After missing that first shot, the goalkeeper had not taken another shot as he was busy studying the goalposts which were popping out in different places.
They had a pattern of movement and it looked like he had just deciphered the code.
He waited for the first goalpost to pop up before he quickly rolled the ball toward it but just before the ball could roll into the post, it went back into the ground.
He wasn't after that one, he was after the one that would pop up directly behind it as soon as that one.
His timing was accurate as the goalpost popped up at the right time for the ball to roll into it.
"One down." He said with a smile on his face.
'Smart move, Dave, that goalpost won't be popping up again which means you have nine more to deal with.' Catherine said in his subconscious mind. 'You've taken one down, which means the pattern is going to change.'
"Pattern?" Dave said before turning his attention back to the area and just like Catherine said, the pattern changed from the one he had just deciphered to something trickier.
'It wouldn't be an intense training if it was that easy for you to get through.'
Just before he took down the first goalpost, the goalposts were moving in an arranged pattern which meant that he knew which one was going to come after the other, that was how he was able to take down the first goalpost but now, things were really different, that arranged pattern had just been shattered.
There were nine goalposts left now which meant that there were five up front and four behind.
"I just have to decipher these ones first, I'll likely miss all my shots if I just shoot blindly." He muttered.
'True but remember your time's moving and it's moving fast.'
"Okay, let's see." He said before peering his eyes closer.
'Now I get it, it looked like there were just random patterns but there were just three arranged patterns and after each turn, it switches to the next arranged pattern and then to the last arranged pattern.'
'It took you ten minutes plus to figure that out, it's a bit slow but it's not that bad now put it to good use.'
The goalkeeper waited for the goalpost in the middle up front to pop up before he lobbed the ball toward the area where the goalposts behind those ones would pop up.
The goalpost upfront returned to the ground as the goalpost at the far left behind the other ones popped up just in time for the ball to hit the floor and bounce into it.
"Yeah," Dave said with an elated voice.
'Two down, you have eight more to go and you have less than twenty minutes left, you should be aware that once your time is completed, I will send you back to the normal world, in other words, you will wake up.'
"Less than twenty minutes left? I can't leave here without scoring at least five of them but how the heck am I going to do that when the pattern changes every single time I take a shot and it takes me a lot of time to decipher them?"
'There's a reason why you have twenty balls, Dave, if deciphering the patterns takes too much time then try random shots, football requires the element of luck most of the time.' Catherine said.
"Random shots." The goalkeeper said as he pulled a ball in front of him with his eyes still on the goalposts, still studying their movements.
"That's it." He said as something suddenly clicked in his mind after seeing the fourth pattern of the goalposts.
'What?' Catherine asked.
"The patterns don't change in the way that I thought they would before." He said. "A new pattern is added while the previous ones which I have already studied are pushed back."
'You figured it out.'
After breaking down the last code, Dave was able to take down another goalpost without wasting any ball and when a new pattern got added, he just studied the pattern and did what he had to do.
As the goalposts lessened, the easier things got for him and when he was down to just three goalposts, the patterns got shortened to three as there was no longer room for other patterns.
The goalkeeper had successfully scored in all ten goalposts but all the balls had gone down for him to be able to do that.
He always knew where to put the balls but his accuracy and precision had let him down most of the time.
"Done and dusted." He said with a smile on his face and both of his hands on his waists.
'Well done, you've surprised me, I didn't expect you to do this well.'
"Well, I've been surprising a lot of people recently haven't I?" He said. "I just wish this had come with a quest."
Catherine didn't reply immediately as she wanted to appear in front of him first.
"Well, you can't get quests in here but you can think of building something like that when you move to a better place someday." She said,
"I will definitely think of something like that."
"It's time to go, Dave, see you tonight," Catherine said as his body slowly began to fade away until he slowly opened his eyes to see the ceiling.
Dave didn't reply to her as he slowly turned his gaze to the side to see that Emma was still fast asleep with her body pressed against his.
After that, he picked up his phone and turned it on to see that the time was 6:40 AM.
'It's going to feel really weird to do all those things and not get those notifications that confirm that my rewards have been added.' He said subconsciously before slowly closing his eyes.
'I know, I know.' The goalkeeper replied before slowly slipping out of Emma's arms to sit up on the bed and slide his legs into his running boots. 'I think I'll run five kilometers today, what do you think?'
As soon as he left the room, Emma slowly opened her eyes with a bright smile on her face.
The goalkeeper made his way down the staircase and out of the house.
He did a few jumps on the lawn to clear the dizziness in his eyes before he slowly made his way to the door.
"I still feel sad that I won't be getting my usual ten exps from this." He said, looking ahead.
The goalkeeper didn't reply and was about to take off when his phone began to vibrate in his pocket.
"Should have left you inside." He muttered before bringing out his phone to check who was calling him.
He had a good look on his face before bringing out his phone but as soon as he set his eyes on the screen, the look on his face changed.
"What's he calling me for now?"
On his phone's screen, the name Ferran was being displayed.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter?
If we can hit 1000+ privilege unlocks before the end of this month, I'll do five chapters mass release on any day between the 20-25th of January.