Stadio Renato Dall'Ara.Halftime.Score: Bologna 1 - 0 AC Milan.
The locker room was suffocating. Rio sat with a towel over his head, trying to slow his breathing. "Do not get comfortable," Adrian's voice warned through the tablet Coach Rossi was holding. "Silas is not just a dancer. He is a Chaotic User. When he is humiliated, he doesn't get scared. He gets crazy."
Rio checked his System notification. [Rio Match Rating: 7.5][Silas Match Rating: 6.8] He was safe for now. But a 0.7 gap could vanish in a single second.
"He will stop dancing," Adrian said grimly. "And he will start a war."
Second Half. Minute 50.The Beat Drop.
Silas walked out of the tunnel without his headphones. The smile was gone. His eyes, usually bright with mischief, were now dark and empty. The gum chewing had stopped. He looked at Rio across the pitch. He made a slow, deliberate slashing motion across his throat.
The whistle blew. Silas received the ball. Stefan Posch, emboldened by the first half, tried to close him down, expecting another fancy trick. But Silas didn't do a trick. He kicked the ball twenty meters ahead—a raw Kick and Rush. Then he ran.
His acceleration was violent. [System Warning: Opponent Speed +30%][Skill Detected: The War Drum (Capoeira Style)]
Silas chased the ball. He collided with Posch shoulder-to-shoulder. BAM. It wasn't a normal charge. It was a battering ram. Posch flew backward as if hit by a truck, tumbling onto the grass. Silas wasn't dancing anymore. He was hunting.
Minute 65.The Equalizer.
Milan dominated. Silas was everywhere—left, right, center. He abandoned his position. He chased the ball like a rabid dog. He received the ball outside the box. Kenjiro tried to close the space using defensive La Pausa (holding ground).
Silas wasn't fooled. He flicked the ball up—a Sombrero Flick over Kenjiro's head. While the ball was still in the air, Silas didn't wait for it to drop. He jumped. A volley. The Cannon? No. This was wilder.
BOOM.
The ball screamed through the air with zero spin. It swerved left, then right—a violent Knuckleball. It smashed against the crossbar and ricocheted into the net. Skorupski didn't even see it.
GOAL.Bologna 1 - 1 Milan.
Silas didn't do a backflip. He ran into the goal, grabbed the ball, and smashed it into the net again in pure rage. He screamed at the camera. It wasn't a cheer of joy. It was the roar of a beast.
[System Update][Silas Match Rating: 8.2 (Goal + Wonder Strike)][Rio Match Rating: 7.4]
Rio's blood ran cold. Silas was ahead by 0.8 points. If the match ended now, Rio would lose 50 Days.
Minute 80.Chaos vs Order.
Rio tried to respond. He activated [The Eye of the Storm]. He froze time as Silas sprinted at him. Freeze.
But there was a problem. Usually, Rio could predict movement based on biomechanical logic. But Silas's movement was illogical. In the frozen frame, his knee was bent left, but his momentum was shifting right. Silas moved like a glitch in a corrupted video game.
Time Resumed. Rio tried to tackle left. Silas was already on the right. Silas breezed past Rio, laughing. "Your mirror is broken, Robot!"
Rio fell. His Bionic Heart revved painfully, flashing an overheat warning. Bologna was hanging by a thread. Milan was relentless. One more goal from Silas, and his rating would hit 9.0. Rio would never catch him.
Minute 88.The Killing Silence.
Score: 1-1. Extra Time loomed. Rio knew his body couldn't survive 120 minutes. The "Stress Test" had damaged him more than he admitted. He needed to win now.
Kenjiro won the ball in a scrum. He was surrounded by three Milan players. "Rio!" Kenjiro screamed. He launched a desperate long ball forward.
Rio sprinted. He was one-on-one with Fikayo Tomori, Milan's fastest defender. Tomori was faster than Rio. He cut off the angle, forcing Rio into the corner. Rio was trapped.
Silas sprinted back to help defense. He wanted to steal the ball from Rio personally. To humiliate him one last time. "You're finished!" Silas shouted, closing in from behind.
Rio was boxed in. Tomori in front. Silas behind. No exit. No space for The Golden Arc. No room for The Ghost.
Rio closed his eyes for a split second. He remembered Adrian's words: "To beat a Dancer... you must kill the music." Silas moved on rhythm. Tomori moved on speed anticipation.
Rio activated [The Eye of the Storm]. This time, he didn't use it to find a gap. He used it to Stop Completely.
Rio stepped on the ball. He froze. Absolute stillness. Like a statue in the middle of a highway.
Silas, running with the Rhythm of War, expected Rio to try a desperate dodge. Silas had already committed to a tackle. Tomori expected Rio to try and push past. Because Rio stopped, their brains short-circuited. They both lunged at the point where Rio should have been.
CRASH.
Silas slammed into Tomori. The two Milan players collided violently because their target had simply ceased to exist. They tumbled over each other in a tangle of limbs.
Rio opened his eyes. The path was wide open. He didn't run. He walked calmly past the two groaning bodies. He entered the box.
Mike Maignan rushed out, trying to narrow the angle. Rio saw Joshua Zirkzee at the far post. But Rio glanced at the System Rating. Silas: 8.2. Rio: 7.4. An Assist would only raise him to 7.9. It wasn't enough. He had to score.
Rio looked at Maignan. He wound up his leg for a power shot. Maignan dove. Rio didn't shoot. Fake Shot. Maignan was on the ground.
The goal was empty. But the angle was incredibly tight. Rio passed the ball into the net. Not a hard shot. A slow, rolling pass. The ball trundled slowly... painfully slowly... mocking the chaos around it.
Silas, scrambling to his feet, sprinted after the ball. He slid desperately to clear it off the line. The tip of his pink boot touched the ball. But his momentum was too fast. Instead of clearing it, Silas slid into the net, carrying the ball with him.
OWN GOAL (Silas). But the System text flashed gold.
[System Ruling: Forced Error][Attribution: Rio Valdes (Creator of Chaos)]
GOAL.Bologna 2 - 1 Milan.
The stadium exploded. Rio stood over Silas, who was tangled in the net, panting. The music was dead.
[System Update][Silas Match Rating: 6.5 (Significant Error / Own Goal)][Rio Match Rating: 8.5 (Match Winning Creation)]
[Objective Complete: Defeat the Rival.][Penalty AVOIDED.][Reward: Mystery Skill (S-Grade) Unlocked.]
Full Time.
The final whistle blew. Bologna was through to the Coppa Italia Semi-Final. Silas sat on the grass, staring blankly at the scoreboard. He couldn't believe it. He wasn't beaten by skill. He was beaten by a comedy of errors. He was beaten by Stillness.
Rio walked over to him. He offered a hand. Silas slapped it away viciously. "This isn't over," Silas hissed, tears of rage in his eyes. "You just got lucky I crashed into Tomori."
"Luck is just part of the algorithm," Rio replied coldly.
Silas stood up, brushing the grass off his kit. "We meet again in the League. And next time... I will break your legs, not just your rating." Silas walked away without swapping shirts. A sore loser.
Adrian rolled onto the pitch in his wheelchair, grinning like a madman. "You did it. You made him score an own goal. That is the ultimate disrespect."
Rio clutched his chest. His heart hurt, but the relief was overwhelming. "What's the reward?" Rio asked, gasping. "I almost died for this S-Grade box."
Adrian opened his tablet. His eyes went wide. "Rio... you won't believe this."
[Reward Unlocked: Skill Copy (One-Time Use)][Effect: Permanently copy ONE skill from the defeated Rival.]
Rio stared at Silas's retreating back. He could take one skill from the Brazilian prodigy. The Joga Bonito? The Rainbow Flick? The Knuckleball?
"Choose wisely," Adrian whispered.