Chapter 77: Prepping for Atalanta
A/N: Alright, so I got a bit of feedback from someone. He said that he doesn’t really use the system and all so from now on, I’m going to make the system more involved. Now there’s a thin line between it being involved and him being too reliant on it so if you feel like the latter is becoming the case, please leave a comment and I’ll work on it.
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Alex left the chairman’s office with a strange mixture of exhaustion and adrenaline coursing through him. His body felt heavy from the long day, his legs still carrying the weight of training drills and shadow formations, but his mind was running laps. Fast ones. That meeting had stirred something, not fear, but a sense of magnitude. He had just been handed the keys to something bigger than himself. Something that, if handled right, could outlive him at Lecce.
As he stepped into his car, the interior still warm from sitting under the sun, he didn’t even bother turning on the radio. He needed silence. Not the kind that echoed, but the kind that cleared room. His hands tightened around the wheel as he drove, windows cracked just enough to let the breeze whistle through. Lecce passed by his windows in quiet, soft blurs, buildings soaked in the orange hue of a late afternoon.
By the time he got home, the sun was brushing against the horizon. He stepped through the door, kicked it shut behind him, and dropped his keys on the kitchen counter with a metallic clink. His apartment was quiet, still, like it had been waiting for him to come home all day.
He didn’t go to the fridge. Didn’t change clothes. Didn’t even take his shoes off.
Instead, he walked straight to the living room. Past the bookshelf filled with matchday journals, past the framed photo of his last professional goal, past the untouched couch cushions. He stopped in the center of the room, not sitting, not pacing, just standing there like a man waiting for a verdict.
Then he slapped his forehead lightly, as if reminding himself he’d left the stove on.
"Right... System."
[Ding!]
There it was.