'Victory Chest!'
Julien's face showed another smile. Victory points had two uses: increasing limits and getting chests.
Adding attribute limits was straightforward.
But the Victory Chest description was ambiguous—opening it randomly granted one enhancement ability.
This had some gambling nature to it.
Equivalent to spending 10 attribute limit points to gamble on an elusive chance.
But Julien wanted to rapidly improve himself, so he could only take the gamble.
Julien took a deep breath.
It was his first time opening a chest, hopefully it wouldn't disappoint him.
Then he clicked open.
[Opening Victory Chest x1]
[Obtained random enhancement ability—Dribbling attribute receives additional enhancement!]
[Dribbling Enhancement +1: Extra effect, step frequency increased 50%. This increase is calculated based on dribbling attribute.
Note: When dribbling attribute drops to 60, this enhancement effect reduces to 25%. When dribbling attribute drops to 30, this enhancement effect disappears.]
[Step frequency increased! Enhanced related coordinated attributes: Strength +5, Ball sense +1, Speed +2, Flexibility +3, Dribbling +1]
Julien was completely absorbed by the dense information.
He read through it carefully.
Finally understanding this chest's purpose—this was a huge profit!
Indeed, something that cost 100 points was different.
Simply put, when he dribbled, his ball-touching frequency increased by 50%.
But what made Julien feel he'd struck gold was the step frequency increase correspondingly boosting other attributes.
Attributes never existed in isolation. It wasn't scientific to have maxed shooting ability while your strength remained only forty or fifty.
Shooting was a combination of power and technique.
With strength only in the forties or fifties, how could you shoot powerful shots?
So, when his step frequency increased, it definitely wasn't just independently increasing step frequency.
It required small increases in strength, ball sense, flexibility, etc., to achieve the step frequency improvement effect.
Now Julien understood why the system attributes were dynamic.
Because any attribute increase could potentially change other attributes.
For example, if Julien now trained strength intensively, his dribbling ability, flexibility, etc., would definitely decrease significantly.
This was why many players' agility decreased after gaining weight for physical duels.
Attributes never existed independently.
There were no attributes that, once improved, wouldn't decline unless you were superhuman.
To maintain condition required day after day, year after year of disciplined lifestyle, diet, training, etc.
Of course, you could also reach your peak in a short time then start indulging yourself, enjoying life.
These two choices had no right or wrong.
The former was Ronaldo's path, the latter was Ronaldinho's.
Julien looked at his attributes.
They had indeed changed.
[Dribbling (+1): 83 (89); Passing: 78 (85)
Shooting: 76 (88); Heading: 44 (63)
Speed: 67 (76); Strength: 61 (70)
Jumping: 55 (72); Stamina: 71 (82)
Defense: 25 (40); Tackling: 15 (33)
Flexibility: 62 (70); Ball sense: 90 (95)]
After the dribbling attribute, there was an Enhancement +1 marker.
At the same time, Ball sense reached 90!
This was already top-tier ball sense. Julien smiled, but even with 90 ball sense attribute, this still wasn't his limit!
One could imagine how explosive the original body's talent in ball sense was.
Truly heaven was force-feeding him.
Other attributes also had small changes. One Victory Chest could improve so much.
Julien began anticipating more victories.
Ligue 2 gave relatively few victory points. If he wanted more points now, he'd have to work hard in the French Cup, facing Ligue 1 teams. Defeating stronger opponents meant high overall ratings and more points!
Next opponent: Lille.
A Ligue 1 championship-contending team.
Honestly, Julien wasn't very confident about beating Lille unless they threw the match to focus on the league title.
This season's Lille hadn't put effort into the Champions League or League Cup—Champions League stopped at group stage, League Cup stopped at quarterfinals. Their goal was clear: Ligue 1 championship!
Though their squad was decent in Ligue 1, it couldn't support fighting on multiple fronts.
So, Julien thought Lille might abandon the French Cup.
Of course, this was just his guess. Maybe head coach Rudi Garcia, who'd led Lille for nearly four years, felt the Ligue 1 title was still uncertain and wanted to gamble on the French Cup.
At least they could get one trophy back— it was better than winning nothing.
And there was Hazard. Julien wasn't even sure if the team's defense could stop Hazard. The current Hazard was far from the future Belgian Wizard.
So proper self-improvement was the right path.
Julien already had plans for his training direction in the coming days: practice shooting.
His shooting ability had to improve. Otherwise, all that dribbling would be top class, but shooting would be trash.
Julien came out after showering.
Bastia's other players were basically ready, everyone was still in the excitement of beating their opponents.
Since this match was in the evening, they wouldn't return to Bastia tonight but stay another night in Monaco.
Several teammates suggested going out drinking when they reached the hotel.
They asked if Julien would go.
"I'm still a minor—is this really okay?" Julien replied.
Haha!
Everyone laughed, making Joplin, who'd made the suggestion, blush and say, "It's just a few more months—it's nearly time to start learning."
Rotten came to defend Julien: "Learning what? You're corrupting a child."
"Hehe, where does Julien look like a child on the pitch? Children aren't as capable as him."
Amid the laughter, everyone packed up and boarded the bus to leave the Louis II Stadium.
Outside the stadium, quite a few Monaco fans remained.
At this time, their eyes still carried disappointment. Seeing Bastia's bus leave, they no longer had the confidence they'd shown hours earlier when Bastia's bus arrived.
Back then, Monaco fans had booed and jeered.
Back at the hotel.
Everyone's plans to go out fell through. Hadzibegic told everyone to stay at the hotel and rest well. The next few days wouldn't be holidays either—they'd continue training on schedule, preparing for the next match against Lille.
His tone showed none of the previous talk about abandoning the French Cup.
On the way back to their rooms, Rotten told Julien, "You can prepare well. Dominique told me you're starting next match and asked me to feed you balls. Looks like the team wants to fight for the French Cup."
Julien nodded.
'Lille, French Cup, in starting Lineup.'
These words circled in his mind. He turned to look out the hotel corridor at the Mediterranean night sky.
A nearly full moon hung high with silver light spilling over the bay's rolling waves.