Divine Celebrity 120 (Patreon)

“Are you ready for a full day of meetings, boys,” was my first words as I entered the meeting room, Full attendance, no exception. 

“Yes, coach,” they answered. A few of them laughed, but that didn’t mean disrespect. It was a difficult balance, and someone like Coach Spencer would have failed to react appropriately, but it was different for me. I made fleeting yet sharp eye contact, acknowledging their attitude while subtly reminding them not to push too much. 

A difficult thing to balance, especially since I was not only the same age, but also a player as well. Luckily, I had my Traits to help me. 

I decided to test them a bit more. I reached the box I was carrying, and released my pet. “What’s that coach, are we changing mascots?” one of the players asked. 

“Nope, I just decided to bring my pet with me,” I answered with a chuckle, though that was not my only intention. I was observing Arthur, to see if he would notice the extraordinary nature of my pet and its toy. He did not, though it might be about his tired expression. He didn’t look like he got any sleep. His irritation suggested that the loss of the book had something to do with it. 

Their lack of follow-up was another sign of my presence. I chuckled as I pulled a whiteboard and started going through the strategies. As I did so, I reached for my Intent flow, this time empowering my Teaching Trait supernaturally. As I spread the effect softly, it increased their comprehension. And, even better, it was soft enough that Arthur didn’t give any sign of realizing what was going on. 

  “Try to remember trickier aspects of our plan,” I said. “Our biggest reliance is going to be our trick plays, not to mention a dangerous number of blitzes. And, since I will be calling every play from the side with no last-minute audible, make sure you learn the hand signals correctly.” 

“Coach, what if they pull some last-second adjustment. We won’t have time to read your hand signs,” asked one of the linebackers. 

“I know, but that’s a risk we need to take,” I explained. “We simply don’t have the necessary time to build such coordination, so we’re going to take the risk. You just have to trust me that I will be better than their coaches and use tactics that factor in their formations and their last-minute adjustments.” 

The cadence in my tone was enough to convince them, which was good, as my explanation was not exactly a good one. It wasn’t wrong, per se. I had designed most of the strategies in a way that would be hard to take advantage of with last-minute adjustments, but such tactical flexibility was the equivalent of driving twenty miles under capacity in a car race, sacrificing benefits for safety. 

And, like a car race, such an approach could only succeed with significantly superior ability. 

Luckily, I was not above cheating. The advantage of the constant Recovery I could provide was enough to tip the balance back to us. And, worst came to worst, I wasn’t above cheating a bit, when it came to some long passes with my newly acquired telekinesis. A bit risky, but considering some of my abilities were already revealed, low enough to be acceptable. 

As long as I kept it limited to a few times.

I continued teaching them, pausing occasionally to feed small carrot sticks to my pet — and a lot of Intent, Strength, Endurance, and other Mental traits, to empower it along with the food. The players chuckled at the dichotomy, but I let that slide. At this point, with every objective I had, giving an eccentric impression with an unusual pet could only help me. 

The rest of the meeting passed almost in a routine manner, enough that, even as I had gone through the tactics, my thoughts drifted back to the magic tricks I had read in the book. I had already memorized most of the translations. Unfortunately, memorizing them helped as much as trying to memorize some example equations — and, considering the state of the poor translations, badly written equations. I needed to understand the rules behind what I had read, not just blindly copy whatever ritual or rune they had. 

Especially since I was planning to use the Pure intent from the System rather than blood and other clumsy magical tricks. As I thought that, I couldn’t feel a hint of pity toward Arthur, who was struggling to listen to the meeting in his exhausted state. 

I decided to slip the book back into his bag in the locker room. After all, I had already made high-fidelity digital copies of every single page, and the possession of the original was just a risk. The lunch break was enough to pull that, especially since I had the control of every security camera in the stadium. 

I arrived the lunch a few minutes late, and sat next to some of the newest and least confident players, my pet with me, munching on sliced oranges. “So, what do you guys feel about our chances of victory,” I said as I looked at them, chuckling as they flinched. 

“O-of course we will win, coach,” they stammered, and I smiled at their expression. 

“Very good, confidence is very important. I don’t want you guys faltering halfway,” I chuckled as I started eating, keeping the discussion light. Ten minutes into the discussion, I saw Arthur leave, and, after a while, return. 

His expression was interesting. He was still exhausted, but mostly relieved. Too relieved, even, which made me think whether he actually reported about the disappearance of the book in the first place to his superiors. 

The intensity of his emotions suggested he did not. As he walked, he looked at me suspiciously, but it was a fleeting one, giving me the impression that he didn’t really suspect me. 

I had a feeling that he was underestimating me, still believing that his infiltration of the team hadn’t been caught since he was still on the team. That was not logical, of course, as keeping a known spy had significant advantages, but Arthur seemed to be missing those. 

Not a notion I was desperate to disabuse him of at the moment. I was starting to realize that I couldn’t keep blundering blindly through this with occasional hints from my guide. As much as I had wanted to advance the System while keeping safe, I couldn’t simply ignore the danger posed by the situation. 

The presence of a careless spy was an excellent way for me to reach around. For one, it allowed me to get information about magic. More importantly, it allowed me to identify other people of interest — not to mention, their discussions gave me a preliminary understanding of their organization, and which one of them was more likely to cooperate with me. 

Hardly a small gain. If I could turn one of their members into an asset, it would allow me to achieve a lot more. 

A rough plan was already forming in my head, though the time to act was still some distance away. I needed to find out more about the System. how it came to be, how it functioned, and how could I avoid the interested parties; and their organization, memberships, their relations, possible weaknesses, and their ultimate ambitions. 

It wouldn’t be nice to connect with someone if their first inclination would be to sacrifice me or something. 

I needed to have better control of Arthur. Maybe some kind of trojan to his phone would allow me to track him and his communications, but it was problematic. Phones were much harder to hack than computers due to their design, and I needed some serious preparation before achieving such a thing. 

With a sigh, I let my wander back to that even as I chatted with the players. Work never ended. If only I had some way to feel entertained… 

Then, I saw Coach Juana walk inside. Maybe I should have asked for something else, I thought, before dismissing that thought. 

Coach Juana was an excellent reward. Especially with her blush growing wide. 

I couldn’t help but smirk.