"Clark, your brother told me that you are hanging out with an outcast of your school! Is it true? That could be dangerous for you!" The stern voice from Clark's father greeted him after he entered their home. He sighed in defeat after realizing that his brother had told his father.

"Dad, I have met someone interesting today..." Clark told the man. He purposely invaded the question about hanging with an outcast. He knew that his father was sensitive but also reasonable.

"Young man, you better picked your friends properly. Otherwise, they might put you in trouble and our reputation would be affected." His father said in a warning tone. Clark could sense that the man was angry but he was trying to hide his anger.

"Yes, I am aware, dad..." He mumbled and walked straight to his room.

"Since you are aware, then stop hanging out with such friends. Your brother told me that you would join the district tournament for an online game. Do you think you can win? Even your brother who plays online for most of his time is skeptical about your decision. People might just criticize you!" The voice of his father followed him but the old man just sat in front of the sofa. He was busy reading his company reports through his laptop.

Clark joined his father after changing his clothes. "Dad, this person I met, she talks about assets and liabilities. She is probably the same age as me but her views on gaming are too mature... She kind of reminded me how mom talks," he confessed.

The old man finally looked at his son in the eye, "Assets and Liabilities?" He blankly stared at Clark while waiting for the boy to continue.

"Yes, yes! She told me that my mobile phone is somewhat a liability. It needed to be charged and would directly consume electricity. And if I play the game, the internet connection would be an additional bill." Clark paused as his eyes darted on the graphs that his father was reading from his laptop.

"That is a good analysis that your age should hear. After all, we have provided you everything which makes you not aware of these responsibilities." The old man commented and returned his attention to the company report.

"She also said that wasting time is like wasting gold." Clark finished.

"That is a piece of wise advice for a teenager. I think I have heard of that words before. Oh right! The secretary of Summers Company was interviewed on tv earlier today. The CEO was assassinated and in her interview, she does say that she would not forget the teachings of her CEO. I think that was the same words," his father assumed.

"AH, I didn't see the news. Anyway, this is why I joined the tournament. Dad, in the future I will surpass you." Clark smiled innocently.

"Silly, you will inherit all of these when you grow up. Why would you need to surpass me?" The old man laughed at his idea.

"Because it would be a remarkable feat..." Clark repeated the words of Sofia.

"Alright, I look forward to that day that my son would surpass me. Just be sure that no one is taking advantage of you," the old man choked his words and become teary-eyed.

"Yes, I will. Dad, I need to rest early. Since the tournament would be next week, we need to constantly practice." Clark told his father and walked towards his room. He thought that it would be hard to convince his father to let him play the tournament. But seeing that the old man did not speak any objection at him, it meant he approved of his decision.

Meanwhile, Stephen planned on burning the midnight oil reading the notes on his phone. He glanced at the time on his and a thought suddenly came to his mind. He quickly composed a text message.

~ To: Nosy

I'm bored. Play one match with me.

He waited for a response but nothing appeared on his phone. He tried to read on the notes but he could not concentrate. Five minutes passed by, Stephen composed another text message.

~ To: Nosy

Don't ignore me! Just one match to relax my brain. It's hurting from reading notes.

His phone finally pinged as he got a reply.

~ From: Nosy

Go, send invite.

Stephen grinned and quickly logged in to his account. He went to the game lobby and looked for Sofia's name. He clicked at the invite button on her profile which was also accepted in just a matter of seconds.

"What are you doing?" He used his mic and asked Sofia.

The match timer was still playing on their phone as the game tried to give them random allies.

"I'm sleeping." Her response came out as a whisper.

"It's still past 10:25 pm. You sleep so early!" Stephen tone down his voice.

"Yeah, the civilizations of pimples on my face are growing rapidly because of lack of sleep." Sofia pointed out. Stephen could also hear a yawn in between her words.

"Ah... now I felt guilty for disturbing your beauty rest!" He playfully commented.

"You should be. But then again, this civilization of pimples is already living in my face before you had disturbed me. So, there's not much of an impact. Pick your marksman!" She dictated after seeing that the man was about to get the fighter role.

"Which type of marksman do you want? Archer or Gunner?" Stephen chuckled and changed his role.

"Whichever you want to use..." Sofia answered. She then saw the archer character next to her tank.

They both went silent after their characters were transported to the map.

"Where are you going?" Stephen asked her after watching the tank moved towards the middle lane. He was confused as there was already an ally mage taking the lane.

"Just follow me..." she murmured and went past through the river of the map. He finally understood that the tank was aiming for the opponent's jungle.

"We are stealing their jungle?" Stephen asked with an amused tone. It was his first time playing with Sofia and he did not expect her to be that aggressive. A burst of excitement surged on his chest.

"Are you scared to steal their jungle?" The rich laughter followed as she playfully provoked him.

"Oh, no you don't tell me something like that!" Her provocation was effective and his marksman quickly moved towards her tank.

The two of them attacked the jungle monsters without the enemy noticing their movements.

"Luckily, our enemies are not paying attention to their jungle..." Sofia mumbled when they easily got the buffs. Stephen could hear the rustling sound of her pillows as she adjusted her body into a more comfortable position.

"Let's go to the bottom lane and gank their marksman..." Sofia stated after a couple of minutes had passed on their match.

The two characters moved in haste while the unaware opponent in their bottom lane was killing their creeps.

(A/N: If you don't know this term... Creeps are the small warrior NPC equally divided to aid each team during the battle. Sometimes called minions. When killed, gold coins or EXP would be rewarded to the character.)

Sofia dashed her character forward and stunned the unaware opponent in the process. A quarter of its HP was automatically deducted.

(A/N: HP stands for Health Points, which means the life of the in-game character.)

Stephen made a follow-up attack and launched a barrage of arrows before their target could recover. The opponent could not even move its character until its HP bar went to zero.

First Blood!

The system quickly announced the first kill in their match.

"Nice! The stunned effect on your skillset seemed to be longer than the other tank characters." Stephen smiled while they started attacking the initial tower of their enemy in the bottom lane. The two managed to push until they destroyed the secondary tower of their opponent.

"Yes, it's longer." Sofia mumbled and glanced at the map. She noticed that their support and fighter were also at a disadvantage in the top lane. Three enemies were trying to destroy their initial tower.

"Let's join their clash," her tank sprinted towards to top lane while Steven's marksman character just teleported directly in the direction.

As she arrived, the signal to launch their attack quickly appeared on their screen.

Her tank caught the three opponents as she activated the ultimate. The allies next to her did not waste time and produced the damage. Within less than a minute all the opponents were slain by them.

"Nice set!"

"Great set!"

The support and fighter commended in their quick chat after slaying the three opponents.

"Push." Sofia responded as she stared at their score. 4-0

Just as they moved towards the middle lane, another notification showed on their phone.

Their enemy conceded.

Victory!

It had just been less than 5 minutes but the enemy already surrendered.

"If we can make our opponents surrender during the tournament, it would be nice!" Sofia smiled as she stayed in the lobby to collect her rewards.

"One more game?" Stephen offered. He felt the need to play more after the game ended too early.

"Finished reading your notes. I'm sleeping." Sofia answered.

"Ah, I want to play one more match!" He insisted.

"You can do that later. It's not like this game will be gone." She reasoned out.

"True. Alright, good night to you. I think we can win next week." Stephen said.

"Hmmn, we can. Bye." Sofia quickly disconnected from her mic and tried to log out from the game.

Unbeknownst to them, one of their ally who was playing the fighter role was streaming their gameplay live on his social media. He was one of the popular streamers with plenty of followers.

Various players from different countries and districts who were able to watch them quickly reacted and started talking about it.

"The marksman and tank are duos!"

"Yes, they have the same squad name."

"It's my first time to see that Chronos squad. Are they streamers too? I've searched their names but I could not find any result."

"Oh, their squad has only 5 members! They are new."

"Maybe they are veterans? I hope they streamed their gameplay also."

"What veterans?! This game was just launched for less than a year!"

While the social media was talking non-stop about them, the squad notifications also pinged on Sofia's phone before she could turn it off. She was staring at the abnormal number of applicants that wanted to join their squad!

"What is happening?" Sofia wondered but did not accept anyone on the application list.

"Random matches do not seem to give us improvements if our enemies would directly concede. I need to link to another squad and asked them for a practice game. Squad vs Squad." Sofia made a realization after their match.

She drafted a proposal and sent a private message to the top 5 squads in the global ranking. All of the four squads ignored her message but she received a response from EZgaming.

Sofia promptly opened her chatbox.

EZgaming Trex: sup? Squad vs Squad this afternoon?

It quickly dawned upon her that this squad was in a different timezone!

The Chronos Squad CEO UNRIVALED: not tonight. SEA server...

EZgaming Trex: Ooops, not the same server. It's EU server.

The Chronos Squad CEO UNRIVALED: My bad. Apologies!

EZgaming Trex: Ok. Try checking FAB_Gamers. They are in SEA server.

The Chronos Squad CEO UNRIVALED: Copy. Thanks!

Sofia searched the FAB_Gamers and sent her proposal in a direct message to their leader. She also included the time her team would be available.

FAB_Gamers WINS: Squad vs Squad. sure! 3 pm tomorrow. Send member status?

The Chronos Squad CEO UNRIVALED: Just average skills. One is not so good yet. I appreciate it if you can arrange the best gamers on your team though.

FAB_Gamers WINS: are you sure? your members may cry if they are up with these beasts.

The Chronos Squad CEO UNRIVALED: We want to test our skills as a squad.

FAB_Gamers WINS: ok. I saw your gameplay earlier in live. So, I will choose the best members of my team. I'm sure they would be interested in fighting against you. See ya!

Sofia blinked her eyes as the online status of the other person in the chat turned dull.

"It was on live?" she mumbled and finally understood why there were so many applicants on her squad.

After a while, she decided to place her phone on the table and head back to sleep.