Seeing that his two cousins were about to bicker again over something completely trivial, Asher couldn't help but interrupt. "Let's talk about it when we leave. We can discuss it while walking."
Ben and Gwen reluctantly fell silent, though they positioned themselves on opposite sides of Asher, pointedly refusing to look at each other, their expressions sulky.
Asher shook his head with exasperation as he led them out of the luxury hotel. As they passed by the conference room hosting the new Sumo Slammers game press event, Ben kept stealing glances inside, his eyes practically glued to the demonstration screens.
Those eyes were filled with pure longing.
"Wow, your Sumo character's combo is incredible!"
"You're pretty good yourself! This new Sumo Slammers game has such smooth animations, and the impact effects are amazing!"
"And the graphics are way clearer than the old version, this is truly a next-generation masterpiece!"
The enthusiastic discussion among the cluster of young gamers made Ben practically unable to move forward. He just stood there, practically drooling.
Asher had to physically guide him along, one hand on Ben's shoulder to keep him walking.
When they finally stepped outside, the blazing afternoon sun hit them immediately.
Asher squinted up at the harsh sunlight, then glanced back at his cousins. "Alright, it's decision time. Are we going shopping or hitting the arcade?"
"My Sumo Slammers..." Ben muttered under his breath, looking utterly dejected as he stared at nothing in particular.
Seeing Ben like this, Gwen sighed helplessly. "Fine, forget it. Let's go to the arcade. It's way too hot to shop anyway, I'd be sweating the whole time, and that would completely ruin my look."
"Yes! You're the best!" Ben immediately perked up, looking at Gwen with genuine surprise and gratitude. "I didn't expect you to be so understanding, bookworm!"
"Are you complimenting me or insulting me?" Gwen shot back, though there was no real heat in her voice.
The three of them made their way to an arcade near the Grand Hotel, maintaining this dynamic as they walked.
Upon entering the arcade, they were immediately surrounded by the sounds of dozens of game machines. Teenagers crowded around various cabinets, including some who looked like troublemakers. The noise level was intense, though fortunately no one was smoking, so the air remained relatively clean.
"Boss, I'd like to exchange for thirty tokens, please," Asher said, standing on his tiptoes as he placed several bills on the counter.
The arcade owner took the money, examined it briefly, then handed over a small bag containing thirty game tokens. "Here you go."
"Ben, Gwen, you can play whatever you want!" Asher said, his voice carrying extra confidence as he held the heavy bag of tokens. His posture straightened noticeably.
"Let's go try that one first, the Sumo Slammers cabinet!" Ben's eyes lit up with excitement as he grabbed Asher's arm, practically dragging him toward the fighting game machine.
It was indeed a fighting game, and judging by the crowd around it, this franchise remained incredibly popular.
Asher accompanied Ben through several rounds of fighting games, then they moved on to first-person shooters, light gun games, and even some role-playing cabinets. Throughout all of this, Gwen watched quietly from the sidelines, occasionally offering commentary.
"Winner!" the machine announced triumphantly.
When Asher, playing as a knight character, finally cleared the final level, he leaned back against the wall with his arms spread wide, his body radiating satisfaction.
The pure joy of playing arcade games as a kid, he'd almost forgotten what this felt like!
It didn't matter whether the games themselves were particularly good. What mattered was having people to play them with.
"Alright, we're down to our last three tokens," Gwen announced, holding up the now nearly empty bag with her slender fingers.
"Well, let's play a few more games and then head back," Asher said, mentally calculating that they'd been here for nearly an hour. He felt pleasantly relaxed.
"Um... there's actually one more thing we could try that might let us win more tokens!" Ben's gaze slowly drifted toward a machine in the distance.
It was a coin pusher, absolutely packed with a dizzying mountain of game tokens.
"Please, Ben," Gwen said, crossing her arms and adopting a very adult-like pose that created an amusing contrast with her young age. "Anyone with half a brain knows those things are total scams."
"Come on, Gwen," Asher interjected, giving her a meaningful wink. "Let's just let Ben try it once. We're already here anyway."
His unspoken message was clear: Let Ben lose these last three tokens quickly so we can leave.
"Asher, you're the only one who really supports me!" Ben said enthusiastically, throwing his arm around Asher's shoulders as they walked toward the coin pusher together.
When they reached the machine, Ben studied it carefully, searching for the pusher that seemed to have the highest chance of paying out, the one with the most precariously stacked tokens. He pulled out his first token and dropped it in.
The token fell onto the pile, and as the mechanical pusher moved forward, it looked like a massive cascade of tokens was about to tumble down. But somehow, they stayed put, just barely!
"So close!" Ben exclaimed, immediately feeding in the second token.
The result was equally frustrating, almost, but not quite.
Ben's heart pounded as an insistent voice whispered in his mind: Just one more! It's going to happen this time!
Without thinking, he dropped in the third token.
"This is basically gambling," Asher observed, seeing right through the coin pusher's mechanics. "It exploits people's greed." He'd already predicted how this would end for Ben.
And of course, the outcome was exactly as expected.
Ben lost the third token, his hands sliding off the machine as his face twisted with frustration. "Damn it! This stupid machine is rigged! Give them back!"
"Kid, you knew the rules when you started playing," the arcade owner called out from across the room, his tone carrying a hint of mockery. "This is how it works."
"Tch! This whole place is a scam," Ben muttered under his breath.
"Ben, it's just a game. Forget about it and let's go," Asher said gently, knowing his cousin was just venting his frustration.
"Yeah, they're total scammers," a rather ominous voice suddenly spoke from nearby. "It's not that you have bad luck, the machines in this arcade are rigged. Nobody can win."
Asher and the others turned to look in curiosity.
The speaker was a tall, thin teenage boy dressed entirely in black, black hair, black clothes. He leaned against a nearby game cabinet with his arms crossed, his eyes carrying an unsettling depth. Something dark and unknowable lurked in those eyes.
He stood in one of the arcade's darker corners, and the shadows seemed to merge with his black clothing in a way that felt almost unnatural.
He was obviously the one who'd just spoken.
"And that guy's attitude really pisses me off too," Ben responded, half-joking. "I'd beat him up if I had the chance."
"Me too," the tall boy said, his expression showing approval. Unlike Ben's playful tone, however, this boy seemed to carry genuine menace in his words, as if violence was something he was intimately familiar with.
Asher felt a warning prickle at the back of his mind. This person was different from them, potentially dangerous.
"Friend, thanks for backing us up," Asher said carefully, "but as you saw, we lost fair and square. There's nothing we can really do about it. We should probably just go..."
Before Asher could finish, the tall boy's demeanor shifted. His voice took on an eerie quality as he said, "You guys cover for me, and I'll show you a way for all of us to make serious money."
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