Rise of a Football God

[Congratulations! You have completed Season Quest 3!]

[You have completed mission 1: Win the CAF Champions League Trophy!]

[You have been rewarded with +100 Skill Points!]

[You have been rewarded with a random bonus reward: Form Boost ×2]

>Form Boost: This is a system boost that randomly boosts 3 of your main attributes by +3 stat points for one game<

[You have been rewarded with a +7 increase to your dribbling attribute!]

[Congratulations! You have met the requirements to level up!]

[Your overall player rating has increased to 75!]

…

Player Attributes:

*Pace: 73

*Shot: 72

*Pass: 76

*Dribbling: 74

*Defending: 35

*Physicality: 63

*Stamina: 80

Overall Rating: 75

…

After 6 months of playing professional football, despite playing week in week out, his attributes didn't improve by much, showing him how hard it was for a football player to improve his skills and abilities.

He could not rush it; it took time to improve.

Across the past 6 months, his pace, shooting, and passing attributes all increased by +2 each while his dribbling attribute increased by only +1. The rest of his attributes stayed stagnant but all of a sudden, he just hit the jackpot.

In one go, his dribbling attribute increased by a whooping +7, taking it all the way from the 60s rank, jumping to the 70s.

His overall rating also increased all the way to 75.

The fact that his stash of skill points just increased by a whooping +100 also excited him, but he was more fascinated by the form boost.

Reading it's description by the system, he already had an idea of what this boost could do to him on a football pitch and he could not help but grin.

Getting the system really was the turning point of his life.

Staring at the notifications in his system screen, Sam felt his chest swell up in joy but that was not all, there were other notifications.

…

[Congratulations! You have completed mission 2: Win the best player award in the CAF Champions League!]

[You have been rewarded with a random reward!]

[Reward randomizing…, please wait…]

[Randomization complete!]

[Click to open reward card:]

…

Sam was surprised as the notifications disappeared, replaced by a golden card hovering in the middle of his system.

On the surface of the card, there was an image of a familiar footballer playing with a football. It was Ronaldinho Gaucho, the Brazilian winger and legend who also played for FC Barcelona during his prime.

Ronaldinho donned his Barcelona jersey in the picture on the golden card.

Sam was stunned. 'A golden card is my reward? What is it about?'

He could feel his heart beating fast already. He didn't know what the reward was yet, but anything relating to Ronaldinho as a reward was definitely going to be exciting. 'Ah! Yes, it said I should click to open the reward'.

Looking round to confirm that no one was looking at him inside the plane, and since Austin was already asleep, he clicked on the golden card.

Immediately after he clicked on it, the bright light surrounding the golden card became even brighter before it burst into countless golden specks and from the specks came out his reward.

…

[You have been rewarded with a legendary inheritance!]

[You have been rewarded with the intermediate mastery of the Legendary Football Skill: Elastico!]

[NOTE:]

>There are 4 major mastery levels of skills in football, basic, intermediate, advanced, and perfection, but there is a 5th and lesser known mastery level that has only ever been attained by certain legendary footballers, the legendary mastery<

>There are steep requirements to taking a football skill to the legendary mastery level, the requirements being consistency, outstanding excellence, and gaining the status of a football legend<

>Ronaldinho Gaucho is a legend of football and he personalized the football skill, elastico, taking it all the way to the next mastery level after perfection, the legendary mastery level<

>It is virtually impossible to take a football skill to the legendary level, except in special circumstances. But by getting the inheritance of the legendary Brazilian, you just got a clear shot at getting a legendary mastery skill level<

>All you have to do to get there is train and get better, the other requirements have already been fulfilled since it is an inheritance<

Sam could not believe his eyes, staring at the last notifications of his system with eyes so wide that they almost seemed to burst out of their sockets.

'Is this… real?' He thought, flabbergasted.

'Is this even possible?!' He was losing it, not in a bad way though, he was losing it in sheer euphoria, shock, and ecstasy.

'Damn! This is crazy!'

If he was not flying in an airplane alongside his teammates, he would have jumped for joy already, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Initially at the beginning of the season, after every game that he played, he could feel himself improving no matter how small but after some time, maybe during March, this feeling reduced till it become virtually non-existent.

Sam could tell that he was no longer improving with every game, he met his first bottleneck in his progression as a football player as the schedule racked up.

This was the reason why he paid less and less attention to his system status, focusing on playing and winning games instead as he put all his focus on completing the season system quests.

After these series of notifications, it validated his reason for focusing on the quests. The system truly was his best way to rise to the top.

And now, he was ready to look at his system status again.

[Player status!]

Host: Samuel Moses

Current Career Status: NPFL player, CAF champions league reigning champion

Talent Rating: B

Player Position: Attacking Midfield

Player Attributes:

*Pace: 73

*Shot: 72

*Pass: 76

*Dribbling: 74

*Defending: 35

*Physicality: 63

*Stamina: 80

Overall Rating: 75

…

[Owned Football Skills:]

[Basic mastery level: La croqueta; body feint; Cruyff turn; Power shot; step overs, roulette]

[Intermediate mastery level: Elastico]

…

[Legendary Inheritance: Elastico]

…

[System Remark: An aspiring football talent in an inferior league!]

Due to his lack of progress in the past few months, none of his football skills managed to breakthrough to the intermediate mastery level yet.

Sam never expected that his first intermediate mastery skill would be a skill that he almost never used, the elastico.

'Life really is unpredictable, huh?'