Defiance of the Fall - Chapter 1: Roll For Survival

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.

In the Sky Sword Continent there are thousands of sects and strong cultivators as common as trees. In order to prevent his older sister from being forcefully married off, Lu Xuan had no choice to but to unceasingly cultivate and enter a sect to ask for a favor. By chance, a sword-shaped crystal of mysterious origins entered into Lu Xuan’s body, containing countless top-class martial skills, powerful martial arts, and everything you could wish for! A martial legend starts here…

The world had shown Baines every possible lesson it could teach; from familial love, joy, and peace to hate, rage, betrayal, and pain.He got detached from his family by the wimps of others.But, before he began his journey to find them, he was forced to witness that scene that haunted him once more. The destruction of his home.He was about to give up on life when an unforeseen opportunity presented itself.There, he vowed, “The world will bleed for what it has done to me.”Using the greatest collections gathered by his ancestors, he set out on the thorny path to revenge.Little did he know, the result of his actions followed other cascading events that then threatened his world.Does he refuse to help the world because of the pain it had caused him? Or, will he join in the destruction?

– The planet [Earth] has entered the abnormal state [Apocalypse].