Chapter 1: Banana Peels and Ball Kings
I've always hated irony.
I mean, how does a 26-year-old guy—whose biggest accomplishment is beating every 2K MyCareer storyline on Hall of Fame difficulty—die slipping on a banana peel?
One second, I'm laughing at LeBron's absurd chasedown block compilation for the hundredth time on YouTube. The next? I'm airborne, back hits the corner of my desk, and boom—darkness.
Only, it wasn't darkness. It was light. Blinding, warm, and… oddly mint-scented?
I opened my eyes and felt… heavy. My limbs were longer, thicker, and—what the hell, is that a tattoo on my bicep?
"King James?" a voice asked.
I turned. A man in a Cavaliers polo looked at me, clipboard in hand.
I stood up. The world seemed smaller from up here. The mirror on the wall showed me a face I'd only ever worshipped from afar.
LeBron freaking James.
But something was wrong. This wasn't the LeBron I remembered. For one thing, the date on the calendar said 2028. And the Cavs? They had a new logo—some kind of mystic lion wrapped in lightning bolts. Weird.
Then the prompt appeared.
🎮 SYSTEM INITIATED: PLAYER RECOGNIZED – "LEBRON JAMES"
You have inherited:
[Aura Skill: Gravity Drive Lv.1]
[Passive: Clutch Instinct]
[??? Hidden Title Locked]
Objective: Survive the Season. Unravel the Game. Win… or be Deleted.
"Deleted?" I mumbled.
The assistant coach blinked. "Uh… practice starts in 5. You okay, Bron?"
I wasn't. Not even close.
But I nodded.
"Yeah," I said, voice deeper than ever before. "Let's ball."