Zhao Yao was disappointed with Matcha's lack of fighting spirit and encouraged him, "You might be a noob now, but that does not mean that you will be a noob forever. Which professional did not start out as a noob?"
However, Matcha was unresponsive towards the words Zhao Yao said and continued to stare blankly at the ceiling. Zhao Yao decided to try a new method to cheer him up by going to the kitchen and prepared some food him.
When it was time to eat, Roly Poly, Elizabeth, Dust Ball, and Mango instantly bolted into the kitchen and gobbled up all their food.
Even Roly Poly who used to hate cat rice was satisfied with the food Zhao Yao prepared and ate heartily. However, this was only possible because of Zhao Yao's perfect illusion.
Rice Cake seemed to have been awakened by the aroma of the food as she slowly opened her eyes. She gently arched her back and stretched her limbs before making her way to her food bowl.
However, Zhao Yao glanced at the far corner of the room and realized that Matcha was still lying on the couch as if he was a rotten log.
"He's not going to eat has favorite cat rice?"
Zhao Yao stared helplessly at Matcha and tried to cheer him up "Matcha, it's time to eat!"
His eyes remained glued to the ceiling. However, those pair of eyes was devoid of a spirit. Matcha heaved a sigh of despair and responded, "I'm as useless as the ants crawling around in our apartment. No one cares whether I'm alive or dead, so what's the point of me eating?"
Zhao Yao bit his lower lip and continued to appease him, "That doesn't mean you have to give up completely. You can never win another game if you choose to give up now, but there is still another chance of you winning if you continue to persevere down this path."
Matcha tilted his head and glanced at Zhao Yao, "Win? A rookie like me has the chance of defeating a god like Chubby Luban Assassin?"
"Of course!" Zhao Yao declared confidently, "If you are willing to put in the hard work, I can personally teach you and train you into the strongest player in Mobile Legends. In the future, tens of thousands will look up to you while girls will flock to you. You will be the god in their eyes!"
"Can this be done?" Matcha stared at Zhao Yao excitedly. Suddenly, the glimmer in his eyes vanished, and he mumbled, "But you are just another rookie in the game."
"My dexterity might not be as good as the professionals in the game, but this does not mean that my knowledge of the game is inferior to any professionals. Wait for me," Zhao Yao returned to his bedroom. Suddenly, noises erupted from his room, but Matcha recognized it as the sound from Zhao Yao's keyboard.
15 minutes later, Zhao Yao left his bedroom with a few photographs ready in his phone, "Look. This is a photo of me with a professional player. Since things have gotten to this stage, I have decided not to withhold any more information from you. I used to be a coach on a professional Mobile Legends team."
Matcha stared at the photo, and his jaw went slack. However, he noticed something weird and asked, "But the color of your head and your hands seemed slightly different."
"Do not care about these insignificant details. If you focus all your attention on these minute details, you will never become the strongest in the game!" Zhao Yao slowly kept the photographs away, but his eyes remained fixed on Matcha, "Do you want to be a noob for the rest of your life and let that fatso trample all over your head. Meanwhile, you will sit there and watch him mate with your favorite female cat and become the strongest player in Mobile Legends? His ancestors will be proud of his achievements and thousands of cats will look up to him as the strongest to ever play the game."
"I … I… I… Zhao Yao!" Matcha stared at Zhao Yao, but his eyes burned with excitement and fighting spirit, "I want to be the strongest ever to play this game!"
Zhao Yao shouted, "Alright!" But deep down, he thought, "I've finally managed to ignite the fighting spirit in this guy. This should keep him busy for one week or two."
"Since you've decided to become the best, we will commence with your special training right now!" Zhao Yao raised his hand and began to continuously clench his fist before straightening his fingers, "What do you see?"
Matcha's forehead furrowed slightly, "Your hands are a little smelly."
"I'm not asking you about this! I've told you not to pay attention to these insignificant details! The reason for your lackluster performance is because of your poor fundamentals. You have a high tendency to click on the wrong items on the phone's screen. This has resulted in many mistakes in your game."
Suddenly, Matcha's eyes sparkled with amazement and asked, "Yes, that often happens to me. What am I supposed to do?"
"To solve this problem, you must overcome the boundary between humans and cats and train your paws until they are as nimble as a human's hands." Zhao Yao pinched his meaty paws and continued, "From today onwards, you have to train to retract your fingers one by one before you straighten them out. Your fundamental will only be strong enough when you can do it as easily as a normal human does."
Matcha stared at his meaty paws in disbelief and said, "This seems so difficult!"
"This will be an arduous journey. If you manage to overcome this obstacle, it means that you have the talent that comes once in a hundred years. You will be the dragon amongst the other cats …" Before Zhao Yao completed his pep talk, Matcha had already begun training as he carefully retracted each of his eight fingers.
Matcha burst into laughter and announced, "Coach! I think I'm the legendary talent for this game! I'm the dragon among all cats!"
Zhao Yao was left speechless when he saw how fast Matcha picked up this skill. He thought, "This silly cat seems to have a talent for all useless things. This is troublesome. I have not thought of the next training regime. I need to come up with something fast."
Meanwhile, Roly Poly was staring at his paws but failed to replicate Matcha's speed and nimbleness despite how hard he tried and practiced. Sadness clouded his features as he thought, "I guess I do not have the talent that comes once in a hundred years."
"Not bad! It seems like you possess the talent to take it to the next level." Zhao Yao let out a cough to clear his throat before continuing, "Since you have already completed the first step, we will now work on your accuracy and strength. For a regular Mobile Legends competition, the duration of the game could span from as short as five minutes to as long as five hours. Oil might even start accumulating on the surface of your screen, making it even harder to control.
For your fingers to continually dart around in such an extreme condition, you will need to train your fingers to be extremely precise and strong."
As he spoke, Zhao Yao had already attached eight rubber bands to each of his eight fingers on his front paws. The other end of the rubber bands was anchored to the bottom of the couch. Matcha had to exert a significant amount of force every time he tried to retract his fingers to overcome the rubber band's elastic force.
"Since the dawn of time, every hero had depended on weights training to become the best.
This is the resistance band which I have specially created for you. You need to generate a large amount of force to overcome the elasticity. From now on, you have to train using these resistances band when you return home every night."
A vein popped out of Matcha's forehead as he tried to retract his fingers and clenched them into a fist, "This is so tiring. My hands are depleted of all their strength from just one set of this exercise."
Zhao Yao continued, "However, if you continue down this path and reach the stage where it takes minimal effort for you to move your fingers, you would have achieved an immeasurable amount of strength. Even a 5-hour long game would not be able to wear you down."
Matcha nodded his head in agreement, "I understand, coach. I will continue to practice hard. But how do I train my precision?"
Zhao Yao retrieved an electric keyboard which was coated in dust from the storeroom. He originally bought it to practice but gave up the moment he saw the music score. He had never once practiced on it.
Now, the keyboard was laid in front of Matcha, and Zhao Yao instructed, "From today onwards, you will commence training using the keyboard after your resistance bands training."