Chapter 232

[$10000: what are you doing today?]

"I'm going to play Zero Wars 2 and Maspi for 2 hours each today... heh, is that the highest amount of money you can throw at me, you idiot? And check the schedule section first!"

<LOL>

<LOL, rich people are throwing money at rich people.>

<We're going to do 4 hours of messing around?>

[$10000: It's faster to throw money than open the summary. And I'm not sure you'll have the strength to do that much]

<Scary.>

<Dangerous.>

<My eyes must be bugged>

<The type of person that throws a million yen just to hear the weather today.>

<The usual oil barons are here.>

"Is it possible that all my viewers are idiots?"

<Kuhehe.>

<My ears are burning.>

<If you weren't an idiot, you wouldn't be here.>

<What's the matter? Rinne's a little tense today.>

<Is it because you lost the tournament so badly?>

<She's been on edge every day lately.>

<I'm angry because I hardly practice and lose. LOL>

<I love Rinne. She's such a sniveling small fry.>

<She made it to the final round, so let her.>

<There go all your chances to enter this year's WGCS>

[$10000: There. Take it. So cheer up, loser.]

<↑He risked his life to stir things up.>

<3 million yen in one minute...>

<Which one are you really, an anti-fan or a fan?>

"You know..., I have more than enough money in the world, and if you think you can buy me out for 3 million, I will socially erase you, seriously."

<Hue.>

<Hiee.>

<It's not funny when Rinne says it.>

<I love how she abuses her family's power and money.>

[$10,000: It's so nice to hear a loser's bark.]

<We're gonna get deleted! I'm gonna get erased!>

<This stream is too dangerous.>

<Oil tycoon vs. Super rich High-school girl>

<Please don't beat each other up with wads of cash...>

My comments section was almost like a lawless zone, and while I laughed inwardly, I didn't stop moving my controller.

The maximum about you can donate 50,000 at LIVERS, and only a very few VIPs are allowed to throw more than 1 million yen.

The strict standards make it easy to identify VIPs, and of course, I know who this guy is. He is stirring me up like this because we are real-life friends, and I can just return the favor without hesitation later.

Anyway, it has been half a year since that day.

I had been achieving reasonable results as a streamer, but I had been eliminated from all the WGCS qualifiers for this year.

Well, as expected, the reality is not so sweet.

I had not even the slightest hope of winning the title this year, which still within my expectation.

This year, I participated in the first round of four of the five-game titles that were selected to be a qualifier for WGCS. The breakdown is one TPS, two MOBAs, and one fighting game.

I also applied for the other one, but I did not get selected in the regular draw.

Unfortunately, I had no fame in any of those games, so I had to start from the first round of the qualifiers.

To summarize the results, I made it to the national level in all of the games but lost in the first or second round in all of them, except for [Masterpiece], a MOBA genre game in which I was lucky enough to make it to the final round of the national tournament.

I had to win one of them to qualify for the WGCS. In short, my dreams for this year's tournament were crushed.

"Haa... The problem with big competitions is that they are not remote. I don't have the stamina for it."

<Too weak.>

<That's why you're an idiot.>

<Train properly.>

<You have to have a tournament to get publicity.>

<To make it worse, you compete in four of them.>

<If your stamina can't keep up, maybe you should narrow down your choice.>

<↑Don't be so stubborn.>

"I could have more chance if I... Argh, shit! I lost again!"

<Stupid.>

<That's lousy!>

<Too weak.>

<Too slow.>

<Why are you so bad at TPS?>

"Stop your yapping and give me some useful advice, you useless piece of shi..."

<So sweet.>

<You're just pushing it mindlessly.>

<I'm just trying to inspire you, that's all.>

<We are doing this to get you fired up.>

<↑Hide your true feelings a little bit. Lol.>

"Oh, for heaven's sake, try that once more. I will instant block you all!"

I was honestly grateful that the comment section was full of harsh words. Even though the viewers won't stop bad-mouthing me even when I win, they will try to agitate me to death every time I lose.

By this time, my body was already inexplicably weak. The headaches had progressed into the irreversible territory.

Before this, I had had at least a little pain-free time each day, but my brain was screaming so hard now because I didn't even have time for such rest.

In a day, I could only move around for about six hours, even on days when I was feeling extremely well. It is rare that I can play a game for four hours like I did today.

It hurts. It just hurts. My head hurt so much that it was difficult to concentrate.

In terms of how sick I am, it feels like I have a high fever of almost 40 degrees Celsius all the time. Of course, I didn't actually have that level of fever, but I was sure I had a low-grade fever all the time.

Many times I almost lost the will to take on this challenge.

I had pushed myself to participate in the qualifying round, even though I was still in bad shape.

I said it as if I knew what to expect, but losing so miserably in the WGCS qualifying round was hard enough on my mentality. I was reminded of how high the barriers to the world challenges are when you even lose only at the national level.

If there's somebody to comfort me by saying [it can't be helped] or [let's just give up], I might not have been able to get back up.

But unfortunately, it seems my viewers did not have that kindness in them.

Every time I lose a competition, they will provoke me and send a DM to my social networking account to make fun of me with all their might, and you bet, the next day's stream becomes harsh as hell.

Everyone pointed out my weakness and ineptitude head-on, without a shred of consolation in their words.

Seeing such merciless and unforgiving viewers only made me realize how naive I was.

I have much less time available to me now than most people. The very thought of me trying to beat a top player who spends every waking moment playing the game is nothing but foolish thought.

My body is defective, and my time is limited.

Since I am trying to push through recklessly under such circumstances, I need to practice as efficiently as possible, and I can't afford to choose the means I should take.

My goal is to become the best in the world in the most efficient manner with the least amount of effort possible.

It would be absurd to try to win the competition head-on in a fair and sportsmanship way.

(I can't take the high road to do that. It's a hard truth to realize that my amount of practice is not enough.)

The disadvantages are innumerable. Yet there are certain advantages that only I have.

One, which still barely works for me, is my perfect memory, which remembers everything at a glance. As long as I have this, it is impossible for me to lose in terms of knowledge, no matter how short the time I spent to play a game.

It was ironic that an ability I thought I didn't need in the past would come in handy now.

Second, is my hand dexterity, that also one of the weapons that allow me to compete with the best of the world.

When it comes to the so-called [caracons] {Character Controls} or so they are called, I am confident that I can surpass the best players in any game.

My athletic ability is abysmal, but the dexterity my mother instilled in me is a unique talent that not even Nana could imitate.

Well, it is a pity that it is only effective for a controller and keyboard-mouse operation.

However, it is precisely because of this that I was able to complete the Kurokuro 100% RTA, which makes heavy use of numerous glitches and bugs without no mistakes.

When it comes to RTA, I can confidently say that I'm the best because I operate under pre-determined action and timing in that mode.

Knowledge and control. While I was as good as the top players in these two areas, there was one fatal weakness that came to light in this tournament.

It's my lack of reflexes. When faced with something unexpected, the time I take to take action is far too slow.

It is said that the theoretical fastest human reflex speed is 0.1 seconds.

For example, in athletics, there is a rule that if you start faster than 0.1 seconds after the pistol sounds, you are said to be flying. {probably a false start in English. I cannot find that terms in the track rule book.}

This means that the fastest the body can react after hearing a sound, seeing something with the eyes, or feeling something on the skin is 0.1 second. Whether it is a game or a sport, top players almost certainly have a reflex speed close to this range.

In contrast, my fastest reflex speed is 0.8 seconds. This is laughably slow.

This is the equivalent of standing defenseless for almost an entire second when I got shot from a blind spot or caught off guard in a fighting game.

No matter how much knowledge you have, how precisely you control the game, or how beautifully you play the game, if you are not fast enough, you cannot win it.

That speed doesn't matter if you are playing a game like chess, shogi, or trading card games, where you have a fixed time limit and take turns attacking each other, but in online games where the field changes continuously in real-time, this time difference is fatal.

But no matter how much I practice, my reflex speed will never get any faster. This is a natural 'talent' that I was born with, and it is something that I have always had to live with, along with a constitution that prevents me from playing sports.

That's why the only meaning my practice gives is so I can learn all kinds of situations.

The more situations I learn, the more prepared I will be.

And the more prepared I'm, the faster I can react to that situation.

It can compensate for reflex speed to a certain extent, but if I could do it, so can other players. This is not a good way to close the gap with other people.

(Of course, I cannot lack the ability to improve my skills too. I need to accumulate knowledge and study situations. Even if it means it's not an ideal road I could take. Still, if my ability in the game itself is limited, then the choice left for me is to play outside it.)

Off-the-game battle. It is a psychological battle between players that begins during or even before the game begins.

You can say that it's a brawl of information war.

It is also a kind of off-board warfare to rant and rave against the enemy team before the game or to announce your strategy at the beginning of the game.

By making the opponent agitated or upset, you will gain an advantage by making them lose composure.

And considering the nature of information warfare, it is not a praiseworthy act, especially if you go to the level of actually insulting your opponent.

However, it is certainly a tactic, just as trash-talking is used in sports.

I am playing an online game where the situation changes from moment to moment.

When I am playing in a match-up with a random player, I cannot see my opponent's face, nor do I know who he is. I can read a player's moves if I know him or her, but my brain is not so versatile that I can read the thoughts of someone I have never seen or heard of before.

But. Conveniently, the identity of the people who participate in the game's tournaments is known.

It's not hard to get ahead in that kind of guessing game if you're up against someone you know.

And what if I only know the player's name?

Let me tell you that it was foolish to think you could protect your personal information from the information network that Rinne Takajou has.

I can find out the address, name, background, and everything else with a single photo.

Yes, in this world of esports, what I excel at the most is neither brain nor character controls, but rather my vast assets and connections.

Personnel that can be moved by a snap of a finger. A numerous allies around the world that I can use by calling on Ron, my brothers, and Touka.

What I need more than anything else is not the skill of the game but the information about my opponent. Once I have a deep understanding of my opponents, I can unravel their profiles and trace their every thought.

And what I mean deep is to the point where I could play them in the palm of my hand.

My true goal is not to be the best player in the world.

I want to be a player who knows everything about my opponents, who can read through their psychology, and who storm and dominate the game itself.

If my reflexes are too slow to respond to a dangerous moment, then I should predict all of my opponent's actions.

Just like completing an RTA in a predetermined sequence, I can put the entire game sequence on a schedule.

I take in the data, analyze it, and predict the possible future. That is what my brain is best at.

Instead of practicing to win the game, I need to use unconventional way to understand the world of my opponents.

To do this, I must become a demon who bites and devours everyone, sometimes uttering almost threatening words to deceive my opponents.

It is not enough to just read their psychology. The accuracy of my foresight improves when I can disturb my opponent's state of mind in the most predictable way.

Weaknesses are not to be found but to be created. {tln: you demon}

(I'm glad Nana wasn't watching. This kind of thing would only have a bad influence on her.)

While clicking my tongue, I look at my character, who was killed on the screen.

As long as I respect the limits of my speech, they found this entertaining. I'm not a person who is always gentle with others, and my viewers adapted to me right away.

In addition to that, I am always in pain because of my headache, which makes me grumpy and foul-mouthed, creating a disturbing stream that constantly agitates the viewer.

But the number of subscribers is still growing steadily, so I guess this is the kind of thing that appeals to people who like something radical.

I am a good-looking girl, after all.

This is how the three years of my black history and prime began when I was later called [Monster] and went around wrecking official tournaments in many games.

===*

By the way, Nana's reflex speed is 100 times faster than Rinne's.