Reggio Calabria Cathedral of Our Lady.
Farewell service.
The priest wore a solemn expression.
After the Mass, the guests approached the coffin one after another to pay their respects.
The deceased, Lu Ming, was Chinese, but nearly everyone in attendance was Italian.
As his only relative, Dejan Lu stood beside the coffin to see his uncle off on his final journey.
His parents had died when he was young, and he had been raised by his uncle, who did business in Italy.
He had not expected that even after being reborn in 1988, he would still fail to prevent his uncle from dying in this shipwreck.
Having just turned eighteen, he was currently a connected player on Reggina, a Serie C2 team. Reggina's owner, Bianchi De Rosso, had been his uncle's business partner.
De Rosso had a cousin named Giuseppe Morabito.
He was the head of the Calabrian mafia, gradually replacing the Sicilians, and controlled the production of most of Italy's olive oil.
Ever since Americans discovered that people in the Mediterranean region remained long-lived despite poverty, they had researched the matter and found olive oil to be the secret to longevity. American newspapers and television programs relentlessly promoted olive oil as the key to a long life, and Italian extra virgin olive oil became sought after across the world.
Much of the time, these Calabrians blended it with vegetable oil before selling it, making the profits enormous.
There was a popular saying in Calabria—even a chef from Paris's finest restaurant might not be able to tell real extra virgin olive oil from fake.
His uncle had been in the olive oil business, supplying high-end restaurants in certain parts of Asia.
He was fairly well known in Reggio Calabria.
Even the Morabito family had come today, so naturally, nothing unexpected would happen.
Coastal Calabria often saw rain, yet today was bright and sunny.
The Mediterranean breeze carried the scent of summer.
After the burial at the cemetery.
Quite a few people expressed their condolences to Dejan Lu.
Old Bianchi came over and advised him, "You like football, but football can't stay with you for the rest of your life. Now that you're all alone, you should take over your uncle's business."
"I'll consider it."
Dejan Lu said.
"If you run into any trouble, you can tell me. Lu Ming was my best friend." Old Bianchi shook his head and left after saying that.
In his eyes, Dejan Lu was already an adult, yet he was still chasing an impossible football dream.
But no matter how close they were, he could not arrange another family's child's life for him.
After everyone had left, Dejan Lu glanced at his uncle's headstone before departing.
If he had not loved football, he would never have gone to a Serie C2 team as a connected player.
Under normal circumstances, he really should have taken over his uncle's business. Selling olive oil was highly profitable.
Perhaps that would have been the best choice.
What a pity for the football dream shared by uncle and nephew.
Ding! Successfully activated the If We're Brothers, Let's Play Football System.
The If We're Brothers, Let's Play Football System helps every player who needs brothers.
Activation mission: The future twin stars, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, are gradually beginning to emerge. As an ambitious player, become the brother of Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi and begin your brotherhood football journey. To achieve greatness, you need the strongest brothers! (Receive a beginner's gift pack upon successful completion.)
Dejan Lu: ???
Dejan Lu's head was full of question marks.
He, Lu, had always gotten by outside through having plenty of brothers, so becoming brothers with outstanding future footballers was understandable.
But this was fucking 1988!
Gradually beginning to emerge?
A few years earlier, those two had still been liquid!
One had been born in 1987, and the other in 1985.
They probably could not even speak properly yet. Fuck!
Dejan Lu thought it over again. There was still a chance to complete this mission.
Even if he was not a fan of those two players, as a football fan, he knew their stories fairly well.
Friendships across generations were nothing new.
So what if he liked making friends in kindergarten?
Some people even swore brotherhood in elementary school!
After returning home, Dejan Lu immediately used Bianchi's connections to find a private detective. With their full names, they should not be too difficult to locate.
After taking a few days off, Dejan Lu returned to team training.
Even on this Serie C2 team, he was among the weaker players.
Sports were just that unfair. Even if you trained to the limit, you still could not match some people who merely messed around.
Some talented people could drink every day without training and still make the national team, leaving their mark on football history.
But Dejan Lu did not lose heart.
After all, his talent was there. It simply had not been developed yet.
October 1988.
The team's current form was quite good. At this rate, promotion to Serie B at the end of the season was still possible.
After dinner, Dejan Lu casually turned on the television. The host was reporting football news.
Italian sports programs were not that outrageous yet. They were still fairly serious. A few years later, they would start using scantily clad female sports presenters to attract viewers. That LPL routine had already been played to death in the sports world.
"Having shaken off his injuries, Van Basten has finally displayed the level of a European Footballer of the Year. In the second leg of the first round of the European Champions Cup, he scored four goals to help AC Milan defeat Levski Sofia 5-2. After the match, Paolo Maldini, appearing in the European Champions Cup for the second time, called Basten the best striker in the world... Diego Maradona was photographed frequenting nightclubs. During an interview, his wife Claudia Villi repeatedly said that she believed Diego. Perhaps she was the only person in the world who still believed that Diego..."
This was the golden age of Serie A.
Maradona, the Three Horsemen, the Three Musketeers... Any top team in the Apennines had stars it could proudly show off. Winning the attention of a Serie A club would not be easy.
Chinese fans could be said to have caught the best era of Serie A.
Dejan Lu was exactly eighteen now, so he was not in too much of a hurry.
At worst, he could play in another country first, make it to the European Champions Cup, and attract the attention of Serie A giants through his performances there.
Three years to the European Champions Cup, five years to Serie A—he could completely accept that pace.
But if he wanted to unlock his talent, it still depended on his brother.
Football relied on having lots of brothers.
Just as Dejan Lu stared at the ceiling, the landline at home rang.
He practically pounced on it at once.
There was some static on the other end. The detective complained, "Boss, do you know how hard I worked? To find that Ronaldo you wanted to meet, I spent three months in Madeira... I found him. They say that woman could not afford to raise a child back then, so she tried to abort the boy by drinking and running. That's insane..."
"Yes, that's him!!!"
Dejan Lu said excitedly.
After calming the agitated detective, Dejan Lu immediately called his coach to ask for leave.
The coach did not make things difficult for him.
After all, Dejan Lu was just the team mascot.
Then he rushed to the airport in a frenzy and bought the earliest ticket to Rome.
From Rome, he would fly to Lisbon, then from Lisbon to Casablanca, and finally take a boat from Casablanca to Madeira.
The archipelago was closer to Morocco than to mainland Portugal.
Although the Madeira Islands had an airport, its extremely short runway, heavy rain, and strong winds made it one of Europe's most dangerous airports. Pilots needed special training before flying to Madeira.
Dejan Lu had no desire to gamble with his life.
Being a little slower was fine.
Before his transmigration, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had still been competing. He wondered whether a winner had been decided yet.
He was even looking forward to Trump taking office and leaking a few videos.
America was so large that it could be split into two countries: one USA, one USB.
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