Chapter 215

This is the last of the second round.

===*

The match time is now showing 11 minutes.

The safe zone has been reduced twice, and the scope of action is now less than half of what it was at the beginning.

However, since it will take 30 minutes for the safe zone to be at its narrowest, the match is still only halfway through.

...or it's supposed to.

There are only 14 people left on the field, including us.

This means that 8 out of 12 teams have already been eliminated, and we still have more than half the time left.

But I don't think I need to explain the reason for this.

"UWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

It is because Suu-chan is wasting the battlefield all by herself while laughing happily.

She seems to be very excited today.

"The character Suupaa uses has a back story of being a trigger-happy character like that. In the official setting, she's known as [Ritu the Rampage Ball]."

"Hee. Is there any boost if their personality match?"

"The performance of an avatar does not change depending on the compatibility of the character's personality with the player. It's just a flavor setting. But, well, it is a character that is best suited to go diving alone like that."

Rin-chan, Touka-chan, and I were talking about such things behind a rock a little distance away, being careful not to let the other team take our backs.

"You two, stop chit-chatting and cover us properly!"

Touka-chan shouted at us as she watched us relax. While using the rock as a shield to provide covering fire for Suu-chan

By the way, each player's voice can only be heard by those on the same team. It's all thanks to the team call function that separates a global chat voice from a team voice call.

That's why it's safe for Touka-chan to scream like this or Suu-chan to laugh loudly. Their location won't be revealed because of their voices. It's a little strange though because you can still hear the footsteps of the opponent but not their voices.

"I've got your back."

"But it's just Nana-sama, isn't it? Rin-nee-sama really didn't do anything, did you?

"No, that's not true. I'm watching our's back."

"There's no safe zone left behind us!"

"What if they come through the damage zone?"

"Eh, that's... ahhh, fine!"

I can't help but giggle at Rin-chan's teasing response to Touka-chan.

Since Touka-chan and my backs are on the other side of the rock cover, it would be difficult for Rin-chan to give us protection if they really come from there.

By the way, I took a position on the other side of Touka-chan, providing a little covering fire. But they are not direct shots aimed at the player. I am just shooting off bullets that might hit Suu-chan. {shot what...}

"But still, she's really strange, isn't she?"

As I watched Suu-chan hunt players one by one, I voiced my thought.

"If Nana says that to someone, that's the end for you."

"Why!?"

"I'm kidding. So, what does Nana see as strange in Suupaa?"

"Her ability to search for enemies. I really don't understand how she could pinpoint her prey."

Suu-chan is good, and that's a fact.

Though this might be inevitable, I still don't understand her thought process.

However, I observed Suu-chan more closely than ever since this match started and tried to decipher it.

Suu-chan's search speed is beyond fast.

No, if I am, to be honest, I don't even know if I can call that ability [search] anymore.

How should I put it into words?

It's like... [There is always an enemy where Suu-chan is headed].

I can't see it. I can't hear it. That said enemy is completely out of the search range.

It doesn't matter if they are kilometers away, hiding in a building, or even holding their breath.

Wherever Suu-chan goes, an enemy will be there.

This phenomenon, which can only be described as such, has been repeated so many times that I lost count.

Suu-chan will start to run much faster before I can detect anything. Regardless of the limitation of the game system that makes it impossible to locate a distant enemy, there is always an enemy at the end of her goal.

And most of the time, she will beat them purely using brute force.

The total number of kills she has accumulated this way must have exceeded 15, and that number is still increasing.

The reason we are now in the shadows of the rocks, providing rear support, is not because we are using Suu-chan as a decoy or abandoning her.

It's because she's moving too fast. She was too eager to get the kill, and we simply couldn't keep up with her.

As a result, Suu-chan is now being targeted by four muzzle flashes, and she is in no condition to get helped.

The covering fire we provide (mainly by Touka-chan) could only provide a slight relief, and that's because we are too far behind.

"You did an anti-military simulation at my main family house a while ago, didn't you?"

"I did. It was very hard."

Rin-chan's words reminded me of the time I returned to the main Takajou's house. The time when Toki-san made me fight a simulation battle against an army of 1000 men. It was a painful memory.

It's literally 1000 against 1, and as if that's not enough, from the second battle, you have to start from the point where you don't even get a rifle in your hand. It was a devil-made difficulty. One wrong step, and you're done! That was a trash game. The one that made me retry quite a significant number of times to clear it.

"Suupaa cleared that in two tries."

"Two!? Isn't she too good?"

"She is. And she killed a little over 800 enemies on her first attempt."

That's not an exaggeration to say that she almost had it cleared the first time she did it.

In response to my silent question, Rin-chan nodded her head.

It took me half a day to clear that one, and I heard that Touka-chan also spent a considerable number of days.

Especially on that first try, I was killed in a blink of an eye while I'm still puzzled. To eradicate 80% of them on your first try would be nothing short of extraordinary.

"I had no idea where the enemy might be, but with accumulated knowledge and experience, I somehow know where the enemy is likely to be. But what Suupaa is doing is not the fruit of that kind of effort. If I were to put it into words, it would be something like a sixth sense, wild intuition, or instinct."

"That kind of accuracy is intuition?"

"It's is."

"Hmmm ...... I see."

It is not knowledge.

It's not even about the experience.

It is simply an instinct, an instinct to sniff out the location of the enemy.

And what surprised me the most was its accuracy.

Well, if that's true, it's one of the most dangerous talents in a battle royale.

Knowing the enemy's position also means that ambushes and traps are completely impractical against Suu-chan.

One will try to observe the hear the sounds, see the scenery, and smell the air.

But her ability is fundamentally different. It's not using those five senses to search for enemies.

The supernatural instinct to find prey.

Even when surrounded by numerous enemies and without a single weapon, she has an uncommon talent for killing them all in the most effective way.

And these two talents have meshed together in the most extraordinary way.

That may be the secret of Suu-chan's strength that transcends her player skills.

"That's right, Suu-chan, you are [this side]'s monster, aren't you?"

"Of course she is. Otherwise, I wouldn't have spent a lot of money to scout for her. I wanted that talent, so I forcefully bought it."

"You treat her like a thing... by the way, how much is she worth?"

"12,000 in cash."

"Yikes."

There is no way that the amount is as good as the word. With Rin-chan's sense of money, you need to add four zero to it.

The amount of money is too frightening to scout for a girl still in junior high school, and I got a goosebump just thinking about it.

Where did the money go? Did she pay Sue's parents...? No, I don't want to pursue this here because I feel like I will see a dark side if I continue.

"Well, let's talk about it for another time. For now, I'm convinced by this match. I'm glad I scouted her."

"Rin-chan! Isn't it too early to let your guard down!?"

"It's not too early. Because the match is already set."

"eh? It's already-...? Oh, you're right. we only have three teams left."

Ongoing playtime, the number of people left, the map, and so on. This information is openly broadcasted, so we can be checked at any time in the smartphone-like information terminal.

I'm a someone who pays attention to something like terminal, and I didn't notice it right away, but true enough, we only have that much team left after I confirm it.

But I believe this team number wasn't here at yesterday's practice.

I've heard that this is common in battle royale games like Zero Wars, where the number of survivors for all players is known.

With this, we can assume how many people are left on each team, for example, that there are 9 survivors in a team competition with 4 players per team. And your team still has its members intact.

Once you know that there are only 4 teams left, the possible combination for the other 3 is 3:1:1 or 2:2:1. It would be between those two.

With the exception of Suu-chan, who can turn over a many-to-one fight with ease, Battle Royale is basically a game of numbers.

The advantage of numbers alone is a huge plus.

If there are four opponents left, you need to be reasonably vigilant, but if all the teams have fewer players than you, you just have to make sure you crush them with your numbers.

For the team with that advantage, the game will turn out into a game of hunting down the isolated enemies one by one.

This is why the number of teams remaining is usually not displayed in team battles.

It is the same in Zero Wars VR, and I don't think this was displayed during yesterday's practice or even on the terminal until just a few minutes ago.

"It's a special rule for the tournament qualifiers. The top three surviving teams get to play in the main tournament, so we will know when the winning team is decided. It does not mean that much for the players as it exists mainly for the event organizer." Rin-chan explained.

"I see."

I guess my memory wasn't wrong then.

"Nana, it was written in the rules of the tournament!"

"Then why didn't Touka-chan notice?"

"Because I was busy providing support for Suupaa!?"

"Fufufu. I know."

"Gunununu!"

I guess Touka-chan didn't have time to take out her terminal and look at it. She was busy to held her rifle firmly in both hands and providing covering shots.

I didn't need to take a stance to fire my rifle, so I could at least glance at it.

But still.

I should read the rules properly....

Rin-chan smiled at me as if she could read my mind.

"You should read them, the rules. You don't have to memorize it all, but there is some prohibited act written in them. It would be the worst thing if you break the rules and get disqualified."

"Yeah, I'll be careful."

If you only need to take responsibility on your own, that's fine.

But we are a team.

I should never cause trouble for the team through my carelessness, even more so if it is just a matter of basic rules.

As a team, we should not cause trouble for each other. I was reminded once again that we must have that kind of awareness.

"By the way, why the match didn't end even though the result came out?"

"Oh, that's because the results of this qualifying round will determine the pairings for the main tournament, so the first-place finisher will obviously have the advantage."

"It's almost over, though. There is only one team left."

"Wait, isn't this too soon?"

Looking at the streaming logs at the terminal, I see that Sue has decimated eight players in just three minutes.

It was just a little over a minute ago at most that we were talking about the three remaining teams - or something like that, so she must have killed four players per minute.

It is also surprising that 8 players were in one tight space. However, the strangest thing about Suu-chan is that she only spends about 20 seconds per kill.

Eight dead, six left.

Our team has 4 players left, so there are only 2 enemies remaining.

The team indicator shows that there are only two teams left, so they are the last survivor for each team...

"Oh, Suu-chan started to run!"

"It looks like they're not close by."

"You two are too lax... we need to chase her!"

"OK!"

"Okay, okay."

The three of us chase after Suu-chan as she heads toward the location of the remaining two.

If the distance between the two is even greater than the distance between us, we will not even be able to follow her.

Well, if we really lost sight of Suu-chan, so be it, because we could get a rough idea of where our allies were by looking at the map.

In the end, it took only two minutes. Suu-chan had totally wrecked those two on the exact opposite side of the safe zone.

Thus we come as the victor.

✩

BATTLER - First game of the second preliminary round, F block.

Match time: 16 minutes and 9 seconds.

Teams that made it through the qualifying rounds: [Heroes], [Cheese Shock], and [Geki Mabu Ojisama Bakunin].

===*

With a total of 28 kills in the team, a destructive record.

The debut match of the VR division of "HEROES," with its monsters, came to an end.

A glimpse of Suupaa in her prime.

The biggest obstacle to getting lots of kills in a battle royale is not a skill.