0007 The official version of the system is here

When Huang Kaiwen was still half-asleep in the morning, he felt an itch in his nose.

Opening his eyes, he saw Barbara teasing him with the tip of her hair.

He stood up directly and waved with a smile.

Barbara rolled her eyes at him and then snuggled up close.

Seeing that the system hadn't reached 72 hours yet, he turned on the TV out of boredom.

At this time back in China, the reports about him were overwhelming, to say the least. The press conference held by Milan two days earlier had ignited the nation's enthusiasm. The news of his signing with Milan and the video of him storming onto the pitch appeared on the 7 pm news broadcast that evening.

After fermenting, the whole country knew about this talented individual.

He graduated from college early, was good at studying, even better at sports, and without any substantial training, he topped the big stars of AC Milan on the field.

Chinese netizens had already begun to fantasize about the birth of Asia's first Ballon d'Or winner.

Stories like his parents being deceased, a girl who wrote him a love letter in junior high, dating his university supervisor, and other messy affairs were dug up.

Among these was a news piece claiming he had cancer, but most people dismissed it as fake news—just a doctor trying to attract attention. In this day and age, the concept of clout-chasing was still unheard of.

It took Barbara more than half an hour to get up, and then she opened Huang Kaiwen's hand and went back to sleep without a word.

Approaching noon, Huang Kaiwen heard a prompt in his mind, "Ding, the official version of the Soccer King System is now activated."

Player strength: Amateur (Superstar experience card countdown: 641 hours, 22 minutes, 41 seconds)

Expectation value: 0

Destiny value: 0

Skill: Acting Ace—Tom Hanks's peak acting skills. How can a great player not know how to act?—Sergio Busquets.

Skill: Bring it on—A small chance to copy some characteristics from other players when seizing their opportunities.

Abnormal status: Vulnerable—Starting from stepping onto the turf, the chance of injury increases by 100%, increasing 1% every second, and returning to the initial chance of injury after leaving the field due to injury. This cycle repeats until successfully defending the UEFA Champions League and lifting the abnormal status.

Seeing the last point, Huang Kaiwen was truly dumbfounded.

This was just ridiculous; if he went into a game, his injury chances would skyrocket within minutes, and then he would really end up in the infirmary.

Could playing soccer actually be life-threatening?

What if he really got kicked in the head and turned into the second coming of Petr Cech?

And if the kick landed three inches below the navel, wouldn't he become China's last eunuch?

The conditions for lifting the abnormal status seemed a bit preposterous.

No team had managed to defend the UEFA Champions League title since its restructuring.

But then it occurred to him that the current AC Milan actually had the credentials to do so.

The year was 2004, and Milan was expected to reach the UEFA Champions League final if nothing went wrong, where they would play a heart-stopping classic match against Liverpool—champagne celebrations at halftime, the Night of Istanbul, which turned into a deep, unhealable wound in the hearts of all Rossoneri fans. Whenever football shows listed classic comebacks, AC Milan would be dragged out for post-mortem ridicule.

Then, a year later, 'Calciopoli' erupted, and AC Milan, despite being docked points, took revenge on Liverpool with a superhuman Kaka scoring 10 goals in the tournament.

What did that imply?

It indicated that over those three years, AC Milan consistently had enough strength to reach the UEFA Champions League final twice in three years.

As long as he could ensure the team clinched the Champions League title this year and the next or the year after next and the following year, he could resolve the issue of the abnormal status and wouldn't have to worry about living up to Bill Shankly's saying that "football is not a matter of life and death; it's much more important than that."

Well, although it would be a bit difficult.

But at least there was hope. Had he joined Real Madrid or Arsenal, then lifting the abnormal status would have been an indefinitely distant prospect, a nobody couldn't just wait around for Zidane to coach Real Madrid.

As for Arsenal, better left unsaid.

Looking at it this way, his coming to Milan was truly fate.

After figuring this out, Huang Kaiwen stopped fretting over the abnormal status. If he got injured on the field, he wouldn't even need to act, which was a relief as he might have been easily exposed during post-match medical examinations.

Football was no longer the same game that Carlos Kaiser used to play, sir. Times have changed.

As for the newly acquired skill 'Bring it on,' he was somewhat puzzled, mainly because Huang Kaiwen wasn't clear on what 'opportunity' meant; surely a sports channel couldn't be about seizing natural treasures and blessed lands.

Anyway, having an extra skill was good. He would take one step at a time.

There was an annotation underneath the expectation value: 'everyone' includes fans, players, coaches, journalists—all who have expectations for you, similar to the 'incense prayer power' in cultivation stories. This expectation then quantifies.

Each time it reaches 100, it's full, and he could draw a single-match experience card to prevent himself from being exposed as a fraud.

That seemed reasonable enough.

Destiny value, on the other hand, would be harder to come by.

The Destiny value could be obtained either by completing tasks issued by the system or by actively changing the fate of other football practitioners.

The amount of destiny value gained depended largely on how significantly he altered someone else's destiny.

If he helped someone achieve glory in their career, he might also receive a gift from the person whose life he changed, but it was uncertain what this gift would be.

Without needing tasks from the system, with Huang Kaiwen's years of experience having written over a hundred million characters, he knew that keeping his teammate Kaka from suffering major injuries and extending Kaka's successful career, forcibly turning the 'two peerless prodigies' into 'brothers sworn to justice,' would earn him a lot of destiny value.

Kaka was a player you simply couldn't dislike.

Handsome and pious, with excellent skills to boot.

If possible, Huang Kaiwen would also like to help Kaka, especially now that they were teammates.

But he had no idea how to assist Kaka.

This was not something that could be resolved by a simple suggestion or two to avoid an early downfall.

If he couldn't figure it out, he wouldn't dwell on it.

After all, he had already accomplished his initial goal of survival.

Huang Kaiwen was still quite pleased.

He had signed a 5+1 contract with AC Milan, guaranteeing a salary of at least 12.5 million Euros, perhaps no bonus for goals or assists, but definitely a hefty reward for winning titles. Earning an easy 15 million Euros over one contract period at Milan, he would surpass the earnings of entertainers of the same period. What was there not to be satisfied about?

In high spirits, Huang Kaiwen ordered two lunch servings and, after they arrived, called Barbara to have lunch.

While eating, Barbara asked, "When do you want to make your debut at San Siro?"

"Uh, I can choose?" Huang Kaiwen was surprised to hear this option. Obviously, the sooner he could make his debut, the better—otherwise, once the experience card expired, he couldn't just start kicking the ball into the stands during a match.

"Of course," Barbara said softly. "As long as you're not in too much of a hurry, we need time to prepare."

"Then let's do it before the European Cup. I can't wait to meet the fans."

"Good!"