Chapter 11: Cleansing a Palate Spoiled by Quality with a Trash Game

"Oh, it's Sunraku. I thought you graduated from 'Constipation'?"

"You're here as always, ModoruKatzo. I just felt the urge to play some unreasonable guerrilla-rhythm games after a long time. Oh, right, I cleared Faer-kuso."

"Seriously!? I threw in the towel at the final boss."

"If you use the 'Masked Swim Trunks' style and keep punching it with your bare hands for about thirty minutes, the final boss is a breeze."

"'Masked Swim Trunks' is way too much of a power word... Okay, I'll go beat it tonight. I'm gonna beat the hell out of Faer-kuso too..."

The daily login count is under a hundred people—a server so depopulated it’s a wonder it still exists—so by now, almost every player knows each other. Right now, I am not Sunraku the half-naked bird mask... I am Sunraku, the Iaifist Style Master Berserker. Which means the game I'm playing right now isn't Shangri-La Frontier.

I played a God Game for too long and started suffering withdrawal symptoms, so I came back to replenish my Trash Game nutrients... Well, that's not the only reason. I had a few thoughts on my mind, so I returned to the competitive environment of a Trash Game I cleared a long time ago.

Berserk Online Passion. Abbreviated as BenPi—"Constipation." Since this was a game I bought and played to death before purchasing Shangri-La Frontier, I can assert with confidence: this game is trash. Originally, Passion was launched as a sequel to Berserk Online (which already showed glimpses of being trash). While the download version is still somewhat playable, the package version was a buggy mess on the level of an entirely different game. It is a Legend of Trash Games, just in a different vector from Faer-kuso.

"ModoruKatzo, let's have a quick match."

"K. The rules are, naturally..."

""Vale Tudo (Anything Goes).""

I sent a battle request, and ModoruKatzo—a fellow Trash Game maniac ("birds of a feather flock together") who practically lives in this game that has gone full circle from trash to "Super-Dimensional Bug-Guerrilla-Rhythm Fighting Game"—accepted immediately. A message window signaling the start of the battle appeared around us, constructing a battlefield that enclosed me and ModoruKatzo.

"Oh, a battle started?"

"It's ModoruKatzo and... Oh! It's Sunraku!!"

"Wait, didn't Sunraku retire...?"

"Trash Game Maniacs die if they don't regularly replenish their Trash-genium. I believed he'd come back."

They were saying whatever they wanted, but in a game that has reached a level of depopulation where matchmaking is impossible unless you arrange it, once someone starts a battle, everyone naturally gathers to spectate. Especially when it involves a battle with ModoruKatzo, the current strongest player in the game.

"While you were challenging Faer-kuso, I developed a new move at the end of further research! I'm gonna take a straight win, so brace yourself!!"

"Hah! As a Master of the Iaifist Style, I'm going to further solidify the theory that Brain-Dead Iai-Punching is the strongest style!!"

The moment the gong rang, ModoruKatzo's body glitched.

"Whoa, gross!!"

"Eat this! R-18 Tentacle Attack!!"

Just as declared, ModoruKatzo's neck and limbs stretched several times their normal length, attacking me like tentacles. In response, I unleashed the fists I had kept in my pockets like an Iai draw, parrying the attacking hands... hands? And in the next instant, both ModoruKatzo and I vanished, instantly teleporting to completely different locations.

"Your reaction speed is seriously broken. I even added a delay to that grab attack, yet you handled it like it was nothing..."

"The Iaifist style is the strongest style. Theoretically, with a 12-frame window, you can counter even a boss's instant-death attack without taking damage. By the way, how do your senses work with that?"

"It feels like my neck and limbs turned into seaweed?"

"Hey, don't create a power word that surpasses 'Masked Swim Trunks'!!"

This is the reason why this game, despite being a Trash Game, still holds a niche popularity. It's not just "Anything Goes," it's "Bugs Included" (Bug-tudo). If you play the package version of this game... you can intentionally trigger bugs that would be fatal in a normal game—like avatars collapsing, sudden teleportation, or temporary invincibility. Because of this, "Constipation" is not a field for hot-blooded battles between fighters (Berserkers), but has transformed into an inferno of agonizing cries caused by non-humans who have abandoned their humanity.

Technically, this game is a fighting game and has a story mode, but because the inhuman bugs apply to enemy mobs as well, it’s hopelessly out of control. The final boss has a punch with a range covering the entire field that executes in 6 frames—a terrifying 0.1 seconds—completely surpassing human kinetic vision. It's so extreme that unless you counter in sync with its pre-motion animation, it's impossible to beat.

Thus, it earned the nickname "Super-Dimensional Bug-Guerrilla-Rhythm Fighting Game"—a Trash Game where you smash counters in rhythm with sudden pre-motion animations.

Strictly speaking, common sense from existing fighting games doesn't apply at all in the full-dive game "Constipation." After all, you have to smash the very premise of "having a human shape."

And the reason I returned to this game is, in a roundabout way, for the sake of Shangri-La Frontier.

Author's Notes & Lore

Regarding VR Fighting Games: With the arrival of VR fighting games, gamers who play with existing displays and arcade sticks have become nearly extinct.

In VR fighting games, where you actually move your body as a character, it doesn't necessarily mean that those who are strong in real life have the advantage. Rather, players who are "good at moving their bodies within a game" are the strong ones in VR games.

Therefore, there are players who are frail in reality but can perform parkour-like movements within VR. The protagonist is of that variety.

Translator's Remarks

• Ben-P (Constipation): The original Japanese is Benpi (便秘), a pun on the abbreviation of "Berserk Online Passion" (Ben-P).