Ball King System

May 6th, 2012.

Barcelona, Camp Nou Stadium.

The 37th round of La Liga, Barcelona's home game against Espanyol is in progress.

This is Barcelona's last home game of the season, and also the farewell day for the legendary coach, Guardiola.

A total of 97,000 spectators are present in the grand Camp Nou Stadium.

Even though the opponent is a weaker team, Espanyol poses no threat to mighty Barcelona. However, the enthusiasm of the fans is exceptionally high.

Soon, the game becomes Messi's stage!

With his sharp breakthrough and impeccable dribbling, Messi captures the attention of all the spectators.

In the 11th minute, the opponent fouls Messi with a free-kick awarded. Messi takes the opportunity and scores directly, making it 1-0 for Barcelona.

In the 64th minute, Messi maneuvers past the Espanyol defender in the penalty area, causing a handball. The referee awards a penalty and shows a yellow card to the defender.

Messi takes the penalty, tricks the goalkeeper, and the ball bounces off the post into the net, making it 2-0 with his second goal of the match.

Ten minutes later, Messi receives a long pass from Adriano, swiftly bypasses the Espanyol defenders, and scores again, achieving a hat-trick.

Five minutes after that, Espanyol's number 22 fouls Busquets in the penalty area, and Messi once again stands at the penalty spot. He seizes the opportunity created by his teammates and scores, achieving an incredible grand four-goal feat.

As Messi scores his third goal and secures victory, the Camp Nou Stadium erupts into chants celebrating the king of the pitch.

Not only the regular fans but even the young Barcelona team players who were present at the match are completely captivated by Messi!

"Messi! Oh my, did you see that? He's like a god!"

Among the young players, Gerard Deulofeu, who also plays as a winger, excitedly shakes the shoulders of his fellow young team members, expressing his elation.

Beside him is a young player, wearing the number 4 jersey of the youth team, with a handsome Asian face. His name is Lin Quan, 16 years old, a key midfielder of the Barcelona youth team, and also a time-traveler.

An orphan, Lin Quan was adopted by a Spanish couple and grew up in Spain. His adoptive father was a professional midfielder.

Influenced by his father, Lin Quan has been involved in football since childhood, and, due to his talent and his father's connections, he joined La Masia training camp early, being groomed as the successor to Xavi.

Upon hearing Deulofeu's words, Lin Quan nods in agreement.

The year 2012 was definitely the craziest year in Messi's career.

In that year, Messi scored a total of 91 goals in all official matches, breaking Gerd Muller's world record.

At that time, Messi possessed speed, explosiveness, dribbling ability, passing skills, playmaking, and almost everything else.

On the field, he was the nightmare of the opposing defenders.

Encountering Messi in possession, there were hardly any effective ways to deal with him except fouling him.

However, due to excessive fatigue from high attendance and aggressive fouls from opponents, Messi suffered multiple injuries in 2013, which significantly impacted his peak form.

Since then, although Messi remained strong and even more versatile, his dribbling ability declined significantly from its peak.

But what does that have to do with me?

As a midfielder, I observe midfielders, not the extraordinary Messi, after all, the observation of Messi has no benefit for me.

Just as Lin Quan was silently grumbling in his mind, a long-lost voice resounded in his mind:

[System detected a player who meets the Ball King standards, do you wish to replicate him?]

Lin Quan was taken aback, has the system come back to life?

At the age of six, he unexpectedly obtained a Ball King system, which disappeared after infusing him with some football knowledge and techniques.

Over the past decade, he had been trying to find a way to awaken the system, but to no avail.

Just when he was about to give up and had even begun to doubt whether getting the system in the first place was real or just a figment of his imagination, the system revived.

This made Lin Quan feel both surprised and delighted.

Although he had been cursing the system, if it hadn't been for the help provided by the system initially, he would not have been able to come this far.

So, upon hearing the system's reminder, worried that the system might disappear again, he immediately made a choice:

[Replicate!]

Boom!

In an instant, countless memory fragments flooded into Lin Quan's