Sant'Orsola Hospital, Bologna.Wednesday Night. 23:45 PM.One Hour After the Match.
The world was a chaotic blur of flashing red lights and screaming sirens. Rio Valdes lay on a stretcher being rushed through the sterile white corridors of the hospital. The Lidocaine shield that had protected him during the match had completely shattered, replaced by a tidal wave of pain so intense it made his vision swim with black spots.
Every vibration from the stretcher wheels felt like a sledgehammer smashing into his right hip. He could hear Dr. Ricci shouting instructions to the nurses in rapid-fire Italian, but the words sounded like they were coming from underwater.
"Blood pressure dropping! He's going into neurogenic shock from the pain!"
Rio wanted to tell them he was fine, that they had just beaten Liverpool, that he was a king. But his mouth felt as dry as sandpaper. His consciousness drifted in and out like a broken radio signal. The only thing that remained sharp was the blue notification floating above the panicked faces of the doctors.
The System warned him that his Right Hip Integrity was below 40%. The status read: Grade 2 Acetabular Fracture. The recommendation was chillingly simple: Immediate Surgical Intervention.
Then, darkness took him.
VIP Ward.Thursday Morning. 08:00 AM.
When Rio opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a white ceiling. The second thing he saw was Adrian Vance, asleep in his wheelchair beside the bed, a tablet still glowing on his lap.
Rio tried to move, but his lower body felt heavy, locked in a stabilization cast. The pain had shifted from a sharp scream to a dull, constant throb that pulsed in time with his heartbeat.
"You're awake, Hero?"
The voice came from the bed to his left. Rio turned his head slowly. Kenjiro Tanaka was there, his left leg suspended in traction. The two best players of Bologna, the two architects of the club's resurrection, were now lying like broken soldiers in the same ward.
"Did you see the goal?" Rio asked, his voice raspy.
"The whole world saw the goal," Kenjiro smiled, though his eyes looked exhausted. "You humiliated Van Dijk. The internet exploded. They're calling it 'The Phantom Nutmeg'. But the price..." Kenjiro pointed a finger at Rio's hip.
The door opened. Dr. Ricci entered with an orthopedic specialist. Ricci's face showed none of the joy of last night's victory. He carried a large brown envelope—the latest X-rays.
"I'll get straight to the point," Ricci said, standing at the foot of Rio's bed. He pulled out the film and slapped it onto the lightbox on the wall.
The crack was visible even to an untrained eye—a jagged black lightning bolt splitting the cup of Rio's hip joint.
"This is no longer a micro-fracture," Ricci explained with cold clinical precision. "This is a complete stress fracture of the acetabulum. The good news is that it didn't shatter into fragments, so we don't need to install permanent metal pins."
Rio exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding. "And the bad news?"
"The bad news is nature," the specialist intervened. "The hip bears the weight of the body. You cannot put any weight on it for six weeks. Then physiotherapy for two months. Realistically, you won't touch a football for four months."
Four months.
Rio's world stopped spinning.
Four months meant he would miss the rest of the winter season. He would miss the Champions League Round of 16, which started in February.
"No," Rio interrupted. "The Round of 16 starts in ninety days. I have to be there."
"Impossible," Ricci cut him off sharply. "If you force it before the bone fuses perfectly, you will be permanently disabled. There is no drug in modern medicine that can accelerate bone growth three times faster than nature intended."
The doctors left the room, leaving Rio to process the verdict. The silence in the room was heavy. Kenjiro stared at the ceiling, likely thinking about his own knee, which would take nine months to heal.
But Rio had something the doctors and Kenjiro didn't have. He had access to the black market of life.
The System Shop.Thursday Night.
Rio waited until Kenjiro fell asleep and the nurses finished their night rounds. He pulled the blanket over his head, creating a cocoon of privacy, and summoned the System Interface.
The blue screen glowed in the darkness.
He checked his User Status. His name, Rio Valdes, sat above a Lifespan counter of 531 Days. His Physical Status was marked in flashing red letters: CRITICAL (Acetabular Fracture).
531 Days. Less than a year and a half.
He had spent so much time buying The Mirage Strike and Elastic Hips, and now his body was destroyed by the skills themselves. The irony tasted like ash in his mouth.
Rio navigated the menu to the Item Shop. He scrolled past the cheap Energy Drinks and Stamina Pills. He was looking for the category labeled Medical Miracles.
There, the item shone with a tempting golden aura.
Item: Phoenix Bone Elixir. The text described it as an ancient alchemical solution that stimulates osteoblasts to work 500% faster, fusing fractures and permanently increasing bone density. The recovery time was a miraculous 3 Days. The side effect was listed simply as: Excruciating pain during the reconstruction process.
But his eyes fixed on the price tag: 300 Days of Lifespan.
300 Days.
Rio stared at the number. If he bought it, his remaining lifespan would drop to 231 Days. About seven months.
Seven months to live.
If he didn't win the Champions League this season... if he didn't get the massive lifespan bonus from that trophy... he would be dead before the next season even started.
This was no longer a gamble. This was going All-In. He was pushing his life chips into the center of the table.
"Why do you hesitate?" his inner voice whispered. "Do you want to sit in a wheelchair for four months watching your team get slaughtered in Europe?"
Rio imagined Van Dijk's face as the ball slipped through his legs. That sensation. That power. He couldn't go back to being human. He was a monster created by the System, and monsters needed to feed.
Rio's finger hovered over the [BUY] button. He didn't think about death. He thought about the Champions League trophy.
Click.
Transaction Successful. Remaining Lifespan: 231 Days. Item 'Phoenix Bone Elixir' added to Inventory.
A small glass vial, no bigger than a thumb, materialized in Rio's hand under the blanket. The liquid inside was a glowing, violent red, like molten magma. There were no dosage instructions.
Rio uncorked it. It smelled of sulfur and iron—like blood. Without hesitation, he downed it in one gulp.
For the first second, he felt nothing. By the fifth second, his stomach felt warm. By the tenth second, hell broke loose inside his right hip.
Rio bit into his pillow as hard as he could to stifle a scream. It didn't feel like healing; it felt like a thousand fire ants were eating his bone from the inside out, then cementing it back together with hot lava. Sweat drenched his body instantly. Tears streamed from the corners of his eyes.
In the next bed, Kenjiro shifted in his sleep, unaware that his friend was undergoing an agonizing transformation just a meter away.
The process lasted for an hour that felt like a century. When the pain finally subsided, Rio was gasping for air, his body completely limp. But when he tried to move his right leg under the blanket... the sharp pain of the fracture was gone.
It was replaced by a dense, solid sensation. The bone felt heavier. Stronger.
A final notification appeared: Bone Reconstruction Complete. Bone Density Increased: Grade C+ -> Grade B-. Physique is now capable of withstanding 'Mirage Strike' recoil up to 3 times per match.
Friday Morning.The Shocking News.
The next morning, Adrian arrived bearing news. But it wasn't about Rio's condition. He turned on the room's TV.
Sky Italia was airing a special Champions League segment. "A massive shock in Group F," the anchor announced. "With Bologna's victory over Liverpool, and Real Madrid's win over Leverkusen, the final standings of the Group of Death are locked."
The graphic appeared on the screen. Bologna sat at the top with 13 Points, qualifying as Group Winners. Real Madrid also had 13 Points but finished as Runners-up due to the head-to-head away goal rule. And at the bottom, the shock of the tournament: Liverpool with 9 Points, relegated to the Europa League.
"The English giants have fallen!" Adrian exclaimed, his eyes shining. "Klopp is out. We did that, Rio. We killed the giant."
Rio smiled weakly. "Who do we face in the Round of 16? When is the draw?"
"The draw is on Monday," Adrian replied. "But since we are Group Winners, we will face one of the Runners-up from other groups."
Adrian scrolled through his tablet. "Pick your poison. There's PSG. There's Bayern Munich. And..." Adrian paused. His face turned serious. "There is one weird team."
"Weird how?"
"Benfica," Adrian said. "They qualified from their group with a perfect record. They scored 25 goals in 6 matches. Their stats don't make sense. Their average Expected Goals (xG) is double that of Manchester City."
Rio frowned. Benfica was a strong team, a factory for talent, but those stats were unnatural.
Suddenly, Rio's phone buzzed on the bedside table. A message from an unknown number. The country code was Spain (+34).
Rio opened the message. It was short, but it made his blood run cold.
Sender: Noah Lami (Real Madrid)"Congratulations on winning the group. Van Dijk was a good test. But I saw your data, Rio. Your bone fractured. Your career should be over. But my System predicts you will be back in 3 days. Interesting. Very interesting. See you in the Final. Don't die before then."
Rio turned off his phone. Noah Lami knew. The "Perfect Human" knew that Rio wasn't ordinary. He knew about the unnatural recovery.
Rio stared out the hospital window. He had 231 days to live, a hip forged in hellfire, and a rival who could read the future.
The Knockout Stage had just begun.