"Welcome to the group!"
I stared at them for a minute.
"What? We have the same animal hoodie and also we're searching for you" a dark brown haired guy said as he walked towards me.
"Sorry that I'm late, i guess?" I replied.
"Anyway, I'm Jin Tufo" he said reaching out his hand. "And you must be.. Great_XiaoCheng"
I nodded as I shake his hand.
"Kim Daikiii desuu" the choppy, medium-toned, white haired guy with red bangs said cheerily. "Nice to meeet you desssssuu"
"Nice to meet you too"
"Arriving late is a way of saying that your own time is more valuable than the time of the person who waited for you" I looked at the black-haired guy with glasses, not looking at me. "that is from Karen Joy fowler"
He fixed his glasses and looked at me, reaching his hand out. "I consider that you are arriving late but my friend, time is gold"
I gave him a smile, "H-Hi, sorry. Great_Xiaocheng"
"Quan Chi" he replied.
"Oh? Sasoriii" Kimi Daiki called out, I looked at where he is calling at out. A black haired girl with blue highlights visible on her hair, looking at the crowd and her hands were dugs on her pockets.
"You don't want to greet yourself to our teammate?" Daiki called out again, "It's rud--"
"Alevtina Sasori, nice meeting you" she said, looking at me on the corner of her eyes. The tone of her greeting is plain as if she doesn't have interest in men.
"Grea--"
"Great_XiaoCheng, i know" she said, cutting me off.
The sudden boom of the sky is heard followed with crackling noise, fireworks whirl up to the sky and spread.
On the hologram television screen displayed on each corner, the uproar from the crowd filled the stadium as a team wearing their hoodie with The Scripturient's League logo that has a Trynosaurus-Rex on the right side of their chest is on screen, walking their way out of a red neon door.
"Let's all welcome the ever greatest rank team on The Scripturient's League that win over a lot of competition, the best and has the highest rank of their novels that all of their novels were featured every year that gained a lot of views over a million. Let's welcome again, Team T-rex!" an announcer heard from the speaker
"T-Rex! T-rex! T-rex!"
"Go, Eaglessss!' I looked up and saw a man shouted with an eagle facepaint on his cheek and has dark and light blue paint lines on the other cheek, raising his hand and few people stood up and chanted, "Eagles! Eagles!"
I looked on the side and saw another team with the eagle icon on the right side of their chest with The Scripturient's League logo. A milky blonde haired guy smiled and wave at the group of people who stood up on the bleachers, cheering on them.
I looked at the big hologram screen that is place on the center, the crowd's uproar slowly fade as The Scripturient's League logo suddenly glitches and Karyle is seen smiling.
"A warm welcome to all writers! We, The Scripturient's League Editors are honored to have the chance to be part of tops writers here in The Scripturient's League. Out of 16,000 entries, we've only chose 5,000 entries. I've read that all of your entries were interesting and has the potential. As much as we want, there are entries that we want to give points. Unfortunately, The Scripturient's League Editors can't fulfill that. For the reason that we, The Scripturient's League Editors, wants you as a writer to grow. To nourish with your hard work and your skills. Every Scripturient writers must do their best to level up"
"To gain skills" Karyle added, "And to survive"
"I believe that all of you has now their assigned team. As of the moment, introduce and have some fun with your teammates. We will be sending you all notifications later on. Welcome again.."
"Scripturient Writers"
And confetti blew up. Cheers and the uproar of audiences filled the stadium again.
"Let's goooooo!" A team said with a wolf animal icon on their hoodies.
"How about let's go and exploreeee?" Kimi Daiki offered and gave us a big smile. Sasori and the other walked out from the crowd as the the other teams went to their directions. I turned around and looked at each of the other teams hoodies. Some of their hoodies has scorpion, jaguar and other animal icons.
"Heyyyy"
I turned around and my teammates looked at me, waiting for me.
"Looking at other teammates,huh?" Kim Daiki said and gave me a stare.
"Yeah, I just think that their animal hoodies wer--"
"A man that is not grateful of what he have is not worthy to live" Quan Chi said as he fixes his glasses again.
"Come onnn, this is our chill day" Kim Daiki said and yanked me.
"By the way, where should we stay?" I asked as my teammates walked out of the stadium.
"There is a hotel that is designated for us" Quan Chi said.
"Where you do you all want to eat?" Jin tofu asked.
"Neon Pizzariea, pleaseee!" Kimi Daiki cheerily replied.
As we got out of the stadium, I looked around and saw tall buildings that has unique exterior. Flying cars and motor bikes flew on the city. The loud honking of the cars that sped off the city, neon lights that displayed on the stores and flashing billboards.
A cyberpunk city.
"Soooooo, what route will we take?" Kimi Daiki loudly asked as he scanned on the map of the nearby waiting shed. A screen that has maps that can be seen where was the district.
"Do you guys really want to eat?" Sasori asked, looking at us and shut her hologram earpiece off.
"Yep"
"Hmmm, I see. Enjoy then" Sasori said as she walked to the other direction, leaving us behind. .
"Where you going?"
"Explore things out or maybe sleep at the hotel" Sasori replied, still walking away. Her hands on her hoodie pockets.
"You're such a mood killler, Sasoriiii" Kimi Daiki whined. Sasori halted and looked at me over the shoulder, her eyes glaring for a second and continued.
"Hmmmmm. Was it me but.. Sasori looked at you?" Kimi Daiki asked and looked at me. Before I could reply, Kimi Daiki went back to the nearby waiting shed and scanned through the map. Quan Chi and Jin Tofu walked towards him.
"Food or Games? Where do you guys like?"
Their conversations faded in the background as I thought about Sasori.
I feel something different about her.