Episode 41: The Birth of Fighting Games (4)
Mond, who was nothing more than an ordinary citizen of the Kingdom of Yustia, had never once seen an elf in real life.
It was only natural. Elves were not beings one could see so easily.
Hadn’t that been mentioned in Author Wei’s new work, [The Elf’s Journey]?
Elves were a race that normally did not venture outside carelessly, and most of them lived in the forest.
They said that even among those grand noble lords, there were plenty who had never seen an elf in person.
So it was hardly anything special that Mond, a mere commoner, had never seen one.
Therefore, the first elf Mond knew of—and the entirety of his knowledge—was the illustration of the protagonist Ophelia included in [The Elf’s Journey].
“Whoa? It’s an elf! An elf really appeared!”
“What? What on earth is happening up front for you to suddenly start talking about elves?
Did everyone drink together or something?”
“It’s true! When he picked the picture shown by the illusion magic, it suddenly popped right out on top of that game machine!
Good heavens, what has Author Wei made this time?!”
“Damn it, I can’t see properly because everyone’s blocking the way.
Hey! Don’t just look by yourselves, show the people behind you too!”
But as could be seen from the commotion around him.
Right now, that very elf was alive and moving before Mond’s eyes.
Short golden hair that just barely reached the nape of her neck.
A lithe figure that hinted at flexibility and springy strength.
And even the pointed ears that could be called the very image of an elf, along with ornaments made of plants, including a flower crown, had been perfectly realized!
“A sculpture? No, this isn’t anything like a sculpture.”
“What kind of sculpture moves that vividly?”
It was not simply a stationary sculpture, either.
It struck certain poses on its own, swayed its waist lightly, brushed its hair back, and more.
It was clearly moving!
If he had not seen its small size and the process by which it had been made right before his eyes.
It was so lifelike and natural that he might truly have believed it was an elf.
Of course, its appearance had been adapted into a cartoonish style, so it was quite different from a real elf.
But to Mond, who had never seen what an elf in reality looked like anyway, that was not an important issue at all.
“He said earlier to choose the warrior I’d play, right?
Does that mean I can move this elf archer? Like a piece in a board game?!”
What mattered was the fact that the elf archer he had chosen had begun to move alive.
And the only thing that mattered was the expectation that perhaps he might be able to control that elf archer himself!
And that expectation soon became reality.
“Of course. This fighting game, [Races Fighter], is a game in which users directly control warriors of various selected races and clash against each other to seize victory!”
“I knew it! I knew it wouldn’t be something you just watched!”
The fighting game [Races Fighter] was, as its name suggested, indeed a game in which users fought against one another.
However, unlike what that fellow who had hired and brought guards was thinking, it was not a fistfight in reality, but a proxy battle fought by controlling the warrior one had chosen.
“You may feel some resistance to the idea of controlling and making human-like characters fight.
But these are miniature golems made with magic and enhanced by illusion magic, so you can think of it as simply controlling a doll or a statue…”
The employee beside him began explaining the operating principles of the game and the matter of people feeling uneasy about it, but in truth, Mond barely heard any of it.
Even if he heard the principles, he would not understand them well anyway and could only think, “I suppose that’s how it is,” and more than feeling any resistance, he simply wanted to play as soon as possible!
“I get it, so let’s hurry up and start.
How do I control it, and how do I fight?
Do I press this button here?”
“That is correct. The buttons on the left are, in order, the buttons that make it perform a hand attack, a kick, a guard, and a jump.
The buttons on the right are the keys that make it move in the direction indicated by the arrows.
You combine each movement appropriately to attack or block your opponent.”
“Like this...? Ohhh! It moved! It really moved the way I intended!”
When he pressed the button according to the employee’s explanation, the elf really did deliver a vigorous kick.
Mond let out an exclamation and began pressing various other buttons as well.
And each time he pressed a button and the elf took a completely different action and motion, a thrilling excitement and anticipation swelled within him so strongly that the corners of his mouth rose on their own.
‘This is insane! Author Wei has made something incredible again! Movements this natural?
I want to hurry up and use these moves in actual combat.’
As if he had read Mond’s thoughts.
The employee sat down on the opposite side of Mond’s seat, and soon a new shape began forming on the stage of the game machine.
“Then shall we begin the match in earnest?
Your opponent will be one of our employees.
It is the first day of release, so everyone is still unfamiliar with it.”
The warrior the employee chose as he said that was a dwarf with bulging muscles and a short stature.
And at the same time as the dwarf slammed his axe down onto the stage with a thud! and a vibration, the crystal balls installed on both sides of the game machine began to emit light.
“Each time you are hit by an attack, the light of the crystal ball will decrease little by little.
And once it goes out completely, you lose. The game ends there.”
“So that crystal ball is my life, huh.
Good. Let’s see whose light goes out first!”
“Haha. Our employee is a skilled player who practiced in advance for today, so it will not be easy.
Instead, he will adjust appropriately and play against you at your level.”
“Hmph! Let’s see how long that composure lasts.”
Twuung—!
The historic first match of [Races Fighter] began with Mond shouting that and quickly closing in to launch the first attack.
When the elf’s surprise kick caused the opponent’s crystal ball light to decrease by one segment, Mond grinned and gained momentum.
“No! Shit! Why didn’t that hit?!
And why couldn’t I block that one, and just got hit?!
I definitely pressed the button!”
“Hehehe. Author Wei, who developed [Races Fighter], proclaimed this to every arcade.
If you don’t know, you have to get hit! You have to learn by getting hit!
So for now, let’s all start by getting hit!”
“You crazy bastards! What kind of shop beats its customers?!
Damn it, run away first!”
Perhaps the claim that the employee was skilled had not been a lie. Every attack Mond threw out was blocked or dodged, and conversely, every attack from the employee landed cleanly with bizarre timing.
In an instant, the remaining light of their crystal balls was overturned, and Mond ended up in a position where he had to flee.
Even running away was not something he could do as he pleased.
The castle wall that served as the stage for the match seemed wide yet narrow, and if he let his guard down even slightly, he could quickly reach the edge of the stage and fall off.
“Ah, if you fall outside the stage, you will be impaled on spikes and die instantly. In other words, you lose immediately.
Please be careful not to fall by mistake or be knocked off by an attack.”
“Then don’t push me toward the edge of the stage!”
“I cannot do that.
I told you, didn’t I? You have to learn by getting hit!
This too is all part of the learning process!”
They said it was a device added because if one could run away infinitely, the game would not end and would become boring.
Thanks to that, his routes for escape were limited as well, so he had to twist his whole body around all the more desperately to dodge.
Compared to how boldly he had shouted at the beginning, it was truly a shabby sight.
But what was even more humiliating to Mond than that was that his opponent was clearly going easy on him.
Unlike the seemingly insane policy of casting “Do you want to get hit?” on customers.
The method was not to beat them up and make them lose quickly, but to truly teach them while beating them.
In truth, if the employee had wanted to end it, he could have chased him down and finished it long ago.
Instead, he was adjusting things so Mond could enjoy the game more and grow accustomed to it.
“Kraaagh! I don’t need this kind of education!
Just get hit! Just get hit by any attack at all... Huh? What was that just now?”
Mond, heated by that consideration, began pressing buttons at random in desperation, and his eyes widened at the unexpected sight that suddenly appeared.
The elf archer, who had only been indiscriminately repeating movement and basic attacks, showed a new motion: flipping backward through the air and firing an arrow from a distance.
“Oh, you have already discovered how to use a technique?”
“A technique?”
“It refers to creating a new action unique to a specific warrior through combinations of the basic buttons.
The attack just now is a technique that only the elf archer can perform.”
And according to the employee’s explanation, it was not some kind of error, but a proper technique.
He said that the true taste of a fighting game was not only basic attacks, but discovering and mastering various techniques to fight.
“I see. So that’s what it was.
Then if I keep running away and only shoot arrows like this, I have the advantage, right?”
While Mond was surprised that the game possessed a far more serious combat system than he had expected.
Thinking that with this technique, he could win simply by running away and firing arrows from a distance, he smiled the smile of victory once more.
However.
“It is good that you learned a technique quickly, but using only ranged attacks as a nasty little trick will not do.
A fair amount of time has passed as well, so before you learn bad habits, I shall end this!”
The pleasant time ended there.
Saying such nasty tricks would not do, the dwarf rushed in at once and drove his axe down into the elf’s head.
In the end, without even a chance to counterattack, all the light of the crystal ball went out.
“No!! Don’t die!”
As soon as the light of the crystal ball went out, the elf archer collapsed in a strangely alluring pose, a sorrowful expression on her face, and began to crumble away and disappear.
Mond, who had become deeply immersed while controlling her with intense focus, screamed as though the elf had truly died.
“No, she is not actually dying...
As I told you, this is a golem.
If you choose her again next time, she will appear again.”
“Ah, right. You did say that.”
Though he quickly remembered that it was a golem and felt embarrassed.
In any case, it meant he had been that deeply immersed in the game.
And although it had ended in defeat, it also meant that he had truly enjoyed that match.
That contradictory sensation of engaging in a bloody battle while his own body remained safe sent a thrilling excitement and heat through his mind.
Even the anger of defeat did not simply become stress, but turned into a competitive desire to fight again and take revenge.
‘And what if I win this time?’
Just thinking of how great the primal pleasure would be from victory in battle, carved into human instinct, already made his head tingle.
To think that one could obtain such an intense and thrilling pleasure of competition without any danger at all.
He reached the point where he could not help but admire how on earth Author Wei had thought of and created such a game.
“Then I’ll go for one more round right away…”
Thus Mond immediately tried to put in another coin and continue with one more round.
“Thank you for your hard work.
Now then, next customer, please come forward.”
“What.”
“What are you doing? Hurry up and get out!
I thought I was going to die waiting for my turn!”
He immediately had his seat taken by the person who had been waiting for the next turn, and learned one fact.
In a fighting game, the loser had no such thing as the right to continue.
All rights belonged to the victor!
In the end, Mond had no choice but to return to the very end of the long line and line up again.
All while replaying the match just now in his head, so that next time, he could remain seated as the victor.