Leveling Up through Eating - Chapter 142 - Ballad’s Cup, Shabu

Lin Jie, a transmigrator, is the owner of a bookstore in another world.

If the gods no longer bestow their mercy, then let us kindle bonfires, carry great swords, become skeletons, or heroes of legend.

Rio Lance is a Ferrari engine with square wheels.He can run the 100 meters in 10.8 seconds, but he possesses the ball control of a traffic cone.In the ruthless world of Spanish football, he’s a “kick-and-run” merchant destined for the Sunday leagues.But fate has a different transfer deadline day in mind.With Girona FC bleeding out in the La Liga relegation zone and an injury crisis wiping out the first team, the manager needs a miracle. He needs a winger. Tomorrow.Rio knows he’s doomed to fail the trial. He’s fast, but he can’t shoot, pass, or dribble to save his life.That is, until his phone glitches out and installs a mysterious app.[Connection Established...][The Football Legends Chat Group!]King_10: “A new rookie? He looks clumsy.”Hand_Of_King: “Clumsy? I like his attitude.”Total_Football_14: “Stop bickering. We have one night to turn this sprinter into a footballer.”Rio isn't hallucinating. He’s just been added to a group chat with the digital echoes of Pelé, Maradona, and Cruyff!They are bored. They are critical. And they are willing to share their GOAT-tier abilities but only if Rio can survive the pressure.With Maradona’s [La Gambeta] feint loaded into his muscle memory and Cruyff’s [Clockwork Eye] guiding his vision, the fastest kid in Spain is about to stop running away from the ball and start running the game.The first mission is simple.Save Girona from relegation, or get banned from the Chat Group forever.***Let's get this novel up there! Drop your Golden Tickets and reviews, and enjoy a ride that won't disappoint!

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.