Chapter 1 Single Life

My father had already left St. Petersburg and flown back to China, leaving Chen Hero alone.

So, how did he feel about the single life he had longed for? If you were to ask Chen Hero this question now, he would definitely spit on the ground and say, "Out of the tiger's den, into the wolf's den!"

This was his current situation.

He had originally thought that with his father gone, he could be free and unrestrained. Just like those professional players, he could rent a room in the most prosperous downtown area of St. Petersburg, and after training every day, he could linger in the lively nightlife of St. Petersburg, flirting with those sexy Russian beauties. If he was lucky, he might even be able to have a wild night with a sexy babe.

Who would have thought that he would now be trapped in the Yudelny Park training base in the northeast of St. Petersburg? Considering that he was only eighteen years old, the club did not find him a house outside, but instead let him live in the youth team dormitory.

Living in this natural forest park, some distance from the city of St. Petersburg, surrounded by towering fir trees, it was frighteningly quiet at night. In addition to the whistling of the wind, he could occasionally hear the howling of wild animals brought by the wind. Lacking transportation, Chen Hero could only look in the direction of St. Petersburg every night, tears streaming down his face—when would these miserable days end!

The evenings were indeed difficult for Chen Hero. He couldn't speak the language, and if he watched TV, it was all Russian programs, and he couldn't understand a single channel. He didn't have a computer either, so he couldn't even play online games, otherwise he would have liked to play World of Warcraft... World of Warcraft, produced by the famous game company Blizzard Entertainment, had officially launched its public beta in China at the end of April this year. Before he was fired by the club, he had locked himself in his room and frantically played this online game. He applied for a public beta account and trained a gnome shemale warrior. Chen Hero, who was over 1.9 meters tall in reality, chose the shortest race in the game, which was quite amusing. He rushed to level 45—the maximum level at the time of the public beta—as quickly as possible, becoming the first player to reach the maximum level in the server. After reaching the maximum level, he took advantage of the fact that everyone else was still leveling hard and ran to the Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge to mine and gather herbs, which he then sold at the auction house. Because he was the only one who could obtain these high-level materials, he almost monopolized the Alliance's auction house. He could set whatever price he wanted, and no matter whether others could accept it or not, they had to buy his materials, and he quickly made a fortune.

In addition to making money by gathering, he also challenged Princess Maraudon with his guild friends. At that time, Maraudon was equivalent to a later raid-level dungeon... Chen Hero vented his depression in reality into the game. In reality, he was a failure who had been fired by the club, but in the game, he wanted to be a success. If he couldn't be a football hero in reality, he would be a Warcraft hero in the Azeroth continent!

Later, after World of Warcraft started charging fees, he quickly became the first player in the entire server to reach level 60, continuing his dual gathering career to make money. In addition, he spent day and night standing with the guild in one five-person dungeon after another, one raid after another. Blackrock Spire, Blackrock Depths, Stratholme, Scholomance, Dire Maul... these dungeons all left traces of his battles.

It wasn't until his father brought him to Europe that he ended his crazy online gaming career.

Now, the pink-haired, baby-faced gnome shemale warrior named "HeroWhoFearsNoOne" is still standing at the bridgehead of the Ironforge auction house. Wearing a full set of Courage armor, carrying a Dragonbone shield, and wielding a Runeblade of Baron Rivendare dropped from Stratholme, his appearance is very stylish. No one in their guild knew that the guild's crazy main tank was actually a professional player, so when Chen Hero suddenly disappeared, there was a period of chaos within the guild, and it even caused a split... Of course, Chen Hero knew nothing about this.

Without internet, without a computer, and unable to understand the TV programs, the days were indeed difficult. Many nights, Chen Hero lay alone in bed, staring at the ceiling. He even found himself looking forward to daytime training. At least he had something to do then, but once it was evening, he had nothing to do, and time was hard to pass, each second feeling like a year.

After a few days like this, he found that he missed home...

He originally thought that he wouldn't miss home. He had finally left home so far away, what was wrong with being free and unrestrained? Why would he miss home?

But now, the emotion of homesickness was indeed lingering around him. During the day at the team, he could relieve this emotion by earnestly completing arduous training subjects. He didn't have time to miss home at all. But once it was evening, when he was the only one left in the entire dormitory building, unable to understand the TV, without a computer or internet, and only able to stare blankly at his mobile phone, the feeling of homesickness accurately drilled out.

He missed the delicious food his mother made, his silent father, his warm little room, his computer, and the gnome shemale warrior in World of Warcraft, missed the local snacks, hot pot, skewers, and even missed speaking Chinese—here, he could only speak English, Russian he couldn't speak yet, and Chinese no one could understand even if he spoke it.

He felt lonely.

Chen Hero had been training in the youth team all along. Although he had signed a professional contract, the club still regarded him as a youth team player, after all, he had only just turned eighteen years old—his birthday was May 25, 1988, and he was almost classified as a post-90s.

Chen Hero, who had been receiving training from Popovich in the youth team, was still trying to adapt to his living environment and the team's teammates.

What he didn't know was that St. Petersburg Zenit had undergone earth-shattering changes during this time—assistant coach Vladimir Borovickia, who had previously decided to buy him, had left the team. The reason for his departure was that his superior, head coach Vlastimil Petrzela, had been dismissed by the club due to conflicts with the club's senior management. As Petrzela's man, Petrzela was gone, and he naturally couldn't continue to stay at the club.

Because the new head coach, Advocaat, had also brought his own assistant coach—the Dutchman Cor Pot.

Chen Hero didn't know about this, so naturally he didn't know what impact this might have on his fate.

After a new head coach comes to a team and starts coaching, what is the first major task he will do?

Without a doubt, it is to build his own power in the team.

Cleansing and introducing new players have become the two major themes. Although the Russian league is still in progress, the European continent is still in the preparation stage for the new season—the Russian league is different from the mainstream European leagues. Due to the weather, the Russian football league does not span years, but runs from March to November each year. Therefore, there is no off-season here, only a season. This year is the 2006 season, while most other leagues in Europe are saying the 06-07 season.

As soon as Advocaat came to the team, he brought three of his disciples from when he coached the South Korean national team—the young Korean midfield genius Lee Ho, the left-back Kim Dong-jin, who was in his prime, and the versatile player Hyun Young-min, who could play in both midfield and defense.

Korean players seem to especially like to rely on the light of the national team coach to go abroad to play. After Hiddink led the South Korean team to the historic semi-finals of the World Cup, he took Park Ji-sung and Lee Young-pyo, two generals of the Korean national team, when he went to coach PSV Eindhoven.

With the arrival of Advocaat, the Korean element suddenly became strong in the ranks of St. Petersburg Zenit, which had originally had nothing to do with South Korea.

The number of Korean reporters who came to interview also suddenly increased.

Lee Ho, as a twenty-one-year-old international, had already played in the 2006 World Cup and was hailed as a genius. He is the hope of Korean football.

With this momentum, he joined St. Petersburg Zenit after this year's World Cup.

For a time, he became a leader among young Asian players, making the Korean media proud.

As for Chen Hero, he had been with the team for almost two weeks, and although he trained with the youth team every week, he had never participated in any official youth team matches.

The club had previously said that they would find him a translator and language teacher, but there was no follow-up. The club had just changed coaches and was in a period of turmoil, many jobs were not being done, and the handover of work was not going smoothly. So this "youth player" who was signed a few days before Petrzela and Borovickia left was left in the youth team as if he had been forgotten...

It wasn't until Advocaat discovered that he had brought three Koreans that the first team's roster became a little bloated, and he decided to cleanse some players.

Because he took over the team's coach position in the middle of the summer transfer window, he needed to know what signings his predecessor had made, so he asked the club for a summary of the team's transfer situation this summer.

He wanted to see what kind of people his predecessor had bought, and whether he had left him with wealth or garbage...

When he got the list, he realized that his predecessor seemed to have no intention of bringing in new players at all. As the media said, he had spent all his energy during that time arguing with the media and arguing with the senior management.

In the transfer-in column, there were only two names...

And they were both forwards.

One was named fatih_tekke, and the other was called hero_Chen.

The first was Turkish, and the second was... Chinese!

Chinese?

Advocaat was stunned for a moment. Because he had coached the Korean team, he couldn't say he was unfamiliar with Chinese football.

He knew very well that there were no players from the Chinese national team playing in the Russian league, otherwise he would have known about it before.

And based on his understanding of East Asians, Chinese names rarely have such spellings and pronunciations.

Chen is the surname, it should be 陈. But what does this hero mean? He knows the English meaning of hero, but he has no idea what it means in Chinese.

He suddenly became very interested in this Chinese player with a strange name.

"Is there any information on this person?" he asked Nikolai Vorobjov, the team's coach who gave him the list.

Vorobjov glanced at the person Advocaat was pointing at on the list, and showed a rather playful smile.

As soon as Advocaat saw this smile, he became even more curious.

He wanted to see what kind of player this was even more.

At the coach meeting on Monday morning, Ganaydi Popovich saw the team's new head coach again. This was the second time they had met. The first time was when Advocaat had just taken office, and all the coaches had gathered to welcome the new head coach and let him get to know everyone so that they could cooperate with his work. Lest he stay for a few months and not even know who was on the coaching staff.

"Good morning, Mr. Popovich." Advocaat greeted Popovich in fluent Russian.

"Good morning, Mr. Advocaat." Seeing his immediate superior, Popovich's attitude was relatively respectful. He wasn't familiar with him yet, so it was better to restrain himself a little.

"Is the work in the youth team going smoothly?" Advocaat asked about Popovich's work situation very kindly.

"It's okay."

"I heard that your team signed a new player more than two weeks ago?" Without too much nonsense, Advocaat went straight to the point.

After Petrzela and Borovickia left the team, Popovich once thought that Chen Hero's luck was really bad—generally speaking, coaches who can sign players will value them more. So Borovickia should be very concerned about Chen Hero. With the departure of Borovickia and Petrzela, Chen Hero suddenly became unattended to in the youth team.

What made Popovich happy was that the unattended Chen Hero was very hardworking and serious in training, and did not show any impatience, nor was he worried about his future. Should he say that he is confident enough in himself, or that he is completely unaware of the fate that may befall him in the future?

Now that Advocaat took the initiative to ask about Chen Hero, Popovich didn't know what kind of changes this would bring to Chen Hero.

"Are you talking about Hero, Mr. Advocaat?"

"Hero?" Advocaat noticed that when Popovich said the name of the Chinese, he also used the English word "hero." This was the same as what the Chinese had written on the list. But he had already asked Vorobjov and knew that the Chinese was called "yingxiong_Chen", which is "Chen Hero."

"Yes, Hero." Popovich nodded in response.

"Shouldn't it be called 'yingxiong_Chen'?" Advocaat found it strange.

Popovich explained with a smile: "His Chinese name is said to be 'yingxiong_Chen', but he said that his name 'yingxiong' means 'hero', so he wrote it like this, and we usually call him Hero. To be honest, it's really easier to say than that yingxiong..." Popovich still has difficulty saying "yingxiong" even now.

Advocaat suddenly understood, so that's how it is.

"It is said that the former assistant coach decided to sign him?"

Popovich nodded: "Yes."

"It is said that he also defeated the youth team's main defense during the test?"

As soon as this topic was mentioned, the expression on Popovich's face immediately became unnatural. This matter has spread throughout the entire club...

"Ah, yes, yes." He admitted.

After training for this week, he had fully seen Chen Hero's ability in heading, which was indeed very outstanding. He had demonstrated the ability he showed in the last test more than once in training.

"I heard that everyone was arranged to defend him at that time, and even allowed and encouraged to use fouls?" Advocaat asked.

Cor Pot, the assistant coach who had been listening silently next to him without speaking, couldn't help but laugh when he heard this sentence. Although he quickly held it back, it still aroused Popovich's dissatisfaction.

He knew what the new assistant coach's laughter meant, either he didn't believe in Chen Hero's strength, or he was mocking his youth team—even pulling and dragging, using fouls, and still couldn't stop one person, it was really too embarrassing.

But after Popovich saw Chen Hero's heading strength in training, he was no longer as concerned about this as before. Because he believed that Chen Hero really had the strength to break through the siege.

He glanced at Pot, then nodded to Advocaat: "Yes, we used fouls. Two players were pulling his clothes from behind, and three other players jumped up to compete with him for the header, two people intercepted him in front, and one person interfered from the side. But he still scored. It was also because of this goal that the assistant coach Borovickia decided to sign him."

He simply said it out loud, he didn't feel ashamed anymore. As for whether these two newcomers believed it or not, that was their business.

After Popovich left, Pot almost couldn't wait to express his opinion on this matter: "I think that the youth training director is exaggerating, Dick!"

Advocaat frowned and was also thinking about how credible this "story" really was.

"I have seen many excellent players, and none of them can do this... One person facing a siege of five people, two people pulling from behind, two people blocking in front, and one person interfering from the side, and he can still score... Unless he's not from Earth!"

"Whether analyzing this matter according to common sense, logic, or experience, it doesn't make sense!"

Advocaat asked: "If it's fake, then why did St. Petersburg Zenit sign him?"

Pot replied: "I don't deny that this Chinese player may indeed have some characteristics that can make Zenit value him, but it certainly won't be as exaggerated as they said!"

Advocaat also felt that what his assistant said made a lot of sense. To be honest, the "story" that Popovich and Vorobjov told earlier was too shocking, how could such a thing happen on the field? Unless that Chen Hero is a giant over two meters tall and weighs over a hundred kilograms, and his opponents are all ten-year-old children...

"Well... anyway, Kur. We have just arrived in this team, and there are many situations that we are not familiar with. I think it's better to be cautious. Hearing is false, seeing is believing."

"Are you planning to go and see his training yourself?"

"I'm afraid I don't have that time, but I remember there is a youth league game on Sunday, the day after our home game..."