Chapter 105: If They Can’t Eat Bread Let Them Eat Rice Part 1
Chapter 105: If They Can’t Eat Bread Let Them Eat Rice Part 1
「………… Ah.」
The shocing despair and the fatigue from my battle with Crystal Scorpions and the Golden Scorpion forced me to escape from ShanFro back to reality.
Looking up at the clock, it was around 5:00 a.m …… And while I know that getting up so early is not all that healthy for your body, insomnia is a much bigger threat in my opinion.
「Haa……」
I leave my room and just like a severely malnourished and dehydrated zombie I descend into the kitchen.
「Ara, Onii-chan? What’s up with you getting up this early in the morning?」
「Shut it, I don’t want to hear that from someone who is wasting his youth for something as retarded as part-time jobs.」
「Well excuse me, but if shining as brightly as the star is retarded for you, then there’s nothing I can help you with that line of thinking!」
Just look at her, how strong my little sister is.
But since I’m logging into the game every single day, then maybe there will come the day when I’ll be as good as Katsu is at gaming.
「So anyways, what’s wrong? To be blunt you look as if you just went through hell.」
「Nah…… How should I put it? It’s like as if you’ve finally bought the clothes you were desperately saving your money for, but then they turn out to be too small for you…… Something like that.」
「Seriously, are you really okay? Are you sure you can photosynthesize well enough? Want me to get you somewhere with more sun?」
「I don’t think that would help me all that much when it comes to gaming…… Hey! What am I to you!? Some kind of a mindless plant!?」
While trying to deliver a karate chop onto my little sister’s head, I remember the despair I felt at that exact moment.
There was nothing that could possibly prophet that nasty turn of event. But at first it was simply amazing.
However, this thing was not a “Power Suit” per se. It was in fact a “Power Armor” consisting of four elements: head, torso, arms and legs. Meaning, the Lukaan curse applied to it as well…… It almost made my bash my own head against a wall.
「But it’s just that…… I knew it……」
I tried so hard to repair the reactor and get this thing working, but in the end it turns out that I won’t even be able to use it properly. Also, I found out that most of its armaments were unable to function properly unless the full set of armor was being worn at the given time.
The only saving grace was that I was able to confirm that the Power Armors could be activated and were functioning properly. But it was still a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that I won’t be able to give them a go anytime soon and realize their true potential. That despair caused me to be unable to log into ShanFro for about two days.
And the worst thing was that the people would never possibly be able to understand just how much it hurt, just how much damage it caused me to suffer.
「Maybe what I need right about now is a change of pace……」
「That’s right, Onii-chan. Even if you happen to fail, the only thing you need to do is to get up and try again, right? Or if that analogy was too hard for you to understand, try to do something else to see if it brings different results.」
「Substitute…… Change of pace…… I see, that was actually quite helpful. Thanks.」
With a slightly better mood, I thanked my little sister and went back to my room.
「…… Yeah, except I was not talking about those stupid games of yours, you know?」
「Fumu…… There you go.」
I take the ShanFro game chip out of the console, put it back in its box and store it away at the game shelf. Then I turn towards one of the other boxes that were neatly stored there.
Basically speaking, before playing ShanFro I was pretty much prejudiced and only played sh*tty games most of the time, but that doesn’t mean that every single game that I bought is a sh*tty game.
And one of those non-sh*tty games was……
「Nephilim Hollow……」
As a genre it was a Mecha Fighting Game.
The setting for this game is that one day metal giants fell down from the sky and that almost led to the destruction of humanity.
The players can choose between three distinct factions in the game and battle the other factions using those giant robots…… I have always though that it was a good game if someone was looking for a high-speed mecha combat while doing crazy acrobatics in the air.
But even though it has such a nice premise, it’s not all that well-known or well-populated. Why is that?
Because it is really difficult. Not in terms of actual difficulty, but when it comes to controls.
I was introduced to that game even before I met Katsu and Pencilgton. One of my friends recommended it to me saying it’s like trying to play guitar, bass guitar, drums and keyboard all at once, all alone. I was immediately sold by that description.
And certainly, that description was not wrong. The pilots are not really sitting inside of the robots, but they rather fuse their minds with their systems, operating them like their own bodies. It is really interesting mechanic, but it also makes it tremendously difficult since you must take a whole bun of things into account while piloting.
For example, let’s say that you have gatling guns on both of your arms and shoulders. If that was a “normal” style of piloting, you’d only need to press a button or touch a panel to shoot them effectively.
However, when it comes to Nephilim that type of piloting is not an option, and rather than a machine you need to treat your robot like a natural extension of your own body.
That is, the player must simultaneously control the movement, dodging, systems and combat aspect of the mecha.
Technically you could leave the movements to the CPU, but that would cause you overall win-rate and immersion to dwindle tremendously.