“Damn it! There are cameras! I'm screwed, my image!"

Sun Pan held his head in his hands, wailing softly. It seemed his mood had recovered from the crushing defeat. Perhaps Zhou Yi's consolation had worked, or maybe Sun Pan was just naturally a bit of a goofball, not staying down for long. In a way, it was a personality strength.

At dinner, Sun Pan, Zhou Yi, Yang Muge, and Guo Nu sat at the same table—Guo Nu had naturally been enthusiastically invited by Zhou Yi, and then sat next to them for dinner under Sun Pan's angry glare. But he remained silent the entire time, just eating and not joining in the other three's discussion.

"You have an image?" Zhou Yi asked, astonished.

"What's with that expression?" Sun Pan protested. "What do you mean I don't have an image? I'm tall and mighty! I'm a chivalrous hero! I..."

Seeing everyone lower their heads to eat, ignoring him, he grew bored. He rolled his eyes and thought of another topic. "Old Zhou, let me ask you, how could you stand Liang Qiqi talking so rudely? You even apologized to him, explained what you said... Why even bother with that idiot?"

Although they were all teammates, they came from all over the country, with different backgrounds and experiences. Their temperaments were different, so naturally, not everyone got along. Zhou Yi got along well with Sun Pan and Yang Muge, but his relationship with the others was more or less ordinary.

And there were naturally different networks of relationships among the others.

For example, Guo Nu and Liang Qiqi were enemies because on his first day on the team, Liang Qiqi mocked Guo Nu's stutter and appearance, and then Guo Nu beat him up.

Sun Pan simply couldn't stand Liang Qiqi—there was no real hatred between them, but Sun Pan just couldn't stand Liang Qiqi's behavior, his high profile and showing off within the team, as if he was the biggest star player after He Ying.

Liang Qiqi's skills were indeed good, his moves were really flashy, but Sun Pan had a sharp assessment of him—"a fancy embroidered pillow." On the training ground, he could do all sorts of tricks with the ball, but that was because no one was closely marking him. His physical strength was very poor, and his ability to handle the ball under pressure was also weak. So Sun Pan looked down on him, thinking he was just a showy, useless player who knew how to show off his skills but was ultimately worthless, yet he was so arrogant, it was ridiculous.

Sun Pan was also annoyed with He Ying, but that annoyance stemmed more from jealousy, although Sun Pan would never admit that he was jealous of He Ying.

His annoyance with Liang Qiqi, however, came from his disdain.

"Hey, aren't there cameras? I have to be mindful of my image in front of hundreds of millions of viewers in the country," Zhou Yi said.

"You actually have an image?" Sun Pan finally had a chance to retaliate, feigning surprise.

"Of course I do! I'm telling you, Sun Pan, once this show airs, we'll all be public figures. Maybe you'll be walking down the street and pretty girls will stop you, asking for your autograph, wanting to take pictures with you," Zhou Yi painted a rosy picture of the future for Sun Pan. Judging by Sun Pan's expression, he was clearly immersed in the beautiful world Zhou Yi described.

Yang Muge's focus wasn't on being stopped by girls for autographs and photos. He asked Zhou Yi, "Zhou Yi, when you explained yourself back then, were you serious?"

"Of course! It was a heartfelt sentiment! I'm very experienced in failure!"

Hearing Zhou Yi say this, Guo Nu, who had been eating silently next to him, couldn't help but complain, "There's nothing to be proud of..."

For the first time, Sun Pan and Guo Nu surprisingly agreed. He rolled his eyes and said, "You're so proud of losing, and you say you have an image..."

But Yang Muge was clearly more interested in Zhou Yi's words. He pressed him, "Where did you accumulate so much experience in failure?"

"In my dreams," Zhou Yi replied, raising his head.

Hearing this answer, Guo Nu couldn't help but spit the food in his mouth back onto his plate, while also inhaling a lot of it into his trachea, causing him to cough loudly.

Sun Pan patted the stunned Yang Muge on the shoulder and laughed. "See? See? And you actually took him seriously!"

Zhou Yi curled his lip.

He was telling the truth, but many people wouldn't believe it.

Yeah, who would believe that he had played against La Masia's Youth B team dozens of times in his dreams?

※※※

After dinner, head coach Hao Dong met with chief director Xu Tao in his room to discuss the show.

Because the match had been such a crushing defeat, they needed to discuss the editing of the program. At the same time, Xu Tao also wanted to make some requests to Hao Dong, to see if they could make the match look less like a complete blowout.

"...Of course, I don't want the match to be such a loss, but there's nothing I can do. This is the gap between us and European football, the real gap." Sitting on the sofa, Hao Dong spread his hands, his tone helpless. "This gap can't be solved by adding one more training session every day. Even if you whip them, they can't get stronger right away. This is the law of football, it has to be done step by step."

"Then what's the point of our show if you say that? This is too embarrassing," Xu Tao said, unwilling to give up.

"Look at the game footage, find more highlights of our players, and save the score for last. Emphasize persevering through repeated defeats, instead of dwelling on repeated defeats," Hao Dong reminded him.

Xu Tao was silent after hearing his words.

Repeated defeats made the team sound incompetent, but persevering through repeated defeats made it sound like the team was resilient in the face of setbacks. The latter sounded much better.

That was an idea.

"Okay..." Xu Tao nodded.

"If there's nothing else, I'll go back to my room. I still have to study the data on the next opponent, Real Madrid's youth team..."

"Wait, there's something I want you to see." Xu Tao finished speaking and opened a video file on his computer desktop.

Hao Dong leaned over to take a look... It was footage from the team's locker room.

When Xu Tao and he had discussed whether cameramen should be allowed in the locker room, they had agreed that having cameramen present would make the kids uncomfortable. But Xu Tao wanted footage from the locker room, as this was a reality show, not a real football match. So in the end, they decided not to use cameramen, but to use a camera that would automatically record inside, so that while it would be difficult to capture everything, it would give the feeling of being "secretly filmed," allowing the audience to believe the authenticity of the young players' performances in front of the camera.

Unexpectedly, they had captured a truly "real" moment.

A real internal conflict.

Hao Dong was unaware of this incident within the team. He was surprised and then somewhat angry, because they had only lost one match and the team was already fighting among themselves!

It made him, the head coach, feel deeply ashamed.

So he asked, "You want to cut this into the show?"

Xu Tao nodded. "Why not? I think this is very interesting. This is the ultimate pursuit of reality shows—authenticity, absolute authenticity, not 'authenticity' that has been directed and rehearsed through scripts."

"But this authenticity... is embarrassing."

"It depends on how you look at it. Just showing the arguing isn't very good. But if you focus on this kid..." Xu Tao pointed to Zhou Yi, who was speaking on the screen.

He was sideways to the camera lens, explaining to Liang Qiqi: "...What I mean is actually very simple. Didn't Coach Hao say that what's more important than winning or losing is to have a champion's heart that always strives for victory? With that heart, even if we encounter setbacks and failures temporarily, victory will ultimately belong to us. So now it's only the first match..."

Hao Dong was somewhat surprised. He didn't expect anyone to truly understand the real purpose of his pre-match speech.

Yes, he knew this match would be lost, and he knew it would be a crushing defeat. But how could he help the players recover quickly from the defeat? He had prepared them beforehand, and he hoped these young players could take his words to heart.

But clearly, from the performances of those people after the match, it seemed that only... Zhou Yi had taken it to heart.

This kid...

Hao Dong couldn't help but think that during the final of the tryouts, he had also reminded the players to pay attention to teamwork. And what happened? Only Zhou Yi had taken it to heart.

Although his current ability was the weakest of the sixteen players on the team, he was the best at understanding the coach's intentions...

"We have to let the audience see a positive side from this defeat. I think it's better to have this kid say these things naturally than to have us arrange for someone to say them. This is good, anyway, this is within our expectations," Xu Tao said.

"Okay..." Hao Dong also nodded in agreement with chief director Xu Tao's plan after seeing Zhou Yi's performance. If it hadn't been for Zhou Yi's words, he would definitely have argued with Xu Tao about this issue.

※※※

When Zhou Yi returned to his hotel room, He Ying was already there. He hadn't gone anywhere and had returned to his room after dinner.

Zhou Yi noticed that he wasn't engrossed in his Catalan textbook today.

It seemed that the defeat in this match had affected him so much that he had given up on the idea of joining La Masia.

Although He Ying, as his roommate, hadn't said much to him gently, and the two had always kept to themselves in the room, and he had even tricked him into signing autographs to sell... But no matter what, as a roommate, Zhou Yi couldn't help but feel sorry for He Ying, who was usually so arrogant, suddenly looking like this. He said, trying to comfort him, "Well, um..."

He Ying looked up at him, his eyes calm and expressionless.

"Um... Actually, you don't have to take this match too seriously. According to the rules, we'll have to come back here in the end and play them again, right? So..."

He Ying still looked at him with those eyes.

"...So, maybe we can win next time?" Zhou Yi said.

The corners of He Ying's mouth twitched.

"Heh."

He sneered.

Zhou Yi also felt that his attempt at consolation was too unsuccessful. No normal person would believe that they could go from a twelve-goal defeat to defeating La Masia's Youth B team in two months, right?

It was too unbelievable. It didn't sound like comfort, but more like sarcasm...

"Okay..." Zhou Yi also knew that with He Ying, the less said, the better.

So he went to wash up and then lay down in bed.

He couldn't wait to experience failure again in the virtual system.

If someone asked Zhou Yi if he had fallen in love with the feeling of failure after becoming numb to it, then Zhou Yi would definitely look up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle and say:

"No, I don't love failure, but it's the price you have to pay to pursue victory."

If you were dismissive of his pretentious tone, then you would miss the golden truth.

If you want to be good at fighting, you must first learn to take a beating.

※※※

"Welcome, Zhou Yi." Chu Ling smiled as she looked at Zhou Yi, who had appeared in front of her.

"Hello, Chu Ling. Same as always, let's start with a match."

"Please select your opponent," Chu Ling said.

"La Masia's Youth B team," Zhou Yi replied.

Chu Ling was somewhat surprised. "Your match with this team has already ended, Zhou Yi. Your next opponent is the youth team of Real Madrid's youth academy, La Fabrica..."

She was reminding Zhou Yi that he should change his opponent.

"No, I still want to play this team," Zhou Yi shook his head.

"Why?" Chu Ling asked, curious.

"Because I haven't won yet!" Zhou Yi said, gritting his teeth.

I hate failure. Past, present, and future, I hate failure. So you've beaten us so many times, but we haven't won even once. How can we just let you go like this? This debt can't just be written off!

※※※

ps, extra chapter for the Alliance Master, thanks to our old Alliance Master Tian Ruo Shui—don't misunderstand, I'm not saying he's old in age, but in seniority. From being a Deacon in *Champion Godfather*, to a Deacon in *Champion Legend*, to an Alliance Master in *King of the Zone*, *Winner Is King*, and *Champion's Light*, it's been almost ten years.

Thank you very much for walking together with me during these nine years, and I hope we can continue to walk side by side.

Thank you!