Chapter 90: Gacha gamers, unite!

The chat with Abhirami went for a bit longer than Taro expected and in the end, her father had to come to the school for her to actually leave his side. Never in his life had Taro actually felt exhausted doing something. However, in that particular moment, he was done; he was so exhausted that he felt as if his brain wasn't even functioning normally anymore.

"Mr. Sadanandan! How are you doing?" Shivani finally came out of the shadows and confronted Taro directly.

"Ah, it's you! Why haven't you gone home yet?" He asked. Normally, they head to the Holy Land a few hours early, so he was surprised that she stayed back.

"Well, we head there together, right? So, it's not a big deal." She shrugged.

"Wait, the other three are waiting too?" He asked.

"Obviously! They're waiting for you on the school grounds." She smiled as she replied.

"Hmm, let's head down then." Taro stood up from his seat and headed to the ground.

"So, how was your talk with Abhirami?" Shivani asked, to which Taro could do nothing but sigh.

"Ah… If I had to explain the experience that I had with her, I would use the word excruciating. She's got quite a mouth, doesn't she? How can this girl talk for this long? I mean, I was trying to learn what's going on with her life and maybe give her some advice based on that, however all I got to know was the love triangle she has with two guys. I mean… why? Why can't she be like a normal person involved with just one guy or no guy at all! I mean, life doesn't end if you don't end up in a relationship. Look at me! Thirty years and I still haven't got myself in a relationship… Wait, don't tell that to Abhirami because I told her that I was engaged to put a stop to her moves… Her moves… Yea, she was trying to make moves on me amidst her love triangle stuff. I mean… Is she trying to create a harem of guys or something? That kinda stuff doesn't work smoothly like it's shown in shows and stuff, she knows that, right? Argh… I'm getting annoyed!" Taro couldn't control his emotions. After wasting hours trying to listen to a teenage girl's romantic problems, he couldn't remain sane anymore.

"Hmm, she isn't that bad though. Underneath all that advances towards random people, haughty behavior, blabbering mouth and several other stuff, she isn't that bad. I mean yea, she literally forces you to do things her way, I mean this past day, she forced me into playing some Gacha game…" Shivani was about to tell her side of the story, when Taro stopped on his tracks.

"Gacha game?" He asked.

"Oh, don't worry. We don't use our parent's debit cards. We play for free!" Shivani reassured him, misunderstanding his surprise as one about her playing a game with in-game transactions.

"So, you guys are playing a Gacha game, huh? Which one?" He asked. His face looked as serious as it can go when he posed the question.

Suddenly, Shivani felt as if she made the wrong decision talking about Gacha games before her class teacher. She could sense sweat beads rolling from her forehead. She didn't expect her rather free flying class teacher to turn dead serious upon the mention of Gacha games. However, she had already dug a hole for herself, so she had no choice but to jump head first towards it. "Ah, it's the Holy War: Grand Battle… It's the game of the ani-" Before she could complete her sentence, she was interrupted.

"It's the game of the anime Holy War: Battle Maniacs, I know that!" He roared. It seemed as if he was really furious about it. "Why didn't she tell me about it?" He roared yet again.

Seeing the person beside her go full-on furious mode, the socially awkward Shivani couldn't handle the situation and suddenly went timid. "I mean… she wouldn't have expected you to make a big deal out of it!" She roared back… at least tried to after mustering up all the courage that she could find. However, it ended up as a squeal, rather than a roar like the one Taro did. One could clearly hear the fluctuations in her voice and Taro wasn't any different.

After coming back to senses from Shivani's squeal, Taro sighed. "What I mean is that, if she didn't have anything serious troubling her, then she had all the time to talk about the game and the strategy she uses in the game or something. I mean, my strategies aren't really working in the PvP these days, so I would have loved to get an opinion on them. Rather than speaking that sorta stuff, what did she do? She ended up talking about her romance, which I totally didn't care for!" He explained the reason behind his fury.

"Wait a minute! You play the game?" She asked in surprise. She never expected a teacher to play a Gacha game!

"Every day! It's like my salvation." Taro smiled.

"Whoa! I'm playing as well. Hell, Sujatha is playing it as well!" She spoke in excitement. Thankfully, she got out of the timid shell that was brought out due to Taro's sudden fury.

"Dayum! How about we become friends then? What's your friend code?" Taro asked as he took out his phone and opened the game.

"About that. I don't actually remember the code. It's got weird numbers and stuff. So… I will send the code when I reach home. I guess I'll give you my Budsapp number, so send me a hi, and I'll send the code to you… Or, you can send me the code, and I'll send you the friend request." She replied.

"Hmm, gimme your number then. I'll send you the code, so hit me up with a request when you're free!" And with that, they ended up exchanging contacts with each other… or at least, Shivani gave her number to Taro. It would've been easier if she had her phone right then, however the school had strict rules against students bringing electronic items to school. So, this was the only action they could do. Anyway, the world's longest walk to school grounds, which had a roller coaster of emotions, ended in a pretty high note. The squad had a pleasant time walking back to the Holy Land.

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The next morning; Taro had a bright smile on his face. He got to play the Holy War game with the people he knew for the first time. Although he previously tried making his roommates play the game, they weren't really sold on an anime game and rejected his invitation. However, with one go, he just got three people willing to play the game with him when Shivani ended up asking Abhirami and Sujatha to send him requests as well. It was a pretty fun night for him. He actually ended up playing PvP matches against all three girls and realized that even with his cash infused squad in the game, he could only defeat Abhirami by a hair's breadth. The other two were relatively easy, however Abhirami was an entirely different beast in the game. At that point, he had a newfound respect towards her in his heart. He wasn't ashamed to admit that he was actually weak and decided to take classes on the strategy he should use from her at least once a week. Thus, his previous opinion on her became null and void with this.

"What the hell are you spacing out for? It's time. Let's head out." Thankappan spoke, as he waved his hand before Taro's eyes. He didn't like getting late, especially since he's being so calculative about it.

"Ah, yes!" Taro replied as he got up and stopped reminiscing about the awesome time he had in the game. With him up, everyone was ready to go to school.

Thankappan excitedly opened his door to greet Shivani, however he didn't expect someone to block his path to her. He was about to rain profanity on the person before him… He quickly placed those thoughts on the back seat when he realized that Lonappan was the one standing there.

"Hey, Lonappan! Are you here for John? Great timing, I guess… We were about to go as well! I mean, what are the chances, huh?" Thankappan laughed.

"No."

"Huh?"

"I'm not here for him. I'm here for you guys." Lonappan replied.

"But, why?" Thankappan didn't quite understand. He couldn't remember screwing anything up more than what Lonappan did in the recent times.

"Hmm, I'm not comfortable speaking about it around other people." Lonappan replied, signalling towards Shivani behind him with his eye. Shivani seemed to notice this and quickly left the premises before Thankappan could even give an explanation.

After Shivani left, everyone went back to the room, much to the surprise of John. "So, what is it?" Thankappan asked, clearly showing his displeasure towards what Lonappan just did.

"Well, you're all off-duty today." Lonappan dropped the bomb that none of them expected.

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