Almighty Coach

Chapter 207: The Interlinked Iron Chain

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The national team had plenty of first class athletes. Sprinting was also a relatively popular event. As the favorite apprentice of Li Xue, Dai Li naturally had many opportunities, so his experience was rocketing during his time on the national team.

Dai Li needed 50,000 experience points to upgrade from the preliminary phase of a top-level coach to the intermediate phase. If Dai Li had coached youth athletes like the old days, he might have needed 8 to 10 years to accumulate so many experience points. However, he could accumulate more experience with the national team, so his upgrading speed was almost the same as it had been before.

During this period, Dai Li also attended some races. The outstanding performance of the athletes he had trained during the races also gave Dai Li an experience bonus.

For example, the level of athletes who attended the National University Games was not very high, but the National University Games were a state-level comprehensive competition. Dai Li had gained 2,000 experience points for Sijie Yang’s win and Guohong Niu’s third place finish.

Another example was that during the long jump final of the Asian Games, Dai Li had put Haiquan Fang back on his training list by giving Haiquan Fang a rehabilitative massage. Later, Haiquan Fang won his event at the Asian Games, so Dai Li also gained some experience from this.

Although Sijie Yang was trained by Li Xue, he had also participated in the training for the relay; therefore, he was always on Dai Li’s training list. Sijie Yang’s first place in the 100m sprint at the Asian Games also gained Dai Li a lot of experience, which triggered his upgrade to the intermediate phase of a top-level coach from the preliminary phase.

Finally, I upgraded again. I just want to know what good staff is contained in the bonus package. Dai Li was immersed in the system, and eager to know what upgrade bonus he might receive this time.

"System, bring me the bonus package." Dai Li said.

"Okay, congratulations on winning the grand upgrade bonus package," the system said.

"Wait a minute, I was just upgraded to the intermediate phase of the top-level coach. Shouldn’t I just get the upgrade bonus package? Why is it a grand upgrade bonus package?" Dai Li asked.

"I forgot to tell you that after your upgrade to the top-level coach, your following upgrades will be more and more difficult, so the bonus will also be a greater incentive by changing the normal bonus package to the grand bonus package; that is to say, you will get two awards for each upgrade in future," the system explained.

"Another award!" Dai Li was immediately delighted.

Dai Li opened the bonus package and looked into it eagerly. What he found were two items. On the left side, there was a book, which meant a new skill; on the right side, an item that was quite similar to the name badge of shop assistants in the mall was placed.

"What is this?" Dai Li picked up the name badge first, an award he had never seen before.

Four words were inscribed on the name badge, "The Interlinked Iron Chain."

"The interlinked iron chain? That reminds me of the story of Yu Zhou who burnt the interlinked war ships of Cao Cao during the Battle of Red Cliffs in the Three Kingdoms Period of China. What is this thing?" Dai Li asked.

"It’s a title! Congratulations on getting your first title!" the system explained.

"What’s the function of a title? Is it only for addressing and decoration, or could it provide some substantial effects?" Dai Li continued to ask.

"Of course it can provide substantial effects. Each title can provide a substantial promoting effect." the system explained.

"Something like the halo?" Dai Li remembered the halo over his head.

"You could think of it that way, however, titles don’t contradict with halos. You may equip the title and halo at the same time to enjoy their combined effect," the system explained.

Dai Li had always held a grudge against the rule that only one halo could be equipped at a time. Now he had a title, which could compensate for the deficiency of equipping only one halo by Dai Li’s estimates.

The system continued its explanation. "Besides, one major difference between a title and a halo is that all promotion effects of a halo are positive, while the effects caused by a title are not only positive, but could be negative."

"I knew it couldn’t be that simple." Dai Li wouldn’t stop complaining.

"If all the effects are positive, wouldn’t the function of titles overlap with the function of halos?" the system continued to explain. "Let’s take the title of ’The Interlinked Iron Chain’ you obtained this time as an example; when you equip this title, the tacit cooperation degree of the athletes in your training list will be remarkably enhanced!"

"The degree of tacit cooperation is enhanced? That sounds quite good. This title could definitely be useful for sports like basketball, football, and volleyball. It could also be used in the doubles for tennis and badminton, which also require cooperation between teammates. In addition, this title could be used in other events that need multiple teammates like kayaking. In this way, the title of ’The Interlinked Iron Chain’ could be widely used in all events except for solo ones."

Dai Li paused and continued to asked, "The enhancement of tacit cooperation would be a so-called positive effect, right? Then what are the negative effects of this title?"

"The negative effect is that after equipping this title, the athletes could influence each other. For example, if one athlete is in good shape, other athletes will be influenced and start to be in good shape." the system explained.

"In this way, if one athlete is in bad shape, other athletes will also be influenced and start to be in bad shape, right?" Dai Li asked immediately.

"Exactly. Strictly speaking, it shouldn’t be a completely negative effect, but should be regarded as a double-edged sword. For instance, during a basketball match, if one player is on fire and keeps scoring, his teammates will be influenced and enhance their shooting accuracy.

"On the contrary, if one player misses shots consecutively, his teammates will also be influenced and miss more shots." The explanation of the system was quite thorough.

Dai Li nodded his head. This mutual influence among teammates was quite realistic, and very common during actual matches. Sometimes, the shooting accuracy seemed to be an epidemic; especially in the teams relying heavily on shooting, sometimes everyone was a sharpshooter and could defeat their opponent through a rain of three pointers. Sometimes everyone was a terrible shooter and missed all kinds of shots, and the match was lost naturally.

I am a coach of the track and field events, and this title of "The Interlinked Iron Chain" is temporarily useless for me in my current stage, so I’ll equip it later. Dai Li’s gaze fell to the skill book.

Before I used to practice weight-loss exercise, fat-loss exercise, relaxation massaging, and rehabilitative massaging. What’s the skill this time?" Dai Li gave it a closer look, and found two words printed on the cover of the glittery skill book, which were: "Flexible Yoga!"