Chapter 90

Ding! Ding!

The bell on the door chimed as two young kids entered the shop. As it was so famous and their most sought-after product was only there for a limited time, you can guess how packed the café was. The scene reminded Jax very much of Black Friday in his old world when he saw the mob of people on the news surging into a store as the doors opened, each one with hunger in their eyes trying to find the best discounted item that could fill their carts.

"Welcome! A party of two? As you can see, the store is quite crowded at the moment. Did you two want to dine in or take out?"

"Hmm. Thanks, and well, we would like to take out if-"

"DINE IN!"

Before Jax could continue, Metsys ran up to him, linked her arms around his and cut him off.

"Jax! Look how pretty this café is! We have~ to dine in! I want to take some pretty pictures on your Pokephone!"

Knowing that whenever she got into this mood, Metsys could be even more stubborn than Ash's Pikachu refusing to go in his ball. Shaking his head, Jax looked at the pretty café clerk and affirmed Metsys' request.

"Okay! For dining in, the wait will be around 10 minutes. There are 3 groups currently ahead of you. Please be patient!" Saying so, the café clerk handed Jax a circular, black object.

"This is our beeper! It will vibrate and beep when we are ready to serve you. In the meantime, you can either wait in the store, outside on our patio, or I would recommend going across the street to the arcade!"

Following the café clerk's advice, the two children walked across the street towards the bustling arcade. Since Metsys was only ever interested in food, she had never been to an arcade before. With all the flashing lights, loud sounds of coins clinking and other kids running about, she was blown away!

"What is this place? How come you have never taken me here before!?"

Running around all over the place, Metsys checked out a machine with a claw that dropped from the ceiling of the little booth, a machine that kids threw balls into to try and score points, and just as she was about to run off again, someone yanked her from behind.

"Hold it there, Metsys. Here, take these coins. You can't play any of the games without putting in some of these in them first. Here, let the master show you how it is done!"

Going over to an empty machine, Jax inserted some coins into the provided slot.

Clink! Clink!

As the coins fell into place, the machine turned on and lights started flashing. Reading the rules, Jax found out that it was an arcade version of basketball. Simply put, for 120 seconds, Jax's one and only goal was to shoot as many balls into the hoop as possible. Easy work, right?

Taking a pose that he often saw on TV in his old world, Jax looked just like a professional NBA player. As his arms came up to the shooting position, the timer started and Jax shot his very first basketball!

Bam! Miss!

Shooting three continuous balls, Jax some how managed to miss all three shots! Getting serious, Jax turned on his rapid-fire mode and just continuously threw balls in, no longer caring about form or aim. It's all about probability anyways, the more you shoot, the more likely you will score.

As the timer continued and eventually running out of time, the score on the machine looked like this, 15. Only 15 points in two minutes! And that was only because of how many balls Jax had shot! Out of over 50 attempts, a measly 15 points, Jax felt like crying.

"Oh! I see now! Wow! 15 points! That must be a very high score! Let me try!"

Following Jax's example, Metsys inserted some coins that Jax had given her.

Clink! Clink!

The machine came back to life one again and the little girl took up the same position she was shown. The only difference was that many calculations were going off in her brain compared to Jax's! 'Height, check. Distance from hoop, check. Angle needed, calculated, confirmed. Strength needed to score, confirmed. Result, domination.'

Bam! Swish!

Shot after shot, every single one was a swisher! None of the balls even touched the hoop, sinking directly into the hoop and only the sound of the net going 'Swish!' could be heard! Seeing the sight of a little girl scoring so consistently and so frequently, a small crowd started to gather.

With a now small audience, the gunmetal grey-haired girl continued to score every single shot she took for the next minute and a half! As Jax stared in disbelief at this nonsensical scene, completely forgetting that the girl before his eyes was in fact a very advance AI and not a real girl, two actual girls were staring at him with murder in their eyes!

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