Chapter 1 The Beginning

"...Ladies and gentlemen, viewers, I am now live outside the Gazprom Arena in St. Petersburg... Behind me, this magnificent blue and white building is the Gazprom Arena, which was just completed and put into use last year. It is the home stadium of the local team, Zenit St. Petersburg, built on the site of the former Kirov Stadium... It is currently the most modern stadium in Russia and has been rated as a five-star stadium by UEFA... In about..." The field reporter on the TV screen looked at his watch, "...in about four hours, this match will begin... As we can see, the stadium is already surrounded by fans from Spain and England..."

The camera followed his gesture, showing the audience in front of the TV the scene outside the stadium.

"As you can see, in addition to fans wearing Liverpool and Barcelona jerseys, there are also many fans wearing Zenit St. Petersburg jerseys. I just interviewed them, and they told me that they were all here to cheer for the hero. They seemed very enthusiastic after they knew I was also a reporter from China... Russia is actually a very exclusive city, and it can't be said to be friendly to Chinese people... But in St. Petersburg, it doesn't seem to be the case... I think this is all thanks to the hero..."

As the reporter was speaking, a group of Liverpool fans suddenly appeared behind him, along with several Zenit St. Petersburg fans. They stood behind the reporter and shouted "Hero! Hero! Hero!" into the camera.

The reporter laughed.

Near this CCTV field reporter, there were many other field reporting teams like him, from TV stations all over the world, who were talking eloquently into their cameras.

The satellite broadcast vehicles outside the stadium were also a major spectacle before the game.

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St. Petersburg is a very beautiful city with many famous ancient buildings.

However, Phil Jackson and his companions were in no mood to travel here and visit famous scenic spots.

The Liverpool team arrived here four days in advance, while they arrived three days in advance.

They were here on an important mission.

When Liverpool made it to the Champions League final, the Red Giants contacted "Blue Sky Blues," the largest fan organization of Zenit St. Petersburg, and the two sides decided to work together at the final to give Liverpool and Chen Hero the greatest support they could.

To this end, the heads of the two fan organizations began cooperation negotiations online via email.

The most important means of cheering for the team in the stands is singing. In order to allow fans from both sides to sing in unison, the Red Giants specially sent "Song of the Hero," which was composed in the style of Russian songs, to Blue Sky Blues, so the St. Petersburg fans could easily learn it.

Blue Sky Blues also localized the lyrics, translating the English into Russian.

In fact, this song is very suitable for singing in Russian. After all, it was adapted from the game music in Red Alert 2. When Electronic Arts created this song, they also hired a Cossack choir to perform it.

Therefore, the song became even more majestic after being changed to Russian lyrics.

This time, Phil Jackson and his group came to St. Petersburg to meet with the leaders of the other party in advance, communicate with each other, enhance understanding, promote friendship, and facilitate a common hatred against Barcelona on the field.

Since they have such a good impression of Chen Hero here, they naturally have to make full use of this resource to create trouble for Barcelona.

Competing for the Champions League title is not just a matter for the players on the field. We fans also have a responsibility.

As the saying goes, the rise and fall of the team is the responsibility of the fans.

Now they finally waited for the day of the match. So many days of preparation before the match, it's time to see the results.

How much support can their temporarily pieced-together team of fans provide to the team in the game?

Everyone was nervous and a little expectant.

The moment when fans from the two places sang "Song of the Hero" in different languages must be very spectacular, right?

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Two hours before the start of the match, the buses carrying the players from both sides arrived at the stadium one after another under the guidance of police cars.

The atmosphere at the scene reached its first climax. Barcelona's bus arrived first, so Barcelona fans gathered at the entrance, chanting slogans to welcome the team's arrival. The name these fans shouted the most was naturally Messi.

For a time, it was all shouts of "Messi, Messi."

Ten minutes after Barcelona arrived at the stadium, Liverpool also arrived.

The Barcelona fans who had been surrounding the entrance had dispersed and were replaced by Liverpool fans and Zenit St. Petersburg fans who came here to welcome them.

Phil Jackson stood in the crowd, next to Pavlov, the leader of the Blue Sky Blues fan organization. This was considered a warm-up for the first cooperation between the two fan organizations.

They both planned to see how the specific effect was.

The results satisfied them.

Whether it was Liverpool or Zenit fans, after seeing the Liverpool bus coming, they all shouted "Hero! Hero!" in unison. This was in response to the Barcelona fans shouting "Messi" earlier.

Although the pronunciation of "hero" is different in English and Russian, it does not hinder their emotional expression.

Chen Hero in the bus also heard the fans' shouts, and he raised his hand and waved to the fans outside the window.

The fans who received Chen Hero's feedback were even more enthusiastic, and their cheers were much louder than before.

Phil Jackson was very satisfied with everyone's response.

Pavlov next to him said to him in a thick, accented, rolling-tongue Russian accent: "I told you not to worry, never doubt our feelings for the hero! You have to know that we supported him when he wasn't so famous yet!"

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The players from both sides returned to the locker room and did not go out to warm up immediately because it was still early. They rested and relaxed in the locker room. Some chose to take a nap on the massage bed in the treatment room, some chose to go online with their mobile phones to browse Twitter, some played games on handheld game consoles, and some closed their eyes and rested with headphones on.

Of course, some people gathered together to chat.

This was the situation in the Barcelona locker room. Because this was the second consecutive year they had reached the Champions League final, the Barcelona players seemed relatively relaxed. They were all veteran players who had been through many battles. Many of them were old players from Barcelona's most prosperous period. For them, the Champions League final did not make them feel any tension.

In contrast, the atmosphere in Liverpool's locker room was different.

Except for Chen Hero, everyone else was more or less nervous.

Even Sanchez, a player who had won a Champions League title with Napoli, felt nervous, let alone those other players who had never played in a Champions League final.

Gerrard, as the team captain, was also a little nervous now, but he was able to control his emotions. As the captain, he could not let his emotions affect his teammates.

The reason why Chen Hero was not nervous was not because he had a better ability to control his emotions than Gerrard, but because he didn't think there was anything to be nervous about at all.

He did what he was supposed to do.

Just like what he said to Skrtel, he had no psychological burden in playing against Barcelona. The opponents should be afraid, not himself.

Chen Hero was now a bit like a demon king. Everyone who encountered him would feel a headache and fear, while he despised all the heroes in the world. Any brave man who dared to challenge him would be chopped into pieces and fed to the pigs—that was the kind of mentality he had.

This season was especially important for him, which made his confidence burst. Even Messi, his former arch-rival, was somewhat disregarded by him.

But he was an anomaly. His lack of nervousness did not mean that his teammates were not nervous.

The Champions League final was different from any other game. It was the highest honor for a professional football club, even higher than the Club World Cup. As a professional player, if he could win a Champions League title once, he would basically have no regrets in this life.

If their opponent was an ordinary team, maybe they wouldn't feel nervous.

But now it was Barcelona, ​​and that was different...

Although Barcelona was not as good as before, that was compared to themselves. Compared to other teams, they were still a dominant team.

They would be the league champions in any league, but they encountered the equally perverted Real Madrid in La Liga.

Barcelona's reputation was too great, so Liverpool's players were also somewhat affected by it.

How could Chen Hero not see the nervous emotions of his teammates, but he didn't know what to say. Maybe saying more would only make things worse, because too many words might not eliminate their nervousness, but only make them more nervous.

He felt that this kind of thing probably had to be put into practice.

Any language is pale and powerless in the face of action.

Chen Hero decided to show his strength from the beginning of the game and bring confidence to his teammates.

So he closed his eyes and continued to listen to music, pretending not to see the faces of his teammates, which were a little stiff due to nervousness.

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In the locker room, Guardiola looked at the relaxed players and had more confidence in the final that was about to take place.

Chen Hero is very powerful, yes, but he also needs the support of the team, and the gap between teams, we are much stronger than Liverpool.

Using the whole to suppress the opponent, this is the strategy Guardiola will use today.

In terms of overall strength, even Real Madrid has to admit defeat!

We won't fight you, Chen Hero, we will fight you with the whole team. If you have the ability, use yourself alone to fight against our entire team!