The Greatest of All Time

Chapter 3: Solo Training

Zachary was jogging at a steady pace.

He was mindful of neither the ever-present potholes in the dirt-roads of eastern Bukavu nor the mud heaps brought about by the rain of the previous day.

He hummed the Chris Brown song (Don't Wake Me Up) that was supposed to be released two years later.

Zachary smiled softly. He was in a good mood.

Above him loomed the blue sky with just a few stratus clouds making their unhurried way toward Lake Kivu in the north. The sun was already a golden ball of yellow above, promising more heat as the day progressed. All in all, he could not have asked for better weather to complete the system mission.

It had been six days since Zachary returned to the past, and he was very close to completing the tasks in his first system mission.

He had been exercising like there was not a tomorrow in his vocabulary.

With the G.O.A.T system, he had the motivation to work hard and thus never once thought about giving up when the going got tough.

Every morning, he would start with a routine of one hundred seat-ups, then do fifty press-ups before jogging ten or more miles around the dirt roads of Bukavu. He would then complete his day's training in the evening by going through six rounds of Hatha-yoga routines. His daily yoga practice always included the serpent, bow, peacock, tortoise, eagle, and Matsyendra poses.

In his previous lifetime, he had come across an article explaining how yoga was essential to improving the flexibility and body coordination of any sportsman. Zachary was determined to stick to this practice as it would reduce the risk of him getting injured later in his career.

He feared getting injured again the most. Injuries would diminish the player's form and destroy careers if not meticulously handled.

An injury had been the start of Zachary's downfall in his previous lifetime. But he was determined not to let it affect him in his new one.

Throughout the past six days, his injured ankle had hurt like hell after continuing to support his strenuous exercise without much rest. It had swollen and taken on a reddish hue like that of a perfectly boiled shrimp. But Zachary had chosen to ignore the pain and continue the tedious tasks imposed on him by the system.

A few times when he felt he could not hold on, he just had to think about the great heights achieved by some of the top athletes from poor backgrounds in his previous lifetime. Soccer stars like Sadio Mane, Frank Ribery, and Cristiano Ronaldo had made it to the top by capitalizing on their talent. Through sheer hard work and their unrelenting attitude towards soccer, they had almost achieved the G.O.A.T status supported by the common consensus of the pro-sports community.

Zachary believed that the pain and fatigue he was feeling at that moment was his weakness leaving the body.

He could see the bigger picture.

The climb might be tough and challenging, but if he ever made it to the top of the soccer world, the view would be worth it. So, he decided to work harder than any athlete alive and see if he could also become one of the greats. He would try becoming the best or die trying. With a cheat system aiding in his rise, he would not settle for less.

Zachary was in the zone and felt like running was a form of whole-body meditation. He continued his steady motion at a steady pace pushing away the pain and fatigue from his mind while humming song after song to psyche himself up.

On the nearly empty Bukavu dirt-roads, he had no worries. Zachary didn't need to fret about high-interest loans like in his previous life, no problematic girlfriend, no therapist. It was just him cutting across the warm breeze caressing his skin.