Chapter 709: You can’t live without going crazy
On the eve of Leeds' away game against Burley, the entire Leeds City team stayed at the Burnley hotel.
This is their first Premier League game of the new season. Before the game, the coaching staff was very strict and required all players to go back to their rooms to sleep after ten o'clock in the evening, and they were not allowed to leave the hotel if they wanted to leave the hotel. It's absolutely not okay to play that.
Perhaps it was because the last warm-up match was so bad that the players did not object to the coaching staff's arrangements.
They also know that the current external atmosphere is not friendly to the team. Why are they thinking about going out to play at this time? If there is an accident in tomorrow's game, then whoever goes out to play will be the team's loser." The culprit”.
So when the time came, everyone rested honestly in their respective rooms.
Even if I can't fall asleep for a while, I will lie in bed and chat instead of going out to have fun.
Hu Lai and Charlie Potter were assigned to a room. Now they have both taken a shower and are lying on the bed, turning off the lights and chatting casually.
Porter suddenly talked about his prospects for the new season: "Hu, did the boss tell you how many balls to exchange for a meal this time?"
Hu Lai shook his head: "The activity of scoring goals in exchange for treats is gone."
Hearing this, Porter sighed regretfully: "That's such a pity... It's such a rare opportunity to go to Red Chili Pepper to eat Chinese food openly..."
"Why do you think about good things all day long, Charlie?"
"What you're saying is, if I don't want good things, do I want bad things? For example, if we lose to Burley in the away game tomorrow?"
Hu Lai turned to look at Potter: "Fortunately, you and I are roommates, Charlie. If it had been Peter, you would have been beaten by him by now."
Porter was very proud: "He can't beat me." Then he sighed: "I don't know what will happen if Peter and Ismail live in the same house..."
"What can happen? What do you want to happen?"
Charlie Potter shook his head: "I don't know."
"Putting you and Ismail in the same room, maybe something will happen. With Peter here, nothing will happen."
Porter thought about it and felt that Hulay was right. Pete Williams was a very serious and responsible person. At such a special moment as the eve of the game, he must strictly abide by the team's discipline and wash up and go to bed early. So I guess he and Kamala probably spent the whole night without talking and slept until dawn.
He changed the subject again: "Hu, what are your prospects for this season? You only played for less than half a season last season and you scored 11 goals. I see that there are already fans on the Internet guessing how many goals you can score this season. The ball has been scored. There are also betting companies betting on your goals this season..."
"Oh? How did you open it?" Hu Lai didn't feel sleepy anymore when talking about this topic.
Professional football is deeply penetrated by the gambling industry. Every Premier League team has a dedicated gambling sponsor. Some teams' main jersey sponsors are even gambling companies.
The developed gambling industry covers all aspects of professional football, and any event in the Premier League can allow gambling companies to place bets.
Some bets seem particularly weird, such as whether a certain player will transfer to a certain team, whether a certain player will start in the game, the possibility of a certain player getting injured during the season, whether a certain player will Eating pie at the game…
In comparison, betting on the championship and runner-up, game wins and draws, number of goals, and number of corner kicks can all be regarded as traditional items in football betting.
In British life outside of football, almost everything can be bet on by bookmakers. For example, who can be elected President of the United States, who can win the title of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, which year will Haruki Murakami win the Nobel Prize for Literature, will it be sunny, rainy or snowy this Christmas Eve, and what color hat will Her Majesty the Queen wear at the horse racing meeting? ……etc.
The reason is that Britain is a country that is keen on gambling, and British people really like gambling.
Even professional players are no exception. There have been many precedents for players to participate in betting on football games. That's why the Football Association later stipulated that all professional players and their family members are not allowed to participate in football-related gambling.
"Wait a minute, let me look for it..." Potter turned over and picked up his phone to browse and search. There was a dim light in the room with the lights out. "Ah, I found it. If you predict that you will score less than five goals in the Premier League this season, I will pay you 45 for one. To be honest, I also think it is difficult for you to score so many goals in one season... six to nine goals. The odds are 30 to 1, 10 to 15 goals, and the odds are 2 to 5... Obviously, they all think that you should be able to score in double figures again."
The betting company's odds are basically based on the performance of the players and then calculated by actuaries. It also needs to be adjusted at any time according to the player's recent status.
The odds of 2 to 5 means that the betting company believes that Hulay has a very high chance of scoring ten to fifteen goals in the new season. Therefore, by offering such odds, we tell the majority of lottery players: If you bet on this, there is a high probability that you will not lose money, but even if you win, you will not make much money.
The reason why the betting company offers such odds has a lot to do with Hu Lai's performance last season.
Hu Lai joined midway through last season and scored 11 goals in just 15 games. Such efficiency made betting companies agree that it would be easy for him to score 15 goals after having a full season in the new season. Yes, it is a normal behavior.
"The odds of sixteen to twenty balls are 15 to 1."
The odds have increased, but are lower than the previous odds of forty-five to one and thirty to one. The bookmaker believes that it will be more difficult for Hu Lai to score so many goals than it is for him to score fifteen goals, but it is not outrageous. It is a matter of hard work and better luck. It may be possible. Target. Bookmakers are more optimistic about him scoring twenty goals in a single season than they are betting on him scoring less than ten goals in a single season.
"Twenty-one to twenty-five goals, one pays one hundred and sixty-six. The odds are already very high..."
This odds is much higher than Hulay's odds of scoring less than five goals, which fully illustrates that it is more difficult to score than not to score. If a player encounters factors such as poor condition, injury and missing a large number of games, it is possible that he will gain nothing in a season. However, if you want to score as many goals as possible, you need more factors to achieve success: personal strength, team personnel configuration, correct tactics, good form, and excellent luck are all indispensable.
"Of course, there are higher ones. The odds of you scoring more than 30 goals are 436 to 1. Basically, it means don't even think about it. It's impossible." After finishing speaking, Charlie Potter turned over his phone. Put it aside and the room returned to darkness.
In the darkness, Hu Lai, who was in the next bed, said: "Okay, then I will set the goal goal for this season at thirty!"
Almost at the same time, the long-lost voice sounded in Hu Lai's mind: "Mission: Score at least thirty goals in the Premier League in the 2025-2026 season. Reward: Points × 300,000. Special reminder: If the mission fails, you will not be able to Get rewards, and the penalty mechanism will also be triggered, deducting 300,000 points from your existing points. If the existing points are not enough, negative points will appear and you will enter a state of debt..."
Hu Lai was stunned.
In fact, when he first announced this goal, he had a hunch in his heart that the system that had been pretending to be dead for a long time might issue a mission, just like the two missions he had done at the Olympics.
So when the mission really came up, he felt no emotion at all, and even wanted to laugh a little - you kid, you still want to trick me? Did I see through it?
But when he saw the "special reminder" at the end of the task, he was stunned in his conscious space.
He really didn't expect that he could be tricked like this!
He understood the sinister intention of this system - if he failed the mission, not only would he lose the reward of 300,000 points, but he would also owe 300,000 points.
And he currently has less than 300,000 points - he gained 100,000 points for the task of winning the Chinese Super League Golden Boot, and then helped Leeds City successfully avoid relegation last season, as well as the task of scoring his first Premier League goal, in total The reward was 200,000, which added up to 350,000. However, he bought training scrolls, [Stamina Potions], various equipment and props, etc., and the remaining points were only over 290,000.
In other words, if he fails the mission, not to mention that the 290,000 points will be cleared instantly, his actual points should be close to minus 10,000.
In this way, even if he completes the mission reward in the future, the points he receives must first pay off the debt. Until the points are cleared again and become a positive number, he can't use the points to buy anything.
He used to think that even if he couldn't complete the tasks issued by the system, it wouldn't matter. If he didn't need those task rewards, he might really be able to give up on some tasks that were too difficult.
For example, the task of scoring a hat trick and qualifying for the group stage in the Olympics. If you really can't complete it... then you can't complete it.
You can't force things on others.
But now this mission actually has a punishment mechanism.
He didn't know if the system had been upgraded secretly, because since he came to the Premier League, he hadn't seen any upgrade prompts on the system - of course, it couldn't be ruled out that the system was like some smart phones, which secretly patched your system, but... I won’t tell you yet until you find that your phone is getting laggy and battery life is getting worse as you use it more and more. You thought your phone was getting old and you should get a new one... In fact, that’s just a thief phone manufacturer forcing you to upgrade. , good consumption.
Looking at this punishment mechanism, Hu Lai really wanted to slap himself - for making you say you want to score thirty goals!
Keep a low profile, give a smaller number, just say... fifteen goals, how safe is that?
It must be exciting!
Hu Lai was on a research mission in the system space, and it was also a time when he was regretting it. For the real world, only one second had passed.
Charlie Potter laughed when he heard this: "Hu, you are joking again. Ha!"
Unexpectedly, Hu Lai's serious voice came from the bed next door: "I'm not kidding, Charlie. I really plan to score...at least thirty goals this season."
Charlie Potter, who had just been lying flat on the bed, turned over and sat up after hearing this, turned to look in the direction of Hu Lai: "Are you crazy, Hu?!"
"I'm not crazy, Charlie."
"Thirty goals... do you know what this number is? You can compete for the Golden Boot with thirty goals! When Marvin Stones of Manchester United won the Golden Boot last season, it was thirty-two. Ball..."
Of course Hu Lai knew this, but what could he say?
He couldn't say to Potter: "Man, there is a system in my head. It just issued a task to me, asking me to pay taxes for my bragging. If I can't complete this task, then I will lose money." Tragic..." Right?
Hu Lai, who was lying on the bed, took a deep breath: "So what? If you want to play, let's play big, Charlie. You can't live without being crazy. If you don't push yourself, you will never know where your limit is. Just the golden boots. Then I will go for the golden boots!”
After he said these words, when he heard the emotionless voice in his head, he didn't even bother to look at what the specific task was - just whatever, it doesn't matter, I can handle all the other tasks for him. .
Come on together, I'm in a hurry!
In the darkness, Charlie Potter heard the sound of Hu Lai gnashing his teeth from the bed next to him, and was deeply shocked.
This...is this the confidence and courage of a genius? ! (End of chapter)