The Incubus System

The Incubus System Chapter 375. Game Arcade Adventure II

Once...

Twice...

Thrice...

I didn't know how many times I had tried but that stupid bear kept slipping off the claws. I also had tried other machines and still got the same result. It always happened every time the bear was so close to the goal. I bet they already rigged the machines.

As I tried to get the doll, others tried to find the hacks through the internet.

"They said, shake the crane to the left right forward back before going for your target. It's 100% work," Tiffany instructed.

"Are you sure?" said Emma in doubt.

"The guy in the video said, it worked for him," Tiffany assured.

It sounded like bullshit. But I decided to give it a try.

"Loser~" Again, that annoying sound came from the machine as the bear slipped from the claw just before the hole.

"This fuckin machine..." I hissed in annoyance.

Seeing my expression, they decided to cool me down.

"Ethan, let's play another thing, okay?" said Emma with an awkward smile.

"I agree. Besides, I don't want that bear anymore. It's too small, to begin with," Celia added. The bear was about medium size so it wasn't a small one.

"How about another round of shooting game?" Olivia came up with an idea.

While Tiffany returned my previous statement.

"Take it easy. It's just a game."

A voice coming from another claw machine answered them.

"Yay! Congratulations! You are the winner!" We turned to the source of the voice. A 5 years old kid looked happy since his father managed to get the doll in one try. It was the machine I played with before and the doll was my previous target.

'What the hell?!' I screamed internally. I knew I shouldn't be jealous of him since it was all based on luck. Still... It pissed me off.

The guy noticed my gaze and smiled at me.

"You just need a good skill to get it," he said in a calm tone before he left with his son.

I knew he was trying to give me advice but that pissed me off even more.

"You're right. I think we should play another one," I answered them out of the blue. Then I pointed to the biggest claw machine there.

"How about we play that?" I said with an innocent smile.

They looked at the machine before exchanging glances.

"Brother, you don't have to---"

Before Celia could finish her words, I interrupted her.

"Let's go!" With enthusiasm, I walked to the machine.

Just like before, I entered the coin and moved the analog. The difference was, this time I used my Telekinesis so the doll remained attached to the claw before it reached the hole.

I took it and gave it to Celia. It was the bigger version of the pink bear.

"Thank you, brother," she said with an awkward smile since she immediately realized what I had done.

"But are you sure this is legal? You were kinda cheating there," she said in a much lower voice.

"No, it's not. I got it with my 'skill'. Just like what the guy said." Well, I knew I cheated but after those series of losing and being called a loser by the machines, I didn't care anymore.

"Do you want it?" I offered it to the others.

"No, thank you," they replied.

"It's okay. I'm kinda pissed off right now. So I'll take some," I said with a smirk.

'Ah... He snapped' those words were clear from Emma and Olivia's gaze.

"How did you suddenly become an expert?" Tiffany asked in confusion since I could get the other three easily.

"Skill, of course," I grinned.

While the others could only smile awkwardly in reply.

We closed our arcade adventure with the hammer machine. Or rather... Ran away since I almost broke it. I misjudged my strength since my annoyance still remained when I played it. So... It didn't give me any score, but an error sign.

The sunset greeted us as soon as we exited the arcade. Once again we set our feet on Peace Blossom Square's street.

"Haaa... That's a good one. I haven't done it for a long time," said Tiffany, stretching out her arms up.

"We should hang out more," Emma added.

"How about next week?" Olivia said excitedly.

Celia answered it in a gloomy tone.

"But my brother will be away during this holiday so..."

"It's okay. You don't have to wait for me," I said. I didn't want Celia to waste her break waiting for me.

She turned to me.

"But it will be different..."

"It will," I replied with a faint smile. My hand patted her head gently.

"This is the first time you're going to spend a holiday with this many people. I'm sure it will be more fun," I comforted her. But she didn't reply to me.

"Halt, it's a code red!" Tiffany suddenly stopped her steps and stretched her arm to the side to block us. Reflexively, we did what she asked.

We turned to where Tiffany looked at since code red meant Ruby was near us. Our sight immediately caught Ruby in her outercoat walking across the street in a hurry. From her direction, it looked like she was headed for the arcade. But why did she want to go there?

'Oh shit... It must be that girl,' I thought. Thinking back, a few girls were watching me when I won the claw machine 4 times in a row. One of them looked familiar but since her name seemed foreign to me, I decided to ignore her. But now, I remembered that girl was her coworker.

"We should hide now!" Celia said.

Without wasting time, we entered a restaurant beside us.

A waiter greeted us.

"Good evening. May I---"

Olivia quickly interrupted him.

"Do you have a private room?" There were large windows on the side of the restaurant so passers-by could see all the seats.

"Sorry, we don't have it, miss," replied the waiter.

"Is that table empty?" I said. My index finger pointed at an empty table in the corner of the room. The wall covered the lower half, so it was good enough.

"Yes."

"Great. We'll take it and call you after we make our choice," said Emma. Her hand quickly grabbed 2 menu books on the counter before we headed to the table.

We were about to sit down and open the menu but Tiffany warned us again.

"She's coming!" Her gaze was fixed on the window.

Upon her warning, we dropped down to hide under the table. It happened just like that, following our instincts.

After that, we were silent as we waited for Ruby to pass the restaurant.

"Wait... Why do we have to hide from her?" I just realized how stupid we were. Avoiding her cafe was okay, but hiding like this while we weren't doing anything wrong was weird to me.

"Look who's talking. She's targeting you, right?" Tiffany complained.

"Well, I can 'take care' of her," I said. Unlike the previous shopping session, since Emma and Olivia were here, I just needed them to distract Tiffany for a few seconds while I altered Ruby's mind.

"Don't ruin our hang out by that," protested Celia.

"Say that to that crazy stalker," I retorted.

"I think this is kinda fun," Emma said out of the blue. Her words made us turn to her.

"This reminds me of my childhood. I feel like going back to elementary school," Emma continued with a gentle smile.

The three of us burst out into laughter since what she said was true. We felt like a bunch of big naughty kids who ran away from the school and the teacher was looking for us.

"W-Wait. Is that weird? Why are you guys laughing?" said Emma in a panic.

But it was the waiter's voice who answered us.

"Ehem!"

We stopped our laughter and turned to the waiter who looked at us in displeasure.

"Can you lower your voice?" he said.

We replied with an awkward smile.

"Sorry," we said in unison.

The hangout ended with a simple dinner at that restaurant. It wasn't a luxury one, but the food was good. Also, another hide and seek game since we saw Ruby walking back and forth several times near the restaurant. Rather than annoying, we found it really fun so we simply considered it as our arcade game's bonus stage. We even held our laughs several times since she was so close to us yet she didn't notice it. A request from Olivia to meet her tonight closed our meeting and thus how our hangout came to end.