The golden light consumed everything.
McCall felt as though he had been launched through the stars.
Countless voices whispered around him.
“Never give up…”
“Play with your heart…”
“A true king inspires others…”
“Protect the game…”
Each voice carried centuries of wisdom.
Then…
Silence.
…
McCall’s eyes flew open.
“Gah!”
He gasped, sucking in a deep breath.
The dusty attic came back into focus.
The ancient chest sat before him.
The glowing football…
The journal…
The whistle…
They were all gone.
Only an empty chest remained.
“What…”
He looked around frantically.
“No…
no, where did they go?”
Had it all been a dream?
His heart pounded violently.
The First King’s words echoed inside his head.
“The world will begin hunting you.”
McCall laughed nervously.
“That was just my imagination…”
He stood.
The moment his feet touched the wooden floor—
BOOM!
The entire attic trembled.
His knees buckled.
A strange warmth surged through his body.
Golden lines spread beneath his skin before disappearing.
His breathing became heavier.
“What is happening to me?”
His muscles tightened.
Every sound around him suddenly became unbelievably clear.
He could hear…
The ticking of the old clock downstairs.
A bird landing on the roof.
The wind moving through leaves outside.
Even his own heartbeat.
Thump…
Thump…
Thump…
“What…”
His vision sharpened.
Dust floating through the air appeared to move in slow motion.
A spider crawling across a beam looked painfully clear.
Everything…
Everything felt different.
Then—
CRACK!
The attic floor gave way beneath him.
“Oh!”
McCall crashed through the rotten wood.
Boards exploded everywhere.
He landed on the floor below with a loud thud.
“McCall!”
His mother rushed into the hallway.
“Are you alright?”
She froze.
Her eyes widened.
“How did the attic floor collapse?”
McCall quickly stood, brushing dust off his hoodie.
“I…
I slipped.”
His father hurried over carrying a toolbox.
“You’ve been told that attic isn’t safe.”
“I’m sorry.”
His father looked at the broken ceiling and sighed.
“You’re lucky you weren’t hurt.”
Lucky…
If only they knew.
McCall forced a smile.
“I’ll clean everything up.”
His parents exchanged glances before returning to inspect the damage.
Neither of them noticed the faint golden glow beneath McCall’s shirt.
But someone else did.
Outside the house…
Parked across the street…
A black SUV sat beneath the shade of an old oak tree.
Inside were three people dressed in dark suits.
One of them lowered a pair of binoculars.
“The energy spike has disappeared.”
A woman sitting beside him adjusted an earpiece.
“Was it him?”
The driver stared at the Johnson house.
“It has to be.”
“No ordinary human produces Crown Energy.”
The youngest member frowned.
“But he’s just a teenager.”
The driver smiled.
“So was every King.”
…
That evening…
Brookhaven slowly settled into peaceful silence.
McCall lay on his bed staring at the ceiling.
Sleep refused to come.
Everything that had happened replayed inside his mind.
The First King.
The shadows.
The glowing football.
The warning.
Then…
Something unexpected happened.
A transparent blue screen appeared before him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
FOOTBALL KING SYSTEM
Host Confirmed…
Synchronization Complete…
Legacy Compatibility…
100%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
McCall bolted upright.
“What!”
The screen remained floating before him.
It wasn’t a dream.
It wasn’t projected onto the wall.
It simply…
Existed.
Words continued appearing.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WELCOME,
SUCCESSOR OF THE FIRST KING
Name: McCall Johnson
Age: 16
Rank: Amateur
Physical Strength: F
Speed: F
Stamina: F
Ball Control: F
Passing: F
Vision: F
Leadership: F
Talent Potential: ???
Current Legacy Unlocked:
0.1%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
McCall rubbed his eyes.
The screen remained.
“I’m losing my mind…”
Another notification appeared.
FIRST QUEST AVAILABLE
Quest:
Complete 1,000 Ball Juggles Before Sunrise.
Reward:
+1 Ball Control
+1 Coordination
Unlock Beginner Skill
Failure:
No Reward
Time Remaining:
7 Hours 58 Minutes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
McCall stared at it.
“One thousand?”
“That’s impossible.”
Then he remembered something.
The First King’s smile.
“This is only the beginning.”
He slowly climbed out of bed.
“If this is real…”
“I’m going to find out.”
…
Minutes later…
The neighborhood park stood empty beneath the moonlight.
Streetlights cast long shadows across the worn football pitch.
McCall placed an old football on the grass.
“One thousand…”
He laughed.
“I can barely do twenty.”
He kicked the ball upward.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four—
The ball bounced off his knee.
“…Seriously?”
He sighed.
“This is going to take forever.”
Unknown to him…
Someone watched from atop the stadium.
A tall man wearing a dark coat stood on the roof with his hands in his pockets.
His silver eyes followed every movement McCall made.
A faint smile crossed his face.
“So…”
“The Legacy has finally awakened.”
A voice crackled through the earpiece in his ear.
“Captain, do we eliminate him?”
The man watched as McCall struggled to reach ten juggles before dropping the ball again.
He chuckled.
“No.”
“Not yet.”
“I want to see…”
“…whether the next Football King is worthy of surviving.”
Far below, McCall picked up the ball again.
Sweat already covered his forehead.
He had completed only…
Thirty-seven.
He looked at the timer floating before him.
963 Remaining.
He smiled despite the exhaustion.
“For the first time…”
“…I actually have a chance.”
He tossed the ball into the air once more.
The journey toward becoming the Football King…
Had officially begun.