Spain, Barcelona, Hospital de Barcelona, ward.
Mateo Alvarez slowly woke up.
Looking at the unfamiliar yet somewhat familiar surroundings, and hearing the "ding" sound in his mind, he quickly understood what had happened.
Good news: He had been reborn, returning to before everything began.
Bad news: He died too suddenly, and didn't have time to deal with his browser history and 3 TB of postgraduate study materials.
Better news: He had a system, the kind that could turn someone into a Football King.
Worse news: This system might send him back without a word…
"Trial Mission: Score and win in the Youth El Clasico .
Reward: System officially activated.
Failure Penalty: Sent back to original timeline (Note: Time flows at the same rate in both timelines)."
Mateo Alvarez looked at the disgusting "Failure Penalty" and was on the verge of tears.
Is this telling me to choose between physiological death and social death?
It's 2025, and there's still such an uncooperative system?
Oh, no, it should be 2015 here.
To be precise, it was August 10, 2015.
Mateo Alvarez would never forget this day.
Because this was the day he completely said goodbye to football.
During a sliding challenge, he collided with a teammate and his ankle was injured just like the one that later Jamel Musiala suffered in the Club World Cup 2025 but there was an additional point Mateo Alvarez had weak ankles from childhood just like Marco Van Basten.
Although he didn't immediately go to meet his great-grandmother, his ankle suffered severe trauma.
From then on, let alone professional football, even playing a casual game became a luxury.
Now, he had reloaded, and although the return time point was not ideal, right after his injury, he was not sad; instead, he was a little excited.
Because this damn system had something special.
"Initial Template: Marco Van Basten;
Traits:
1. The Supreme Cruyff Disciple:
I touched the ball, game over! Face my terrifying ball control, dribbling and passing skills
2. Swan of Utrecht:
Congratulations, you have opened humanity's textbook on shooting...
3. Poacher's Instinct:
Make runs that will make the oppositions defenders tremble from fear.
You also have gained Newbie Package.
Nirvana (one-time skill use).
You have experienced a terrifying injury, but you were not destroyed by it; instead, you became a stronger version of yourself.
Mateo Alvarez gaze naturally fixed on the Newbie Package, "Nirvana."
This Nirvana skill only reminded of one certain person.
In 2000, Kaka suffered a similar cervical spine injury.
According to doctors, it was already a hallelujah that he could walk normally again; playing football was basically a fantasy.
But a miraculous (nonsense) thing happened.
Kaka not only recovered completely but quickly started bouncing around again, and as if a cheat code had been activated, he soared from then on, later becoming the world's best player everyone knew.
Influenced by his mother, Kaka was already a devout Christian, and this experience further convinced him that God was indeed watching over him, so he often preached his faith on various occasions, and his celebration of pointing to the sky with both hands after scoring and the title "Son of God" both came from this.
Due to a similar experience, Mateo Alvarez was very clear about Kaka's story and had once greatly envied Kaka's fate.
And now, a similar opportunity was presented to him.
If this system wasn't bluffing, then as long as he used this one-time "Nirvana" skill, he could, like Kaka, be reborn from the ashes…
It's just that if that happened, he will have many options in the future accordingly.
Because both his parents were professors at the University of Barcelona, Mateo Alvarez was born in Argentina but he was raised in the great city of Spain. His father is Argentinian and his mother is Spanish. So he had automatically obtained Argentinian nationality, but he still had a chance to choose Spanish nationality as his mother was from Spain and he was living in Spain from childhood.
While he was lost in thought, his parents walked in together.
His father, Diego Álvarez's, tone was a bit heavy, "Now there are two options: one is conservative treatment, slowly recuperating, and the other is surgery, but it's not very meaningful…"
Mateo Messi had surgery in his previous life, and it really wasn't meaningful.
So this time, he chose conservative treatment, or rather… chose "Nirvana."
"Ding, the host has used the one-time trait 'Nirvana'…"
Friends who often reincarnate or transmigrate should know the value of this "ding" sound.
Feeling the inexplicable warmth flowing through his body and the pain noticeably alleviating, Mateo Messi's hanging heart finally slowly settled.
"Just recuperate slowly…" He smiled, trying to sound relaxed, "Maybe it's not as serious as the doctors say?"
Diego Alvarez and Lucia exchanged glances, both seeing the pain in each other's eyes.
Seventeen years old, such a golden age, was it going to be ruined like this…
Olivia sat by the bed, took Mateo's hand, and patted the back of his hand, comforting him, "It's okay, no matter what, we will always be with you."
She ultimately didn't dare tell Mateo the diagnosis, only hoping that Mateo would slowly accept it himself later.
"I know," Mateo said, "Mom, I'm tired…"
"Then get some good rest," Lucia said, "Don't think about anything. We all believe in you; you can definitely get through this."
"Don't worry, you know me, I'm not that easily defeated," Mateo still had that relaxed expression, "Maybe everything will be fine when I wake up?"
"Yes," Lucia said, stroking his head tenderly, "I hope everything will be fine when you wake up…"
Diego Alvarez also comforted him for a few sentences, and then the couple left.
With both rebirth and a system, Mateo certainly couldn't really go to sleep immediately.
He looked at the system light screen, visible only to himself, and couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion.
Name: Mateo Alvarez;
Age: 17 years old;
Height: 1.82 M;
Weight: 73KG;
Club: FC Barcelona (Youth Team);
National Team: None (Argentinian & Spanish Nationality);
Template: Marco Van Basten;
Traits:
1. The Supreme Cruyff Disciple ;
2. Swan of Utrecht;
3. Poacher's Instinct;
The three traits roughly encompassed Van Basten's main characteristics.
Beautiful ball control, dribbling and passing style. His unmatchable Shooting prowess, His Football IQ.
Relatively speaking, this system was actually quite abstract; at least it didn't give specific attributes like "Shooting: 99, Stamina: 88," so how much of a boost it could bring him would only be known after actual combat.
But no matter what, even a stripped-down version of Van Basten should be more than enough to play in a youth League, right?