Rise of a Football God

Life without Sam… was hard.

The Fulham players learned this in the next few days in training as they got prepared to take it up from where Sam dropped them at.

They were determined to salvage the situation and prove to Sam that the team could function even without him, but it was hard.

Only when he was not around did they fully grasp what Sam brought to the team. Not even his ability on the pitch, but his energy, his mamba spirit.

When Sam was around, the Fulham players felt endless energy to perform simply because of Sam's energy and the joy that he attributed to training.

Around him, they derived joy from training and giving their all.

Around him, they derived pleasure from pushing themselves to the limit, preparing as best as they could for games and performing the same way in games, but with the Nigerian Zidane gone this suddenly became a job again.

It was no longer as enjoyable, rather, training returned to what it was before, a job that they had to attend to due to their contract as professional football players.

The Fulham players knew that this thinking was negative and harmful, they knew that it was bad but it was easier than said to just change it.

They were struggling to cope already without Sam.

(Premier league:)

(Fulham – Bournemouth)

(Date: 29th December, 2024)

…

(EFL Cup Quarter final:)

(Crystal Palace – Fulham)

(Date: 2nd January, 2025)

Fulham's next 2 games were important games, 1 in the premier league and the other in the EFL Cup.

Fulham was still in the running for the 3 competitions that they played in this season, the premier league, the EFL Cup, and the FA Cup.

After narrowly clawing their way through the third round by beating Preston, they welcomed Arsenal at home in a blockbuster encounter on October 30th.

In that game, Sam was an unused sub as even without his help, Raul Jimenez took the game by the scruff of the neck, scoring a hattrick after being subbed on in the second half to doom Arsenal to a 3-1 defeat.

After that game, they progressed to the quarter finals. The quarter final clash of the EFL Cup was supposed to take place this month but due to extreme weather conditions, the game was postponed to 2nd of January.

On the wake of Sam's injury, these 2 games were the priority that the Fulham squad focused on, determined to get good results from.

Despite the situation, Coach Marco Silva tried his best to salvage it, pushing his team to train to the best of their ability in preparation for it.

While this happened, Sam also faced his own problems in the hospital.

…

After 2 days, Sam finally had his ankle surgery but before that, he spent some time with his system to determine certain things.
Your next chapter is on empire

First things first, Sam had no intentions of staying on the sidelines for 4 months, he would rather die!

And luckily for him, unlike any other professional football player in the world, he actually had an alternative.

This was why he sought it before the surgery.

~----~

[Daily system quest; Mentality Monster has been suspended until you are fit to run again!]

[WARNING: The quest was only suspended, not waived, which means you will run the laps that you're skipping now plus the ones in the future when you're finally fit to run again!]

…

Sam almost choked on the tea that Kayla served him when he saw this notification but managing to hold himself on time and muttering a curse, he finally navigated to the part of his system that he wanted.

Some time ago, after he hit the milestone of 1 year since he started completing his daily system quest, his system gave him crazy rewards.

One of the rewards was the high-grade vitality elixir that actually managed to improve his pace, and the other was the high-grade physical conditioning elixir.

Though he already consumed the high-grade vitality elixir, he kept the other, saving it for scenarios exactly like what he currently found himself in.

And now, he wanted to know the effects it would have on his recovery time if he ingested the high-grade physical conditioning elixir after his surgery.

…

[You have accessed your Inventory:]

[Inventory Slot: High-grade physical conditioning elixir]

>High-grade physical conditioning elixir: This is a miraculous elixir that is capable of completely eliminating fatigue, making post-match recovery instantaneous. It also accelerates recovery time from injuries<

…

[If ingested after having your surgery and it was successful, the recovery time from your injury will be reduced by 3/4th]

[Projected injury recovery time: 1 month]

~----~

That was all that Sam needed to see to go through with it.

In 2 days when he finally had the surgery, he entered the theater with confidence, totally relaxed as he was put to sleep, enabling the surgeons to do their work and they did it perfectly.

Throughout, Kayla was a nerve wreck as she watched her boyfriend's leg being dissected and worked on by these surgeons from outside.

In the end though, it was a successful surgery.

The surgeons recommended for Sam to spend 5 days recuperating in the hospital before being discharged and Sam did just that like an obedient patient.

During this time though, on the night after his surgery when Kayla already slept at his bedside and the CCTV camera could not see him, Sam finally did it, ingesting the high-grade physical conditioning elixir.

Immediately after he ingested it, Sam regretted not waiting for a better time to take it as he almost screamed in pain.

Unlike when he ingested the high-grade vitality elixir and he felt a hot burning sensation course through his body, this time it was raw physical pain as he felt like holy hands were massaging his body, not just his body but his bones too!

Because he was injured, it was painful and it was even more painful when this massage finally concentrated on his leg.

It took all of his willpower for Sam not to scream and wake up Kayla.

At the end of it all, he was left sweating profusely and eventually, his system lit up with a new notification.

Staring at the notification, Sam grinned.

~----~

[You have ingested a high-grade physical conditioning elixir!]

[Your physical constitution has…]

~----~