Football singularity-Chapter 723 Elon’s Rockets

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[2021-04-11 | Hahnwald Estate, Cologne | 13:45]

The boxes were matte black, decorated with golden silk ribbons tied in neat bows, looking elegant with a sense of majesty. One of the assistants, named Max, moved forward, slowly lifting the lid of the left box with a sense of gravitas, despite no one prompting him to do so. It appeared he wanted to create some suspense, but a quick glance at the annoyed eyes of Professor Clara was enough to make him speed up the process.

The first boot emerged from its red-velvet cushioned interior, instantly capturing Rakim’s attention. His heart skipped a beat as he looked at the matte-black boot, the forest green bled through the aerodynamic ridges like venom coursing beneath skin. The grooves weren’t decorative; they slithered along the upper in layered serpentine waves, each indentation housing metallic emerald adhesive pods that glinted under the pendant lights above the kitchen island.

The iconic Apex "A" with wings sat prominently on the lateral side in brushed gold, catching the light with every subtle movement. Patterns shimmered subtly like scales shifting before a strike, as the soleplate carried a deep emerald tint that faded to black at the heel, with detachable studs capped in brushed gold. The Apex logo ’A’ had wings spread in ascension, spear-sharp lines forming its spine — polished to a mirror sheen.

"Jesus Christ on a motorbike," May whispered beside him, leaning forward unconsciously. "That’s gorgeous."

Rakim reached out, carefully lifting the boot, and the first thought that came to mind was how light it was. It was lighter than he expected—substantially so, and the upper had a texture that felt almost alive under his fingers, the green scales creating a subtle grip pattern. The collar was sleek, form-fitting, and made to sit snug around the heel and below the ankle.

"It’s light, right?" She asked with a satisfied expression. "The upper is a woven synthetic composite material, and the serpentine channels are modelled after countless hours of simulation of your movement patterns on the pitch."

"Simulated?" Rakim asked, bringing the boot closer to his eyes, taking in every inch of its frame.

"Exactly that," She said with a proud smile on her face, motioning for her second assistant, named Paul, to do something on his laptop. "We hired an F1 Aerodynamics engineer from the ground up of the design stage. Our research division compiled hundreds of hours of your game tape, focusing on your foot placement and used it to analyse which part of the boot has the most contact with the ball and your most used running patterns."

"Hmmm, I bet not even my own coaches have watched hundreds of hours of my game tape." Rakim mused as Max opened the second lid, revealing the second colourway: a matte-black base with a purple Galaxy-themed design that ripples instead of green, added with gold accents at the base.

Paul pressed play on the laptop as a video showed what appeared to be computer simulations running during boot. Before he could comment on how that wouldn’t apply on the playing field, as unlike gasoline motors, players burned energy to perform and couldn’t be expected to perfectly replicate a certain movement, no matter how good they are. The video shifted to the boots in a wind tunnel, then to testers running in them, in both a wind tunnel environment and in many other scenarios.

"Wow, you guys really went all out on this," May commented from the side as they even had a guy run on a sand field just to test the boot. "I bet if you could, you would even test them in space and underwater, right?"

"We actually did test them underwater." Professor Clara said with a neutral expression while the other two looked away sheepishly. "We couldn’t in good conscience muster up the budget to send them to space, though not for lack of debate."

"When you cut inside or strike across your body, the grooves help stabilise contact. Those are micro-adhesive pods that create a non-stick friction to grip the surface of the ball in wet or dry conditions." She continued as if she had not just talked about wasting millions of dollars on something stupid. "The pattern you see isn’t random—it’s a heat map of where your foot strikes the ball most frequently during matches."

She pulled up another image on the laptop, showing a 3D rendering of Rakim’s foot with colored zones. "Red zones are high-frequency contact areas—mostly the instep and outside of your feet. Yellow zones are moderate contact." She paused for a moment, showing specific numbers highlighted on the screen. "You’re one of the very few players who use almost all zones of your feet in a given match, and the adhesive pods are concentrated exactly where you need them."

Rakim set the green variant down and picked up the purple colourway. "This one’s my favourite," Max blurted out, then immediately looked embarrassed.

"I like the shoes. When can I try them out? Surely you won’t let me use them in training with all the media buzz?" Rakim asked after a moment of thinking, resisting the urge to head outside and juggle a ball.

"No, that would be unwise, but we have prepared a pitch-black variant without any identifiers for you to get used to playing them so we can make last-minute adjustments before June," Clara noted, signalling Max to bring out a third pair of boots in a simple Apex boot bag without all the fanfare. "Still try to use them with as few people as possible and preferably inside to reduce the risk of leaks."

"That’s fine, Coach has training on lock, the media won’t get through as easily." He noted with a smile, picking up the black bas pairs that looked quite bland in comparison, almost unfinished in a sense. "If it puts you at ease, I’ll only wear them for my personal training with Simba."

"That would be great," She beamed, clearly happy with his acceptance of the slightly inconvenient request. "That should be fine." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Oh, before I forget, we have added micro sensors to the heels and insoles of the test boots to gather real feedback from you, so when it comes to making your tournament boots, they will fit much better." She added casually, not at all appearing as if it had just slipped her mind. "We have great hopes for this line and believe you will take them there. And if we haven’t said it, we are really proud of how you represent our creation out of the field and off it."

"Ohh, thanks Doc, it means a lot, plus with you guys supplying me with almost 10 boots a week, the least I can do is put them to good use." He said with a slightly sheepish expression, knowing how costly it must be to prepare so many boots just for him. "Don’t worry, this year I plan on going all the way. The only thing I’m unsure about is the Euros."

"Haha, well, I don’t think you need to worry about that," Clara said with confidence, adjusting her glasses. "The way you’ve been playing this season? Löw would be mad not to call you up. And when he does, the Singularity-T1 will be ready."

"Maybe we should send them to space," Rakim suddenly said, eyeing the purple colourway that seemed to draw him in the longer he looked at them. "You know, for the advert, I’m sure we can get on one of Elon’s rockets if we cover a portion of the budget."

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To be Continued...