CH 204

204 – Suupaa the Phantom Child.

March 30, 2022

tl note: I FUCKING MESSED UP, SORRY!! the previous chapters are (automatically)scheduled because they had finished their proofreading, this one is not. I kinda forgot I scheduled already, again!! sorry!! so, I quickly did some proofreading, please forgive me if I missed something! extra: arggghhh the format is all wrong, and I cannot fix it, oh welllllll extra2: I think I managed to fix it. ===* “I’d like to introduce you, Nana. This is Suupaa.” Rin-chan went to the office’s front door to greet the visitors and came back and introduced me to our last teammate, Suupaa. The first thing I thought at first glance was that she was a big girl, still smaller than Touka-chan, but she’s well over 180 cm tall. Her body is quite stout, and at a glance, she may look even bigger than Touka-chan. However, she does not have a lot of muscles on her, so she does not look intimidating, and her slightly sleepy eyes give her a calm atmosphere. Her hair was in a ponytail and brown in color. It was probably dyed. “My name is Suupaa. and I’m 14 years old.” “Nice to meet yo– WAIT, 14!?” While I had been wondering if we would get along, her surprising words made my eyes widen involuntarily. She is only in junior high school student with this well-endowed physique. Even Touka-chan wasn’t this big when she was in junior high. By the way, her voice is very cute, she’s walking a lump of gap. And there is another reason why I was surprised. “Can you be a pro-gamer with an age under 15? As I know, part-time jobs are not allowed for junior high school students.” “She will be fine if I get her a special pro license, and I’ll make sure to get it.” “I never get one…” “If you are an adult, you can get it just by applying. I’ve registered Nana’s.” “I see.” As it turns out, a professional license is required in order to receive prize money from official tournaments registered with e-sports associations. Well, it still depends on the game, if the game is not registered with an esports association, or if the professional player mainly participates in unofficial tournaments, there are many people who do not have a license. If she received a special license for elementary and junior high school students. It was like an endorsement, saying, [With her personality, it’s no problem to give her prize money.] “I’m sorry I left you alone. My name is… well just call me Nana, I’ll be in your care of you from now on.” “Nice to meet you.” Back to the topic, I shake hands with Suupaa-chan. I’m still a bit uncomfortable to be called by my player name outside the stream. “Suupaa-chan, it’s hard to call you that… may I call you Suu-chan?” “Yes, it’s all right. Can I call you Nana, too?” “I don’t mind at all. We’re going to be teammates, aren’t we? And if we talking about working as a team, Suu is probably my senior, so maybe I should use honorifics?” “No, no, no, I don’t want that’s too troublesome.” The way she declined the offer so sheepishly was so humble that it was hard to believe that she was a girl who had gone abroad to hone her skill as a warrior. When I was working part-time, many high school students were haughty and won’t willingly use polite language with older people. But Suu-chan is different, although she is in junior high school, seems to be the type of girl who knows how to speak politely to older people. Saku-chan was also the type of person who could just go with the flow. Well, it’s the same for me. When I still working part-time, I had never used polite language, to begin with, and in some cases, I even received complaints when I unconsciously use my Keigo. {polite language} And I was able to use it after I was trained by a kind senior to [at least use a polite tone of voice, to fit in the atmosphere] before each day’s work, so I think it’s admirable to be able to use it in junior high school. “It’s not like I’m worries worried, ‘cause I’m sure you two will get along just fine. But if there’s anything you want me to improve on, don’t hesitate to tell me. Nana is also a very honest kind of person.” “Yes, I understand. I will do my best.” Suu-chan nodded her head after hearing Rin-chan words. Although it has only been a few minutes since we met, Suu-chan gives me a very strange feeling. Somehow, her presence is different from that of ordinary people. Of all the people I’ve met so far, she probably resembles A-chan and Kokuyo, but I would be troubled if I was asked how exactly she resembled them. “It’s embarrassing when you stare at me like that.” “Ack, sorry.” Suu-chan looked down a little and I realized that I had been staring at this girl the whole time. “umm… I have a request, can we have a spar first? This is Nana’s first time with VR shooters right?” “I’ve played similar simulations before, but this is the first time I’ve played against other people online.” “Gotcha. I have also seen Nana’s WLO play. you have a smooth center of gravity shift, along with a sense of acrobatics manouver, and precise long-range sniping ability. I honestly believe that Nana has such outstanding talent that I would like to see her come to the VR shooting world.” “Is that so?” “Yes, I am. Nana is the main reason why I decided to participate in the WGCS qualifying round.” Don’t flatter me like that~, Suu-chan apparently values me very highly. However, I am a beginner in VR shooting, and no matter how talented she says I am, I think I will be the one who dragged her down this time. After all, the scale of the competition is so large. I don’t think I can handle it with just a little knowledge that I have learned on the fly. “For now, let’s try out the weapons first. That’s the quickest way to get a feel for it. I don’t know what weapons we will pick up and fight with, but since we don’t have much time before the real competition, I will ask you to decide on two or three main weapons.” “I see… I see…” “Touka will be here soon. I’ve prepared equipment for four in the other room, so Nana and Suupaa can go ahead of me. I’ve already registered you as friends.” “Okay.” “I understand. We will go ahead to the training room, so please join us later.” With a single word from Rin-chan, Suu-chan and I were soon going to take a full dive. ☆ I logged in and landed in a lobby in a spaceship-like area I’ve seen in movies, which was exactly what I remember from the video, there were many gauges and charts but it all seemed to be for decoration and didn’t respond at all when I touched them. “Nana, over here.” “Suu?” A large female character suddenly appeared. I believe the character’s name was [Ritu]. Based on my knowledge of the video, she had an aptitude for medium-range assault rifle-type weapons. There are 12 playable characters in Zero Wars, each with a different specialty and range of weaponry. The weapon performance increases when you have a weapon with a good range, and decreases when you have a weapon with a poor range, so weapon strengths and weaknesses are very important in this game. This dark-haired female character [Rufa], is good with long-range weapons, especially sniper rifles. By the way, the reason I chose Rufa is simple: she was the character I used when I played [Zero Wars] with Rin-chan a long time ago. “Yes. Please follow me, the training area is this way.” “We’re in a boat.” “Right, that’s the stage setting.” I walked along behind Sue, and the moment I stepped into the passageway, I was warped to the training ground. I didn’t see any scenes in the play videos where they bothered to walk to the training area, even in the weapon commentary type videos, they were all always in the training area from the beginning, so this is the first time for me to learn about this method of travel. And when I arrived, it was exactly as I had seen it in the video. There was a section where all the weapons and tools were placed, and the entire training area was lined with targets of various sizes for test shooting. There were high platforms to test shooting angles, there are also moving targets floating in the sky, it seems this training area is designed to be used to test for almost any situation in which a shootout might occur. “It’s quite spectacular, isn’t it?” “It doesn’t feel so once you get used to it, but I was certainly impressed at first. Now, let’s try the weapons.” As if she didn’t have time to spare, Suu-chan responded to my words and immediately went to choose a weapon. “Nana’s choice, [Rufa], is a character that specializes in long-range weapons, but due to her characterization as an assassin who specializes in sniping, she is most proficient with a sniper rifle. You do understand that her quirk, right?” “Yes, I understand the character, and this is still my choice.” “Good to know that. As for Rufa, her sniping performance with a sniper rifle is undeniably top-class. Although it is limited to when a sniper rifle is equipped, it has [reduced recoil], [variable 8x scope], [1.5x headshot damage], and although it requires reloading, [sniper rifle ammunition consumption is disabled]. Is her default quirk. In exchange, a sniper is a weapon that is not good at both short and medium ranges. Because of this, she’s what many users are commonly referred to as [shady players].” “That sounds about right for a sniper though?” “That’s because many people find it stressful to be shot without a chance to retaliate from long distances, the non-sniping aspects of the game are all over the place, so their role tends to be limited in the latter half of the game when playing as a team. To be honest, she is not well-liked in the field and is rarely seen in competitions.” “Well, that’s true.” I already know that trend from yesterday’s video viewing. While there were a number of sniping scenes used as video material, there were almost no competitions or even common game scenes where anyone truly become one. On the other hand, I had the impression that there were too many hates. [If you are going to play seriously, don’t use it, but if you use it for fun, go ahead] I think the evaluation of players to Rufa is generally like this. “If Nana wants to go with that character, that’s fine. Thanks to the fact that Luffa is not good at short-range and medium-range weapons, she doesn’t have to choose a sub weapon, and she doesn’t have to worry about running out of ammunition as long as she uses the snare, so she can take advantage of her good ammunition capacity to carry luggage.” “You mean to use her as a carrier of ammunition and recovery items?” “That’s right.” In many Battle-Royale style shooting games, the number of supplies a single player can carry is limited. The player must select and collect only what they need from a vast array of items, such as ammunition, recovery items, projectile items, and so on. The player can obtain supplies not only from fallen items but also from the opponents he kills, so the best part of this genre is to repeatedly fight battles and improve our equipment as we progress. Rufa’s main weapon, the sniper rifle, does not consume ammunition, so it is easier for her to create an opening in her items compared to other characters. Suu-chan explained that the tactic was to fill this void with supplies for team members so that they could also perform support duties. “Let’s use [DD] first. It’s easy to use and appears quite frequently, so I think there’s a high probability that we’ll have this in the field.” “I didn’t see it used much.” “If anyone other than Rufa equips it, it’s a scrap item, so there’s not many want to use it.” Receiving the rifle handed to me by Suu, I am a little surprised at its realistic weight. This slender sniper rifle [DD] is apparently an abbreviation for [Deadly Demon]. Although it is known for its extremely precise shooting, its power is quite low for a sniper rifle, and its rapid-firing capability is quite lousy, overall its damage efficiency is not very good. Although it has a reputation for extremely precise shooting, it is quite underpowered for a sniper rifle. Even so, its rapid-fire capability is quite lousy, and its damage efficiency is poor. If a character without special headshot damage tries to use this sniper rifle, it would become clear that this weapon is inferior to other sniper rifles. There’s also another weapon like this, it would become [Garbage Weapon] if it was used by other than a specific character, such weapons are ridiculed as [XX exclusive weapon]. In other words, this [DD] is a Rufa-exclusive weapon. The fact that there are sniper rifles that are much more powerful than the DD is another reason why this weapon is said to be weak. “Please aim at the target I will set.” “Okay.” “Let’s begin.” I felt nostalgia for the feeling of holding a rifle as I waited for Suu-chan’s instruction. “First, take the red target on the front right.” “Copy that.” The first shot. To grasp the characteristics of this weapon, I hold the rifle up, look through the scope properly, and fire. The bullet penetrated cleanly through the head of the target. The damage effect is showing [135] in the numerical value, which means it would kill any character without a helmet or bulletproof vest since the character in Zero Wars all had a base HP of 100. However, considering that Rufa headshots are 1.5 times more powerful than normal headshots and still only do this kind of damage, one could say that the attack power is still modest. That is because when your target is wearing a bulletproof vest, their HP is practically doubled. So 135 damage is not enough to kill an enemy in one shot. And that damage only appears after you make a difficult-to-hit headshot. Most of the time you’ll only hit the torso at best, and when you do, the damage generated is at best 50, that’s why they say this rifle had bad damage efficiency considering its low rate of fire. For now, let’s focus on something other than power. Recoil is to be expected. When reloading, the gun will move slightly to the right, but this is also within the expected range. There is almost no bullet shake, and the point of impact is just slightly off the expected position. This kind of minute sensation can only be felt by actually shooting the gun. Well, it’s easy to correct this. “Next, purple, blue, yellow.” “Copy that.” I lined the rifle sights and took the shot in the specified order, for now, accuracy is more important than speed. I think I finally grasped this weapon’s characteristics. It is true that the power is low, but the recoil is also low and the bullets fly as desired. The gunshot noise is pretty quiet for a sniper rifle. My general assessment is that this rifle is obedient, straightforward, and very easy to handle. “Green, red, white, black, rainbow.” “Copy that.” Shoot, shoot, shoot at the designated color target. The bullet passes cleanly through the target. The rifle fits in my hand like a weapon I’ve used for years. Oh, I love sniper rifles. “All bullets hit… Nana, are you really a beginner?” “I’m good at this kind of thing. Always have been.” “It’s crazy to shoot the center of the head with all the bullets without missing a single inch, even though it’s a stationary target. It took me a month to reach that level.” “But you can do it.” “There’s nothing I can’t do in this game.” Absolute confidence resides in Suu-chan’s words. Her eyes were so unwavering that I couldn’t help but feel a thrill in my heart. I do not know much about Suu-chan’s achievements. But I heard that she is called [The Strongest], [Invincible], or [a bug that can’t be beaten even with cheats] in the Internet article that talks about her. And among the videos I watched yesterday, there were quite a few videos of [Try to defeat Suupaa-chan in a random match], and 90% was a record of their loss, so there is no doubt about her ability. I have only seen Suu-chan’s ability from her opponent’s point of view. I can’t wait to see it up close, I honestly want to see it. “Nana-samaaaa!” “Oh, Touka-chan …… ugg.” I caught a girl running as fast as she could through the door connecting the training area and the lobby. Her character is a short one, but it was unmistakably her voice, so it is definitely Touka-chan. “Long time no see! Oh, and you look great in that form…!” “Touka-chan looks so different when she’s small.” “I just thought it would be nice to do something like this once in a while! Also, smaller characters have smaller hit points.” “That’s rather practical reasons.” I chuckle at Touka-chan’s explanation. In this game, the hit points are determined by the outline of the character, so a smaller character will be harder to hit by a bullet than a larger one. This alone is enough to make you think, [The small character has the advantage!] right? But that was not the case, because larger build characters have their own advantages. First of all, the damage caused by bullets is slightly reduced compared to that of characters with a smaller stature. This in itself is a minor reduction, for example, you will take “13 damage” instead of “15 damage” compared to a smaller character. There is another factor that is important. A larger build character can reduce the strong recoil, which is a common trait with powerful weapons, by about 50% have absurd recoil. This makes it easier for larger characters to equip powerful weapons than smaller ones, and also makes them easier to handle. With player skill, it is not impossible to control recoil, but the easier it is to control, the fewer mistakes will be made. That’s why both large and small-statured characters seem to be equally popular. Especially in the higher rank where players will accurately hit the target even if the target is small, so the higher you go, the more popular the larger character tends to be. “Wait a minute. Suupaa, is Nana ready?” As I was petting Touka-chan who latched herself in my stomach and won’t let me do, the last member of our team entered from the entrance. “Her shooting sense far exceeded my expectations, with this accuracy, I can trust my back to her.” “I’m glad it was to your she fit into your standard. Have you finished the test firing?” “No, I’ve only got DD, so I’d like to give the others a shot.” Rin-chan and Suu-chan then continue talking about their plans for the rest of the day. I think Rin-chan is using a character called [Titanion], judging from her clothing, this one seems to be originally a male character, but Rin-chan’s character is definitely a female version of it. That’s because, in Zero Wars VR, there is male and female version for all characters. Of course, there are basic settings such as [Rufa is a woman] and [Titanion is a man]. Perhaps because it was affected by the current trends of VR, which include measures such as these to reduce the discomfort of gender differences. Sometimes when a woman uses a male avatar or a man uses a female avatar in virtual space, she feels as uncomfortable as if she had changed her height by 20 centimeters. When the characters were moved with a mouse or controller, the player was free to use any character, regardless of gender of the player. But with the arrival of VR, there have been many sad incidents of people not being able to use the character they want to use because of the discomfort. It is difficult to adjust the balance if the height is changed as well, so the trend is to allow players to change at least their gender freely. Titanion’s height is about the same as Rin-chan in the real world, and Rufa is about the same size as me, so Touka is the only one of the four with an extreme height difference between her character and her real appearance. “Well then, if Nana finds a weapon that looks good, I’ll match it.” “Okay.” “There are roughly 30 different types of ranged weapons alone. I’ve seen videos of all of them, so I can imagine what kind of bullets they produce, but I won’t know the actual recoil or anything like that until I shoot them, so I’ll have to do some trial shots.” “I’ll do a little test firing too…” “Oh, then let’s have a little mock-match, Suupaa. How about the one who breaks the gold vest loses?” “Sure.” Touka-chan and Suu-chan had such a conversation and hid behind a wall that shielded them from each other. It’s more of a guessing game than a quick-fire contest, isn’t it? It seems that the two already know each other and they were pretty compatible. I feel that I was rather strange because I have never had anything to do with Suu-chan until the day before. “Nana?” “Sorry, I’m coming.” I found out about this after, but until I found a good weapon in the next 30 minutes or so, Touka-chan was completely defeated with about 25 headshots. ===* It was a bit amusing to see Suu-chan poking and prodding Touka-chan, who was wailing after her complete defeat because she was worried for her. As I posted in my activity report, a serialized version of the manga started today on Nico Nico Seiga (Manga). Please read it if you like!
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