Bologna. Stadio Renato Dall'Ara.Champions League Group Stage - Matchday 3.Bologna vs. Bayer Leverkusen.Wednesday Night.
The rain in Bologna was cold, a stark contrast to the humidity of August. It slicked the pitch, making the ball zip across the surface like a hockey puck.
Rio Valdes stood in the tunnel, adjusting his captain's armband. Since Lewis Ferguson was benched for tactical reasons, the manager had given the armband to Rio. Leader. Playmaker. Number 10. The weight of the fabric felt heavier than lead.
He looked to his left. The Bayer Leverkusen players stood in perfect formation even in the tunnel. They wore black and red. They looked like soldiers. Led by Granit Xhaka, the veteran Swiss general, and the young German prodigy Florian Wirtz.
Leverkusen hadn't lost a single game in the Bundesliga for forty matches. They were "The Invincibles." And yet, Noah Lami had put three goals past them.
Rio clenched his jaw. If Noah could break this machine, Rio had to do the same.
System Notification: Match Start Cost: 5 Days Deducted. Remaining Lifespan: 593 Days.
Rio stepped onto the pitch. The roar of the Dall'Ara was deafening, but focused. The fans knew this was the pivotal game. A win puts them in contention. A loss sends them to the bottom.
On the touchline, Xabi Alonso, the Leverkusen manager, stood with his hands in his pockets. He looked calm, handsome, and terrifyingly intelligent. He wasn't looking at the game; he was looking at Rio.
Minute 10.The Spider's Web.
The game began, and Rio immediately felt the difference. Real Madrid attacked with individual brilliance. Liverpool attacked with chaotic pressure. Bayer Leverkusen didn't attack. They suffocated.
They played a possession game so precise it felt like they were controlled by a single hive mind. Pass. Move. Pass. Move. Bologna chased the ball for ten minutes straight without touching it once.
"Press them!" Rio shouted, running at Xhaka.
Xhaka didn't panic. He waited until Rio was one meter away, then simply tapped the ball to Wirtz, who was standing in the "pocket" of space Rio had just vacated.
It was a trap. Every time Rio moved to press, Leverkusen used his movement to open a passing lane behind him. Rio wasn't playing football; he was a rat in a maze designed by Xabi Alonso.
Minute 22.The Punishment.
The goal felt inevitable. Leverkusen worked the ball to the edge of the box. Jeremie Frimpong, the lightning-fast wingback, overlapped on the right. Bologna's defense shifted left to cover. Frimpong didn't cross. He cut it back to the edge of the D.
Florian Wirtz was waiting. He didn't smash it. He caressed it. A finesse shot that curled through three defenders and kissed the post before going in.
GOAL.Bologna 0 - 1 Bayer Leverkusen.
The stadium went quiet. It was a surgical incision. Clean. Painless. Deadly. Rio looked at Xabi Alonso. The manager didn't celebrate. He just made a small gesture with his hand: Keep control.
Minute 40.The Cage.
Rio was frustrated. He dropped deep to get the ball, but he was immediately surrounded. This was Alonso's specific tactic for Rio: "The Cage."
Granit Xhaka marked him from behind. Robert Andrich marked him from the front. They didn't tackle. They just denied him space to turn, effectively locking him in a box of bodies.
Rio received a pass from Lucumi. [Omniscient Trap (Passive)] activated.
The System analyzed the situation: Pressure Radius: 100%. Safe Zones: None.
Rio trapped the ball dead. But before he could activate [Elastic Hips], Andrich poked the ball away.
"Too slow," Andrich muttered in German.
Rio lost possession. Leverkusen countered. Only a miracle save from Skorupski prevented a second goal.
The halftime whistle blew. Rio walked off the pitch, his head down. He had zero shots. Zero dribbles completed. He wasn't playing badly. He was being neutralized.
The Locker Room.Halftime.
The mood was grim.
"We can't get the ball," Orsolini complained, throwing a water bottle against the wall. "They have seventy-five percent possession. It's impossible."
Coach Italiano was drawing frantic lines on the tactical board. "We need to bypass the midfield! Long balls!"
Rio sat in the corner, staring at his boots. He thought about Noah Lami. How did Noah score three?
He remembered the highlights. Noah didn't drop deep. Noah didn't try to build the play. Noah stayed up top and used his speed to run behind the high line. But Rio wasn't Noah. Rio didn't have 99 Pace. If he tried to run behind, Jonathan Tah—Leverkusen's giant defender—would eat him alive.
Rio closed his eyes. I can't be Noah. I have to be me. What is my weapon? The Omniscient Trap.
So far, he used it to stop the ball. To kill the momentum. But against a high-pressing machine like Leverkusen, stopping the ball was death. Stopping allowed them to close the cage.
Don't stop the ball, a voice whispered in his head. Redirect it.
Rio opened his eyes. The Passive Skill showed him the "Pressure Radius." Usually, he trapped the ball away from pressure. But what if he trapped the ball into the pressure, but used the momentum to pass instantly?
"Coach," Rio stood up. The room went silent. "Don't play long balls. Give me the ball in the middle. Even if Xhaka is on my back. Just give it to me."
"But you're losing it," the coach argued.
"Not in the second half," Rio said. "I figured out the rhythm."
Minute 60.The Glitch in the Machine.
Bologna 0 - 1 Leverkusen.
The pattern continued. Leverkusen passed. Bologna chased. But then, Beukema won a header. The ball fell to Freuler, who looked up and saw Rio. Rio was surrounded. Xhaka and Andrich were closing the Cage.
"Don't pass there!" the fans screamed.
Freuler passed it anyway. A hard, low pass wrapped in danger. Xhaka smirked. He prepared to crunch Rio from behind. Andrich stepped in to steal the ball.
Rio saw the red lines of the System. Pressure: High (Back and Front). Calculated Solution: One-Touch Redirect.
Rio didn't trap the ball dead. He stepped over the ball, letting it run through his legs. The Dummy.
But it wasn't just a dummy. As the ball passed under him, he flicked it with his back heel. It was a No-Look Backheel Flick.
Xhaka tackled empty air. Andrich was caught flat-footed. The ball zipped through the gap between them, perfectly weighted into the path of Dan Ndoye, who was cutting inside.
The Cage was broken. The Leverkusen structure collapsed.
Ndoye drove forward. The defense panicked. Jonathan Tah stepped out to stop Ndoye. Ndoye slipped a pass to Santiago Castro. Castro shot.
GOAL.Bologna 1 - 1 Bayer Leverkusen.
The Dall'Ara exploded. Rio didn't score. He didn't even get the assist—it was the "pre-assist." But everyone knew who made that goal. Xabi Alonso stood up from his bench, his eyes wide. He had calculated everything. But you cannot calculate a backheel through the legs of two defenders.
Minute 85.The Masterpiece.
The game was tied. Both teams were tired. A draw would be okay. But Rio needed to win. He remembered the notification: Noah Lami has unlocked "The Zone".
Rio demanded the ball again. He received it in the center circle. This time, Leverkusen didn't press. They backed off, afraid of being humiliated again. Rio had space.
He looked up. He saw the movement of every player on the pitch. [Vision: Grade A] combined with [The Omniscient Trap: Active Mode].
He activated the skill. Cost: 2 Days. Lifespan: 591 Days.
Why activate a Trap skill when he already had the ball? Because the Active Mode gave him "Absolute Control" for 3 seconds. It meant he could manipulate the ball with zero error rate.
Rio started dribbling. Not fast. But rhythmic. Touch. Touch. Touch.
He walked straight through the midfield. Andrich came to tackle. Rio rolled the ball to the left, shifting his weight. Andrich fell. Jonathan Tah came to smash him. Rio stopped the ball dead—The Magnet—causing Tah to mistime his tackle, then accelerated again.
He was dancing through the German Machine.
He reached the edge of the box. The angle for the shot was tight. Xhaka was back, sliding desperately to block. Rio wound up his right leg for [The Cannon].
The goalkeeper, Lukas Hradecky, tensed up. Xhaka slid to block the shot. It was the Golden Arc setup.
But Rio didn't shoot. At the last microsecond, he chopped the ball with the inside of his foot. A reverse pass. Against the grain.
The ball rolled slowly, agonizingly, to the left. Where Riccardo Orsolini was standing completely unmarked. Rio had drawn the entire defense to him like a magnet, and then released the ball.
Orsolini had an open net. He tapped it in.
GOAL.Bologna 2 - 1 Bayer Leverkusen.
Full Time.Bologna 2 - 1 Bayer Leverkusen.
The whistle blew. The stadium was shaking. They had beaten the Invincibles. Rio fell to his knees, not from exhaustion, but from the mental load. He had deconstructed Xabi Alonso's tactics piece by piece.
Match Complete. Result: WIN. Performance Rating: 9.0 (Man of the Match).Objective: Survive Group of Death - Progress: 4 Points (1W, 1D, 1L).
Rio stood up. Xabi Alonso walked onto the pitch. The legendary Spaniard walked straight to Rio. He placed two hands on Rio's shoulders.
"You," Alonso said in English. "You are not a striker. You are a Regista in disguise."
"I'm just a player who wants to live," Rio said, half-joking.
Alonso smiled. "Noah Lami is a hammer. He breaks walls. But you... you are a key. You unlock doors."
Alonso walked away. Rio looked at the jumbotron.
Bologna was 2nd in the Group. Real Madrid had beaten Liverpool 2-0 in the other game (Noah scored again).
Group F Standings (Matchday 3): Real Madrid sat at the top with 7 points, dominating the group. Bologna and Liverpool were tied with 4 points each, though Bologna held a slight advantage due to head-to-head metrics. Leverkusen languished at the bottom with just 1 point.
They were alive.
Rio checked his phone in the locker room. A message from an unknown number. It was a video file. Rio clicked play.
It was CCTV footage of a training ground in Madrid. Noah Lami was standing thirty meters from goal. He was blindfolded. A machine fired balls at him at 100km/h. Noah volleyed every single one into the top corner. Blindfolded.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The text below the video read: "I see you won. Cute. Don't get comfortable." - N.
Rio turned off the phone. His hand was trembling. Alonso was right. Noah was a hammer. A weapon of mass destruction. Rio had unlocked the door against Leverkusen, but against Noah, he would need more than just keys. He would need armor.
System Notification: Lifespan: 591 Days. New Feature Available: The Mutation Lab. Would you like to combine skills?