Setting: A bright, sunlit campus walkway the next morning, transitioning to the high-ceilinged covered court.
The venue is buzzing with hundreds of students from all seven departments gathering for the sports briefing.
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Seth: (Steps onto the concrete pathway leading toward the engineering complex, my leather boots moving mechanically against the pavement layout. The morning sun hits my face, but my internal processors are completely offline. I didn’t sleep more than three hours last night. Every single time my system attempted to enter a low-power rest mode, my memory core automatically executed a force-play of yesterday’s audio and visual logs.)
Seth: (Tightens my grip on my backpack strap, staring straight ahead at nothing as her data parameters flash vividly behind my eyes. I can still hear the exact frequency of her soft voice right before she stepped through the dormitory security gate at midnight. My brain loops her bright, radiant chuckle from noon, completely magnifying the way her eyes crinkled slightly at the corners. Her smiles, her gentle tone, the effortless way she said my name—it is all sitting entirely uncompressed in my highest priority storage block, taking up every ounce of my operational capacity.)
Seth: (Aggressively shakes my head side to side, running a frustrated hand through my dry hair to force a sudden system purge. Get it together, Seth. I mutter quietly under my breath, trying to manually clear the cache of her features. This is completely illogical. The lone wolf of civil engineering does not walk across campus mesmerizing someone’s smiles like a broken automated program. I need to calibrate my focus right now, stabilize my core temperature, and re-establish my defensive walls before I run straight into an actual structural obstacle on the path.)
Seth: (Takes a deep, sharp breath of the crisp morning air, forcing my eyes to scan the high-traffic crowd layout ahead. I need to find Lest, Jasper, and Rey to ensure they aren’t planning another sudden ambush deployment today. But even as my logical brain attempts to run a security sweep for the squad, a small, stubborn background thread inside my system completely refuses to close—secretly wondering if a certain education major is walking down this exact same parallel curve right now.)
Seth: (Suddenly, a violent vibration erupts from my front pocket. I sharply pull my phone out of my denim jeans layout, my eyes instantly catching a rapid incoming chat notification from the main system instigator.)
Lest [Chat]: “Bro, where the hell are you?! You’re gonna be late for the meeting! The By-Dept Sports Festival briefing is literally starting in five minutes at the covered court. Every single department is executing their entry layouts today.”
Lest [Chat]: “Criminology and Law, Engineering, Education, Hospitality, Medicine, Industrial Technology, and Agriculture are all completely locked in for this thing. Civil Engineering is tracking to dominate the brackets this semester, but the Engineering vs. Criminology matchup is already locked for the opening games. If you don’t transmit your body to this coordinate block right now, Jasper and Rey are gonna sign you up for the random slots by default. Hurry up!”
Seth: (Stares at the glowing text lines, my heart stopping flat for a microsecond before beating at a completely chaotic frequency. Engineering versus Criminology. All seven departments competing. My logical mind completely short-circuits as the realization hits my core. The upcoming sports festival means our engineering department is going to clash directly against Jasper and Rey’s block right from the start. My thumbs freeze over the digital keys as a massive wave of panic and anticipation clashes violently inside my system.)
Seth: (My screen lights up again immediately with a follow-up string from the group coordinate tracker.)
Lest [Chat]: “By the way, you can’t escape the main roster anyway. I already volunteered both of us for the basketball and volleyball lineups. We need our structural height at the net and the baseline, so you and I are locked in to play both sports. Get over here!” You are reading on novelping(.)com, the official source.
Seth: (A low groan escapes my throat as I increase my walking velocity. Basketball and volleyball. Playing two major sports means I will be right in the center of the stadium layout, completely exposed to the entire crowd. And since all seven departments are gathered at the venue, Cara will be sitting right there in the bleachers, watching my every single movement. My defensive firewalls crumble completely as the mental image of her watching me play loops through my brain, making my ears turn a fierce, uncontrollable pink all over again in the bright morning sun.)
Seth: (I aggressively snap out of my daze, a sudden wave of competitive adrenaline overriding my panic as I pull the phone back out. I open the direct chat link with Lest to fire back a fast, determined response. My fingers fly across the interface layout.)
Seth [Chat]: “I’m walking fast now, don’t touch my roster slots. And forget about Jasper and Rey trying to dictate our layout. You and I are going to completely destroy them and the Criminology department this year. If those two try to mock us or talk any trash about our focus, we’ll shut them down completely on the court. Lock that data into the system.”
Seth: (I watch the status bar update to sent, but before I can even tuck the device away, the screen violently flashes as a fiery, immediate sequence of texts explodes from Lest’s profile.)
Lest [Chat]: “THAT’S THE ENERGY I’M TALKING ABOUT!!! Let’s go, Seth! I just locked the roster cells. Jasper and Rey are literally standing across the court right now flexing their department jackets, talking trash about how you’ve been walking around like a zombie lately!”
Lest [Chat]: “They really think they can mock our focus and take the opening brackets? Absolute delusion. We are going to completely run through their defense lines on the hardwood and spike it straight at their faces at the net. Get your technical ass over here right now, we have a department code to defend!”
Seth: (A sharp, competitive smirk cuts through my tense expression as I slam the phone into my pocket, my boots striking the concrete path with double the acceleration. Jasper and Rey might think they can mock us from their Criminology and Law block because of my recent mental distractions, but on the court, our engineering precision is absolute. The lone wolf of civil engineering is officially online, and this entire campus festival layout is about to face a massive structural takeover.)
Seth: (Steps through the massive double doors of the covered court a minute later, the roaring sound of thousands of overlapping conversations hitting my auditory processors all at once. The atmosphere is completely charged, heavy with inter-department rivalries. I scan the blue bleachers, immediately picking out Lest’s backward cap waving frantically from the lower engineering sector. I march straight toward him, but before I can even reach our bench line, two solid, broad figures block my trajectory path entirely.)
Jasper: (Crosses his arms over his dark maroon Criminology department jacket, a highly mocking smirk plastered across his face as he looks me up and down.) “Look who finally decided to join the live server. We thought your system crashed completely, Seth. You’ve been walking across the block for two days looking like your data was completely wiped.”
Rey: (Steps up right beside Jasper, leaning back with an equally arrogant grin, spinning a basketball on his index finger.) “Seriously, man. We heard the lone wolf of civil engineering was lagging hard during afternoon tracking. If you’re going to be this unfocused, you and Lest might want to forfeit the opening basketball match right now. Save your department the embarrassment before we completely run through your defense grid.”
Seth: (Stops flat in my tracks, my eyes narrowing as a slow, dangerous smirk creeps onto my lips. I tilt my head slightly, my gaze locking onto them with absolute, unshakable confidence as an intense anime-style aura flares around me.) “My focus is exactly where it needs to be, Jasper.
You can analyze my walking speed all you want, but your offense patterns won’t even find a gap in our defensive blocks.” (I look directly at the spinning basketball on Rey’s finger, my smirk widening as my voice drops to a cool, lethal tone.) “You and the entire Criminology department can talk trash now. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
But the festival starts next week.
We’ll let the final scoreboard officially terminate your calculations then.
Try not to lag behind when we break your defense.”
Jasper: (Stares at me for a split second, completely taken aback by my sudden sharp response before he breaks out into a loud, mocking, villainous anime-style laugh.) “Bwahahahaha! Did you hear that, Rey? The robot actually thinks he can threaten our defensive perimeter!”
Rey: (Catches the basketball with both hands, throwing his head back as he joins in with an equally arrogant, booming laugh.) “Bwahahahaha! Wow, Seth, that’s a lot of big talk for someone who has been spacing out like a zombie every single day lately! Next week, we’ll see if that technical code of yours can actually handle the heat, or if your entire system just collapses under our fast break!”
Lest: (Suddenly bounds down from the bleachers like a total cannonball, dropping his arm aggressively over my shoulder as a fiery anime aura explodes from his side.) “Hey, keep laughing, you maroon-jacketed clowns! You guys have a lot of guts talking about system lag when your entire Criminology department couldn’t even decode our baseline screens last semester!”
Jasper: (Scoffs loudly, taking an aggressive step forward.) “That was last semester, Lest. We completely rebuilt our coverage matrix. You two won’t survive the first half of the basketball tournament.”
Lest: (Points directly at Jasper’s face, a wild grin stretching across his lips.) “A coverage matrix? Bwahahaha! Let me lock a prediction file into your ears right now. Next week, Seth is going to drop a roof on your heads at the baseline, and I am going to spike the volleyball so hard at your lines that your whole Crim roster will need a total data restore! Go back to your block and practice your basic controls before we completely overwrite you!”
Seth: (The entire covered court layout seems to freeze in absolute silence around us as the sheer intensity of the rivalry hits an absolute peak. I take half a step forward, aligning my stance right beside Lest as our physical heights match perfectly against the two Criminology players. Our eyes lock completely with Jasper and Rey, the intense glare creating a literal, crackling anime-style lightning bolt that sparks violently between the four of us in the middle of the crowded venue, cementing the war declaration for next week.)
[ END OF CHAPTER 22 ]