The cold night air bit against McCall’s skin.
His breathing grew heavier with every failed attempt.
Thirty-eight…
Drop.
Forty-two…
Drop.
Forty-nine…
Drop.
He bent over, hands on his knees, sweat dripping from his forehead onto the grass.
“This is ridiculous.”
He looked up at the glowing blue screen.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Juggles
Best Combo: 49
Remaining: 951
Time Left: 6 Hours 31 Minutes
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
“I’ll never finish this.”
He kicked the ball away in frustration.
It rolled several meters before stopping.
McCall sighed.
Maybe he wasn’t meant for this after all.
Even with some mysterious power, he was still the same boy who couldn’t keep a football in the air.
He walked over to retrieve the ball.
As he bent down, another voice echoed inside his mind.
It wasn’t the System.
It was the First King.
“When you fall…
what do you do?”
McCall closed his eyes.
“…I get back up.”
“Again.”
“I get back up.”
“Again.”
“I get back up.”
“Again.”
A smile slowly appeared on McCall’s face.
He picked up the ball.
“Alright…”
“One more time.”
…
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
His movements were smoother now.
He wasn’t forcing the ball anymore.
He was listening to it.
Feeling its rhythm.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Twenty-eight.
Thirty-six.
Forty-nine.
His previous record.
“Come on…”
Fifty.
A notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
New Personal Record!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
McCall ignored it.
Sixty.
Seventy-two.
Eighty-nine.
Ninety-eight.
“Ninety-nine…”
His heart raced.
“One hundred!”
He laughed.
“I did it!”
At that exact moment—
The ball suddenly slipped behind him.
Without thinking…
McCall spun around.
His right foot stretched farther than ever before.
His body twisted effortlessly.
Tap.
The ball bounced perfectly onto his left knee.
“What?”
Tap.
Shoulder.
Head.
Back to his foot.
McCall stopped completely.
“…How did I do that?”
The movement had felt…
Natural.
Almost instinctive.
Like someone else’s experience had briefly become his own.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Passive Skill Activated
King’s Instinct (Level 1)
For brief moments, the host may unconsciously reproduce movements stored within the Legacy.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
His eyes widened.
“So that’s what the Legacy means…”
Before he could think further—
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
Someone was applauding.
McCall turned sharply.
A tall elderly man stood beside the park fence.
He wore a faded Brookhaven High training jacket and held an old thermos in one hand.
His gray beard swayed gently in the wind.
“You’ve improved.”
McCall frowned.
“I’m sorry…
do I know you?”
The old man smiled.
“No.”
“But I know football.”
“And I know determination when I see it.”
McCall scratched the back of his neck.
“I still have a long way to go.”
“You do.”
The old man didn’t sugarcoat it.
“Your first touch is inconsistent.”
“You lean too far back.”
“You panic whenever the ball rises above your chest.”
McCall blinked.
Those were exactly the mistakes he had been making.
“But…”
The old man continued.
“You never quit.”
McCall smiled weakly.
“I’ve had plenty of practice losing.”
The old man’s expression softened.
“Sometimes…”
“The players who lose the most become the strongest.”
He turned and began walking away.
“Wait!”
McCall called.
“Who are you?”
The old man waved without turning around.
“Someone who misses the game.”
By the time McCall reached the gate…
The man was gone.
“…That was strange.”
…
Meanwhile…
Several miles outside Brookhaven…
Deep beneath an abandoned church…
A massive steel door slowly opened.
Inside was a circular chamber illuminated by blue flames.
Seven figures sat around a stone table.
Each wore a different mask.
A lion.
A raven.
A wolf.
A serpent.
An eagle.
A dragon.
And at the head…
A crown split cleanly in half.
The Dragon Mask spoke first.
“The Legacy has awakened.”
Silence followed.
The Raven Mask leaned forward.
“Are you certain?”
The Dragon Mask placed a glowing crystal onto the table.
Golden energy pulsed inside it.
“It reacted three hours ago.”
The chamber became deathly quiet.
The Crown Mask finally spoke.
His voice was deep enough to shake the walls.
“Then history repeats itself.”
The Wolf Mask clenched his fists.
“We should eliminate the boy immediately.”
“No.”
The Crown Mask’s tone was absolute.
“Observe him first.”
“If he truly inherited the First King’s Legacy…”
A faint smile formed beneath the broken crown mask.
“…then he may lead us to the remaining Relics.”
Every member around the table looked up.
“The Whistle.”
“The Journal.”
“The Crown.”
“The Heart.”
Pieces of an ancient power long believed lost.
The Dragon Mask whispered,
“The age of Kings…”
“…is returning.”
…
Back in Brookhaven…
The eastern sky slowly turned orange.
Birds began singing.
McCall’s legs felt like they were on fire.
His shirt clung to his body with sweat.
His breathing came in ragged gasps.
He looked at the floating screen one last time.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Combo
998…
999…
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
His entire body trembled.
“Just one more…”
He gently tapped the ball upward.
It spun beautifully through the morning air.
His eyes never left it.
Tap.
1000.
The screen exploded with golden light.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUEST COMPLETE
Reward Granted.
+1 Ball Control
+1 Coordination
Skill Unlocked:
Perfect First Touch (Beginner)
Legacy Synchronization:
0.1% → 0.3%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Warm energy surged through McCall’s body.
The exhaustion vanished.
His sore muscles relaxed instantly.
He felt…
Lighter.
Stronger.
Sharper.
The football dropped toward his feet.
Without thinking, he trapped it.
The ball stopped dead against his boot.
Not an inch rolled away.
McCall stared at it in amazement.
“…That felt perfect.”
A grin slowly spread across his face.
For the first time in years…
The football didn’t feel like an impossible dream.
It felt like it belonged with him.
Far away, hidden among the trees overlooking the park, a pair of silver eyes watched silently.
The man in the dark coat smiled.
“So…”
“You’ve taken your first step.”
“But every King…”
“…must eventually face his first rival.”
He disappeared into the morning mist before McCall ever realized he had been watched.