“Yeah! We did it!” Lars excimed. “Good job, my dudes!”

  “Phew.” Julia sighed in relief. I somehow made it in.

  “Good.” Yuel nodded, not really surprised by the results of the entry exam. He and Lars were pretty much guarao pass, they left great impressions on the examiners. Julia was the only one in a rough spot, it was impossible to tell how the examiners perceived her skill. Thankfully, she made it into the club as well. All three friends were now part of the Cssmancers club! It was a small, but important step. They got just a little closer to Cssmancers’ pro se!

  The new members were told to visit the clubroom after school for their first day of club activity. Unsurprisingly, they ran into Taison and Gregory on the way.

  “Hah, you really all made it.” Taison grinned and gred at Lars. “Good, now we settle who’s really da best Carry, yo!”

  “And who’s best Support.” Gregory added. “I heard the final round was some serious shit, you must’ve fought real hard to ace it. But too bad, you’re not getting your favorite roles oeam while we’re around.”

  “Welp, we’ll see about that.” Lars shrugged.

  “We won’t know until we pete for them.” Yuel said in a matter-factly tone.

  Their reas were g somehow, even indifferent. Until retly, they thought of Taison and Gregory as strong rivals. However, that ged during the entry exam. Now, there were bigger fish for them to deal with: Howard and Ellen, Aeigs and Athena. Until they beat these two, peting against Taison and Gregory was of sedary importance.

  “Wele, gentlemen. And dy.” Hreeted the newers at the entrance like a butler. “Yoing to be the future of our club, so we’re expeg great things from you.”

  “Kek, what’s with this ‘school principal speech’? Lame.” Gregory chuckled.

  “That’s just my way to tell you that you have no ce of being a starter until your seniraduate.” Howard smiled, but his gre was sharp. “You are the future geion. Remember that, rookies.”

  “We’ll see about that.” Yuel retorted with a gre of his own.

  “Heh. Anyway, e in.” Howard led everybody into the room and introduced the club members. Yuel met most of them during the exam and some of them left quite the sting impression, such as Aron, Trever and, of course, Howard.

  He also heard a lot about a girl named Ellen, Lars couldn’t shut up about being outpyed by her during the exam. Her pystyle sounded unventional, but it mao beat a beast like Lars. Iing, to say the least. Yuel wao look into her tacti more detail.

  “My, freshmen~ How cute~” A girl circled around the group, sing everybody from head to toe. Based on process of elimination, that had to be Ellen. She’s supposedly the strategid calg type, but she... she wasn’t quite what Yuel expected.

  “Oh, July~ Long time no see~” Ellen ed herself around Julia.

  “What do you mean ‘long time’? We pyed like twenty games literally two days ago.” Julia tried wiggling her way out of the embrace, to no avail.

  “Oh, you’re here too, Larsy.” Ellen’s expression ged somewhat. She still teically smiled, but something about the smile was disturbing. “And here I thought you’d quit Cssmancers after losing so badly to me. Oh, wait, don’t tell me you actually enjoy that kind of abuse and came for more? My, what a maso~”

  “No freakin’ way!” Lars procimed and pointed a fi her. “I came here to beat the heck outta you! Me and Yuel gonna take the Carry and Support roles from yurs, just you wait!”

  “Oh, so this is the olden rookie I heard about. Hmm,” Ellen shifted her attention to Yuel, ign Lars’s provocations. She sed Yuel from head to toe, wearing a thin smile that was impossible to read. What was she thinking so hard about? He didn’t have the fai idea. After staring at him for a while, she finally spoke again. “Let’s get along, Yuyu~” She stretched her hand.

  “Yuyu?” Yuel raised an eyebrow, relutly accepting her handshake.

  “Yeah, that’s gonna be your niame. July, Larsy and Yuyu.” She poi each of them in order, as if naming her pets.

  “Huh, is that so.” Yuel frowned. “Yuyu”? Seriously? It sounds like a niame for a toddler. She’s looking down on us, isn’t she?

  “Hey, what about us?” Gregory asked. “Surely you heard about us too, we’re way better than these losers.”

  “Oh, sorry. What were your names again?” Ellen cocked her head and blinked.

  “Wha... tch.” Gregory clicked his tongue, clearly upset his name wasn’t as widespread as Yuel’s in the club. While he was busy sulking, Taison stepped in.

  “I’m Taison, and this scrub here is Greg.”

  “Your mom is a scrub.”

  “Khaha.”

  “My, aren’t you close? How lovely~” Ellen smiled. “So, Taison and Gregory, right? Let’s see...” She put a finger on her lip and tilted her head from side to side. “Tai? Nah, that’s too generic. Taitai? Yes, perfect! I name you Taitai.”

  “Geh. I mean, thanks, I guess.” Taison forced a smile.

  “And, let’s see...” Ellen tilted her head as she turory. “Hmm. Gregy? Yeah, that’ll do.”

  “Gregy? Are you for real?” Gregory made a face. “ you stick with either Gregory ? To be ho, your naming sense sucks.”

  “My, how rude. In that case, I’ll call you G.”

  “Please don’t.”

  “No, wait. ‘GG’, that’s eveer! From nowforth, you’ll be called GG~”

  “Khaha, GG on the nick, GG.” Taison ughed out loud while pointing at Gregory.

  “That doesn’t even make sense.” Gregory sighed, no doubt regretting his rebellious acts. Ellen had the authority here, so making an enemy out of her was going to screw him over, he must had realized that now. The carefree and fident way she carried herself radiated the aura of a queen, especially against this pack of newers. No matter how disagreeable her as were - nobody could oppose her.

  “Just ignore her shenanigans.” Howard returned. “Don’t worry, she’s the only one who gonna call you these stupid names”

  “My, Wardy, how rude.” Ellen pouted and pinched Howard’s cheek, but he didn’t care. He just rubbed her hair and she peacefully retreated, it retty amazing. Everybody felt like they were ed around the queen’s finger, but Howard brushed her off like she was nothing. Were they all going to master that level of Anti-Elleaer spending enough time in the club? Yuel sure hoped so.

  “Speaking of names, you gotta decide on yNs, your in-game names.” Howard said. “Club members are registered as official petitive pyers, with uatis and everything.”

  Unlike most online games, Cssmancers didn’t force pyers to pick a perma dispy name. Pyers could ge their IGN at any time, so only their pyer ID was truly unique and was always shown beside their IGN. It was a nice degree of freedom for those who ged niames often, but it also felt like each pyer was represented by a number, not an actual hey were all random numbers in a huge pool of nobodies.

  However, that wasn’t the case for thnized as “petitive pyers”. They were grahe privilege tister a uati, whio other petitive pyer would be allowed to use from there on. They transded being a mere “number”, being distinguishable individuals. On top of that, their names were painted gold and no longer had an ID beside them, Yuel faced a few such pyers in Ranked. He was jealous, no lying.

  Naturally, all pro pyers had this privilege, so Yuel already knew about this feature. However, he didn’t expect it to be given to middle schoolers as well. Just by joining this club - he was already reized as a strong and distinguishable individual within Cssmancers’ unity. Though faintly, he felt like he got closer to grasping the dazzle of the pro se. It was a huge step forward, it was great!

  “You also get some rewards for your at,” Howard tinued. “You get enough gems to buy at least one skin and receive some premium skins for petitive pyers. You’ll also ofte extra rewards duris and all that jazz. We tell everybody the number of club members is restricted because the club is ‘super petitive’, but I bet these freebies are the real reason they don’t allow many members. CssSoft is such a generous pany, am I right? Haha.”

  “CssSoft? More like CashSoft.” Taison corrected.

  “We’ll give you a couple of days to decide on your nicks.” Howard expined. “It’s an important decision, especially for those pnning to go pro iure. You ’t register an IGN more than ond it’s pretty much impossible to ge it after it’s decided. Think of it as a homework assig. If you ’t decide on a name by Friday, we’ll borrow Elly’s etriaming sense and roll with it.”

  “God help us all.” Julia retorted, drawing out a few chuckles.

  “, let’s go over the club’s schedule.” Howard tinued. Club activities were held after school almost everyday, from Tuesday until Friday. “You’re free to e here on Monday as well , but it’s just such a depressing day, right? Haha.”

  Club activity was three hours a day, a rather intense schedule pared to the average junih club. Freshmen had to attend the club every day, but juniors and seniors were allowed to attend as few as thrice or twice a week respectively. “You rookies got a lot to learn, so you gonna work your asses off. The first year is when you’re molded into real petitive pyers.”

  Despite how intehe training was, the club didn’t have a coach. “There’s a teacher responsible for the club, but that’s just a formality. His only job is to make sure there are no problems in the club. Me and Arahe schedule and all that.”

  The club offered a variety of activities: pying practice matches among members, pying Ranked as a premade team, practig specifieups, theorycrafting, analyzing pro matches and so on. “Aron is disgustingly anized, so he prints the whole schedule at the beginning of the week.” Howard showed them the priimetable hanging on the wall. It was indeed very anized, with ead every single hour ated for. Yuel approved of how well thought out it looked, but something bugged him.

  “I only see activities directly involving Cssmancers.” Yuel pointed out. “What about physical exercise for maintaining optimal dition?’

  “Heh, you’re sure hardcore.” Howard chuckled. “We’re not some prestige team that’s expected to wiionals. I agree that exerg is good and all, but we not gonna force it on you. If you recall, the first round of the entry exam filtered out zy bums who couldn’t exercise for shit, so those of you who made it are expected to be in good shape.”

  “It’s unfortunate.” Aron added. “The school doesn’t give us enough club activity hours, so I ’t fit exerg into the schedules. In other words, I expect you to exercise of your own volition in your free time. ”

  “Haha, don’t scare them too much. It’s not like they must exercise, we’re not some hardcore school like Ivy. You gonna make them quit if they take your jokes seriously.”

  “That wasn’t a joke, I’m quiet serious.” Aron squinted his eyes. “Don’t tell me you stopped exerg again.”

  “Haha, no way!” Howard replied instantly, with a ugh that sounded hollow somehow. “Anyway, don’t be scared off by Aron’s high expectations. Not everybody have it io exercise regurly, so o push yourselves too hard.”

  “No problem, yo.” Lars said. “We all work out anyway, right, my dudes?”

  “Yes, sadly.” (Yuel)

  “Like, it’s a pain, but yeah.” (Julia)

  “Hell yeah! I sprint dat one kilometer every day, yo!” (Taison)

  “I actually po drop it, but guess I have no choice...” (Gregory)

  “Huh, so you’re all doing it. How great, haha...” Horoduced a dry ugh.

  “Seems like these rookies have more willpower than you.” Aron said. “At this rate, you may lose your spot as a starter-”

  “Anyway! Let’s move on.” Howard tihe club tour by force. Aron sighed and dropped the topic, for now.

  “And here, I present you the most impressive part of this club.” Hrinned and theatrically spread his arms. “We got 15 puters in this clubroom! 15 of them! Hard to believe the schoed all that for some video gaming club, right? Haha.”

  “These monitors look so st gen, though.” Julia said.

  “Ack.”

  “Yeah, and these units look a.” Yuel added. “They even still support floppy disks.”

  “Geh.”

  “Floppy disks? The heck is that even?” Lars asked.

  “Alright, alright!” Howard raised his voice. “Yeah, I get it! The ps are pretty old, I’m aware, thank you. You know how generous schools are about these things , so that’s the best we get, alright? You should be thankful we got any puters at all, you spoiled brats.”

  “By the way, two puters are broken, teehee~” Ellen smiled like a fox.

  “Agh... yeah, that’s true.” Howard sighed i. No matter how hard he tried, nobody was going to get excited over a pile of relics.

  “Broken?” Yuel asked. “They don’t boot at all? Or, they just don’t work well?”

  “They turn on.” Howard answered. “But, they work at a snail’s pad sometimes crash when you run Cssmancers.”

  “Even when you run it on the lowest settings?”

  “Yes, I tried that.” Aron said. “For some reason they ’t ha, even though they seem to have the same specs as the rest.”

  “You tried editing the figuration file?”

  “figuration file?” Aron raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes, you edit the file to set some settings below what the game offers itings menu.”

  “Iing, I didn’t know that.” Aron was dumbfounded. “Won’t it break the game or anything?”

  “No, it’s safe as long as you know what you’re doing.” Yuel said.

  “Holy, even booting these PCs is such a pain.” Ellen said with a long face. “They just make so muoise. They sound like an airpne when we run the game, it’s maddening.”

  “Airpne? Sounds like a ventition problem.” Yuel deduced. “The ventitors probably got dusty, so ing them should help.”

  “You’re saying you fix them?” Howard asked.

  “Possibly. If I open them up and-”

  “Awesome!” Howard excimed. “Listen up, rookie! Your first mission is to make these PCs run Cssmancers without hiccups! Get to it!”

  “Wait, I need a screwdriver first.” Yuel sighed. How did things e to this? “I’ll bring oomorrow.”

  “Alright, tomorrow it is! Fix that thing, kid!” Howard was overly excited about this whole affair for some reason.

  “My, Yuyu is such a geek~” Ellen giggled.

  “Not sure how I feel about that word, sidering we’re all in a video gaming club here.” Yuel made a face. “Buy yes, I know a thing or two about puters. I have a potato PC at home, so I ’t run most things these days. Had to tinker around with the settings to make Cssmancers run.”

  “Yeah, dude is legit genius.” Lars grinned. “He even installed all these extra odes, like that sick training mode where you edit tons of stuff on the map!”

  “Cssmarainer, I take it?” Aron asked.

  “Yes, that’s the one.” Yuel nodded. “The default Practice mode is very limited, so we’ve been using Trainer.”

  “Agreed. It’s a useful plugin, we’re also using it here.” Aron said. “Though, we only have version 2.3, because anything beyond that isn’t supported on these operating systems.”

  “2.3? That’s a.” Yuel said. “I believe there’s an unofficial release for version 4.5 that run on older OS. You should try downloading that.”

  “Unofficial release? I didn't’ know they had such a thing.” Aron was dumbfounded.

  “Alright everybody, it’s settled!” Howard announced. “If you run into any teical issues, turn to Yuel for help.”

  How did it e to this? Yuel made a face. “Sure, I’ll accept the job. I expect to be paid at least 10 an hour, though.”

  “Haha, snarky brat.” Hhed.

  After a bunch of random tasks were forced on Yuel out of nowhere, the tour came to an end. There weren’t any specific activities scheduled for today, sihe whole day was reserved to weling the new members. Therefore, anybody could do whatever they wanted now.

  “Cool.” Lars smiled like aed kid. “Then, I wanna challenge everybody to a 1v1! Starting with you!” He poi Ellen.

  “My, how rude. Your parents didn’t teach you to not point at people?” Ellen shook her head. “I’ll pass. I’m not a fan of 1v1, find some other brute to bash heads with. Me and July rather py together, right, sweetie?”

  “Eh? W-Wha-!?” Julia was dragged away.

  “Heh, I’mma take you on any time, bro.” Taison challenged Lars.

  “Nah, dude.” Lars shook his head. “I wanna fight someone from the club. We’ve dueled like a huimes by now, I want some fresh challenge.”

  “Heh, running away? What a wuss. I still gotta rek you like 20 times to beat your damn score, so !”

  “What score?”

  “We’re at 43-25, remember?”

  “Wut? You legit ted our duels?” Lars blinked with a bnk face.

  “Damn straight I did! I ain’t gonna lose to some scrub like ya.”

  “You wish, dude.” Lars said. “But not today, I y someone new. Hey! Dudes! Anybody here wants 1v1? I’m no noob, I promise. I got Ptinum III in duels and all.”

  “Heh, you sure sound fident, kid.” Trever appeared behind them. “I’ll take you on.”

  “You’re te.” Aron frowned. “I told you we’re weling new members today.”

  “My bad, my bad.” Trever smiled apologetically. “I was kept busy. I’m such a puy, haha.”

  “And, by ‘popur’, you mean you hit on girls who like you as much as they like cockroaches.”

  “Ouch, rude.” Trever turo Lars. “So, what were you saying, kid? Ptinum in duels? That’s cute, I’m Diamond though. Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on ya, heh.”

  “Diamond? Sick!” Lars’s eyes lit up. “Let’s do it, yo!”

  “I don’t believe you’ve been introduced.” Aron interrupted. “This is Trever, he pyed Pirate during your entry exam. And this is Lars, he pyed Trickshooter back then. I’m sure you remember?”

  “Uh, huh.” Trever’s smiled faded.

  “Oh, you’re that Pirate dude from back then!?” Lars asked.

  “Yeah, I am...” Trever averted his eyes, looking troubled.

  “Dude, you were s back there! You almost got first blood and all!”

  “Eh? Me? Strong? In that game?” Trever blinked with a dumb impression.

  “Yeah, that on Kraken bo really got me. I heard you were sick that day or something? Real shame, I wao py you for real.”

  “Yeah, you could say I was uhe weather that day, haha...” Trever’s smile twitched a little. “Anyway, let’s do it then! I’ll show you how petitive pyers really py!”

  “e at me, yo!”

  “Hey, I also wanna be a part of this, yo!” Taison said. “I’mma rek both of you at once!”

  “Heh, kids don’t know how to respect their elders these days.” Trever shook his head. “Okay, we got a special map that supports 1v1v1. Let’s do dis boys!”

  “You’re on!”

  “I’mma mop the floor with yo ugly faces!”

  The wild bunch departed to py together.

  I’m feeling sick. Yuel sighed. The overdose of hyperactivity he just witnessed was radioactive for sure, he’d develop cer if he was going to be exposed to that on a daily basis.

  Anyway, everybody were free to do whatever they wanted and Yuel kly what he wanted. It was something he had been wishing for ever sihe entry exam: to fight Hain. Last time, Yuel was thhly shut down by Howard’s terpys. Howard was truly worthy of the name Aegis, the imperable shield of gods.

  However, that was just the result of their first match. Yuel never faced su oppo before, so he was at a grave disadvantage. He did a lot of thinking sihen ached the match tless times The meat of the match was the part where Hot serious, that’s whech transformed into a sophisticated chess match. Yuel exploited holes in the enemy’s formation, while Howard tered by c up said holes.

  Sadly, requesting a “revech” against Howard wasn’t quite simple. Uhe meical beasts, Lars and Trever, Yuel and Howard couldn’t settle things with a simple 1v1. Their strengths id in their ability to craft team strategies, make smart shot-calls and terpy the eeam. Therefore, they had to fight in a team to exhibit the full extents of their talents.

  On top of that, said teams had to be banced enough to not tilt the odds in anybody’s favor. Not only that, but Yuel also had to be familiar with his teammates to craft the appropriate tactione of that ossible te right away, so a proper revech against Howard was impossible.

  But, Yuel had the perfect alternative in mind.

  “I challenge you to a game of chess.” Yuel eyed Howard ily. If there yground where both teams were perfectly banced, excluding the unproven possibility of first move adva was chess. Therefore, pying chess would allow them to face each other as team strategists aermine who was superior. There weren’t many chess pyers at Yuel’s age who gave him a real challenge, so he was excited to see what sort of chess Howard would-

  “Chess?” Howard raised an eyebrow. “Where that came from? I don’t even know the rules.”

  “Eh?” Yuel blinked. All this time, he imagihe Cssmancers match against Howard as an sophisticated chess game, but that picture crumbled to pieow. “I-I teach you how to py then-”

  “Not ied, it’s a game for nerds.” Howard shook his head. “Why chess anyway? We’re a Cssmancers club, you know.”

  “I suppose that’s right.” Yuel averted his eyes, feeling stupid. He was so vinced an amazing strategist like Howard would be into chess, but he was pletely wrong. “Then, how about we py 5v5 with four elite bots?”

  “That’s just dumb, we not gonna practice much of anything that way. You’re sure pushing hard for a match.” Howard smirked. “Oh, I get it. You’re still salty about losing to me iry exam, right? Haha.”

  “You just had the advantage back then.” Yuel insisted. “I’m sure I defeat you if we have a rematch.”

  “Heh, don’t get ahead of yourself, kiddo.” Howard sneered. “You still got a long way before you should even think of challenging me. Anyway, I’m pooped after this whole tour, so I’m off to take a break, py with somebody else.” He turned around a.

  Just you wait, I’ll surpass you for sure. Yuel gred at Howard’s departing back. He came this far after overing many obstacles, now all that stood between him and the petitive se was Howard. Once he were to prove himself as the superior Support, he’d get his spot on the main team for sure.

  “You’re sure obsessed with that guy.” Gregory said while toug his gsses. “You better not fet who you really gotta beat to secure the Support role, kek.”

  “Oh, you’re here too.” Yuel rolled his eyes. “You haven’t seen Hoy, right? He’s on a whole different level.”

  “Heh, implying I’m a scrub? Running that stupid one kilometer isn’t the only thing I practiced over the summer, ya know.”

  “Oh, how exg.” Yuel replied with an indifferent tone. Gregory was a det Support, until retly he even was Yuel’s rival, or at least something along these lines. However, after pying against Howard, Yuel lost all i in peting with Gregory. Well, at least it might be worthwhile to see how much Gregory improved over the summer. “Fine, I’ll take you on. We e a team, though.”

  “I help with that.” Aron said. “A 3v3 is good enough?”

  “Sure.”

  “Bring it on, kek.”

  With that, the club tour came to an end. Yuel made a huge step toward the petitive se by getting into the club, but he wasn’t quite there yet. His challenges were to decide on his petitive niame and to take the main team’s Support role from Howard’s hands.