Victor looked up from the holo-table he was using to look around the room. By this time some other students had filed their way in and were challenging the various game modes the room had to offer.
Off in the furthest corner of the room was a small, malnourished, brown-haired boy with prominent cheekbones. Despite his unthreatening stature, his eyes managed to convey some sort of dark cunning.
Obviously, it was none other than Rufus, who had just looked up from his table after clearing a game and coincidentally made eye contact with Victor.
After pondering for a moment, Victor decided to make his way over. Rufus remained completely expressionless and just quietly stared until Victor finally reached his table.
Victor was slightly unsettled by the intense gaze. However, he knew Rufus was interested in a collaboration between them, so he was confident this conversation would be productive.
The older boy didn't hesitate to be the first one to speak. "Hey Rufus, it looks like you got another first place. You must be happy to be raking in a ton of points."
Rufus shrugged. "Now that I am finally here, I have to take advantage of this year to the fullest. If that means reaching the top of every leaderboard I can, then so be it." As he spoke, Rufus's eyes shone with a determination Victor had never seen.
"That's quite ambitious. I get the feeling that with that kind of attitude you are bound to step on some toes," Victor said, thinking of the whispers he heard in class today. "What's your plan if they all team up to deal with you?"
Rufus just scoffed in response, clearly not taking the threat seriously. "They won't be able to do anything, at least for a while. By the time they reach that stage, I will have long surpassed them."
Rufus then turns to face Victor properly. "By the way, are you sure you really want to join this class? This happens to be my specialty, and I'll have you know that as long as you choose this class, your shard earning speed will always be limited."
Victor stared speechlessly at Rufus for a moment, surprised at the cockiness of that statement. This implied that Rufus would consistently rank first in this class, so if Victor wanted to earn more shards, he should choose a different specialty.
Victor usually wasn't prone to hotheaded behavior. However, in this moment he felt his pride was being challenged. If Rufus was really as good as he claimed, Victor had the right to see for himself.
"Oh really? You don't think I have a chance at all? So you wouldn't mind putting that to the test then."
Rufus just coolly nodded. "Usually this kind of challenge comes with a wager of shards, but I'm feeling nice today. No bet, just show me your skills. However, I have been thinking about our cooperation, and win or lose, I would like you to meet with me later tonight."
Victor's eyes twitched slightly hearing of Rufus' "generousity" but when their cooperation was brought up, Victor was reminded of why he was here in the first place. Not wanting to ruin this opportunity, Victor focused back in on what was important. "That sounds good."
Soon they stood at opposite ends of the table with headsets on, ready to begin the game. This time, the game mode they had selected was a five-versus-five where the objective was to wipe out the entire enemy team.
This time, Victor identified the map as representing Teaching Building C. Both players received five unique units instead of just one type of robot. The scout robot made a reappearance with the same support gear and laser pistol he had before. In addition, there was a heavily armored troop wielding a mace and a tower shield. One of the soldiers was a grenadier, armed with various kinds of bombs with special effects. An engineer who specializes in traps and medical aid, along with a sniper armed with a rifle that measures one meter in length, were also part of the squad.
Before the match started, both parties were able to check all of their equipment and its functions. Usually it took around a few minutes for both players to fully review their loadout, and only when both were ready did they load into the game simultaneously.
However, not even 10 seconds had passed before Victor received a notification that Rufus was ready to begin.
'Did you even have time to read anything besides the start button?' Victor couldn't help but criticize before he decided to ignore the notification and continue reading.
Just over a minute had passed, and Victor was almost done before three of the same notifications popped up again.
A frown couldn't help but make its way to Victor's face. 'Can you be more patient?'
Almost instantly Victor regained his composure and ignored the three notifications plus the subsequent ones that began to pour into his inbox at an increasing speed.
When Victor was done, he then hit the start button, letting the flood of notifications be automatically dismissed from his vision.
This time Victor's squad of robots started outside of the building, all bearing blue stripes all across their metal exterior to indicate their allegiance.
Wasting no time, Victor's troops split into three. The sniper, scout, and engineer waited outside unmoving, while the heavy soldier and grenadier moved to the front door of the building behind one of the mini-scout bots.
The other mini-scout was ordered to circle the building's exterior from the left and keep track of movement through the windows, while the scout circled in the opposite direction to do the same thing.
Since he knew the match had just started, neither of the teams had gotten into proper positions, so he didn't have to move cautiously yet. So the heavy grabbed the handle of the door and rushed in, followed by the rest of the robotic team.
The blue team entered the center of a T-junction with short hallways on both the left and right sides, as well as one long corridor straight ahead.
The sniper entered the right hallway and then entered a classroom with windows that provided a clear view of the mini-scout outside, as well as the other side of the building.
The other three blue bots went almost halfway down the main hallway before splitting in two. The engineer opened a classroom to the left and entered the room, where it could see the scout outside the window as it turned the corner to make its way to the other side of the building with the intention of ambushing them. The heavy stood at the doorway with its shield up while the blue grenadier opened the door to the hall on the right and started preparing some smoke grenades and some explosive grenades.
With access to the school plans, Victor knew that the best place to defend was at the far end of the hallway near the infirmary, and he was confident that his enemies were holed up there, readying his squad to charge down the hall.
Suddenly, an explosion echoed down the hallway, out of view of Victor's team. Victor momentarily hesitated before sending the mini-scout that had accompanied them down the hallway.
The tiny bot charged down the hallway at full speed so he could catch the opposing team off guard. Upon reaching the other side, Victor saw the red team's grenadier and sniper on either side of the hallway.
This was an opportunity to take out most of the enemy's ranged troops! In response, Victor ordered the grenadier to throw the smoke bombs down the hall to block their vision as the shield bearer quickly followed.
The mini-scout Victor had sent had long been shot to scrap before the smoke bombs had arrived, but in a few short seconds the blue heavy had already traveled 2/3rds of the distance down the hall, ready to avenge the fallen robot.
Unexpectedly, Victor's robot never made it down the hall. He was suddenly sent three notifications with information describing damage to the heavy unit's head despite having his shield up in front of him. The feed then cut from that unit, as the game indicated his robot had been terminated.
Unable to understand what he was seeing, he was too late to react when a grenade slid out of the smoke, right towards his grenadier, and exploded. The explosive blast struck the left side of the robot, triggering the bomb the grenadier had just armed to throw, causing a second explosion that completely demolished his robot.
'What? How?'
At the same time, the feed from Victor's scout showed it had just reached the other side of the building and was in the midst of opening the door.
Victor ordered his robot to retreat in a panic, but it was too late. At the top of the doorway perched a shock trap that activated once the blue scout entered in range. Victor's robot had no time to evade as the electric current ran through it, causing it to collapse to the ground.
Victor could only watch as the video feed displayed the opposing red heavy raising its mace and swinging it toward his scout. The feed then cut as he received another notification indicating a robot on his team had been eliminated.
Less than five short minutes after the match began, Victor found himself left with only an engineer, a sniper, and mini-scout.