—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
I wondered what they meant by a gaming tournament.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a ‘classic retro game’ that would serve as common ground for the two of us.
Then again, what kind of tournament could there be for an MMORPG?
Although it had recently become a ‘God-tier game’ with frequent updates, it wasn’t yet on a scale where a tournament could be held. More importantly, they needed to buff warrior class.
Julia operated her mechanical prosthetic arm.
In a way, it was an item that fell into the same category as Eve’s ‘prosthetic body’.
But unlike Eve’s, which replicated the human form exactly, Julia’s prosthetic arm felt like it was literally shaped from a lump of iron.
A holographic screen floated up with a beam of light from the back of Julia’s hand.
It looked like a trailer video made to promote the game.
《Chaaap!》
The video began with a kiai shout whose origin was impossible to discern.
Men and women of all shapes and sizes—muscular, or excessively thin or fat—threw punches in a way that didn’t fit the current era.
《Chooop!》
The kiai shouts were uniquely strange.
There were people with multiple arms.
And people with multiple legs.
Even from a cyberpunk perspective, their appearances were overly distinctive.
Occasionally, there were people holding things like swords or guns, but no matter how sinister they looked, the people hit by those weapons were completely unharmed.
Everyone in the room (three maids, one bounty hunter, one Mage) focused on the holographic screen.
Finally, the holographic screen ended with a logo revealing the game’s title.
『IRON FIST – XII』
Now on sale!
It was a game I remembered.
A fighting game played in virtual reality.
It was also a game I had introduced to Julia a long time ago. We had fought 10 matches back then, and I think I had lost all 10 in a row.
“…”
…My pride had been shattered back then too.
I couldn’t even look at a virtual reality device for a while.
Because I still had PTSD, I squeezed my eyes shut after watching the trailer video.
Eve, who had finished watching the trailer, spoke nonchalantly.
“I know that game as well. The twelfth installment of the Iron Fist series. I’ve played it a few times on my stream.”
When did she play this one?
Anyway, It was a famous game, to the point that even Eve had played it.
It was also part of the latest game lineup.
I asked Julia.
“So why do you suddenly want to enter a gaming tournament?”
“…Well.”
Julia, biting her lip slightly, slowly continued her explanation.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
By tradition.
In a fighting game, there exists a winner and a loser.
Although there was the heretical culture of a ‘draw’, in the end, the winner had to be decided, even if it meant a rematch.
The loser had to swallow their resentment and endure the humiliation of having their corpse kicked, while the winner, as long as they won for whatever reason, received the cheers of the crowd.
It was truly a world of survival of the fittest.
Where only skill determined one’s standing.
It was like a jungle of survival competition.
And in such a world.
Julia said she had been unwittingly swept up in a certain controversy.
《IRON FIST – XII Forum》
[Isn’t this ‘White Rabbit-nim’ bastard a hacker?]
None of my mind games work at all
Seeing him suddenly pop up these days, he doesn’t seem to be a player from the previous game either
The points I lost are f**king ridiculous lol
— idk
The controversy, which started with a single post.
[Ah lol, I’m quitting this game]
What’s the point of working hard to get to the celestial realm
When a hacker just clicks a button and you lose lol
— Who?
ㄴ Some Rabbit something. (OP)
[Isn’t this a dead giveaway at this point?]
He doesn’t even show up for offline matches
Looking at his record, he’s not someone who played the previous game either
Is it even fun to play the game like this?
— ‘That Rabbit’
— Ah this game is so boring, there’s f**king nothing to do [I use hacks]
ㄴ Has it actually been proven that he’s a hacker?
ㄴ Honestly, with this much circumstantial evidence, it’s 100% (OP)
As time passed, she said it grew more and more intense.
Finally,
[Ah~, that person? I’m sure they’re not a hacker. Even though they don’t show up for offline tournaments, react in frame-perfect time, and make absolutely no mistakes. I believe it’s possible. I know because I got my ass kicked in ranked too. For your information, that’s why I’m not playing that trash game these days, so don’t send donations telling me to play it.]
After a famous fighting game streamer officially called her out on their broadcast.
Julia finished her explanation, saying she had been effectively branded a ‘hacker’.
“…So I can’t even play the game these days.”
How wronged must she have felt to save all the broadcast videos and forum posts one by one.
Julia, who finally turned off the screen, had her two fists trembling.
“…I’m really not a hacker.”
“No, I know that.”
It’s scary, so I wish you’d put your fists down for now.
Honestly, the situation of a wanted criminal seriously enjoying a game was also funny.
But at least the Julia I knew, though a criminal who had broken the city’s laws, was not the type of person to use hacks in a game.
And in the first place, I was the one who had introduced her to that fighting game.
…Certainly.
This was an act that went against the justice and chivalry that existed even in the cyberpunk world.
In the midst of the rise of these academic traitors.
Julia, who had been carving her own path believing only in her martial prowess, said she could not hide her grief.
So.
To sum it up in one sentence.
“You won’t be satisfied until you go to an offline tournament and beat the crap out of everyone, is that it?”
“…Yes.”
“And because it’s a team-based tournament, the entry condition is two people, so you needed someone to enter the tournament with you.”
Julia nodded her head in agreement.
I, too.
As a player who enjoys games, it was a reason I could fully understand.
“…You’re the only person I could ask for something like this, Shiun-nim…, I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t something to be sorry for.
Honestly, it wasn’t a particularly difficult request either.
I had been worried about how I would refuse if she had asked me to help with an assassination or something.
So it was a relief.
It wasn’t like I couldn’t wear a mask, like when I went on the broadcast at Andrea’s request recently.
My face wouldn’t be exposed either.
If there was one thing that bothered me…
There was the very minor problem that I hadn’t logged into that game recently.
To be specific, I had stopped logging in after Julia beat me like a dog.
My win rate was already below 50%, so for me to participate in a tournament without any practice, there was bound to be an issue with my skill level.
However,
That was a problem for Julia to worry about.
Not something I needed to worry about.
“…Um.”
Julia opened her mouth again.
“…Although I’m a wanted criminal, fortunately, this gaming tournament doesn’t properly check identities.”
“Oh, really?”
It was to be expected, if you thought about it.
Who would think that a wanted criminal would appear in a gaming tournament?
At most, they would probably check something like a ‘bio-credit chip’ once and be done with it.
And that was something that could be easily bypassed with a simple hack.
…Hmm.
Well, it should be fine.
I readily accepted Julia’s request.
“If I’m okay with you, then sure.”
She had helped me with a lot of things until now.
And I also wanted a light change of pace.
I thought it was just the right opportunity.
Just then.
Eve, who had been quiet, suddenly opened her mouth.
“I can help you.”
…Why is Eve trying to take care of me so much today?
Of course, she usually took good care of me, but at least that’s how I felt right now.
Making Catherine and Andrea greet me in maid outfits was one thing.
Did she find out I was feeling down at No Answer?
I was fine now, though.
At Eve’s words, Julia shook her head firmly. It was an action that clearly contained the intention of refusal.
“…No, I absolutely want Shiun-nim to help me.”
At that, a slight question arose in my mind.
If the purpose was to participate in the gaming tournament, it shouldn’t matter who went with her.
I didn’t think there was a need to specifically single me out.
Eve seemed to have the same thought.
She calmly continued her explanation to Julia.
“…Calculating objectively, it would be a much more efficient choice for me to participate instead of ‘Shiun’—.”
Julia shook her head.
Eve’s white eyes stared piercingly at Julia.
A fight is going to break out at this rate.
“I’ll just go.”
As I looked at Eve and nodded, Eve, though expressionless, replied to my words as if she were somewhat dissatisfied.
“…Understood.”
Conversely, Julia’s reaction was very bright.
“Thank you!”
In the midst of their contrasting reactions.
The joy and sorrow of Eve and Julia crossed.
It was the first time Julia had seen Eve.
I thought maybe she had refused because she felt awkward.
“…Hehe.”
I heard Julia’s small laugh.
…….
…It was because she was awkward, right?
Anyway, we applied for the tournament through the Net Space, entering our participant nicknames and team name.
The team of ‘White Rabbit-nim’ and ‘RealMageHere’.
『WarriorsAreTheBest』
Tournament application complete!
And on the day of the tournament.
《Well, our next participants have a very unique team name. It’s ‘Team Strongest Machine and Strongest Human’!》
I met up with Eve and Catherine.
…….
Why are you two here again?
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
With a light sigh, I took off the virtual reality device I was wearing. I escaped from the world of 0s and 1s and faced reality.
Perhaps because it was the preliminaries.
I could see the interior of the simply made booth.
“…Wow.”
A man who had taken off his virtual reality device like me let out a hollow laugh.
The man, who had come to his senses late, got up from his chair and walked over with an awkward movement.
“…To be honest, I just thought you were a hacker, but you were really skilled.”
Since it was a team-based tournament with two participants, of course, the people who approached us were also two.
“We lost fair and square.”
One of the men offered a handshake to Julia.
I remembered him as the one who had lasted about 0.5 seconds longer against her combo.
“I’m sure you’ll win, I’ll be cheering for you.”
However, Julia, regardless of whether the man offered a handshake or not, didn’t even pay attention and was only looking at me.
It was a clear sign of ignoring him.
In the end, the apology was my responsibility, as the one with a decent social disposition.
“I’m sorry. She’s a friend who isn’t very used to conversation…”
At my words, the man gave an awkward smile.
“No, actually, it’s the reaction I expected.”
“Pardon?”
“I never got a reply when I met her a few times in ranked games. And I heard it wasn’t just me, but it was the same with other people too.”
The handshake that had been directed at Julia now came to me.
I hadn’t done anything special in the preliminary match, but I wasn’t so cold-hearted as to be able to confidently refuse a handshake like Julia.
“I didn’t get to see you play, but since you’re teamed up with ‘White Rabbit-nim’, you must be pretty skilled, right?”
“…”
No, I’m not.
I’m in Silver.
Because Julia had gotten an all-kill by herself, it seemed I had unintentionally caused a misunderstanding.
However, before I could make any excuses, the man moved out of the booth with a short greeting.
“Anyway, I’ll be cheering for you.”
…Well, whatever.
As long as the preliminaries ended safely, it was fine.
I let out a short sigh.
There were more participants than I had thought.
The scale was also about 3 times larger than I had expected.
As the opposing man had said, I hadn’t actually played any matches.
However, just putting on and taking off the virtual reality device was gradually accumulating fatigue.
I suddenly became worried about that part and asked Julia.
“How’s your condition?”
“…It’s fine.”
The appearance of her lightly ignoring the opposing man’s greeting and handshake from before was nowhere to be seen.
She immediately nodded her head and answered my words.
She even carefully made an exaggerated gesture by raising her thumbs with both mechanical prosthetic hands.
Is this Julia’s idea of a joke?
I don’t know.
She was wearing a mask on her face, unlike usual, for the same reason she didn’t have the ‘white rabbit doll’ that she always carried around.
As I had heard before.
The rabbit doll she carried was a precious item that blocked the recognition of surrounding cameras by hacking the signal and causing distortion.
It was only natural, if you thought about it.
But it was also an item she couldn’t carry around in this tournament, which was being broadcast live.
For reference, the mask was a spare one of mine that I had lent her for a while.
It was a product with a similar variation to the one I was wearing now, a mask that would be fine even if a tear gas canister went off in the arena.
Perhaps because the mask she was wearing was a little stuffy, Julia pulled the mask slightly away from her face.
It was natural to feel stuffy when wearing it for the first time.
High-end masks are usually stuffy.
As I was looking at Julia, I slightly raised my body and looked outside the booth.
I could see a few people moving around busily, but no one seemed to be interested in our booth yet.
Come to think of it, wasn’t our match the last one in the preliminaries?
It was about time for the main tournament to begin.
As if my prediction was correct, the loud sound of a microphone echoed throughout the arena.
I focused my gaze on the screen installed in the booth.
《You’ve waited a long time!》
On one side of the stage, a man who seemed to be the main commentator continued his explanation in front of a large desk.
《It seems the preliminaries are over! And that means we can finally proceed with the main tournament matches, which can be broadcast!》
Wooooah-.
The cheers of the audience continued.
《Now, let me introduce myself first—.》
In the midst of that, the caster sitting next to the commentator cut him off and grabbed the microphone.
《Oh my! Who here doesn’t know you! We’re way past the scheduled time, so let’s just get on with it!》
I don’t know him.
I glanced to the side, and Julia didn’t seem to know him either.
At the caster’s words, the commentator shook his head.
A loud sigh was transmitted through the microphone.
《People from Neon City are all strangely impatient.》
The commentator, who had deliberately coughed a few times, cleared his throat.
《I have no choice. Then let’s start the first match of the main tournament right now!》
A haze of light and smoke erupted on the stage.
A holographic video also appeared, which was the same as the trailer video Julia had shown me before.
Two people slowly walked up the steps of the stage.
Their steps looked quite confident.
《Here is our very first team. They are a strong contender for the championship in this tournament. A team that achieved excellent results in the last tournament! It’s ‘Outer Raise’!》
Oh.
They were famous players, to the point that even I knew them.
It’s something to see them at a tournament.
Opportunities to see such matches in person were rare.
Who’s the opponent?
《Next up…. Well, our next participants are!》
From the opposite side where Outer Raise had come up, other people appeared.
It’s female players this time.
It wasn’t a rare sight in the cyberpunk world, where the abilities of men and women had become almost equal due to cyberware and bioware implant surgery.
But something about them looked familiar—.
…….
Huh?
《Their team name is very unique. It’s ‘Team Strongest Machine and Strongest Human’!》
What the.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
