Short, Light, Free - Chapter 165: The Book of Revelation III

Eric Maddox, a 70-year-old American retired football coach once hailed for his tactical brilliance, now forgotten by time—closes his eyes for what he believes is a normal nap in his quiet Florida retirement home.But when he opens them, he's not staring at ceiling tiles, instead, he's on a touchline.Wearing boots in the rain.With players running on the pitch, fans jeering behind barriers, and the smell of cheap turf pellets in the air.“What the hell is this?”He’s twenty-five again, but it’s not Earth. It’s a world where football reigns supreme. A world where the sport is religion, its practitioners, deities in cleats. Coaches are revered, players are worshipped, and even the kit man gets treated like royalty.But there's one catch: none of it is familiar. The clubs, the players, the leagues, the competitions, and even the currency—they're all different. Alien. Like waking up in a dream where the rules are the same, but the language is foreign.As if that wasn’t enough, the body he’s now in? A youth coach with a laughable win record, a looming divorce, and a measly fifty thousand in the bank that his ex-wife is fighting tooth and nail to take. All of it.Just when the spiral seems inevitable, a monotone chime pierces the noise.[Initiating Golden Finger…][…45%… 75%… 100%][System Integration Complete.][Welcome, host. You are now bound to the Pro Manager System. Objective: Dominate the Football World. A new era begins]From washed-up has-been to chosen one of destiny, Eric Maddox is about to trade arthritis pills for tactical boards, and shuffleboard for Prestigious Cup glory.Because in this world, tactics are power.And on this touchline, he’s about to become a god.

After his fall, the Duke who was distant with his wife and daughter recalled his memories of another world. With a new perspective on life, he swore to cherish and protect those two.

Auren was the star of his generation. Graduated the combat school at the age of 12, mental fortitude was beyond his peers, and he was considered the talent of the Western State of Lysendral.It was for this reason that his awakening was greatly anticipated. Everyone was sure the star would receive a Divine Blessing from the Archon.And like others before him, be set on a definite journey to becoming the strongest Blessed in the history of the world.However, expectations were shattered when Auren awakened a Divine… Curse.“Such a phenomenon has never been heard of!”“How can a human awaken a curse! This is an abomination! Kill him! Sacrifice him to the archons!”In such a slight moment of appointment, Auren's entire life came crashing down.And he became a national criminal. Locked up and sentenced to death for having receiving a curse instead of a blessing.A 16 year old boy was ruthlessly killed by a guillotine and offered as a sacrifice to prevent doom… and the people relished in it.However, this was not the end for Auren.[Congratulations, you have died by execution],[Conditions have been met][You have challenged your first fester.][A requiem beckons onto you..][...Your resurrection awaits.]Having broken the shackles of death, Auren rises again to seek vengeance and destroy not just the nation that had killed him but tear down the very existence of the archons themselves.But is everything really as it seems?

On his wedding day, they killed his soon-to-be wife and the vast majority of her family.He watched a drunken Interstellar Beast Master and his Beast rip apart those he knew as if they were paper.But the next day, everything was covered up.They were told that it was all an accident.No matter what he did, he was told again and again that it was just an accident. An accident with casualties that occurred while a heroic Beast Master was saving people in the line of duty and there were just a few casualties.But he was there, he saw the glee of the drunken Beast Master as he and its creature rampaged!But in Vael’nir, a world where interstellar Beast Masters were considered Guardians who protected the masses from Entropic Beasts and Vagrant Beast Masters, getting any justice or revenge for his wife and her family was going to be an impossibility.What could he, a weak human do against the terrifying Interstellar Beast Masters- some who were so powerful that they participated in wars in space and could travel to neighboring Colony Planets with their bodies alone?He only had his rage and anger as he memorized the face of the Interstellar Beast Master that destroyed everything he held.He was powerless to do anything until one day…a light fell from the skies and hit him, and he found a small six-tailed fox curled around his body when he woke up.A Beast.A Beast unlike any others he had ever heard of before.And just maybe…a possibility for revenge!—#Dark Fantasy, #Sci-fi, #Ruthless, #Beast Taming, #Cybernetic Humans…and more