Chapter 569: Critical Strike!!

Author's Preface

Zero-One is good... (The nightmare of stepping on a leak while researching Keitai Sousakan 7)

The fact that 'Rising' and 'Hopper' make up the base form adds such a nice flavor to it.

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Motivation is something that's hard to maintain, but it's even harder to generate in the first place. Let alone inviting a pro gamer—a breed of human perfectly fine with dedicating a significant portion of their life to a specific game—into an entirely different category; that's a pretty high-difficulty task.

But thanks to my unexpected slip of the tongue, a spark of motivation was born in Natsume-shi's heart, and Pencilgon isn't one to let that slide.

"Ah〜, now that you mention it, her name is different and her avatar is the exact opposite so I didn't notice〜, but thinking about it calmly, Argent Owl does mean silver and gold〜"

Paying absolutely no mind to my half-lidded stare at her sheer blatancy, nor to Rei-san's twitching mouth, that bastard's mouth kicked into turbo and just kept right on blabbing.

"No, I think she's amazing, yeah. I mean, she power-leveled in a limited amount of time and caught right up to the frontline of progression... Ah, didn't Kei-kun mention he helped her out? Well, of course (even though he can't trigger Unique Scenarios himself) having one-on-one leveling sessions with the heavily-invested Kei-kun would make anyone strong, right... Ah, Natsume-cha—whoops, Cinnamon-chan, why don't you ask him to power-level you too? You guys are on the same team and all, riiiight...?"

"Right, exactly. Yeah, there's absolutely nothing weird about having an experienced player help you out, is there?"

"Of course! You two think so too, right?"

"totally."

"Y-Yes, I think that sort of thing is very important...!"

Being hyped up by all three of us seemed to please Natsume-shi, and it looks like she immediately started looking up ShanFro on her mobile device. Ah, so Natsume-shi is the type to look at strategy wikis right from the early game, huh...

"Oops, is it already this time... Come on Natsume-chan, we have to get going soon."

"R-Right... Well then, we're off."

"G-Good luck."

"Thanks, No Face's friend?"

Since it's been decided that I'll absolutely never forgive that potato fairy for casually confirming that I am No Face, I'll just have to leak some information to Argent Owl later...

"Ah〜, Rei-san."

"Y-Yes!?"

"If possible, um, keep the fact that I'm No Face a secret... I haven't exactly decided on taking that career path yet, you know."

"Understood! I-I'll take it to my grave!!"

No, it's really not something you need to remember until you go to your grave, you know? Or rather, if possible, I'd like you to just forget it entirely.

I admit there's a certain dream to the pro-gamer profession, and I know that me—being in a position where I could become a pro-gamer with a single email if I wanted to—being so picky about it just looks like I'm completely full of myself to anyone aiming to be a pro.

But to a pro-gamer, gaming is an obligation, not a hobby. That single point alone kills my hype. Besides, the future career plan devised by Takeda-shi is going pretty well so far, so I'm a bit reluctant to go out of my way to ruin it myself... In short, to get straight to the conclusion, I want to postpone the conclusion. Specifically, I want to keep dodging the issue until I graduate high school.

"B-But it's amazing... isn't it. Just now, we were having lunch... with pro gamers..."

"Ah, yeah, well, I guess we were."

Pro gamer... right, that person is a pro gamer, huh. A pro gamer in a realm where they can compete with baseball players in terms of annual salary......... All I have left of her in my head is the impression of a junk-food maniac, but she is a pro gamer.

No good, my impression of them gets solidified by their actual personal specs rather than their profession. And it's all the fault of that guy whose first impression was getting thoroughly beaten down by me, who then proceeded to expose his own flaws voluntarily, and who, despite our ongoing back-and-forth rivalry, still can't trigger a Unique Scenario on his own. There's just no sense of reverence.

"Welp... should we head back to the stage too? We already heard the leaks, but the next segment is supposed to be the ShanFro feature anyway."

"Umm, well... shouldn't we wait for Rust-chan and the others..."

"Nah..."

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◇

Sunraku: By the way, how long is the wait right now?

Rust: One hour.

◇

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"They've vanished into the belly of that long snake..."

"...I'm glad we had the premium tickets."

Yeah, absolutely right about that.

...

......

.........

『Hey heyyy! It's been an hour, everyone! Did you eat lunch? Or not yet? I went and ate with Natsume-chan〜!』

『Ehh? Am I the only one left out?』

『No no, you were doing a lunch stream, weren't you, Eito-chan? Honestly, streaming even during your break is pretty amazing, you know?』

Apparently, the reason Eito-shi wasn't there was because she was doing a stream behind the scenes. Well, she feels even more like a complete stranger than Natsume-shi does, so even if she had come, it would've been kinda... No, well, yeah.

『Alright then, the moment you've all been waiting for! We'll be bringing you the latest info on ShanFro, so let's get hyped〜!!』

"Waaaah!", a massive cheer erupted.

"( *¯ ⁻̫ ¯*)"

"Ah, you're going to wear that after all..."

"Well, it'd be a waste not to..."

There's basically zero chance I'll ever use this in my daily life, so I have to use it where I can.

Anyway, exactly as Pencilgon leaked, the implementation of Exordinary Monsters and the progression of the World Story "Kingdom Turmoil"... information was announced exactly as we had heard beforehand.

Both the live audience and the broadcast were super hyped. Well, even though events have been occurring on the Old Continent side, they've been massive battles with Raid prerequisites, so it kinda felt like... yeah, it's an undeniable fact that a gap had formed between the players who went to the New Continent and those who didn't.

It's still a large-scale event, but war-scale PvP is a strength of the Old Continent that can't be done on the New Continent, and more than anything, the implementation of Exordinary Monsters across various regions—which can be fought by a single party—is probably a godsend for players who have zero connection to Unique Scenarios and feel hesitant about joining Raids.

Exordinary Monsters, huh... I have an idea of a monster species where one is almost guaranteed to spawn, so maybe I'll log in and check it out when I get home. That was what I was thinking when it happened.

『Nyeh?』

『What's wro... eh?』

『Wah.』

The three on stage suddenly let out utterly bewildered voices. As for Pencilgon, in an extremely rare occurrence, her face twitched as if a crack had formed in her public-facing expression.

Because it wasn't just one person, but all three reacting with simultaneous, yet distinctly different expressions of shock, an atmosphere of confusion drifted through the audience seats.

"...Hm?"

Why did she just look over here? And without even trying to hide it, too...

『Ah......... yeah, um? Is it okay if I say this?』

『『G-Go ahead.』』

What on earth──────

『Umm, breaking news! It seems that just now, over in Shangri-La Frontier, the Unique Monster "Orchestra of the Reverberating Nether" has concluded its performance... or so I'm told〜』

"..............."

"...Eh, umm... Rakuro-kun?"

Orchestra, cleared???

I-I shee? Library did it? No, it's not like I'm frustrated or anything, okay? I just took some violently heavy mental damage somewhere around the pit of my stomach, that's all...... Eh, seriously? I got beaten to the punch on a Unique I found first? I mean, well, cases like that aren't exactly rare, and I've experienced it before, but still.

They broke through that supremely bullshit, heavily-biased Orchestra Guard? How???

"H-Hellooo..."

"(Ascension)"

"Ascen... It's not even an emoticon!?"

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Author's Afterword

Once in a while, he has to experience "the feeling of being on the side whose Unique Scenario got progressed without them knowing," de gozeemasu yo!