Chapter 134: A Straight Flush With a Joker Part 1

When I first saw that email, I thought it was a spam of some sort. However, there was something familiar to the style it was written in and that convinced me it was the real deal.

For the time being, I asked Katsu to clarify this, and sent Pencilgton, the brains of our guild “Wolfgang” a private message.

However, if I were to simplify the conversation I had with Pencilgton, it would amount to something like this:

Me: What do you think this guy’s deal is?

Pencil: It really depends on the context, but how much of the “expenses” do you think he’s able to cover?

Me: Is that what you’re worried about? I don’t know about travelling expenses, but it looks like he’s really desperate to scout us out.

Pencil: Now I’m glad that I don’t have anything urgent to get done.

Umu, it seems that it is impossible to communicate with a madman in a coherent manner. I then asked him if he was going to ask Katsu for the details as well, but Pencilgton seemed to be as carefree about this as ever.

However, due to me grilling him for a while, I managed to extract the following intel out of him:

GGC…… Or Global Gaming Competition. Just like the name would imply, it was a conference that introduces a vast number of already existing games, games that are about to be published and the ones that are already in the making. One of the biggest events like that out there.

In the past it used to be organized abroad, like in the United Kingdom or USA, but supposedly thanks to the financial power of various sponsors the last two years saw the Convention being organized in Japan. And of course, the existence of ShangriLa Frontier was partially the reason for that state of affairs.

No matter the country of origin or the amount of money pumped into making them, games are just that: games. And when it comes to ShanFro…… Do I have to say anything?

Until the release of ShanFro, the gamedev world was roughly divided into three parts: America when it comes to quality, Asia when it comes to plot and character development and Europe when it comes to unconventional ideas.

In this country, where about thirty percent of NPCs in games are antrophomorsized animals, and the rest is just handsome guys and sexy girls swinging big swords around and casting magic left and right, it took us our sweet time to understand that games in general can be categorized as good and bad.

That is why ShanFro right now is considered as the best example of game development, not only in Japan or Asia, but around the world. In my honest opinion, ShanFro was ahead of its time by like…… four of five generations?

About half a year after the release of ShanFro, many different companies from all over the world started to announce their new titles. Titles that looked extremely alike ShanFro for some reason. Just like the meteor shower that comes once in a blue moon and shines brilliantly in the sky…… I was looking forward to some of those games, I won’t say.

To reiterate, ShanFro is currently doing better than any other game out there in the world, with almost half a million players logging into the game on a daily basis. Whatever system mechanic that was introduced to ShanFro, you could be sure that other games would implement them shortly after. Going back to GGC, I was usually looking at transmissions from it since they would always announce new games there, but according to Katsu the level of this conference was growing better and better with every passing year.

GGC is a huge stage for professional gamers, since lots of companies tend to hire professional players to show their new games on the newest computers and consoles alike. So why? Why was Katsu trying to recruit Pencilgton and I into helping him this year?

「Apparently he is going to play against someone he doesn’t want to lose to no matter what, and he needs our help to avoid losing by forfeit for not having the mandatory members in the team.」

While I was logging out and reading message after message, I couldn’t help but laugh under my nose. Maybe it’s because of the energy drinks, but those things were making me want to laugh even more than usual.

「Now that being said, what to do…… The day after tomorrow, huh?」

Oh well, not that I have anything all that special to do, anyways. It’s not like I need to log in every single day or anything like that. Katsu said that we can discuss the details later inside ShanFro…… Honestly, I had no real reason to refuse.

Long story short, Katsu’s goal is to fill in the missing spots in his team. Still, it was weird of him to think that he would be able to win with a ragtag group of players gathered in a hurry.

I don’t know if it’s okay to let non-professional gamers enter any tournament meant for pros like that, but I also can’t imagine that Katsu wouldn’t think about something as crucial as that. So I don’t need to worry all that much about it.

「The day after tomorrow…… I will need to prepare various things, if that’s how it’s going to be…… Well then, should I go now?」

All that I have planned for today is to try and clear one quest. It should be a whole lot easier than having to forcefully break through an entire dungeon and fighting a Unique Monster along the way. I could also continue to spam Katsu with emails, or even get on the train and go hunt for some more sh*tty games that I could indulge myself in. My options remain open.

The GGC itself will last for about three days, but the exhibition match that Katsu mentioned shall be completed in the span of one day, so it won’t take as much of my time as I was afraid it would. It was also nice that Katsu would cover my travelling expenses, but there was also something else: sometimes just taking a short break from Shanfro wasn’t that bad of an idea.

「I might as well accept your invitation……」

I send an email like that and then start thinking.

「…… Now that I think about it, does that mean I’ll be meeting Towa Amane and Uomi Kei for the first time in real life……?」

Usually meeting a true celebrity would sound really exciting…… but we’re already talking quite a lot via email, so it seemed somewhat meh for me at first. But maybe I could use that opportunity to score an autograph for my sister?