0001, it's you, AC Milan
Opening his eyes, Huang Kaiwen felt a Nokia phone in his hand, and when he saw the date on it, 2004.05.24, he wasn't the least bit alarmed.
Having typed over a hundred million characters over more than a decade, he had fantasized countless times about this scenario, and the first thing he did was to throw off the covers, get up, get dressed, and while doing so, glanced down and thought, damn, is this a donkey's mix?
Feeling the vitality and youthfulness of his body, he walked to the bathroom to look in the mirror, and was stunned by his own handsomeness.
The young man in the mirror looked about 17 or 18 years old, over six feet tall, with eyebrows like drawn swords and stars for eyes, red lips and white teeth, a strong nose bridge, and even a teardrop mole beneath his eyes, which should have been where girls wept for him. The only slightly discordant feature was his medium-length hair that hung past his ears and a hair color like Pepsi's spokesperson, very much of its time.
But all that was nothing!
Reborn and more than a decade younger with a body full of vitality, and also a looker—no matter how you slice it, it was a huge win.
With his experience writing so many novels, at this time it shouldn't be anything but easy to achieve god-slaying enlightenment, and then maybe buy some Bitcoin, effortlessly achieving financial freedom, right?
By then, he'd be living it up, with one girl on his left and another on his right, striding straight to the pinnacle of life.
"I am not Huang Rong, I can't do martial arts, I just want Jing, and perfect love..."
Turning on the television, Huang Kaiwen hummed along with the songs full of the spirit of the times.
An hour later, Huang Kaiwen, who had fully come to terms with the situation, sat on the bed, dumbfounded.
The original owner of this body was also named Huang Kaiwen, and both of his parents were university professors.
In that era, highly educated intellectuals longed to go abroad, preferring dishwashing jobs over staying in the country. Naming their child Kevin was quite typical, as if by the name alone one became superior.
Huang Kaiwen's university professor parents died in a car accident, but they left him seven school-district apartments in Beijing and a sizable fortune earned from stock trading.
Truth be told, this Huang Kaiwen should have been a winner in life, being able to hook up with female stars based on his looks alone. Graduating from university at 21, he could also be considered a prodigy.
But when God opened a door, it might just be the gate to hell. With a family history of cancer and late-stage liver cancer, he had 6-12 months left to live, no symptoms beforehand, just a direct death sentence.
The original owner couldn't accept it and was literally scared to death, leaving him to pick up this "bargain".
The Huang Kaiwen who was sitting there stunned finally understood what it meant when joy turns to sorrow.
At least in his past life, he had managed to buy a car and house with his writing, and at the worst, had some minor health issues—but now, he's on a direct countdown to death.
The television was still relentlessly reporting: "Mr. Edith from the Italian Foreign Trade Commission; Mr. Ivan Scott from the FIFA International Football Match Agency; Mr. Iwata Takatsugi, President of the Lockheed Corporation; Mr. Lu Shen, Chairman of the Shanghai Football Association; officials from the Shenhua Club, and the leaders of the organizing bodies, Wenguang News Media Group and Wenhui Xinmin United Press Group."
Lu Shen, the Chairman of the Shanghai Football Association, enthusiastically welcomed Milan's visit to Shanghai at the press conference. He said, "The visit of Milan to Shanghai carries positive significance for Shanghai football. Milan is a great team, their long history and impressive track record prove that Milan is not only outstanding in Italy but also in Europe and even in the world's football scene. Milan's visit to Shanghai will help enhance..."
The leaders on the TV were jubilant, but Huang Kaiwen found them noisy.
[Ding, the "Play Like Maradona" system is activating... Do you wish to activate it?]
Huang Kaiwen rolled his eyes at the air, not amused. Even if he were Lionel Messi, 12 months would mean little to nothing to play for, and besides, from reading novels to writing them in his past life, he'd had enough. He was a fan of the sport, sure, but he wasn't really interested in playing. You should never let your hobby become your job, and his biggest regret from his past life was spending his study time reading novels in class.
[Ding, "Play Like Maradona" system activation canceled. "I Am the Football King" system is now activating, loading in progress, 1％, 5％... 60％, 99％, trial version activating.]
[New player gift pack distribution in progress. Task release: Please join a G14 elite club during the summer transfer window, inherit the will of the great football king Carlos Kaiser, reward for the task: Remove all illness from the body and restore health, activate the official system.]
!!!
"Ahahaha..."
Huang Kaiwen grasped his hair and laughed wildly; otherwise, he couldn't express his excitement.
What was it they said about every cloud having a silver lining, about being a favored child of destiny?
He always thought that with transmigration plus a system, there's no way he'd meet an untimely demise.
As for joining elite clubs, now to save his life, he would stop at nothing to accomplish it.
And what's more, the system had given him a "new player gift pack," which should put him at the level of a football king, considering it was called the "Carlos Kaiser System."
On the TV, Shanghai's proud leaders were on display, and Huang Kaiwen slapped his thigh, having chosen his victim—you, Milan!
[Open the new player gift pack]
Choosing it revealed the rewards.
He received a Super Star Experience card, lasting 30 days, with a usage deadline of the end of the summer transfer window.
He received a Four Language Choice gift package.
He received the skill: Tom Hanks' Peak Acting—the sign of how could a great player not know how to act? —Sergio Busquets.
Huang Kaiwen was a bit baffled.
This stuff from the system, it felt a bit... not serious.
He of course knew who Sergio Busquets was, the Oscar-winning best actor of the football world, but how did that relate to being a football king?
Sitting on the bed with his laptop for quite a while, Huang Kaiwen still couldn't find any player named Carlos Kaiser.
He had some impression of this name, but he just couldn't remember it, which was quite abnormal for a football fan.
As he was cooking with a heavy heart, a sudden insight struck him.
Because in his previous life, he had seen this name on a public account. Damn it, this "Ball King" was not serious at all. No wonder he couldn't find any records. It was only after Carlos Kaiser's exploits were unearthed and widely spread by the boom in social media.
For a whole 26 years, Carlos Kaiser had never played a formal game nor scored a goal, yet he managed to thrive on high emotional intelligence and sweet talk. He had successively played for over a dozen Brazilian League powerhouses and national teams like Brazil and Puebla, Mexico. At one point, he was even dubbed as "Ball King."
Carlos had limited talent; his only strength was that he was quite fit.
At 16, he was picked up by a second-tier Mexican team for practicing without a ball, but was soon found out to be unable to play and got fired.
After returning to Brazil, Carlos began to "ride on the coattails" of others.
With high emotional intelligence and eloquence, Carlos quickly became very familiar with many football stars.
A whole host of Brazilian national players liked him very much.
They would also actively recommend Carlos to clubs.
This way, Carlos always found his way into big clubs.
Most professional players treasured their chances to play and tried their best to perform in order to gain more recognition.
But Carlos Kaiser was completely different in this regard.
He was always looking for ways to avoid playing.
After all, his level would be exposed the moment he touched the ball.
So at every new team, Carlos Kaiser would immediately tell the coach that he wasn't in good form recently and needed time to train alone.
When training alone, he would just run laps to show his good physical condition.
After this trial period passed, he would then fake an illness to evade the games.
Carlos had used a variety of excuses: thigh strains during the game, slipping in the shower.
The most outrageous time, he even asked a dentist friend to write a medical certificate claiming he had dental issues that somehow affected his thigh, making it impossible for him to play.
With the medical technology at the time, it was difficult to debunk his lies.
Thus, Carlos Kaiser succeeded and always found teams to join.
Every time he was about to be found out, he would choose to run away.
Besides fooling coaches at the clubs, Carlos was also a master at "generating buzz."
He was very close with many local journalists.
He would often invite them to eat together.
The journalists would then hype him up like he was something otherworldly.
There would also be rumors about Mexico wanting him to join, or how the Brazilian Team badly wanted him.
Whenever there was a match, Carlos Kaiser would buy candies for the kids watching the game beforehand.
He asked them to come to him for autographs after the match.
Creating the false impression that he was very popular.
For a while there, Carlos would carry a large cell phone with him and occasionally pull it out in public, rattling off in English, claiming that Barcelona was considering signing him.
Little did people know that the English he was spouting was all made up, and the large cell phone in his hand was just a model toy.
In this way, without ever having played a full match or scored a goal, Carlos was treated like a real football superstar wherever he went. His fans gave him many nicknames such as the "Brazilian Striker," "Magic Knife," "Football Caesar," and his fame grew larger and larger.
After going through all the big clubs in Brazil, Carlos set his sights abroad. He received an invitation from Ajaccio in France, and so Carlos came to France.
That day, enthusiastic fans filled the entire training ground, eager to witness the brilliance of the "Brazilian Striker."
In such a scenario, it was a bit awkward to fake an injury again, and Carlos had a stroke of brilliance, coming up with a brilliant idea: he kicked all the footballs one by one to his fans on the training ground.
With no football left on the pitch, he and his teammates were forced to perform a "no-ball performance" together, taking the heated atmosphere to its peak.
In the following years, Carlos left his legend in the United States, Mexico, and Argentina, becoming one of the world's famous stars.
You've got to admit, the guy was talented.
Huang Kaiwen now understood what the "Ball King Caesar System" meant. Wasn't it just for him to be like that Carlos Kaiser, a wage thief, playing tricks on the big clubs?
He agreed. To stay alive, he was willing to do anything.
It was no big deal; he would just wait to complete the task, regain his health, and then get fired by the club, right? A transmigrator like him scared of being fired? After retirement, just write a book titled "I Really Don't Want to Play Football," wouldn't it be a bestseller?