Chương 59: Meeting the gaming club

Alex and the other members of the club started heading towards the Gaming Club's clubroom. Lyner didn't follow the members since he believed he had done his job as the adviser. So to him now that work was done the next step was obviously going back to sleep. The area where the Gaming Club was located was on the third floor of the old school building. They use to be located on the first floor of the new school building since they had a large number of members, and by the former standards for clubs, they had a big portion of the school funds set for clubs.

Yet when the implementation of the merit system happened, the Gaming Club had a sudden sharp decline. The once numerous members of the Gaming Club was now left with exactly five members, they barely pass as a club anymore. They were nothing now than but a shadow of their former glory.

When Alex's group reached the Gaming Club's clubroom, they tried knocking on the door, but no one responded. Alex with his superior senses heard gunshots coming from inside the room. Though the shots sounded muffled and weird, it still had the distinct sound of a gunshot but it was too soft. Alex couldn't understand how this was achieved, so he needed to be doubly vigilant. Right now he couldn't alarm the group, nor could he make them leave, that would make Rachel uncomfortable which is in direct violation of one the revisions in the mission.

There might be some kind of conflict going on inside the Gaming Club. Alex almost relaxed for a second, since he thought that even if the students inside the room have guns, they still pose no real threat to him. He wanted to slap himself for thinking of such a thing, how can he be so arrogant? Preparing for the worst possible situation is supposed to be standard. Alex had no time to admonish himself, nor had he the time to think of why he was thinking of such random things.

Alex seeing his fellow club members trying to enter the room stopped them from doing so. He then checked that the only weapon he has at the moment was a hidden butterfly knife. The group couldn't understand why Alex was acting this way. Before any of them could ask why Alex was acting weirder than usual, he suddenly kicked the door open.

Alex peeked through the open door, and what he saw was unexpected. The shooting was simply done on a screen, and the sound of gunshots was what he heard from the headphones of the people in the room. There where exactly five people looking at a computer screen, in a dimly lit room. It seems like they were playing something similar to fighting on the battlefield.

'Is this a video game?' This was the first time Alex had encountered video games ever since coming back from the battlefield. Since he was busy trying to protect Rachel, he had no time to check out these kind of things. Even though his house had all the available consoles, as well as a whole library of games. They literally had one room dedicated for the whole library of games.

The other members of the Mercenary Club came running in, Rachel was about to smack Alex's head. When Alex noticed Rachel's movements he was going to evade the slap like usual, but then he remembered what Rachel said about getting hit by her, if he had done something wrong. Knowing that he indeed seem to have done something wrong, Alex allowed Rachel to hit him.

When Rachel got a hit in, she was truly surprised, but it was not only her who was surprised everyone from the group aside from Kei was looking at the scene dumbfounded. Alex who they have never seen get hit before was actually hit by Rachel.

"I was able to hit?..." Rachel looks at her hand amazed by her accomplishment. 'Did I finally become a superhuman? I was really able to hit the idiot, who has beast-like reflexes.' Rachel was happily thinking so and was immersing herself in the joy of actually hitting the idiot. While Rachel was still happily looking at the hand that had manage to slap Alex, her happiness faded a bit when she heard Alex speak.

"Is this really something I should do? I didn't evade since I know I did something wrong... But why do you seem so happy about it?" Rachel after hearing what Alex had just said, felt a bit disappointed at the same time grateful. She felt disappointed since she thought she was able to hit him with her own abilities, and at the same time she felt grateful to Alex since he was actually listening to her words.

The others finally understood why someone like Alex was hit, it was because he and Rachel had an agreement of sorts. The only one who couldn't understand the situation was Kei, as he looked at the strange reactions of everyone.

"I'm not happy or anything... Still it's good that you know you did something wrong." Rachel sighed as she looked at the Gaming Club members who were still busy playing.

Even though Alex broke in and all that, the Gaming Club members didn't even know that they had company. Their headphones made them unable to hear anything else aside from their game.

Alex looked at the game they were playing and found it a bit interesting. Though the movements of the characters seem restricted, and the coordination of the Gaming Club members where subpar. The game graphics were pretty good, and the recoil from the gunshots of each of the different guns, seems pretty accurate... Well that is if you judge it by the normal standards, but if Alex or someone like Lyner was holding the gun the recoil from shooting wouldn't be that much of a hindrance.

The Mercenary Club members didn't bother the Gaming Club members as they played their game. Since the whole reason they were here was to improve their playing, and gain some merit from winning a tournament, stopping them from practicing isn't really something they should do.

Rachel was looking at Alex who was immersed in watching the members of the Gaming Club play. This was the first time she saw him so interested in something. Well, that is aside from her.