In Milan, Italy, the San Siro was packed to capacity with AC Milan supporters dressed in red and black.
Everyone was on their feet, countless eyes fixed anxiously on the giant screens.
The Liverpool players were still forcing themselves forward, launching wave after wave of attacks, but time was clearly no longer on their side.
Stoppage time was almost over.
The referee could blow the final whistle at any moment.
Liverpool’s desperate struggle looked almost tragic.
The Milan supporters had already begun celebrating.
“There’s no chance!”
“There’s no chance!”
“Stoppage time is almost gone!
Against AC Milan’s packed defence, Liverpool have completely run out of ideas!
They can’t even get the ball properly into Milan’s defensive third anymore!”
“Even Jon Dahl Tomasson, Milan’s lone striker, has dropped all the way back to help defend!”
“Liverpool have shown incredible resilience tonight.
After finding themselves three goals down at half-time, they somehow fought their way back and levelled the score through sheer determination.”
“During extra time, Kaka was clearly far from his best.
Liverpool came agonisingly close to breaking through Milan’s defence, or at least dragging the match into a brutal penalty shootout.”
“But football doesn’t always reward the side that refuses to give up!”
“Kaka!”
“Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite!”
“The Brazilian prodigy!”
“The Golden Boy of Brazil has scored a stunning volley amid the chaos to snatch a dramatic late winner against Liverpool, rescuing AC Milan from what would have been one of the most humiliating collapses in European football history!”
“Milan now lead by a single goal!”
“And perhaps only a few dozen seconds separate them from lifting the European Cup for the seventh time in club history!”
As the commentator’s voice echoed through the stadium, Liverpool’s final corner came to nothing.
Then the referee raised the whistle to his lips.
Peep!
Peep!!
PEEEEEEEP!!!
“The match is over!”
“AC Milan are the champions of Europe!”
“They have won the 2004-05 UEFA Champions League!”
“This is the seventh European Cup in the club’s history, second only to Real Madrid’s nine!”
“And this is also Kaka’s first Champions League title!”
“The Brazilian genius has finally claimed European football’s greatest club prize!”
“Congratulations to AC Milan!”
“Congratulations to Kaka!”
“This Champions League final has been filled with twists, drama, and unbelievable moments.
It will undoubtedly go down in football history as one of the great European finals.”
“Liverpool showed extraordinary determination, fighting back from three goals down to draw level in normal time.”
“Although they were ultimately defeated by Kaka’s last-gasp winner in extra time, they can hold their heads high.”
“The courage and fighting spirit shown by the Reds tonight deserve everyone’s respect!”
…
“AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
The moment the final whistle sounded, the Milan substitutes poured onto the pitch in celebration.
Carlo Ancelotti threw his arms around his assistant coach, his carefully styled hair already becoming dishevelled amid the chaos.
Still trapped in Tomasson’s embrace, Kaka finally let out a long breath.
It’s over.
Thank God.
If this match went on any longer, he was definitely going to embarrass himself again!
More than 120 minutes of football!
Even cattle weren’t worked this hard!
The real Kaka might have been able to endure this level of intensity, but the impostor currently occupying his body definitely didn’t have that kind of mental endurance.
He was fairly sure that another five minutes would have ended with him collapsing unconscious on the pitch.
After finally escaping his teammates’ embraces, Kaka dropped onto the grass.
Across from him, Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso, and the rest of the Liverpool players were scattered across the pitch.
Some lay flat on their backs.
Others knelt motionless.
Their quiet sobs were barely audible beneath the deafening celebrations around them.
Watching Gerrard’s shoulders tremble, Kaka suddenly felt a small pang of guilt.
If he hadn’t appeared…
In the original timeline, Kaka had faded badly during the second half and extra time.
Liverpool had managed to hold Milan to 3-3 before eventually defeating them in the penalty shootout.
And Gerrard had lifted what would become the only Champions League trophy of his career.
But because of him, Milan had scored a goal in extra time that had never existed before.
The match had ended 4-3.
I wonder…
If Gerrard loses this Champions League, will he go his entire career without ever winning one?
Thinking about it, Kaka violently shook his head and threw that tiny bit of guilt straight out of his mind.
Why should he feel guilty?
History was written by the winners!
As a fan, he’d suffered through years of people bringing up the Miracle of Istanbul whenever they wanted to mock Milan or Kaka.
Now he’d personally erased one of his goat’s greatest regrets.
Wait.
He was Kaka now.
So technically…
What regret?
The Miracle of Istanbul?
Of course there had still been a miracle tonight.
But this time, the miracle belonged to Kaka.
It belonged to AC Milan.
This was Milan’s Miracle of Istanbul!
Shevchenko was running around the pitch draped in a Ukrainian flag bearing his name.
This was the reigning Ballon d’Or winner’s second Champions League title, and the Ukrainian seemed to have forgotten the meaning of exhaustion altogether as he threw himself into the celebrations.
Nearby, Maldini and Pirlo stood together with their families.
Maldini’s face was filled with smiles.
Another European title had just been added to an already legendary career.
And Kaka had become the brightest star on the pitch.
Players, staff members, friends, and family kept coming over to take photos with him.
Kaka didn’t refuse anyone.
Mostly because he’d finally spotted his own family.
His grandparents.
His father.
His mother.
His younger brother.
And his younger sister.
They had all come to Istanbul to watch the final.
Although no one knew that a different soul now occupied this body, facing Kaka’s family still made him feel strangely guilty.
The trophy presentation was grand beyond words.
Paolo Maldini stood at the centre of the celebrations, surrounded by his teammates as he lifted the European Cup high above his head.
Confetti rained down from the sky.
For that moment, the whole world seemed to turn red and black.
“We are the champions!!!!”
Back in the AC Milan dressing room, a wild champagne battle broke out.
This time, they were really opening champagne.
Shevchenko soaked Kaka from head to toe.
Wiping the alcohol from his face, Kaka laughed, jumped up, and threw himself into the celebrations.
A lingering sense of unreality still filled his mind.
But even if all of this was nothing more than an impossibly vivid dream, it was still a wonderful dream.
An unforgettable one.
Without the collapse in Istanbul, and with Kaka now becoming the hero who had rescued the team, would his career follow a different and perhaps even brighter path?
He had no idea.
For now, he simply celebrated with his teammates.
As for the future…
He could worry about that after he woke up from this dream.
AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi personally visited the dressing room to congratulate the newly crowned European champions.
By now, Kaka had more or less adjusted to being around these famous figures, so he managed to keep his composure even while exchanging pleasantries with one of Italy’s most powerful businessmen.
After the initial celebrations, the entire squad returned to their hotel.
The club had already arranged a banquet there, while outside the entrance, huge numbers of Milan supporters who had travelled to Istanbul gathered to continue celebrating.
The champagne seemed to keep flowing from the dressing room all the way into the next morning.
The all-night party left Kaka completely exhausted, but as one of the main heroes of the victory, he had absolutely no chance of slipping away early.
Sheva and the others simply wouldn’t allow it.
The following afternoon, the newly crowned Champions League winners returned to Milan.
The airport was surrounded by a sea of supporters.
Applause, singing, and cheers filled the air as the team made its way back into the city.
After only a short rest, another massive celebration began.
For a time, the entire city of Milan seemed to be painted red and black.
For all the quality in their squad, AC Milan had actually been in danger of ending the season almost empty-handed.
In Serie A, Juventus had already secured the title before the final round.
Milan were too far behind to catch them and could only finish second.
In the Coppa Italia, they had been eliminated by Udinese in the quarter-finals.
If not for the new Kaka’s arrival changing history and handing Liverpool defeat in the Champions League Final, Milan’s season would have been considered a major disappointment.
But now that the European Cup was sitting in their trophy cabinet, those failures suddenly didn’t seem nearly as important.
On May 29, in the final round of the 2004-05 Serie A season, AC Milan travelled to face Udinese.
With second place already secured, Ancelotti had little reason to risk his key players.
Most of the starters were rested.
Kaka, Shevchenko, and several others watched from the bench.
The match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Milan finished the league season with 23 wins, 10 draws, and 5 defeats from 38 matches, taking second place with 79 points.
Juventus won the 2004-05 Serie A title with 86 points.
Inter Milan finished third with 72 points, while Udinese took fourth with 62.
Interestingly, Inter lost only twice all season.
Unfortunately for them, they also drew a ridiculous 18 matches.
Whatever Roberto Mancini was cooking over there, it certainly produced…
results of some kind.
With the club season officially over, the fever surrounding the Champions League triumph gradually began to settle.
Kaka returned to his home in Milan.
Only after collapsing onto the large, soft bed did he finally have enough time and peace to properly examine his situation.
He had transmigrated into another world.
Into Kaka, no less.
And if there was one universal law of transmigration stories, it was this: There had to be a cheat.
Sure enough…
Ding…
The 2004-05 season has concluded.
System calculating rewards…