Chapter 485: X-Day: Count down!

Author's Preface

A Heavenly Jewel Divine Core dropped, so here's an update.
Eh, the Ancient Battlefield? I-I-I-I'm playing it! Yes! I'm not running away!

Four days left until X-Day.
While steadily chipping away at the Leviathan raid, I was watching a certain video on my mobile device during lunch break at school.

"Whatcha watching?"

"Yo Zappy, is it true you got cocky, pierced another hole, let bacteria in again, and got it all swollen up?"

"Ugigu!"

"The sheer guts to make yourself the punchline of a running gag... not to mention the toughness of not fearing things getting stale—I'm honestly moved...!"

Besides, our high school bans piercings anyway. Setting aside his private life, strictly looking at it from the lens of school life, piercing his own earlobe and self-destructing like this is just the peak of idiocy.

"S-Shut up! Wait, what is this, a game video? What game?"

"Justice Versus."

"Well, obviously I don't know it. Is it fun?"

If you ask me if it's fun... Hmm.

"More like it's more fun to watch than to actually play?"

"Huh."

Just-Ver is a game with a slightly specialized way to enjoy it, after all... Ultimately, it's a game that declined because the player base got too underpopulated. It seems like there are still people playing it here and there, but the most impressive stuff to watch is still from its golden age.

While tearing the wrapper off the onigiri I bought at the cafeteria, I placed my mobile device on the desk so that my esteemed friend (idiot) with a band-aid on his earlobe could see it too.

"I don't really get it, but it sure is a flashy battle. Give me some commentary or something."

"Right here, they mash Custom 8 light punches to knock back and stagger the opponent, then launch them into the air with a meter attack..."

"Look up the definition of commentary."

"Staggered them, kicked them away, and now they're beating them up mid-air."

"I didn't ask for a summary either."

What a demanding bastard...

"This game is technically a fighting game where the winner is just whoever beats down their opponent, but among the players, a different way of enjoying it became the meta."

That right there is the very reason Just-Ver is considered a masterpiece. I'm not exactly an expert at controller-based games, so I just settle for being a spectator, but it really has a high degree of perfection purely as a spectator sport.

"What kind of way to enjoy it?"

"Drop the weird accent, Zappy. Basically, simply put, it's like 'whoever shows off the flashiest Tricks gets the most clout'?"

"Ah, ah? So it's like artistic points or something?"

That's probably the closest way to describe it. As I watched the footage on the screen of a little girl character turning the entire field into a flower garden while creating clones to mercilessly gang up on her opponent, I took a bite out of the yakisoba bread I bought at the cafeteria.

Just-Ver's biggest selling point is that everything from normal attacks to ultimate moves can be fully customized.
Even a single punch animation can range from a standard boxing jab to a rocket punch, and when it comes to ultimate moves, the level of customization borders on actual programming. [*1]
Even the video we're watching now isn't strictly a hardcore competitive match, but closer to a Trick showcase video. There are even videos that film the Player's hands alongside the screen, gripping the controller in totally bizarre ways with every single finger moving like it's an entirely separate living organism.

"Can you do this too?"

"Don't be an idiot, this is a completely different beast from Full-Dive. I'd definitely need some hardcore practice to pull this off."

"Notice how you didn't say it was impossible..."

I don't know if I could actually master techniques on this level, though. I'm the type to wander across various games, so there are some areas where I just can't measure up to hyper-specialized one-trick gamers.

"Anyway, getting back to the main topic, are you really—with Saiga-san—"

"The dawn sky, the darkness brightening. Just like my heart, the sun that is you—mugoga!"

"Wha...!? Haa...!!? You, eh, how do you know...! I haven't shown anyone...!!"

"Word is you were writing poetry while sipping a cafe mocha at a cafe? Apparently Takasaki was sitting right behind you."

"Takasakiiiiii! I'll drag you down to hell with me!!!"

"Oh craaaap! Akatsuki Heart-san is gonna show me hell!! Somebody help meeeee!"

"Akatsuki Heart! Calm down!!"

"I think it's pretty good, Akatsuki Heart!!"

"I searched it up on social media and found what looks like a poetry account... Ah."

"Ogoaaaaaaaahhh!!!"

Isn't having tens of thousands of followers honestly kind of amazing? These words singing of love make my heart go doki-doki!!

◇ 

<<Good morning Amelia, did you read the email from Kei? He said Pumpkin is free since Halloween is over, so he'll be coming?>>

<<Bring it on. Honestly Sylvi, aren't you secretly looking forward to it too?>>

<<Of course I am. I feel bad for you, Amelia, but he's the definitive best answer for a Cursed Prison player. If anything, I want to shove you aside and fight him myself.>>

<<Like hell I'll hand him over, I'm first. It's not like I have that much lingering attachment to the title of 'Real-Life Cursed Prison' anyway... but the only ones who can actually take a round off you using 'Cursed Prison' are me and your little love-struck idiot. When a new face pops up, obviously I'm going to want to test them.>>

<<I heard we'll be playing a different game on the show we're appearing on, though?>>

<<You've got to be joking. Outside of Shangri-La Frontier, Japanese games are nothing but trash that can't even measure up to GH:B.>>

<<You really shouldn't say that during the broadcast.>>

<<Obviously I have at least that much common sense. More importantly Sylvi, you're living with Kei right now, aren't you? Hurry up and wake his ass up, you think I'm gonna let him run away with a positive win record from yesterday?>>

<<This Christmas, I'm planning to ask Santa Claus for a spare key to Kei's room.>>

<<What do you even see in that little fawn bastard anyway... Japanese guys all have such plain, flat faces I can barely tell them apart.>>

<<I don't want to hear that from someone with a fetish for dead twigs.>>

<<Those Tatsujin of Japanese Budo actually had a lot of faces right up my alley.>>

<<Is that so...>>

<<Ah right, there was one more thing I wanted to ask you.>>

<<What is it?>>

<<Why the hell is the subway in this country so complicated? I got completely lost even with navigation.>>

<<Just use a taxi. I gave up on it entirely.>>

<<I hate taxis, my head always hits the ceiling.>>

◆ 

Three days left until X-Day.
No matter how I thought about it, I couldn't see a future where I'd be playing anything other than Galaxia Heroes: Chaos, so I hoisted my heavy ass up and booted it up.
I figured I might as well pick Cursed Prison since we have some history, but the fact that there's an obvious pumpkin-colored palette swap among the 2P color variations... does that mean what I think it means? Thinking about it too deeply felt like I'd just get stuck in a mental loop, so I did my best to wipe the smirk off my face, forced a flat expression, and queued up for my first match.

My opponent is... what the hell is this, S...T, R... STRONGESTCASPRI? At least throw an underscore in there, it's a pain to read. Wait, matching up with a rate like this when I just started... No, I suppose setting future goals right out the gate is a thing, yeah.

But strangely enough, it's a mirror match. If this Amelia-whatever person was supposed to be the closest to the Real-Life Cursed Prison, then getting some mirror match experience under my belt couldn't hurt.

"Alright,"

Setting aside the deep emotion of descending into a strangely nostalgic Chaos City once again as Cursed Prison.
I figured I'd aim for around the mid-tier for now, and promptly punched away a nearby motorcycle cop.

Author's Afterword

Addendum: Strongest CasPri (Beginner) is not Emperor Omaru.

Translator's Note

• [1] A homage to M.U.G.E.N?