Chapter 105: If They Can’t Eat Bread Let Them Eat Rice Part 2

If you wanted to think of reaching high into this game’s ranking mode, you needed the ability to precisely maneuver your frame and engage in combat at the same time at ultra-high speed. Because of that it wasn’t unusual for a pair of people to pilot the same frame together, since that would ease the amount of input to watch out for by half. So I was wondering how would someone like me, who usually plays solo, would do?

「However, once you get used to that the game is really enjoyable, since the developers did a really good job with balancing gameplay with the story.」

That being said, the learning curve and high difficulty of entry made this game somewhat inaccessible to newbies, making the game something that was more enjoyable to watch than actually play.

Yes, it is a good analogy to say that Nephilim Hollow was a direct opposite of Berserker Passion Online. Both games were not all that popular, but if the former was attracting the players because of its easy learning curve, the latter was scarying people away with its difficulty.

Besides, “Crap” managed to turn its bug-ridden gameplay into one of its main selling points, but the Nephilim Hollow couldn’t do something like that. Was that a difference in management? Or was it something else?

Nonetheless, taking my little sister’s advice, the only thing that could satiate my hunger for Mecha action was some actual Mecha action!

I had another Mecha game in my collection, but it was a truly outrageous sh*tty game, so I’ll leave that be for now.

「So, what kind of character I want to play in this game right about now?」

There was surely a different kind of excitement that was accompanying getting back to an old game from the excitement of playing a brand new one.

「Ah, that’s right, Kingfisher, was it?」

After logging into the game, I went straight to the warehouse where I was storing my own custom Nephilim.

I know that it was just a game, and the one not that much grounded in reality, but I could swear that I saw my frame covered in a thick layer of dust.

「It’s been a while, “Kingfisher”…… God, I can’t believe just how good the color scheme works for you. It gets me every single time.」

The idea behind this frame was fairly simple. I took every single thing that I deemed unnecessary in order to maximize its movement speed, and then gave it a set of weapons that would be capable of taking down my opponents in one fell swoop. That is the kind of frame the Kingfisher is.

I stripped it of almost all of its armor and gave it only the parts that would accelerate the speed of its movements without losing in the field of aerodynamics, which made it look more like a doll rather than a steel giant that fell from the heavens. However, thanks to that it could achieve speeds normally impossible for a middle-class frames, and the extra thrusters would allow it to exceed those limits even further, although only for about five seconds or so.

But the specifications of this build made it to be like a firework. It was capable to maintain high speed but only for a short amount of time, it was difficult to maneuver while doing so, and if even one piece of its equipment would somehow get damaged, it mobility would drop even further, making the victory almost impossible to achieve. In other words, it would require of me to defeat my opponents in around three minutes or even less.

「Thinking about it now, Power Armor and a Mecha are only similar on paper, but in reality they are worlds apart…… Ah, who cares?」

When it comes to that, it’s just the case of properly adjusting your mindset. It was nothing but a minor detail, nothing I needed to be overly concerned about.

After I checked everything, I went to the entrance of the company I was affiliated with without delay.

「The maneuvers are just as sweet as I remember them, but my shots are still messy and my faints easy to see through…… I’m rusty, that’s for certain.」

Normally since I specialize in long-range combat I would have taken care of my opponent long ago, but the battle was starting to drag on. It was enough of the proof that I got rusty with this game.

Last time I played that game it was a few months ago, but at that time I was aiming for the very top of the ranking ladder! There was tension, there was excitement, but I must admit that even though I was meeting lots of good opponents, I somehow started to feel burned out. But now……

「If I remember correctly, the name of that player is……」

「PILOT RUST HAS ISSUED A DUEL INVITATION TO YOU. WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCEPT?」

「Ah, that’s it! Rust! Now I remember…… Are the rumors about my return travelling that fast?」

Seeing the name Rust displayed on the screen served to jog my memory. It was one of the top ranking players from around the time I was still around.

Rust’s frame had its boosters placed asymmetrically, which allowed it to perform some truly amazing maneuvers that made it resemble a falling leaf dancing in the wind. Our last duel ended in a draw, but for me it really felt like a bitter defeat.

Truth to be told, that sense of defeat was the final straw for me and after that I went to vent my frustration on other sh*tty games.

「I wanted to practice some more, but since an opportunity like that presents itself…… You’re on!」

I accepted without hesitation. Before long, I can see a red frame appear right before my eyes.

Some details and armaments were different about it from the last time I saw it, but without a doubt, it was Rust’s most trusted frame, “Phoenix”.

My “Kingfisher” had a color blue for its main paint job, so it was a nice contrast to the “Phoenix’s” red.

「Alright…… I shall beat your ass faster than it takes to prepare a cup of instant noodles!」

By that declaration, a huge blue and red bird took off in the direction of the city.