Chapter 149: Reaching For the Stars Part 1

Silvia Goldberg, female, twenty years old. If you ever ask who the strongest professional gamer in the United States is, you are bound to hear her name every single time. She appeared for the first time five years ago at the amateur section of the nationwide tournament.

In that tournament, she managed to win all of her elimination matches and the main matches without losing a single round or shrivel of her HP, and she even managed to flawlessly beat the professional gamers. That victory made her name world-famous, and from that day forward the nickname “Silvi” was forever carved into the minds of the player all around the world.

After her debut, Silvia Goldberg was scouted by one of the best professional gaming teams out there in the United States, “Zodiac Cluster”. Since then in less than a year she managed to raise to the top in that team and formed her own division “Star Rain”, gathering the best players of the best. Fast-forward five years in to the future, and she’s still currently one of the very best players in the world, setting record after record like it was nothing……

「Amazing, talk about the Last Boss character.」

「It’s even better than that. In her whole career she never lost a single round.」

「Ah, I see, I get it.」

In other words it is someone like a Demon Lord who obliterates her enemies in an instant, not giving them time to recover and then eats their remains to be absolutely sure that the threat is now gone. In addition, that expression that I could see in the photo…… It was the face of someone who was crazy strong and she knew it. A Demon Lord who from the first moment she appeared was way more popular than the Protagonist.

「The other members are no pushovers as well, but if you compare Silvia Goldberg to a First Class, then those guys are Second or even Third class at best. No…… It would be something like a Second and a Half class. Yeah.」

「And you said what our chances at winning against here are……?」

「Since I am a professional gamer our chances are not entirely zero, but I’ll be honest with you: things aren’t looking too bright for us……」

「I agree, that would be the case if we were playing a game that was already released on the market. In fact, I’ve fought against her a few times before and the best I managed to achieve was a draw. Everything else, she wiped the floor with me…… But this time around things are going to be different.」

Katsu swipes the tablet’s surface and the picture of the enemy team disappears, with another one taking its place. It was the picture of some sort of game website, with lots of fancy fonts and designs.

「“Galaxia Heroes: Chaos”…… It will be released worldwide this fall…… Which means that it’s not out yet.」

「And it is going to be the game that we will be playing the day after tomorrow during the last day of GGC. This is going to be its official presentation.」

「Seriously?」

Galaxia……? Haven’t I heard that name somewhere before……? Ah.

「That’s the comic books you’ve sent me to read on my way here.」

「Yes, it’s the work based on the latest crossover from the Galaxia universe, where there is no clear distinction in between Heroes and Villains. And its developer is the UES - Utopia Entertainment Software, the studio responsible for the best “post-ShanFro” games currently on the market.」

ShangriLa Frontier, I didn’t expect to hear that name here of all places. I could even feel my own expression under the gas mask stiffen at the mention of the game I’ve been having so much of a blast playing. It appears that this game was much more influential than I would have initially thought.

「Galaxia uses almost the same engine as ShanFro, albeit with some small differences. But still, it is the technology that is severely ahead of its time. UES is currently believed to be the company responsible for the revival of the US school of game development, although some say it’s mostly because of some lucky decisions…… But that’s of no importance right now. What’s important is the fact that this game is going to be completely different from its predecessor - Galaxia Heroes: Burst.」

「Hmm, I see…… I think I know what you’re trying to say. Basically, what you mean by that is the fact that it is going to be a game that is completely unknown to blondie and her crew, the Americans, but for us Japanese it is going to be something really similar to ShanFro…… This means we have the advantage here since we are so used to it by now.」

「That is why, both our team will have the early access to the “Galaxia Heroes: Chaos”…… We will only have two days to get used to it, but since we have been playing ShanFro for so long, we have the natural advantage here. That is the only way in which we can hope to beat America’s number one gamer.」

From Pencilgton’s guess I can roughly guess Katsu’s answer. Long story short, since the technology for this new game is based on ShanFro, just the fact that you play ShanFro can be turned into advantage. And since ShanFro is majorly an “Japanese-only” product, there is no way that American can have that same kind of advantage.

「So that’s the reason why you chose us specifically.」

「Because we have gone through Wezaemon battle together, I am more than sure that your ability is on par to that of professional gamers.」

While saying that, Katsu…… No, professional gamer Uomi Kei had a fearless smile on his lips.

「Well then, let’s start the strategy meeting on how to overthrow Silvia Goldberg and her Star Rain!」