The bus arrived at Proter.

  "Nia, we're here," Yuel addressed the bck hairball that was curled up on the chair. "Hey, wake up." There was no response.

  "Earth to Nia," Kai joihe effort, but it was to no avail. Rather than sleeping, it’s more like Nia’s sciousness slipped into airely different dimension and took a nap over there. Nobody's words reached her. She was slumber inate.

  "Haha," Luke was getting a kick out of this spectacle. "Hey Yuel, wasn’t it you who told her to take nap? Welp, you reap what you sow. Haha."

  "Ugh," Yuel didn't have a retort. Indeed, he was the one who suggested Nia to take a short nap during the ride. It should’ve helped Nia save up energy before the scrimmage.

  This troublesome girl was notoriously known for falling asleep around 3 pm every day without fail, even in the middle of club activity. That absolutely wasn't allowed to happen today. The scrimmage was set to begin around 14:30, so it’ll definitely go beyond 15:00. Nia had to stay awake throughout the ehing. No naps allowed.

  So, Yuel tried to prepare for it ahead of time by letting Nia sleep during the ride. However, the idea backfired. Nia was stu her infamously uninterruptible slumber before the scrimmage even began...

  "Hey kids!" The bus driver shouted. "Are you ing off or what? I'm shutting the doors."

  "Just a sed, driver dude!" Lars shouted across the bus. "We got a sleepy-head over here!" He and Vi were standing at the bus doors like guards, preventing the doors from closing. This hooliganism was clearly testing the driver's patience.

  ", Nia," Kai shook Nia’s shoulder.

  "Mufu..." Nia produced an alien sound and shook off the intruder. Then, she returo her silent, peaceful slumber.

  Seriously, this girl... Yuel exhaled a sigh. Nia's brain worked in mysterious ways. One moment she could be 100% trated on the ongoing match, then as soon as it was over - she shut down like a robot that ran out of batteries.

  "How about some chocote?" Vi suggested as he scrolled on his tablet. "Acc to my bottomless sea of knowledge, the first thing Nia always does upon waking up is to stuff herself with a bar of chocote or five. It must be a spiritual ritual that recalls her soul from the Slumber Dimension and brings it back to Terra!"

  "Chocote, huh," Yuel opened one of the pockets in Nia's bag, the one from which she produced an infinite amount of sweets every day. As usual, the small pocket acted like a gate to another dimension, ohat housed aire chocote factory in it. Where was she eveing all this chocote from...?

  "Nia, it's a Knickers," Yuel uned the chocote and waved it in front of Nia's nose.

  Sniff sniff. Sniff sniff. Nia's nose reacted to the stimuli. She was like a little kitten sidering a meal.

  "Am!" Nia bit the chocote. Slowly, her eyes opened up.

  "Good m," Yuel said. "We've arrived. Let's go."

  "Mffmff." Nia nodded while taking small, but swift, bites at the chocote. Eventually, she rose from the chair. The bus driver was ready to pop a vein at any moment and started walking towards them, so they fled the se like a bunch of hooligans.

  "Man, that driver was about to unleash his ult on us, haha," Luke ughed.

  "Dude was legit mad," Lars ughed too.

  "Seriously, we’ve just arrived and you're already causing trouble," Ms. Stone gred at them.

  "Sorry. Won't happen again," Kai lightly bowed her head. It wasn't her fault, but she had to take responsibility as the captain.

  "Hmph, as long as you uand," Ms. Stone scoffed aered Proter. She strode with a fident posture across the various halls, as if she khe pce like the back of her hand.

  Ironically, this non-gamer woman was more familiar with this gamier thaeam. She has been supervising the Cssmancers club for years now, so she got to visit this pce at least thrice a year. Therefore, uhe awe-struck team members, Ms. Stone quickly traversed the entire pce, taking the shortest routes and making zero stops to look around.

  "Oh, behold!" Vi poi some arcade maes. "They even got Dekken 8 and King of Warriors 15! Truly, Proter is the one and only multi-purpose gamier!"

  "Actually, they got a bunch of those nowadays," Yuel corrected. With the rise of esports, petitive gaming almost became oo one degree or another, everybody gamed nowadays. Be it video games, mobile games, bames, or even chess.

  Yes, Proter even had a hall for pying chess. It was smaller pared to many other ses, but it existed and could house at least twenty matches at onot too shabby.

  Multi-purpose gamiers like this have been popping up around the try i years. Apparently, it was aerhat has been slowly creeping its way to the west. It was the same with how Cssmancers was first accepted in schools in the east, only much ter made its way to western schools.

  Still, little by little, things were progressing. In a couple of years, there were probably be mamiers like that in the region. Then, hopefully, teams won't have to ride for nearly two hours in order to hold a scrimmage.

  "It's here," Ms. Stone finally stopped and opened a big door. It revealed ay stadium, with a big stage in the back. It was one of the smaller stadiums in Proter, definitely not on par with the ohey used for pro matches. heless, it was a serious stadium that was used for professional gaming.

  Finally, Yuel and Lars climbed all the here. This time, they weren't here as the sed-string. No, they were the first-string, the main fighting force. And, for all is and purposes, this scrimmage served as the prelims for the regionals. The fight for the top started here!

  "We did it, we got here, yo!" Lars grabbed Yuel's shoulders and shook them iement. "We gonna bee pros, yo!"

  "Heh, that again," Yuel smiled. This sedary stadium was still far from the real pro se, but it was the closest they’ve ever gotten to their goal. They'll start by quering the scrimmages, then quer the regionals, and finally wiionals. At that point, they'll surely catch a glimpse of the pro se.

  "Your waiting room is here," Ms. Stohem behind the stage after exging a few words with some man, probably the anizer for the scrimmage.

  "Please be ready on stage five minutes before the match is set to begin," the man stopped to instruct them. "And, make sure to keep your room just the way you got it. I'll be cheg it after the scrimmage."

  Everybody nodded in uanding aered the room behind the stage. It acious enough to aodate at least ten people, with some fy sofas and a big table in the ter.

  "Make sure you don't litter," Ms. Stone also warhem. "They check the rooms before they let you go. If they don’t like what they see, they'll keep you here to do the ing work."

  "Bleh, sounds like a pain," Luke made a face. “Make sure y’all behave, guys.”

  "That's all," Ms. Stone headed to the door. "From here on out, follow the referee's instrus. I'll be staying at a nearby Cafe. Call me if there’s any trouble."

  "Got it," Kai nodded.

  "Good luck out there. Don't feel too bad if you lose. That's up to par for this club." She said something rather insulting with an i shrug. Then again, given the club's past records, such low expectations were perfectly normal. Stratus was the biggest underdog of the region for years. Little did Ms. Stone know that this year will be different.

  "We not gonna lose," Kai procimed. "We'll take the regionals this year, just you watch."

  "Bold words. I'll believe it when I see it." On that note, Ms. Sto.

  "Calling dibs on the sofa!" Luke darted across the room and leaped on the big sofa chair, the only one of its kind here. The sofa sank a little under him, making it look like he was floating on water.

  "Tch, I wahat one," Nia muttered. That chair looked so fy. She could easily have a fortable nap over there. So... fy.... zzz.

  "Did you just fall asleep while standing?" Yuel questioned.

  "Ah!" Nia jumped. "N-No such thing! Nothing to see here. Move along."

  "Seriously. How you still be sleepy? You just slept for over an hour during the ride. "

  "That didn't t."

  "Excuse me?"

  "It wasn't that fy. I'd give that sleep a 4/10."

  "Is that so," Yuel grumped. Turned out his master pn wasn't very effective. Even after sleeping for so long on the bus, this girl was still somehow sleepy. In fact, she was sleepy enough to almost fall asleep while standing.

  "Are you going to be okay?” Yuel asked. “The match is starting in ten minutes."

  "T-Ten minutes..." Nia cmmed up all of a sudden. "Oh, I feel even sleepier now. Yeah, so sleepy. Zzz."

  “Could it be you’re nervous?" Yuel asked.

  "Zzzzzzzz."

  "I know you're awake," Yuel pinched her cheek.

  "Aiya!" Nia jumped like a kitten spshed by water. "It hurts."

  "Just to make it clear, you're n to bail out at the st moment, are you?"

  "N-No way,” Nia answered in a very unving tohat huge scary stage didn't scare me eve. Yeah."

  "So, you are nervous," Yuel sighed. "That’s normal. I also barely slept the night before my first scrimmage. But, this time it was much better. You get used to it."

  "Yeah, I'll overe it. By sleeping!" Nia already id down on the big sofa.

  "No,” Yuel retorted. “You'll overe it by pying matches aing used to the atmosphere."

  "Goodnight. Zzz."

  This girl will be the end of me. Yuel sighed deeply. "Kai, you please hahis troublemaker? Hm? Kai?" The captain was o be found.

  "With my Information Bckhole, I tell that nature has called her," Vi expined in a needlessly roundabout way.

  "Is that so," Yuel twisted his lips. I hope she returns soon. She’s pretty much the only one here who foria to move.

  "By the way," Yuel started. "How are you doing? Nervous?"

  "Nervous? Such a cursed word does in my diary," Vi waved his hand. "I'm more than prepared to set foot in the realm of gods and fight to the death!" Despite g so, his right leg was shaking wildly, like a rocket that’s about to take off.

  "There's no shame in being nervous," Yuel said. "Everybody is like that on their first time."

  "Oh, so even the poker-faced, steel-hearted, Chessmaster experiehe horror of nervousness on his first scrimmage?"

  "N-No, not really," Yuel shifted his eyes away. "I just figured it's a on thing"

  "Ya dudes all gotta rex," Lars pced his hands on Yuel's shoulders and delivered a DEADLY BONE-CRUSHING massage.

  "Guh!" Yuel jumped. That grip must’ve dislocated his shoulders! It broke his back!

  But, it only hurt at first. A couple more seds of that superhuman grip and it actually started feeling good, relieving some invisible weight from Yuel’s shoulders. Lars's deadly massage was actually fairly effective, as long as one could survive it.

  "Oh! I know, I know!" Lars jumped around like aed puppy. "Let's do dat cool thing they always do in other sports! Ya know, where they gather in a circle and yell motivational stuff."

  "Is that really necessary?" Yuel frowned.

  "That's a brilliant idea!" Vi nodded repeatedly. "A huddle is the perfect way to instill the team with motivation and fidehat's why it's so on in other sports."

  "Yeah, I also read something to that effect, but..." Yuel cast his eyes downward. He never actually got to experienything like that himself. That's a given, sidering he could never get into any petitive sports teams until he discovered Cssmancers.

  "Okay, let's do it," Yuel said. It sounded like a barbarian practice, but it opur in other sports for a reason. Cssmancers was a team sport like any other, so they should get the same bes from huddling, whatever they were.

  "But, what's the speech?" Yuel asked.

  "Kukuku," Vi cackled. "No idea! That's up to Kai to figure. She's the captain."

  Somehow, I don't see her as the type to deliver any grand motivational speeches...

  "It's okay!" Lars procimed out of nowhere. "Ya just gotta yell some stuff that sounds cool and everybody gon pumped! That's how we did it at the basket club. Stuff like 'We gonna take the world championship, yooooooooo!'"

  "Pft," Yuel produced a muffled chuckle. The image of Kai shouting that line fshed through his mind. It was one of the most bizarre pictures ever. No way that'll happen.

  A few minutes before they had to head out, Kai returned and the trio shared their idea with her.

  "Huddling, huh," Kai pulled her cap downwards. "Do I have to? Just get pumped on your own."

  "No do, cap," Lars insisted. "Ya gotta tell us we gonna win and stuff!"

  "Indeed!" Vi followed up. "The Captain css gives you the power to bey to your will with mere words! Shall you breathe your ideals into words, they will be unleashed onto the world!"

  "I'm ly a fluent speaker..." Kai's words trailed off. Her cheeks turned a little reddish. Damn, just when I finally cimed down.

  it be she's also nervous? Yuel wohinking of it, aside from being ed with the title of the "captain", nothing about Kai made her particurly special pared to the rest. Just like everybody else, this was her first official match. She also needed a morale boost.

  "Hey, Lars," Yuel spoke up. "Maybe you should ha this time? You were the captain in the basketball club, so you got some experieh it, right?"

  "Yeah, I do it no problem," Lars turo Kai. "Ya fih that? I mean, it should be the captain's job and all."

  "Yeah, I give you permission to ha," Kai lifted her in a self-important manner. Phew, bullet dodged.

  "Okay, let's gather, everybody!" Lars called everybody to the ter of the room. Nia was still in a half-asleep mode, so Kai dragged the sleepyhead over there.

  They formed a circle and hunched a little, all following Lars's example. It made them look like a baseball team before a match. It was kinda awkward, but it was an iing experien its own way.

  "Okay, my dudes!" Lars boomed. "It's our first scrimmage and all. Ain't nobody seen how good we are yet. The world ain't ready for this smoke, yo! Let's go out there and kie fine ass! We gonhese dudes, then the regional, theionals, the world cup, and even the gaxy cup! Let's go, yooooo!"

  "YOOOOOOO!" They followed up ochphrase and thurst their hands toward the ceiling. It was embarrassing but it somehow felt right in the heat of the moment.

  "Gufu, my ears..." Nia shook her head and rubbed her sleepy eyes. The thundering yell spped her awake.

  "Okay, let's go," Kai walked ahead of the team. There was no longer any trace of hesitation or nervousness on her face, and the same applied to everybody else. Right now, she was looking like a fident captain that everybody felt fortable following. Lars's silly over-the-top speech worked wonders.

  And so, Stratus set out for its first official scrimmage. Everybody, even Ms. Stohought this team will crash and burn like in previous years. However, they will be proven wrong. The Stratus of this year was nothing like the bottom tier team of the past. They'll debut with a bst and take the world by storm! They'll prove they had more than enough skill to pete even with the powerhouses of this region!

  DarkestCymore