Gathering

This incident took a full week to settle, from the testimonies provided from all parties involved, including Luna's and Mona's father. Ultimately, their father will be sentenced to jail and they will both be taken care of by one of their relatives. Joseph took a week long break from school along with Luna and Mona. The three of them were not present in school until the beginning of the next week. Ellie and Danny in this time went to settle as much of the clubs' affairs as they possibly could to prepare themselves for the tournament.

On the day that they all came back, Ellie messaged Luna to come to the club room and also dragged Joseph there as well. They entered the room much to the astonishment of the both of them, the entire club room had been renovated. Directly in front of them when they enter, the table that was used for meetings is replaced with a much bigger one, it offered more seats as compared to before. The wall that the table is facing now has a wide monitor installed. Upon looking at the rows of PCs that should have been there, they have all been removed, in its place were 5 high-end PCs placed in the center of the room spaced evenly between one another. To its left, a recreational area had been created, it featured a sofa , a coffee table in front of it , a table football and also a dartboard. They shifted their vision to the right side of the room dumbfoundedly, there is also a pool table. Before Joseph, Luna and Mona could take it all in, the principal entered and bolted to Joseph immediately.

"Just to confirm again, your - your the Dark Knight??" The principal did not give off the vibes of a principal and was acting childlike, he asked in a exuberant manner as his hands were clapsed together.

Ellie stepped in and informed the principal once again : "Yes he is, we have already told you so many times, my sister Lily is the manager of Rain Solo Player, the former No.2 team in Strike Two and she can verify its him."

"Oh oh oh I can't believe it!! The Dark Knight in our school!!" The principal bounced about on the spot, he then proudly pointed at the room, "This is all the school can do for you all."

Luna asked with a troubled expression : "How about the rest of the club members?" The principal turned to look at her and replied back : "They have all agreed to leave the club for the sake of the club's competitiveness, I told them of my plans to provide the best resources available to the five members who will compete in the regional tournament after learning about Joseph's identity from Lily, I of course did not reveal Joseph's real identity to them and surprisingly, they all chose to leave out of their own free will without the need to be forced out as the club could not accommodate more than 5 members currently."

Luna thought back to the day when they all went to apologise to her at the school gates, it seems like they actually upheld their promise to help her albeit by leaving the club. The principal gave a long motivating speech after that : "Win it and bring glory to the school you mu- ...." Everyone present tried to hide their boredom and appeared enthusiastic about the speech, "Yeahh... we can do it." Danny voiced out as loud as he could while hiding his weary expression.

Finally, to the relief of everyone present, the principal left the room after giving a farewell message to Joseph : "Well, I will leave it up to you Dark Knight! Bye!" Shortly after the principal left, Joseph asked Luna immediately : "Are you with us?" Luna gave a resounding answer : "Yes."

Luna continued : "Thank you Joseph, I will always be grateful to you for helping, no , resolving our family situation." She smiled for the first time in front of Joseph. Joseph grinned right back at her and said : "Gladly." Mona did the same and even went up to hug Joseph tightly. Mona whispered in his ears : "Thanks I really don't know how to repay you, if you had not intervened , our life will be much more miserable. Really thank you." Danny wanted to comment but he did not want to ruin the moment.

Ellie interrupted at this moment, prompting Mona to back off from Joseph and said : "Great! Now we have our Support player, we just need a Secondary DPS now."

Luna chimed in : "We could always use Harry or Brandon."

"No, they are not good enough."

A discussion started as the four of them contemplated their fifth member.

"Maybe this guy..." , "No way is your friend qualified for this team ", "What?", "Hmm okay, if not then this guy ..." , "Actually, I guess not..."

Mona who stood there thought of a bizarre idea, she looked at Joseph, then to Luna, she mustered her courage and stepped into the discussion. "Why not me?"

All four of them stared at her, and she stared right back at them.

"I can learn 'All Fight'..." she affirmed the group of her intent.

Luna doubted her : " 'All Fight' isn't a game you can pick up that quickly, you need to learn so many things and it might vary depending on your playstyle."

Ellie also informed her : "The qualifiers is in six months time, I really doubt that you can compete or even reach a high level in that time."

Mona was determined, her resolute self showed in the face of immense doubt. Partly why she could become the president of the student body is due to her resolve, she does not back down from any challenge that she set herself to overcome and always remained strong despite the many troubles that she will face.

Joseph told her seriously : "Fine, but you have to realize that being the Secondary DPS means, you have to deal more damage than anyone else other than me."

Mona still didn't back down, rather, she became much more spirited, her eyes channeled this emotion really well to the group.

Danny joked at this moment : "I think it's easy to deal much more damage than Joseph here, you probably won't freeze up in game."

Ellie could barely contain her laughter and Luna was puzzled as to what they were referencing.

Joseph ignored it and continued to engage with Mona.

Mona still held her ground and declared : "I can do it, I will do it. I want to be with my sister, I want to win together with her."

Luna got hit with a wave of emotions after hearing that, she went to hug Mona and said : "If that's the case then yes, I want to win together with you." Danny saw the scene and got touched, he then shouted : "Yes you can join Mona!"

Ellie remained adamant on her stance and did not agree to it despite it all, "This is serious, I don't really think you can make it."

Joseph responded to Ellie : "How about this? What if I train her for six months? "

Ellie frowned and remained skeptical before Joseph continued : "Mona is the most responsible person I ever met, responsibility is the best trait for a DPS , she won't cower and give excuses."

Ellie questioned Joseph further : "Still thoug-"

"I have played against players that are happy with an average performance, on stage, they usually cannot take the pressure, the ability or the will to take the responsibility for your team's wins or losses is the most valuable skill of them all outside of individual mechanics."

Ellie stopped and pondered for a moment before continuing : "Alright, Joseph I trust you since your the only one with experience." Ellie smiled at Mona and announced to the room : "Your now our Secondary DPS Mona!"

Mona showed a face of relief as everyone had accepted her in their team, she now had to train beyond her limits and try to reach the highest level that she could in six months time. Joseph assured Mona : "I will help you, I believe that you can make it because of your tenacity."

Mona grinned and replied : "Thanks! How did you train back then?"

Joseph looked away from the group, he was just about to start talking but was interrupted by Danny.

Danny informed the rest of the group : "He's probably gonna say some cheesy line." Ellie nodded her head and waited for Joseph to continue.

Joseph put his hands on his back as he started : "I have broken over a million mouses, I have strained myself to the very limits that no man could ever possibly reach. Back then, I climbed mountains and fought gangs to train my bravery, I had to run 10km everyday to train my stamina and this is how I became... the Dark Knight."

The group burst out laughing uncontrollably as Joseph finished his monologue. Joseph laughed along with them too, enjoying the moment.