My Ultimate Gacha System

Carrington’s recovery wing hummed with the low mechanical rhythm of a Wednesday session — stationary bikes lined up facing the glass wall overlooking the training pitches, massage tables spaced between equipment carts, resistance bands hanging in loose rows along the wall. Ice tubs sat prepared for the players who’d gone the full ninety on Tuesday.

Staff moved between stations with tablets and recovery sheets, checking numbers as much as bodies.

Because he’d only played twenty-five minutes, Demien landed in the mixed group rather than the full recovery block — bike work, mobility, light conditioning, a technical finish, and whatever the system decided he’d earned for it.

「DAILY TRAINING MISSION ACTIVATED」 「Post-Cup Recovery + Conditioning」 「Complete recovery protocol」 「Complete light conditioning without fatigue drop」 「Maintain technical sharpness」 「Reward: +8 TP」 「Bonus Objective: Finish with optimal recovery status」 「Bonus Reward: +5 MP」

He started with controlled bike intervals, the resistance dial climbing and dropping on a schedule the fitness coach called out from a clipboard, then moved into hip and ankle mobility work on the mats.

A physio knelt beside him halfway through and pressed carefully along the ankle the Palace midfielder had clipped, checking the range of motion. Demien felt a dull tenderness answer the pressure but completed the full stretch without any real pain behind it, and the physio signed off without further comment.

The sprint resets came next, short bursts meant to reset his legs rather than test them, and his acceleration made even the restrained version look faster than the drill called for.

The conditioning coach pulled him up twice, reminding him this was recovery, not a race, and Demien slowed the third rep with visible impatience rather than the calm compliance the coach had probably hoped for.

The session closed with a short possession rondo, five players circling the ball around two defenders in the middle, and Bruno needled him about the post before the ball had even reached him. "Post’s still standing, by the way. You didn’t damage it."

"The post got lucky," Demien said, sending the ball across the circle without breaking stride.

Garnacho pulled out his phone mid-rondo and played the replay with an exaggerated clang sound effect dubbed over it, and Demien rolled his eyes hard enough that the whole group laughed, including him, eventually.

Højlund caught him afterward, still smiling from the session. "The channel — right where you said it’d be. Nobody home."

"You still had to finish it," Demien said, but the satisfaction on his face matched the striker’s, the kind that came from something planned actually working.

「DAILY TRAINING MISSION COMPLETE」 「Recovery Protocol: Completed」 「Conditioning: Completed」 「Technical Sharpness: Maintained」 「Reward: +8 TP」 「Bonus Reward: +5 MP」

The analysis room sat dimmed and quiet, long tables scattered with water bottles and open notebooks, coaching staff clustered near the control desk while the screen held on a frozen frame of Palace’s best chance from the cup match, Eze mid-turn with Mateta breaking toward goal behind him.

Ten Hag ran through the collective performance in order — United’s possession structure with a rotated side, Garnacho’s finish, Casemiro’s control of the tempo, Martial’s movement for the third goal, then the defensive moments where Eze and Mateta had caused real problems after Palace’s changes.

Seven United players had come in different from Saturday’s likely eleven, he reminded the room, and eight of Palace’s had done the same, which meant Saturday’s league match would be a different puzzle entirely with Eze and Guéhi no longer starting from the bench.

When Demien’s cameo came up, Ten Hag played the clips without ceremony — the first chance created for Garnacho, the interception and long switch, the shot against the post, the disguised pass for Højlund’s goal. "Read the spaces fast," he said, nodding once at the screen. "That’s what earns more minutes."

Then he paused on a different clip entirely — Demien squaring up to the Palace midfielder after the ankle foul, Casemiro stepping between them. "This," Ten Hag said, tapping the frame, "we don’t need. Match is won. No reason to risk a card."

"He was late on it," Demien said, not quite ready to let it go.

"He was," Ten Hag agreed. "And the referee saw it and gave the card. You don’t need to answer it yourself." He held Demien’s eyes until the point landed, and Demien nodded, accepting it without further argument.

By Thursday, September 28th, the tone in the building had shifted toward the league match properly, and the analysis room reflected it — Palace’s probable senior side now filling the tactical board in place of Tuesday’s rotated cup lineup.

Senior center-backs restored. Eze moved centrally between the lines rather than out wide. Palace’s regular double pivot back in its familiar shape. Wide players expected to track back into a compact defensive block rather than press high the way their cup-tie replacements had.

Ten Hag flagged three specific dangers: Eze’s ability to create from free kicks and central pockets, Andersen’s long distribution and set-piece delivery from the back, and Palace’s patience defending deep before working the loose second ball forward in transition.

「MATCH PREPARATION MISSION ACTIVATED」 「Same Opponent, Different Match」 「Identify 3 structural changes in Palace’s expected league shape」 「Complete 6 line-breaking passes against the compact block」 「Stop 3 simulated counterattacks」 「Reward: +12 TP」 「Bonus Objective: Complete the tactical session without correction」 「Bonus Reward: +10 MP」

The main pitch had been sectioned off with flat markers, reserve players wearing Palace-blue bibs standing in for the expected shape, mannequins fixed along the edge of the central block, coaching staff positioned on both touchlines with a tactical camera raised above it all on a mast.

When the bibs were handed out, Demien received a starter-colored one, and the smile that broke across his face before he could stop it gave the whole thing away. His fingers gripped the fabric a beat longer than necessary.

Bruno noticed first. "Thought you were fine sitting on the bench," he said, tossing him a look over one shoulder.

"I understand rotation," Demien said, pulling the bib over his head. "Doesn’t mean I don’t want the shirt."

Garnacho laughed loud enough that the fitness coach glanced over, and Demien let the honesty stand rather than reaching for anything more composed.

The drill began with Palace’s simulated double pivot cutting off the direct lane into Bruno. Demien dropped beside Casemiro to offer an outlet, took the ball with a marker pressing into his back, held the contact through his balance and strength, and disguised a pass behind the stepping midfielder straight into Bruno’s feet.

「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Press Resistant」 「MISSION PROGRESS」 「Line-Breaking Passes: 1/6」

On the next rep, the defensive markers refused to follow him deep, so he carried the ball forward instead, drew the nearest midfielder toward him, and switched play across to the opposite fullback before the block could slide over in time.

「LEGENDARY TECHNIQUE ACTIVATED」 「Toni Kroos — Metronome」

When the simulated side won the ball back and countered through the space behind Bruno, Demien read it early, sprinted back across the pitch, stepped into the passing lane, and won the ball clean before the forward could get his head up.

「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Ball Winner」 「STATS ACTIVE」 「Interceptions: 94 | Acceleration: 99 | Strength: 99」 「MISSION PROGRESS」 「Simulated Counterattacks Stopped: 1/3」

The session kept producing new problems, and Demien kept finding different answers rather than repeating the same one. He escaped the press with a first-time bounce pass through Casemiro. He waited for a fullback to step high before slipping Rashford in behind him. He shaped his body toward the left before slotting Højlund straight through the middle.

He chased down a cleared cross to the edge of the box and forced the goalkeeper into a sharp save with a controlled long-range strike. He tracked an Eze-style runner and cut out a second simulated counter before it crossed halfway. He finished the sixth line-breaking pass by dropping deep himself, dragging a marker out of position, then releasing Bruno into the space he’d just vacated.

「MISSION PROGRESS」 「Structural Changes Identified: 3/3」 「Line-Breaking Passes: 6/6」 「Simulated Counterattacks Stopped: 3/3」 「Tactical Corrections: 0」

Ten Hag let the session run without a single interruption, which said more than any word of praise would have. An assistant made a short note on his tablet without looking up. When the group moved into the final shape rehearsal, Demien stayed inside the main unit rather than being rotated out.

「MATCH PREPARATION MISSION COMPLETE」 「Structural Changes Identified: 3/3」 「Line-Breaking Passes: 6/6」 「Simulated Counterattacks Stopped: 3/3」 「Tactical Corrections: 0」 「Reward: +12 TP」 「Bonus Reward: +10 MP」

Friday passed without becoming another full training day. Ten Hag faced the media in a packed room, fielding questions about whether the 4–0 cup result gave United a psychological edge, whether Palace’s senior players changed United’s approach entirely, and whether Demien had done enough to force his way back into the starting eleven.

He waved off the selection questions with the same flat answer each time. "Saturday is a different match, different opponent in many ways. We prepare properly, and I decide the team when I decide it."

Demien left Carrington past a line of reporters calling questions from behind the barriers, none of which he answered beyond a polite nod. His phone buzzed once he’d cleared the gate.

Does the starter-colored bib mean what I think it means?

He started typing a reply, deleted it, and sent something shorter and more honest than his usual caution allowed.

Can’t say. But I’m excited. That’s all you’re getting.

Saturday, September 30th, arrived under a sky that hadn’t decided whether it wanted rain, and the United team bus crawled the last stretch toward Old Trafford through crowds already thick behind the barriers — scarves raised, phones held high, the noise of a fanbase still riding the confidence of Tuesday’s 4–0.

Demien sat near the window with his headphones resting around his neck rather than over his ears, watching Palace supporters filtering in wearing colors that would carry a different lineup entirely today. He pictured the senior shape from Thursday’s tactical board and felt the excitement build rather than pushing it down the way he usually would.

When he stepped off the bus in his club tracksuit, the fans called his name, and this time he let himself smile back and raise a hand in acknowledgment, because he already knew what today held for him.

Inside the home dressing room, his number fourteen shirt hung among the starters’ row, boots placed beneath it exactly where he liked them, match socks folded neatly on the bench. Through the open tunnel beyond the room, the Premier League ball sat waiting on its stand.

He stopped in front of the shirt for a second longer than necessary, running his fingers once over the stitched number, before he started changing.

Warm-up brought Palace’s senior side into view rather than Tuesday’s cup group — Andersen organizing his back line with sharp, economical instructions, Guéhi moving through his stretches with the focus of a starter rather than a substitute, Eze crossing paths with Demien near the center circle and offering a brief, easy greeting that carried the shorthand of two players who’d shared an England shirt before. Palace’s midfield looked tighter and more settled than anything Tuesday’s rotated group had shown.

The stadium announcer read through the Manchester United lineup, and when Demien’s name landed among the starters this time, Old Trafford answered with a roar that carried all the way into the tunnel.

He heard it from just inside the mouth of the tunnel, allowed himself one private smile, and then Bruno’s hand landed on his shoulder, pulling his focus back toward the pitch and the match ahead.

Both teams walked out under the Old Trafford floodlights for the rematch, the noise rolling down from all four stands at once.

Demien took his place in midfield beside Casemiro and Bruno, watching Palace settle into their compact shape across the halfway line while the referee moved between both goalkeepers with a final check before heading for the center circle.

「MATCH MISSION ACTIVATED」 「Same Badge. Different Battle.」 「Objectives Pending」

The referee raised the whistle.

Palace kicked off.