True to his word Ego's stamina training was gruelling without a doubt, ten days full of non-stop high-intensity workouts, that even left Akira slightly breathless. But he appreciated it for what it was, a chance to improve.

"The first selection is now complete in all buildings, those who have passed put on your training gear, and come to the central basement areas of your building. We will begin the second selection."

The wake-up call was unexpected as the Team V players rushed to get ready, with Akira heading to the bathroom to freshen up. He then drys himself off after a quick shower, putting on his bodysuit, before doing his skincare, haircare, and eyeliner.

The walk down with his team was interesting, to say the least, most looked nervous while the Team V quartet looked to be the only ones assured in themselves. 'eles não podem mais andar na nossa cola' the curly-haired teen thought.

Walking out into a pentagon-shaped room, they were met with teams from other buildings. Akira noticed instantly, that they too had low-ranking numbers and teams. "what the porro is going on?" He asked, to which no one replied as the rest of his team were just as confused as him. As most of these players weren't in the teams that they had played, what the hell is going on?

"Hello there! My lumps of unrealised talent, my compliments on your physical conditioning. If you're clever you've already noticed, look around. Funny how there's no one from building one, two, three, or four, know why? Because only building five exists here at Blue Lock"

Ego's words were met with a slew of whispers of disbelief, "Yes, I fooled you. But because you were convinced you were at the very bottom of the pile, you fought through the first selection filled with fervour and desperation. Yeah, that's right" The slightly crazed-looking man said as cries of outrage filled the hall.

"It was a ruse I invented to destroy your half-baked confidence, a necessity to instil each of you with the hunger to become the best in the world. There was no other way"

While Akira could understand where he was coming from, as sometimes you need to break something down to build it back up again. Even he couldn't deny how crazy this whole turn of events was, it had him questioning everything he had done so far. What was real? What was fake? Only god knows at this point. The angry screams only seemed to intensify, which led to Akira covering his ears with his hands flinching at the noise, Reo putting on top of them, as he pulled the bronzed teen closer.

"Idiots! Those remarks are exactly what I'm talking about, for example, let's take Noel Noa. He's currently considered the best striker in the world, but he grew up in a slum in France. Surrounded by crime and poverty, the only way to change his fate was with football. Football was literally the only chance he had to escape his predicament, there are countless strikers with similar stories all around the world. It's impossible to measure the hunger, they have for making goals. Since you were all born and raised in Japan, excluding one of you. Losing doesn't affect your life. The need to score and survive is not intertwined in your minds but luckily with have Blue Lock to help reeducate you, in fact, you all came here wanting to kick the asses of those who ranked above you. Convinced you could win, right? That hunger becomes an ego, with the power to change the world."

The more and more Akira listened the more this whole thing started to feel like some weird fever dream, also he felt slightly singled out at the fact that Ego specifically mentioned that he was not Japanese-born and raised. But at least he didn't mention him by name.

"And now Blue Lock's second selection will begin. This time will be different compared to the first round, you've learned what a striker is and how to turn zero into one. But from here on out, you'll be in a battle to multiply that one into a hundred on a cutting-edge training field. The second selection consists of five stages, to move on to the next the player must clear the previous challenge. Oh yes, and those who pass the second selection. Will participate in a training camp with the world's top players, that I've personally hand-picked. That's all for now, when you are ready go through the gate one by one"

Four baskets filled with balls came up from a platform under the floorboards. Next to the door, they were meant to enter through to begin their second selection journey, "alone?" Akira looking to his friends. "Meaning where not moving on together?" Reo said clearly worried about being separated from Akira and Nagi.

"Naturally the difficulty spike between selections will be huge, if you survive the last round thanks to your teammates you better prepare yourself. During this stage the trash will be sifted out first, leaving only the true egoists behind. Best of luck."

With that, they were left to it, as no one made a move to go anywhere near the door. Until a black-haired teen with green undertones and teal eyes went to one of the baskets, practising different types of shots with scaringly perfect accuracy. Leaving the room shocked, Akira felt there was something familiar about the teen like he had met him or someone like him before.

"Warm up's done, you can go ahead and open the door now" And with that, the mysterious teen was the first to disappear through the doors. The screen now flashes with 'Challenger Itoshi Rin' and a matching character icon. 'I knew he looked familiar, he's Sae's brother' the bronzed teen thought as his mind wandered back to the magenta-haired player he met on his day out.

Turning his mind back to his preparation the curly-haired boy didn't need to practice hitting the ball, but instead, he made sure he was well-stretched and mentally ready to step through the door. Once he felt ready enough he stepped forward, "Akira,"

Turning to look at Reo, the golden-eyed teen only smiled "Vejo vocês do outro lado, certo?" before giving all three of his close Team V teammates a peck on the cheek before walking towards the door, leaving the three bright red and on the receiving end of some jealous stares. "Vamos, fazer isso" With that the curly-haired teen stepped through being the second person to begin the second selection.

Walking into a rectangle-shaped pitch covered in grass, Akira now stood in the centre as he looked around to find nothing. 'What the...' Then from out of nowhere, a ball was shot towards him via a cannon-like device protruding from the wall. Controlling the ball with ease under his foot, as he waited for his next instructions.

When a blue hologram man with a red Blue Lock logo on his face and what seemed to be a chain around his neck, magically appeared to his left, 'Goal Zone' and 'Blue Lock Man' flashed across the wall. "eles querem que eu atire ou algo assim?" Akira asked himself, as a large red circle began to shrink around him. Showing how much time he had left to hit the ball.

'Simulação de área de grande penalidade?' he thought as he struck the ball before the circle could close any further, the ball finding its way into the top left narrowly missing the hologram keeper's clutches. With that, the graphics gave him his final instructions, 90 minutes to clear 100, well now 99 goals.

"Vamos trabalhar!" With that Akira began to fire shot after shot into the goal, unaposed by the hologram keeper. Scoring 30 goals within the first 10 minutes, was not bad at all. 'a few more to go,' he thought. But this time the landscape changed, three hologram defenders now stood in the way upping the difficulty of scoring.

"Tão fácil" Akira mumbled as he made quick work of racking up more goals, now all he needed to do was score 10 more. The defenders were now moving from side to side, like one of those shooting carnival games, the balls were being shot at faster speeds with a spin on them. Without breaking a sweat the golden-eyed teen blew through the last of his goals finding the task menial at best.

'100 goals! the second selection, 1st stage has been cleared, please proceed onwards' The screen flashed and the golden-eyed teen did just that, walking into a room where only two other people were waiting. 'Itoshi Rin and who is he?' Akira thought as he stepped further into the room.

Only to be surrounded by a tall pretty teen, with pale skin and long waist-length black hair, "Your hair is so glam, what products do you use?" the question came as a shock, the curly-haired teen flinching slightly when the unfamiliar teen tried to reach out and touch his hair.

"Ah my apologies, how unglam of me. I am Aryu Jyubei, but call me Aryu. As Jyubei is so unglam, what's your name?" the newly introduced asked leaning down slightly, to examine the new arrival closer. "Ito Akira" he squeaked shying away from making any eye contact, "Hey lukewarm, back off your freaking him out"

The voice of one Itoshi Rin said from across the room, his insult though harsh the teen did appreciate it, as it gained him some of his personal space back. "Lukewarm? I am glam!" Aryu said mildly offended that he had been called subpar.

'Form a team of three people and move forward'

"A team of three, we might as well become one seeing as there is no one else here" the long-haired boy suggested which Akira was hesitant to agree to, wanting to wait for Reo and Nagi. "I don't care which lukewarm's I team up with, I'm better than all of you anyway" Before the golden-eyed teen even had a moment to register what was going on he was being guided towards the door by the gentle hand of Aryu.

The three took their seat in the 3rd stage lounge, with Akira sitting on the floor while Aryu played with and complemented his hair as they waited to be joined by others. The next to enter is a team of Nagi, Isagi, and Bachira, much to the bronzed teen's delight.

'No Reo?' the curly-haired boy thought as he went over to greet his friends, with high fives as he congratulated them on making it through before asking the question "Where Reo?" but before anyone could respond Ego appeared on the screen.

"Hello, again my little diamonds in the rough, welcome to the third stage of the second selection. Three-on-three team battles. The third stage is a battle between three-man teams, this match will be set up as a unique mini-game format. Both teams will have a Blue Lock man for a goalie, the first team to score five goals wins the game. they'll advance, but there's an additional prize. Winners get to steal a player from the losers moving forward, they'll have a four-man team. You'll want to choose wisely."

"We get to take an opponent?" Isagi questioned, "Oh kinda sounds like, that game what's it called?" Bachira chimed in "You mean Red Rover?" Nagi deadpanned "Yeah that!" the dual-coloured teen said. "As you progress through this stage, you will acquire more teammates in order to pass the second selection you'll have to get to the fifth stage with a team of five, it's as simple as that" Ego explained, though that didn't answer one question.

"And what happens to the losing team?" Bachira asked to which the bowl cut man clarified what would happen to the losers "They keep going with their remaining members, but if you lose the game of 2 on 2 and don't get picked by the winner. You are disqualified, tragic really. Dominate and steal your enemies, in a rivalry battle. The only way is to keep advancing in Blue Lock. Oh, you're also free to choose which team you play against first, but both of the teams must agree to the match-up. Got it?"

"Good to know, so more teams of three will show up eventually, and we'll have to be strategic about who we play," the dual-coloured teen said his eyes fixated on Akira, 'we will reunited soon my dear' he thought his stare never wavering. "Sounds like it" Nagi agreed as he watched Akira from across the room, stomach churning with jealousy as he watched the curly-haired teen let Aryu play with his hair.

"If we can steal a player after we win, we should probably choose aponatans based on the player we want to take." Bachira deduced looking to his other teammates, which Ego further expanded on. "That's exactly right, who you choose to battle will be the key to clearing this stage. To inform you of your choice, I will now announce the latest Blue Lock rankings."