The Lustforged Hero - Chapter 41: Back to the Capital

Eric Maddox, a 70-year-old American retired football coach once hailed for his tactical brilliance, now forgotten by time—closes his eyes for what he believes is a normal nap in his quiet Florida retirement home.But when he opens them, he's not staring at ceiling tiles, instead, he's on a touchline.Wearing boots in the rain.With players running on the pitch, fans jeering behind barriers, and the smell of cheap turf pellets in the air.“What the hell is this?”He’s twenty-five again, but it’s not Earth. It’s a world where football reigns supreme. A world where the sport is religion, its practitioners, deities in cleats. Coaches are revered, players are worshipped, and even the kit man gets treated like royalty.But there's one catch: none of it is familiar. The clubs, the players, the leagues, the competitions, and even the currency—they're all different. Alien. Like waking up in a dream where the rules are the same, but the language is foreign.As if that wasn’t enough, the body he’s now in? A youth coach with a laughable win record, a looming divorce, and a measly fifty thousand in the bank that his ex-wife is fighting tooth and nail to take. All of it.Just when the spiral seems inevitable, a monotone chime pierces the noise.[Initiating Golden Finger…][…45%… 75%… 100%][System Integration Complete.][Welcome, host. You are now bound to the Pro Manager System. Objective: Dominate the Football World. A new era begins]From washed-up has-been to chosen one of destiny, Eric Maddox is about to trade arthritis pills for tactical boards, and shuffleboard for Prestigious Cup glory.Because in this world, tactics are power.And on this touchline, he’s about to become a god.

After the nuclear war, the world was controlled by twenty mega-corporations that established a global government. Governed by AI, it judged everything.Gao Xin, who had only wished to live a peaceful life, inexplicably became a scapegoat for the elite and, unable to pay the imprisonment fee, was sentenced to ten years of exile on Crime Prison Island!On this island, there were no laws, no constraints, the only order being the numerous game arenas set up by the officials.The criminals could only participate like racehorses for the entertainment of the elite.Yet, on this prison island filled with Radiation, cyborgs, and many powerful villains, Gao Xin had no strength, no talent, and no background—like a sheep thrown into a crocodile pool, no different from being on death row.How could an ordinary person like him survive under the oppression of the strong, the geniuses, and the wicked? Unless in this world, there was a path, a path that allowed even the weakest to continuously break their shackles.

As a child with an unattainable dream, I yearned to become a Hero, but I veered off the right path. Looking back, my aspiration to save others was nothing more than a foolish dream. I now realize the magnitude of my sins and the impossibility of atoning for them.

A free spirit meets her match in all-around perfect bachelor whose humorlessness is his only flaw. When Xia Zhen reaches the unfortunate marriageable age, she is forced to go on a blind date where she meets Pei Cheng An. Her cunning plan is to pretend to be completely infatuated with her date in front of her mother, while sabotaging the actual relationship. Except Pei Cheng An isn’t the type to follow the script.

*

In Xia Zhen’s opinion, Pei Cheng An is a person whose way of thinking belongs in the last century and whose manner of speaking reminds her of her grandpa. But since he looks dreamy and has qualifications, she’ll just pretend that she has fallen for him at first sight.

Eh? Pei Cheng An also finds her good enough to start a relationship with.

Great. Now when he finds out that she’s not a suitable partner for marriage and dumps her, she can return home all heartbroken and request to temporarily go on a brief no-blind-dates period. This is excellent. However…

“I’m so unreasonable. Why aren’t you breaking up with me?”

“A man should be tolerant towards his girlfriend.”

“I’m so mean to you. Why are you being so kind to me?”

“Girlfriends are meant to be spoiled.”

“I’m not gentle or considerate. Why aren’t you breaking up with me?”

“Likely it’s because… I like you.”

- Description from Novelupdates