Proofreader: SteelzCloud

Shit!

The figure of a man in camouflage could be seen running in an open field. At this moment, a bullet tore through the air almost hitting his head.

Cover! I need to take cover quickly!

Running with everything he could, he entered the ruins of an old house and hid behind a wall.

Damnit. His aim is too surreal, if I try to move from here it's most likely that I will end up dead.

Putting a portion of his head outside the cover just enough for him to see the enemy's position proved to be a mistake that almost cost his life, as another bullet missed his head by an inch.

If I hadn't lowered myself in time. . .

Cold sweat started to form on his forehead as he thought of the consequences.

After confirming the enemy's location, he started analyzing the situation and deciding his next course of action. While he was thinking, an announcement was made by a female voice.

"Orbital strike will fire at the swamp in one minute."

Yes! Seems like my luck isn't that bad. Now I just need to lock him there for one minute.

Time slowly passed, and he grew more and more nervous with each passing second as he frequently took a peek to confirm his enemy's position.

Strange. Why isn't he trying to escape from the swamp?

"Orbital strike in ten seconds."- the female voice announced again.

Fuck yeah. Victory is already within my grasp.

But just as he was celebrating, a bullet hit a mine in front of the wall he was hidden behind, blowing it to smithereens.

"NANI!? Since when did he plant a mine there?!"

"Checkmate."

And with a loud bang, the final speeding bullet went flying straight towards the center of the camouflaged man's forehead.

A thick pink mist exited through the hole on the back of his head together with small pieces of brain tissue, skull, and scalp as he fell on the cold ground.

"Nooooo. My number one ranking..."- Arthur was crying out while looking at the "You lost" on the screen of his monitor.

"Wait, what is he doing?"- Arthur watched as the enemy ran to his corpse. - "What a cunt, he is teabagging me!"

On the other side of the screen, α sat on his chair while grinning. With the passage of time, α only grew taller while his face remained almost identical to when Elizabeth found him.

"With this, now I am rank one in all of the popular online games."- α celebrated. - "Let's check my mailbox before turning off the lights."

"Sigh. More invitations from professional teams, proposals to collaborate with some studios, and emails from other players. Yep, nothing new."- α

"Time to sleep, tomorrow is the first day in Arcadia Academy."- α

α threw himself on the bed and quickly fell asleep.

When the alarm sounded in the morning, α tried to turn it off just to find himself tightly clutched by Elizabeth.

"Nee. It's morning already, wake up."- α

Even though α had his own room now, Elizabeth still sneaked into his bed at night. Her excuse was that she couldn't sleep well without him by her side and now this has become such a normal occurrence that he already got used to it.

"Five more minutes."- Elizabeth mumbled.

"You always say the same thing, if you don't wake up now I won't make your bento."- α

"That's not fair."- Elizabeth complained but still got up nonetheless.

During these years, α learned all sorts of skills during his free time. He became so proficient at them that some of the house chores such as cooking had become his responsibility.

After breakfast, α wore a white shirt, black pants, and donned on a black hooded jacket on before preparing his and Elizabeth's bento.

"Nee, you still haven't told me what's your job even after all these years."- α

"It's a secret, you'll find out very soon."- Elizabeth

Preparing everything he needed for his first day in the academy, α accompanied Elizabeth through her [Gate].

The first thing α noticed upon arriving was a sword in a pedestal in the middle of the pathway. 

"So this is Arcadia. It's bigger than I thought."- α

A majestic building surrounded by other smaller ones stood in front of him. Early in the morning, there were some students who were chatting on the green lawn and others who were heading towards their class.

"See you later, nee."- α

"See you."- Elizabeth gave him her habitual kiss on the cheek.

The moment α turned around, Elizabeth smiled mischievously.

Why is there a sword here?

As α approached the sword to examine it, it began to vibrate as if it wanted to come out of the pedestal.

Uh! It would be better to mind my own business.

α decided to ignore the sword and simply headed to his class. When he arrived, the classroom was empty except for two desks.

"Arthur, my friend. It has been such a long time."- α took a seat beside Arthur on the corner. 

Arthur grew to the same height as α during these years but his face became a lot sharper in comparison.

"Hello α."- Arthur said grumpily.

"What's with the bad mood?"- α

"Well. Do you know the game Warzone? So, I held the first rank in the entire galaxy but yesterday I lost to Aleph Zero, the famous player who took the first rank in all the other online games."- Arthur

"Ah, yes. I am Aleph Zero."- α

"No, I'm not joking, I really was the first rank."- Arthur

"I'm not joking either. Look here."- α said while taking out his phone.

The screen displayed all of α's achievements including his most recent one, the victory against User One.

"You never told me you were Aleph Zero."- Arthur looked accusingly at α.

"You never asked."- α shrugged.

"You're such a bastard, you purposefully made me think I could win just to finish me off in the final seconds and after that you even teabagged me."- Arthur

"I wanted to assert dominance."- α said with a smug face. 

Deciding to change the subject, α took a look at the person on the other side of Arthur to introduce himself but ended up surprised.

"Two Arthurs?"- α was confused by what he was seeing.

A person that looked almost identical to Arthur was sitting beside them. The only difference was that this person's hair was a little bit longer and they were wearing different clothes.

"No. This is my sister, maybe you mistook her for a man because she is as flat as a washing board and doesn't wear girls' clothes."- Arthur 

"Do you have a death wish?"- His sister looked at him like she was looking at some piece of trash.

"I was joking, so calm down, sis."- Arthur seemed a little bit afraid of her.

"You never told me you had a sister."- α looked at Arthur disapprovingly.

"You never asked."- Arthur 

"Fair."- α

Noticing her gaze following him, he decided to initiate a conversation.

"Hello, I'm α, maybe you already have heard about me from Arthur. Let's have a nice year together."- α

She remained silent for a while making α feel very awkward but soon she opened her mouth.

"I am Alice."- after saying that, she became silent again. 

"This is the first time I've seen my sister interact with anyone other than our parents. Normally she would just ignore the other party. Heh, it looks like you're quite the charmer."- Arthur

"Shut up, will you?"- α