CHAPTER 95: TRAIT HAS EVOLVED

The penalty was dispatched with a ruthless, top-corner precision that left Angus Gunn no chance.

3-3.

The tiny away section of Apex fans was a pocket of stunned silence, while the rest of Vale Park erupted into a deafening roar of pure, unadulterated ecstasy.

On the pitch, Apex United was imploding.

"My fault! My fault!" David Kerrigan was yelling, beating his chest in frustration for his heroic but ultimately disastrous recovery run that led to the penalty.

"It wasn’t just you" Grant Hanley roared back, his face a mask of thunderous fury. "We went to sleep! All of us! We thought the game was won!"

Ethan stood on the sideline, a feeling of horrifying déjà vu washing over him.

The ’Team Complacency’ modifier. It was back.

He could feel it, a creeping, insidious poison infecting his players’ decision-making.

Their shoulders slumped, their passes became sloppy, and the easy confidence of the first half was replaced by a frantic, finger-pointing panic.

He had to act. Now. He couldn’t let another Burton-style meltdown happen. He had learned his lesson.

He turned to his bench. "Josh! Get warmed up! Now!"

Josh Sargent, the veteran striker, was already on his feet, tearing off his warm-up top.

Ethan then called over a bewildered Jonathan Rowe. "Jonny, you’re coming off. Not because you played badly, but because I need a cool head out there."

He then grabbed Sargent by the shoulders, his eyes boring into the striker’s. "Josh. I don’t care if you score. I don’t care if you even touch the ball. Your only job is to be a leader. Settle them down. Talk to them. Be the adult in the room. Got it?"

Sargent, a seasoned professional who had seen a thousand of these moments, just gave a grim, determined nod. "You got it, boss."

The substitution was made. The game restarted, and for the next ten minutes, it was a war.

Port Vale, with their tails up and a one-man advantage, threw everything forward.

But Josh Sargent was a revelation. He wasn’t just a striker; he was a general.

He was constantly talking, organizing, encouraging.

"Tuck in! No space!" he’d yell at his midfield.

"Good header, Gibbo! Stay strong!" he’d roar at his defense.

His presence was a calming, organizing force that slowly, painstakingly, began to stem the tide of panic.

But in the 78th minute, the pressure finally told.

Port Vale’s S-Rank wonderkid, Kaito Tanaka, who had been a ghost since his goal, suddenly appeared in a pocket of space.

He took one touch and hit a blistering, swerving shot from twenty-five yards. Angus Gunn, at full stretch, made a phenomenal save, tipping the ball onto the post.

But the rebound fell perfectly to a Port Vale midfielder, who smashed the ball into the open net.

4-3 to the ten men of Port Vale.

The stadium exploded. The comeback was complete. The Apex players fell to their knees, their heroic effort seemingly for nothing.

"AND THE TEN MEN HAVE DONE IT! PORT VALE HAVE THE LEAD!" the commentator screamed, his voice hoarse. "A moment of magic from Tanaka, a brilliant save from Gunn, but the rebound is turned in, and Vale Park is in dreamland! The Apex United fairytale is surely over!"

But as the Port Vale players celebrated, Ethan saw something.

He saw the fire in his players’ eyes hadn’t gone out. It had been replaced by a cold, hard, defiant rage.

The complacency was gone. The shock was gone. All that was left was the fight.

"GET UP!" Ethan’s voice was a roar that cut through the noise of the stadium. "IT’S NOT OVER! LOOK AT ME! IT IS NOT OVER!"

His players looked at him. And in his eyes, they didn’t see a panicked kid. They saw their gaffer.

What happened next was not tactics. It was pure, unadulterated will.

From the restart, the nine men of Apex United played with the fury of a wounded animal.

They pressed, they tackled, they ran as if their lives depended on it.

In the 88th minute, they won a corner. Emre Demir swung it into the box. It was cleared, but only to the edge of the area. Kenny McLean hit a blistering volley.

It was blocked. The ball pinballed around the box. Finally, it broke to the left.

The full-back, Giannoulis, whipped in a perfect, curling cross towards the back post.

And rising like a salmon, hanging in the air, was the man Ethan had sent on to be a leader. Josh Sargent. He met the ball with a thunderous, powerful header that flew into the back of the net.

4-4!

"GOOOOOOOOAL! I DON’T BELIEVE IT! I DO NOT BELIEVE IT! JOSH SARGENT! WITH A CAPTAIN’S HEADER! THE NINE MEN OF APEX UNITED ARE LEVEL! THIS IS NOT A FOOTBALL MATCH! THIS IS AN EPIC POEM!"

The game entered stoppage time. Four minutes. It was a frantic, end-to-end battle, both teams searching for a winner.

In the 93rd minute, the final, decisive moment arrived.

A Port Vale attack broke down, and the ball was cleared to Emre Demir, deep inside his own half.

He was exhausted, but his brain was still working at a different speed to everyone else. He looked up and saw one, final, hopeful run.

Viktor Kristensen, the 16-year-old striker, was sprinting into the channel, a ghost of a chance.

Emre, with the last ounce of energy in his body, played a sublime, 60-yard pass that dissected the entire Port Vale team.

Viktor was through. He was one-on-one with the goalkeeper. The entire world held its breath.

The last time he had been in this position, he had hesitated.

This time, there was no hesitation. The keeper came rushing out, a giant, intimidating figure.

But Viktor was a ’Clutch Performer’ now.

With a touch as delicate as a falling feather, he just chipped the ball.

It was a shot of pure, unadulterated, ice-cold composure.

The ball floated, as if in slow motion, over the keeper’s head, and nestled gently into the back of the empty net.

5-4 to Apex United.

The final whistle blew.

The stadium fell into a stunned, horrified silence.

The Apex players didn’t even have the energy to celebrate. They just collapsed, a heap of nine victorious, exhausted bodies.

Ethan stood on the sideline, a single, silent tear rolling down his cheek.

As he walked onto the pitch to congratulate his impossible, beautiful team, a final, platinum-colored notification appeared in his vision, a reward for not just winning the battle, but winning the war against his own team’s greatest weakness.

[LEGENDARY OBJECTIVE COMPLETE: ’The Phoenix’ - Win a competitive match after the ’Team Complacency’ modifier has been triggered.]

[REWARD: Your ’Chaos Theory’ trait has evolved.]

[New Trait Acquired: ’Controlled Chaos’ (Active)]

[Trait Description: Once per match, you can now manually activate the ’Chaos Theory’ state for a period of ten minutes!]