Rise of a Football God

Chapter 332  Origin [1]

"Umm…, are you sure you want to follow me out today?"

Kayla stayed down, tying her shoe laces. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you've never jogged alongside me before. Besides, I don't ever recall seeing you jog, so why the sudden change in heart?"

After tying her shoe laces, Kayla rose up, directing a suspicious gaze at her boyfriend as she leaned towards him intimidatingly.

"…"

Speechlessly, Sam swallowed. "What?!"

"Are you hiding something from me?"

"W-what…? Of course, no".

"Do you have a side chick?"

"Hah, ridiculous! You should know best".

"Hehe," she chuckled. "So why are you shy to let me jog with you?"

"Am I overweight?"

"No".

"Then let's go jog!"

Sam sighed exasperatedly, in the end, he let her follow him.

…

Few minutes later…

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The boyfriend and girlfriend pair strained their lungs as Sam taught her how to control her breathing. Like this, they jogged through the streets of Maitama, Nigeria without stopping.

In the end, Sam was left impressed.

Despite this being the first time that he ever saw his girlfriend jog, Kayla did not complain once as she was able to keep up with him.

In the end, he commended her. "Impressive!"

Kayla grinned. "Now, let's go to the gym. You go to the gym too, right?"

Sam's eyes widened. "You want to go to the gym too?"

"Of course," she grinned smugly. "I'm following you everywhere today".

A few minutes later, when they entered the gym in Maitama, Sam and his girlfriend's entrance caused a frenzy in the state-of-the-art gym.

Maitama was one of the biggest districts in Nigeria where the richest Nigerians and foreign delegates reside. But even here, due to Sam's recent status, his mere entrance was able to turn this gym into a bubble of excitement.

Both white and black men in the gym, none discriminated as they swarmed him, asking for pictures and autographs.

'Even here?' Sam sighed.

This was not his first time coming to this gym.

After buying a mansion here in Maitama for his parents, he paid for the gym's yearly registration, giving him free pass to the gym for 1 straight year.

Anytime he visited Nigeria, this gym was where he completed his daily system quest and then, despite the fact that he was already famous, the people at the gym were no country bums so they only greeted him haphazardly.

They never saw him as someone that was overly special.

It was one of the reasons why Sam loved visiting the gym, coming here made him feel like a normal human again and not a celebrity.

To think that even this would change.

'Story of my life'. He sighed again.

Well, it was inevitable.

After the last 2 Nigerian international games, and the superhero role that Sam played in lifting his dreary country from doom to the FIFA World Cup 2026, to Nigerians, he truly was a superhero now.

His fame in the country hit an all-time high and now, even these guys in the gym wanted a piece of him.

Not just the men, the women too.

And this was the true reason why Kayla followed her boyfriend out.

After the game against Benin Republic, as his social media handler, she knew exactly how much his fame increased in Nigeria, including how desperate Nigerian girls suddenly became to steal her boyfriend.

This was why she followed him out today as a safeguard.

Right there at the gym, the girls tried to flock over him, trying to rub their huge breasts all over him but one glare from Kayla and Sam regained his senses.

Politely, he pushed them away, emphasizing the need to respect his privacy.

Kayla nodded, satisfied. "Good boy".

And like that, she also registered for the gym alongside her boyfriend as together, they went through the motions, working out.

Dozens of minutes later, drenched in sweat, Kayla chugged down a bottle of water with a bright smile on her face. "Working out once in a while is not so bad".

"I feel light".

Sam nodded. "That's why I love working out".

At that moment, his system finally lit up with a notification.

~----~

[You have completed Daily System Quest: Mentality Monster!]

[You have received a low-grade physical conditioning elixir!]

…

But to Sam's surprise, the notification did not stop at that.

More notifications followed with content that surprised him.

…

[Congratulations! You have completed a hidden system mission: I am ready!]

[You have met the requirements to receive the inheritance, 'Origin']

[Click the heart-shaped orb to learn the 'Origin' of the system!]

~----~

"…"

"…"

"…..!"

Sam's eyes grew so wide that they almost seemed like saucers.

"Hey, are you ok?" Kayla asked in concern on noticing his strange reaction.

"Me? Oh, I'm ok". Sam lied.

After they were done at the gym, they left but not after the gym instructor secretly asked for an autograph and a picture which Sam obliged.

Without a doubt, this guy was going to use that picture as publicity for his gym. The caption will be something like; this is a gym that even the great Samuel Moses comes to work out, what are you waiting for?

You want to be like Samuel Moses? Register now!

Sam cringed at the idea but he chuckled and quickly forgot about it.

He and his girlfriend strolled back home, enjoying the morning breeze and conversing about different topics as they used the opportunity to bond.

Despite their conversations though, Kayla could not help but notice something about her boyfriend. The casual person would not notice but having spent so much time with him already, she knew.

"Is something on your mind?"

"No, of course not".

She sighed, shaking her head. "Every time that you lie, you rush to say something. You just rushed to say this". She looked at him.

"Ah…"

"It's fine if you don't want to tell me," she waved her hand dismissively. "You have your own considerations and I respect it".

"Anyways," she suddenly looked at him with cute puppy eyes, making Sam flinch back in surprise.

"What? Are you saying you can't piggy ride your girlfriend?"

"What? I don't like those eyes".

Kayla chuckled. "Come on babe, it's nothing, I just want you to piggy ride me".

"…" Sam stared speechlessly at his girlfriend.

"What? Are you saying you can't piggy ride your girlfriend?"

"…"

"Babe please! My legs are tired and wobbly".

"Hahahaha!" Sam burst out laughing the next moment, making Kayla punch him playfully in grievance.

In the end, he obliged after mocking her some more.

Picking her up effortlessly and letting her mount his back, Sam started jogging again, this time with his girlfriend.

"Wow, you really are strong!" She exclaimed.

"Are you just knowing?" He chuckled.

With Kayla on his back, jogging, they no longer spoke as she didn't want him to run out of breath. Sam finally used this opportunity to start thinking.

'The origin of the system?'

'Was that message for real or was it a glitch?'

For the longest time now, Sam had worried about the origin of his system. And he was not the only one who worried, his father was also worried, concerned that rising so fast with the help of the system had side effects.

At the moment, both of them, father and son were looking for ways to explain the existence of the system.

Sam never expected that the system would decide to reveal its origin to him one day, he could not wait.

He could not wait to access the secrets and origin of the system!

Increasing his pace, he quickly jogged home and took his bath alongside his girlfriend. As soon as they ate and returned back to the bedroom, Kayla fell asleep on his lap immediately, giving him some much-needed privacy.

With his girlfriend sleeping soundly in his lap, Sam finally focused on his system.

At this moment, opening the system, he saw a green heart-shaped orb hovering before him in place of the interface.

After taking a deep breath, Sam clicked on the heart-shaped orb, and then…

BZZZ!

His consciousness left his body.

…

Blink!

Sam's consciousness woke up inside an unfamiliar world.

At this moment, he seemed to be hovering in the air like a ghost, looking down on what seemed like an office room set in the Victorian era.

This office was a masterful blend of chaos and genius, more of a workshop-laboratory than a traditional office.

The space was dimly lit, illuminated by oil lamps and sunlight filtering through a small window, casting flickering shadows on the stone walls.

The air carried the scent of parchment, ink, oil, and metallic tangs from what seemed like engineering experiments.

At the center, a large wooden worktable was cluttered with sketches, anatomical drawings, and architectural plans. Stacks of parchment filled with mirror-written notes were scattered among open books on mathematics, engineering, and philosophy.

A quill and inkwell sat nearby, next to a small glass vials of pigments.

Against one wall, wooden shelves overflowed with reference texts and hand-bound notebooks, their pages brimming with notes on flight, hydraulics, and anatomy.

Another corner housed anatomical models, a partially dissected cadaver under a cloth!

Sam shuddered. 'Where is this?'

'Where am I?'

'Who is that?!'

He finally looked at the middle-aged man who was seated, reading one of the books with the illumination of the oil lamps. @@novelbin@@

In that moment, a familiar interface appeared before Sam.

~----~

*Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)

*Peak Period: 1480s – 1519 (40 years)

*Genius Areas: Art, engineering, anatomy, invention

[Identity: First carrier of the system…]

~----~