Chapter 182: The Path to Fruition

"Real talk, getting hit with that is the biggest pain in the ass."

"Natsume-shi tried to pull off something similar, but whenever you get matched against fellow Heroes or fellow Villains, that's just how it ends up."

What Katzo presented to Sylvia Goldberg was, in short, a "choice." We believe this is the single greatest gimmick in this game.

The first dilemma: "Is Katzo, piloting Silver Jumper, aiming to secure the Cube or to take down Metius?"
At a glance, it looks like he’s prioritizing the Cube. But thanks to that earlier surprise attack, a seed of doubt has been planted in Sylvia Goldberg’s mind: What if he keeps up these surprise attacks to whittle us down?

Then the next dilemma—or rather, the third one—is: "In a three-way standoff between an NPC Villain and the players, what will Katzo do?" The nasty part about this choice is that it’s linked to the first one.
If Katzo is aiming to secure the Cube, leaving that meat-blob Villain—I think its name was Zenosomething-or-other, doesn't matter—alive would allow Katzo to farm gauge off it.

So, should she just interfere with Katzo? Well, not so fast.
If Katzo’s true objective was to defeat Metius, then her abandoning the meat-blob to rush at Katzo is exactly what he wants.
That means she’d be falling right into his trap, making her all the more paranoid.

So then, what about the third option: clear out the meat-blob, accepting that she’ll be giving gauge to Katzo, so that Metius can also farm gauge?
Yeah, right. Sylvia Goldberg can't choose that. She can't reach a conclusion without first solving the first dilemma.
Metius has the edge in instantaneous acceleration, but when it comes to escapes involving long-distance travel, Silver Jumper takes the cake thanks to its flight distance and altitude gain. In the worst-case scenario, she ends up contributing to the opponent's gauge farm and still fails to stop them.

"You really do think up some nasty strategies, Tactician No Name."

"Hey now, don't say that to the one who provided the original draft, No Face Sergeant."

It’s the same principle as the fight against the Lycaon clone: by hitting them with a multitude of choices in an instant, you bind the opponent’s ability to think.
This tactic, capable of snagging even the latest AI, wouldn't work in a standard fighting game, but in this sandbox where the situation is constantly in flux, it becomes possible.

It’s a slow-acting poison eating away at Sylvia Goldberg, who still has the precedent of a genuine Trapper and a genuine Grappler stuck in her head. By showing her both of those at the same time, we bind her thoughts and slow her down.
And Sylvia Goldberg will likely remember: Come to think of it, someone used a tactic similar to this in the first round.

Hahahaha, obviously, that’s a trap too.
I might be being disrespectful to Natsume-shi, but at the very least, Sylvia Goldberg doesn't view Natsume Megumi the gamer that highly.
That’s precisely why someone like the Champion couldn't easily recall Natsume-shi’s combat tactics mid-fight. That’s about as difficult as trying to remember what you had for dinner two nights ago while playing a rhythm game.

I, along with Pencilgon, have been operating under the assumption that we aren't even considering securing the Cube from the start—all to prevent her from even thinking about how to counter a strategy centered on Cube acquisition.
Misdirection. That’s what this is. According to Pencilgon, "Because Star Rain is a Grapple-centric team, changing up the game category is our greatest weapon." I have absolutely no idea what she's talking about.

"But it's about time, right?"

"Sylvia-chan’s thought process is pretty muscle-brained, so she’s probably about to snap."

Even an idiot knows how to solve a difficult problem in the simplest way possible. And Sylvia Goldberg has the power to do just that.
Alright, here’s where it gets real, Katzo.

Sylvia Goldberg stopped thinking the moment her HP hit 50%.

Is Silver Jumper aiming to secure the Cube, or to take her down?
Should she ignore the meat-blob Zenoselgus that suddenly crashed the party, or deal with it?
Should she interfere with Silver Jumper’s gauge farming, or start banking her own gauge first?

(I don't know what to do, so I’ll just punch Kei.)

Yeah, that's it. Sylvia Goldberg rushed to a conclusion. Distracted by the intense results, she overlooked a simple fact.
Behind Silver Jumper is a gamer of the same type who can read her thoughts, and a gamer who weaves strategies based on that.

There is no correct answer to the options Kei presented. This isn't a footrace to see who’s faster under equal conditions; it’s a game of "rock-paper-scissors where I get to go second." Since the respondent has already chosen their answer, all we have to do is make the opposite the correct move. After all, the optimal solution Sylvia should have chosen was to reset the situation entirely.

The corpses of the Villains who fell in the past are laughing. The image of Yggdrya's movements dulls Sylvia’s thoughts, while the vivid imagery of Clockfire and Cursed Prison clouds her judgment. The Villains weren't just buying time; they had been attacking everyone in Star Rain from the very beginning. Not their in-game HP, and not their real-world stamina.

They were attacking their minds.

And the biggest underlying premise: as Sylvia Goldberg abandons critical thought and narrows her field of vision, the fundamental truth of fighting games bares its fangs. The most obvious, undeniable premise of the genre.

That is, the premise that "many versus one" does not exist in a fighting game.

"You bunch of twisted bastards... but, this round is mine!!"

Metius rushes straight at Silver Jumper. The thought of simply defeating the enemy narrows her focus solely to herself and Silver Jumper, causing her to lose sight of the other battle character entirely.
Precisely because she is at the pinnacle as a fighting gamer, the "one-on-one" between opponent and self is the foundation of her existence. As a pro gamer whose main stay is fighting games, she simply cannot understand the movements of Kei, who has cleared games that operate on a different logic alongside his band of fiendish friends.

In other categories of games, this technique is called "Monster PK." It’s the forced transfer of hate—pushing the common enemy onto the opponent, an evil technique that makes Mobs do your killing for you. For example, it’s like asking a beast acting on pure instinct which target it will prioritize: the bait that’s wary of it, or the bait that’s completely oblivious to it?

"Ugh... nngh!?"

"You shouldn't take your eyes off me, right, Metius?"

The super-heavyweight Villain, possessing mass that easily exceeds the armored Cursed Prison and several times that of Silver Jumper or Metius—a monster that lives only for mindless slaughter and self-destruction—lands a tackle that sends Metius’s body flying with ease.

"This isn't fair and square, you think?"

Kei thinks exactly the same thing. In the first place, the fact that Pencilgon is even able to contribute means this game stopped being a traditional fighting game a long time ago.

"This is the Global Game Competition. I’ll show everyone watching... and most of all, you, what this game is really about."

In this world—this game—anyone can be a hero, and anyone can be a villain. But that also means:

You get to experience the hero’s hardships and the villain’s karma all the more vividly.

"Yes! Kei took the round!!"

"The way he got his ass kicked by the meat-blob at the end was hilarious."

"The system audio drowned it out, but based on her lip-reading, she definitely shrieked 'Ohyuuu!'"

"For real? That's meme material for the next three years."

"Can we celebrate a little!?"

Celebration is all well and good, but while winning this round is great, the next round is probably going to be a living hell...

The strategy we slow-cooked and Katzo brought to fruition might be considered "orthodox" in this game, but by the standards of conventional fighting games, it's the most unorthodox of unorthodox strats—a bizarre gambit, like taking a detour and building a warp gate.
It might even look like we're making a mockery of the game.

In truth, for Katzo, who's the one actually doing it, it’s like trying to break a wild horse inside a tornado; it’s not as easy as it looks.
After all, managing that meat-blob—well, managing Mob hate in general—is much harder than you’d think. He has to successfully push it onto Sylvia Goldberg... onto that Sylvia Goldberg, of all people.

And because I’m thinking the same way, I get it. I totally get it. If I were the one getting ganged up on by an NPC and an opponent in that spot, I know exactly how that feels.

Ah, ah... yeah, that’s when the switch flips. That thing they call the "pissed-off switch."

Even for an amateur gamer like me, if I could reach that level of emotional boost against an undefeated Zen-Ichi—the undisputed number one player in the US—then what about when Sylvia Goldberg does it?

The result was demonstrated by Metius, who slaughtered the meat-blob and Silver Jumper in a mere four minutes with an expressionless, mask-like face.

"...Hahaha, look at that, Pumpkin-kun. It’s so insane the crowd is just stunned."

"Well, yeah, that’s just... that’s not right..."

The "Sylvia TAS theory" I had in the back of my mind just became a whole lot more realistic. What was that... just what was that?

The character Metius basically carries the handicap of only being able to move in straight lines. So, to turn a corner, she has to stop and pivot at a right angle.
Usually, Sylvia's Metius achieves unpredictable, high-speed movement by kicking off the ground, the air, and objects, like a superball bouncing frantically in a cramped room, but...

"To force a turn by spamming steps on the spot... she's actually doing it for real..."

It’s less of a highlight and more jaw-dropping; Metius, who shouldn't be able to turn in anything but straight lines, traced a smooth arc and moved with a fluid curve.
The ruthless, almost merciless massacre by Sylvia Goldberg, who had expressed her emotions no matter what happened—even the moment she traded hits with Cursed Prison—was overwhelming the venue even more than Clockfire’s peak performance.

"That was an unexpected boost... but this is my chance."

I’ve been in that state myself, so I know. That's why I can say it. That "pissed-off boost"... is insanely exhausting.
It’s like sprinting at full speed in the middle of a marathon without pacing yourself. Even if you set a crushing course record... what’s waiting for you on the other side is an empty tank.

Sylvia Goldberg definitely possesses monstrous toughness. But a possessor of monstrous toughness just snapped and used her body and soul to the limit.
Yes, that’s it. This is the biggest chance. The bird that was flying higher, faster, and more powerfully than anyone else is about to run out of breath.

"You got this, Katzo..."

This is the biggest cheer I can send him. The thing we’re relying on at the end isn't RNG or divine luck, right?

"We’ve got the blessing of caffeine on our side."

Natsume-shi, why are you looking at me like that when I just tried to send an honest cheer? Don't I look like a "moron" right now?

"Just to drive the final nail into your coffin—you are a moron, Pumpkin-Energy-Drink-Stew-kun."

"What even is that? Sounds gross."

Sweat trickles down my cheek. No, that’s an illusion.
There are no such physiological phenomena in a digital body; if I feel it, it must be the sweat of the body in the real world.

(What is that? Can her gear still do multi-stage boosts!? N-no... such a reckless performance, she can't pull that off many more times.)

The sudden change in demeanor, as if a switch had been flipped; the stunning technique that I doubted was even possible even while watching it with my own eyes... Kei recognized it.
Yes, that "snap" was the same tension Sunraku shows from time to time. The instantaneous release of limiters driven by anger, irritation, or high tension that blows the gauge out of the water—a technique that looks like it’s burning out brain cells at a terrifying rate.
At the very least, Kei couldn't do it. It feels like it would shave years off his lifespan.

(At the very least, Sunraku is in a hungover-like state after doing that... it’s not something you can do without risk.)

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Sylvia, who he couldn't overtake no matter how hard he chased, is within reach at this very moment.
This isn't just a coincidence. The friends who took the time to come here, the time they spent earning, the path they paved—it all led to this very moment.
If that's the case, there are only two things he can do.

Win against Sylvia Goldberg, and figure out how to consult his wallet to make both yakiniku and sushi work... that’s it.

"Alright, let’s win this!"

Kei doesn't count on victory until it’s confirmed. But at this moment... he didn't feel like he could lose.

Author's Afterword

• Zenoselgus
  A Hulk or Alien Gorilla that has completely lost its reason. A Leatherback from Pacific Rim is close in terms of imagery.
  It’s a bio-weapon created in some corner of the universe that drifted to Earth because the omnipotent being Galaxeus did something unnecessary.
  It possesses the cheat ability to analyze and reflect targets just by looking at them, and it’s a name that always comes up in debates about the strongest characters in Galaxia Comics.
  Because it was too strong, a weakness was recently added: "Body freezes upon hearing sound at a specific frequency. Specifically, the crying of a human child 12 years old or younger."

In GH:C, it’s a heavyweight-class fighter with the "Analyze" ability, capable of changing its own flesh into the same properties as its target by staring at an object for more than five seconds.
At first glance, it looks like a higher-tier version of Cursed Prison, but they are differentiated: Cursed Prison must go through destruction to absorb things but can absorb multiple destroyed objects at once, whereas Zenoselgus only needs to look, but can only analyze one thing at a time.

By the way, the added weakness is properly reflected in-game, so to speak, the moment it makes a chestnut-bun-little-girl cry, the space gorilla freezes for a few seconds. A space gorilla that is kind to children. Its favorite food is not bananas, but gasoline.