THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME

Zachary's eyes glittered with excitement after he finished perusing the contents of the mission completion message. After a year of toiling, he'd finally completed the 2013/14 Europe League Serial Challenge. He'd even perfectly realized all the milestones of the mission and, as a result, earned ample rewards. As such, not even his extreme state of exhaustion could lower the sense of contentment he felt at that moment.

The rewards for completing the mission included a staggering sum of 267,000 Juju points, an S-grade vitality-enhancing elixir, and an S-grade mental-conditioning elixir. They were enough to raise Zachary's fitness and footballing skills by a significant margin within a month or two. They were sufficient to turn him into an almighty ball wizard before his transfer out of Rosenborg.

Zachary still yearned to improve his skills. He hadn't let his one successful season over-inflate his ego. He knew himself well, and at best, he was close to the level of great midfielders like Kaka, Andrés Iniesta, and Bastian Schweinsteiger at their peaks. And probably, his attacking prowess could even match the 22-year-old Kylian Mbappé of his previous life. But that was as far as his skills could take him on the list of the world's best players.

Thus, Zachary knew he still had ways to go before reaching the top. He wasn't about to start comparing himself to phenomenal generational talents like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho Gaúcho, Zinedine Zidane, Maradona, or other all-time great players usually mentioned in the G.O.A.T debate. He wouldn't delude himself that he'd stepped into the ranks of the best players in the world just because of a single successful season. That would be a big mistake and oversight on his side.

He understood that most professional footballers would have periods when they performed like monsters on the pitch and played spectacular football. Then, after a period of time, they would lose their incredible form and start putting up slightly mediocre performances.

For instance, Paul Pogba had been on-form in Juventus during Zachary's previous life, but his skills declined after he went to Manchester United. Michael Owen was also the same. At a young age, before he'd clocked 24 years, the English and then Liverpool striker was a true-blue footballing demon on the pitch. Owen was the nightmare for all the defenders in the Premier League at the time and won the golden boot several times. He even won the Ballon d'Or at the young age of twenty-two. But later in his career, his form dwindled, and he started playing like any other standard player. That was the unpredictable nature of football careers.

With all those examples in mind, Zachary had warned himself to remain modest despite his success. He had to stay down to earth and maintain his immense hunger to improve his football skills. Only then would he have a long and successful career. And only then would he have the qualifications to challenge the phenomenal talents at the top of the footballing world.

"First things first," Zachary thought, leaning back into the sofa, "Let's upgrade the system before thinking about other things."

Zachary had already amassed almost thrice the amount of Juju points required to upgrade the system. So, without further ado, he navigated to the system's home menu before clicking on the upgrade button, displayed in the top left corner of the near-transparent system interface.

"DING"

The all-familiar system notification sound resounded within his mind right after his finger made contact with the crystal-like display.

"The user has chosen to upgrade the system," the system AI's apathetic voice immediately followed. "To proceed with the upgrade, the system will have to deduct 100,000 Juju points from the user's stock. Additionally, the system will shut down for eight hours during the upgrade process. The user will not be able to use any of the system's functions until the eight hours elapse."

"Does the user still wish to proceed with the upgrade? Please click on the 'accept' or the 'reject' buttons to confirm your choice."

Zachary didn't waste any second making his choice. He leaned forward and tapped the 'accept' upgrade button that had just floated to the front of all the system interface's contents.

"DING"

A new system notification resounded in his mind the next instant.

"SYSTEM ALERT!!"

"The user has confirmed an immediate upgrade of the system," the AI intoned. "The system will immediately deduct 100,000 Juju points from the user's current stock to upgrade the system from level-4 to level-5. The user can check further details on the system interface."

Zachary had already focused all his eyes on the crystal-like display as the notifications resounded within his mind. He could already see that the system had commenced the upgrade process by looking at the flashing messages on the screen.

****

"SYSTEM ALERT!!"

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SYSTEM UPGRADE INITIALIZING

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SYNCING AND SAVING USER DATA

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LOADING NEW PACKAGES

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UPGRADE PROCESS COMMENCING IN 5, 4,3,2,1, & 0...

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****    ****

The translucent crystal-like display trembled slightly as the countdown reached zero. It then shimmered for a moment before dimming and fading into thin air.

"It's already 11:30 PM," Zachary thought, glancing at his wall clock on the opposite wall. "That means the system will complete the upgrade at around 7:30 AM. It should already be back online by the time I wake up."

A soft smile outlined Zachary's face as he rose from the sofa. He took a quick shower and brushed his teeth before jumping into bed. A few minutes later, he became oblivious to everything else around him and entered the sweet and relaxing slumberland.

His sleep was peaceful, and he woke up when the rays of the morning sun had already brightened up his entire bedroom. He stretched out his arm and picked up his phone from his bedside table. He then glanced at the screen and realized it was already nine in the morning. He'd slept for more than nine hours.

Zachary immediately jumped out of bed. He was soon in autopilot mode, washing his face, having breakfast, brushing his teeth, going through his morning yoga routine to boost his post-match recovery, and then taking a shower. After all that, he finally settled on one of the comfy chairs in his living room before summoning the system interface with a mental command.

"DING"

The system notification sound immediately rang within his mind. Before Zachary could even blink, the space before him shimmered slightly as the familiar crystal-like display manifested within his vision. He leaned back into the sofa gracefully before starting to peruse through the system notifications.

****

#SYSTEM ALERT!!

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->System upgraded successfully.

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NEW PACKAGES LOADED

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LEVEL-5 VERSION OF SOCCER G.O.A.T USER INTERFACE SUCCESSFULLY INITIALIZED

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NOW LOADING AND SYNCING USER DATA

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****

"DING"

"The system has finalized the upgrade process," the system AI's voice sounded in Zachary's mind. "The system is now at level-5. For details, the user can check the system interface."

"Excellent."

Zachary's eyes glittered, full of excitement. He rubbed his hands together and immediately navigated to the system's home menu. Without further ado, he started perusing the contents on the screen.

****

SOCCER G.O.A.T SYSTEM

SYSTEM LEVEL: 5 (181,110/1,000,000 Juju points to level up)

USER: Zachary Bemba

AGE: 19 years

TALENT ASSESSMENT: Grade-S

JUJU-POINTS: 181,110

(Evaluation: A promising and sensational young professional player on his way to greatness)

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USER MENU

*USER STATS

*G.O.A.T MISSIONS

*SYSTEM SHOP (2 new messages)

*SYSTEM LOTTERY

*SNOOPING TOOL

*TRAINING TOOLS

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NB: Please level up the system to unlock more functions.

****

Zachary's eyes narrowed when he noticed that the amount of Juju points needed for the next system upgrade had reached a staggering one million. The sum was multiple times the number of all Juju points he'd amassed since his academy days. If he didn't win major trophies and perform like a monster on the pitch over the next few seasons, he would take forever to raise such a sum of Juju points. It was really a crazy number.

But Zachary wasn't all that worried about the next system upgrade. That was because the more his skills grew, the less he needed to rely on the system. For instance, his desire to learn new skills from the system after upgrades had lessened after his talent broke into the S-grading. With his already incredible fitness, he could already master most of the skills as long as he devoted ample time to them.

Additionally, he already had enough skills in his repertoire to give the best players in the world a run for their money. He could side-step, pass like a maestro, shoot and finish like a box assassin, and even convert free-kicks. As long as he improved his fitness to match the level of a player like Cristiano Ronaldo, he believed that the skills he'd already mastered would push him into the ranks of the best players in a generation. Then, he would only need to improve his game intelligence to evolve into a terrifying nightmare for all his opponents on the field of play.

"What matters most for me now are the system's elixirs," Zachary mused. "As long as I utilize the vitality-enhancing elixirs to raise my fitness to the above S-grade level, I'll become almost unstoppable. Then, I can evolve all my skills into my own unique style of play as I grow as a player."

A sharp glint passed through Zachary's eyes as he anticipated his future path. His increased abilities were already pushing him into the competitive world of the best players on the planet. He was no longer satisfied with only learning the skills of other great players. Instead, he yearned to improve himself and create his own unique footballing style encompassing all his skills. And he really believed that he could achieve the feat with the help of the elixirs from the system.

"But first things first," Zachary deliberated. "I should learn a heading skill and master defensive plays like N'Golo Kante's sliding tackles. Only then will I have no weakness as a player when I start creating and improving my unique style of play."

After making the resolution, Zachary immediately acted on it. He navigated to the system shop sub-menu to examine the available new skills after the upgrade.