Chapter 1 A New Task

In the days after the Ballon d'Or ceremony, the media's main focus was on the winner, Messi. Barcelona and Argentina fans were ecstatic, saying that Messi was only missing a World Cup title to become the third king of football after Pelé and Maradona, and even as he was now, he was worthy of the crown, beyond dispute.

Real Madrid and Portugal fans continued to claim that Ronaldo was more well-rounded than Messi… and firmly believed that Real Madrid, under Mourinho's leadership, would one day end Barcelona's dominance. The task of defending the Earth, maintaining world peace and justice, could only be accomplished by Real Madrid.

Chinese fans were divided into two factions, one believing that Messi was the best in the world and deserved the European Ballon d'Or. The other believed that Messi's Ballon d'Or win was purely a case of "when the cat's away, the mice will play." If Chen Hero could participate in the Champions League, even if he continued to stay at Napoli, Messi wouldn't have stood a chance last season.

Honestly, Messi's award did provoke Chen Hero, but not by Messi himself, but by those media outlets.

Chen Hero couldn't possibly curse them one by one, he didn't have that kind of patience and energy. He could only choose a symbol, and Messi naturally became that symbol. So Chen Hero was essentially transferring his hatred for those media outlets onto Messi.

The saying that one brain-dead fan is worth ten haters exists for this very reason. What's more, it was far more than just one brain-dead fan?

After Messi won the award, the world media praised him, believing that Messi deserved it, was the strongest in the world of football today, and that he was already ten streets ahead of second-place Cristiano Ronaldo. As for Chen Hero, he was just a flash in the pan, unable to even compete in the Champions League with Liverpool…

In short, in these media articles, the praise for Messi had reached its peak. Whether Messi could be surpassed was hard to say for now, but at the very least, their praise for Messi might never be surpassed…

These praises disgusted Chen Hero. Because they praised Messi, fine, but they had to praise Messi by belittling others, which he couldn't stand, let alone that Chen Hero himself was among those they belittled.

Damn it! Just because I didn't participate in the Champions League last season? You look down on me so much! You're so blind!

Wait until I return to the Champions League, I'll definitely show you!

No matter how many times he said "I'm stronger than Messi" in the media, no one would believe him, and many people would even laugh at him for being an idiot. The best way, and the most powerful way, was to defeat Messi on the football field.

There were many ways to defeat Messi, including defeating him in a direct confrontation, like in the 2010-2011 Champions League final, where he defeated Messi in the Champions League final, defeated Barcelona, and lifted the European Champions Cup.

There was also the indirect way of defeating him, such as breaking Messi's record of eighteen goals in the Champions League.

This was an era of breaking records. Cristiano Ronaldo was even able to score fifty-one league goals in a single season. Since the rise of Messi and Ronaldo, scoring goals had really become like grinding stats, meaningless except for the numbers. When the top scorers of other leagues were still fighting for the league's top scorer with more than twenty goals, La Liga had already entered a realm where you wouldn't even dare to greet your neighbors if you didn't score at least fifty goals.

In the past, in a season of the Champions League, scoring ten goals would make you the top scorer. Raúl, the top scorer in Champions League history, also accumulated his achievements over many seasons, with Real Madrid participating in the Champions League every year. Now it had become an era where Messi could score eighteen goals in a season, and in a few seasons he could completely crush Raúl and Inzaghi.

So, don't think that scoring eighteen Champions League goals in a season seems like a lot now, who knows if someone will break this record in two or three seasons?

Moreover, Chen Hero had always been particularly confident in his scoring ability.

If Messi can score eighteen goals in a season, why can't I score twenty?

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Chen Hero's desire to defeat Messi was still a bit distant, at least it couldn't be done right now. He didn't even have the chance to compete with Messi—he was in the Premier League, Messi was in La Liga. He was in the Europa League, Messi was in the Champions League.

He could only focus on playing well in the domestic league and the Europa League first.

However, because of this dissatisfaction, Chen Hero received a new task—"Arch-Rival." This task was very, very, very long, almost lasting until the end of his career.

The task description was as follows: "You feel unhappy about being overshadowed, this is a very normal mentality, because no successful player can be without a competitive spirit. Messi is undoubtedly the number one player in the world of football today, he is talented and has an invincible team to help him. Choosing him as an opponent is not a wise choice, but if you must challenge him, this will be a long and thrilling and fulfilling game. If you fail, you actually won't lose anything, being the second best in the world is also a very good achievement. But if you succeed, you will reap countless honors, achievements and prestige. You will become the number one in the world, you will become a true football hero!"

The duration of the task was… seven years!

Messi was born in 1987, while Chen Hero was born in 1988, so the two can be said to be of similar age.

Seven years later, Messi would be thirty-two years old, and Chen Hero would be thirty-one years old. Both of them would be entering the end of their careers, and their state and physical fitness would definitely start to decline gradually, so the results after that would be meaningless. Because the world of football would definitely not be their era anymore.

So these seven years were the peak period of Messi and Chen Hero's careers, the golden age.

In these seven years, Messi and Chen Hero were at their peak in terms of physical fitness and competitive state, and they could win many, many championships and honors.

However, this task was not about comparing the number of championships and honors in these seven years. Instead, Chen Hero had to surpass Messi in the number of championships and individual honors in these seven years to become the undisputed number one in the world of football.

This was very unfair to Chen Hero. Because before this, Messi had already won countless honors, and he was far ahead of Chen Hero.

In terms of team honors, he had won the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship; the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games football championship; the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup; the UEFA Champions League three times, namely in the 2005-2006 season, 2008-2009 season, and 2011-2012 season; the La Liga championship five times; the Copa del Rey twice; the Spanish Super Cup three times; and the UEFA Super Cup twice.

In terms of individual honors, there were even more. He had the Golden Boot and Golden Ball of the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship;

In 2006, he won the FIFPro Young Player of the Year award, the European Golden Boy award, the World Soccer World Young Player of the Year award, and the UEFA Champions League Young Player of the Year award;

In 2007, he won the UEFA Goal of the Year award, the Argentine Footballer of the Year, the La Liga Best Latin American Player, the La Liga Team of the Year, the FIFPro Young Player of the Year, and the World Soccer World Young Player of the Year award;

In 2008, the Argentine Footballer of the Year and the European Silver Ball award;

2009 was his year of harvest. He successively won the FIFPro World Player of the Year award, the World Soccer magazine's World Player of the Year award, the FIFA Club World Cup Golden Ball award, the UEFA Best Player (Champions League MVP), the Champions League top scorer, the La Liga Best Player, the Copa del Rey top scorer, the Argentine Footballer of the Year, the La Liga Best Latin American Player, the Marca Leyenda award, the European Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year;

In 2010, he won the FIFA Ballon d'Or, the FIFPro World Player of the Year award, the European Golden Shoe, the La Liga Best Player, the La Liga top scorer, the Argentine Footballer of the Year, the La Liga Best Latin American Player, the Marca Leyenda award;

In 2011, the FIFA Ballon d'Or, the La Liga Best Player, the Copa del Rey top scorer, the Marca Leyenda award;

In 2012, he had already won the UEFA Golden Ball award, the Champions League Best Player, the Best Scorer, the Marca Leyenda award… He believed that this year's FIFA Ballon d'Or would definitely still be his.

With team honors plus individual honors, Messi had already won sixty-two honors at the age of twenty-five, which could be described as a body of honor.

And what about Chen Hero?

First of all, he hadn't played in a single national competition. Even if he did, with the strength of the Chinese national team, there was no hope of winning any important championships. So Chen Hero had already lost in terms of national team honors, he had zero.

In terms of team honors, he had one Russian Premier League title, one Serie A title, one UEFA Cup title, one Champions League title, and one English League Cup title. Only five titles.

He had slightly more individual honors: 2007 Russian Premier League top scorer and Russian Premier League Best Player; 2008 Russian Premier League top scorer, Best Player, and UEFA Cup top scorer; In 2009, he won a Serie A top scorer, Serie A Best Player and Best Foreign Player; In 2010, he won the Champions League top scorer and Serie A top scorer, Serie A Best Player and Serie A Best Foreign Player, as well as the China Central Television (CCtv) Sports Personality of the Year award; 2011 was a year of great harvest for him, Serie A top scorer, Champions League top scorer, Champions League Best Player and European Ballon d'Or, Serie A Best Player and Best Foreign Player, Cctv Sports Personality of the Year; In 2012, he won the Premier League top scorer and the English League Cup top scorer, and the Premier League Player of the Year award voted by the English Football Writers' Association.

Chen Hero also only had twenty-three individual honors.

Adding team honors and individual honors, he only had a mere twenty-eight, almost three times less than Messi.

The gap between the two was huge.

When Chen Hero saw this task, he was stunned, and then realized the problem—he was too far behind!

He called Dekula to ask if this task was really not a joke.

Dekula told him very seriously that it was not.

"Damn it, I'm thirty-four behind him! How can I catch up? Isn't this a guaranteed loss?" Chen Hero roared on the other end of the phone.

Dekula patiently explained to him: "Some honors are actually unique honors that you can get and he can't, such as the FIFA Ballon d'Or, the World Soccer World Player of the Year, and the UEFA Golden Ball, Champions League top scorer… So as long as you are good enough, you can snatch the honors that originally belonged to him, so you will have more, and his will increase more slowly, right?"

Chen Hero thought about it, and it seemed to be true… No!

"That's not enough! How many championships are there in a year? He can still grind La Liga championships, Copa del Rey championships, top scorers and best players in La Liga, and those messy awards…"

Dekula smiled: "Isn't it good to have difficulty?"

Chen Hero was stunned.

"Didn't you notice that the difficulty of the task is red? If there is no difficulty, what is the point of the existence of this kind of task? The system will definitely not give you a task to surpass Heskey, right?"

"Uh, that's true… Okay, okay, also, I'm asking you what is the 'FIFA Legend Award' in the task rewards? How come I've never heard of it?"

"Well, there is indeed no such award now. But after you complete the task, seven years later, maybe FIFA will add such an award."

"Designed specifically for me?"

"Why not?"

Chen Hero began to imagine that scene, letting FIFA set up an award specifically for himself, which would be a complete conquest of FIFA, right? The thought of the humiliation he had suffered made him particularly excited.

He chuckled on the other end of the phone.

"So you've decided to do this task?" Dekula understood when he heard his laughter.

"Of course, I definitely want to do something that is so difficult and fulfilling!"

"But you are thirty-four honors behind him…" Now it was Dekula's turn to persuade Chen Hero to think clearly.

"What are you afraid of! I'm only twenty-four years old, I'll fight desperately to win everything I can win before I'm thirty-one!"

Chen Hero clenched his right fist, as if he really held the many championships and honors in his hand.