Oliver was heading home when he suddenly heard the sound of numerous footsteps following behind him. Oliver quickly headed to an empty alleyway. He smiled and said the words he had always wanted to say before.

"I know you guys are out there, how about coming out now."

When Oliver said those words the footsteps stop and he actually felt a little giddy with excitement. Then after a while, some people started coming out, ten, twenty, thirty. There were thirty people that appeared which surprised Oliver, he was expecting at most ten people, he wasn’t expecting this many, not to mention each one of them were holding some kind of blunt weapon. Still, Oliver did not show that he was actually a tiny bit frightened.

"So many of you, I wonder what do you want from me?" One of the people surrounding Oliver stepped forward with a smug look on his face.

"We just want you to be unable to play next week. We’re-" Before the punk could finish his sentence one of his companions bonked him on the head.

"Why are you telling him too much. Let’s just beat him up a bit and get this over with."

"I see, so you guys must be sent by the opposing team."

"Tsk, I guess because of this idiot it became pretty obvious. Well, it doesn’t really matter, you’ll get beaten up all the same."

"Wow, it’s such an honor to have so many of you targeting me. Still, even without me, the others would be able to win the match."

"Heh, that’s what you think, of course, we also sent some men to mess up your friends as well."

"How many?"

"You got a lot of questions, but sure I’ll answer since I get to smack your head later. We sent about six men each to mess them up. I heard your club was called the Mercenary Club and you’re the president, and looking at you it doesn’t look like you’re just all talk, you really do look like a mercenary. Heh, well it doesn’t really matter if you have those bulging muscles, since getting hit by a metal club will hurt all the same."

When Oliver heard what the punk said he could not help but chuckle. They sent most of their men to him, while Alex and the others only get six.

"What the heck are you laughing at!"

The man holding a metal bat charged at Oliver and swung it aiming at Oliver’s head. A loud thud sound resounded throughout the alleyway. The punk who was smiling suddenly had a look of horror as he saw the scene before him. He thought that Oliver had his head bashed in, but instead, his metal bat was now bent.

Oliver had blocked the metal bat using his forearm. It was the first time in ages since Oliver truly got hurt, but for some reason, all the fear he felt a while ago was blown away. Oliver then started laughing loudly which unnerved the thirty punks.

"You guys are idiots, you actually only sent so few people to the most dangerous one in our group."

...

While Oliver was dealing with the group of delinquents, the others were also experiencing a similar situation. Emily who had brought Kei to play in the arcade frowned as she and Kei were suddenly surrounded by a group of boys.

...

Niel was also being surrounded by a group of delinquent-looking students but he was still smiling brightly.

"Can I help you with something?"

"Damn it, just looking at this guy’s face is already making me feel irritated." One of the students spoke.

"Yeah, you can help us by eating my fist!" Another student could no longer hold it in and initiated a punch. Niel easily evaded the punch grab hold of the student’s hand and twisted it downward.

"It would seem like you guys don’t want to have a civilized talk. Hmm, I can do this your way and beat each one of you, but I do not really want to, so how about we all calm down and have a proper conversation."

Niel spoke while continuing to smile and still holding the student’s hand twisting it. The look on Niel’s face and the action he was doing made the whole scene look surreal.

...

Alex was heading home with Rachel when he stopped. He then looked around the street and after making sure that there were no uninvolved people around he spoke.

"You’ve been following us for fifteen minutes now, so how about showing yourselves?"

Alex’s indifferent tone and the fact that he knew when they started following him made the students who were hiding felt a little unnerved. They wanted to catch Alex by surprise, but it was them who was caught by surprise. They looked at each other and nodded. Since they were already spotted might as well get this over with.

The moment the group of students came out of their hiding spot, Alex was already in front of them. He delivered a punch to the gut to the nearest person making him faint, and then he quickly moved and did a spinning backhand hitting another student’s face.

Alex had caught them by surprise and was able to quickly neutralize two opponents. Alex did not give them time to react and continued his assault. Alex did a frontal punch aimed at the chin of another student. Once that student fainted Alex charged forward with a roundhouse kick to the neck neutralizing another student.

Now there was only one left who was still stunned in place because of how fast things happened. The unknown student was about to run away when Alex got him into a sleeper hold. Alex was about to interrogate the remaining student when he got a call from Oliver. Alex passed the student over to Rachel who held him down, seeing the student was secured Alex then answered his phone.

"Alex, did some thugs come and attack you?"

"Affirmative, but the threat has been neutralized. I’m assuming from this call that you two have been ambushed."

"That’s right, it’s not just me, the others were also ambushed. It would seem that this basketball game isn’t as simple as we thought."