Chapter 181: A Full-Power Pitch of the Baton to the Anchor
Rakuro: "No, it's sushi."
Towa: "No 'good work' or anything? I'm wounded. Barbecue."
Megumi: "I don't really care either way..."
Towa: "Katzo-kun, I gotta say, I don't think it's a good look, the way you just let things slide without picking a side."
Rakuro: "That's exactly why you're Mr. Can't-Trigger-Uniques-On-His-Own. Have some shame."
Kei: "Why the hell are these two, in perfect sync, roasting me? Also, either way, I'm the one paying, aren't I?"
Towa: "More importantly, Pumpkin-kun, why don't you give the audience a little fan service?"
Huh...? You don't just spring that on a regular high schooler... I mean, it's not like you should be hoisting up a player who lost, even if it was a close one, with all this fanfare anyway. Uh, um... Geh. Of course, now of all times, the mic gets shoved at me with pinpoint precision. I forgot your name, but... Split-End Graphite-san.
Rakuro: "Uh, er... Drink Riot Blood and you too can put up a good fight against pro gamers. Everyone, please give it a try."
Towa: "Are you, like, an employee of Gatling Drum Co. or something...?"
Sh-shut up! I'm not like you, I can't just throw winks and blow kisses to the crowd like cheap candy! Dammit, my head hurts. I'm out of caffeine fuel. Overdosing on Riot Blood is way too risky. Looks like getting back into SLF today is gonna be tough...
Sylvia: "Mr. Pumpkin Head!"
Rakuro: "Whoa!?"
Both my hands are suddenly seized from the side. I turn, startled, to find Sylvia Goldberg, eyes sparkling. As expected, she shows absolutely no sign of fatigue.
Sylvia: "Good Game! Good Game! Amazing! Splendid!"
Rakuro: "Uh, er, thanks..."
The vigorous handshake, my arm pumped up and down with wild enthusiasm, vividly conveys Sylvia Goldberg's excitement... Wait, right. That happily-coupled white musclehead does speak Japanese. Hey, come on. The real world doesn't have Babel installed, so I need an interpreter here. Alright, okay. You'll relay this properly, right?
Rakuro: "Heh heh heh. Too bad for you, Sylvia Goldberg."
Sylvia: "?"
Rakuro: "I'm just the opening act. Our Kat—... I mean, our boss here just declared, 'Right now, I can take Sylvia in a straight win.'"
Kei: "Uh, I didn't say that."
Rakuro: "That's right. He also said, 'If I win, I'm gonna make Sylvia cosplay as a cat-eared maid, gahahaha.'"
Kei: "No, I absolutely did not say that!?"
Megumi: "Th-that's right! Kei is going to end your undefeated legend! ...Is what he said. I think?"
Kei: "Megumi!?"
Oi. We busted our asses buying time. You really think we're gonna let you get away with just losing like normal? After a brief lag, our words seem to have fully registered with Sylvia. Her refined features—the kind that apparently grace the covers of magazines—twist into a ferocious grin.
Rakuro: "Don't worry. We'll take full responsibility and set up your do-or-die formation."
Towa: "The anchor pro gamer can climb back up even from the edge of a cliff, right?"
Megumi: "D-Do your best!"
Kei: "You're all clearly trying to kick me off the cliff... Well, whatever."
Katzo glares at us with half-lidded eyes, but regardless, he never planned to fight with the intention of losing anyway. We'd already done plenty of tuning—he made me use Metius as a "Virtual Sylvia" a bunch. He'd also tested NPC behavior patterns and building layouts with Pencilgon. Natsume-san... try harder next time.
Rakuro: "Well, whatever. We've set the table this far for you... Don't give us some half-assed result."
Give us a match just as legendary as Pencilgon trampling the entire city, or me going head-to-head with Metius.
Kei: "...If I win—no, if I win, I'll decide what we eat for the after-party."
Rakuro: "Barbecue, obviously."
Towa: "Sushi."
Megumi: "I'll go with Italian."
Italian barbecue...?
Kei: "This is the first time we've talked so plainly, huh, Silvi."
Sylvia: "You were always using weird English and Japanese before... Kei."
In a hero-versus-villain matchup, villain characters spawn about thirty seconds earlier. But when both players use hero characters—or both use villains—they spawn at the same time. In the city of chaos, where the atrocities committed by the plant-human, the destruction wrought by the bomber, and the scars carved by the cursed armor have all been wiped clean, two heroes now face each other.
Sylvia: "I'm surprised you didn't pick Amdrava."
Kei: "Those scumbag idiots spewed all kinds of nonsense, but sometimes they're not entirely wrong."
The undefeated shooting star on one side. On the other, a young man in a silver jacket points a single finger.
Kei: "Today, I'm going to beat you, Silvi... with this Silver Jumper."
Steadfast resolve. Not big talk, not a bluff. A fierce fighting spirit—a certainty of victory—conveys its heat to Sylvia even through this digital cityscape. This man, who has been defeated time and time again yet never gave up devising countermeasures, who once managed to corner Sylvia. That sheer stubborn refusal to quit—that's exactly what Sylvia finds so endearing.
Sylvia: "Oh my... How exciting. Ah, right. I wanted to ask... Are cat-ear maid costumes your hobby?"
Kei: "Yeah, those guys are insane. Just nonsense. Don't worry about it."
Sylvia: "Really? Too bad. Then, one last thing... If I win, you'll tell me the real identities of those Real Villains."
Kei: "Hahaha. If all it costs is their real identities getting out, be my guest."
They called me a toilet fairy. This much payback is more than fair. And with that, the signal for battle was given.
Silver Jumper. A sub-character from the comic "Gold Edge," and one of the oldest characters in the Galaxia label. Due to its long history, the character has undergone countless additions and revisions to its settings. But its core design has always remained consistent.
Kei: "Simple, so it's easy to use—but hard to use!"
Sylvia: "Now, show me how you plan to beat me!"
The azure shooting star shows no signs of fatigue—or at least, that's how it looks. But Kei is certain: the desperate struggles of Clockfire and Cursed Prison—of his friends—have created a crack in the undefeated champion. It's not a drop in performance from exhaustion. It's optimization of performance through repetition. In other words, habit has crept in, and her movements have become patterned.
Kei: "Punching your opponent in the face isn't the only 'way to win' in this game...!"
Through testing by the four of them—Kei, Pencilgon, Sunraku, and Megumi—they concluded that the playable characters in this game fall broadly into three categories.
First: the "Fighter Type," like Cursed Prison or Metius. A basic type that shines in straightforward slugfests. The most fighting-game-like characters. Second: the "Fixer Type," for characters with weak base specs like Clockfire. Not about power—technical characters who manipulate the battlefield from the city's shadows through cunning and strategy.
And finally, the type Silver Jumper belongs to: the "Seeker Type." Lacking the raw strength to fight head-on, and too straightforward in performance to lurk in the city's shadows. So what, then, do characters in this category excel at?
Kei: "The times have changed, and the system along with them. If you keep relying on power alone... you'll be left behind, Metius."
The blow unleashed by Metius, darting freely in all directions, cuts through empty air. She didn't vanish. She was dodged. Looking up, a flash of silver leaps high, kicking off walls and empty air, disappearing around the corner of a building.
Silver Jumper's ability is exceedingly simple. He doesn't harbor the power of a star. He doesn't pull infinite bombs from a demonic eye. He just jumps high... that's it. But make no mistake—his jumping power is the best in the entire roster. He can perform four aerial jumps, surpassing even Cursed Prison's Prison Breaker form when using its super. Of course, in other words, compared to Metius or Prison Breaker—who may not fly as many times but jump faster and unleash sharper attacks—the lack of raw horsepower is undeniable.
But that's not as much of a disadvantage for Silver Jumper as you might think.
In this game, there are two definitions of victory. One: simply and clearly beat your opponent in a "fistfight." And the other...
Kei: "Securing the Chaos Cube...!"
Somewhere in this city exists the keystone that supports this fictional world. Securing the cube—a treasure hunt. But this is no clever scheme to avoid battle. Securing the cube requires gauge. And for a hero to build gauge...
Sylvia: "—So your target is the NPC villains...!"
Come to think of it, Megumi Natsume had indeed been aiming for a Chaos Cube victory. But after the rampage of No Name and No Face, everyone—yes, even Sylvia—had completely forgotten about the Chaos Cube. No, "forgotten" isn't quite right. Her attention had been deliberately pulled away...?
No Name: "Well, consider it a humble little gift from me, since I couldn't do much direct damage to Sylvia-chan."
No Face: "Ah, I get it. That kind of thing... it's like, Abyss Destruction kinda...?"
Nu2meg: "You mean misdirection?"
No Face: "Yeah, that's it. Natsume-san, you're pretty smart."
No Name: "Hey, No Face-kun, maybe your head's a pumpkin because your brains got scooped out?"
No Face: "Shut it, dried-out zombie female knight. Go get moist in the bathroom."
No Name: "Can you please stop talking about people like they're rice crackers~?"