Chapter 106: New Wave Incoming Part 1

「Daaaaaagh! I lost!」

I screamed at the top of my lungs when I respawned at the entrance, without even caring that I was gathering the attention of other players that were present out there.

Ahhh, god damn IT! I was too focused on that last attack! Thinking about it now, I was as good as dead once my thrusters and other parts got damaged. Once it lost its mobility, Kingfisher was nothing more than a sitting duck.

If the damage was directed at the legs, I could have tried to prolong the battle to force it into a draw again, but the new match time made that task increasingly more difficult.

「There’s nothing wrong with my offensive power, but what good will it do to me if I’m not able to avoid incoming attacks?」

That is to say, I also didn’t expect the arena to be so small. It made maneuvering that much harder, because of which I couldn’t realize my full potential. But it’s no use worrying about it now.

「After all, equipment is also a crucial part…… Without some good parts it will be impossible for me to rack up wins again……」

It goes to show just how much things have changed since the last time I was around. New weapons, new parts, new strategies. Compared to that, I was clumsy and sluggishly slow.

Originally “Kingfisher” was modeled after a certain boss in this game, but if I wanted to change my style and play in a different way, the only thing I needed to do was to change some parts and voila!

Thinking about that, I cross my arms over my chest. On a side note, this Sanraku, contrary to my ShanFro counterpart, was fully dressed, so there was no threat of people giving me the look all the time.

「That stupid player name…… No doubt about it! You’re the “Kingfisher”!」

「Eh? Ahh…… Rust? Oh, yeah, right, Rust. Thanks for a wonderful match out there. GG, good game and all that.」

「GG…… Go shove it up your ass!」

When I turn around I can see a girl’s avatar approaching me. She was glaring at me quite intensely through her visor, which could be selected at the very beginning of the game as an accessory.

Incidentally, the accessory I was wearing on my head right now was called “Old Nephilim Fusion Auxiliary Unit”. It was an advanced accessory that one of the subclasses, a Gadgetman, could use in this game. It’s stats were pretty good, but the only downside was that it looked kind of like a huge kettle.

The fact that it hindered my field of view and that no one else was wearing it at the current moment was a testament to the fact that I was gone from this game for a long time.

「Why the hell are you back in this game……!?」

「Eh, why……?」

Even if you ask me that, wasn’t just the urge to have fun enough of a reason to do something? While I was thinking that to myself, I saw a young man walking towards Rust and tapping her on the shoulder. When he spoke, his voice was even younger than his looks.

「I’m terribly sorry. Rust might talk and behave like that, but in reality she’s really glad that you came back to the game.」

「Eh, ah! You’re the worst……!」

Looking closely now, Rust was gently pulling my clothes as if she was trying to get closer, but I couldn’t feel any real hostility coming from her. She seemed like a little dog that found a bone that it was looking for for so long…… Would that make this boy, Mold, its owner?

「Now hurry it up……! I want a rematch……!」

「Umm, I’m terribly sorry but…… I’m really busy at the moment.」

「Mold, you idiot!」

「Ouch!?」

As Rust kicked Mold’s shin and screams at him, Mold jumps up and shrieks in pain. Putting that comedic skit aside, it seems that one of the top ranking players wanted to have a rematch with me.

So my answer could only be one.

「Sorry, but not right now.」

In that instant I could see that the expression on Rust’s face changed drastically. She was red on the face and her eyes narrowed down considerably. She then asked quietly.

「Why?」

「Well you see, I was going to come up with a new build for my Nephilim.」

I read quite a bit of patch notes while I was waiting to log in. It seems that this game was receiving updates and new content quite regularly, unlike certain “Crap” that had months of drought only to release a sh*tload of content in one go.

I will most probably return to ShanFro in a day or two, but for now I wanted to see if I could improve “Kingfisher” to some extent.

When I said that, Rust turned towards Mold and apologized to him, her expression softened considerably.

It’s not that I hate people who take playing games overly seriously. If you are passionate about something, then sure, go right ahead and be that way. But you need to take into account that not everyone wants to take something as seriously as you do.

「…… In that case, tomorrow. Let’s have a rematch tomorrow morning.」

「Hmm, alright.」

I accepted Rust’s challenge and smiled at her, even though she wasn’t able to see it because of the mask that was on my face.

Then I decided to give constructing a new Nephilim a go right away.