There were so many things to do, and I had so few XPoints. There weren’t a whole lot of football-related things to do in town besides from watching from the telly, so tried as I had, I could only squeeze out another 85 EXP from brute-forcing quests.
Still, that meant I was left with 691 unused XPoints.
I wouldn’t be playing this weekend, so there was really no need for fatigue management. The urge to correct Mitch’s entire formation had subsided, which meant I could now focus on maximizing my EXP gains and fast-tracking my progression. After some more tinkering, I’d found two potential avenues of improvement:
First, sticking with training gains. There was another skill that would net me more EXP through training.
The thing was… I had no plan to train. Not this week, nor the next. I wanted Boras to play, or Mansfield when he was available. I wanted to learn how to read the game as a coach, a manager. I wanted to manage my game time accordingly.
So I looked to Manager Paths.
Under Tactical Literacy, a skill stood out: Tactical Observation.
That sounded cool and all, and I’d have to unlock Tactical Literacy sooner or later, but the gain from observation was so much lower than from playing itself.
What I really needed were skills that guaranteed EXP, not percentages. Percentages could scale, which was cool, but right now that scaling would only net me, say, 10 extra EXP. It would need an obscene amount of base improvement to start seeing the real fruit of scaling, and I hadn’t had the EXP for that yet. If I could gain levels faster, I’d unlock better skills sooner, and those skills would naturally let me gather more EXP.
Under Training Architecture, there was this skill:
Flat EXP was a good start, but considering I’d only manage two or three sessions per week at most, that would only be a marginal gain. I could do better than that.
Rather unexpectedly, under Authority & Credibility, I found this:
This was much better, though being capped at 3 without knowing how hard each quest would be was a vague restriction, and I didn’t want to gamble my XPoints by overextending into this yet.
I scrolled through the Manager Path nodes. Everything was more abstract than I’d hoped. Percentage boosts, soft multipliers, long-term growth. Nothing that actually fed points into my EXP bar right now. My fingers hovered over each node, hoping something would jump out, but each one only reminded me of how little I could do this week.
I sighed. I’d hoped to at least get a foothold while sitting this weekend out, but it looked like… nothing.
Then my eye caught a small icon under Data Analysis.
I’d recently unlocked scouting, so there should be no barrier. I scrolled through the description again. There was still RNG involved—the system picked a handful of attributes each week, so I couldn’t guarantee success—but if I could travel live and find enough players that fit the profile… that was basically free EXP scaling for good.
It might even be easier now that I had an agent: Tom Harding.
I dialled him.
“So, you finally need that raise?” he said.
“No,” I replied, “but I’ve got something that’s your expertise. Do you have profiles for any of the second-tier BUSC sides? Or any Tier 6 or 7 clubs in the region?”
There was a short laugh, sharp and dry. “Tier 6? Tier 7? Why do you think I’d be watching that garbage?”
I forced a neutral shrug into my voice. “Just checking.”
“I’ve got a few players from the second-tier sides I actually deal with. That’s about it. The rest… you’re on your own. Good luck.” A pause later, he added, “Actually, if you’re gonna check them out, I can have Maisie go with you.”
“Maisie?”
“Yeah. She’s at home doing nothing anyway. Might as well let her kickstart a career in scouting. You’ll get your picks verified, she gets some hands-on experience, and I don’t have to babysit. Maisie’s been working on pre-filtered lists for uni sides lately. I got her to do some scouting for the Slough Town youth team, so she should have some data by now.”
What? Maisie had told me she worked in marketing. This kind of job barely paid anything, and I reckoned marketing paid much better. Why would she be scouting for National League sides?
Didn’t really matter right now. I could ask Tom when Maisie was free. I did.
“Given there’s training for different BUSC sides every day,” he said, “there’s always something to cover. You can tell her to start tomorrow afternoon.”
“Ah… but won’t she be busy with her day job?” I’d have to ask for my shift off again myself if I wanted to make it tomorrow.
“Her only proper job is for me,” Tom replied. “Or maybe she’s talking bollocks, who knows…”
So she wasn’t working in marketing? Honestly, I didn’t much appreciate her cousin just blabbing about someone else—bit rude, that. I guessed she considered helping Tom out as a form of marketing in its own right. Either way, I shouldn’t look too closely into it. What she told me she did really didn’t matter.
The thing that mattered now was the gains.
So the moment I got off the phone with Tom, I texted my boss and requested another leave day.
Thursday came. I parked a little early near the coffee shop Maisie had said to meet at, on one of Burnley’s quieter streets. I’d gone over every surface the night before, so now my car only smelled of leather polish and lemon, from the little air freshener I’d clipped to the vent. No takeaway smells this time; I’d made sure of it.
I’d already unlocked both Data Analysis and Attribute Recon, and this was the System’s first set of requirements for me:
I winced. A youth with those numbers usually had enough technical quality to draw proper scouts from National League sides. Hungerford? Probably wouldn’t even register on their radar. Still, I shoved that thought aside. Hungerford didn’t matter right now. Fulfill the System requirements first. Think of it as scouting for Slough.
I hadn’t been waiting long before the bell above the coffee shop door chimed. I looked up and saw Maisie pause at the entrance, scanning the street. She had that half-smile on her, the one that made it clear she was trying not to overthink things, but I could tell she’d put in a bit of effort. She had dark jeans on, a fitted jacket over a soft blouse, and her hair pulled back loosely so it didn’t look fussy. Slung over her shoulder was a neat crossbody bag. From the side pocket, a notebook peeked out, and I spotted a pen clipped to the strap.
Then, catching my subtle wave from the driver’s side, she let out a small laugh and headed across the quiet street.
I rolled the window down with a soft click and leaned slightly out. “So… where are we heading today?”
She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and glanced in at me. “University of Reading,” she said, her voice low, almost like she didn’t want anyone else hearing. “I heard there’s an exciting prospect coming through. Also, there are a few speedsters in that team from what I gathered. That’s what you need, yes?”
I nodded, keeping my expression neutral, though my mind was already running through the possibilities. I hope that ‘exciting prospect’ can accelerate.
What’s the best long-term skill?
