Chapter 505: The Headliner's Best Sunday Suit

Author's Preface
I'm a-liiiiiiive! (My schedule is just an absolute mess until mid-March).

Do we really need a real-time notification system after all...?

Like a squirrel hoarding food for hibernation.

Like a dog burying its favorite bone in the ground to hide it.

In the end, the blank span of time between Dust destroying that Crap-TV and getting taken out by Cursed Prison—the free time born precisely because Amelia Sullivan prioritized absorbing the Mechanitan's equipment—has led directly to this exact moment, in this exact place.
If I'm being greedy, I would've liked to use Twinkle Pixie to take down the enemy Cursed Prison since we'd be fighting over the same resources, but I'll admit she was one step ahead of me there.

However, Twinkle Pixie managed to drive Cursed Prison to the brink of death, and nine times out of ten, successfully forced her to retreat from that spot. Because my current self spawned near Dust's initial spawn point, paradoxically, I can figure out the enemy's coordinates too.

"Now then... time to pull out the Best Sunday Suit."

Cursed Prison's battle styles can be broadly divided into two categories. If Amelia Sullivan is the type to appropriately swap between various pieces of equipment, then today, I'm just going to show off the absolute strongest Best Sunday Suit. A true fashionista carefully selects everything starting right from the materials—

The lineup I chose is an All-Fighter composition packed entirely with combat-main characters... Braindead? No, you're wrong. What lands a combo isn't your performance stats, it's your actions.

"It was so heavily secured it almost felt like it'd give it away, honestly..."

The annoying thing about Ms. Play-Display is her ability to visually scout from afar using the cameras installed all over the city. Due to the nature of this location, I had to take down that Crap-TV quickly... even if it meant blowing an Ult to do it.

"A bank vault, the absolute highest-grade locker... wouldn't you say?"

Forcing the massive, heavy door open with Cursed Prison's raw physical strength, I am greeted by Dust's Legacy inside.
They were things once created by humans as tools. They were things that had fallen under the Mechanitan's banner and been reduced to twisted aberrations. And they were... things that had been destroyed by Dust, with only the necessary parts carefully examined and hoarded away in the deepest depths of this bank.

"Heheh... Don't peek, alright?"

Murmuring that as if speaking to the unspecified masses who were likely watching this city from an even further bird's-eye view, I shut the vault door, inwardly feeling embarrassed over acting so damn pretentious.

And then............

◇◇ 

To the pro gamer known as Amelia Sullivan, gaming is both a job and a hobby.
From both perspectives, the result of "winning" holds enough value to stake her life on, but more than that, the existence of Sylvia Goldberg was simply that massive.

The strongest in the US, and by extension, the entity that continued to reign at the absolute pinnacle of the entire world... That Sylvia Goldberg had been defeated. Amelia herself was someone who, being undefeated in her own right, had continued to challenge that pure white meteor in an attempt to serve her a black star. That was why she was so astonished... and after watching the VOD of the GGC, she concluded that Kei Uomi's victory was not an "inevitability".

Rather than Kei winning through raw skill, the biggest reason was likely that Sylvia had unconsciously been satisfied in the match prior to that one. Of course, as a basic premise, it was a fact that he had enough skill to keep up with Sylvia, but even so, if "that guy" hadn't waged a fierce, grueling battle for a full four rounds, Kei Uomi surely wouldn't have been able to pull off such an unprecedented giant-killing feat.

—Real Cursed Prison.

Because its antonym existed at the absolute summit, a vacant throne was created, and countless gamers challenged it... only for every single one of them to be utterly crushed by the Real Meteos—Sylvia Goldberg.
Therefore, before anyone realized it, the title of "Real Cursed Prison" had become overwhelmingly associated with the image of "the one who can defeat Sylvia Goldberg using Cursed Prison".

But on that summer day, a single player who descended onto a new battlefield presented the answer to the question of "What exactly is a Real Cursed Prison?"
That greedy, arrogant behavior, as if the sheer willpower to push one's own way through had taken human form. It made even Amelia instinctively nod in understanding—Ah, so that's a Real Cursed Prison.

At the same time, however, the pro gamer Amelia reached a certain conclusion as she rewatched the battle between Sylvia and No Face over and over again.

No Face shared the same mentality as Sylvia where his state of mind was directly tied to his player skill, making him a type whose actual performance was highly inconsistent.
Or perhaps, that was the bare minimum requirement to be called the Real Cursed Prison. That was exactly why Amelia intended to ask a simple question that popped into her mind to No Face, to Sylvia, and to the masses.

—Even if he is the Real Cursed Prison, does that mean I, who couldn't become the Real Cursed Prison, am inferior to "No Face"?

—No. It simply means that "his handling of Cursed Prison is the most in-character".

—But, if the character "Cursed Prison" is a villain who arrogantly forces his own will while clad in curses...

—Are you stronger than Amelia Sullivan?

It wasn't jealousy. If she had to put a name to it, it was curiosity.
She just wanted to slam her absolute full power into the person who reached the title even she had missed out on—the mysterious man hiding his face and remaining buried in obscurity among the general public... It was really just that simple.

"Guess it works out if you actually try..."

Roughly five minutes had passed since Twinkle Pixie was defeated. Due to the game's system, the Cursed Prison who was selected later and should thus be wearing the 2P colors hadn't shown up, and as expected, the Cursed Prison who first appeared in this city had survived.

Target Enemy "Commander".
The core and highest-tier entity of the "Mechanitan", this Target Enemy spawns in the deepest part of the fortress that appears on the map at the start of the game.
There are three main features related to this enemy.
First, the fortress cannot even be entered unless either the "Valkyrie" or the "Colonel" is defeated.
Second, players must navigate and conquer a randomly generated interior map.
And third, once the leader enemy is defeated, the NPC faction will stop increasing in number.

Normally, this is designed to create situations where 1P and 2P are hostile to each other while still conquering the area for the same goal... but under very specific conditions, it becomes possible to easily solo it.

One of those conditions is Cursed Prison matching up against the "Mechanitan". By equipping the Target Enemy "Colonel" as armor, there's an exploit that allows you to completely bypass all the fortress's internal gimmicks.

And so, in order to achieve the goal of setting up a Cursed Prison mirror match, she challenged the Commander of the Machines while in a critical state where taking even a single hit would instantly drain the rest of her health... Sure enough, Cursed Prison (Amelia) was now standing there, having recovered about 30% of her HP and wearing both the "Commander" and the "Colonel" as armor.

"Guess it really does work out if you try..."

Amelia is well aware that she isn't the type to boost her skill level by raising her tension like Sylvia or No Face. And she prides herself on always being able to execute her absolute best performance unless she's been severely mentally shaken.
Even for Amelia, completing a no-damage subjugation of the "Commander" was considered a bad gamble... She wasn't exactly a devoutly religious person, but she still resolved in her heart to attend the next Sunday mass.

"...Huh?"

It was at that moment.

"Hic, sniff..."

It was too frail to be Amelia's, and too high-pitched to be No Face's. Meaning, the small cries of a third party who was neither of them reached the ears of Amelia... of Cursed Prison.

"Tch..."

A young child, crying, a third party... The character Cursed Prison had no reason to save a child, but the player Amelia Sullivan fighting in WΔ had a reason she needed to deal with it.

"Hey, you little brat."

"Eek."

(It should be noted here that Amelia Sullivan is extremely bad at dealing with children.)

"Ugh... Get lost if you don't want to die."

"A... Uu..."

"...?"

Suddenly, a feeling of unease—a sense of déjà vu—crossed Amelia's mind.

(...I feel like I've seen this NPC somewhere before.)

In GH:C, NPC models are reused even when the map changes. You could just brush it off as the setting being that Chaos generated them as "Residents of Chaos City", but for some reason, Amelia recognized this specific NPC.

No, wait. The one connected to this NPC wasn't Amelia Sullivan, but...

"Yo, Raptor, you're not the right actor for this part. Step aside."

"Com—Guh!!?"

A rapidly approaching roar and the voice that accompanied it. The moment she turned around with a ferocious grin, an accelerated strike completely blew past her expectations in speed, tearing in as if it were trying to punch right through Amelia's face.

"Eek!"

"Yo, kid. I ain't exactly a believer in RNG (Destiny), but we sure do have a knack for running into each other, huh."

"Mister, who are you...?"

"Me? Let's see..."

It was a brief, simple statement overflowing with absolute, baseless confidence, overwhelming arrogance, and a majestic, imposing aura.
With a roaring mane of explosive flames fluttering behind him, he stood clad in ultra-heavy armor that surpassed even Cursed Prison (Amelia), who was currently wearing two Target Enemies. All of it was supported by a bizarre, mutated quadrupedal form.

Shouldering a mechanical hammer reinforced with multiple layers of armor, that man loudly declared:

"—I am Cursed Prison."

Author's Afterword
Sunraku's Cursed Prison's current state is kind of like the Kimaris Trooper (though with the heavy armor of the early Gusion). [*1]

Translator's Note

• [1] Gundam IBO.