Football: Salary System - Chapter 146: World Market Value Rankings! (Patreon)

Above the English Channel, an airplane tore through the clouds, leaving scattered wisps trailing behind its wings.

Zayn had only finished a match yesterday, then made a trip to the film set before driving back and forth between several cities. Even with his usual abundance of stamina, he was feeling a little worn out and planned to catch up on sleep during the short flight.

But as he drifted between sleep and wakefulness, Zayn suddenly found himself inside the system space.

[Detected: Host's market value has entered the world's top ten. World Market Value Rankings unlocked!]

The text that suddenly appeared before his eyes instantly chased away his drowsiness.

World Market Value Rankings?!

The unlocking of a new ranking tied to market value was both within Zayn's expectations and completely unexpected.

In fact, ever since he figured out that his [Salary Football System] relied entirely on "economics" to make him stronger, Zayn had spent plenty of time trying to determine exactly which forms of "economics" could be converted into ability.

After the World Cup, when his market value rose to 75 million euros, Zayn had expected it to trigger some kind of achievement or new function, but nothing happened. After all, in 2018, a valuation of 75 million euros was already enough to put a player among the world's top 25.

For a while, Zayn had assumed that increases in market value simply weren't part of the [Salary Football System]'s functions.

He hadn't expected it to suddenly activate now.

Zayn realized that the outside world's estimate of his market value must have been updated, triggering the unlock of the [World Market Value Rankings].

"I have to break into the top ten... So the requirement was much stricter than I thought."

He continued looking at the system interface.

Naturally, unlocking a new ranking came with a new reward.

But unlike the [Squad Weekly Wage Ranking], which improved the efficiency of increasing his Realization Rate, this was an entirely new Trait.

[Exclusive Trait: Superstar Moment]

[Effect: When you enter a state of extreme focus and complete immersion in competition, you can solve problems in the [most logical] or [least logical] way.]

The effect was easy enough to understand.

Just as the name suggested, a "Superstar Moment" was something that existed across all competitive sports.

It referred to those moments when a superstar used sheer individual brilliance to completely change the course of a game.

Take last season's Champions League final. Real Madrid and Liverpool were locked at 1-1 when the Welsh Wizard, Bale, came off the bench. One bicycle kick and one long-range wonder goal later, he had effectively killed off the match through individual brilliance alone.

Lewandowski's five goals in nine minutes was another textbook example.

Zayn even felt that Tracy McGrady's 13 points in 35 seconds over in basketball perfectly captured everything a [Superstar Moment] represented.

On closer inspection, however, Zayn found the activation requirements somewhat complicated.

The system had quantified what it meant by "a state of extreme focus and complete immersion in competition."

Only when his physical condition, including stamina, strength, agility, and explosiveness, and his mental state, including focus, desire to win, and commitment, all reached their peaks at the same moment would the Trait activate automatically and briefly put him into [Superstar Moment].

And the duration of [Superstar Moment] was directly tied to his [World Market Value Ranking].

Zayn checked his current ranking and duration.

[Current World Market Value Ranking: 4 (6 minutes)]

As his ranking rose, the duration after activation would increase accordingly. If his ranking dropped, the duration would decrease as well.

And if his market value ever fell outside the top ten, the Trait would disappear entirely.

It was similar to the leaderboard-based online games Zayn had played in his past life, where rankings awarded temporary titles and other limited-time bonuses.

Still, Zayn was confident that with his cheat... no, with his ability, it would probably be many years before he dropped out of the top ten.

By then, he'd likely be close to retirement anyway.

With that thought, Zayn instinctively glanced at his current Trait panel.

[Traits:

Raw Pace, 2. Super Sub, 3. Boos Charge, 4. Big-Game Chalk,

Apennine Tank, 6. Prodigal Son, 7. Fighting Spirit, 8. Superstar Moment (Insight: 0%)]

The Trait granted by the new ranking was unusual enough to surprise Zayn yet again.

This was the first time he had ever seen an [Insight] value attached to a Trait.

The system offered no explanation, but Zayn had a vague realization.

Perhaps if he raised [Superstar Moment]'s [Insight] to its maximum, then even if his market value eventually dropped out of the world's top ten, the Trait would no longer disappear.

Instead, like his other Traits, it would become fully internalized and turn into an ability that truly belonged to him.

"Interesting."

Real-life superstars were fundamentally different from Zayn and his system, where "ability followed market value."

For them, "market value followed ability."

Even as they grew older and their form fluctuated, or they dropped out of certain rankings, their abilities wouldn't simply vanish into thin air.

A true superstar didn't suddenly lose everything once the tide went out.

For now, though, Zayn still had no idea how to increase this so-called [Insight].

Perhaps it depended on how many times he triggered [Superstar Moment] during matches. Maybe it could be rewarded through special achievements, or perhaps it simply required time and experience.

Zayn decided not to dwell on it.

The flight from Birmingham to Dortmund was short. By the time he left the system space, the plane had already landed.

Once he had an internet connection again, Zayn pulled out his phone and checked the trending topics and latest news.

He had expected the media to already be flooded with stories about his soaring market value.

Instead, he saw:

"The Sun Exclusive: Zayn Ryder and Guardiola Reach Verbal Agreement. Winter Move to the Etihad Confirmed!"

"Revealed: England Wonderkid Involved in Deal with Mysterious Gang. The Truth Behind the Championship Golden Boot!"

"Zayn Becomes a Regular on Peaky Blinders Set. Set to Play Major Role in Season Five!"

Zayn: "???"

How come I didn't know any of this?!

Even though he had long since become fully aware of the English media's lack of restraint, he had still underestimated just how low they were willing to sink for clicks.

Fortunately, those completely fabricated stories had already been buried beneath an even bigger wave of attention.

Transfermarkt had updated its market value rankings half an hour earlier.

As one of the world's most widely recognized and frequently cited sources for player valuations, Transfermarkt had finally gathered enough match data after roughly a third of the 2018-19 season to issue another update.

As usual, its November update mainly focused on Bundesliga players. A handful of players from other leagues also received adjustments, but there weren't many.

The major worldwide winter update would come shortly before the winter transfer window opened.

Zayn opened the update page on Transfermarkt's website.

Sure enough, his market value had skyrocketed.

In just four months, it had doubled from 75 million euros after the World Cup to a staggering 150 million euros.

Just as the system had shown, he was ranked fourth in the world.

More precisely, he was tied for fourth with Kane, Salah, De Bruyne, and Hazard, all valued at 150 million euros.

Ahead of them were Messi, Neymar, and Mbappé, tied for first at 180 million euros.

Mbappé's value had also risen by 30 million euros in this update, making his increase the second-largest of the entire update.

The new valuations immediately sparked another wave of praise for Zayn across the internet.

The reason was obvious.

Once again, he had broken record after record.

"The youngest player ever valued at 100 million euros!"

The previous record had belonged to Mbappé, whose market value first crossed the 100-million mark in June 2017, when he was 18 years and more than 180 days old.

Zayn had now broken that record at just 18 years and 15 days.

There were plenty more.

"Highest-valued player in Bundesliga history!"

"Tied with Kane as the highest-valued English player in history!"

As Zayn looked through the various records listed in the news reports, something suddenly occurred to him, and he entered the system space again.

Sure enough.

He had been so focused on the [World Market Value Rankings] and [Superstar Moment] earlier that he had completely missed the fact that he'd completed another hidden achievement.

[Hidden Achievement Unlocked!]

[Achievement Name: Germany's Most Expensive Signing!]

[Unlock Conditions:

Become the highest-valued player in Bundesliga history at the time.

Significantly surpass the previous league market value record.]

[Date Achieved: November 19, 2018]

If Zayn remembered correctly, the previous record for a Bundesliga player's market value had been Lewandowski's 90 million euros.

With this update, Zayn had fulfilled both requirements at once.

[Assigned Achievement Reward Being Disbursed...]

[Trait: Treading on Snow Without a Trace]

[Effect: In snowy weather or when snow is present on the pitch, your shooting and passing abilities are significantly enhanced.]

Looking at his new Trait, Zayn's excitement over completing another hidden achievement faded somewhat.

He couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

With such specific and restrictive activation conditions, this Trait would be extremely difficult to trigger.

Snow matches were a unique part of football culture, but there simply weren't many of them each year.

Among Europe's top five leagues, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 were the most likely to see snowy matches. Teams in northern Italy occasionally played in snow as well.

But whenever the snowfall became too heavy, matches were usually postponed or suspended.

Zayn thought about the [Superstar Moment] he'd just received and found himself unsure what to make of either reward.

He hadn't experienced [Superstar Moment] in an actual match yet, and both of the new Traits he'd gained today had demanding activation conditions.

Compared with the enormous rise in his market value, the improvement to his actual ability didn't feel nearly as dramatic.

But after dealing with the system for this long, Zayn only had to think about it for a moment before he understood why.

At the end of the day, market value was nothing more than an outside estimate based on a player's age, ability, commercial value, and other factors.

It wasn't real money that had actually changed hands.

What the system truly recognized had always been tangible "economic" value.

That was precisely why wages and transfer fees were the two things that could improve Zayn's strength the most.

"This system really is realistic..."

Once he'd accepted that, another thought occurred to Zayn.

If the Bundesliga's hidden achievement gave him a bonus in snowy conditions, then the other leagues probably had similar achievements.

England was rainy for much of the year. If he became the Premier League's all-time market value record holder, maybe the Trait he received would strengthen him in the rain.

Following that line of thought, something else came to mind.

If there was a [Squad Weekly Wage Ranking] and a [World Market Value Rankings], then there was probably a [World Weekly Wage Ranking] as well.

And the unlock requirement would most likely be the same: breaking into the world's top ten.

Zayn shook his head.

With his current weekly wage still below 200,000 euros, he was nowhere near that level.

He vaguely remembered that Messi had been football's highest-paid player in 2018.

Even without counting bonuses and other clauses, Barcelona paid him a base salary of a full 500,000 pounds per week.

He still had a very long road ahead of him when it came to money.