Chen Hero's promotion to the first team was that the original center forward, Robertas Poskus, was loaned out to Dynamo Moscow.

In addition, Zenit also loaned Fernando Ricksen, a versatile player who could play in both central defense and midfield, from Glasgow Rangers in Scotland.

Chen Hero was a strong center forward, but he was definitely not a fast, agile striker.

Therefore, Advocaat also brought in Alexandr Panov, a speed-type forward, from Torpedo Moscow. Panov had played 33 games for Torpedo Moscow last season, scoring 11 goals. However, at the beginning of this season, he was injured and subsequently lost his place, becoming a substitute. Transferring to Zenit Saint Petersburg meant an opportunity for him.

Amidst these adjustments, Zenit Saint Petersburg welcomed their next Russian Premier League match—Round 18 of the league, away against Rostov.

Having only been selected for the first team for less than a week, Chen Hero was naturally not qualified to be included in the matchday squad. But he wasn't idle either.

While his teammates were engaged in a fierce battle with Rostov away from home, Chen Hero was using the first team's training ground for extra self-training.

The training ground manager was surprised by this Chinese lad who came to him hoping to open the training ground for him to train. He had been a manager here for so many years, and it was the first time he had seen a player come to train on a match day... At times like these, those players who weren't selected for the squad would either go out to play or stay at home watching the live broadcast on TV. No one would come to the training ground to continue training—hadn't he had enough training in the past five days?

Although surprised, the manager still opened the training ground doors to Chen Hero. First-team players had the right to use the training ground, especially to give themselves extra training... He couldn't find a reason to stop him.

This time, Yesenin and Chen Hero were doing heading drills, with Yesenin delivering the ball from various positions on the wings to the front of the goal, and then Chen Hero using his head to attack the ball and shoot.

There was no physical contact; it was mainly for Chen Hero to find the feeling of heading the ball and shooting. After all, in the past few days of training, Chen Hero had been acting as a decoy in the heading drills. Yesenin and Chen Hero were both very clear that he couldn't always be a decoy; he had to become the main attacker. His physique and abilities made him the perfect choice for the main striker.

To have him act as a decoy? That was a waste of talent!

While Chen Hero was sweating on the training ground with Yesenin, his teammates were enjoying the joy of defeating the home team at Olimp-2 stadium.

Advocaat had achieved an undefeated record of two wins and one draw in the three games since taking over as coach of Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Zenit didn't seem to be affected by the change of coach. They were currently ranked seventh in the league, and they still needed to work hard if they wanted to qualify for European competitions next season.

When Advocaat returned with the team, the training ground manager reported to him what had happened that weekend.

Advocaat already knew that Chen Hero would do extra self-training after the games, but he didn't expect Chen Hero to consciously train even when he wasn't selected for the squad—he was very surprised.

His first reaction wasn't to praise Chen Hero for his serious attitude, but to worry that such excessive training would ruin him.

He felt that he needed to talk to Chen Hero—he thought that Chen Hero was motivated by that training session, so he was stepping up his training. That was certainly good, but he also had to pay attention to moderation...

Just as Advocaat was about to talk to Chen Hero, Chen Hero was staring at the computer screen, grinning to himself.

The webpage on the screen showed that he only needed 5,000 more experience points to level up.

The crazy training these past few days had been rewarding.

Moreover, training was really a win-win situation, not only could he gain experience, but he could also improve himself outside of the system.

Doing passing and receiving drills with Yesenin every night, he now felt that he had made significant progress in dealing with various passes.

Forwards, especially center forwards, had very high requirements for receiving the ball, because they were in the penalty area, surrounded by enemies. If they trapped the ball even a little too far, the ball could be snatched away by the opponent, losing the opportunity to shoot and score. Forwards weren't like midfielders or defenders; they could trap the ball five meters away and still say that they were dribbling past the opponent.

In fact, receiving the ball had always been Chen Hero's weakness. When he was in a domestic club, the coach didn't deliberately ask him to train this skill; as long as he could receive the ball, that was good enough. As for how well he received it, they didn't care.

Moreover, the intensity of physical contact in domestic competitions was definitely not as high as here. When you were playing in a domestic youth team match, it was okay if you reached out a little further, but here, as long as you dared to let the ball get out of your control, you could expect it to be snatched away.

In fact, Advocaat wasn't the only one who was worried about whether Chen Hero's body could withstand such hard training; Yesenin had also been worried. But after seeing the actual results, he stopped worrying.

Chen Hero had a very outstanding physique and recovered extremely quickly. Even if he was exhausted by Yesenin the day before, he would be fine after a night's sleep.

Looking at Chen Hero doing shooting drills alone on the field, Advocaat didn't go up to him immediately, but instead stood on the sidelines and quietly observed. His translator, that Yesenin, was also standing on the sidelines. When he saw Advocaat coming, he nodded to greet him.

"Extra shooting practice?" Advocaat asked Yesenin.

Yesenin nodded.

It seemed that Chen Hero's extra training wasn't just for the sake of training; he was also training with a purpose...

Compared to his heading, his shooting was indeed terrible. Advocaat had noticed this during training.

When Chen Hero had shot all the soccer balls in front of him one by one, Advocaat shouted to him, "Hey, Hero!"

Chen Hero turned around and saw that it was the head coach, so he quickly turned around and ran over.

"Hello, Mr. Head Coach," he greeted Advocaat in Russian.

"Your Russian is improving nicely," Advocaat praised. "I know you're working hard, but shouldn't you also know when to stop?"

Chen Hero shook his head. "Sorry, sir. I don't understand what you mean..."

"I heard from the training ground manager that you also came here to train on Sunday?"

Chen Hero and Yesenin exchanged glances.

"Yes, yes. I feel that my foundation is very weak and my strength is not strong enough, so I hope to improve my ability through training..."

After listening to Chen Hero's explanation, Advocaat nodded. "It's good that you have this idea, but you must also pay attention to your body. You know, overtraining can lead to physical injuries."

Unexpectedly, Chen Hero grinned, then struck a bodybuilder's pose and said to Advocaat, "It's okay, sir, my body can handle it completely!"

Advocaat really wanted to roll his eyes, but he held back—rolling his eyes in front of the players was too unseemly. He took Chen Hero's words as a boast; he didn't believe that anyone's body could withstand such long-term training.

"Alright, I understand your passion for soccer, Hero. But don't come to the training ground on weekends to train anymore. I'll talk to the stadium manager. Hard work is good, but you also need to pay attention to the method." He patted Chen Hero on the shoulder. "When shooting, don't just think about power, power, and more power. Sometimes using all your strength may not be as effective as using only half your strength. Relax all the muscles in your body, tighten your instep, not your whole body."

After speaking, he turned and left the training ground.

Chen Hero and Yesenin looked at each other, then both turned their attention to the Dutchman.

"Do as he says, Hero."

Yesenin's voice rang out.

Chen Hero ran back to the field to pick up the scattered soccer balls, rearranged them, and then prepared to shoot!

Bang, bang, bang, the sound of shooting continued to ring out. Even though Advocaat had left the training ground, he could still hear the sound coming from that side.

He didn't know if Chen Hero had improved his shooting according to his request, but judging from this sound... This kid's shooting power was really great!