Arcade Station (English Version) Episode 8

Episode 08: Relaxing in Another City -STAGER (All Stage Clear)-

MOVEMENT RHYTHM COMMUNITY (93)

Xephyr

Guys? (12:51 PM)

In Arcade Station *city name censored* (12:52 PM)

Seriously. Where are you? (12:53 PM)

I just arrived :^ (12:53 PM)

***

“I told you, the smoked salmon is the bestselling dish in this restaurant, and I bet you want to taste it,” Hans said while waiting for the food in the fancy restaurant full of colorful chairs and tables.

Don commented on the restaurant’s wall mostly made by glass and white bricks, “It’s fancy but simple.”

“It’s artful, literally,” added Ed.

Dave looked Ward was playing Tone Sphere on his phone. “You play Tone Sphere?”

“Yeah, I want to give it a shot. Interested since the crossover with Groove Coaster last April.” Ward choose to play Stager (All Stage Clear) with NORMAL difficulty.

“Whoa! Tone Sphere! Like osu!” shouted Ian.

“Tone Sphere, it’s made by Sta? The composer who got famous with his songs on Cytus and Deemo?” asked Ed.

“Wait? Sta made the game?” asked Dave.

The gameplay of Tone Sphere was pretty simple: As the music played, circular notes would appear on screen, and the player had to tap on them when converging circles overlap the notes. The game also threw out “hold” notes that must be held down until they vanish, and “slide” notes that must be dragged into from outside of the note. Notes might also rotate, zoom, and scroll to where the player had to hit them.

“You’re right. It’s like osu!” said Ward as he continued playing following the rhythm.

“Excuse me, six smoked salmons.” The red dressed waitress arrived putting six plates of smoked salmon with mushroom soup and mashed potatoes each on the table.

“Whoa! Seems delish!” Ian said.

“Yeah! 6 stars!” Ward finished playing Stager (All Stage Clear) on Tone Sphere before opening camera app on his phone. “Better take this for Instagram Stories!”

“Me too!” Dave also took a picture of his plate of smoked salmon.

“By the way, Xephyr just asked on LINE. She just arrived in Arcade Station,” Don said.

Ward said, “I don’t have any idea how to spend my money that has just been given by my dad. He said don’t buy anything but foods and clothes.”

Ian suggested, “I know, since we’re here, we have to take a walk around here! Shopping!”

“Whoa, wait, are you crazy? We have to wait for our turn playing Sound Voltex!” Don reminded.

“Perfect excuse, I’d seen several Touhou figurines in one of the stores downstairs.”

“Touhou figurines?!” shouted Don excited. “Just take me there! Take me there after we finish having this dish!”

“Wow, you want to buy Touhou figurines, guys?” asked Ward to Don and Ian.

“Absolutely! What a perfect excuse to spend money!” shouted Ian.

Hans said, “Alright! We gather back in Arcade Station after an hour. Ward, I know the best clothes store you have never seen in our town.”

“Sound cool!” said Ward.

***

“Okay, guys, here’s the plan. You guys buy some drinks. I’m gonna tell the security near the food court about that stalker or thief or whatever,” Norcross told his plans to Toshi and Amy. “I want a cup of pearl milk tea, by the way.”

“I’m not sure if the thief would be running away from us after we report him to the security,” said Toshi.

“Fine, we need to act natural, as if we don’t notice the thief at all,” Amy added.

“Okay, let’s begin. I’ll go to the security. I’ll be right there!” said Norcross walking away from Toshi and Amy who walked to the tea bar in the food court.

Amy said to the tea bar cashier. “Um, one pearl milk tea, one strawberry milk tea. And …. Toshi, you want some drinks?”

Toshi looked back as the thief watched over them without noticing Norcross calling the security. He then ordered, “One chocolate milk tea.”

“Okay. Toshi, you have an extra cash to pay for Norcross’?” asked Amy.

“Okay. But we better hurry up! Cause there’s no turning back,” Toshi freaked out as Amy paid the cash to the cashier.

“Seriously, Toshi? You don’t have to just freak out like that.”

“Norcross’ coming back.” Toshi noticed that Norcross immediately came back to the tea bar.

Norcross revealed his next plan, “I talked to the security. So, here’s next, we go to the department store downstairs, just pretend we’re going to buy some clothes. If you want really to buy some clothes, better.”

“And…?” asked Toshi.

“The security will follow us and the thief.”

“Here’s your tea!” said the cashier giving their orders to Amy.

“Thank you. Should we drink this first before entering the department store?” asked Amy.

***

“Whoa, lots of clothes stores right here!” Dave walked around the clothes stores with Ward, Hans, and Ed. “Even mostly don’t appear in our town.”

“Whoa! It’s the store that I’m talking about, Ward!” Hans pointed on the Sweden branded clothes store. “I bet you’ll like them. Let’s just look around to decide, then we buy.”

The four lads visited the menswear section, where they looked around the clothes that sold there. The most important, they looked at the shirts, pants, and the cost prices, which were mostly expensive.

“It’s pretty expensive!” Ward saw a double layered black jacket. “I could’ve paid for more than 100 plays in Arcade Station with this price!”

“Can I help you, young man?” asked a white shirt uniformed woman came.

Ward immediately answered, “No, thanks. We’re just looking around.”

“Well, in case if you don’t know, casual shirts and t-shirts are currently the bestselling items in this store.”

Dave showed a blue striped black jacket to Ward. “Ward, Hans, Ed, what do you think about this jacket?”

“Whoa, Dave, you’re the only one who got excited in this clothes shopping spree,” Ward commented.

“It suits you,” said Ed.

“Better check the price, Dave,” said Hans. “You guys have some money to buy one of these?”

“In that case, I better go to the ATM. I need to take the money that my dad sent me. You’re staying here, right?” said Ward.

“Yeah. If we’re no longer here, we’re back at Arcade Station,” said Hans. “We should be back at Arcade Station in less than forty minutes.”

“Yeah.”

Ward immediately walked away from the Swedish branded clothes store before leaving the clothes store area through the escalator. He went down through the escalator before looking at the map to locate the ATM center. He read that ATM center was located in the ground floor near the entrance of the building.

Just immediately before he walked to the escalator which led him to the ground floor, he saw a game console store right in front of it. Upon realizing it, he decided to change his mind to look at the store.

The store was having a big discount sale for PlayStation4 console for a limited time. Even better, the purchase of PlayStation4 also included five pre-installed games including Persona 5, Uncharted 4, and Guilty Gear Xrd.

Ward immediately became torn whether he should buy clothes or PlayStation4 with five pre-installed games. He obviously knew what he wanted as a gamer, at the same time his dad’s message was haunting him.

Don’t buy anything except foods and clothes!

Eventually, his dad’s message couldn’t even beat Ward’s wish to purchase a PlayStation4 console with five pre-installed games with discount. Ward immediately walked through the escalator to walk to the ATM Center in the ground floor.

***

Toshi recorded using his phone camera as he, Norcross, and Amy finally entered the clothes area in the department store. Unsurprisingly, the thief also entered the store following them.

The thief not only looked around the store, but also starred at Toshi, Norcross, and Amy who devised a plan against him unbeknownst. He noticed that Amy and Norcross looked at several clothes in the store.

Toshi suddenly remembered. “Wait, I forgot which one I wanted to buy.”

Norcross judged the clothes which Amy preferred, “The colors seem … meh.”

“I was here with Sung Mi before you guys doing flashmob She is My Wife, I forgot which shirt I really wanted to buy,” Toshi talked as if he didn’t see the thief.

“I think this one’s cool, for me.” Amy took one of the yellow t-shirt. “It suits you, Norcross.”

“Yellow?”

“The color looks nice.”

“You too close up on taking the video,” Norcross said to Toshi.

Toshi noticed the thief was leaving them to the other section of the department store. “He’s leaving!” He turned off his phone camera.

“What we’re gonna do now?” asked Amy.

“We wait for the right moment.” Norcross looked at the thief who starred on the black jackets.

After putting his phone on his pocket, Toshi immediately got distracted upon seeing Sung Mi entering the department store with a female friend. It was once again like falling in love at first sight. Toshi ignited the feels by playing Sakura Fubuki in his minds.

“Toshi, c’mon!” said Amy pulled Toshi’s hands before leaving the department store with Norcross.

“Whoa! Wait!” shouted Toshi walked following Amy and Norcross without being noticed by Sung Mi who looked at the sunglasses.

“Where’s the security, by the way?” asked Amy upon exiting the department store.

At the same time, a security alarm from the department store got triggered upon the thief walked away. The security who spied on him by following the steps immediately got him under arrest for shoplifting.

“Whoa!” shouted Toshi. “He’s shoplifting!”

The alarm sounds distracted the visitors who walked around the department store and the second floor of the building. They noticed the security confronting the thief for shoplifting around the department store. Sung Mi even got distracted too.

“Can we get back to Arcade Station now?” asked Amy.

***

“YEAH!!” shouted Don upon finding out he got ULTIMATE CHAIN after playing Scarlet Moon ADVANCE.

“WOW!!” screamed Hans, Ian, Dave, and Ed upon seeing Don’s stage two result on Sound Voltex.

Hans said as he took his phone. “What took Ward so long?”

Dave received a LINE message from Ward. “He texted! Oh man, he bought PS4!”

“What?!” shouted Ian and Ed.

“Seriously?! In the town next door?!” shouted Hans.

“And discount,” added Dave.

Ed also looked at the group’s LINE chat. “The thief has been caught by the security!”

“No way!” shouted Ian. “How?”

Hans also looked at the chat. “He was caught shoplifting some clothes in the department store downstairs.”

“Oh, thank God!” shouted Dave.

***

“Almost close. Luckily, we’re safe from that thief,” said Norcross as they entered Arcade Station again.

“Next time, maybe we should put our stuffs in the cashier,” Toshi suggested.

“Or we need to be more careful with our stuffs. Arcade Station has no security cameras at all,” Amy added.

“Aishiro?” Toshi saw Aishiro was playing Danz Base upon arrival.

Aishiro turned around after finishing the first stage. “Hey! I didn’t see you earlier here!”

Norcross explained, “A long story. You better check in the LINE group.”

“The thief?” asked Aishiro. “Damn! What in the hell! Just how you captured the thief with the help from the security?”

“Yes, with the help from the security,” Toshi repeated.