Dynasty Awakening: Building My Own Football Empire-Chapter 273: The Media Darling

Michael Sterling felt his stomach rumbling in protest to the alarm that had woken him up. Since he had spent the previous evening running away from Mrs. Higgins after smashing her greenhouse, he felt the full effects of his hunger this morning.

He quickly turned the alarm off and opened the notification waiting for him.

[You have consumed: S-Grade Elixir of Eternal Fitness.]

[Target: Kaito Tanaka. Status: 100% RECOVERED.]

[Hidden Effect: Player gains ’Titanium Hamstrings’ trait.]

Seeing the blue screen in front of him, Michael’s eyes sparkled. He finally had a fully fit Samurai, filling him with pride and a sense of relief. This was probably the best use of an item he had ever made.

Michael had never seen ’Titanium Hamstrings’ mentioned before by the system, but perhaps they would appear once he upgraded the medical department to a sufficient level.

Either way, he felt another layer of confidence after Kaito had been saved. He needed to perform well in the final game against Manchester City and secure the title... or at least the Champions League spot.

With these grand thoughts in his mind, Michael left his room to start his morning routine. Today was the first day of the final week of the season. From there he would go to the tactical analysis session before the showdown at the Etihad.

When he arrived at the training complex, everyone seemed to be in a much better mood than they were on Monday. That was to be expected since they had just conquered Anfield.

Michael and Arthur were both more excited for the tactical meeting which would take place later. Kenji was due back from his apology tour with Mrs. Higgins sometime today which the two were looking forward to.

As he walked towards his office, Michael could still feel the stares directed at him from the other staff members. A few marketing interns walked up to him in the hallway and stopped in his path, looking as if they wanted to ask him something.

"Hey Boss, what are you doing after the season? Did you want to do an exclusive interview with Vogue? They called for you."

Michael almost couldn’t believe his ears, turning to Arthur as if to ask him if this was an illusion. However, Arthur’s face was beet red and filled with panic.

Now that he thought about it, he had never seen Arthur handle a fashion magazine request before. His nervousness caused Michael to let out a mischievous grin as he had finally found out his assistant’s weakness.

Thankfully, Michael didn’t share the same feelings for fashion as he did for tactics, so he was easily able to decline their invitation. The reason he was so shocked in the first place was because he had never been invited to such things even as a successful manager.

"I’m sorry, we both have tactical training all week. We’ll be playing Pep Guardiola tomorrow after all." He replied with an apologetic face.

Seeing the interns look so disappointed, Michael’s eyes flashed for a moment as a wicked idea entered his mind.

"How about you exchange emails with Arthur here and we can do a jelly baby tasting session during the summer break?"

Arthur felt a shock run down his spine as he slowly turned to Michael with a horrified expression.

’This is what you get for eating the last green one.’ Michael laughed inwardly, snatching Arthur’s phone from his pocket and handing it to the three interns.

They all entered their emails and turned to Michael expectantly.

"Ah sorry, my phone is out of battery. But don’t worry, you can reach me through Arthur here."

Outwardly Michael looked apologetic, however inwardly he was cackling like an evil villain from one of those spy movies. Even after the interns walked away and his phone had been returned, Arthur had yet to recover from the whole ordeal.

Michael didn’t bother to collect Arthur, choosing to walk straight into the tactical room in case he was stopped by anyone else.

’Have I gotten more handsome or something?’ He thought, adjusting his tie and humming a merry tune as he went and sat down at his desk.

"Ah..." Michael exclaimed, finally thinking of a reason for all this unwanted attention. His reward from the mission against Liverpool was that weird skill.

Media Darling.

Everything started to make sense now. Media Darling seemed to not be limited to the press room, working in his everyday life. While it wasn’t a lie to say that he was enjoying a little extra attention, it might turn out to be annoying in the future.

While he was deep in thought, Arthur finally managed to collect himself and sit down at his desk next to Michael. He was staring at his phone in a daze, looking at the 3 new entries in his contacts list.

They were easy to locate because he only had 3 contacts on his phone to begin with. Michael, Kenji, and Sarah.

The kettle boiling was what finally woke Arthur up from his mood, prompting him to put his phone away. When he looked over at Michael all he could see was a giant toothy grin, giving him the feeling of wanting to throw a tactical magnet right at his face.

Once the video analyst walked in, the room went silent and the final block of analysis for the season commenced. Since the opponent was Manchester City, Michael was able to finish the preliminary report in record time.

While it may have been a breeze for himself who could be considered a visionary, the rest of the staff was in crisis mode. Arthur seemed to have a better time considering he had been actively trying to learn from Michael at home.

Since the two wanted to build a dynasty in the future, he would be best to learn the elite tactics as soon as they could.

Once the lunch bell rang, there was a collective celebration around the room. The session had officially ended and they wouldn’t have to return until the afternoon training.

Michael and Arthur quickly left the room and headed down to the canteen. This was the last meal before the real work started.

When they arrived, everyone seemed to be in high spirits.

Michael ate quickly, his mind already drifting. Once arriving back home later that evening, Michael went straight up to his room and laid on the bed. Now that the day was over and he was alone, it was time to open up the system and see what had changed.

SYSTEM ALERT

SYSTEM HAS SUCCESSFULLY UPGRADED TO LEVEL 5.

SYSTEM SHOP IS NOW UNLOCKED

PREMIER LEAGUE SYSTEM

SYSTEM LEVEL: 5 (800/50000 Influence points to level up)

NAME: Michael Sterling

ROLE: The Architect

INFLUENCE: S+

INFLUENCE POINTS: 800

USER MENU:

-STATS

-SCOUTING

-SYSTEM SHOP

-MIRACLE ENGINE (Locked)

-ZONE OF CHAOS

-TRUE VISION

Michael’s eyes widened in surprise. Without hesitation he opened up the System Shop with a sense of anticipation, wondering what kind of treasures it held.

SYSTEM SHOP

Lottery Tickets

Elixirs

Skills (locked)

’Yes! This is what I’ve been waiting for.’ Michael had a decent amount of Influence points (or so he thought) which he had been saving. Now that the system shop had been unlocked, he could finally find somewhere to use them.

Yet his thoughts quickly turned sour as he saw the prices.

Lottery Tickets

Bronze Lottery Ticket - 2,000 Influence Points

Silver Lottery Ticket - 5,000 Influence Points

Gold Lottery Ticket - 25,000 Influence Points

’So fucking expensive!’ It seemed that getting the lottery tickets through missions would be a lot easier than buying them from the system shop, which probably meant that Elixirs and Skills would be the same.

It was as he expected. B-grade Elixirs were priced at 5,000 Influence points, whereas A-grade’s were 20,000 which was nearly the price of a Gold Lottery Ticket.

Michael was a little disappointed, but at the same time it changed his perception of the rewards he received from missions. If he were to win against City, the reward was a Platinum Lottery Ticket and 10,000 Influence points. This meant his total reward would amount to a fortune.

He had been hoping he would be able to improve his skills before the final this weekend and thought that the upgrade may help facilitate this. However, it turned out that he was poor and could not afford the goods in the system shop.

But there was one thing that he could do in order to get stronger. After having dinner and getting ready for bed, Michael returned to his room and a look of determination flashed onto his face.

DOES THE USER WISH TO ENTER ZONE SIMULATION?

[YES/NO]

"Yes."

Michael entered the Zone simulation and went straight to tactical drilling. It was quite tough against the upgraded Shadow Manager (who looked suspiciously like a bald fraud), sending 99% possession stats at him, but as long as he persisted, he would be able to get the rewards.

He continued the same routine for the entire week, taking meetings during the day and completing Zone simulations at night. Unfortunately, thanks to the supreme pressing of the simulation, he was only able to complete one of the missions.

Execute 100 Perfect Offside Traps - 500 Influence points [COMPLETE] Claim rewards

[Congratulations, you have been awarded 500 Influence points and 1x Silver Lottery Ticket]

Without waiting, Michael went straight to the Lottery wheel and spun.

’Please something good. Something to stop Haaland.’ He prayed inwardly as the wheel began to spin slower and slower, finally coming to a stop.

[Congratulations, user has drawn an A-grade Voice Projection Elixir.]

’Jackpot!’

Michael jumped out of bed and couldn’t contain his joy, pumping his fists in the air as if he had just scored a last-minute winner. Of course he couldn’t vocalize his joy yet, but the dance and jubilation was enough to see how happy he was.

’I didn’t even know that the silver lottery gave out Voice Elixirs’ he thought.

His ability to shout instructions was directly tied to his ability to influence the game from the touchline in a loud stadium. It was currently sitting at A- thanks to his natural loudmouth tendencies, which allowed him to be heard at Barnsley.

However, now that he had gotten his hands on the A-grade Elixir it should shoot into the A+ grade and increase his command by leaps and bounds. This would allow him the ability to be heard even over the noise of the Etihad.

Thinking of being able to scream at the referee from 50 yards away caused a grin to tug at the corner of his lips.

"Will I be as loud as Klopp after this?" he mumbled.

Yet remembering the almost supernatural ability of the Liverpool boss to scream at fourth officials, he quickly shook his head. Although he couldn’t see his vocal grades, Michael had a feeling that Klopp was at least an S rank in shouting despite his teeth.

Michael quickly got into bed and chose to consume the Elixir. In his excitement, he forgot the potent side effects of the Voice Projection Elixir, causing him to feel a tickle in his throat almost immediately.

COUGH

Without warning, Michael sat up and almost emptied the contents of his lungs into his hands. At the last moment he managed to hold it back, preventing a terrible situation where he woke up the whole neighborhood.

He was forced to crawl on his knees towards the bathroom where he spent the next hour hugging the porcelain throne, coughing like he had smoked a pack of cigars in one sitting.

Thankfully no one bothered him for the duration of his stay. Only after gargling water about a dozen times did he head back to his room and fall into bed, quickly entering the embrace of sleep.