Chapter 1: The Football King System

May 6, 2012.

Camp Nou Stadium, Barcelona.

Matchday 37 of La Liga, Barcelona hosting Espanyol.

This is Barcelona's last home game of the season and also the farewell day for their legendary coach, Guardiola.

A total of 97,000 spectators attended this match, filling the massive Camp Nou Stadium.

Although the opponent is just a weak team and poses no threat to the mighty Barcelona, the enthusiasm of the fans is exceptionally high.

Soon, this game turned into Messi's stage!

With his sharp breakthroughs and impeccable dribbling skills, Messi captivated the attention of the entire audience.

In the 11th minute of the match, Messi was fouled by an opponent near the penalty area while dribbling.

The referee awarded a free kick to Barcelona.

Messi took the free kick and scored directly, making it 1-0 for Barcelona against Espanyol.

In the 64th minute, Messi skillfully dribbled past Espanyol's defender in the penalty area. Due to his quick turn, Espanyol's tall defender Gomez couldn't keep up with him and accidentally touched the ball with his elbow while attempting to tackle.

The referee was nearby and clearly saw Gomez's handball foul, immediately awarding a penalty kick and showing Gomez a yellow card.

Messi took the penalty kick, deceived the goalkeeper, and hit the post before the ball bounced into the goal.

The score on the field became 2-0, and Messi scored his second goal of the game.

Ten minutes later, Messi received a long pass from Adriano at the back, quickly bypassed Espanyol's defenders, and scored again, completing a hat-trick.

Five minutes later, Espanyol's number 22 defender fouled Busquets inside the penalty area, and Messi once again stood at the penalty spot.

He didn't waste the opportunity created by his teammates and calmly scored his fourth goal of the game, achieving an incredible poker.

When Messi scored his third goal, securing the victory, Camp Nou Stadium was already singing his praises.

When he scored his fourth goal, the entire stadium stood up and applauded, cheering for the King of Camp Nou!

Not only ordinary fans, even the young players from Barcelona's youth team who came to watch the game were all conquered by Messi!

"Messi! Messi! Oh my god, did you see that? He's like a god!"

Among the youth team, Gerard Deulofeu, who also played as a winger, was excited like a child. He shook the shoulder of his youth team companion sitting next to him and exclaimed.

Sitting beside him was a young player wearing the number 4 jersey of the youth team. He had a handsome Asian face with yellow skin and black hair.

His name was Luis, sixteen years old this year, and he was the main midfielder of Barcelona's youth team. He was also a transmigrator.

He was an orphan who was adopted by a Spanish couple and grew up in Spain since childhood.

His adoptive father used to be a professional player, playing in midfield.

Influenced by him, Luis started playing football from a young age. Because of his talent and his adoptive father's connections, he joined La Masia training camp early on and was groomed as Xavi's successor.

Hearing Deulofeu's words, Luis nodded in agreement.

Messi in 2012 was definitely the most incredible year of his career.

That year, Messi scored a total of 91 goals in all official matches, breaking Gerd Muller's world record.

At this time, Messi had speed, explosiveness, dribbling skills, the ability to beat opponents, pass, organize, and assist. He was virtually unstoppable.

On the field, he was a nightmare for defenders.

When facing Messi in possession, besides fouling, there were hardly any effective ways to deal with him.

But unfortunately, due to accumulated fatigue from high attendance and rough fouls from opponents, Messi suffered multiple injuries in 2013, greatly affecting his form and peak performance.

Since then, although Messi remained strong and even became more versatile, his dribbling ability declined significantly compared to his peak period.

But what does it have to do with me?

As a midfielder, it would be more relevant for him to observe Xavi instead of Messi. Messi is an extraordinary player, but our positions are completely different, so observing him would not be meaningful for me.

Just as he was thinking this, a familiar voice echoed in my head:

[The system has detected a player who meets the criteria of a football king. Would you like to replicate him?]

I was stunned for a moment. Did this system come back to life?

When he was six years old, he unexpectedly obtained a football king system. At that time, the system only imparted some football knowledge and techniques before disappearing.

For the past ten years, he have been trying to find a way to awaken the system but have never succeeded.

Just when he was about to give up and even started to doubt whether he had really obtained the system or if it was just his imagination, this system resurrected.

This made him feel both shocked and delighted.

Although he had been cursing the system as a damn system all along, without the help provided by the system back then, he would never have come this far.

So upon hearing the system's reminder and fearing that the system might disappear again, he immediately made a choice:

Replicate!

Boom!

In an instant, countless fragments of memories flooded into Luis's mind like a tide, and scenes from the past emerged one by one.

All that appeared were scenes of a small player on the field, dribbling, surpassing opponents, and shooting.

"Is this the memory of Messi's career?"

Luis immediately recognized the small player, who was none other than the current king of Camp Nou, Lionel Messi.

The memories of Messi's career gradually merged with Luis's own memories, giving him the experience of Messi's eight-year career.

[Memory transformation completed, physical transformation will take place tonight!]

The system's transformation was unreasonable. Memory transformation was relatively easier to conceal from others.

But physical transformation was a drastic change that would have a noticeable impact on the player's body.

If it were completed on the spot, it would be easy for others, especially his teammates, to notice his changes.

So the system's arrangement was very thoughtful.

However, when Luis heard that the system was going to perform a physical transformation on him, he felt a little apprehensive.

Honestly, no one could resist Messi's talent.

He was a top-level talent at the level of a football king. Who wouldn't be envious?

But Messi is only 1.7 meters tall!

Many of his talents were exchanged for his height!

Does having Messi's talent mean that he would also be limited to 1.7 meters like Messi?

Hmm, this price feels a bit too high!