Merchant Crab - Chapter 149: A Day in the City

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.

I saved the Warrior who used to ignore and bully me and now she is obsessed with me.

He was very happy to be reborn, but why was he sixteen again, he can’t bear to look back at that time.

Why does he return to being sixteen years old, yet still meet Doomsday?

It’s alright to encounter the end of the world, so why did he have to fall in love with someone?

Even if he falls in love with another person, why did it have to be a man?

Falling in love with a man is also alright, so why did it need to be a secret one-sided love?

Even a secret and unrequited love is alright, so why is that man his….

- Description from Novelupdates

Zero – Where the End BeginsAfter 100 lives—lived as a king, a warrior, a scholar, a knight, and even a slave—he has finally reached the last.Life number 0.No rebirth. No second chances. Only death… or glory.Thrown into the most ruthless and enigmatic world he has ever faced, he must defy its crushing grip, where power dictates fate and survival is a battle against the inevitable. His ambitions collide with the weight of his past, driving him toward a relentless pursuit of absolute control.In Zero, you either carve your destiny… or vanish into oblivion.