Chapter 896 Part 1

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 485: X Day: Countdown! Part 1

The time left since the X Day: four days.

At the current moment in ShangriLa Frontier I was busy advancing my way through the Leviathan-Class starship. However, right now I was sitting in class during a lunch break, watching a certain video on my mobile terminal.

「Hey! What are you looking at?」

「Hey there, Zappy! Gotten yourself a new piercing, I see? Aren’t you afraid that with so many piercing holes you are going to suffer from germ infection one of these days? And this shit can be really painful, you know?」

「Ugiguh! Did you have to remind me? You sound like my Mom!」

「But dude, you have to admire your courage! I mean, to willingly turn your own body into a feeding ground for germs like that…… I would personally never be able to do that! You must have some true balls of steel out there! Or you are extremely tough and stupid. It’s one of those two for sure.」

Also, it should go without saying here, but piercings are generally forbidden in our high school. But the stupidity of wearing piercings is something that not only pertains to school life, but it also projects into adult and private life as well. I mean, aren’t piercings just downright stupid? It’s not normal and smart to just puncture a hole through your own earlobe and risk getting an infection because of a piece of jewelry. Such behavior is the epitome of being self-destructive.

「Ugh, y-you know what!? S-Shut up! Just shut the hell up! Huh, is that video game that you are watching? What kind of a video game is that supposed to be?」

「It’s called Justice Versus.」

「Hmm, well, that title alone does not ring any bells. What kind of game is that? Is it fun to play?」

You are asking if that game is interesting and fun to play? That’s actually a tough nut to crack. Hmm, let me think for a moment…… Oh, yeah, that’s right.

「If I had to summarize it in one sentence, I would say that it is a game that is more enjoyable to watch rather than to play it yourself. Makes sense to you?」

「Hmm, I see, I see.」

When it comes to the games like Justice Versus, there is a really peculiar, or maybe rather specific way for the people to actually be able to enjoy it properly. And in the end I think it is precisely because of that peculiarity that the population of this game dwindled down so quickly and ended up being dead soon after it was initially launched. It seems that there are still some players who are playing it regularly in this day and age, but compared to other games it is nothing all that special or worth mentioning. Besides, it was only when it was first vastly populated that it was worth seeing this game in action.

While removing the plastic packaging from the rice balls that I have previously bought at the school’s cafeteria I place my mobile device on my desk and let the video play, just so that my friend would be able to see its contents as well. He might have been just a fool who would get as many piercings as he could and tried to hide it by putting band-aids over his earlobes, but deep down inside he was a good guy. Or at the very least that was the impression I was getting of him.

「I’ll be completely honest with you here: the battles certainly look flashy enough, but I don’t really understand what is going on on the screen for most of the time. Think you could give me some explanation? Preferably in layman’s terms?」

「Oh, it may look needlessly complicated, but it’s all really simple when you think about it. You see, first you knock back your opponent with a quick series of eight small custom attacks, and then you use your gauge technique to juggle them off the ground and send them in mid—air to……」

「Yeah, I really appreciate the comment, but what do all those terms even mean? Juggle? Gauge Technique? Custom attacks……? Further explanation is needed here!」

「Okay, so basically it’s like this: first you just pressure your opponent into a corner, then you just go ham on them with a series of quick and short attacks, then you just do a hook kick to knock them off balance and send them to the ground, and finally you use you special attack to send them in the air and keep them there for the rest of your combo’s duration. All clear now?」

「No, not really. I get the feeling that you are trying to summarize it as best as possible, but I can’t see that summarization at all. Can’t you make it even simpler?」

For a guy who seems to not know anything at all, he sure has a large amount of requests, huh……?

「In games like that, or fighting games in general, the one to win is the one who beats the shit out of their opponent first, right? However, with games like this one you can certainly leave it to the players to be able to find an alternative way to have their fun with it.」

And that other way to have fun is the main reason why Justice Versus is considered to be such a masterpiece. However, even someone like me, a person who is not all that good with controller-based games to begin with, can see and understand that. That is why even as simple of an activity as watching someone else having a go at it was more than enough to make it interesting and entertaining. And making just the spectacle enjoyable for the viewers is an art in and out of itself.

「You’re not making this easy for me, you know that, Zeppy? Well, so to put it in simpler terms, that won’t actually end up sounding offensive? Ah, I know! It’s like with popular kids at school, you know? The more flashy and effective your behavior and attacks, the more popular you are going to be?」

「Ahh, ohhh, now I get it! So, it’s all about an artistic approach or a creative point of view, right?」

I mean…… something like that? I get the feeling that this explanation was kind of right, but that it was also kind of wrong at the same time. I think that to myself while I take a bite out of the yakisoba bread that I also happened to have bought in the school’s cafeteria, at the same time watching the video of a female fighter dodging and attack by turning herself into a storm of cherry blossom petals and then slamming her opponent down in a counterattack.

Because the thing is, the main selling point of Justice Versus is that almost everything in this game can be personally customized: appearance, voice lines, normal attacks, grab attacks, even special attacks and finishing moves.

There is literally everything in this game: from boxing to rocket punching, one fist moves, two fist moves, fully controlled special attacks, homing attacks…… you name it, there is a huge probability that the game’s arsenal has it and will allow you to use it.

Now, strictly speaking, the video we are currently watching is not your typical gameplay showcase, but rather the showcase of many of the awesome trick combos that the players managed to come up with. There are also videos showcasing the player’s hands on the controller and how they behave during a combo, but it’s something so bizarre and horrifyingly unique that I steer clear of it. Because for those guys they hold the controller in the weirdest of ways and each of their fingers behave like a separate sentient human being.

As if they were genetically modified in a lab somewhere to do nothing else but those things in particular.