Morning 2.2: CH 4 THE RETRO ARCADE OVERCLOCK

📖 MORNING 2.2: SIXTH STREET ESCORT CHAPTER 4: THE RETRO ARCADE OVERCLOCK Holding their fresh grocery bags of food, the group turned past the neon-lit storefronts of Sixth Street. Silver Wolf’s burning mouth was finally cooled down from the milk, but her tactical hacker pride was still running at absolute critical temperatures. Spotting the flashing holographic signs of the Godfinger Arcade, she immediately bolted toward the glass doors, desperate for digital distraction. Kafka: "Oh no you don't, Silver Wolf. Step away from the terminal deck layout. You are still in big trouble for sneaking into the underground bunker kitchen and stealing Bladie's midnight food resources out of the fridge. No video game privileges for you today." Silver Wolf hit a comically tragic Dandadan-style weeping face, her silver hair drooping as she turned her eyes toward their masked guide, wiping a giant cartoon tear away. Silver Wolf: "Doctor Liang Huàn... please. I need to override this fire baseline in my brain. Can I please borrow some local Denny tokens to initialize a game session?" Liang Huàn: "Very well, Silver Wolf. A brief computational training sequence will help cool down your internal processors. Here is a baseline payload of Dennys." The S-Rank Surgeon reached beneath his gold-trimmed pirate coat, dropping a handful of shiny bronze coins straight into her palm. Her face instantly hit a massive, glowing Naruto-style star-eye hype loop! Snatching the coins, she bypassed Kafka entirely and dived head-first into the neon-glowing rows of arcade cabinets, her grocery bags thudding against the floorboards. Stepping into the high-score corner, Silver Wolf found herself face-to-face with an absolute gaming anomaly. Sitting casually at the flagship cabinet was a white-haired girl wearing green tactical straps—Anby Demara. Anby was maintaining an unbothered, blank-white expression, holding a massive, juicy fast-food hamburger in her left hand, taking slow bites while her right hand blurred across the joysticks with light-speed reflex metrics. The digital scoreboard was violently glitched, flashing a staggering, unmatchable milestone. Silver Wolf: "Whoa... are you serious?! She's setting the top-tier high goal using only a single hand while chewing on a hamburger?! Her manual input vectors are insane! Hey, white-hair—I challenge your database to an absolute 1v1 execution match right now!" Anby: "Understood. Commencing competitive entertainment ledger parameter." Anby didn't even look up from her screen, taking another slow bite of her burger as Silver Wolf slammed her Dennys into the slot and booted her elite mobile hacking algorithms. The match launched with explosive kinetic lines. Silver Wolf’s fingers blurred across the console panels, unleashing high-velocity tactical combos. KO! Silver Wolf hit a massive, hyper-exaggerated One Piece popping-eyeball face profile. She lost. Silver Wolf: "No way! Rematch! Double overclock!" KO! KO! KO! The script looped multiple times. No matter how many hacking scripts Silver Wolf running through the buttons, Anby’s single-handed hamburger defense was an absolute, unbreakable barrier. Silver Wolf slumped over the cabinet panel in total comedic physical defeat, cartoon steam venting from her head while Anby finished her burger. Anby: "Your tactical trajectory was admirable, but your finger placement lacks proper rhythm calibration. We are friends now. My name is Anby." Silver Wolf: "Ugh... clean victory data acknowledged. I'm Silver Wolf. Hey, you're pretty cool for a local civilian." Anby: "Thank you. By the way, your dark-haired friend out on the street... does he happen to associate with a person named Reaper 800?" Silver Wolf froze, her hacker visor sliding up as she checked the query. Silver Wolf: "Wait, you know about Reaper 800?" Anby: "Yes. Our mechanical gunslinger Billy Kid experienced a catastrophic system meltdown and freaked out completely when he scanned his profile metrics earlier. Our manager Nicole Demara told him to shut up, claiming his Void Hunter files were just a bunch of fake crap stories, but I know the physical parameters are real. Not only that... I know your masked guide perfectly well." Anby turned her stoic gaze toward the entrance, nodding respectfully at the bone-white deer skull mask. Anby: "Greetings, Doctor Liang Huàn. Thank you for the advanced surgical helping treatment you administered at the hospital when I suffered that severe electrical injury data block last month." Liang Huàn: "You are entirely welcome, Anby. Your cellular replica data stabilized perfectly. I assume your manager Nicole is still managing her finances poorly?" Anby: "Correct. Sometime she mentions that you carry a deep, logical hatred toward her." Liang Huàn let out a calm, authoritative hum, adjusting his gold-trimmed cuffs as Blade let out a menacing shonen laugh in the background. Liang Huàn: "It is 100% true, Anby. Exactly one year ago, Nicole attempted a fraudulent data routine to steal my personal Denny ledger directly from my medical office. To enforce the local laws, I utilized my crystalline cane to flash-freeze her solid inside a giant block of sub-zero ice crystal. I left her with just a microscopic trace of heat to prevent cell death, and she had to pay an extra 5,00% penalty Denny fee to clear her bail tracking ledger. I carry zero tolerance for her operational methods." Silver Wolf smirked, her mood completely restoring as she shared a high-five with her new white-haired gaming companion, successfully turning the arcade into an official friendship hub while logging massive historical secrets, safely concluding Chapter 4 on a perfect high-energy comedic note!