Chapter 54: the football legend lionel messi

“I’m sorry guys, I take her as my mom so the little time I spent with her was precious to me. Besides we only agreed on staying at my place for 2 days before we go to your city so allow me to relish this opportunity”. Clark explained as Leo’s complaints continued unabashedly.

Benny only smiled as Leo finally stopped his complaints, he finally had the time to compliment the woman’s food.

“Clark to be sincere you would have paid dearly but the delicious free food from your mom placated me,” Leo said while rubbing his fists. “You have to thank her or you would probably be picking up your broken teeth by now”.

“Hahaha,” Clark laughed off his friend’s sarcasm as he took them to other places.

This time Clark took them to a computer games company that he loved visiting to play games when he was younger. This time none of his companions complained as they immediately fell in love with the place, so they just relaxed and played games for the rest of the day.

The next day was just like the last but Clark ended the tour by taking his friends to a company called trailblazers. Trailblazers is a company that specialize in keeping recordings and highlights of legends of humanity from the last centuries.

They engage in a business of showing these highlights to the public like a theater. Leo and Benny thought Clark wanted to watch highlights of war legends. No, they were wrong he wanted to watch the highlights of the football legend “Lionel Messi”.

Leo and Benny were perplexed as football was not too famous again this era, despite their doubts they still followed Clark without asking. If not because Clark learnt about high-grade soldiers, his original childhood dream was to become a footballer just like Messi.

Despite being centuries ago, Lionel Messi’s achievements and records were still unbroken and legendary. Lionel Messi is the main reason football is still being appreciated this era despite the attention given to it being low, other sports have already become stuff of legends and history as battle tournaments are now the main stay.

Lionel Messi is the only player to have won the prestigious award the ballon dor which was given to exceptional players centuries ago for a total of 8 times. He won the UEFA champions league for a record breaking 6 times and also won the golden boot award for an astonishing 10 times. He won a lot of other football awards but these were the most mind blowing of them all.

When Clark was younger, watching Messi highlights was simply his greatest source of joy, the feeling was just like floating in the heavens. Watching him dribble past players makes him keep shaking in excitement. Containing his excitement to himself was a problem he couldn’t fix so he frequently pulled his friends along to watch together when he was younger. He was clearly aiming to do the same today as he excitedly pulled his 2 friends forward.

Clark went inside quickly while pulling the both of them along after paying the gate fee. It was just like a cinema, but the projection was far clearer than normal and could be zoomed in different impossible angles to understand more clearly.

“Increase in technology is really a boon to society,” Clark thought excitedly as they quickly located a seat. They were lucky to be among the last batch of people to enter as the video started not long after as the hall was now full.

The hall suddenly darkened as all light was switched off, leaving only the light coming from the huge projection. A picture of Lionel Messi was first shone as everybody on the hall erupted in cheers shouting wildly.

A short biography of the legend was displayed before the highlight officially began. The voice of the commentator felt just like spiritual music to Clark as Messi’s magic began being displayed. Messi tackled, Messi ran with the ball, Messi dribbled and then Messi scored.

Clark felt the urge to shout but kept to myself as the sound dampeners were already activated to prevent any noise when the highlight begins. Even if he shouted on top of his lungs no sound will be heard. Despite the silence around the hall, the commentary and background music made the video too legendary and epic to look away from.

Clark shook with excitement as Messi scored another goal. “I respect you man, the king of football,” he thought inwardly with emotion. The highlight went on for 4 hours before it ended, Leo was also a football fan but despite Benny not being one he enjoyed the video as he kept blabbering about how awesome Messi was.

Clark grinned on seeing this; he always felt great when someone compliments Messi. This was one of the reasons he liked bringing his friends to watch together.

This was the best place Clark brought them to, Leo and Benny later confessed. Clark’s mood improved considerably as he smiled throughout their journey back home.

The sky was already dark as they strolled home, on the way Clark and Leo told Benny about Messi’s other achievements and records. They ordered food which they ate after getting home, they watched a movie before they later retired to sleep in Clark’s bed. The day was well spent, Clark prayed before they slept.

“It is finally time to visit my town man, give me the car keys Clark,” Leo said excitedly as they came out. Clark smiled at him before throwing the keys at him. They bought a lot of clothes during the last 2 days; they wore outing clothes before keeping all their other clothes in the car booth after packaging them in a new bag.

Clark already instructed the A.I on how to take care of the house during his time of leave. So basically, he had no other meaningful business here.

Zoom!! Leo started the car as he drove out. As his friend drove Clark finally did something he had been contemplating for the last few days. He hacked the old woman’s account, sending her 20,000 Spartan credits. She would never have agreed if he told her probably arguing that he needed it more. He indicated his identity before smiling when he thought of the expression, she’ll have on her face on seeing it.

Leo’s home city is Balmi city, the city next to Vatican City. He stepped harder on the accelerator as the car accelerated after reaching the highway. The journey took less than an hour before they saw the sign “Welcome to Balmi”.

Balmi is one of the most highly populated and barely developed cities in South Sparta. It was also one of the cities which is more prone to terrorist attacks and its security level is also pretty low. Leo drove into the city experiencedly as he navigated in the heavy traffic.

20 minutes later they finally reached Leo’s street, Clark and Benny were really shocked this time as despite the rumors they didn’t expect a street in Sparta to be this underdeveloped and backwards.

“Is this where we’ll spend our last days of vacation,” Clark blurted out with an I’m finished expression on his face while staring at Leo.

[Hey guys, I want to change the book cover. I have 2 options, I will post both designs on my facebook page. If you want to be involved in the decision making of which one I should choose, comment on the post I'll post tomorrow so that I can know your opinion. Agbodo Mairo is the page name.]