Chapter 1 The Beginning

A week before the start of the new season, the promotional video for the new season of the Russian Premier League began airing on the state television channel One.

The passionate scenes, coupled with the inspirational snippets of well-known stars speaking their expectations for the new season into the camera, were still very attractive.

Unlike those compilations that simply showcased exciting moments on the field, this one had a lot of player "confessions," so it had a hook.

Chen Hero was eagerly waiting in front of the television for his appearance, but what did he see?

"...In the new season, I will become the league's top scorer!"

He pointed at the camera and said this very cool line, then the camera cut to... a highlight reel of goals!

That was it!

That last sentence was gone!

Actually, Chen Hero didn't think being the top scorer was cool enough. That coolest last sentence... Chen Hero was so satisfied with that last sentence, but it was just gone!

Cut off!

Chen Hero was furious!

He hated the media's little tricks of taking things out of context and cutting things off!

Okay, you don't dare broadcast it, I'll say it!

Arshavin laughed at Chen Hero when he saw him.

Of course, Chen Hero knew what he was laughing at. He struck a pose three times before finally completing what he thought was a cool sentence, but who knew it would be cut by the television station!

However, the other teammates didn't know about this. After watching the promotional video, they were surprised and... impressed that Chen Hero dared to say such arrogant words in the promotional video.

"Hey, Hero. You dare to say something like that? Do you think the league's top scorer is that easy to become?"

"I admire you, Hero! I think many forwards have had this thought, but you're the only one who can say it out loud! Haha!"

"Actually, I think it's not a problem for you to be the top scorer... Think about it, how many goals did you score in eleven league games last season? Ten goals! This season, everything starts from scratch, so I think you have a great chance to do it!"

"Indeed, it's not that difficult. How many goals did Pavlyuchenko, the top scorer last season, score? Only eighteen! Hero, step it up! Surpass him!"

"You're so arrogant, Hero... but I like it! Hahahaha!"

Just as these teammates said, from a purely technical point of view, the league's top scorer was really not a difficult thing. The Russian league only had thirty games, so if you wanted to be the top scorer, you didn't necessarily have to score a lot of goals. Since the beginning of the new century, the top scorer in the Russian Premier League had not been able to score more than twenty goals.

The top scorer in 2000 was Dmitri Loskov, an attacking midfielder from Lokomotiv Moscow, who became the league's top scorer with only fifteen goals.

The top scorer in 2001 was Dmitri Vyazmikin, a forward from Torpedo Moscow, who scored eighteen goals that year. This was the highest number of goals scored by the league's top scorer in recent years.

Since then, no forward had been able to score more than that number of goals.

In 2002, Dmitry Kirichenko took home the league's Golden Boot with fifteen goals.

In 2003, it was Dmitri Loskov again, who scored fourteen goals this time, setting the lowest goal record for a top scorer in the Russian Premier League.

The top scorer in 2004 belonged to Chen Hero's current teammate, Aleksandr Kerzhakov, a core member of the Zenit Saint Petersburg's "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry" crew, who scored eighteen goals that season. He was only twenty-two years old at the time.

The league's top scorer in 2005 belonged to Dmitry Kirichenko of CSKA Moscow, who also scored only fourteen goals this time.

Last season's league top scorer was Roman Pavlyuchenko of Spartak Moscow, who scored eighteen goals.

That was why some teammates said that it wasn't too incredible for Chen Hero to become the league's top scorer.

Chen Hero joined halfway through last season, only playing the last third of the league, and he scored ten goals. If he had played from the beginning of the league, how many goals would he have scored?

This question had been raised by the Saint Petersburg media after the end of last season. But after all, it was just speculation. There was no "if" in the world of football. Maybe if Chen Hero had entered the league from the beginning of the season, he might still be unable to score even ten goals due to his poor form?

Chen Hero could feel the support of his teammates, but... he was still brooding over the fact that the television station had cut off his words.

He not only wanted to prove to all of Russia that he really had the strength to become the league's top scorer, but he also wanted to tell everyone that he wanted to take this season as the first step in creating an era of his own.

The exquisitely produced promotional video caused a great reaction among fans in Russia.

In particular, the scene where Chen Hero pointed at the camera and said smugly, "In the new season, I will become the league's top scorer!" stimulated many Russian extreme nationalists.

Some CSKA Moscow fans had already called on everyone online to boo Chen Hero collectively to create pressure: "We want to let that yellow-skinned monkey know that all of Russia is his enemy!"

CSKA fans had ample reason to do so, because Chen Hero had embarrassed them in front of all of Russia last season!

That banana of his was still being used by other fans who hated CSKA to mock them, making many CSKA fans unable to hold their heads high in the face of their enemies' ridicule.

They would not remember that they had provoked Chen Hero first, they only knew that Chen Hero was the culprit of all this!

Since the establishment of the Russian Premier League, the honor of top scorer had been monopolized by former Soviet players. You, a bastard from China, what right do you have to covet this honor?

Some Moscow media also ridiculed Chen Hero, saying that he was a toad trying to eat swan meat: "The top scorer is not something you can become just by talking about it. We admit that this Chinese player's performance was very outstanding last season, but that's because he suddenly appeared, and no one knew him or understood him. Now it's different, he has been thoroughly studied by his opponents, and I don't believe that Zenit's opponents didn't spend their holidays studying how to contain a center forward like Hero... So, it will be even more difficult for him to score as crazy as he did last season! Want to be the league's top scorer? That's even harder!"

On the other hand, the Saint Petersburg media was supporting Chen Hero—they all realized that if Chen Hero performed well, then Zenit's results would definitely be good. If a forward could become the top scorer, with Zenit's current strength, then it meant that they were either the league champion or in the top three, and they would definitely be able to get a Champions League spot for next season anyway.

Moscow and Saint Petersburg originally had old grudges, and football could amplify these grudges and turn them into a battlefield for the two cities to compete with each other.

As the largest and second-largest cities in Russia, the status of Moscow and Saint Petersburg was like that of Beijing and Shanghai in China. Every year, the matches between Beijing and Shanghai teams could be hyped by the Chinese media into a "Chinese National Derby," and the clashes between Saint Petersburg and Moscow teams were even more so.

In the days when the two media outlets were arguing, the 2007 season of the Russian Football Premier League had arrived.

On the afternoon of March 11th, Zenit Saint Petersburg hosted Ramenskoye Saturn at home.

In this game, Chen Hero was undoubtedly selected for the team's eighteen-man roster due to his excellent performance in the warm-up matches.

At the same time, although Advocaat had not announced the starting lineup for tomorrow's game, everyone knew that it was no suspense that Chen Hero would start.

Letting such a center forward in good form sit on the bench? Unless Advocaat's brain was twitching.

On the night before the start of the new season, Chen Hero was not so nervous that he couldn't sleep, nor was he full of longing for the future. He was lying on the table provided by the hotel room, writing and drawing on a vest.

Denisov, who had returned from outside, saw Chen Hero like this and curiously went up to him.

He saw Chen Hero drawing some lines, but from the shape he had outlined so far, he didn't know what Chen Hero was drawing.

"Hero, what are you doing?"

"Preparing for tomorrow's celebration." Chen Hero replied without looking up.

Denisov grinned: "Have you already booked a goal?"

Chen Hero nodded. "Of course!"

"Good luck!" Denisov yawned, turned around and went to the bathroom to wash up, ready to go to bed.

Kirov Stadium had been demolished. In the new season, Zenit Saint Petersburg's home stadium, Petrovsky Stadium, was on Petrovsky Island, next to Krestovsky Island, where Kirov Stadium was located.

This stadium was much smaller than Kirov Stadium, with a capacity of only 21,000 people.

However, the small stadium made the atmosphere more intense. For the first game of the new season, Petrovsky Stadium was packed, with people cheering and singing.

At this moment, the sound decibels on the scene reached their highest point!

"goL!!" The live broadcast was prolonging the sound and shouting "Goal".

The fans made even louder cheers.

"Zenit Saint Petersburg took the lead in the thirteenth minute of the game! The scorer is..."

The fans at the scene shouted together: "Hero!!!"

After scoring the goal, Chen Hero declined the good intentions of his teammates who came up to hug her and celebrate, and ran all the way to the front of the camera lens.

Then he lifted his chest to reveal the vest with Russian written on it.

What was written on it was—

"My Era Starts Now!"

Arshavin laughed when he saw this scene, this was Hero's counterattack!

This kid, he really held a grudge...