Open Play: Ladies, Goals, The Everything System in-between
Chapter 55: [55] "Ammunition for Paris" (TES STORE)
Friday morning.
Luc’s apartment was empty. No Juliette. No teammates dropping by with printouts and requests.
Luc sat at the kitchen counter with his trustee espresso. His brain was already somewhere.
Paris Royal. Tomorrow. Saturday 2nd of December.
The biggest match of the 23/24 season. The one the wager had been quietly building toward since the night Luc stood in that hotel doorway after he had just told Olivier Fontaine he was coming for everything.
He drank the espresso and put the cup down.
"TES. Store."
[System Notification]
[TES Store: Post-Upgrade Inventory]
[Current Balance: 20 General Points | 20 Skill Points | 100% Guaranteed Goal ×1]
[New items available following system upgrade. Reviewing catalogue...]
The interface expanded in a way it hadn’t before. More columns. More categories. The upgrade had done something to the architecture of it, similar thing to a shop that had just knocked down a wall to reveal a back room nobody knew existed.
[SKILL POINT ITEMS]
[1 — First Touch Under Pressure | Cost: 5 Skill Points | Effect: Elite ball control when receiving under a press. Permanent. Still available.]
[2 — Acceleration Burst | Cost: 6 Skill Points | Effect: First two strides from standing position become 15% faster. Permanent. Ideal for tight spaces and penalty box movement.]
[3 — Blind Side Run Timing | Cost: 4 Skill Points | Effect: Improves the precision of late diagonal runs into the box. Reduces offside flag probability by reading the defensive line’s step earlier. Permanent.]
[4 — Dead Ball Precision | Cost: 5 Skill Points | Effect: +3 to free kick and corner delivery. Permanent. Note: Does not make you Dário. But it helps.]
[5 — Pressing Resistance | Cost: 4 Skill Points | Effect: Improved ability to retain possession under a high press for up to three additional seconds before losing control. Permanent.]
---
[GENERAL POINT ITEMS]
[6 — Physical Conditioning Buffer | Cost: 5 General Points | Effect: Reduces injury accumulation rate by 20%. Permanent. Still available.]
[7 — Psychological Armor | Cost: 6 General Points | Effect: Immunity to crowd noise, hostile stadium pressure, and pre-match media hostility. One full match duration. Consumable.]
[8 — Predatory Aura Top-Up | Cost: 3 General Points | Restores ×2 uses. Consumable.]
[9 — Opposition Scan | Cost: 5 General Points | Effect: Provides one real-time in-match tactical breakdown of a specific opponent’s movement pattern. Consumable. Single use per match.]
[10 — Match Clarity | Cost: 7 General Points | Effect: For 20 minutes of match time, spatial awareness and decision-making speed operate at peak efficiency simultaneously. Consumable. Activatable mid-match.]
---
Luc read the full list. Maybe even twice.
He did what he always did. He didn’t react to any single item. He looked at the whole picture first and found where the gaps he needed were.
Paris Royal’s press was organized and suffocating. Their midfield collapses on the ball-carrier from three directions simultaneously. Fontaine’s service came from players who had been playing together for three seasons.
The crowd at Parc des Royals had broken better men than Luc on that pitch. Opposing strikers who had arrived with good form and left with nothing, undone by sixty thousand hostile voices, even before the second half starts
He looked at item seven again.
[Psychological Armor | Cost: 6 General Points | One full match duration. Consumable.]
He didn’t need it. He had never needed it.
So he skipped it.
"TES. Purchase Blind Side Run Timing."
[System Notification]
[Purchase confirmed]
[Blind Side Run Timing — Active. Permanent.]
[Effect: Late diagonal run precision improved. Defensive line step read 0.3 seconds earlier.]
[Balance: 20 General Points | 16 Skill Points]
The Belleville game had never fully left him. Amadou Fall, the way Luc had run straight and paid for it with humiliation in front of forty thousand people. The Tunnel Vision upgrade had corrected part of that problem. This would help him replicate his own.
"Purchase First Touch Under Pressure."
[System Notification]
[Purchase confirmed]
[First Touch Under Pressure — Active. Permanent.]
[Effect: Elite ball control under press. The ball will obey you in tight spaces the way it doesn’t obey most people in open ones.]
[Balance: 20 General Points | 11 Skill Points]
Paris Royal pressed in waves. Their holding midfielder triggered the first, their attacking midfielders continued the second. If the first touch wasn’t clean, the move would die before it could get the chance to start.
That was how they had dismantled eleven other opponents this season.
It would not be how they dismantled SC Valois.
"Purchase Acceleration Burst."
[System Notification]
[Purchase confirmed]
[Acceleration Burst — Active. Permanent.]
[Effect: First two strides from standing position 15% faster. Penalty box exits and separation from tight marking improved.]
[Balance: 20 General Points | 5 Skill Points]
He paused.
Five skill points left. One important item remaining in the skill column that he hadn’t bought.
[Pressing Resistance | Cost: 4 Skill Points | Effect: Retain possession under press for up to three additional seconds. Permanent.]
Three seconds was nothing in normal life. Three seconds in a match, under a midfield press... the ball at your feet and four shirts closing in from different angles... was the difference between a chance created and a turnover in a dangerous position.
"Purchase Pressing Resistance."
[System Notification]
[Purchase confirmed]
[Pressing Resistance — Active. Permanent.]
[Effect: Retention window under press extended. You will not panic. You never panic, but now your body won’t consider it either.]
[Balance: 20 General Points | 1 Skill Point]
One skill point left. Nothing in the store worth a single skill point.
Luc moved to the general side.
Twenty points. The general column had a different logic to it, more situational. The consumables were specific.
He bought the Physical Conditioning Buffer first because it was the one item he should have bought weeks ago but didn’t have the points.
"Purchase Physical Conditioning Buffer."
[System Notification]
[Purchase confirmed]
[Physical Conditioning Buffer — Active. Permanent.]
[Effect: Injury accumulation rate reduced by 20%. Cracked ribs, hamstring tension, and the general punishment of a Ligue Alpha season will compound more slowly from this point forward.]
[Balance: 15 General Points | 1 Skill Point]
Fifteen left.
He looked at the Opposition Scan.
[Opposition Scan | Cost: 5 General Points | Real-time tactical breakdown of a specific opponent’s movement pattern. Consumable. Single use per match.]
Fontaine.
That was the name that went into that slot without any deliberation. Not his midfielder. Not his keeper. Fontaine.
The man who had adapted after the gala. Who had stopped panicking and started playing again. Who had scored twice against Montclair with composed, clean finishes that had reminded the entire country why he had held the Golden Boot for two consecutive seasons.
A reset Fontaine on his own pitch, in front of his own crowd, with his own midfield behind him.
The scan was the kind of edge that only existed because TES had decided to offer it.
"Purchase Opposition Scan."
[System Notification]
[Purchase confirmed]
[Opposition Scan — Active. Consumable. Single use.]
[Effect: Upon activation mid-match, TES will provide a real-time movement pattern breakdown of the designated target. Activate when you need it, not before.]
[Balance: 10 General Points | 1 Skill Point]
Luc looked at what was left.
[Match Clarity | Cost: 7 General Points]
[Predatory Aura Top-Up | Cost: 3 General Points]
He bought both.
"Purchase Match Clarity."
[System Notification]
[Purchase confirmed]
[Match Clarity — Active. Consumable.]
[Effect: 20 minutes of peak simultaneous spatial awareness and decision-making speed. Use it when the match needs winning, not managing.]
[Balance: 3 General Points | 1 Skill Point]
"Purchase Predatory Aura Top-Up."
[System Notification]
[Purchase confirmed]
[Predatory Aura — Restored ×2 uses.]
[Balance: 0 General Points | 1 Skill Point]
Zero general points. One skill point that was useless in the column.
Luc sat back and looked at what the morning’s work had left him.
Permanent upgrades: Blind Side Run Timing. First Touch Under Pressure. Acceleration Burst. Pressing Resistance. Physical Conditioning Buffer.
Consumables for Saturday: Opposition Scan on Fontaine. Match Clarity for when the match needed breaking open. Two uses of Predatory Aura. And the guaranteed goal that had been sitting in his pocket since the Phocéen win.
He stood up from the counter and rinsed the espresso cup.
[System Notification]
[Final Balance: 0 General Points | 1 Skill Point]
[Consumables active: Predatory Aura ×2, Opposition Scan ×1, Match Clarity ×1, 100% Guaranteed Goal ×1]
[MD15 — Paris Royal FC. Away at Parc des Royals.]
[Fontaine: 11 Open Play Goals. Beaumont: 10.]
[One behind. One match to level it or pull ahead.]
[Spend the skill point whenever you feel like it. TES isn’t going anywhere.]
He picked up his jacket from the back of the chair.
Hugo’s scan results had come back clean.
He’s in the squad.
Hugo back in the engine room. Idriss alongside Luc. Mateo behind the armband. The guaranteed goal sitting in his pocket like a loaded weapon.
Fontaine’s fortress. The preparation has been done. Luc had acquired, ammunition for Paris.
Luc walked out of the apartment and closed the door shut behind him.