Chapter 2: The Masses Need Letters

When Kaka was finally able to remember his full name, he was ready to be discharged from the hospital. Looking at the lively young man before him, who seemed eager to run a 50-meter sprint down the hospital hallway, the attending physician couldn't help but express disbelief and repeatedly advised him to end his athletic career.

Although Kaka's cervical spine appeared to be completely healed, he had sustained an injury, and logically, it was unsuitable for him to engage in a highly confrontational sport like football. His devoutly religious parents, while grateful for God's protection, also tried to dissuade him from pursuing a professional football career, but his younger brother remained supportive of his decision to continue down this path.

Kaka resolutely expressed his determination to continue as a football player. Born into a middle-class Brazilian family, he didn't have to worry about his current livelihood. As a reincarnator, even if he didn't become a football star, he had ample opportunities to become wealthy and prosperous. However, becoming Kaka but not playing football would be no different from becoming Napoleon but not engaging in battle.

Kaka didn't hesitate to choose football. He underwent rehabilitation, recovery, and resumed training, all in an orderly manner, but everything seemed different.

Indeed, everything was different. The coach and teammates looked at Kaka on the training ground, and their minds were filled with disbelief. Was this really Kaka? Or was this really a Brazilian?

Stopping the ball two meters away, dribbling almost tripped him over...

Kaka's heart was shattered. This was his first day of training with the ball, but when he excitedly called for his teammates to pass him the ball, he found that his feet felt as stiff as two wooden sticks.

He couldn't play football? Or rather, he played poorly. How could this be? Did he only inherit the body and memories but not the skills and experience? Or was it that his soul and body were incompatible, and he forgot to apply a patch?

Kaka's face turned pale. This script was wrong. God, are you playing with me? Can I delete my account and start over?

"Kaka, are you okay?" Many people looked at the distracted Kaka, their eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment.

"I'm fine," Kaka forced a smile and said to the teammate who passed him the ball, "I'll practice on my own for a bit."

"You might not have touched the ball for a while, so take your time to get back into form."

"Okay."

Kaka went to the side and tried juggling the ball a few times, doing some simple dribbling exercises. At first, it was a bit clumsy, with a strange sense of detachment, but as his feet made more contact with the football, it felt like a seal had been broken, and his movements became more fluid. At the very least, he wouldn't experience the tragedy of not being able to stop even a simple, low-level ball.

However, it still felt a bit awkward, like a left-hander trying to write with his right hand. The technical details were etched in his brain, and his muscle memory was still there, but his movements lacked coordination.

In the following days, he immersed himself in intense training like a madman. Perhaps due to his previous foundation, his technical progress was rapid, and he appeared to be gradually regaining his pre-injury and hospitalization level.

But it was only an appearance; the reality was quite grim. He could control the ball, quite skillfully, but he completely lacked the grace of a natural genius, swiftly and effortlessly dribbling the ball. Of course, he lacked even more the aura of peak Kaka, who could slice through any defense like a hot knife through butter.

His footwork was decent, able to dribble past ordinary people with ease, but as for threading the needle and scoring from any angle, he fell quite short. The main issue was that it felt awkward, as if the football was a rebellious bear cub at his feet, requiring all his skills to control, completely lacking the impression of effortless mastery he had in his memories.

To summarize, his fundamentals were solid, but there was nothing particularly eye-catching, at most an ordinary professional level. He could make a living playing professional football, but reaching the top would be difficult.

To put it in artistic and esoteric terms, his playing lacked spirit, his dribbling lacked fluidity, his breakthroughs were too formulaic, his passes lacked flair, and his shots were purely guesswork.

The reason was not hard to find. He was ultimately not the real Kaka, lacking the qualities that made Kaka a superstar.

Those qualities are ball sense, spirit, football intelligence, awareness, rhythm control, shot anticipation, instinct in front of goal, and so on – each one more abstract than the last, but for a football player, each one is more critical than the last.

These seemingly vague qualities have a collective name – talent.

Talent is perhaps one of the most frustrating things in the world. Although invisible, intangible, and indescribable, some prodigies make us acknowledge that it is truly etched into the depths of their souls, innate and unique.

Effort determines the floor, talent determines the ceiling – a universal truth.

There are many football players in the world who train diligently, and many who are agile, powerful, and lightning-fast, but in each generation, only a handful can truly stand at the summit. At the root, it's because the heavens did not bestow them with that gift.

As for John, he is one of those without much talent for football. Even though he has now become Kaka, possessing a body of unlimited potential and inheriting the football skills that Kaka spent years training to acquire, in terms of potential and real-world performance, he might not even surpass an ordinary water dispenser manager.

In short, the hardware is top-of-the-line, but the software makes one want to spit.

Reality is cruel. With the same tools, ingredients, and cooking methods, some can whip up a delicious feast with a flick of their wrist, while others, no matter how much effort they put in, can only produce a culinary disaster.

It's like someone reincarnating as a business tycoon but only inheriting their professional knowledge and previous memories, without their strategic vision, thought processes, market instincts, or ability to boast and persuade. Becoming an ordinary wealthy person might not be too difficult, but becoming the wealthiest, well, that seems unlikely.

The person in question wanted to cry but had no tears left. I've reincarnated as Kaka, but I play football like a piece of trash. What should I do? Online and urgent.

"Ding! Your system is now online..."

"Oh damn! There's a system? Why didn't you say so earlier?"

The first rule of the Reincarnator Protection Act: The beginning must have a system...

A reincarnator without a system is like the masses without letters, Victoria without secrets - it's hard to make a splash.

But to become Kaka and still have a system, isn't that a bit shameless? ╮(╯▽╰)╭

With a sense of embarrassment and reluctance, Kaka opened the legendary system interface, and a somewhat familiar list appeared before his eyes.

Name: Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite (Kaka);

Age: 18;

Height: 1.81m;

Weight: 65kg;

Body Balance: 68;

Stamina: 82;

Reaction: 85;

Agility: 86;

Speed: 91;

Strength: 78;

Jumping: 83;

Dribbling Speed: 88;

Ball Control: 78;

Short Pass Accuracy: 79;

Long Pass Accuracy: 72;

Shooting Technique: 76;

Shot Power: 80;

Free Kick Accuracy: 73;

Heading: 68;

Tackling: 55;

Goalkeeping: 50;

Teamwork: 59.

This seemed to be a simplified version of the real-life football player attributes from the Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) game.

As for the data... some of it was a bit bizarre.

For instance, his speed, agility, and reaction were unsurprisingly impressive, befitting the title of "God's son," while his passing, shooting while his passing, shooting, and other attributes were oddly low, not quite matching the template of a generational talent.

"Speed 91, dribbling speed 88," he immediately locked onto the highest values, "that seems a bit off for Kaka..."

What were Kaka's technical strengths? Speed, power on the dribble, excellent long-range shooting, but he was most famous for his dribbling speed – an anomaly, a bug within a bug. At his peak, it was easily 95 or above, and in certain versions of the PES game, this attribute even reached 99 – a truly epic level. 

PES uses a percentage system, but unless you use a modded game or play certain special modes, no player has an attribute that can reach 100. In other words, in the official game settings, 99 is the extreme value for any attribute. Even for the young Kaka before he fully developed, his dribbling speed should be at least 92.

Of course, a game is a game, modeled after reality but inevitably filled with bugs. The numbers should just be taken as a rough reference. In reality, there are cases where players with average shooting ability suddenly score 15-20 goals in a particular season of their career. No need to take it too seriously.

To be honest, for a youth team player, many of these numbers were already outstanding. A range of 80+ across the board is no joke – good enough to be considered a national treasure in most countries. But perhaps limited by factors like ball sense and player-ball connectivity, his dribbling speed and passing abilities paled in comparison to the genuine Kaka.

Simply put, he had almost entirely inherited Kaka's physical attributes but exhibited noticeable gaps in the more technical aspects.

I really am a fake Kaka.

Fortunately, there's a real system. 

Scrolling down the list, three more items appeared:

"Skill Card: None."

"Talent Card: None."

"Star Player Card: None." 

"Honor Points: 0."

"Is that all? Where's the intelligent assistant? The welcome package? Daily quests? Virtual coach? Gacha spin? Training space? The system store... oh, there really is a store?"

The last interface sluggishly popped up, like an old ox pulling a broken cart. At the top were four flamboyant characters: System Store.

"What the hell kind of system is this, can't even come up with a decent name."

No sooner had he complained than the "System Store" sneakily changed to "Honor Store," as naturally as if that had been its name all along. Kaka doubted whether he had misread it earlier.

This system has some personality. I like it.

(End of chapter)