Reincarnated As A Wonderkid

"Mom," he said, his eyes glued to the screen, a slow, brilliant smile spreading across his face.

"I think I know what I want for my post-birthday present."

The next afternoon, two very large boxes arrived, delivered by a man who looked deeply impressed by the size of Leon's new house. Thanks to the beautiful, wonderful magic of a world-record signing bonus, "next-day delivery" meant "next-hour delivery."

He spent the next hour setting up the system in his living room, a chaotic mess of wires, sensors, and sleek, white plastic. Once it was ready, a large, open space cleared in the middle of the room, he made a call.

"Hey, you," Sofia's cheerful voice answered. "To what do I owe the honor? Did you need a professional opinion on the structural integrity of a sponge cake?"

"Even better," Leon said, a grin in his voice.

"I have a new video game. It's a VR football thing. And I need a partner for a two-on-two match against the computer. Are you in?"

He heard her laugh. "You want me, a person with the athletic coordination of a newborn giraffe, to play a virtual reality football match with you, one of the best players in the world?"

"Exactly," he said. "It'll be a fair fight."

"I'll be there in twenty minutes," she said.

"But I'm picking our team name. And it's going to be something art-related."

Twenty minutes later, "Team Renaissance," as Sofia had dubbed them, was standing in the middle of Leon's living room, wearing sleek, lightweight VR headsets.

"Okay, this is weird," Sofia said, her voice a slightly disembodied sound. "I can't see the sofa. I really hope I don't try to tackle the sofa."

"Just stay in the green zone," Leon said, pointing to the glowing grid on the floor that only they could see.

"Ready?"

He hit 'Start', and the living room vanished.

They were standing in the middle of a breathtaking, hyper-realistic stadium, a cathedral of digital light under a perfect, starry sky. The grass beneath their feet looked and felt so real it was almost unnerving.

"Whoa," Sofia whispered, her voice filled with awe. "This is... incredible."

The tutorial began, a series of simple passing and moving drills. Sofia, true to her word, was a mess of flailing limbs and happy, uncoordinated laughter. She tried to pass the ball and ended up kicking the air. She tried to run and nearly walked into a virtual wall.

"This is harder than it looks!" she yelled, laughing as her avatar stumbled over the ball for the fifth time.

"You're a natural!" Leon called back, a huge, happy grin on his face.

For him, the experience was different. The game felt... real. The physics, the ball control, it was all a perfect one-to-one simulation. After they finished the tutorial, he loaded up a simple program: Free Kick Practice.

He stood over the virtual ball, a wall of emotionless, AI-generated mannequins in front of him. He took a deep breath. He didn't activate his power.

He just took a normal, clean shot.

The ball flew, a perfect, curling free-kick that went into the top corner.

"GOAL!" Sofia screamed, her avatar jumping up and down.

"Okay," Leon whispered to himself. "Baseline established."

He placed the ball again. This time, he focused. He drew on that now-familiar, coiled energy in his leg. 'Power Shot - Level 2'.

He struck the ball. In the virtual world, a flash of golden, pixelated light erupted from his boot.

And then, just as it had in the Spurs match, it did the impossible.

It swerved, a violent, instantaneous, 90-degree turn in mid-air, a beautiful, terrifying glitch in the game's matrix. It crashed into the back of the net, the virtual net physics completely freaking out at the impossible trajectory.

A wave of pure, triumphant relief washed over him. He had found it. He had found his laboratory. A safe, private space where he could test, train, and finally learn to control the beautiful, terrifying monster in his right foot.

He spent the next hour practicing, Sofia acting as his very enthusiastic, if slightly confused, cheerleader. He didn't always use the Power Shot.

He practiced normal shots, finesse shots, and even the 'Knuckleball', which was still mostly attacking the virtual car park behind the goal.

They finished their session, laughing and completely drenched in sweat, collapsing onto the real-life sofa. "Okay," Sofia said, her chest heaving.

"That was the most fun I have had in a very long time. Team Renaissance is officially undefeated."

"We are a dynasty," Leon agreed, his heart full and his mind clear.

As she was getting ready to leave, a happy, tired smile on her face, he felt a new sense of hope. He had a path forward. He had a way to 'Contain the Anomaly'. It would take time. It would take work. But it was possible.

He walked her to the door, a comfortable, happy silence between them. He was about to say goodnight when she turned to him, a strange, thoughtful look on her face.

"You know," she said, "that crazy, swerving shot you were doing... it reminded me of something."

"Oh yeah?" he asked, a flicker of nervousness in his chest.

"Yeah," she said, her brow furrowed in thought.

"My dad... when he was a player, he had this one, famous, impossible free-kick he scored. They still show it on the highlight reels. The 'Trivela of '08'. The ball did something just like that. Everyone said it was a freak of nature, that it was physically impossible."

She looked at him, a strange, intense, and deeply curious light in her eyes.

"He never did it again. He said he tried, but he could never replicate it. He said it was like... the magic was only there for one day."

"....."

Leon woke up the next morning with a jolt, his alarm blaring a full hour later than it was supposed to.

"PANIC!" he yelled to an empty room, scrambling out of bed.

He had a new, secret, and absolutely vital morning ritual: an hour in the "FieldFlex VR" system, his private laboratory for containing the beautiful, terrifying monster that was his 'Power Shot'. He was currently at 17/100. And he had just slept through his scheduled training time.

He threw on his clothes, sprinted into the kitchen, and was met by the calm, amused face of his mother, who was holding out a travel mug of coffee and a breakfast bar.

"Late night solving the tactical problems of the world, my champion?" she asked, a knowing smile on her face.

"Something like that," he said, giving her a quick, grateful kiss on the cheek.

"You're a lifesaver, Mom!""I know," she said, patting his now-famous white hair.

"Now go. Do not be late for your very important running-around-on-the-grass meeting."