My Ultimate Gacha System-Chapter 316 - 303:The Night That Doesn’t Leave Him

Chapter 316: Chapter 303:The Night That Doesn’t Leave Him

KICK 7 — DEMIEN**

He walks from the halfway line while the noise builds around him and the referee waits near the spot with both hands in his pockets, and the pitch feels different from this angle because this is the goal he defended rather than attacked for a hundred-and-twenty minutes.

He takes the ball from the referee and crouches to place it on the spot, adjusting it once so the valve faces forward, and when he straightens he takes three steps back and one to the left before stopping.

Maignan is on his line bouncing while his eyes study Demien’s body for information, and the goalkeeper’s read of the match has been good enough to make everything difficult, and the space in the goal exists in both corners and down the middle while the decision sitting in Demien’s chest has been made before he left the halfway line.

The referee raises the whistle.

The stadium holds.

The whistle blows.

His run is short and direct, four steps, and his plant foot lands beside the ball while his right foot drives through it low and hard toward the left corner, and the contact is clean and firm and the placement is true, and Maignan dives toward the correct side but arrives after the ball has already passed him and struck the inside of the netting. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

**GOAL.**

**ATALANTA 4 — MILAN 2**

He stops.

Both fists clench briefly at his sides while his chest rises with a single breath, and he stands still while the noise falls down from sixty thousand people simultaneously, and his teammates come from behind him with the full weight of everything they’ve held back across a hundred-and-twenty minutes releasing at once.

Bodies crash into him from all directions while voices yell things that disappear inside the noise, and he stands inside the pile while arms wrap around him from every angle, and the Atalanta section behind Musso’s goal is a single moving mass of noise and colour that doesn’t pause or slow.

-----

**KICK 8 — MILAN (BRAHIM DÍAZ)**

He must score to stay alive and his walk to the spot carries that weight without disguising it, and he places the ball and strikes right while Musso dives left, and the placement is correct and clean.

**GOAL.**

**ATALANTA 4 — MILAN 3**

-----

**KICK 9 — EDERSON**

He needs to score to win the Coppa Italia.

The stadium understands this before he reaches the spot, and the noise drops into a particular tension that has no vocabulary — sixty thousand people holding something that can’t be held, and the silence inside it is its own kind of sound.

Ederson places the ball without looking at Maignan and steps back four paces, and his hands settle at his sides while his eyes stay on the ball rather than the goalkeeper, and the referee’s whistle sounds through the suspended stadium.

He runs up and strikes hard down the middle while Maignan dives right, and the ball rockets into the roof of the net above where the goalkeeper’s body used to be.

The whistle blows immediately.

It’s over.

**ATALANTA WIN 5-3 ON PENALTIES**

**ATALANTA ARE COPPA ITALIA CHAMPIONS**

-----

The noise that follows is different from any noise the match has produced because it carries sixty years of waiting inside it, and the Atalanta section becomes a single thing — every flag, every voice, every drum colliding at once while blue and black smoke begins rising from flares along the lower tier and drifting up through the stadium lights.

Ederson drops to both knees with his arms spread wide and teammates sprint toward him from the halfway line, and the bench empties with substitutes and staff pouring onto the pitch while the mass of celebrating players builds near the penalty spot.

Gasperini stands at the touchline with both fists raised to the sky while his eyes close for a single moment, and then they open again and he turns to his assistant coaches while the celebration continues without him.

Across the pitch Milan players lower themselves to the grass with bodies that have given everything and found it wasn’t enough, and Giroud sits with his shirt pulled up over his face while Maignan stands at his goal line with both hands resting on the crossbar and his eyes fixed on the turf beneath him.

The confetti cannons fire from behind the southern goal and blue and black paper rains down through the stadium lights across the pitch, settling on grass and shoulders and the surface of the Coppa Italia trophy being carried toward the temporary stage being assembled at the center circle.

**Commentary Booth**

"It’s over," the lead commentator says, and his voice takes a moment to find its footing because sometimes there isn’t a prepared way to say what you’re witnessing. "Atalanta have won the Coppa Italia. Three-nil down at halftime in a cup final, and they have won on penalties. Sixty years without a major trophy. Sixty years. And it ends tonight in Rome."

His colleague speaks after a pause. "The first hat-trick in the history of this competition, scored by a nineteen-year-old who began this season as a trial player with no professional history. Whatever comes next for Demien Walter — and there will be a great deal that comes next — tonight is the night that doesn’t leave him. This is the one he carries."

-----

**Stadio Olimpico**

**Pitch — Trophy Presentation**

**10:38 PM**

The temporary stage stands near the center circle while the Coppa Italia sits on a platform at its center under stadium lighting that catches the silver and holds it, and Atalanta’s players gather while photographs are taken and journalists fill the perimeter.

De Roon walks toward Demien through the crowd of celebrating teammates and wraps one arm around his shoulders without saying anything, and they stand together watching the stage while the presentation begins.

The Atalanta captain mounts the stairs slowly and receives the trophy from the official with both hands, and when he raises it above his head the stadium erupts again and the confetti falls thicker as the cannons fire a second time, and sixty thousand voices create a wall of sound that has nowhere else to go except upward.

The trophy moves through the squad one player at a time, and each hold is brief while photographs capture the moment from every angle, and when it reaches Demien he feels the weight before his hands close fully around it — heavier than it looks, the silver solid and cold against his palms after the warmth of the pitch and the bodies and the night.

He looks up.

The away section is still singing and moving as one, and flags wave above packed rows of supporters who haven’t stopped since the final whistle, and the noise coming down from sixty thousand people who were there when sixty years ended is the kind of sound that doesn’t come from football matches as often as people think.

He raises the trophy above his head.

The roar that comes back is full.

He holds it for three seconds, then passes it along, and his hands go to his sides while photographers continue and teammates continue and the celebration continues around him, and the translucent panel slides into the edge of his vision while blue light reflects off the confetti falling past him.

「MISSION COMPLETE」

「OBJECTIVE: Win Coppa Italia Final」

「REWARD: +300 TP | +300 MP | +2 SP」

「BONUS OBJECTIVE COMPLETE: Score in the Final」

「BONUS REWARD: +200 TP」

「RECORD BONUS: First Hat-Trick in Coppa Italia Final History」

「RECORD REWARD: +1 SP | Skill Unlock Processing Complete」

「NEW SKILL UNLOCKED」

「Marco van Basten — Clinical Instinct」

「Finishing +12 | Composure +8 | Aerial Reach +6」

「DISTRIBUTING REWARDS...」

「UPDATED BALANCE」

「TP: 1,470 | SP: 7 | MP: 813」

The panel holds for four seconds before fading, and the numbers settle into the background while confetti continues to fall and the celebration fills the Stadio Olimpico around him.

-----

**Stadio Olimpico**

**Pitch — Interview Area**

**10:51 PM**

A microphone appears near the interview zone while a broadcast crew positions their camera, and the interviewer is already speaking before Demien fully arrives because the broadcast schedule doesn’t wait for anyone on a night like this.

"Demien Walter — Man of the Match, historic hat-trick, Coppa Italia champion. How does tonight feel?"

His shirt is damp and his breathing has only partially recovered and his legs ache in a way that will take days to clear, but his voice stays level when he speaks. "We were three-nil down," he says. "We never stopped working. The team did this together."

"You’re the first player in history to score a hat-trick in a Coppa Italia final," the interviewer says. "Do you understand what you’ve achieved tonight?"

He takes a breath. "I understand what we’ve achieved. That’s what matters."

The interviewer smiles. "What happens now?"

"We enjoy this," Demien says. "Then we finish the season."

The camera light goes off and the crew moves toward the next interview, and Demien steps back from the zone while teammates take turns in front of the camera and the celebration on the pitch continues behind him.

-----

**Stadio Olimpico**

**Pitch — Near Tunnel**

**11:04 PM**

Players begin moving slowly toward the tunnel entrance while staff carry equipment and physios check on the players who required most of the extra time’s physical demands, and the ground staff begin their work at the far end of the pitch while the stadium empties gradually from the upper tiers.

Demien walks with the group until he reaches the tunnel entrance and then stops.

He turns back.

The pitch stretches away from him with confetti still covering the grass in patches of blue and black, and the penalty spot where he placed the ball an hour ago is thirty yards away while stadium lights illuminate the surface from above, and the Atalanta supporters in the southern end are still inside because leaving hasn’t occurred to them yet while their songs continue against the late-night air.

He looks at the stadium for a moment that has no specific length.

Then he turns and jogs into the tunnel where his teammates wait and the corridor carries voices and laughter and the sound of boots on concrete, and the door of the dressing room is open ahead of him while blue light spills out into the corridor from the screens inside.

The night doesn’t stop here.

But this part of it is done.