"Is he going to do it? Is he going to win? What an absolutely spectacular show by Crown! Can they stop him? One kill, two kills. Three, four, five, six! What?! He did it! What a comeback, Crown coming in and wiping out the entire enemy team! What a fantastic display of skill."

"That's right. Perfect execution of all of Legion's skills. For any of the new players watching, Legion is considered the most difficult character to play. He's a high damage, high speed melee carry that comes at a high risk. Due to his low defensive stats, he's incredibly easy to kill. Props to the player, Crown, for evading every attack thrown his way."

The video cut off there, making him sigh. They didn't even show his victory screen. That was the highlight of his short career as the professional gamer, Crown, in Steel Arena. It was unfortunate that he begun playing as the game was in its decline. Had he started a year or two earlier, he might have been able to catch the game at its peak popularity.

Still, Crown was recognized as the top player in the entire world. The video he just watched was his single handed victory against the former world champions. Upon their defeat, the team passed the trophy to his team's - mostly his - hands.

He never passed it on.

That year, the company that created Steel Arena announced their next step. They were merging with a larger company to form an even greater game, and Steel Arena would be discontinued. The servers went down months later.

The day the servers shut down, millions of players shifted away from Steel Arena, and towards Sovereign System's newest title: Glorious Morning. It was a VRMMO built with the latest technology. Hyper advanced AI to simulate reality. Zettabytes of memory storage, and the highest level of quantum processing. To create a world out of 1s and 0s. That was the goal of Sovereign Systems.

And the core team that developed the game? The designers of Steel Arena. They provided the creativity and experience. Sovereign Systems provided the technology. It was a perfect marriage for the gaming community. It came as no surprise that the day it was released, Glorious Morning became the most popular game in the world.

How he wanted to hate that man.

His phone rang.

Speak of the devil.

"Hello?"

"Whoa. You picked up. It's me, Jin. I didn't think would answer. The whole family is worried. We haven't heard from you in a long time." Jin's voice sounded exactly the same as he did on television.

"I'm surprised I answered too."

"Right. Look, I want to meet up. Remember the café we used to always chill at? Tomorrow at 2. Is that okay?"

"No."

"Come on. We're brothers. That means we're family, and you know what dad used to always say."

"Family watches each other." They both spoke in unison.

"Exactly! I'll see you then?"

"Fine." He hung up the phone. He never expected his brother to call. Jin especially. If it were any of his other siblings, he would be fine but it had to be Jin.

He only hoped this conversation could help clear some of the chaos in his life. He chuckled. Who was he kidding? Jin was the reason this happened in the first place.

--

When he walked into the café for the first time in years, the first thing Crown remembered was the smell of sweet roasted coffee beans. He remembered the cute waitress that always served him, and looked around, hoping to see her familiar face.

She wasn't there. She did say she was working part-time to pay through university. She was probably in some large office building working for a law firm. She always wanted to be a lawyer.

It seemed as if everyone had moved on except for him.

"Hey! You actually came!" That voice, no different than on the phone, made him turn around. He wasn't prepared for the hug that followed.

"Jin. You know, I'm surprising myself everyday. Can we sit?" The pair moved to the table in the corner of the room. It was their favorite spot, secluded from the rest of the café yet in front of the large windows, opened to the world. They both ordered the special coffee.

"It's so glad to see you. I see you haven't changed one bit." Jin held up his own porcelain cup. Dark coffee swirled beneath white foam, expelling an aroma that felt simply nostalgic. If only it could be like this again.

"I suppose I haven't."

"How has life treated you these past few months?" Crown almost scoffed at his brother's question. His brother knew exactly what he was experiencing.

"I don't know, Jin. I've never been good at anything."

He was neither gifted in academics nor sports. Neither socially adept nor skilled in any craft. But despite all of his weaknesses, he took to playing Steel Arena like a musician took to practice. That was because the feeling of success in himself was no other than when he played a perfect match on Legion. It made him feel useful. It made him feel alive.

"That's not true. I don't think I've ever seen our parents as proud as the day they were when you won the world championship."

"Of course you didn't. That's because you couldn't see their faces through the camera when you stepped on that podium a month later and announced your ambitions to the world."

"Little brother..."

"Nobody's willing to hire somebody who didn't graduate from a university. I've been scraping by doing odd jobs here and there."

"That just sounds like you're running away. I thought Legion never runs away."

"He doesn't. He valiantly charges in because it's either life or death. I'm doing what I need to do to survive. I'm just dealing with the trash hand that I've been dealt."

"I know what you do all day. You sit around watching your old videos, and playing some boring games one after another. Every day you try to relive your old glory days. What kind of life is that? How do you survive like that? Odd jobs? Really?"

"Yeah. Odd jobs. That, and the money you send is enough to get by, so leave me alone. You know what? I shouldn't have come." He moved to stand, but a hand lashed out and caught his wrist. The firm grasp told him one thing: sit.

"Look, that's why I came to talk. I'm sorry to have to say this, but Sovereign Systems is cutting your contract. I wanted to tell you personally."

"What? Jin, you can't be serious. You're willing to stab your brother in the back, just because you have some new hotshot game that's dominating the industry? What ever happened to 'family watches each other?' You're the one who said those words!" He threw the cup on the ground. The white porcelain shattered into pieces spilling dark brown coffee over the spotless floors. Several patrons turned their heads towards the commotion.

Jin apologized to the café owner and promised to pay extra as compensation before turning back.

"Crown."

"That's not my name. You of all people don't deserve to call me by that name."

"Crown."

"Shut up! You've screwed with my dreams enough as it is. If it weren't for your stupid Glorious Morning, I might have still been competing in Steel Arena. I might have still had a career. I might have still had a life. So tell me, brother, what gives you the right to call me Crown?"

He was surprised. As much as he was yelling, he never actually felt true anger towards his brother. Maybe it was because they were family, and family always stayed together. Jin never meant to destroy his career. Jin wanted to pursue his own dreams, and needed to step on some toes to do so.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"It was a necessary sacrifice. You know that." Crown sighed. He knew it was true.

"Yeah, I do. It's frustrating because I should be angrier at you."

"You did throw one of the cups on the ground."

"I could have thrown it at your face."

"I suppose that's true."

Crown shook his head. How he missed the idle banter back and forth. It reminded him of how life was before this whole incident ever occurred.

"You know, Jin. The only thing I really wanted was for everything to go back to the way it was before. Go back to the time when I actually meant something. I used to be Crown, the best player in the world! Fans cheering, that trophy in my hands, and the entire family in that front row. If only I could live through those days again."

"Maybe you can. Sovereign Systems is cutting off your contract because we want to sponsor somebody new for our game. Somebody who can generate hundreds of thousands of viewers. I'd love to see Crown again."

"Crown's gone."

"Maybe in Steel Arena, yes, but not in Glorious Morning. You started Steel Arena a little too late, but Glorious Morning has just hit the market. Even now, our player base is increasing every day. People want to see this new land. They want to experience it. Who better to lead that than you, the world champion of Steel Arena?"

"Are you telling me you want me to play your game? I'd be a complete failure. The only thing I'm good at is Steel Arena, and only playing Legion too. I've never won a game with anyone else. I doubt anyone exactly like Legion exists in that game of yours."

"You're right. He doesn't. But that's the beauty of the game. Little brother, don't you see? I'm not giving you the chance to play Legion. I'm giving you the chance to become him."

To become Legion. Was such a thing even possible? To embody the very character that he spent months of his life mastering? He even twitched in anticipation.

"Why didn't you ask me earlier?"

"To be honest, I wanted you to figure this out by yourself. I felt that if you were the one to come up with the idea of trying to become Legion in Glorious Morning, then you would be more motivated to play."

"Just admit it. You were scared to even talk to me. You were afraid I would hate you."

"I'll admit I was a bit worried, but the board of trustees gave me an ultimatum. That's why I'm telling you this. You're my brother, Crown, and I want you to live your days knowing you actually mean something."

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this. Well, I don't have any of the equipment needed to play. I'd need a membership at one of your gaming cafés."

Most people went to special gaming cafés to log into Glorious Morning. Sovereign Systems used its own budget to push the necessary VR gaming equipment into these cafés scattered all across the globe.

"Not necessary. If you want our sponsorship, you'll need to catch up to some of the other players. That means you'll need to play as much as you possibly can. I've already called for a team to install all of the equipment in your apartment. They'll be done in a few hours."

"So that's why you called me out here. How did you know I was going to agree?" He grinned.

"I didn't. I took a risk, but I'd have to say the rewards were certainly worth the risk. You've got half a year, Crown. That's when you'll need to send in your application."

"Yeah, I'll do it. Don't worry about it."

"Head up, little brother. I missed your goofy smile." Jin patted his brother on the head before leaving the café.

Crown supposed he was lucky his brother wasn't there to see the tears run down his face.

--

"Stupid Jin. Ruining everything, and then coming back to help. Just like him, always playing the good guy, even when he's the bad guy." Crown grumbled as he stepped into his studio apartment. The late afternoon sun spread a radiant light through the windows, illuminating the white walls and wooden floorboards. His place wasn't big but it was comfortable.

However, the only thing he could focus on was the one thing that wasn't there when he had left his home hours ago.

There was a sleek black egg-shaped pod encased in steel jutting out from his wall. What used to be empty space now housed the machine that would hopefully fulfill his dream. He felt obligated to give his benefactor a call.

"Jin."

"Crown! I take that you've seen the present?"

"Yeah. I'm about to take it for a test run."

"Well, alright then. Good luck."

"Jin, I just wanted to say... thank you. You might have screwed up my life, but you also gave me the opportunity to make it better. I never hated you, even for a moment."

"Ah, come on now. No need to get all sentimental. I'm your brother, and remember -"

"Family watches each other."

"Yeah."

He shut his phone, and opened the pod. Air whizzed out as the hydraulics lifted up the slab of metal, revealing the advanced technologies hidden underneath. Wires and screens and sensors littered the insides of the machine. Everything was wired to one large seat in the center.

He slipped into the leather seat, feeling it conform to his body, cradling him as if he was suspended in air. The hatch door closed, until he was left in pure darkness. A woman's voice pierced the silence. She sounded almost human, save for the slight metallic ringing that resounded with every word.

"Initializing. Preliminary scan reveals mental stability. Neural integration system fully functional."

Various images appeared on the screens in the pod.

"Please input name."

"Crown!"

"Please input appearance."

A splitting image of his current physique was displayed on the screen. Black hair, black eyes, pale skin. Relatively tall, decent physique, and average looking. He did, however, have a mop of hair and an unshaven face. He looked like he was living under a cave for the past few months.

He chuckled. He supposed he did live in a cave for the past few months.

"Short hair and shave the face."

Both his the hair on top of his head, and the hair on his face was cut to his preferred lengths. He looked like he was years younger. It was impressive how shaving his mustache and beard, and getting a haircut could turn a man who looked 30 to a man was looked 20. Then again, Crown was 20.

"Please confirm."

"Confirmed."

"Are you ready?"

He spoke without hesitation.

"Born ready."

"Virtual Reality Simulation commencing. We recognize this is the first time you are playing. Please pay attention to the tutorial."

"Gah! Blast!"