The rain mixed with blood on the cold concrete as Luca Moretti felt his life slipping away. Twenty-eight years of violence, twenty-eight years of wasted potential—all ending in a dark alley behind a nightclub in Naples.
The gunshot wound in his chest burned like fire, but it was nothing compared to the regret consuming his soul. Around him, the sounds of the city continued—distant music from the club, cars splashing through puddles, the occasional laugh from passersby who had no idea a man was dying just meters away.
*Should've been different,* he thought, his vision blurring as raindrops mixed with tears he hadn't shed in years. *Should've kept playing...*
The memories came flooding back as his life force ebbed away. Little Luca Moretti, age seven, receiving his first football for Christmas. His mother's face lighting up as he demonstrated his natural touch with the ball in their tiny apartment. The local coach who discovered him playing in the streets and called him "a gift from God."
As a child, Luca had been magical with a football at his feet. Coaches called him a prodigy. Scouts came to watch him play, whispering about contracts and professional academies. He remembered the day Napoli's youth scout approached his mother, explaining how they wanted to offer young Luca a place in their prestigious academy.
But life had other plans.
His father—if you could call the man who abandoned them when times got tough a father—left when Luca was twelve. No goodbye, no explanation, just an empty closet and unpaid bills. His mother, Maria, worked three jobs to keep them afloat, but it wasn't enough. When she fell ill with pneumonia that winter, the medical bills became insurmountable.
Football became a luxury they couldn't afford. The academy fees, the equipment, the transportation costs—it all seemed impossible when they could barely afford food. The streets offered faster money, and when Marco Benedetti and his crew approached fourteen-year-old Luca with promises of easy cash, survival instincts won over dreams.
"Just one job," Marco had said with that snake-like smile. "Help us move some packages, make more in a day than your mother makes in a month."
One job became ten. Ten became a hundred. Before Luca knew it, he was deeper in the criminal underworld than he'd ever imagined possible. The scared boy who just wanted to help his sick mother transformed into something harder, colder. The streets taught him to fight, to intimidate, to survive by any means necessary.
Football became a distant memory, buried under years of violence and illegal activities. Occasionally, usually when he was drunk, Luca would remember the feeling of a ball at his feet, the pure joy of scoring a perfect goal. But those moments passed quickly, replaced by the harsh reality of his chosen life.
Now, at twenty-eight, bleeding out in a Naples alley after a deal gone wrong, Luca realized the full scope of his tragedy. He hadn't just wasted his own potential—he'd become the very thing that destroyed neighborhoods like the one he grew up in. He was the older thug that young kids looked up to, the one who offered them the same poisonous choice he'd been given years ago.
His mother had died three years ago, never knowing what her son had become. She'd passed believing he was working construction jobs abroad, a lie he'd maintained through occasional letters and money transfers. At her funeral, Luca had seen his childhood coach, now old and gray, who'd pulled him aside.
"She never stopped believing you'd come back to football," the old man had whispered. "Even at the end, she kept your old jersey and cleats in her room."
The memory of that conversation haunted him now as the Naples rain continued to fall. His breathing became more labored, his vision darker. In the distance, he could hear sirens—probably not for him, but for some other tragedy in this city full of broken dreams.
"I'm sorry, Mama," he whispered to the empty alley. "I'm sorry I wasted everything you sacrificed for."
As consciousness faded, he wondered what might have been if he'd chosen differently. What if he'd found another way to help his family? What if he'd trusted in his talent instead of taking the easy path? What if he'd been stronger, braver, better?
The world went dark, and with it, the life of Luca Moretti—thug, disappointment, wasted potential.
But death, as it turned out, wasn't the end.
---
**DING!**
The sound cut through the darkness like a blade through silk, mechanical and impossible.
[Football Legends System Activated]
[Suitable Host Detected: Luca Moretti]
[Analyzing Host Compatibility...]
[Previous Life Data: Criminal Record - Extensive, Football Talent - Exceptional, Regret Level - Maximum]
[Compatibility Rating: PERFECT]
[Host Compatible: Luca Moretti - Age 16]
[Previous Life Data Integrated]
[Initiating Second Chance Protocol...]
[Welcome to Your Redemption]
---
Luca's eyes snapped open, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. Sunlight—actual, warm sunlight—streamed through unfamiliar windows. He sat up quickly, his body moving with an energy he hadn't felt in years, expecting the sharp, burning pain from his gunshot wound.
Nothing.
No pain, no wound, no blood. Just clean skin and a body that felt... wrong. Too light, too flexible, too young.
His hands came into view first, and Luca stared at them in shock. They were smaller, unmarked by the scars that had covered them like a roadmap of violence. No knife wound across the left palm from a fight when he was twenty-two. No burn marks from the cigarette torture he'd endured during a territorial dispute. No broken knuckles that had never healed properly.
These were clean hands. Young hands.
Panic rising in his chest, Luca stumbled toward a cracked mirror hanging on the wall. The face that stared back at him was impossible, yet undeniably real.
Sixteen-year-old Luca Moretti looked back from the reflection—exactly as he remembered from before the streets had hardened his features and violence had carved permanent lines of anger around his eyes. The baby fat was gone from his cheeks, replaced by the lean definition of adolescence, but his eyes... his eyes held the weight of twenty-eight years of life, death, and everything in between.
"What the hell..." he whispered, his voice cracking slightly—whether from emotion or the vocal changes of youth, he couldn't tell.
[System Tutorial Beginning]
[Host Awakening Successful]
[Welcome, Luca Moretti, to your Second Chance]
The voice in his head was mechanical, emotionless, yet somehow it carried an undertone of encouragement that he couldn't explain.
[You have been granted a rare opportunity: The chance to rewrite your story]
[Your mission: Transform from failed academy dropout to football legend]
[Warning: This is not a dream, hallucination, or fantasy. This is your new reality]
[Current Status: Age 16, unemployed, living in Naples youth hostel]
[Time until Napoli youth team trials: 23 days]
As the system spoke, memories that weren't quite his own began flooding his mind. This version of Luca Moretti—this sixteen-year-old boy whose body he now inhabited—had a different but parallel story. He'd also shown incredible promise as a child, also been accepted into Napoli's academy. But instead of leaving due to family financial crisis, this Luca had been kicked out six months ago for poor behavior, lack of commitment, and constant disciplinary problems.
The irony wasn't lost on him. In his original life, he'd left football due to circumstances beyond his control. In this life, he'd thrown away the opportunity through his own choices. Either way, the result was the same: wasted talent and shattered dreams.
But now he had knowledge. He had experience. He had the wisdom that came from living an entire life of mistakes.
'History won't repeat itself,' he vowed silently, his reflection nodding back at him with newfound determination.
[Host commitment detected]
[System functions unlocking...]
[Daily Quest System: Activated]
*[Skill Point Allocation: Pending fitness assessment]*
[Talent Analysis: Pending field evaluation]
[Long-term Goal Tracking: Activated]
[Daily Quest Available: Complete basic fitness assessment]
[Reward: Unlock skill point allocation and detailed stat tracking]
[Bonus Objective: Complete assessment without system assistance]
[Bonus Reward: Enhanced natural talent recognition]
[Accept Quest? Y/N]
Luca stared at the translucent interface that seemed to hover in his peripheral vision. In his previous life, he would have dismissed this as a hallucination brought on by trauma or drugs. But he'd died—actually died—and somehow been given another chance. If rebirth was possible, then a mysterious system guiding his journey didn't seem so far-fetched.
"Yes," Luca said aloud, then immediately felt foolish for talking to himself. But the system responded immediately, proving this wasn't just his imagination.
[Quest Accepted]
[Report to Parco Virgiliano at 6 AM for fitness assessment]
*[Assessment will include: Sprint trials, endurance testing, basic ball skills evaluation]*
[Current time: 5:47 AM]
[Recommended preparation: Light stretching, hydration, mental preparation]
Thirteen minutes. Luca had thirteen minutes to find clothes and get to the park. He looked around the sparse room properly for the first time—a single bed with rumpled sheets, a small wooden desk scarred with cigarette burns, a closet that probably contained whatever clothes this version of himself owned, and a window overlooking the busy streets of Naples.
The morning sun painted everything in golden hues, and despite the circumstances, Luca felt something he hadn't experienced in over a decade: hope.
In his previous life, he would have ignored this opportunity. He would have stayed in bed, maybe headed out to find some trouble to get into, anything to avoid facing responsibility or the possibility of failure. The streets had taught him that it was better to not try than to try and fail.
But this wasn't his previous life. This was his chance at redemption, his opportunity to honor his mother's memory and fulfill the potential she'd always believed he possessed.
He moved quickly, finding a set of worn but clean athletic clothes in the closet. As he changed, muscle memory from his youth returned—the familiar routine of preparing for training, the way his body moved with an athlete's unconscious grace despite years of neglect.
[Host demonstrating positive behavioral change]
[Motivation level: High]
[Dedication indicator: Rising]
[System confidence in host success: Increasing]
Looking at his reflection one final time, Luca made a promise to the boy staring back at him and to the memory of the woman who'd never stopped believing in his potential.
"I won't waste this chance," he said quietly. "This time, I'll become the legend she always knew I could be."
With that vow burning in his chest, Luca Moretti stepped out into the Naples morning, ready to begin his journey from thug to legend.