Chapter 109: Upping the Win Count Part 1

With the final score being two loses and three wins on my end, even though it was somewhat of a close call, it can be said for sure: it was a complete and utter victory on my end!

It seems that Rust also understood that, and she was trying her best to control her emotions and not to let them show up on her face.

「You know, for some reason I feel like I’m drinking a full-bodied wine straight out of a plastic bag……」

「Gununu……」

「N, now, now……」

Fiddler’s Club does not have a main motif. One shots, traps, chases, combination attacks…… It was well-equipped for a whole variety of situations, which was making it relatively hard to deal with if you didn’t know what to expect.

In a nutshell, if you tried to maintain your distance, you’d get bodied. If you tried to get up close and personal, you’d get bodied. No matter what you do, you get bodied!

「What the hell is this, this is just so sh*tty……」

「Hahaha, I understand where you’re coming from, but trust me, there are a lot more sh*tty tactics and glitches when it comes to mecha combat.」

「Glitches…… say what?」

「You don’t need to know. You wouldn’t get it anyway.」

When it comes to sh*tty games, there were a lot of them that had mechas in them. And some of them were so glitch and bug-ridden that their services had to be permanently terminated as a result. There were lots of them…… But right about now instead of frustration I was thinking about them with a tear in my eye.

There was even a game that had a rifle that would fire rapid-fire shots with deadly precision almost equal to aim-bot even from hip-fire. It was a very interesting thing for duels, but once it dominated the meta it was quickly nerfed and eventually brought down.

Sometimes I get a feeling, could it be that beta-testers fell asleep while doing their job? Or were they doing it at all?

「If you can, we can go up to ten matches.」

「I’m sorry, but for now I will admit my defeat. But don’t get me wrong! I still want a rematch! Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually……!」

「Ahh, I wonder if I’ll still be playing this game when that time comes……」

「As for the rematch itself…… What was that?」

Apparently even for a top-ranking pilot there were still things someone like that hasn’t seen before or things you could always improve on. For example that trick with the optical camouflage plus jamming sensor.

As for the meta I don’t know if any one will be trying to imitate some of my strategies, but as a matter of fact it won’t be my concern…… It was then that I realized that a whole bunch of people were looking towards me, apparently overhearing my words.

「Does this mean…… You won’t log in any longer?」

「I don’t know. I may log in from time to time, but I won’t lie to you: I mainly logged in so that I could have a change of pace.」

「That’s…… not good. Really, really not good.」

「Uwah!?」

「W, wait a minute, Rust!」

Rust suddenly grabs my avatar by the collar and begins to drag me off somewhere. It was even more surprising since her avatar was rather petite.

Mold tried to separate me from Rust, but it was of no use. Instead, Rust started to spew words at me as fast as a machine gun.

「Sanraku, you picked a perfect time to go back to Nephilim Hollow, since it is starting to become active and fun again. Surely, if you continue to play it, it will become fun for you as well…… So you should continue to play it…… No. I want you to continue playing it.」

Rust’s eyes were dead-serious. And since her words were spontaneous and coming straight from the heart, which was making them even more convincing. Also, Mold gave it a rest and was no longer trying to stop her.

However, there was not all that much motivation for me to continue playing this game. It was interesting and certainly fun, but it wasn’t a game that I would like to play on an everyday basis.

And there was a huge difference between being “interesting” and “addictive to play”.

「Honestly speaking, I came here only because I was unable to ride a robot in ShanFro……」

「…… Hm? What did you just say? ShanFro? Robo? You mean ShangriLa Frontier?」

「Hee?」

Rust’s grasp on my collar became even stronger than before. Her eyes were shining with a different light now. She was no longer just “a person who loves Nephilim Hollow.”

That was…… that’s right. It was the shine of someone who was playing ShanFro before. I cursed my loose tongue.

「N, no, it’s nothing. Nothing! Please forget about it!」

「I tried playing ShangriLa Frontier before…… But I couldn’t really get into it because there was no Mechas in there……」