The lights in the room were off, the only light source coming from the hundreds of LCD screens lining all four walls.
And right now, those hundreds of screens were playing footage of the exact same person.
On the left wall was his arrogant back view as he plucked a high ball out of the air with one hand in front of the goal line; on the right wall was a close-up of him shouting right in a defender’s face to organize the defense; and right in the center was the sight of him leisurely drinking water in front of the goal.
Rin Kazuki stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by countless versions of “himself.”
“I know I’m handsome and all, but isn’t this a bit too narcissistic?”
Kazuki stood with his hands in his pockets, his gaze sweeping across the screens before finally settling on the back of the ergonomic chair deep in the room.
“If behavior like this—looking like a rabid fan—were to leak out, your title of ‘perverted guy with glasses’ would be well and truly locked in, Ego Jinpachi.”
The chair spun around slowly.
Ego Jinpachi wasn’t eating noodles with his legs crossed like usual.
He leaned his body forward, resting his elbows on his knees, crossing his ten fingers to prop up his chin.
Those eyes, sunken deep in dark circles, stared at Kazuki under the cold glow of the screens.
Ignoring Kazuki’s banter, he simply glared dead at this uninvited guest.
“Rin Kazuki.”
“Your appearance was a mistake.”
Kazuki’s hand extending toward the jelly paused for a fraction of a second, before he casually picked it up anyway, opening it with a sharp snap: “Oh?
Winning a match is a mistake?
Looks like your dictionary was printed off a bootleg press too.”
“Not all victories carry value.”
Ego Jinpachi stood up, his thin frame casting a shadow onto the screen.
He walked over to one of the monitors and pointed at Kazuki high-fiving his teammates in the footage.
“Look at this.”
He pointed at the data bars on the screen.
“Heart rate stable, running distance lowest in the whole team, and even his adrenaline secretion levels didn’t reach a peak.”
Ego turned around abruptly, his voice suddenly growing sharp, like chalk scraping forcefully against a blackboard.
“This result, to a flock of fledglings who are currently in their growth phase and need extreme hunger and life-or-death situations to stimulate evolution, is pure poison!”
He closed in on Kazuki step by step, the flames known as paranoia burning in his eyes.
“My Blue Lock was originally a pressure cooker.
I was going to throw their pride, common sense, and humanity all inside to boil to mush, so that at the critical point of pressure, a crystal named ‘Ego’ would be birthed through a chemical reaction.”
“In the original script, facing the intense pressure of the U-20, Isagi Yoichi should have been forced to figure out how to survive in a chaotic battle as the defense collapsed; Nagi Seishiro should have been forced to actively hunt for space because he couldn’t receive passes; Bachira Meguru should have fallen into a desperate solitude because no one could keep up with his rhythm…”
“Only in that kind of despair!
On the edge of a cliff where it’s ‘do something or die’!
Could they shatter their eggshells and evolve into brand-new talents!”
Ego Jinpachi swept his hand violently, as if trying to shatter the air in front of him.
“But what about you?
You ruined all of it.”
He leaned down, his face practically pressed against the tip of Kazuki’s nose, the eyes behind his lenses bloodshot.
“Because of your existence, they didn’t need to think about how to survive a desperate situation.
Because all they had to do was look back and think, *Oh, that perverted keeper is still back there, so we can go wild with total peace of mind.*”
“You disrupted the evolution equation I meticulously designed.
You took a pack of raw stones destined to become wild beasts and turned them into a bunch of useless trash who, despite winning the match, remain nothing more than domesticated livestock.”
“However, Rin Kazuki.”
Ego Jinpachi’s tone suddenly shifted.
He pulled up a body structure analysis chart, which was densely packed with various physical function data points from Kazuki’s performance during the match—explosive power, flexibility, core strength, and instantaneous acceleration speed.
“Looking at this data, a massive question arose in my mind.”
Ego pushed up his glasses, his gaze resembling someone scrutinizing a fine piece of art.
“This terrifying instantaneous acceleration speed, this unreasonable core strength, along with your spatial awareness that looks as if you’ve turned on a god-view angle…
Confining you to that narrow area in front of the goal line is an absolute crime.”
“With your technique and physical specs, if you were to play as a striker, you could easily tear through defensive lines even in today’s top five European leagues.”
Ego Jinpachi stared dead into Kazuki’s eyes, voicing his interrogation:
“You clearly possess all the hardware to become the world’s number one striker, so why be a goalkeeper who just stands there waiting to take a beating?”
Kazuki casually tossed the empty wrapper right into the trash can in the corner with pinpoint accuracy, his tone flat: “In official matches, I only play goalkeeper.”
“As for the reason…
don’t ask.
I wouldn’t tell you even if you did.
Just treat it as a unique quirk belonging to a genius.”
*(System OS: It’s because I’ll get electrocuted if I don’t play keeper, you bastard!)*
Ego Jinpachi knitted his brows, clearly dissatisfied with this answer.
But before he could speak, Kazuki had already stood up.
His frame, half a head taller than Ego, cast a shadow down, his aura instantly taking control as the host.
“Besides, Ego Jinpachi.”
“Do you really think that by using that little method of yours—locking people up together to slaughter one another—you can cultivate the world’s number one striker?”
He extended a single finger, pointing unceremoniously at the tip of Ego Jinpachi’s nose, his eyes brimming with a condescending sneer.
“You’re nothing more than a pathetic reptile crouching in a pile of data, thinking you’re all that.”
“Desperate situations?
Pressure?
Awakening of Ego?
The pressure you comprehend is nothing more than childish stuff like ‘lose and get kicked out.’ You don’t understand what real ‘hell’ is at all.”
“Don’t you just want pressure?
Don’t you just feel like they’re living too comfortably?”
“I’ll help you.”
He turned his head sharply, the light of a “devil” flashing in his eyes as he bared his fangs at Ego.
“You’re right, I do have the talent to be a striker.
But that doesn’t stop me from becoming their worst nightmare from the goalkeeper position.”
I will become an insurmountable mountain standing right in front of them; I will use the most venomous trash talk to crush their psychological defenses; I will use the most ruthless saves to grind their laughable pride into dust.”
“Starting tonight, drop all those group scrimmages.
Too boring.
I will personally take the field and ‘properly’ discipline this bunch of kids who don’t know the vastness of the world.”
“How about we drag them out to the pitch tonight?
It’ll be me against all ten of them—I’ll kick them to death!!”
Speaking up to this point, Kazuki leaned in close to Ego Jinpachi, the smile on his face growing increasingly villainous and cruel.
“However, Four-Eyes, let’s get one thing straight first.”
“If those raw stones you hold so dear end up mentally broken, ruined, and crying for their mommies under my torment…”
“If they get completely ‘broken’ by me—”
“Don’t go crying your heart out over it.”
Ego Jinpachi froze.
“Break them?”
Ego sat back down in his chair, picking up another pack of instant fried noodles from the desk.
The fingers tearing open the package even trembled slightly from pure excitement.
“Heh…
hehheh…”
He let out a string of chilling, low chuckles.
“Interesting.
Extremely interesting, Rin Kazuki.”
“If they break under this level of despair, it only proves they were a pile of worthless glass shards all along, completely unfit to become the world’s best.”
“Deal.”
Ego Jinpachi slammed his hand onto the desk, pressing the button that connected to the broadcast room.
“Since you want to play the ‘big villain,’ then I’ll build you a stage.”
The broadcast connected, and Ego’s chilling voice instantly echoed across the entire Blue Lock facility, interrupting everyone’s celebrations and rest.
“Hey, you group of raw stones wallowing in the lingering excitement of victory, listen up.”
“Celebration time is over.”
“Right now, everyone assemble at the central pitch immediately.”
“A ‘bastard goalkeeper’ who claims he wants to single-handedly ‘break’ every last one of you is waiting right there to teach you a lesson.”
Ego cut off the broadcast, looking at Kazuki with unfathomably deep eyes.
“Go on, Rin Kazuki.”
The corner of Kazuki’s mouth hooked into a wicked grin.
He turned around and walked toward the door, waving a hand behind his back toward Ego.
“Get some tissues ready, Four-Eyes.
The scene might get pretty gruesome.”
The true “Blue Lock” had officially opened its doors at this very moment.