THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME

Zachary watched with a calm heart as the contents of the interface shimmered and morphed into the system shop menu. Then with another flicker of the translucent crystal-like display, eight glittering skill cards appeared and floated forward before hovering in front of everything else on the interface.

"Oh my! These are some crazy skills."

Zachary couldn't contain his surprise when he set his sights on the images of various famous footballers depicted on the skill cards. Without losing any second, he started perusing through the details of the skills that had just appeared on the system interface.

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1) CR7 Aerial Finishing Juju: For positioning and heading accuracy within and outside the box. Requires at least S- grade Body Control to master the skill. [Costs 4,000 Juju points]

2) Box-Vampire Suarez: The true art of positioning, skipping past opponents, and deadly finishing within the box. You'll be able to draw blood every time your opponents grow lax within the box. Requires at least S- grade Body Control and S- grade Agility to master the skill. [Costs 4,000 Juju points]

3) Box-Assassin Lewandowski: Most of the time, no one can stop you when you receive the ball within the box. Requires at least S- grade Body Control and S- grade Agility attributes to master the skill. [Costs 4,000 Juju points]

4) Rocket-Launcher Steven Gerrard: Immaculate positioning and deadly shooting outside the 18-yard box. The keepers will fear you when you receive the ball in the final third. Requires at least S- grade Body Control, S- grade Agility, and S- grade Strength attributes to master the skill.

5) Alien Dribble-Magic Messi: Ultimate dribbling and effective breakthrough defenses. Allows you a base 95% chance of executing successful dribbles during one-on-one encounters and a 70% chance of breaking through packed defenses with two to four players barring your way. Increases the chance of avoiding tackles by 65%. Reduces the risk of injury while dribbling past even the most-menacing defenders by at least 75%. Requires at least SS grade Body Control, S grade game intelligence, and SS grade Agility to master the skill. [Costs 400,000 Juju points]

6) Step-Over and Feint Kingly Magic Ronaldinho: Ultimate dribbling and breakthrough defenses using side-steps and body feints. Allows you a base 97% chance of executing successful dribbles during one-on-one encounters and a 50% chance of breaking through packed defenses with two to four players barring your way. Increases the chance of avoiding tackles by 70%. Reduces the risk of injury while dribbling past even the most-menacing defenders by at least 65%. Requires at least SS grade Body Control, S grade game intelligence, and SS grade Agility to master the skill. [Costs 400,000 Juju points]

7) Impenetrable Bastion Paolo Maldini: Ultimate defending and tackling. Allows you a base 60% chance of executing successful defensive plays, including sliding tackles, during one-on-one encounters. Increases the chance of winning aerial duels by 60%. Reduces the risk of injury while executing risky defensive plays by 50%. Requires at least S grade Body Control, SS grade game intelligence, S grade Stamina, S grade Strength, and S grade Agility to master the skill. [Costs 400,000 Juju points]

8) Midfield King Michel Platini: Ultimate control, efficiency, and creativity within the midfield. Increases base passing accuracy by 30%, enhances spatial awareness during critical moments by 50%, and raises shooting accuracy outside the box by 20%. Boosts aerial and ground duel ability within the midfield by 50% and reduces the risk of attracting yellow and red cards after executing risky defensive plays in midfield by 50%. Requires at least S grade Body Control, SS grade game intelligence, S grade Stamina, S grade Strength, and S grade Agility to master the skill. [Costs 400,000 Juju points]

NB: The user can only learn a maximum of two skills before the next system upgrade. The user can upgrade the system to obtain more opportunities to learn more skills.

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"These new skills are really incredible."

Zachary couldn't help but have mixed feelings after perusing the skill details. Before the system upgrade, he'd assumed that the skills from the system would no longer have any marked impact on his career path. But after learning about the functions of the four new skills that had just appeared in the system shop, he changed his mind immediately.

The four new skills were incredible enough to enhance the skills of any football player by a significant margin. For instance, Messi's alien dribble-magic and Ronaldinho's step-over-and-feint kingly magic were dream skills that could enhance Zachary's already potent ball handling and versatility on the pitch. By learning any of the two skills, he could improve his dribbling and make it more effective while also gaining the ability to avoid tackles and injuries on the pitch. He would instantly become unstoppable and turn into a terrifying ball wizard, feared by all defenders in the world. That was the potency of the new skills in the system shop.

"But the number of Juju points and the other requirements to learn the new skills are just too much," Zachary thought as he perused the skill details again.

The cost of learning any of the four skills that had just appeared in the system shop was a staggering 400,000 Juju points. Additionally, he had to elevate some of his attributes, including game intelligence and agility, to the above-S grade to meet the fitness requirements for learning the new skills. That was a tall order as far as Zachary was concerned.

"There's no hope of learning the four new skills in the near future," Zachary determined as he leaned back into the sofa. "I'll need to play well and amass a large sum of Juju points before I can learn even a single skill. Simply frustrating!"

Zachary narrowed his eyes as he made a few simple inferences within his mind. By his estimates, he would only accumulate the needed Juju points to purchase any of the skills after winning at least two trophies, almost on the level of the Europa League. But even then, he would still not have met the fitness conditions, especially the SS grade game intelligence, required to learn any of the skills.

"I need to remain patient," Zachary resolved. "I need to take one step at a time and continue developing myself as a player. I'll meet the requirements at one point if I persist and continue performing well on the pitch. As for now, I guess I can only choose to learn the heading and outside-the-box shooting skills to enhance my abilities as soon as possible."

Zachary's eyes flickered with fierce determination as he set his sights on the first and fourth skill cards hovering before everything else on the system interface. His heading ability, especially in front of the goal, had always been his weakness. On that day, he was finally determined to rectify that weakness and abolish it from his person by learning the CR7 Aerial Finishing Juju.

Additionally, Zachary had decided to learn the Rocket-Launcher Steven Gerrard skill to augment his shooting ability from outside the box. As long as he combined the new skill with his already terrifying arrow shot, he believed that he would turn into the ultimate nightmare for all goalkeepers who would face off against him in the future. He would be able to unleash horrifying missiles of shots towards the goal from anywhere within the final third.

"Let's do this."

Zachary took in a deep breath to calm himself down. He then extended his forefinger and tapped the 'purchase' button below the first skill card on the translucent crystal-like display.

"DING"

The system notification sound reverberated in his mind as soon as his finger made contact with the glowing screen. Then, on cue, the seven other skill cards shimmered slightly before fading away from the interface. Only the card depicting the image of Cristiano Ronaldo heading the ball continued hovering in front of everything else on the crystal-like display. It soon floated forward and expanded to fill up the entire screen.

"The user has chosen to purchase the CR7 Aerial Finishing Juju," the AI's apathetic voice rang in Zachary's mind after a moment. "The system will have to deduct 4,000 Juju points from the user's stock after confirmation of the purchase. Does the user still wish to purchase CR7 Aerial Finishing Juju?"

"Yes," Zachary replied immediately. "Please confirm the purchase."

"Command confirmed..." the AI intoned.

"Checking skill requirements before confirming purchase..."

"The user possesses S-grade body control, which meets the basic requirements for learning the skill."

"DING"

"Congratulations. The system has now confirmed the skill purchase from the system shop. The system requests permission to commence the necessary quantum mental conditioning to help the user achieve initial mastery of the skill."

"Proceed with the mental conditioning," Zachary said and braced himself. He'd already gone through the procedure more than twice. He wasn't worried that anything would go wrong.

"Loading required data and packages for the CR7 Aerial Finishing Juju..." the AI intoned after a moment. "The system will commence the quantum mental conditioning procedure in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0."

When the countdown reached zero, the system started transmitting the associated CR7 Aerial Finishing Juju data into Zachary's brain. He momentarily experienced a splitting headache as diverse visions and memories of himself heading the ball on various occasions drilled into his mind. They soon became a part of him, making him feel like he was a veteran and master of finishing with headers for a few seconds. But a while later, the sensation faded as the mental conditioning process gradually ended.

"Sweet."

Zachary was on cloud nine as he'd just achieved initial mastery for the CR7 Aerial Finishing Juju. He'd finally taken the first step to learning a heading skill that would increase his versatility on the field of play to a great extent. Zachary would only need minimal effort and practice on the training pitch and within the G.O.A.T Skills simulator to totally make it his own. Then, he would have another sure-fire scoring ability in his arsenal.

"Let's continue," Zachary decided before returning his focus to the interface. Since he'd already met the requirements for learning the Rocket-Launcher Steven Gerrard skill, he followed the same procedure and purchased it from the system shop. He soon went through the all-familiar mental conditioning procedure before achieving initial mastery in the outside-of-the-box shooting skill.