All of a sudden, the lights switched off, making them all quiet, and as they turned back on, the holographic head of a female appeared at the far podium.
"Welcome, shall we begin?" the holographic image said. It sounded more AI than human.
"Welcome to the All-Star program. A total of one thousand players have registered in the recruitments, where only twenty will be selected," it added.
They all resumed their aimless murmuring among themselves, some complaining that they were deceived.
"Then why are the rest of them here? If you only needed twenty-two players, you could select me and twenty-one more by looking at stats," a husky male behind Zico said.
"Err? What makes you believe you're the best here?"
"Yeah, like does your size deceive you?"
"Obviously, it should be I who has the most glamour amongst you mortals," a male with long pink hair said, sounding like a high school girl.
Everyone who heard began attacking the husky player with words. It was turning into an arena of noise, so the lights were turned off again.
Everyone now kept their cool, and with the lights turned back on, the AI did not immediately resume talking but kept quiet until they were completely silent.
"You're now in the All-Star facility. All instructions and rules must be carried out. In this facility, I have been hired to create the best eleven for Japan to win the Major League Cup.
Simply put, there's one thing that Japan needs in order to do that, and that is the birth of revolutionary players.
Here, there are one thousand players, as displayed behind you—three hundred strikers, three hundred midfielders, three hundred defenders, and one hundred goalkeepers."
Having heard the count, everyone began looking at themselves, barely spotting a goalkeeper.
"However, out of these three hundred strikers, only six will be needed—six midfielders, six defenders, and two goalkeepers.
The best eleven will be the starting lineup, and the second-in-line eleven will be benchwarmers," the feminine AI added.
"Um, question, the rest of us that don't make it—"
"Will be kicked out," the voice quickly replied. "And your plays here will be live broadcast. Everyone will get to watch me create the world's best eleven revolutionary players, and that is what this facility is for."
"Dude, we'd like to see who's talking."
"Yeah, who's behind the AI head?"
Once again, the whole place was dark. Accompanying the little fog that accumulated on the podium, a man in black clothing began rising from underneath.
Spreading his arms wide with a big grin, he adjusted his lens and stared at them like a lion ready to pounce on a zebra.
He sighed. "If there are any questions regarding what you've heard from the system, now's the time," he said.
At first, the players were silent, some asking one another if they knew him, but not a single one had a clue.
"What's a system?"
"The system is what controls the entire facility by my instructions—an advanced technology to provide non-biased stats and gameplays, even as the referee."
"Um, such a big facility is well hidden. I specifically don't know my way back home."
"I see where you're driving at. The facility is big enough to house more than a thousand players." As he said that, the big screen behind him displayed the black cube facility.
"Although we would advise you to stay within the All-Star facility, you have the right to leave and stay at any time. However... a day before your match, you will be staying here, and once we've reached the final selection stage, contact outside the walls won't be allowed."
With that said, the big screen behind the man split in two like a door, bright enough to get all their attention.
"Those ready to have the throne should step in."
The husky player earlier was the first to run, and that gave all the players the momentum to run behind, screaming energetically.
Zico, on the other hand, gently walked past. When he was just arm's length beside the man, he heard the instructor scoff. "And did I forget to mention, all injuries sustained will be your responsibility?"
That was what Zico heard the man say, but he didn't care about it and walked through the bright gate. There was now no one else in the wide room.
"Let us begin."
---
At the other side of the gate, everyone saw lots of lockers. The lockers had their names on them. With that, they began finding their names.
"Please identify your locker, locate your room. You have ten minutes before the start of the first selection."
Each locker had a room card number and a jersey inside it, some similar to another. [Team K Room 145].
And apart from the room number similarities, some also shared the same uniforms. In all, everyone had black clothing with stripes on it. The black clothing looked more like a second skin.
They wore that before the jerseys. Zico found himself putting on a white jersey with no number on it. [Team KC Room 129].
After the locker hall, it led straight to another room—the room that had different doors with the room numbers on them.
Unfortunately for Zico, the same guy looking for his room was the captain from his school's team, and they seemed to be putting on the same white jersey.
"Room 129; this is it."
At last, Zico found the room door. As he opened it, the captain was the first to rudely walk inside while blabbering a few words. "Egoist, my ass."
The words barely got to Zico as he was now focused on what was in front of him. First, he saw the leaderboard.
[Team KC Vs Team Z]
And then the size of the field—it wasn't the normal stadium size. It was 42 meters long and 25 meters wide. The surface of the field was smooth grass.
And the goalpost—3 meters wide and 2 meters high. There wasn't any human goalkeeper; instead, it was some sort of robot.
Zico walked towards the right side of the field, where he saw those who were obviously his teammates, and the other side, although putting on the same black clothing with stripes, their jerseys were black mixed with red stripes.
A total of five players in each team, including the humanoid robot keepers, they were six players in each team.
"Hey, do you play central back?" a guy from Team KC asked Zico.
"Better question, where do you play?" another asked.
"Forward," Zico replied.
"Oh shoot, we're done for. All five of us playing forward—that's not fair at all."
The leaderboard that once displayed the scoreboard was now showing the System's face, not only to them but to all.
"You'll now be facing the opposing team for the first selection. Do note, your matches will be live broadcast, and for the instructions...
The winning team will get to choose one player from the opposition. As for the remaining four in the losing team, you'll be locked out. In other words, you'll be leaving the All-Star facility."