“Yeah.” Khel stared at the campus. “Where are all the people?”

“Oh, they’re over at the break lounge, playing sports and video games and all that kind of stuff,” I responded carelessly.

“What are ‘sports’, and how does one sport? Also, what are ‘video games, and how is one video game?” Khel questioned in confusion.

“Oh, sports are things like basketball and soccer and tennis and other things that involve exercising. Video games are games that are on an electronic device.” I carelessly continued.

“Oh, so video games are games that are played on electric magic?” Khel continued knowledgeably.

I facepalmed, reminding myself about how Khel had no experience in the anti-magic world. “So basically, they hook up video games with wires, and I think the game just sort of plays and you play this cartoon character or something and play the game using a controller. Sometimes, you don’t have a character, you just smash stuff. Umm… it uses electricity not generated by magic, it is generated by wind power and other stuff, I don’t know much because I never studied it.” I tried to explain.

“Ohh…. Can I try one?” Khel asked hopefully. I had to think about it. Hmm… What if I disguise us?

“Okay, Khel. If you want to try out video games, you’re going to have to hide your magic and pretend you hate magic. I’m going to hack the magic detection system to get us through, and then we can try to get you a video game to play on. Sounds good?” I questioned.

“Um… I’m not sure. I don’t want to pretend to hate magic, but I want to try a video game.” While Khel pondered, I started hacking the magic detection system just so that we could get going right after Khel agreed. If he didn’t, it wouldn’t cost.

“Okay, let’s do this!” Khel made up his mind.

“Hmm… Khel, disguise yourself as someone that looks similar to me. You’re going to be Welon Exypnos, my cousin that saved me from the mage kidnappers. You loathe mages and magic, so you definitely can be trusted.” I came up with a disguise. “Wear a bright green shirt and blue faded jeans; also give a tough guy look while carrying a weapon that you are proficient with.”

“Got it, Mensal.” Khel dove back through the portal, grabbed the clothes and knife, and got back. “Alright, I’m ready!”

We rushed through the (hacked) magic detectors; they didn’t beep, supposedly showing that we had no magic. I saw the other students. “Hey guys, it’s me, Mensal!” I greeted them.

“Wait, is that you Mensal? I thought you got kidnapped by mages!!! They disguised themselves as Kajun and you and even escaped!” A guy named Boris called out to me. “And who’s that guy next to you? He looks tough!”

“Oh, that’s my cousin Welon, he rescued me from those kidnappers by surprising them with a knife, which he is surprisingly proficient with!” I laughed. “Isn’t it surprising how little mages can do when surprised?!”

“I know right?!!! Those bumbling mages disguised as you two were caught so off guard that we even found the cave they were hiding in!” A boy named Tagarth joined the conversation.

“Anyways, my cousin Welon here has never played video games, and I want to show him. Don’t you want to play video games, Welon?!” I smoothly inserted into the conversation.

“YES!!! YES!!!!” Khel, or should I say Welon, hollered in excitement.

“Hmm… let’s see here.” Tagarth’s twin brother, Logarth, browsed the video game section. “How about a basic version of Super Mario Kart where you can’t attack other people and they can’t attack you? All you have to do is steer!”

“That sounds great.” Welon (Khel) mused. “Alright, so how do I start the game?” He ran over to the Mario Kart game disc and tried to plug the Mario Kart disc into Netflix. “Why isn’t it working?!!”

“Dude,” Logarth laughed, “that’s the Netflix box, not the Wii U!!!”

“Whoops!” Welon looked embarrassed. He took out the Super Mario Kart disc and then slid it into the Wii U.

Logarth and Tagarth started coaching Khel through the controls of Super Mario Kart and how to use the boosts, while I daydreamed about Iris. I was knocked out of my daydream when Welon yelled, “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

“What just happened?” I rubbed my eyes sleepily, looking over at the screen. Welon had just beaten … a level one bot.

“Welon just DOMINATED that level one bot. He made it so confused that it started driving backward!!!!” Logarth bent over as he guffawed. “Anyways, I’m gonna have him challenge the level 10 bot, then the level 100 bot.”

A few moments later, I fell back asleep while daydreaming. A few moments after that, I was rudely awoken by a scream of “HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!!!!!!!!”

I turned around to see Tagarth trying to stop Logarth from pulling his hair out while he yelled, “How did he beat the level 1,000,000 bot?!!!!”

I turned to the screen. “Hey, it just says level 100…”

“Oh, the screen just can’t go any higher than 3 digit numbers.” Tagarth let go of Logarth for a moment, then went back to grab Logarth. “Anywho, can you help me grab Logarth? I want to talk to Welon privately.”

“Sure, why not?” I rushed over to take over Tagarth’s stranglehold of Logarth. A few moments later, we heard some surprised whispered exclamations from Tagarth and Welon.

“Mensal, can you take Logarth and get over here? I want to discuss some things in private with just the 4 of us.” Tagarth called us.

I led the still struggling Logarth over to the private room, or should I say the private dome. We walked over to a giant white dome that was soundproof. We couldn’t see through the door, but apparently, it was transparent from the inside. It was labeled as the “giant greenhouse”, but once we walked in, it was clearly not a greenhouse. Inside, people were walking everywhere.