MTL - The World Civilization Million Lords - Chapter 4545 , Does the protection fee count?

Demien Walter died on a rain-soaked road in 2025, his career a footnote in football history.A journeyman midfielder whose playing days ended in obscurity. A tactical obsessive whose notebooks gathered dust. A coach whose first opportunity came too late and ended too soon.Until he opened his eyes in 2003, inhabiting the body of Yves Laurent — head coach of AS Monaco.Now, armed with twenty years of football knowledge from a future that hasn't happened yet, Demien faces the ultimate tactical challenge: rewriting history from the touchline.He knows which players will become legends. He remembers which matches change careers. He's witnessed the tactical revolutions that transformed the game.Monaco is just the beginning. With each victory, each tactical masterclass, each deviation from the timeline he remembers, Demien alters football's destiny. From the Champions League's bright lights to World Cup glory, from Milan to Madrid to Manchester, his journey will reshape the beautiful game in ways no one could predict.No cheat codes. No supernatural abilities. No second chances.Just a man with future knowledge in a past world, attempting to build a legacy that even death couldn't erase.Football isn't just played on the pitch. It's won in the mind.And Demien Walter's mind has already lived through everything that's about to happen.

Leon was your typical guy, perceived as weak in his school because his skills hadn't awakened, even though they usually did at the coming of age. He attended the prestigious Milham's Magic Knight Academy, where snagging the top spot meant automatic entry into the esteemed position of a Magic Knight in the country. Unfortunately, Leon found himself in the lower caste, labeled the most useless student. To top it off, he was tossed into a class that served as a sanctuary for oddballs and delinquents. Yet, he couldn't care less, as becoming a Magic Knight wasn't his goal.Everything shifted when he crossed paths with Shredica, a woman hell-bent on becoming a Magic Knight at any cost. Observing Leon's lack of ambition and his apparent detachment from the academy's pursuits, Shredica saw an opportunity. She decided to exploit him as a pawn in her ascent through the academy's hierarchy.Yet, unbeknownst to Shredica, Leon was not the complacent, unremarkable figure she presumed him to be.

The Shao and Cheng families have been sworn enemies for generations, though few outsiders know the exact details of their feud.

What is known to all is the Shao family’s three cardinal rules:

The Shao family must not cooperate with the Chengs, must not intermarry with the Chengs, and must never appear with the Chengs at any public event.

One day, an adorable little girl looking like a doll, wearing a puffy pink dress, pink hair clip, and pink backpack, walked into the lobby on the first floor of the Shao Group building.

The receptionist thought she was some child who had wandered away from home. But the little girl solemnly said, “I want to see your Shao Group CEO, Shao Chengze.”

Seeing the girl’s pink outfit, the receptionist knew she must be from a wealthy and noble family to dare to address their CEO by his full name. She couldn’t be the daughter of some high-ranking Shao Group executive?

Smiling warmly, she asked, “Little one, could you tell me your parents’ names?”

The girl tilted her head. “My mommy is Cheng Jinlan.”

Cheng…Jinlan?!

Second Miss Cheng Jinlan of the Cheng family?! She never thought she’d see the day a Cheng would set foot in the Shao Group building. What a miracle!

“As for my dad, I’ve come today to get some of Shao Chengze’s hair for a DNA test. Once I have his hair, I’ll know if he’s my dad or not.”

The girl’s crisp words rippled outwards from the front desk through the bustling first floor lobby. Everyone who heard froze in shock, jaws dropping.

Everyone except Shao Chengze, who had just stepped out of the elevator surrounded by a group.

He looked at the girl in pink through narrowed, fox-like eyes.

Cheng Liqi recognized Shao Chengze and covered her mouth in an “ah-oh”.

She decided that even if Shao Chengze wasn’t her dad, she’d have to help Cheng Jinlan get this man. She liked his eyes.

They were just like hers.

So pretty.