Chapter 182: Road to Fruition Part 1
Chapter 182: Road to Fruition Part 1
「Actually, doing just that…… This might be more difficult to accomplish than we might think.」
「Natsume-san is right. When it comes to two Heroes fighting one another, this will basically become a competition of who gets the NPC Villains first.」
What Katsu presented to Silvia Goldberg right now was a choice. And that choice just happened to incorporate one of the biggest gimmicks of the entire game.
First matter of choices is: “is Katsu going to aim for securing the Chaos Cube or try to defeat Meetias?”
At first glance it looks as though he is aiming for the cube, but it might just be a trap. An elaborate ruse that aims to lower Silvia’s guard and make her susceptible for a surprise strike that she wouldn’t normally anticipate.
And the next dilemma is more or less like that: what should Katsu do in order to emerge victorious from this hunt for the NPC Villains? And the most terrifying thing here is that this dilemma is connected to the two choices mentioned above.
If Katsu was indeed aiming to a Chaos Cube win, he would have to defeat the NPC Villains…… That means Silvia would need to stop him from doing that, so that he would not be able to earn gauge.
If so, then what should she do in order to prevent Katsu from doing that?
But if Katsu’s aim was defeating Meetias all along, she should focus on offense and don’t think too hard about it.
In other words, nothing was set in stone yet, so both sides would need to play it safe if they didn’t wanted to regret it.
But should Meetias also accumulate his gauge in order to prevent Katsu from doing whatever the hell he wanted?
All in all, Silvia Goldberg was in for quite a dilemma here. It wasn’t something she could decide carelessly, on a whim. Otherwise she would end up regretting it.
Meetias is excelling at momentary acceleration, but when it comes to a long-term chases and runs, Silver Jumper is a much better character here, since he can change his altitude freely and fly across the sky to some extent. In some cases that mobility of his would even serve to dodge the enemy’s Ultimate Moves with a high probability of success.
「Your strategies are as mean and evil as ever, Comrade No Name.」
「No, no, I don’t want to hear that from someone who had a say in the initial drafting of this strategy, dear Sargent No Face.」
It’s a really cheap, but also quite effective battle strategy: instead of trying to come up with some fancy way of action, you just overwhelm your opponent with way too many ways of acting.
It’s that kind of strategy that can even succeed against advanced AIs, but it’s only effective when your surroundings and situation change rapidly. If the gameplay is stagnant, it’s not going to be of any use.
Silvia Goldberg still thinks that she can hunt Katsu down or beat him up, but she’s not even aware that there is already a potent poison circulating in her system, eating her away from the inside. Soon enough she shall become a victim to her own thoughts.
But then she also remembers that there was someone like that who used a tactic similar to that way back in the first round of the match.
Hahaha, of course it would be a trap.
It may be rude to Natsume Megumi, but as far as Silvia Goldberg was concerned, she was not a genuine gamer.
That is also why Silvia Goldberg had troubles with recalling Natsume Megumi’s exact battle style: because she was so forgettable to her. It was nearly as difficult as trying to recall exactly what you had for dinner a week ago.
From the get go, Pencilgton and I focused on making it look as though Katsu wasn’t going to aim for getting the Chaos Cube, just so that Silvia Goldberg wouldn’t try to think of ways of preventing him from doing just that.
Yes, Misdirection. Misdirection was the way to go here. As per Pencilgton’s words: since the members of Star Rain are all proficient in some form of martial arts, irregular behaviors and pattern changes are their greatest enemies. I don’t really get it, but whatever you say.
「And that is why the time is just about right.」
「Silvia-chan, sorry in advance if your brain ends up overheating from too much thinking……」
Human brain allows even complete idiots to solve complex problems if given enough time to ponder the matter through. And Silvia’s brain was quite exceptional at handling problems.
Now then, Katsu. From here on out you’re in the endgame.
When her HP bar dropped to about fifty percent, Silvia Goldberg abandoned thinking.
Is the goal of Silver Jumper to simply get the Chaos Cube? Or maybe to beat her in a fight?
Should she deal with the NPC Villains that were approaching her or should she just leave them alone?
Should she stop Silver Jumper from getting the gauge or should she prioritize collecting her own?
(I don’t know what to do, but for now I must focus on beating Kei.)
Ahh, that’s right. That’s the conclusion Silvia Goldberg’s mind was rushing towards. She was being so overwhelmed by the incoming information that she just happened to omit one very simple fact.
Silver Jumper is Uomi Kei. And Uomi Kei is that kind of gamer that excels at reading his opponents and devising strategies according to what he managed to learn about his opponent.
There is no right answer amongst the ones presented to her by Kei. This was not a race where the competitors were competing on equal terms. It was more like a set-up where one racer got a head-start as a result of a rock-paper-scissors match…… and that rock-paper-scissors was set-up as well. Every time Silvia would decide to do something, Kei would counter it accordingly and they would be back to the square one.
She started thinking about the previous Villains she fought. The vivid images of Yggdryer, Clock Fire and Cursed Prison started to pop in front of her eyes, clouding her judgement and occupying her thoughts. The Villains weren’t just stalling from time. They were doing something more. They were attacking the whole of Star Rain from the very beginning. And they did that in a way that no one would even anticipate, in a way that no one could really counter.
Their thoughts.
That attack managed to dull Silvia Goldberg’s fangs and make her oblivious to what was going on. That she was no longer playing a normal fighting game. That she was dragged into something that was fairly uncommon in the world of gaming.
A game where one person was struggling against many opponents at once!
「Sorry to break it to you…… But this round is mine!」
Meetias attacks Silver Jumper in a straight line. However, inside of her mind she was still considering this match to be her versus Kei, she didn’t even considered that he could have the support of someone else.
It stems from the fact that as a Pro Gamer Silvia Goldberg was proficient mainly in fighting games. Because of that, unlike Kei, she didn’t experience many different types of games and his current actions seemed to be nothing but incomprehensible to her.
In a different genre of games, that strategy is called ‘Monster Player Kill”. It’s a technique that pushes all monster aggro towards your opponent and as a result you don’t have to kill your opponent yourself, since monsters will eventually do that for you. And the fact that you know about it or not is totally unrelated here.
「Uguh……!?」
「A bit slow on the uptake, huh, Meetias!?」
Meetias’s body was hit with a tackle that was so ultra-heavy unlike any other attack Silvia happened to take today. It was so powerful and so unexpected that she didn’t even have time to react to it and was blown away as a result.
「Pretty ironic, don’t you think?」
Kei must be thinking the exact same thing. And others as well, even though they can no longer actively participate.
「This is Global Game Competition. And since everyone is watching us right now…… Let me illuminate you to what this game is all about.」
In this game world everyone can be either a Hero or a Villain. But that also means,
People can understand the hardships that one type experiences because of the other’s actions.
「Hooray! Kei took one round!」
「About time. It was fun to watch both of them struggle, but it’s nice to finally have a result.」
「I don’t know exactly what they were saying because of the system voice, but from the way their lips were moving I think it was something like “Ooooooohhhhhhh!!!”」
「Dude, is there anything in this world that you can’t do?」
「A thing or two for sure.」