Dynasty Awakening: Building My Own Football Empire-Chapter 274: Vocal Command grade

Michael Sterling felt his throat rumbling in protest to the alarm that had woken him up. Since he had spent the previous hour gargling salt water to soothe the burn of the Voice Projection Elixir, he felt the full effects of his raw vocal cords this morning.

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

[You have consumed: A-grade Voice Projection Elixir.]

[Vocal Command grade has been increased by 3!]

MANAGER STATS:

Tactical Knowledge: A+

Man Management: S

Media Handling: S+

Negotiation: A-

Influence: S+

Vocal Command: A+

Seeing the blue screen in front of him, Michael’s eyes sparkled. He finally had a grading of A+, filling him with pride and a sense of volume. This was probably the loudest he would be able to reach without swallowing a megaphone.

Michael had never seen S-grade Voice Elixirs even mentioned before by the system, but perhaps they would appear once he upgraded the stadium to a sufficient decibel level.

Either way, he felt another layer of confidence after his Command had increased. He needed to perform well in the final against Pep Guardiola and get the attention of the football world... or just scream loud enough to scare Haaland.

With these grand thoughts in his mind, Michael left his hotel room to start his morning routine. Today was the last day of the season. From there he would go to the Etihad Stadium for the title decider against Manchester City.

When he arrived at the hotel lobby, everyone seemed to be in a much better mood than they were on Monday. That was to be expected since it was the last day of stress before the summer break started.

Michael and Arthur were both more excited for the final game of the season which would take place in a few hours. Kenji was due back from a business breakfast with the Sheikhs sometime today which the two were looking forward to.

As he walked towards the team bus, Michael could still feel the stares directed at him from the other hotel guests. A few reporters who were camping out in the lobby walked up to him and stopped in his path, looking as if they wanted to ask him something.

"Hey Michael, do you have a minute? We wanted to ask about your suit. You look incredibly dashing today. Who are you wearing?"

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 the press talk to him so nicely before. Usually, they were asking about relegation or sackings. 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 compliments. The reason he was so shocked in the first place was because he had never been fawned over, even as the ’Purple Klopp’.

"I’m sorry, we both have to get to the stadium. We’ll be playing for the title today after all." He replied with an apologetic face.

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

"How about you exchange numbers with Arthur here? He actually picked out the ties for today. He loves talking about fabric."

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 my last jelly baby.’ Michael laughed inwardly, snatching Arthur’s phone from his pocket and handing it to the three reporters.

They all entered their numbers and turned to Michael expectantly.

"Ah sorry, my phone is strictly for transfers. But don’t worry, Arthur is the fashion guru of Barnsley. Call him anytime."

Outwardly Michael looked apologetic, however inwardly he was cackling like an evil villain from one of those anime. Even after the reporters walked away beaming 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 onto the bus in case he was stopped by anyone else.

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

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

Media Darling.

Everything started to make sense now. Media Darling seemed to not be limited to press conferences, 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 the seat next to Michael. He was staring at his phone in a daze, looking at the 3 new entries in his contacts list from Vogue, GQ, and The Sun.

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

The engine starting 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 wipe it right off his face.

Once the bus started moving, the vehicle went silent and the final mental preparation for the season commenced. Since the final destination was the Etihad, Michael was able to finish his mental visualization in record time.

While it may have been a breeze for himself who could be considered a visionary, the rest of the squad was in crisis mode. Arthur seemed to have a better time considering he had been actively trying to learn calmness from Michael (and the jelly babies).

Since the two wanted to build a Dynasty in the future, he would be best to learn how to handle the pressure as soon as they could.

Once the bus arrived, there was a collective breath held around the vehicle. The final battle had officially started and they wouldn’t have to return to Yorkshire without a fight.

Michael and Arthur quickly left the bus and headed down to the dressing room. This was the last team talk before the final whistle.

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

Michael took the players through the final tactical instructions. Considering the game was in an hour, he didn’t want to push them too hard mentally, yet he was a little worried that since there hadn’t been a game all week that there might be some rust issues.

However, much to his surprise, everyone seemed to be in good shape. That was especially the case for Kaito and Diego who looked like they could run laps around the City midfield if asked to.

After a little over ten minutes, Michael called for everyone to gather around.

"You’ve all done well this season and I couldn’t be more proud as a Manager. This is probably one of the strongest teams in Barnsley history, but none of that matters if we can’t win today."

He moved his gaze over his players, stopping on Arthur for a few moments longer than the others before continuing. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"Manchester City are a machine, they’ve blown out most of their opponents thanks to their robotic passing. Vladimir, Diego, you will need to work your magic in the chaos for us to have a chance."

Vladimir and Diego both nodded, their faces solemn.

"Kaito, Victor, your job is to score no matter what it takes. It’s going to be a high-scoring game so we’ll need all the advantages we can get from the very start of the match."

The two also nodded, understanding their roles. As long as they could score, Jan Visser and the defense would have a chance to hold the line and maximize the points.

"I won’t say too much else. All I ask is that we do our best and have fun while doing it."

Michael then extended his hand, prompting the players to place them on top.

"Captain, take it away."

Sergio Ramos had a serious expression as he called out.

"MISFITS!"

"FIGHT!"

Everyone else shouted the word fight as loud as they could, raising their hand together in unison. Afterwards, Michael sent them to the tunnel, reminding everyone to be ready for the anthem.

Arthur walked next to Michael with his hands behind his head, he seemed in a weird mood.

"This will probably be our last game as underdogs." He said solemnly.

"Yeah. We’ll be too busy with the Champions League next season to fly under the radar." Michael replied, feeling a little nostalgic.

However, he was even more excited for European nights and the chance to return to the Bernabeu. The real Bernabeu, not just the envelope he rejected.

"Where are you going to go for holiday?" Arthur asked Michael curiously.

Michael smiled wryly, "My number 1 choice is sitting on my couch, but I’m not sure if Sarah will accept that. If that doesn’t work out I’ll probably just go to the Maldives."

"It’s always good to aim high. I’ll be trying for a staycation in Leeds." Arthur replied, his face full of determination.

"Wow. You probably have a good chance of making it, but the Maldives?" Arthur scrunched his face, squinting as he looked at Michael.

THUD

Michael sent a quick kick to Arthur’s behind, propelling him forward a few steps and almost causing him to trip over a water bottle.

"Eek! I’m kidding Boss!" He yelped, causing the other staff to break out into laughter. Arthur soon joined in, feeling his nerves calm down significantly.

If he was honest, he didn’t think that he was good enough to assist a title-winning manager with his current talent. However, seeing Michael work so hard to make Barnsley elite after giving up his sanity made him want to better himself.

He would never admit it out loud, but he was thankful to Michael for giving him the motivation to improve his skills this season.

His gaze moved to the person in question and he couldn’t help but take a closer look.

’Did this guy get louder or something?’

Michael cleared his throat, the A+ Voice Projection humming in his chest.

"Let’s go fuck them up."