For this kind of gossiping spirit, William Clark was completely helpless as well. He gave a faint smile and said, “Alright, stop rambling here. I want to read.”

“Read? What the heck are you reading for? Didn’t we agree to play games today? I even bought game tokens. There’s a new game out now, King of Fighters ‘94, it’s super fun.” Brian Cooper shook his jacket pocket, which immediately jingled with the sound of coins—clearly, there were quite a few game tokens inside.

The King of Fighters series was absolutely the king of the arcades at the time. If you hadn’t played King of Fighters, you couldn’t claim to have played arcade games at all. In his previous life, William Clark was completely obsessed with King of Fighters. From the release of the first ‘94, to ‘97, ‘98, and all the later series, William Clark was very skilled at all of them. In the end, he could clear the game with any three characters, so he lost interest in playing.

First, William Clark wasn’t interested in the game now. Second, he wanted to use this bit of time to read more. Sharpening your weapons before battle, even if it’s last minute, is still useful. So he shook his head and said, “I’m not going. You go ahead.”

“What? You’re not going?” Brian Cooper stared at William Clark with his small eyes, looking at him as if he were a monster, and asked again, “You’re really not going?”

“What’s so unbelievable about it? If I don’t go, you’ll even save a few tokens.”

“You don’t have a fever, do you?” Brian Cooper reached out a thick, bear-like hand and touched William Clark’s forehead. “It’s rare for me to treat you. If you miss this chance, there won’t be another.”

In his previous life, at this time, William Clark was already nearly obsessed with games. Out of thirty yuan a week for pocket money, fifteen was for food, and the other fifteen all went to games. Sometimes he’d even skip two meals, but he’d never skip playing games.

Thinking about how fifteen yuan could buy six days’ worth of meals at school back then—it’s unimaginable for high schoolers more than ten years later.

He raised his hand and gave Brian Cooper a slap, glaring as he said, “Enough, just go by yourself. The midterm is tomorrow, I have to at least read a bit.”

That slap finally made Brian Cooper look at William Clark normally. He curled his lips and said, “Read, my ass. Why didn’t you care earlier?” Then he forcibly dragged William Clark out of the classroom.

In 1994, arcades were absolutely booming. The most common games were Street Fighter, King of Fighters, and Raiden. Although these games were way too simple compared to later computer games, at the time they were the favorites of countless teenagers.

The arcade was quite large, with two rows of about thirty machines. The music from the machines and the sound effects were already loud enough, and with people playing at every machine, the shouting and yelling made the place incredibly noisy.

The King of Fighters machine was especially crowded. It wasn’t easy to get a turn. William Clark looked from the back and couldn’t help but find it funny. The kid playing was only focused on pulling off moves, not caring about any strategy. Occasionally, he’d pull off a flashy move, but couldn’t get past two stages before losing as the difficulty increased.

The next few players were about the same. The game had just come out, so it wasn’t that easy to get the hang of.

Brian Cooper’s large build gave him an advantage now. He quickly squeezed in and started playing, but his skills could only be described as terrible. Plus, the way he shook his head and slammed the buttons fiercely made William Clark and the onlookers burst out laughing.

“With skills like that, you’re playing King of Fighters? If it were me, I’d have drowned myself in a puddle by now!” The laughter aside, that comment was pretty harsh.

It was three teenagers, seventeen or eighteen years old—one fat, two skinny. The fat one even wore glasses, and all of them had mocking expressions.

In the arcade, three boys from Second High—one fat, two skinny—then a King of Fighters match, and the students from Fourth High, William Clark’s group, were utterly defeated.

A scene immediately appeared in William Clark’s mind: from then on, the students from Fourth High couldn’t lift their heads in the arcade for quite some time.

At this moment, Brian Cooper really did get into an argument with those three. The other side quickly issued a challenge, but Brian Cooper hesitated, not daring to accept right away—after all, his skills were too poor, and there weren’t many from Fourth High around yet.

“Looking down on us from Fourth High, are you? Come on! I’ll take you on!” Just then, someone pushed through the crowd and squeezed in. He was over 1.8 meters tall, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, a straight nose, and a wide mouth. His hair was the buzz cut that had just become popular at the time.

“Jason Reed! You finally showed up!” Brian Cooper shouted in delight, then yelled at the three, “Our ace is here. Let’s see how cocky you are now!”