Chapter 1 The Giant Bear is Finished

Before Zenit's home game against Rostov, Chen Hero's giant bear back tattoo was finally finished.

As Monster straightened up and put the tattoo gun aside, Denisov, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

"Wow!"

Chen Hero stood up and faced the mirror, turning his head to look at the entire painting on his back...

So cool!

So visually striking!

Satisfied, he raised his arms and struck a muscle-flexing pose, discovering that the bear on his back also raised its arms.

He had to admire the tattoo artist, Monster, once again. To make the tattoo move with his own movements was a truly ingenious design.

Monster watched Chen Hero admire the tattoo in the mirror, also observing his own work. For him, it was a challenge, but he was glad he had completed it.

Appearing on Chen Hero's back was a lifelike, visually impactful giant bear, seemingly roaring and waving its arms!

The domineering and arrogant aura could be felt very clearly just by looking at the tattoo.

Chen Hero was very satisfied. To express his gratitude, in addition to paying extra, he even took the initiative to hug the taciturn Monster shop owner.

"Igor introduced a very skilled tattoo artist. I'll come back to you for tattoos in the future. Thank you!"

※※※

After saying goodbye to Monster and the Dogshit Tattoo Shop, Chen Hero returned to his apartment in Denisov's car.

Along the way, Denisov envied Chen Hero's eye-catching and awe-inspiring tattoo—he even felt excited just imagining the scene of Chen Hero taking off his shirt to celebrate a goal, revealing the tattoo on his back.

"I want to get one too… Hero, what do you think I should get?"

"Are you interested in Chinese characters?" Chen Hero carefully sat in the passenger seat, trying not to let his back touch the seat back.

"Chinese characters? Not a bad idea!" Denisov snapped his fingers.

For foreigners, getting Chinese characters tattooed on their bodies is a very fashionable thing. They seem to be particularly interested in those strange-looking characters that they don't understand at all. Chinese, Japanese, and Indian characters are the most popular choices. In fact, they don't even know what those characters mean, and sometimes they just put a few characters together randomly, like "勉族" (Mian Zu - which doesn't really make sense)...

But these characters that look like drawings appearing on the body are really eye-catching and can make you look particularly fashionable.

"But what should I get? You understand this, give me a suggestion."

"What do you think of the title 'Tuanzhang' (Regimental Commander)?"

"I love it! You're a genius, Hero, to think of that!"

"Then get 'Tuanzhang' in Chinese. It will definitely be cool!"

"Good idea!"

※※※

Chen Hero cherished his tattoo as if he had acquired a new outfit, even sleeping on his stomach...

The thing he looked forward to the most now was scoring in the weekend's game and then taking off his jersey to celebrate. Even if he got another yellow card, he would still take off his shirt to celebrate and show off his tattoo to all of Russia!

This is the real Northern Giant Bear!

But first, Chen Hero enjoyed the amazement and praise of his teammates in the locker room.

"Wow! It's really beautiful!"

"So spectacular..."

"Who's the tattoo artist, Hero? I want to get one too..."

"Hero, I bet Advocaat is going to have a headache again, haha!"

"What's there to be afraid of? He only has one yellow card now! I support you, Hero, take off your shirt!"

"That's right, how can you not show off such a beautiful tattoo?"

A group of people gathered around to praise Chen Hero's tattoo, greatly satisfying his vanity.

Ahahaha!

He smiled, already looking forward to the shock that the giant bear on his back would bring to others when he took off his shirt after scoring!

I guess it will be on the front page of the newspaper again the next day?

This time, the humiliation that Winnie the Pooh brought to him will finally be washed away!

——Turns out that's what he was thinking…

※※※

But fate loves to play tricks on people.

Just when Chen Hero couldn't wait to score a goal and show off his new tattoo, the goal was slow to come.

In the weekend's game against Rostov, Chen Hero was drenched in sweat, but he still couldn't score.

Saint Petersburg Zenit relied on Dominguez's goal in the forty-fifth minute and Arshavin's goal in the ninetieth minute to defeat Rostov 2-0 at home, continuing to hold the top spot in the league.

But Chen Hero seemed very frustrated.

Because he didn't score a single goal, he had no chance to show off his tattoo in the game.

In fact, he could also naturally take off his jersey after the game, which would naturally reveal the tattoo on his back, and it would still cause a sensation the next day.

But he didn't want to do that. He wanted to reveal the tattoo after scoring a goal. Nothing else could make him proudly show off this giant bear tattoo to others except for scoring a goal!

Chen Hero's stubborn temper flared up. He was going to fight this damn luck to the end today!

※※※

Chen Hero didn't score, but it made the media's eyes light up—their noses, comparable to dogs, smelled a different scent in the noisy and even fanatical atmosphere of Petrovsky Stadium...

Two consecutive rounds without scoring? When was the last time this happened?

It was exactly when Chen Hero was in a slump last season and was plagued by a goal drought!

Could this also be a goal drought?

Those media who had been looking for opportunities to criticize Chen Hero were excited—was the opportunity coming!

Denisov also seemed very regretful that Chen Hero didn't score. He had personally watched how that tattoo was born, and he even looked forward to Chen Hero taking off his jersey and showing the giant bear to everyone like Chen Hero did...

So at the end of the game, he looked at the frustrated Chen Hero and slapped him hard on the back.

Chen Hero was slapped and looked back.

Denisov smiled at him: "Don't be discouraged, Hero. There are plenty of opportunities! The league is only halfway through."

Chen Hero forced a smile, it was obvious that he was still disappointed.

In the end, he really wrapped his body tightly, without revealing a trace of the tattoo.

※※※

After the game, the media began to question and criticize Chen Hero.

They believed that his poor performance was related to his frequent visits to nightclubs.

This was an old topic, and Chen Hero had already slapped them in the face once before. But the media seemed to have a bad memory. As long as Chen Hero's performance was slightly off, they would say it was related to going to nightclubs.

Hero was too lazy to argue with them—actually, it was because he didn't know how to argue with the media. When the media controlled the discourse, they could attack whoever they wanted, and whoever they said was in poor condition was in poor condition. On the media level, Chen Hero didn't have a single "partner." Even the media in Saint Petersburg would only unanimously help Chen Hero when they were fighting with the Moscow media. At other times, they were very opportunistic—if you performed well, they would praise you, and if you performed poorly, they would scold you. There was no ambiguity at all.

The media could fire at will in their own territory, but Chen Hero lacked the weapons to fight back in a timely manner—he could only respond when he was interviewed by reporters next time. For example, if newspaper A scolded him, he would fight back in media B. Or he would wait until the weekend and slap people in the face with practical actions in the league.

That's all he could do.

The tattoo was done, and he had time. He used almost all of this time for instance training. He was only halfway to leveling up, and he needed about 230,000 experience.

※※※

While Chen Hero was sweating profusely in the instance, being trained to the point of exhaustion, European football was in the most exciting season—the transfer season.

The summer of 2007 did not produce any sensational transfers. Henry's departure from Arsenal, where he had played for many years, to join Barcelona was a new adventure for an old player in pursuit of a Champions League dream, but in the rumors that Arsenal "only sign players over thirty-one for one year," it was more like a ruthless purge. For the sake of a Champions League dream, he abandoned the glory of being the King of Highbury, and Wenger's resolute defense of Highbury's leader was also regrettable. All Arsenal fans, no matter how reluctant they were, could only let him leave. Last year, Arsenal was closest to winning the Champions League, but they lost to Barcelona. It's hard to say whether Henry's idea of going to Barcelona existed after that final.

Robben's transfer from Chelsea to Real Madrid seemed a bit sudden, but it wasn't that sensational. Robben had been plagued by injuries for a long time, which greatly affected his condition and reputation. Not many people thought that Real Madrid had made a successful deal with his transfer, because—if Robben became a glass man at Real Madrid, Chelsea might secretly laugh.

The other giants' transfers were uneventful, all thunder and no rain, filled with all kinds of soap operas.

Those teams in the mainstream European football scene only focused on Western Europe. Few people would look to Russia. For them, Eastern Europe was far enough, and Russia, which spanned Europe and Asia, was simply a barren land!

Chen Hero thought that Arshavin, who was very powerful in his opinion, had already won the Russian Player of the Year award twice. Shouldn't he be very famous?

But in fact, only a small number of people in Europe knew of his existence, and they still had doubts about his strength.

For the European continent, Russia has always been a closed world, and Russian football is naturally the same. Being powerful there doesn't mean being powerful here, and being famous there is just a mediocre person here.

These European teams' negligence or prejudice made them lose the opportunity to get a strong center forward in advance.

And Chen Hero continued to lie dormant in this "barren land," waiting for an opportunity to amaze the world and scare everyone.

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ps, I've been out all day today, so please wait for me to get back to deal with the monthly ticket bonus~ Let's see how many chapters I owe by then...

I wish you all a happy reading~

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