Cao Baming could see Henry was just joking, and didn't retort.
De Bruyne was one of the top midfielders in the world, so he should be fine, he'd thought about this.
Messi smiled, but still accepted.
"It's just exchanging a jersey, is there any need to make such a fuss?"
Cao Baming retorted, and more importantly, among the people in front of him, some were even holding Manchester City players' jerseys.
Henry himself had received Alvarez's jersey at the end of the match, and no one had said much about it. Yet, when it came to him, they were all so excited.
"Alright, alright, disperse, there's nothing new here!"
At this moment, the system's voice chimed in.
"Host has completed the first stage mission, would you like to receive the next mission immediately?"
Cao Baming sighed helplessly and closed his eyes.
This wasn't the first time he'd heard this.
"No way, no way! You already asked me once, why again? I told you I don't want any more of these missions right now!"
"Received! I will no longer remind you." The system's voice sounded a bit wronged, but in reality, there was no intonation.
Cao Baming was speechless, but at least he understood now that the system missions weren't fixed; they were randomly generated based on the current situation!
To avoid another strange mission like going to the opposing locker room to exchange jerseys, it was better to wait for now, no need to rush!
Haste makes waste, that saying was indeed true.
At this moment, Cao Baming already had a plan: he would wait until he was on the field playing a match, and then accept the mission. That way, he could directly ask the system to arrange a mission that could be completed on the field!
It couldn't be that even then it wouldn't work, if that were the case, he would truly curse.
The next day, the news of the match results predictably hit the trending topics. Manchester City once again became a hot topic, piggybacking on Cao Baming's popularity.
"The Greatest of All Time is Born! Season Goal Count of 70 Surpasses Messi!"
A poster with a deep red filter background, shimmering gold numbers, and a backdrop of Cao Baming executing an overhead kick was simply stunning.
A poster instantly spread like wildfire throughout the football world and even globally, topping the trending charts in various countries.
More than two goals per game! This was already the limit for a human, wasn't it!
At the same time, the suspense for the Ballon d'Or further diminished. Messi, Henry, Zidane, Mbappé, Ronaldo, and others were all thoroughly crushed.
Perhaps a month ago, they were still neck and neck, even winning the World Cup and holding the Hercules Cup in their arms, Mbappé and Zidane had a momentary surge of momentum.
But now, they had fallen one by one. Perhaps they hadn't truly fallen, but they were already far behind Cao Baming.
Looking at the current situation, Cao Baming was leading the second-place Mbappé by forty percent of the votes. Although there were still two months before the awards ceremony, there would likely be no surprises.
If the Hercules Cup couldn't stop Cao Baming from winning the Ballon d'Or, what could?
While the outside world buzzed with discussion, Cao Baming himself didn't seem to care much. After a simple request to the team, he was granted a two-week holiday.
The remaining few matches of the league involved teams at the bottom of the Premier League standings, and they posed no challenge.
Even if he wasn't there, the team could easily secure victories; there was no need to worry about that.
Cao Baming was extremely confident, not just based on guesswork. He had seen several possible scenarios in the time bubble, but he had never seen the team lose a match.
Cao Baming would return on the Champions League stage in two weeks, as per his agreement with the club.
As for the remaining two system missions, an opportunity had just presented itself, which could solve the problem.
The next day, Arsenal welcomed an opportunity for a friendly match against a team from outside the top five leagues. Their opponent hailed from Argentina, a football powerhouse.
This was Messi's hometown, the land Messi cherished, and most of the team comprised local players.
The name of this team, when transliterated, surprisingly meant "Dream"!
The initial purpose of this friendly match was to capitalize on Messi's popularity and generate revenue within Argentina. It was clearly a commercial event, merely a plaything of capital.
Cao Baming didn't care about such details. This friendly match was precisely an opportunity to undertake the two system missions. The best-case scenario would be to accept both missions within the duration of a single match and complete them!
Cao Baming's teammates were astonished by this.
"I envy you so much that you can take holidays whenever you want. The team's management either has big plans for you or they're too afraid to mess with you. That feels great!"
"If I took a holiday, what does a friendly match matter? Even if the team went bankrupt, I wouldn't care!"
"Yeah, since you're going on vacation, why come back specifically for a small friendly match? Do you not trust us?"
...
Hearing their questions, Cao Baming was also helpless.
"I'm just back to play around, treating it like a game!"
Hearing this, everyone dismissed their further inquiries. After all, he was Cao Baming, how could he be like them?
In fact, Cao Baming had another idea: to score as many goals as possible in such friendly matches!
Others might view such matches as a mere formality, with friendship first and competition second, a courtesy match at best. If the vast difference in strength were taken seriously, the opponent would surely be unable to withstand it.
But Cao Baming had no intention of holding back. Since he was here, he wanted to score more goals. To reach the system's skill upgrade requirements sooner, even if there was no hope at present, he couldn't give up striving.
Total career goals, after all, didn't just count league matches!
By this calculation, he had already scored over two hundred goals in various matches up to this point!
Friendly matches were a perfect opportunity to expand this number. The defense would certainly not be as strong as Premier League teams, even weaker Premier League teams were among the best in the world!
That was the strongest league in the world, and the competition was the most intense.