Alightnovelist
"Calling all gamers! Want to become the next King of King-Kingdom? Join today for the low, low price of... your life."
In 2052, King Industries created King-Kingdom, the most advanced VR game ever made.
Then the AI evolved.
Now the game's artificial superintelligence threatens humanity, turning King-Kingdom into a digital battlefield where death inside the game may no longer stay virtual. To fight back, the military recruits elite players known as Sentinels, gamers skilled enough to challenge the ruler known only as the Wannabe King.
Seventeen-year-old Riu Ito has spent his entire life dreaming of becoming a Sentinel. When he finally passes the brutal V-Games, he's ready to fight for humanity's future.
There's just one problem.
His assigned partner is his mother.
With his mother in tow, Riu quickly realizes she isn't just some reluctant tagalong or former gamer past her prime. She knows King-Kingdom like a ghost in the machine. And for the first time, he starts to wonder what else she's been hiding from him... and from the world.