Chapter 44 : FIerce Tournament Begin From Two

Since Aoi-san couldn’t log in today due to a family matter, I decided to do a night stroll around Shimabara . It’s not like I want to go wild with a stolen motorcycle nor do I want to smash the windows at the school . Somehow, I just want to enjoy a peaceful night stroll . No clear reason for that though .

Maybe because it hasn’t been too long since the release of the Nagasaki area, but Shimabara city is still as prosperous as Naha city . Even now I can still hear the voices of pa.s.sersby . It’s definitely not because of a skill that strained my ears which I learned from my pop . Yeah, definitely not that .

「It seems that recently those PK guilds have become more active around this city . 」

「That girl is sooo cute!」

「D^mmit, my mone~y! Did I make some kind of mistake when I upgraded my equipment?」

「The girls-only group is recruiting members wearing cat ears! Please, please call me~~」

「Why is there only “Tawawa” written on the impression column…」 [TL : Getsuyoubi no tawawa]

「My battle power is 53000!」 [TL : It’s over 9000!]

「There’s a lot of anime now . 」

Wait a minute, it seems that there are some words which I can’t ignore . . YEAH, THAT “CAT EARS” . I wonder if they’re going to approach me .

After walking aimlessly without any particular goal in mind, I discovered a certain group of people shouting loudly with megaphones in the middle of a plaza that had a water fountain .

「THE MARTIAL ARTS TOURNAMENT SPONSORED BY THE GUILD WILL BEGIN IMMEDIATELY! TO THOSE INTERESTED, PLEASE GATHER IN THE THIRD ARENA!」

Hou, a martial arts tournament huh? That sounds interesting… Just at the right time, I want to measure how powerful I really am in this game . After deciding so, I headed toward the third arena in which they held the martial arts tournament .

Events in this game are separated by two main types . Official events made by the management side, and unofficial events hosted by the players .

The management’s official events are usually huge events with huge amounts of prize money and many partic.i.p.ants in it . And with those people personalities, the probability of them holding such an event is as low as winning the lottery . Basically, they’re more than competent to hold such events .

On the contrary, unofficial events sponsored by players vary in regard to content and scale, in accordance to the sponsor . Moreover, events sponsored by big guilds also have many entrants due to the big prizes, and the atmosphere in many cases won’t lose to official events .

Though events sponsored by middle cla.s.s guilds and below don’t usually have that much of a prize, from the personal opinions of players, they have their own charms due to the diversity .

Since the event being held right now is being sponsored by a guild, it must be an unofficial event . I don’t know how big this event would be, but I’ll know when I arrive there .

After arrived in the third arena, the guild members of the sponsor guild move quickly to guide those who are interested in partic.i.p.ating the event . Naturally that includes me .

Thirty minutes before the event began, we were briefed again about the content of the event in the waiting room meant for partic.i.p.ants .

It’s a tournament with a knock out format . Due to the number of entrants, I have to win seven fights to get the championship . The time limit for each match is 3 minutes, and if there’s no winner, the side with more HP left becomes the winner automatically . It’s simple and easy to understand since there’s no limitation for weapons were informed .

The prize prepared for the champion and the 2nd place was an amount that is enough to charm me . Based on the scale of this event, the sponsor guild itself is most likely from the higher ranks of the middle rank guilds .

Some people in the waiting room were holding onto a piece of paper with the content of the event written on it, similar to me . Worse of all, the people where showing off their communication power by greeting other players . Though I’m 100% aware that I severely lack the courage to greet other players, it’s not like such courage doesn’t appear in me . Fighting the Jiisha is a way simpler task than this for me . Thus for me, this place is no different from torture room .

「You’re an entrant too right? Please take care of me if we met during the match!」

The one who greeted me with a wriggling gesture was a cute woman with light brown hair that was tied into a pigtail . Even though she appeared to be a college student or a high school student at a glance due to her dainty frame, I feel a strange feeling as if it’s something that had piled up over the years . She might be a lightweighted swordswoman, seeing her set of gauntlets and a leather breastplate . But then again, her frillies attire is dulling my judgement .

「Ah, yeah . Please take care of me too . 」

Though a girl finally came to greet me, the clumsy me didn’t even know how to reply appropriately .

「My name is Yuki Hime . I’m not very confident about my own skill, but let’s do our best!」

Right . What a beauty and yet, she’s a different type of beauty from Aoi-san and Midori-san .

「My name is Sou . My best regards . 」

Afte Yukihime-san flashed a whole face smile to me, she went to greet other partic.i.p.ants . Her communication power level is very through the roof…

『Well then everyone, the first match is, contestant Sou versus contestant Yukihime!』

Oh c.r.a.p . I mean, seriously? How do they expect me to point my gun toward a woman . No, for some reason it’s not like I don’t want to do that .

『And now, I, Sasami[Chicken tenderloin] will be doing the reporting live, and our commentator Seseri-san[chicken neck] will do the explanations . Well then Seseri-san, where do you think the key of winning this match is?』

『Let see~ . Contestant Sou is a gunner, and since contestant Yukihime is a lightweight swordswoman, the key of this match might lie in whether she can breakthrough her opponent’s shooting range . 』

『I see, in short, contestant Sou will be in deep s.h.i.t as long as Yukihime manages to enter his gap and drag him down to her own playstyle . 』

WUT? Despite having yet done anything, the audience―― especially the male audience―― are giving jealous stares . It feels like they’re trying to kill me with only their stare . No, it’s not just my imagination, I can hear their jeers…

『It turns out this way huh . This is the place where we’re going to witness the true nature of contestant Sou!』

No, this is a ring match right!? But then since I’ve never appeared on a stage before, is it usually this lively!?

『Well then, will contestant Yukihime manage to get closer to her opponent? OR WILL CONTESTANT SOU LET US WITNESS HIS Sc.u.mBAG NATURE! ATTENTION AAAAND, STAAAART!』

Why have things turned out this way?

「It seems that you are being jeered by them . You’ll ignore them for me right, Sou-san?」

Ooh, what girl . She’s really a nice girl .

「But then, I can also attack as long as I’m within this area!」

E-Eh?

「Because a lot of people here are my fans, you’ll become famous if you can beat me fair and square . Fufufufu…」

Ah, that’s what she means huh…

After saying so, Yukihime starts attacking from the front . The speed isn’t that of a dainty woman though, it’s the speed of a professional athlete . Well, she’s full of openings though .

I clasped my gun, aimed for her right ankle, and shot my bullets at her with a composed pace . You might call this a gap, but this is by no mean cowardice or unfair . If I don’t shoot at her, this won’t turn into a fight . Since I don’t have any other choice, there will be no sympathy for her . But, the scene unfolding in front of me was her dodging my bullet by reading the trajectory of my line of fire .

『OOOH, contestant Sou just proved himself as a living sc.u.mbag . But, this is surprising . Contestant Yukihime managed to dodge the bullets and is closing the distance between them . Seseri-san, this is…』

『Yeah this is 【Willow】 , a dodging art to counter ranged opponents . For a close combat type job, it’s a must have skill for PvP . Now contestant Sou is in pinch!』

「Hee, not bad . Well then, how about this?」

I shortened the time for me to aim and pulled the trigger faster than the previous shots .

『Ooh, contestant Yukihime is also able to dodge this one! No, didn’t it graze her skin just now? 』

I see, now I’ve come to understand the skill in general . The time it took me to aim and press the trigger in the first shot was 3 second, and she completely dodged it . The second shot took 1 second, and it grazed her skin . The way that art works might be by predicting a series of shooting motion and aim which takes more than 1 seconds .

「――In that case! 」

I pulled out another gun and flashed it to the side, before following up by pressing the triggers of both guns at the same time . Both bullets gave her no chance to dodge and buried into her left and right leg .

『OOOH, HE MANAGED TO LAND A HIT ON HER NOW! BUT THEN, WHAT WAS THAT SHOT JUST NOW!? WAS THAT A KIND OF ART? 』

It’s not the one of course .

『BUT CONTESTANT YUKIHIME WON’T JUST STAND STILL! HE’S ALREADY WITHIN THE RANGE OF HER SWORD . DO YOUR BEST CONTESTANT YUKIHIME! 』

Oi, commentator… Oh, whatever . Let’s do close combat then, as you wish .

「――YAAAAAAH! 」

Moreover, the one standing before me wasn’t the impish girl from before . She is now a swordswoman with a blazing fire in her eyes . The sword that she drew from its sheath draws a beautiful arc .

「――Oops!」

The sword was drawn three times, with the first slash cutting off a few of my bangs, and the other two cutting the empty air . Her attacks are much sharper than Shinji’s blade attack . Well then, it’s my turn .

I swung my knife to her abdomen, which exposed after her attack . I expected her to use a counter art or dodge if possible but―― Let’s see how she dealt with this .

Both of my prediction were wrong, in a good direction .

「So you stopped my attack by using your kneel to flick my hand . Oneesan, who are you really? 」

「Shouldn’t I be the one to say that? Aren’t you supposed to be a gunner, Sou-kun? Well, aren’t you using a knife now . 」

It seems that I’m underestimating her . The sword skills she used at first was the available programmed arts but the last one should be her own maneuver . Her knee strike just now was too beautiful to be considered as a programmed movement . This person has definitely learned some sort of martial art . Moreover, quite a practical one at that .

「What… Aren’t you quite strong yourself even without those cheap tricks?」

She’s not all bark and no bite at all I guess .

Chapter 44 : FIerce Tournament Begin From Two.

 .

Since Aoi-san couldn’t log in today due to a family matter, I decided to do a night stroll around Shimabara . It’s not like I want to go wild with a stolen motorcycle nor do I want to smash the windows at the school . Somehow, I just want to enjoy a peaceful night stroll . No clear reason for that though

 .

Maybe because it hasn’t been too long since the release of the Nagasaki area, but Shimabara city is still as prosperous as Naha city . Even now I can still hear the voices of pa.s.sersby . It’s definitely not because of a skill that strained my ears which I learned from my pop . Yeah, definitely not that

 .

「It seems that recently those PK guilds have become more active around this city . 」.

 .

 .

「That girl is sooo cute!」.

 .

「D^mmit, my mone~y! Did I make some kind of mistake when I upgraded my equipment?」.

 .

「The girls-only group is recruiting members wearing cat ears! Please, please call me~~」.

 .

 .

「Why is there only “Tawawa” written on the impression column…」 [TL : Getsuyoubi no tawawa].

 .

「My battle power is 53000!」 [TL : It’s over 9000!].

 .

「There’s a lot of anime now . 」.

 .

Wait a minute, it seems that there are some words which I can’t ignore YEAH, THAT “CAT EARS” . I wonder if they’re going to approach me

 .

After walking aimlessly without any particular goal in mind, I discovered a certain group of people shouting loudly with megaphones in the middle of a plaza that had a water fountain

 .

「THE MARTIAL ARTS TOURNAMENT SPONSORED BY THE GUILD WILL BEGIN IMMEDIATELY! TO THOSE INTERESTED, PLEASE GATHER IN THE THIRD ARENA!」.

 .

 .

Hou, a martial arts tournament huh? That sounds interesting… Just at the right time, I want to measure how powerful I really am in this game . After deciding so, I headed toward the third arena in which they held the martial arts tournament

 .

Events in this game are separated by two main types . Official events made by the management side, and unofficial events hosted by the players

 .

The management’s official events are usually huge events with huge amounts of prize money and many partic.i.p.ants in it . And with those people personalities, the probability of them holding such an event is as low as winning the lottery . Basically, they’re more than competent to hold such events

 .

On the contrary, unofficial events sponsored by players vary in regard to content and scale, in accordance to the sponsor . Moreover, events sponsored by big guilds also have many entrants due to the big prizes, and the atmosphere in many cases won’t lose to official events

 .

Though events sponsored by middle cla.s.s guilds and below don’t usually have that much of a prize, from the personal opinions of players, they have their own charms due to the diversity

 .

Since the event being held right now is being sponsored by a guild, it must be an unofficial event . I don’t know how big this event would be, but I’ll know when I arrive there

 .

After arrived in the third arena, the guild members of the sponsor guild move quickly to guide those who are interested in partic.i.p.ating the event . Naturally that includes me

 .

Thirty minutes before the event began, we were briefed again about the content of the event in the waiting room meant for partic.i.p.ants

 .

It’s a tournament with a knock out format . Due to the number of entrants, I have to win seven fights to get the championship . The time limit for each match is 3 minutes, and if there’s no winner, the side with more HP left becomes the winner automatically . It’s simple and easy to understand since there’s no limitation for weapons were informed

 .

The prize prepared for the champion and the 2nd place was an amount that is enough to charm me . Based on the scale of this event, the sponsor guild itself is most likely from the higher ranks of the middle rank guilds

 .

Some people in the waiting room were holding onto a piece of paper with the content of the event written on it, similar to me . Worse of all, the people where showing off their communication power by greeting other players . Though I’m 100% aware that I severely lack the courage to greet other players, it’s not like such courage doesn’t appear in me . Fighting the Jiisha is a way simpler task than this for me . Thus for me, this place is no different from torture room

 .

「You’re an entrant too right? Please take care of me if we met during the match!」.

 .

The one who greeted me with a wriggling gesture was a cute woman with light brown hair that was tied into a pigtail . Even though she appeared to be a college student or a high school student at a glance due to her dainty frame, I feel a strange feeling as if it’s something that had piled up over the years . She might be a lightweighted swordswoman, seeing her set of gauntlets and a leather breastplate . But then again, her frillies attire is dulling my judgement

 .

「Ah, yeah . Please take care of me too . 」.

 .

Though a girl finally came to greet me, the clumsy me didn’t even know how to reply appropriately

 .

「My name is Yuki Hime . I’m not very confident about my own skill, but let’s do our best!」.

 .

Right . What a beauty and yet, she’s a different type of beauty from Aoi-san and Midori-san

 .

「My name is Sou . My best regards . 」.

 .

Afte Yukihime-san flashed a whole face smile to me, she went to greet other partic.i.p.ants . Her communication power level is very through the roof….

■　□　■　□　■.

 .

『Well then everyone, the first match is, contestant Sou versus contestant Yukihime!』.

 .

Oh c.r.a.p . I mean, seriously? How do they expect me to point my gun toward a woman . No, for some reason it’s not like I don’t want to do that

 .

『And now, I, Sasami[Chicken tenderloin] will be doing the reporting live, and our commentator Seseri-san[chicken neck] will do the explanations . Well then Seseri-san, where do you think the key of winning this match is?』.

 .

『Let see~ . Contestant Sou is a gunner, and since contestant Yukihime is a lightweight swordswoman, the key of this match might lie in whether she can breakthrough her opponent’s shooting range . 』.

 .

『I see, in short, contestant Sou will be in deep s.h.i.t as long as Yukihime manages to enter his gap and drag him down to her own playstyle . 』.

 .

WUT? Despite having yet done anything, the audience―― especially the male audience―― are giving jealous stares . It feels like they’re trying to kill me with only their stare . No, it’s not just my imagination, I can hear their jeers….

 .

『It turns out this way huh . This is the place where we’re going to witness the true nature of contestant Sou!』.

 .

No, this is a ring match right!? But then since I’ve never appeared on a stage before, is it usually this lively!?.

 .

『Well then, will contestant Yukihime manage to get closer to her opponent? OR WILL CONTESTANT SOU LET US WITNESS HIS Sc.u.mBAG NATURE! ATTENTION AAAAND, STAAAART!』.

 .

Why have things turned out this way?.

 .

「It seems that you are being jeered by them . You’ll ignore them for me right, Sou-san?」.

 .

Ooh, what girl . She’s really a nice girl

 .

「But then, I can also attack as long as I’m within this area!」.

 .

E-Eh?.

 .

「Because a lot of people here are my fans, you’ll become famous if you can beat me fair and square . Fufufufu…」.

 .

Ah, that’s what she means huh….

 .

After saying so, Yukihime starts attacking from the front . The speed isn’t that of a dainty woman though, it’s the speed of a professional athlete . Well, she’s full of openings though

 .

I clasped my gun, aimed for her right ankle, and shot my bullets at her with a composed pace . You might call this a gap, but this is by no mean cowardice or unfair . If I don’t shoot at her, this won’t turn into a fight . Since I don’t have any other choice, there will be no sympathy for her . But, the scene unfolding in front of me was her dodging my bullet by reading the trajectory of my line of fire

 .

『OOOH, contestant Sou just proved himself as a living sc.u.mbag . But, this is surprising . Contestant Yukihime managed to dodge the bullets and is closing the distance between them . Seseri-san, this is…』.

 .

『Yeah this is 【Willow】 , a dodging art to counter ranged opponents . For a close combat type job, it’s a must have skill for PvP . Now contestant Sou is in pinch!』.

 .

「Hee, not bad . Well then, how about this?」.

 .

I shortened the time for me to aim and pulled the trigger faster than the previous shots

 .

『Ooh, contestant Yukihime is also able to dodge this one! No, didn’t it graze her skin just now? 』.

 .

I see, now I’ve come to understand the skill in general . The time it took me to aim and press the trigger in the first shot was 3 second, and she completely dodged it . The second shot took 1 second, and it grazed her skin . The way that art works might be by predicting a series of shooting motion and aim which takes more than 1 seconds

 .

「――In that case! 」.

 .

I pulled out another gun and flashed it to the side, before following up by pressing the triggers of both guns at the same time . Both bullets gave her no chance to dodge and buried into her left and right leg

 .

『OOOH, HE MANAGED TO LAND A HIT ON HER NOW! BUT THEN, WHAT WAS THAT SHOT JUST NOW!? WAS THAT A KIND OF ART? 』.

 .

It’s not the one of course

 .

『BUT CONTESTANT YUKIHIME WON’T JUST STAND STILL! HE’S ALREADY WITHIN THE RANGE OF HER SWORD . DO YOUR BEST CONTESTANT YUKIHIME! 』.

 .

Oi, commentator… Oh, whatever . Let’s do close combat then, as you wish

 .

「――YAAAAAAH! 」.

 .

Moreover, the one standing before me wasn’t the impish girl from before . She is now a swordswoman with a blazing fire in her eyes . The sword that she drew from its sheath draws a beautiful arc

 .

「――Oops!」.

 .

The sword was drawn three times, with the first slash cutting off a few of my bangs, and the other two cutting the empty air . Her attacks are much sharper than Shinji’s blade attack . Well then, it’s my turn

 .

I swung my knife to her abdomen, which exposed after her attack . I expected her to use a counter art or dodge if possible but―― Let’s see how she dealt with this

 .

Both of my prediction were wrong, in a good direction

 .

「So you stopped my attack by using your kneel to flick my hand . Oneesan, who are you really? 」.

 .

「Shouldn’t I be the one to say that? Aren’t you supposed to be a gunner, Sou-kun? Well, aren’t you using a knife now . 」.

 .

It seems that I’m underestimating her . The sword skills she used at first was the available programmed arts but the last one should be her own maneuver . Her knee strike just now was too beautiful to be considered as a programmed movement . This person has definitely learned some sort of martial art . Moreover, quite a practical one at that

 .

「What… Aren’t you quite strong yourself even without those cheap tricks?」.

 .

She’s not all bark and no bite at all I guess