ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

Chapter 62: Momentary Thoughts Part 9.5 Part 1

「Hmm, I know that I logged in just recently, but it sure feels as though I haven’t been here in years.」

Since I more or less fulfilled the requirements for the Gravekeeper fight, right now I was not the Bird-faced Sanraku, but someone else entirely. With the unique quest activated, you could say that I just got a small break. And only one thing to do with breaks…… So I decided to log into “Berserker Passion Online” (a.k.a “Crap”) to see how things were here.

Naturally, Modorokatsu was not here with me. For now, he was still fishing and trying to reach the level fifty. Oh well, Pencilgton is there with him, so it shouldn’t take them that much time to wrap things up there. But still, to think I would come back to “Crap” just like that……

「Is there anyone I can challenge to a fight here…… Ah.」

The reason I logged in here was to seek out a sparring partner, someone who would help me out in preparation for the Gravekeeper fight.

According to Pencilgton’s information, the Gravekeeper has a wide array of attacks that include elemental attacks, insta-kill moves and AoE attacks. If it was indeed like that, then coming to this game was a good choice, since there were some enemies in here that fit the description almost perfectly.

Fortunately, in this game you could re-run any quest, even boss ones, with the assistance of NPCs instead of players, so I was going to do just that.

The last boss of Berserker Passion Online’s story mode, “Crisis”…… If I remember correctly, it was a cataclysm incarnate that stood at the apex of humankind, wielding ultimate power that would be able to shape reality according to his will.

I wanted to warm up before attempting to fight him, but so far I haven’t had any luck with finding any suitable sparring partners.

Well, even though it was summer vacation season, it was still Wednesday morning, so it was only to be expected that there wouldn’t be that many players here…… Oh, no, wait! There’s one! The player with the icon I was looking for!

「Ah, umm, hello?」

「Y, yes! Coming right up!」

I try to talk to that person, and they turned around to face me, looking and sounding startled. Their voice was pretty young, so maybe they are like Katsu? A player that is younger than their avatar looks? I also check the name tag of that player…… “Dragonfly”. Hmm, that’s not a familiar name. At least I don’t recognize it from my time playing this game.

「Umm, would you like to play together?」

「S-Sure! B-but I’m still an inexperienced player, so taking a last boss might still be a little bit impossible for me!」

Oh, but there’s so much more to this game than the last boss, you know? Still, a genuine “new player for this kind of game is something of an endangered species in these times.

Let’s see here…… Ah, yes, it seems that this guy is a basic all-round character. That would mean that he is going to use the most basic of battle styles, which was basically ridden with all sorts of bugs and glitches. However, I don’t suppose that this guy here would be able to utilize the bugs’ full potential as skillfully as Modorokatsu would. It took quite a lot of skills to do that.

「Umm, are you aware of the bugs? Or not really?」

「Bugs……? Ah, you mean the bugs that apply to the combat? My senpai’s told me all about them! So yeah, I do know about bugs! Like the Frozen Earth!」

Frozen Earth……? Ah, is this some kind of new combo that the users of “Bugtudo” came up with? But for now, it seems that this guy bought the physical copy of the game and knew about the bugs, and was even instructed by his senpais about them.

We agreed to have a duel, and then the arena was formed around us.

「Well anyways, thanks for doing this with me.」

「I hope that you will treat me well!」

Then there was the sound of the gong, signaling the beginning of round one of the duel. Let’s gooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

「Uoooaaahhh!!!???」

So fast!? So he’s not an all-rounder but rather a speed type that excels in agility…… Hey, isn’t that a little bit too advanced for beginners to pull off!?

「At first twist your body…… And the strike just like that!」

Dragonfly then throws his fist forward only to retract it backwards almost immediately. He did that because the animation of his fist would be fixed on its initial position, and his arm would now extend just like rubber would as a result…… That was one of the most commonly used bugs around these parts, using the extended textures to extend the reach of your attacks.

「Fuhn, a “Pilebunker”, huh?」

“Pilebunker” was another bug in this game that takes some amount of preparation, but in return would double the range of your attacks and let you dish out double the amount of damage you would normally do. This is what a “Pilebunker” is.

Bugs for beginners…… I don’t know if you could call them that, but they were so easy to use that even the complete newbies would be able to handle them without much problem.

「Toryah!」

Dragonfly finally makes a punch, directing his extended fist straight at me. It flies so fast, like a bullet made out of rubber (Note: Gomu Gomu no Pistol, anyone?).

My general playstyle in this game was based around utilizing my limbs and rarely weapons to counter the enemy’s attacks at the last possible moment, just when their attacks were about to hit. That would always leave them wide open for the counterattack, but required researching every new bug that would pop up now and then in order for me to know when to counter them.

「From a neutral position, jump in any direction with your right foot, and then do a sidestep with your left leg!」

「Arere!?」

As I manage to deflect Dragonfly’s punch at the last possible moment, he opens his eyes wide in surprise. What was even more shocking was the fact that I managed to leap almost five meters forward towards him, closing the distance between us. …… Now then.

「This bug is called “Yoyo”. It causes your avatar to shift every three seconds or so.」

「Ah, my legs are stretching for some reason……」

It seems that his leg joints got buggy. It would sometimes happen when you were moving from side to side or jumping around, and sometimes the probability of the bug happening would raise to as much as eighty percent.

Additionally, I heard from Katsu that recently he developed a new technique, one that would allow you to bypass the opponent’s guard even if his guarding stance was still up. How did he call it? “Shield Bash”, was it? It was a technique that leaves your opponent wide open for attacks…… It wasn’t the level of shenanigans you would expect from sh*tty games, but it was still a lot of fun.

「Hehe, the bugs in this game are not yet on the level that guarantees you a flawless victory!」

「One more! One more round, please!」

Fuhaha! Now I am going to show you! The ultimate “Bugtudo”! A combination of bugs with my unique fighting style!

「I, I can’t win……」

「My Instant Fist Style truly is invincible!」

There were some exceptions to that claim, like Modorokatsu for example. No matter how hard I try to beat that guy, I just seem unable to do it for some reason.

「O, once more! Please, just one more match!」

「Hmm……」

To be honest, I wasn’t at all up for this. After all, I came here to fight the last boss, not the players.

But this game…… It wasn’t ShanFro. It wasn’t even a good game. It was a sh*tty game. It was, and yet, there was a new player here. For games like that, new players were even more valuable than diamonds.

I don’t think that this game will ever experience a sudden popularity boom, but I wouldn’t want to see it become deserted as well. So if I could help out some kouhai players, then it is my duty as a gaming senpai to lend them a hand!

「Fine.」

「Thank you very much!」

Also, I can’t say that it wasn’t fun to play against someone who was honestly trying his best to best me via trial and error.

To tell you the truth, I wanted to see how far this newbie might go…… No, I believe that he wanted to test himself like that as well.

The gong sounded again, signaling the beginning of another round of the duel. Learning from his past mistakes, rather than attacking with buggy arms, Dragonfly decided to approach me at a very high speed. I have already seen him move like that, so I wonder just how was he going to adapt to it this time around?

「Right here!」