Chapter 169: Adding Fuel to the Fire Part 1
Chapter 169: Adding Fuel to the Fire Part 1
As a matter of fact, when it comes to mano-a-mano duels that most of fighting games offer, Pencilgton is a rather weak gamer.
It is only because of her scheming, plotting, backstabbing and use of others to do her bidding that she managed to earn the title of “Giant Killer” for herself in ShangriLa Frontier. Still, for her natural playstyle, aside from the raw difference in skill there are two major natural enemies.
One such enemy is that type of gamer like Sanraku, who tends to brute force his way through any obstacles they come across. Gamers like that tend to act more like monsters rather than actual players, and it is that unpredictable aspect that makes the use of anti-human strategies impossible.
It’s that type of gamers who would go all out against you at poker once the cards in their hands are just right, and if you choose to go any other way than confronting them, you’re going to lose. They are especially dangerous in a dynamically changing environment.
The other natural enemy are gamers like Katsu…… people like Uomi Kei who tend to overanalyze things in order to see patterns of behaviors and strategies that they can exploit or turn against their opponents. On the other hand, that type of gamers tend to expose their hand rather quickly once the cat is out of the bag, so countering them becomes somewhat easier since you can see all the cards they have left on their hand. In other words, a type of person who would bet on a losing hand as long as there would be the chance of turning the whole match around.
Dealing with people like that requires to conceal your hand as much as possible, betting on a precise, one hit kill that decides the match in an instant.
As for this match right here, the only way for Clock Fire Pencilgton right now is to commit a dragged out, overly dramatic suicide.
「Took you long enough to get here. Do you have some sort of a problem with stairs, oh dear doctor?」
「Funny that you mention it…… Because the elevator was freshly blown up! Otherwise I would have used it instead! But now I’ve got you cornered at last.」
「You think you’ve got me cornered? Non, non, non! We’re here because I wanted us to be here!」
The current ratio of their HP was roughly seven to one. The demon lord of bombing was already at the death’s door, but with enough information gathered for the final showdown and enough bombs planted, she was sure that the overall victory would be hers.
「Now then, here comes the grand finale of the three parts overture conducted by Clock Fire-chan. Hope you’ll enjoy it!」
Clock Fire then does something like a short dance number, while singing that cringy line. She then turns toward the edge of the roof and looks somewhere to the side, as if she was trying to look beyond the invisible fourth wall.
「In order for us to proceed to the grand climax part, I’ll be taking my leave now. We shall meet again in a minute or so…… So see you then?」
「Enough with the games! This ends now!」
「Sorry~~, but no way~~!! Your fists are not meant to defeat me here!」
「Is she for real……!?」
Clock Fire then places a small cat stuffed toy on the ground and tramples all over it with her boot with one swift motion. Right after that, the cat’s face started to swell and bloat and eventually in exploded. The blast was so strong that Dr. Sandalphon was knocked back and Clock Fire was enveloped in a cloud of fire and evaporated. And that was the conclusion of this round.
「Suicide…… This does not feel like a win in the slightest……」
The defeated character disappears in a myriad of polygons after a few seconds. As the remains of the bomb set off by Clock Fire falls off the roof, Lucas doesn’t even try to hide a bitter look on his face.
He should have felt elated that he managed to claim that round for himself, but oddly enough the usual feeling of ecstasy was nowhere to be found this time around.
And that is because, everything he did was in line of someone else’s scenario.
(No…… Even if that is the case, the tricks ends here! I won’t let myself to be fooled by some cheap tricks again!)
It was certainly surprising to turn NPCs into walking bombs, but now he knows that Clock Fire must be in the vicinity to set the bombs off, so it is possible to take countermeasures against that. So he needs to focus on hunting her down, without thinking about anything else. Clock Fire is not suited to direct combat, so when it comes to that, she should fall without any issues…… That was the conclusion drawn by Lucas.
And it would be a correct conclusion, if Pencilgton was your typical gamer.
The break would last thirty seconds. The climax was going to be loud and flashy one.
「Now, hear ye, hear ye! Come closer and feast your eyes! This is the beginning of the special parade created by Clock Fire-chan……」
The first and second rounds were nothing more but a preparation for the grand climax that will be the third round. And even though Chaos City changes its shape with each round, there are some things that appear exactly the same on a regular basis.
For example, the grid of the roads and the placements of skyscrapers is almost the same every time, with little variations. The whole city is actually build on the plan of the most common modern town. Not to mention that the insides of the buildings look pretty much the same.
「Now, it’s time to capitalize on all those savings and preparations and make them squeal, nfufu…… Of, this is going to be so flashy!」
No more hiding in the shadows. Pencilgton was waiting for her opponent while standing on the roof of an abandoned taxi right in the middle of the street.
「Hey, hey, what’s with the sudden style change?」
「I said so previously, don’t you remember? This is going to be the grand finale! So let’s go all out without holding anything back!」
If you’re having fun yourself, there’s nothing wrong with letting your surroundings have some fun as well. This was the perfect stage for Pencilgton, who rather preferred to do things like that out in the open than keep them concealed. To achieve victory and make as much damage and chaos as possible! There no “losing” in a situation like that!
「Hi there, everyone! Say, have you ever thought about it before? Have you ever wanted to do something like that, but didn’t, thinking it was impossible?」
Dr. Sandalphon’s powerful blows come from his psychic powers. So before doing anything, he needs to apply that power to his fists.
「Then lucky you! I have wonderful news! Here, in this game, you can do it all! If you want to play the role of the Villain and destroy anything, go ahead! There’s nothing stopping you from doing just that!」
During the first round, while disrupting Lucas’s actions with bomb NPCs and getting to understand the map, Clock Fire destroyed some of the building’s pillars in advance.
In the second round she rigged more NPCs with bombs. Those NPCs were now fleeing towards the stadium somewhere in the city, where the shelter was located.
All that was left for the Villain in the third round was to detonate all the bombs she set in the first round. So right now, the red-eyed villain started to look from one building to another, and…… let the magic happen.
「Now, who wants to play some DOMINO!?」
There was a chain of loud explosions, and soon enough the mighty skyscrapers start to sway and tilt. With their foundation weakened and broken, the glass and concrete colossuses collapse on one another like some kind of concrete avalanche.
「Hey…… Oh, you’ve got to be sh*tting me……!?」
Lucas stopped in his tracks and looked around, unable to comprehend what was going on. All around him, the buildings were collapsing one by one, just like the pieces of domino, until the landscape became completely flat.
「Unbelievable……」
「Nfufu, it seems that you didn’t notice yet…… My victory was certain right from the start. Nothing you could to change that.」
「Aren’t you just talking out of your ass?」
「Non, non, non, that is just a fact.」
It’s the effort of joined investigation performed by four people, although one of them was not here at the current moment. The “places” and “specifications”, those were Pencilgton’s tools of trade rather than brute force and fighting technique. And the rest is proper manipulation and deceit.
「Now, let’s get this unfair show on the road!」