Chapter 53 – Between Breaths
The city stirred with weekday routine as Thiago slipped out of the dormitory before sunrise, the soles of his training shoes whispering against the concrete path. The world was still half-asleep—street vendors hadn’t yet set up their carts, the usual hum of morning traffic was muted, and the sky clung to the last remnants of indigo before surrendering to dawn.
No cameras followed him here. No spotlight tracked his steps as he made his way toward the smaller training pitch, tucked behind the main stadium like a well-kept secret. Just the hum of São Paulo life—the distant rumble of a garbage truck, the occasional bark of a stray dog, the rhythmic clatter of a bakery’s shutters rolling up—and the echo of footsteps that belonged to no one but him.
The morning air held the cool scent of dew and dust, the kind of freshness that only existed in these stolen hours before the sun climbed too high. He inhaled deeply, letting it fill his lungs, grounding himself. His muscles were still recovering from the match—tight, but responsive, like coiled springs waiting to be released. He rolled his shoulders, feeling the faint ache in his deltoids, the lingering stiffness in his hamstrings. Good pain. The kind that reminded him he had pushed himself.
He felt the weight of the performance still clinging to him, not as exhaustion, but residue. Like smoke after a fire. The 3–2 comeback was already being clipped into reels online, framed in headlines, dissected by pundits who hadn’t been there when he’d dug his fingernails into the game and refused to let go. But none of that concerned him now. The noise of the outside world was just that—noise.
Before his first drill, before even tying his boots, he checked the System.
The interface responded to his silent cue, flickering softly into the corner of his vision like the memory of a light he’d never turned off.
SYSTEM STATUS
Level: 15
EXP: 2 / 600
Skill Points Available: 10
Attributes: