Adopted Soldier

It was now lunchtime, and the Mercenary Club was incomplete. Everyone aside from Rachel were in the club room. Even Eva was still on a sick leave, Emily wasn't responding as well, it looks like she was busy with something. Seeing Alex's empty sides made the other members feel weird.

"Hey Alex I heard from Oly that you have a little sister." It was Saya who broke the silence.

"How many times must I tell you to stop calling me Oly! If you must, you can call me James, but don't shorten Oliver to Oly." Oliver said a bit exasperated. It would seem like this two had become closer after a day of Alex not going to school.

'Wait a minute, both Oliver, and Saya were absent yesterday, were they together at that time?' Alex was a bit curious but he stopped himself from asking.

"Yes I do have a little sister. Why? Do you want to meet her as well?"

"Obviously! Why have you hidden such a fun fact about yourself! I heard from Oly that your sister is even cuter than a doll!" Saya said enthusiastically, Oliver on the other hand gave up on making Saya say his name properly.

The whole lunch break was simply a conversation about Alex's little sister.

...

After class the Mercenary Club members headed towards the Gaming club's clubroom. When Kim Suho saw them, he frowned.

"Where were you guys yesterday? I thought you're here to help us? So then why were all of you absent yesterday? Are you guys really taking this seriously?" The moment they entered the first thing Kim Suho did was get angry at them.

"We aren't slacking off, we were all practicing yesterday, that's why we were all absent." Saya who didn't like Kim Suho not even a bit, lied to his irritating face.

"Really then, why don't we have a match? Just to see how much you guys improved." Blair suddenly challenged them.

Oliver also heating up because of the challenge responded without even thinking. "Sure let's have a friendly match." Luvia who was watching the whole thing at the side, could only sigh. The two groups where never in good terms since the start. So maybe this match might ease the tension. That's what Luvia thought.

"Fine then, let's all head towards the nearby Internet Cafe."

When Alex heard that they will be having a match, he immediately thought that he might get home late, and wont be able to fetch Lilitth. So Alex proceeded to message Carlo about his current predicament. Immediately after messaging him, Carlo had replied.

"Okay then, have fun with your friends. Don't worry I will be the one to fetch your super cute little sister." Alex who read Carlo's message sighed, what happened to the feared merc? When did he become such a doting dad?

Remembering his dad's current behavior made Alex feel like his head was aching. 'I hope even like this, dad can still properly find clues from that chip I gave him.

The two clubs then proceeded to head towards the nearby internet cafe.

...

When Alex entered the internet cafe he was once again stunned by the difference of reading about it and actually seeing it. The internet cafe smelled like carbonated drinks, and it was quite noisy, some other group seems to be shouting at each other.

Alex was quite curious as to what kind of games everyone was playing. Ever since he talked to the energetic maid, Alex and even Lilitth were influenced a bit by the maid, now they thought that gaming was kind of fun.

After talking to the person in charge, Luvia was able to get a spot where each team can talk to each other. The game was Perfect Soldier, it was a five versus five, first to win five matches wins the challenge.

The two groups headed towards their respective PC's and booted up the game. Currently Saya was the only one who hasn't truly played the game, but she does have prior knowledge about FPS so she was good to go.

The first match started, Alex who hasn't tried the game aside from single player didn't know what was the appropriate thing to do. But since their side were the soldiers that would mean they needed to protect the bomb site, with this information Alex decided to pick a sniper rifle, and started camping near the bomb site. Saya on the other hand picked the massive machine gun, since she thought this was like the other FPS game she played, the bigger the gun the better. Only Kei, Oliver, and Niel, picked the standard assault rifle.

Both teams started moving, Alex already seen this map, when the Gaming Club was playing the other day. So he knew where the bomb site was, and he already figured out the best area to snipe.

Saya on the other hand just charged on her own. The moment she got into a tunnel, a flash grenade blinded her, and before she knew it, she died.

After which, Kei was next to fall, then Oliver, then finally Niel, but before he died, he was able to take two down. The individual skills of the gaming club except for Blair and Richard, were pretty much average. The only thing noteworthy was their teamwork.

Alex's group on the other hand had one extremely good player which was Niel, and the rest were pretty varied in skill level. Worse of all their coordination was almost nonexistent. Alex on the other hand was still waiting on the bomb site.

While he was looking through the scope of his character, he could hear Oliver complaining to Saya.

"Hey why did you charge first?! You should've stayed with us, so we could have backed you up."

"Well it's your fault for being slow."

"That doesn't make any sense!" There conversation continued on, but Alex didn't bother to listen anymore, since he was now fully immersed in the game. He then saw an enemy peeking and without delay shot him.

The shot didn't kill the enemy but it did take away majority of its life. Seeing the timer running out, the Gaming Club decided to use human wave tactics and charged forth. Alex then proceeded to shoot them with extreme accuracy, but because he wasn't moving and the reload time of a sniper rifle was slow, the Gaming Club was able to gun down Alex.

The first match ended with the Gaming Club's victory, they started to celebrate with hi-fives. Alex on the other hand saw the victory in a bigger picture. The Gaming Club might have won the battle, but now they might not win the war.

With this one bout Alex was able to determine the most efficient way to win with his current team.. It was still a theory in his head, but in the next match he was going to try and see if his theory was accurate.