Prologue: A New Threat?
I t was a few months after Professor Stan had been defeated, and the GGO Football World was flourishing nicely. In fact, the reigning champions, Team Barefoot, were preparing themselves for the Regionals and Nationals; the world watched as the high-school celebrities prepared to return to the field once more. Along the way they had played a few tournaments, and they knew that their old rivals, Team Samba and co, were not going to give them an easy time.
In fact, Isaac was on his way to Shawn's mansion to practise with the others for the upcoming matches. The latter would not be playing the Nationals with them, but he was in the country at that time, and it was natural for them to want to practise together again.
H e whistled contentedly as he strolled down the streets towards where he was going to meet Karl, Cat and Timmy to be picked up by Mr Glanz. When he arrived, he saw that they were already there, waiting for them. He quickly greeted them, and they had a good laugh as they waited for Mr Glanz, who arrived five minutes later in the limousine featuring 569 on the car plate.
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They had just got out of the car at the foot of Shawn's mansion when they noticed that Mr Glanz was not as nice and calm as he normally was. In fact he seemed a bit hurried. Isaac, seeing this, asked him if anything was going. Mr Glanz grimaced a little.
"Perhaps it's best if you see for yourselves…"
And so the Barefoot quartet entered in, curious to see what had happened. Immediately, they noticed there was a tenser atmosphere than usual, which seemed to be coming from the practice room. They walked inside, to find Oscar, who had been there before, and Shawn looking grim.
"What happened?" asked Cat asked Shawn.
"You should probably see for yourselves…" he handed over his phone to Isaac, who saw, along with the others, that there was a new broadcast playing.
P olice have been baffled by this crime scene, where Professor Stan, the one notorious for being one of the founders of GGO Football, who caused large chaos is last year's international competition, was declared murdered in a brutal fashion. Although he was declared to be mad, he was still placed in a maximum-security cell for fears that he or some unknown accomplices would break him out and cause a danger for society again; so it is absolutely incomprehensible that he was killed without anybody knowing. And the macabre fashion in which he was killed is also strange. He was found with the top of his head from forehead up cut off, and a visible, blackened hole in his brain. Investigators are currently at the scene, but no progress is being made in terms of searching for a possible suspect Isaac looked up.
Visible puzzlement was present in the faces of all his friends. And the silence loomed, as the obvious question lingered in the air.
Who possesses such a power to break into a maximum-security cell undetected, and why would they want kill Professor Stan so soon after he became incapacitated?