"Um, I'd- We'd like to submit our club application."

The person in the club room stared at both of us before reading the applications we handed to him. He went back in, presumably to discuss with the other members, before coming out again.

"All's good. Come in!"

My classmate and I walked into the gaming club and we were in awe. I joined the club due to its e-Sports team but I didn't expect the facilities to be of such high quality. There was everything from Playstations to Display Monitors to Virtual Reality.

"I see you're interested in our equipment. We got this through the prize money the school has won through e-Sports. We'll be hoping that you two could boost our squad when we play in the competition."

"Yes! We will!" The guy from my class exclaimed with excitement while I could only nervously laugh and smile. The club leader went through our applications to get familiar with us.

"Burin Bokushi-kun?"

"It's Purin Bokushi. I'm not sure why but that's just how our family name's pronounced."

"Right. Purin-kun... You're a fan of melee?"

Purin's eyes immediately glowed. I'm guessing he really loves the melee gameplays?

"Yeah! I play a lot of games but melee is the one I specialize in! The need to strategize on how to take on your opponents with the limited time you have to make a decision gives me so much thrill!"

"I see, ha-ha. Glad to have you in our club!" The club leader then went to my application and had a quick read.

"Daromu Ashi-san?" I nodded as I heard my name.

"You say you play all kinds of genres but your main specialty is in RPG?"

I nodded.

"I'm a fan of RPG too! Unfortunately, I'm not too sure if we'll have any competitions up to your interest, but I'll gladly join you whenever you feel like playing RPG here!"

"Actually, RPG isn't just my interest. I don't mind any genre since I've been playing all sorts of games since I was young."

"Really? That's great! Welcome to the club you two!"

I could sense Purin turning his head and looking at me in sheer excitement while I could only force a plain smile. I'm pretty sure he was expecting a smile back because he just stared in my general direction so I gave him a weak and faint smile that should work.

"Right, I'm Nogawa Imiko. For now, we aren't doing much as a club as we're preparing the framework for our team's application for some e-Sports competitions so you don't have to come every day. You're free to stop by to play though!"

"Sweet!" Purin started to cheer and his presence felt like a dog... a puppy would be fitting.

"And also, these are the games we're most likely to compete in. So if you have played these games, please write down your gamer tags for each game so we could add you into our groups."

Nogawa handed us a clipboard with tables. One column for specified games and the other columns for our gamer tags. Purin was already done the moment I started writing on the third row, he must be really enthusiastic.

But I realized something seemed familiar, almost too familiar. I went to read the name he wrote down and immediately had bad flashbacks. @moziet8019. I immediately got up as my hands hit the table as I shouted.

"You're that guy who ruined my winning streak yesterday!"

I went back home from school yesterday to play an FPS game. I had an impressive win streak. A personal best of 99 wins in a row and I was about to reach a centurion of wins. But, I was outclassed by moziet8019 and was beaten fairly. I'd like to say it was unfair.

Purin looked at me as if I was crazy. He had to take some time to process what I meant.

"Ah! You're the person who told me to get a life yesterday!"

"Yes! Get one, please!"

"But, what's so wrong about ending streaks? Isn't that what most gamers love to do?"

"Tch." I looked away from him, I couldn't believe it. The person who ended my amazing winning run was not only my classmate but my clubmate as well. I finished writing down my gamertags and handed it to Nogawa-senpai. She took a quick look and gave a smile of affirmation.

"You're free to leave. I'll add you two to our club chat later!"

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

I walked out of the clubroom and went down to the first floor. I took out my slippers and wore my shoes and was ready to leave. That was when Purin literally slid down the stair railings and smoothly slid to where I stood.

Before he tripped on himself and landed face-first onto the floor.

"Um... May I help you?"

In an instant, he pushed off the floor like he just got a power-up and landed on his feet. He brushed himself off.

"Let's go to Club Sega!"

"Eh?"

. . . . .

Don't ask me how I got roped into this because I don't know myself either. I got dragged by Purin onto a train heading to Akiba and we were now in the first floor of Club Sega. I haven't been here for about five months but everything still seemed familiar to me.

"Purin, may I ask... why are we here?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're here to play."

"Yeah no. I know that but, why was I dragged into this?"

"Because you're part of the gaming club?"

"Right. Brilliant answer."

"Anyways, forget about what and who, what do you want to do first?"

I looked around the place to remind myself what this place had to offer. There was this one game I played frequently but I just couldn't remember what it was...

"There's an FPS game on the third level. We should play it."

The third level was filled with FPS and racing games. There were several students from other schools in the arcade. I looked for a vacant spot and I found one. I pointed Purin towards the direction of the screen.

"This one. It's a zombie shooting game. You can pick any setting to play in and you can play for an unlimited time until you die. There are gun upgrades per how many zombies you killed."

"If you die, is there a revive option?"

"No. It's a do-or-die game."

"Eh? It doesn't really seem that fun then."

"I don't care. For starters, you're the one who asked me to choose a game, and secondly, I'm still not over losing my win streak yesterday."

"Alright. Fine. I'll play."

We paid for the game and the loading screen displayed. We went through the instructions and whatnot. I decided to choose the factory arena and the game soon started. I've played this game multiple times and even broke the high score once. As of now, my best score is fourth in this arcade's all-time leaderboard.

It was fairly easy at the start. The number of zombies and hordes was manageable so you didn't have to worry about reloading the gun. But as minutes passed, the number gets bigger and harder to manage. Reloading the gun takes up to 3 seconds which can be vital in games like this which makes it a game of calculation as well.

"Ah! No! Daromu-san, I just died!"

"We're only on the fifth wave! How did you die?"

"I sort of, spammed all my bullets."

"Are you stupid? That's the one thing you don't do!"

"How do I play again?"

"You can't! Once you die, you're dead!"

"That's why this game sucks!"

"Cry some more, I really don't care!"

Like I said earlier, the game doesn't end until you die which means as long as my aiming is perfect, I won't have to waste crucial time on reloading the gun. I felt like a cat. My reflexes were immediate and I was getting headshots as if I was a soldier. My score kept going up and up and it was getting closer to my high score.

"Hey, Daromu-san. There are a lot of people crowding us, maybe we're taking too much time?"

"It happens all the time. They're just watching the game."

"But, even so-"

"Just let me play, would you?!"

Time passed extremely fast but in reality, I have been playing for more than fifteen minutes by now. The waves were getting harder and the zombies were growing in numbers. My gun upgrade was maxed out and so was my bullet count. It was a game of perseverance. I took one glance at my score and it was nearing the official high score.

I just need three more kills.

That's one.

And that's two.

And this is three!

Suddenly, the screen tuned black and the crowd behind me gasped and muttered. I was sweating as I put the gun down. This wasn't supposed to happen.

The game shut down. As far as I know, when it shuts down or crashes, your score doesn't get counted.

This didn't just suck. It was a hard defeat to swallow. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack, my heart was broken. I can't belive that my high score-

"Daromu-san, are you having an inner monologue?"

"No. Shut up. Let's go tell the staff the game shut down."

. . . . .

The entire situation was just bitter. I lost a record breaking high-score due to some faulty wiring. I couldn't help but sigh the entire walk back to the station.

"You're really passionate about games, aren't you?"

"So are you. Hearing you scream in a melee game was so sudden."

"What did you expect? I just really love melee!"

"I can tell."

"Hey, Daromu-san. Do you have a Discord?"

"Obviously."

"Nice! Wanna be friends on Discord?"

"Sure..?"

I traded Discord tags with Purin. I guess we were going to be in the same club chat group so this didn't matter much. I accepted his friend request. We took the train back from Akiba to Tokyo. He dropped off from that station whilst I stayed in the train to go back home.

That concluded my first outing with somebody in high school.

I think I'm broke as well.