Estimated reading time: 6–8 minutes
Chapter 13: Let’s take care of the troublesome stuff
Nearly 1,000 viewers were coming to Hiniru’s stream. Whether it’s because of ‘HAO’, the notoriously good or bad new game that has become famous over the past few days, or whether they were attracted by the name Orange, across the screen Hiniru and the others were desperately running around left and right.
「I searched the west district but he’s not there!」
「He’s not in the north district either! The map in this shitty game is too big. Or rather, hasn’t he already logged out of this damn game?」
Spot on, but no one there knows that. Why the hell are they assuming I’m constantly logged in. Are they stupid? Sure, RPG enemies can be fought morning and night, but why don’t they realize it after 13 hours? As Reina adjusts the volume, she says to me:
「Things like using login limits and whatnot were a clever idea, but in the end they make silly mistakes that ruin plans like this, don’t they?」
「Someone should point it out to them… if they were in any sort of relationship where they’d actually listen and stop this nuisance behavior, they wouldn’t be doing crap like this in the first place.」
「People can’t endure loneliness, so even if it’s a tyrant and slave relationship, it’s not easy to abandon. That might be one thing for an actual relationship, but for one through a screen where you don’t even see each other’s faces, it’s even harder to just see it as ‘that kind of thing’.」
「That’s a line from some manga, isn’t it?」
「Yeah. Well, I don’t have enough life experience to speak about something like this from real experience. I can only borrow others words to try and interpret it.」
「Even what you just said now?」
「Do you think I’m some manga quote reading bot!?」
On the other side of the screen, Hiniru, who has raised the flag of executing Orange, looks a bit impatient. His distinguishing feature is his garish rainbow colored hair. His equipment is a powered suit optimized for high defense, and he has the standard entourage of a machine gun. Most likely he focused his starting money on increasing initial possessions, then poured it into equipment.
Equipping yourself to share combat know-how is an extremely sensible choice, especially in crappy games like this. However, it can naturally also become your downfall.
「It’s an armored powered suit! Kill him!」
「Here they come again! Put up bullet curtains!」
「Judgement lol」
「It’s only natural we can take out nuisance players.」
In other words, it also makes them easy to identify by other players. If you see a group moving together with armored powered suits and machine guns, you know for sure it’s Hiniru’s faction. By targeting them and banding together to launch a counterattack, you have a fairly effective strategy. Because login limitations apply to Hiniru’s side as well.
「I tried changing my PC’s ID number but got shot down.」
「Changing my IP address didn’t work either.」
「This game is shit!」
The devs seem to be working hard in this regard, as I haven’t heard any talk of cheating yet. People in the comments saying it’s a shit game, I agree. Rather than cheating, I think there’s a mountain of things that need improving first. Like not being able to use APs, for example.
After continuously spewing bullets for a while, it looks like Hiniru’s faction managed to fend off the raid by other players. I say “looks like” because their gazes are darting around during combat so I can’t really grasp the whole situation. Well, this is what happens when you show a VR game without any restrictions. Though it’s hard to tell clearly, the sounds of gunshots have decreased, and a tired-looking Hiniru speaks towards the screen. He has an oxygen mask on since he is a Powered Armor Human, but his expression underneath is easy to imagine.
「I, I guess ordinary players aren’t at fault… no that’s just reasoning. Ah, alright! Listen up! I proclaim we have sufficiently punished the general playerbase! However, Orange still remains at large, fleeing from us and evading his crimes!!! Therefore, we will change our shift rotations to monitor the city and specifically target Orange! Share this announcement elsewhere!」
While Hiniru tried hard to phrase it nicely, he clearly lacks the wit to actually conceal that fact. Rather than that, judging by how he words it, hasn’t he simply gotten beaten down by ordinary players?
As Hiniru repeatedly touches his mask, he logs out. The others also leave, saying 「Even if you tell us to do shifts and stuff… well, I might stop by when I’m bored.」 It seems the 13 hours of wasted effort damaged their morale more than expected.
As I look away from the screen, Reina flops down on the bed with an exasperated look. Watching the ultra-fluffy futon envelop Reina makes me want to jump in too, but that would be sexual harassment, so I reluctantly refrain. I really want that high-class bed. I wonder if there are ever cases of them getting tossed on the side of the road as abandoned beds, like stray cats. Well, I don’t actually want to see a bed meowing “nya nya” by the roadside, though I am very curious what that cry would sound like.
Hearing the stream has ended, Reina’s hat bobs up and down as she rolls over. For some reason the hat doesn’t fall off from her mysterious rakish angle as she faces me directly.
「Soooo, what’re you gonna do?」
「Even if you ask me that… I’ll leave it for 2 more days?」
「2 days!」
「I mean, the AP repairs won’t finish before then, will they? Might as well wait until it’s fixed to confront them anyway. The forum people are pretty diligently working on strategies against the Strain too. My job is to operate the AP without taking unnecessary risks, so I can pilot it properly.」
「You just want to play with the AP… I feel sorry for Hiniru.」
Reina directs a pitiful look towards the screen. Isn’t this where I’m supposed to be the sympathetically treated one? Yet this attitude is pretty cruel, as expected.
So in that case:
「I’ll pop in periodically to take a peek. Just show my face then immediately log out… no, that’s not enough, so I’ll mutter audibly, ‘Maybe I’ll hunt 15 Machine Beasts today~’」
「That’s perfect.」
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