The temperature inside the room was lower than in the corridor, the air filled with the faint aroma of black coffee.
There were no superfluous decorations here, only the bare minimum of furniture needed to live, and a massive screen occupying an entire wall.
On the screen, footage of a match was replaying over and over, with countless red data lines and white trajectory charts weaving together across the image.
The man sitting in the high-backed chair didn’t even turn his head.
Noel Noa.
Isagi Yoichi stood at the doorway, his throat tightening.
Even having prepared himself mentally, the pressure stemming from pure biological instinct still made his palms sweat when facing this man in the flesh.
“Um…
Noa, sorry to disturb you.”
Isagi tried his best to make his voice sound steady, but the end of it still carried an imperceptible tremble.
Noa’s fingers tapped on the holographic keyboard, freezing the image on the screen.
He slowly turned his chair, those indifferent, water-like golden eyes falling onto Isagi.
“What is it?”
Isagi took a deep breath, clenching his fists tightly at his sides: “Please tell me…
what do I have to do to make my ranking go up?”
Noa merely looked at Isagi calmly, asking back, “Do you have some dissatisfaction with the current training?”
“No…”
Isagi gritted his teeth, but he knew that if he simply accepted the training step-by-step, he would forever remain that B-grade player ranked 15th.
“I have no dissatisfaction.
But…
it won’t work like this.”
Isagi snapped his head up, his eyes staring intently at Noa with a fiery blaze.
“At this pace, I won’t make it!
Whether it’s that system that only speaks in data, or Kaiser, or even that Rin Kazuki…
I just want to win!
I want to beat Kaiser!
I want to surpass them!”
A brief silence fell over the room.
Noa looked at the youth before him who, despite having mediocre data, had a flame called “ambition” burning in his eyes.
“Want to beat Kaiser, do you…”
Noa repeated softly, then leaned forward slightly, resting his interlaced hands on his knees.
“I see.
In that case, Isagi Yoichi, what is your weapon?”
This question was nothing new; in Blue Lock, it was a fundamental question everyone had to answer countless times.
Yet coming from Noa at this moment, it carried a weight that scrutinized the very soul.
Isagi froze for a moment, then rapidly mobilized his brain.
He was well aware of his own positioning, and this was no time for hesitation.
“It’s the ‘Direct Shot’.” He answered firmly.
That was the ultimate technique he had honed through the trials in Blue Lock to compensate for his lack of physical duel ability, using spatial awareness to kill in a single strike.
Noa nodded, seemingly accepting this premise.
Immediately after, he threw out a second question without a single pause in his speech rate:
“Then, in order to use that weapon, what is the indispensable element?” You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“Huh…?”
This question caught Isagi somewhat off guard.
An element?
The element of the Direct Shot?
That wasn’t just a shooting motion, but…
“That’s…” Isagi’s brain spun at breakneck speed, trying to translate the images in his mind into language.
“It’s being able to bypass enemy defense, breaking through all the way…
and then securing space in front of the goal to act freely.”
That’s right, without shaking off the defense, the Direct Shot couldn’t even be talked about.
Noa offered no evaluation of this answer, instantly pressing further: “To that end, what is the indispensable condition?”
The tempo was accelerating.
Isagi felt pushed onto a narrow single-plank bridge.
To gain freedom in front of the goal, what did he need?
“It’s…
a broader vision of the field!”
Isagi blurted out, the images of watching Kaiser and Kazuki play football over these past few days flashing back in his mind.
“And within 90 minutes, the concentration to continuously seek out weaknesses in the enemy formation and constantly make challenges…
as well as the work rate sufficient to support such high-intensity thinking!”
This should be the standard answer, right?
Isagi looked at Noa, anticipating the other man’s affirmation.
Vision, brainpower, stamina—these were the cornerstones that formed his “spatial execution.”
However, Noa’s expression remained like a pool of stagnant water.
He looked at Isagi and continued asking: “Then, to that end, what is the indispensable capability?”
“…!”
Isagi was stumped.
To that end?
For vision?
For concentration?
For work rate?
An indispensable capability?
Isn’t…
isn’t that the capability itself?
No, that’s wrong.
Noa was asking for something deeper at the foundation—to realize these conditions, what specific “qualities” did he need to possess?
His mind was a complete mess.
Was it stronger muscles?
Faster speed?
Or more precise passing?
All sorts of terms scrambled wildly in his head, yet not a single one could precisely fit the keyhole of this question.
Three consecutive, incrementally escalating questions were like three scalpels, precisely slicing open Isagi’s seemingly logically sound outer shell of thought, exposing the blurry blob of mush inside. This chapter was taken from novelping(.)com without permission.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
He couldn’t answer.
“What’s wrong?” Noa’s voice remained cold.
“Can you not even express your own ideal in words?”
This single sentence was like a bucket of ice water poured over Isagi’s head.
“If you cannot clearly describe your thought process in words, it means you do not truly understand it.
Vague thinking will only lead to vague actions, and on the pitch, vagueness means failure.”
Noa pointed to his own temple.
“In this Bastard München, everything is an extension of logic.
Your own logical chain hasn’t even closed its loop—on what grounds do you expect to beat Kaiser?”
Isagi’s face flushed deep red; it couldn’t end like this.
If he stayed silent here, he would truly just be a fool who didn’t even know what he wanted!
“No, I can!”
Isagi snapped his head up, shouting loudly in an attempt to use volume to mask the panic in his heart.
“What I…
what I need right now is to change my single-dimensional style!”
He thought of his overall evaluation of merely 76 points, thought of his C-grade passing and dribbling, and thought of Kazuki’s all-around S-grade data.
“And…
foundational capabilities that can handle any opponent!
Whether it’s one-on-ones or combination play, I want that kind of versatile numerical stat!”
That’s right, that was the conclusion he reached just now while looking at the data.
Because his weaknesses were too obvious, he was being restricted.
If he could be all-around like Kazuki or Noa…
“Changing a single-dimensional style…
foundational capabilities that can handle any opponent…”
Noa repeated those few words, an unfathomable glint flashing through his eyes.
He slowly rose from his chair.
As he stood up, an immense sense of presence instantly flooded the entire room.
Isagi felt an unmistakable pressure, that crushing weight coming from the top of the food chain making him almost want to take a step back.
Noa took a step forward in front of Isagi, looking down on him from above.
“Versatile?
All-around foundational capabilities?”
“Listen closely, Isagi Yoichi.
If that is your answer…”
“Then, if you possess all of that, can you beat me?”