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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 150 Part 2

Translator: Kurehashi Aiko

Editor: ryunakama

Chapter 150: Justice and Evil Running Around in the City of Chaos Part 2

「Do I even have time to choose my favorite character for now? What time is it? …… 9:52!?」

I am supposed to join in with everyone at 10:00, but does that mean it’s the time when the server will be open? Or maybe it’s open even before that time? For the time being, I try to go online to see if it accomplishes anything……

「MATCHED WITH NU2MEG, MOVIN ON TO THE CHARACTER CREATION SCREEN.」

「Naah!?」

The fact that I was able to get matched up almost instantly made me let out a rather peculiar sound. In this game, the character you used in battle the last time around was your temporary avatar, so what greeted me at the character selection screen was the grinning cyborg-man…… No, that’s not all that important right now.

「That name…… I see, I guess I’ll have to prove my worth right here right now, then.」

It wasn’t Katsu, and it definitely wasn’t Pencilgton. Then it was so obvious who I was going up against, and it certainly wouldn’t be an easy fight.

(Natsume-san’s playstyle…… I wonder what it is? It should be different from that of Katsu or Pencilgton…… They can be unpredictable as hell sometimes.)

Now then, what to do? Meetias and Ranzo are relatively easy to use, but PSY Cyborg Road and Cursed Prison are good choices to learn your opponent. Tinkle Pixie is too risky for now, so I’ll pass on her.

「…… Alright.」

“Chaos” is an unknown entity that even Galaxius himself, the creator of everything, couldn’t quite possibly expect. It is the existence that does not desire harmony, but it doesn’t want ruin either. Only chaos. Chaos that you can find solely on the battlefield. That is why it has captured Heroes and Villains alike from all over the galaxy and trapped them inside its own creation, “Chaos City”. Will Heroes of different values be able to work together? Or maybe they will succumb to the Villains who put their own desires in front of everything else? Or maybe they shall work together towards some higher goal!? In this city of abnormality, the Chaos laughs!

This was the current setting and although it looked similar to other fighting games, the rules were significantly different.

First of all, there are two distinct victory conditions. First is knocking your opponent out cold…… In other words, classic beating the living shit out of him. That’s the usual victory conditions for fighting games, but here it wasn’t just about hitting someone until they die.

The other was acquiring the so-called “Chaos Cube”. It is an object that appears somewhere inside the “Chaos City” at random.

Basically, the premise of every fighting game is to fight battles in colosseum-like arenas, but in this case this battlefield was ever changing, being procedurally generated with every single match. It was more like a genuine warzone.

If it was indeed like that…… It may be a good idea to screw the fighting entirely and pick a high-mobility character that will focus on acquiring the “Chaos Cube” as soon as possible. But at the same time I doubt it will be as easy as that.

Depending on the character you use, the player had the “Heroic Gauge” or “Villain Gauge” from the start of the match. And if you fail to fill that gauge, you won’t be able to acquire the “Chaos Cube”. So, what can you do to fill that gauge up? Well, isn’t that obvious?

By the way, if both players happen to choose characters from the same faction, Heroes or Villains may appear on the map as NPCs.

「Now then…… It looks like she chose the Villain characters.」

If a match is between Hero and Villain, the Villain will receive thirty seconds of extra time to prepare. While the Heroes have the potential to make a comeback later on, the Villain could use their extra time in order to set traps or start to accumulate their own gauges.

Although Villains seem to have an advantage from that point of view, the Heroes could employ various NPCs from all over the map to aid them in their struggle. Or they could increase their Heroic Gauge simply by locating the Villains or performing rescue operations for the civilians.

Focusing on defeating your opponent or going for the Chaos Cube…… Rather than a fighting game, it felt much more like a strategy game.

「Umm, excuse me Missy, have you seen any Villains rampaging around these parts?」

「Ah, there was someone like that over there not so long ago! My husband might still be there as well……!!」

「I see…… By the way, is there a candy store somewhere around these parts?」

「Who cares about stuff like that right now!? More importantly, head towards the location of the Nursing Home!」

Yeah, I knew it. The old woman got angry when I asked her such a crazy question. So this must be the essence of this game. Offline single player match…… It appears that even though we are testing the game we can’t access all of its functions for the time being, but we can contact the NPCs without a problem.

Knowing that, I tried out a whole lot of different things. Like trying to keep children hostage with Villain characters. Rescuing people with Hero characters, and even playing in a way that was unbecoming of my specific faction. And here’s what I learned from all that.

At its very core, this game is nothing but a simulation game.