Chapter 179: Engine Stall · Lost Time Fantasista
System notice: Logging out.
Huh, we're logging out? I was sure we'd go straight into Round 4. All my senses feel cut off from the outside world. Then, like waking up, I feel the air on my skin. I open my eyes to the dull, mechanical body of the VR headset covering my whole head, and an almost deafening roar of cheers pounds against my eardrums.
Rakuro: "Loud..."
Towa: "You brought this on yourself, dumbass."
Rakuro: "Shut up, you Great Intestinal War bastard—Restroom War!"
Kei: "If you make too much noise, the mics'll pick up your voice."
That would be bad. Sure, I'm the mystery masked pumpkin-head helper, but I'm also a perfectly average human being. Getting lumped in with a bomber and a toilet bastard is not something I want.
Rakuro: "Wait, logging out? So a draw counts as a loss for both?"
Towa: "No, apparently those two idiots fought so hard they were practically burning their own life force, so they're taking a quick break."
???: "So we are going to have a fourth round..."
How do I put it... I'm completely drained. That double KO just now feels like it squeezed everything out of me. Honestly, maybe I should just lose fast and hand the baton to Katzo... Just then, Katzo tosses me a full can.
Kei: "Here. They were out of stock on the Tonight, but I borrowed this from Assault Company."
Rakuro: "Oh, no shit—Backdraft!"
I pop the tab and down it in one go. Ooh... caffeine courses through my body. The Riot Blood Tonight caffeine I'd burned through and nearly depleted gets replenished. Energy surges back into me. Like, really surging—in a not-very-healthy sort of way!
Rakuro: "This is Japanese-made... Wait, you sure about this? You're basically refueling me with gasoline."
Kei: "For you, caffeine equals gasoline, huh... Heh. If I got in your way now, that’d... ahem... hurt my likability, you know. Also—"
Rakuro: "Also?"
Kei: "Even if Sylvia loses, the fact that I can beat that winner seventy percent of the time makes me paradoxically the strongest."
Rakuro: "What kind of crackpot logic is that..."
Does this guy not know about the three-way deadlock? No, he knows rock-paper-scissors, so he should get it...
Kei: "Hmm. Even though that helmet should hide your face, I can still tell you’re making fun of me."
Rakuro: "Making fun of you? Never. I’m just worried about you."
Your intelligence, that is.
In the end, the truth is simple. Sunraku can't beat Sylvia. That was, for Uomi Kei, a pure and undeniable fact. Sure, the match just now was absolutely insane, even from a pro gamer's perspective. What happens when you throw a player of the same type as Sylvia Goldberg—someone with power rivaling the undefeated shooting star—directly at her? The internet's probably already exploding with talk about Sylvia and the pumpkin-head who stood against her.
But raw power alone won't beat Sylvia. Sunraku's peak high-tension rush could reach her throat. Even that final double KO could have gone either way. But seeing how utterly spent Sunraku was after logging out convinced Kei. If they fought again on a different day, Sunraku might have a shot. But right now, it's impossible. After all, Sylvia Goldberg's greatest weapon only grows more dangerous the more time passes.
(Still, Sunraku... you did well.)
Sylvia Goldberg's greatest weapon isn't her battle technique—the one that spikes with her tension. It's not her battle sense—the one that earned her the title "The Real Metius." It's her monstrous staying power, her toughness: her performance never degrades, no matter how fierce the battle or how long it drags on. That's the true weapon that keeps her undefeated. A final boss fight where you can't chip away her stamina. That simple, brutally cruel fact is the real horror of Sylvia Goldberg, the woman who once put up a genuinely insane score like "fifty consecutive wins."
(Still, I didn't think he'd drag this all the way to an extra round.)
When Sunraku almost pulled off the win, Kei briefly worried about the guy's memory—did he forget his own damn job? But in the end, the baton gets passed to Kei in the best possible condition.
(Though, speaking purely for myself, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see those two tension monsters tear each other apart.)
Sunraku's sharp about weird things. He's probably already figured out what it means that Kei handed him that extra energy drink. Namely: "Go all out." If Sylvia loses, that's that. If Sylvia beats Sunraku... well, then it just falls to Kei to end her undefeated streak himself.
Towa: "You sure about this? Natsume-chan, Sunraku-kun, even I—we all worked our asses off for this."
Kei: "...Well. Annoying as it is, on that front, I'm putting my faith in Sylvia."
The world always bends toward the straight and narrow. No matter how far you stray into the crooked path, in the end...
Kei: "In the end, the hero always wins."
Right now, three things are seriously pissing me off.
First: I lost twice in the "guess which character the StarRain players will use" game, so sushi is locked in. Oh, Sylvia's a given for Metius, so she doesn't count.
Second: The "Riot Blood Backdraft" Kei handed me was made in Japan. Should've been the American one, you bastard. The fact that he gave me just enough to NOT hit full throttle says everything about his shitty personality.
Third: The look Katzo gave me as I headed toward the extra round was the exact same look you give an NPC who's guaranteed to die in a scripted loss event.
I see. Now that I look at Sylvia Goldberg, cheerfully handling interviews looking perfectly fresh, while I'm over here masking chronic headaches and exhaustion with caffeine... it's painfully obvious her baseline toughness is on a whole different level before we even get to skill. You were just in a fight that had the intensity of a death match, lady. How the hell are you so fresh right now?
Fighting other people and fighting monsters wear down your mind in different ways. I’ve fought through battles against Golden Scorpion, Lycagon, the orca bastard... but those enemies had surprisingly generous openings built in. It feels weird to say this about my own match, but that should've been a pretty grueling fight. Yet the undefeated hero doesn't show a single sign of fatigue. A long, drawn-out battle won't drag her performance down.
I see. An exhausted amateur versus a pro gamer with plenty left in the tank. You don't need to tell me who wins that one.
But let me tell you something, Katzo: I'm pissed right now. I might not be able to summon the same burst of fury I had when Sylvia Goldberg looked at me with those dismissive eyes. But I'm still pissed enough to think, "I'm not going down for free." Clearing a game takes motivation. But the reason you start playing a game doesn't need logic. Every villain has their own way of going out. Let me show you mine.
No Face: "In the extra round, gauge gain is doubled for both sides. Plus, NPCs that don't show up in normal rounds will appear..."
The system itself is built to encourage a quick, decisive fight. I look around at the military NPCs surrounding me—not with handguns, but assault rifles—and picture the reaper who'll be here in a few dozen seconds. Then I move.
No Face: "Shopping time."