Some people stretched lazily with their arms raised high above their seats, while others couldn’t wait to grab their schoolbags and rush toward the classroom door. Still, there were those who remained at their desks, writing furiously, as if they didn’t want their study session to end.

Ryan Howard sat at his desk as well, unmoving.

Meanwhile, Big Scott beside him had already yanked out his schoolbag and was hugging it to his chest. As he stood up, he glanced curiously at Ryan Howard next to him, seeing that he was still lost in thought.

His deskmate had been in a daze for the entire self-study period.

Or rather, his deskmate had been absent-minded the whole day.

During class, he’d been called on by the teacher for daydreaming and, unsurprisingly, couldn’t answer the question. So, under the gaze of the entire class, he had to stand by the podium, once again becoming the butt of everyone’s jokes...

But Big Scott noticed that even when made to stand by the podium, Ryan Howard didn’t seem to care about this punishment at all. He still looked lost and dejected, completely unconcerned with the mocking stares of others.

So, having already stood up, he sat back down again, as if an intense struggle was raging inside him—you could tell from the constantly changing expressions on his face that the struggle was fierce indeed.

※※※

Ryan Howard spent a whole day secretly observing, and then discovered a fact he had to admit—this world was probably not the one he was familiar with, or at least, it was a little different from the world he knew...

History was the same, geography was the same, politics was the same... everything was the same, except for football.

For example, the head of state in England was still Queen Elizabeth II, and the capital was still London, but the big clubs in London weren’t called Arsenal or Chelsea anymore. And it wasn’t just a matter of changing names while everything else stayed the same.

At first, Ryan Howard tried to apply what he knew from the football world he was familiar with, but it didn’t fit. It wasn’t simply that Chelsea and Arsenal had different names—everything was completely different: the clubs’ histories, their strengths, their heritage, their current situations... everything was different.

With different clubs, naturally the players were different too.

That’s why Kevin Carter, Big Scott, and the others had no idea who Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo were—because in this world, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo simply didn’t exist.

Just like with the clubs, it wasn’t just a matter of different names. If you tried to find someone with Messi’s career and skills, you simply couldn’t—there was no one in this world like the Messi Ryan Howard knew.

At first, Ryan Howard thought the “Caesar” Kevin Carter and the others talked about was Cristiano Ronaldo, but after subtly asking around about Caesar, Ryan Howard realized he wasn’t “CR7” either.

Caesar had a habit of popping his collar, which was very similar to the legendary former Manchester United star Eric Cantona, but Caesar wasn’t just Cantona with a different name—aside from the popped collar, they had nothing in common.

So, in this world, there was no Messi, no Cristiano Ronaldo, no Maradona, no Pelé... This made Ryan Howard feel very out of place.

But in some ways, things were still familiar to Ryan Howard. For example, the World Cup was still called the World Cup, and it was still the world’s top national team football tournament, with enormous influence—on par with the Olympics as a single-sport event. The organization managing global football affairs was still called FIFA, with the same English abbreviation. And Chinese football was still very weak in this world...

It was precisely this mix of familiarity and strangeness that made Ryan Howard feel torn, as if everything was unreal. He didn’t know if he was still dreaming. During this time, he secretly pinched himself several times, sometimes lightly, sometimes hard. But no matter how much it hurt, he never woke up to find himself still lying in bed—he’d just break out in a cold sweat on his back...

After that, he fell into another kind of confusion—had he traveled to another world, or had those clubs and players traveled instead?

If it was the latter, could those players accept it? Wouldn’t they all go crazy?

If it was the former, was he going crazy?

※※※

After a long and intense internal struggle, Big Scott finally seemed to make up his mind. He pulled ten yuan out of his school uniform pocket and slapped it down on Ryan Howard’s desk.

Ryan Howard looked down at the ten yuan in silence, his mind still not catching up, not understanding what was happening.

“It’s just fifty yuan, isn’t it? Is it really worth it? You’ve been like a lost soul all day... Here, take it, consider it my sponsorship!”

Ryan Howard turned to look at Big Scott. “Really?”

“You think I’m like you, sending red envelopes with just one yuan in them...”

Before Big Scott could finish, he saw Ryan Howard snatch up the ten yuan and stuff it into his pocket.

Then he reached out and patted Big Scott on the shoulder, saying seriously, “Classmate Emily Scott, I knew you were my true friend. Even though you betrayed me this morning, I’ve already forgiven you!”