Soulforged: The Fusion Talent - Chapter 17: The Sound in the Fog

Forget history. Forget legacy. Forget passion.The future of football is a formula, and eighteen-year-old Michael Sterling is about to prove it.While his father, Richard, clings to the romantic, decaying dream of their beloved Northwood FC, Michael sees only one thing: failure.The club is a joke, staring down the barrel of relegation with a wage bill that could bankrupt a small nation.His solution? Sell. His father's? A lecture about the club's “soul.”Mocked by his friends and infuriated by his father's refusal to face reality, Michael snaps.He’s done trying to fix the past; he's going to build the future.Liquidating his lavish lifestyle, he gambles everything he has on a radical experiment: to create a football club run purely by logic.He'll scout with algorithms, sign players based on statistical value, and manage with cold, calculated strategy. He’s building a machine designed for one purpose: to dominate.This is the story of a young genius who declares war on the old ways, determined to build an empire so successful it will force his father, and the entire football world, to admit he was right.Can a club without a soul conquer the beautiful game?

By the coast, a hundred-meter Star Gate shimmered with flowing light.Beyond the Star Gate, an army forged of steel stretched as far as the eye could see.Above the Sky Dome, squadrons of fighter jets streaked across, weaving an iron curtain.In the distant ocean, scores of aircraft carriers, destroyers, and frigates dotted the seascape, ready for action.All cannons were aimed at the figure who emerged from the Star Gate.“In the name of the Federation Command Center, I order you to stand down, or what awaits you is total war,” said the voice.“War?”Gu Jinlai took a step forward, and his form swelled against the wind, in an instant growing from less than two meters tall to a colossal Chaos Demon God thousands of kilometers high, emitting the brilliance of a white dwarf star from his being, his own gravity causing thunder and lightning, as well as tsunamis and tides within a thousand-mile radius.He looked down...At the war weapons that seemed like toys.He reached out, and a hydrogen bomb fell into his hand.Within him, the electron-degenerate star core released Helium, Helium elements expanded, and the terrifying high temperature instantly caused Deuterium and Tritium, Hydrogen's isotopes, to fuse, the energy bursting forth, forming a blazing white brilliance on the ocean's surface that was like igniting a sun.Before this sun's energy could be released, he clapped his hands together, and the dazzling white, mixed with heat in the billions of degrees, was compressed and sealed within his palms, not a fragment escaping.“I think, you should choose peace.” he suggested.

“Are you still going to run away?”“No, not anymore.”He loved her to the point of paranoia, a compulsion that penetrated his bones and was impossible to cure.“Babe, you can only smile at me.”“Babe, I’ll get you everything you like.”After getting revived, Qin Shu’s eyes were as bright as snow and she had high intelligence. She held on to her handsome and rich husband, refusing to let go, devoting herself to protecting and pampering him. She worked hard to become stronger so that she could stand shoulder to shoulder with him.Before her revival, Qin Shu believed the words of her younger sister. She hated him, blamed him, and devised a thousand ways to run away from him.Yet, he loved her deeply, pampered her with all his heart, and allowed her to behave atrociously.

The Synders and Thornes had always been the closest of friends. So when Kyra Thorne and James Synders both lost their parents in an accident, twenty-year-old James swore to protect ten-year-old Kyra as though he were her uncle.Twelve years later, Kyra had not only blossomed into a beautiful woman, but she also could no longer ignore the feelings she’d developed for James at nineteen. After three years of struggling to suppress them, she was finally ready to confess.However, what Kyra didn’t know was that James had long discovered her feelings—and had devised the cruelest way to reject her.But, what happened when James unintentionally crossed a line?One thing was certain: Kyra Thorne always got even, even if it meant destroying them both.