Dynasty Awakening: Building My Own Football Empire-Chapter 251: Shadow Manager

After the pizza feast, everyone went their separate ways with Michael retreating to his home office early like he had for the past couple of weeks.

Thankfully Sarah shrugged off this weird behavior as typical obsessive manager actions so he didn’t need to come up with an excuse.

Of course, he was not just looking at spreadsheets, he was in fact honing his skills within the Zone Simulation realm. Ever since getting the Hairdryer Treatment skill and increasing his Influence stat, he had a much easier time crushing the simulated opponents during training.

In the two months prior, he had only managed to execute 12 successful "Chaos Counters" despite running thousands upon thousands of simulations. Yet he had almost hit the remaining 88 in just these two weeks.

This gave a good indication of the impact of skills and his attributes on his ability to manage football. While he couldn’t currently measure up to the freak genius of Pep Guardiola, given enough time and patience, he felt that the system would allow him to surpass him.

This begged the question though, what was Pep’s overall stats right now according to the system? His Tactical Knowledge would have to be at least an S+ if he had dominated the Premier League with only a billion pounds of spending money.

Michael shook his head and focused. Now was the time to finish up the last of the Chaos missions and retrieve the juicy rewards.

DOES THE USER WISH TO ENTER ZONE SIMULATION?

[YES/NO]

"Yes."

Michael quickly picked up the digital whistle and headed to the technical area wearing a cocky smile.

Score 10 goals from own half - 100 Influence points + Silver Lottery ticket (8/10)

"I’m coming for you Silver Ticket... Hehe."

GOAL

GOAL

"Offside"

MISS

GOAL

...

Score 10 goals from own half - 100 Influence points + Silver Lottery ticket (10/10) [Claim rewards]

After about 45 minutes of non-stop screaming at his ghostly players, Michael finally heard the sweet sound of a notification, indicating he had cleared the mission. He dropped to the leather chair in his mind and panted heavily.

For some reason, he still experienced fatigue in this realm. Perhaps it was to emulate the mental stress of management, or for another reason entirely. Either way, such a thing prevented him from spending too much time inside which was a good thing.

[Congratulations, you have been awarded 100 Influence points and 1x Silver Lottery ticket]

A smile blossomed on Michael’s face as these words appeared in front of him. Yet they were followed by another line of text.

USER HAS COMPLETED ALL TASKS FOR THE PREMIER LEAGUE DIFFICULTY. TO RECEIVE NEW MISSIONS, PLEASE INCREASE THE DIFFICULTY.

LEGENDARY

WORLD CLASS

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE (Recommended)

PREMIER LEAGUE (Current)(Stats will not be recorded towards missions in this difficulty)

CHAMPIONSHIP (Stats will not be recorded towards missions in this difficulty)

LEAGUE ONE (Stats will not be recorded towards missions in this difficulty)

Michael raised his eyebrow in surprise. He had originally thought that he would no longer receive missions for the Chaos training once completing these, however he was pleasantly surprised. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

He decided to change the difficulty and check out the new missions.

USER HAS SELECTED CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DIFFICULTY.

Suddenly, his simulated Premier League opponent disappeared and was replaced with someone else. Well, that was only partially correct as the figure once again looked like himself yet even older. If he had to guess the figure should be around 40 years of age, wearing a suit that cost more than Michael’s house.

"That’s weird... I don’t own a suit that nice. And why do I have grey hair?" He muttered, feeling mystified.

Before he could ponder the situation, another window popped up in front of him, detailing the new missions.

Win 100 Penalty Shootouts - 500 Influence points + Silver Lottery ticket

Defeat 50 Low Blocks - 500 Influence points + A-grade Patience Elixir

Force 30 Rage Quits - 500 Influence points + Silver Lottery ticket

Execute 100 Perfect Offside Traps - 500 Influence points

Win the Treble - 5000 Influence points + S-grade Tactical Elixir + Platinum Lottery ticket

Win 50 games with 10 men - 1000 Influence points

Build a Dynasty (Win 3 titles in a row) - 10000 Influence points + God-Tier Skill + Gold Lottery ticket

Michael couldn’t help but let out a whistle of appreciation, seeing the generous mission rewards laid out in front of him. However, he didn’t get ahead of himself as he had yet to see a tactic from the foreign version of himself in the dugout.

"Alright, let’s see what you got, Old Man." He said, lifting his whistle and squaring up against the Shadow Manager.

WHOOSH

The ball flew towards his defense with some heat behind it, yet the pattern seemed predictable. Michael shouted for a standard press, intending to win the ball back in midfield rather than retreating. However, the familiar feeling of intercepting the pass did not happen.

SLICE

"Goal."

"Holy fuck! What a transition..." Michael could only exclaim in appreciation. Suddenly the missions seemed a lot more difficult after seeing the first attack.

He had never learned to utilize the "Inverted Goalkeeper" in his current life, yet apparently this future version of him had. The goalkeeper seemed as if he was staying in the box, yet the moment the press started, he sprinted into midfield to create an overload.

While it wasn’t as difficult to predict the movement as some other tactical shifts, it was tough to stop. Good managers were able to keep their tactical setups for defense and attack similar enough that opponents would struggle to identify the trap until it was too late.

Michael shook his head, now was not the time to continue his tactical practice. It was time to gamble...

He quickly left the Zone Simulation realm and his consciousness reappeared back in his office. He could feel the Gold Lottery ticket from the previous mission burning in his pocket, even though it was not a physical object.

Without hesitating, he opened up the Miracle Engine function and spun the golden wheel.

"Here goes nothing..."

After what seemed like an age, the small wheel finally stopped and a new window popped up.

[Congratulations, you have learned the "True Vision" function.]

[True Vision: Allows the user to look at the exact numeric stats and hidden traits of other football players and staff, provided they are within scanning range.]

’WHAT!?’

Michael nearly fell out of his chair.

"Stats? Like... video game stats?"

He quickly stood up and looked out of his office window. It was late, but the groundskeeper, old Mr. Henderson, was still down there mowing the grass under the floodlights.

Michael focused his eyes. He squinted.

A blue box appeared floating above Mr. Henderson’s head.

NAME: Barry Henderson

ROLE: Groundskeeper

AGE: 62

GRASS KNOWLEDGE: 18/20

WORK RATE: 20/20

LOYALTY: 20/20

HIDDEN TRAIT: Hates Chelsea

"Holy shit," Michael whispered, pressing his face against the glass. "I can see everything."

He looked at the Loyalty stat. 20/20. That warmed his heart.

Then he thought about his squad. He thought about the transfer window closing in three days. He thought about the shark agents trying to sell him "wonderkids" who were actually garbage.

"This changes everything," Michael grinned, a truly wicked smile spreading across his face. "I can see the frauds. I can see the snakes."

He looked at his phone. He had a meeting with an agent tomorrow morning regarding a potential backup goalkeeper. The agent had promised the kid was "The next Buffon."

"We’ll see about that," Michael chuckled.

He sat back down, the adrenaline pumping through his veins. The Tottenham game was coming up, but right now, Michael felt like he had just won the lottery of life.

He decided to check one more thing. He looked at a framed photo of himself on the desk. He focused on his own face in the picture.

NAME: Michael Sterling

CURRENT ABILITY: 145/200

POTENTIAL ABILITY: 200/200

HIDDEN TRAIT: Greedy Misfit

"Greedy Misfit," Michael laughed aloud. "You’re goddamn right."