Chapter 166: Viciousness Lurks in the Shadows, Sneering at Peace
Author’s Opening Note: There’s a very high chance updates will slow down during December, so consider this advance warning.
More specifically, there’s a certain Xenoblade 2 to blame... (looks away)
Total time: twenty-four minutes and four seconds. That's every last second Megumi managed to scrape together with everything she had.
Nu2meg: "I have no excuse for myself..."
No Face: "Nah, nah. Honestly, in Round 3, when you took that gauge move, I thought it was over. Pulling it back together after that was impressive."
No Name: "Yeah, yeah. When you faked going for the Chaos Cube and landed that surprise attack—even I was shocked."
The result, in the end, was Megumi's loss. She'd succeeded in catching him off guard multiple times, but Lucas's adaptability was simply too high. In the end, Yggdrasil was subdued by Dr. Sandalphon just five meters short of the Chaos Cube.
No Face: "Honestly, the real monster here is that guy, seeing through Natsume-san's moves at the very end."
Up until that point, he'd been biting on the diversions beautifully, and then suddenly Lucas saw through it all and ran her down. From Megumi's perspective, she still has question marks floating over her head, utterly baffled.
No Name: "Natsume-chan, that thing—you forgot the news helicopter was tracking you, right?"
Nu2meg: "...Ah."
No Name: "While you were taking attacks from the villain, the news helicopter kept drifting away from you. That's how he noticed."
Nu2meg: "So... that's..."
Honestly, I don't think Megumi's really at fault for this one. The problem is that Galaxia Heroes: Chaos has an overwhelming amount of information compared to traditional fighting games. The NPCs have eyes, ears, and mouths, making the act of fleeing itself highly difficult—and if you focus too much on them, your opponent lands a hit. In a sense, you have to simulate the NPC environment around you while fighting. And because the setting is modern day, information travels between NPCs at absurd speeds. Talk to any random NPC on the street, and you can find out exactly where a rampaging villain on the opposite side of town is headed. Playing a villain character means you're required to manage all of that as part of your strategy.
Nu2meg: "...Maybe I have no right to say this after failing to win even once despite being a pro gamer, but... I’m leaving the rest to you."
No Name: "Heh heh, none of that formal stuff. Leave it to your big sis."
No Face: "Yeah. At least it's a hell of a lot easier to accept than a request from Mr. Can't-Trigger-Uniques-On-His-Own."
Honestly, what can you even say except that Katzo's bastard ass deserves to get wrecked at least once? Willingly tanking your own reputation to go this far for someone—that doesn't happen often. We might need to add a third faction, Megumi, to the post-tournament "what are we eating" war.
No Name: "Well, then... allow me, 'Name-Hider No-Name,' to show the entire world what villain play in this game is truly about!"
No Face: "Don't go too far."
It's a knockout format, so StarRain's Lucas stays in the dive, while we send out our second fighter: Pencilgon... or rather, Name-Hider No-Name. Sylvia Goldberg's unexpected appearance as the third fighter threw our schedule into chaos, and Megumi losing her first match puts us on the edge of a cliff. But if Pencilgon can win two straight, stall Sylvia Goldberg for the full time limit, and I can do the same... we barely, barely balance the books.
How impossible that demand is, and how much weight falls on Pencilgon's shoulders—that goes without saying. But what most of the world doesn't know is what it truly means to let Pencilgon... no, the one once called Pencil Warrior, fight inside a "sandbox."
Nu2meg: "Amane... no, Name-Hider No-Name... is she going to be okay?"
No Face: "No problem. Sure, in terms of raw fighting game skill, she's honestly weak. So weak that in a normal... coliseum-type fighter, even you, Natsume-san, would run circles around her."
Nu2meg: "Then...?!"
No Face: "But... when you give that woman freedom..."
She'll terraform even hell itself into her own personal color. She's that kind of gamer.
Announcer (broadcast): "Now for Match Two! Lucas continues with Dr. Sandalphon, but the mysterious masked player, Name-Hider No-Name, has chosen..."
Commentator (broadcast): "Clockfire. Like Yggdrasil, she’s a trap-centric character, but according to the data, unlike the close-range counter-type Yggdrasil, she’s an attacker-type that moves around proactively."
Dr. Sandalphon appears in the comic "Dr. Sandalphon," while Clockfire is a villain from a completely separate title. So doesn't that mean we're straying from the original roleplay time-stalling objective? Nope. When it comes to Pencil Warrior Pencilgon, the optimal choice isn't a character with narrative ties—it's one that lets her fully unleash her own viciousness. And in that regard, Clockfire is such a perfect match it's honestly suspicious, like the character was made just for her.
No, it's too perfect.
No Name: "Well, well... I've got to give them some proper hospitality, Japanese-style, don't I?"
A woman in a navy tailcoat and top hat. Her left eye gleams with a ruby-red prosthetic—clearly not organic. This bizarre figure is precisely the villain "Clockfire," from one of the Galaxia Comics titles, "Hydrohand."
No Name: "Hmm, let's see... Ah, yes. Hey there, little lady~ Where's your mommy?"
Closing her left eyelid to conceal the prosthetic, Clockfire beams a cheerful smile and speaks to a young girl NPC licking an ice cream on a bench.
Young girl (NPC): "Mommy? She’s over there, talking with her friend."
No Name: "Is that so, is that so? She's a beautiful mommy, isn't she. Is your ice cream yummy? What flavor?"
Young girl (NPC): "Kurikinton!"
No Name: "That’s a pretty old-fashioned choice... Ahem. Anyway, for such an adorable little lady, I have a present."
Grinning ear to ear, with a smile that doesn't carry a single speck of malice, the tailcoated villain presses a cute little bear plushie flat against the girl's stomach. By what principle, exactly, is unclear, but it sticks to her belly without any belt or strap. The girl tugs at it, a puzzled look on her face, but it shows no sign of coming off.
Young girl (NPC): "A bear?"
No Name: "The bear says he's taken quite a liking to you. Take good care of him, okay?"
Young girl (NPC): "...? Okay!"
No Name: "Right then, I've got to have a little chat with your mommy, so you keep eating your ice cream, alright~"
With a step light as a dancer's, Clockfire approaches the mother the girl pointed out and pats her gently on the back.
No Name: "You'd be that little lady's mama, yes?"
Mother (NPC): "Huh? Yes..."
No Name: "Sorry to be so abrupt, but... you see the bear plushie stuck to your daughter's tummy? This is the same one..."
Like a magic trick, Clockfire produces an identical plushie to the one she'd pressed onto the girl, and tosses it carelessly into the street. With a few dull, pathetic thumps, it bounces and rolls until it reaches the center of the road, where it's crushed under the tire of a car that doesn't even brake... and then it detonates.
No Name: "Let me be blunt, mama. I'd like you to do a little work for me, if you don't mind."
A car flips onto its side. White-hot flames that could lick a person clean off the earth. The explosion gouges asphalt, sending shattered fragments flying into bystanders. In the blink of an eye, peace is overwritten by panic, and screams rise from the crowd. Amid it all, Clockfire... Name-Hider No-Name claps the frozen, wide-eyed mother on the shoulder, as casually as if she were making small talk.
No Name: "Your reward is your daughter's safety. It's not a difficult thing I'm asking... You wouldn't refuse, would you?"
The hero has not yet arrived.
Stunned. Aghast. Flabbergasted. Even the live commentators are struck speechless by Clockfire's fluid, utterly casual extortion of an NPC. I get how you feel. Even knowing it's a game, you don't expect someone to be that committed. I felt the same way when I first met Pencilgon.
No Face: "A pleasure-first psycho bomber who loves nothing more than wrecking peace with her homemade explosives... The synergy between the character's flavor and the player's true nature is way too high."
Announcer (broadcast): "A-ah, um, w-well... How... how will Lucas overcome this... I wonder... eep..."
Ms. Sasa-Fishcake is trying her best to keep the commentary going, but she can't keep up with Pencilgon, who's already moved smoothly on to extorting a taxi driver.
Nu2meg: "That... is what girls everywhere look up to..."
No Face: "Reality's cruel, huh. Yeah, I get it."
Clockfire's plushie bombs—up to twenty can be planted at once, detonated either on command or by impact. Against player characters, the damage isn't that devastating, but against objects and NPCs, the firepower is what you'd call lore-accurate.
No Face: "Maybe they should've put an age restriction on this."
One on the NPC girl. Fourteen on the taxi driver. Now then, where are the remaining five?
Announcer (broadcast): "Aah! The mother latched onto Dr. Sandalphon and—she exploded!? Aaaahh!? The taxi! The taxi’s crashing into—it blew up after all!!"
Commentator (broadcast): "She’s burning through NPCs at a level that’s almost refreshing... Wow, incredible—her Villainic Gauge is already halfway full."
She stuck the mother—a daughter held hostage and a cloaked chameleon plushie bomb plastered onto her—onto the opponent. When he got blown back, she threatened the driver: "If you care about your family, you can't afford to die here, right? Then just step on the gas a little." The taxi plowed into him, and naturally, the moment of impact triggered the detonation. With a combined total of nineteen explosions sending Dr. Sandalphon tumbling spectacularly, the woman herself makes a graceful withdrawal from the front lines in a different taxi. The sound coming from the audience is no longer boos—it's screams.
No Face: "Those things detonate in the order they're planted, by the way. Which means that first little girl definitely got blown sky-high too."
Nu2meg: "Is that woman a demon or the devil...?"
No Face: "Hahaha. If beans and crosses could solve the problem, life would be a lot easier."
Galaxia Heroes: Chaos isn't just a fighting game. Why does each round last ten whole minutes? Why city stages instead of coliseum arenas? Why are there NPCs? Professor Pencilgon's special lecture is about to begin.