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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 552 Part 2

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 552: Freshly Reincarnated Supernova Part 2

I once even encountered an opinion on the Internet that this game was basically a VR version of a planetarium with a whole lot of extra functions and expansions. However, while I might be willing to agree that this opinion is very much true, I also need to say something else: when it comes to both the fun factor and the price factors, those two things are totally not balanced in the case of this game! But hey, what can you do about it, huh? Yeah, that’s right –– a whole bunch of nothing!

「W-Well, you know, that’s right, hmm…… I honestly think that this is a game that has the potential to awaken someone playing it to the glory and wonders of philosophy.」

「Philosophy……? Really? That’s…… That’s unexpected.」

Yes, that’s right. Philosophy. It may sound strange if you have only heard about that game and have not experienced it for yourself. But once you do, it would all become crystal clear to you, so no real explanation would be needed here.

However, that’s not all. No, you would like that, huh? Well, it turns out that there is more to this game than I thought there would be. Because the game also happened to have an extra content to it, for which the players were required to pay additional money. Seems like your typical cash—grab from a greedy developer who wanted to squeeze out as much money from their player base as they possibly could while the game was still doing relatively well on the market, right? So, there should be no surprise if a game like that ended its services long ago and was deemed a failure, right? Well, no. Actually, that’s not what happened here. Actually, the game was still going with its services. And what’s more, it was holding itself way better than anyone would have thought it would be at this point in time…… Hmm?

「Huh? Whoa, won’t you look at that? It seems that there has even been an update for this game while I wasn’t looking.」

「An update? Some sort of a major one?」

「Uwah, and what’s this? Those guys actually went and did it! The whole game system has been updated and revamped all the way from the ground up!」

For you see, in the Galaxy Sheet Labeler the players are assigned the fixed role of the “Captain” and given a specific purpose: to operate the starship’s various systems and give commands to the crew of NPCs that are under the Captain’s rule. But even though you can issue orders, the NPCs can still mess them up, which leads to a whole lot of unnecessary frustration. The NPCs can also forget the very basics of their training, which also leads to a whole lot of unnecessary frustration. The NPCs can even insult alien races with racist remarks on their very first contact, which can even lead to a great galactic war, which leads to a…… whole lot of unnecessary frustrations. And the cherry on top of this cake of frustration? If the NPCs start feeling dissatisfied with you as their leader, they can even instigate a revolt around the ship.

However, now that I am looking things up, it seems that some sort of a major update happened a few weeks back. And this update was absolutely huge, for most part getting rid of all of the cursed limitations and bugged functions that were making the lives of the Captain/Players so miserable before. Apparently now the Player could really feel like a genuine captain of a spaceship, without having to constantly worry of being overthrown or dying to alien attacks as a result of a tragic misunderstanding. Specifically, it seems that now the players can participate themselves in space battles, and while meeting the new alien races they can act as envoys or negotiators……

「Huh? What the, this is…… This thing is pretty damn interesting! I need to investigate this further some more……!」

「Ahh, umm, this is……」

Uwah, and won’t you look at that!? There is no longer a ban on outfitting your ship with parts acquired from the alien vessels as a result of interstellar combat!? Even on those stupidly overpowered chocolate-colored lasers that were so devastating and those shield generators that tend to reflect even the heaviest of gunfire back towards the vessel that fired them in the first place!? What the hell happened to you, Supernova!? Did you experience a near-death experience? Or were you on the brink of going bankrupt but then managed to make a miraculous comeback!? For you guys to start listening to what the players have to say, and doing so completely free of charge…… Impossible! Preposterous, even!

「Uwah…… No, seriously……!? Even something quite like this……!?」

「Ah, umm! Rakuro-kun!」

「HUH!?」

Oh shit! Oh fuck! This is not good! This is not good at all! I was so immersed in my own memories of Galaxy Sheet Labeler that I have completely forgotten about anything else and even managed to ignore Saiga-san as a result of that! This is seriously not good! I need to do something to somehow mitigate this situation! And I need to do this fast!

「Ah! I’m so sorry, Saiga-san! This news caught me completely off guard and before I even knew it I was off into my little world on my own……!」

「Ah, no, it’s not that, I’m also sorry for shouting a little bit like that myself…… Umm, look, it’s just that…… Seeing just how it got you all worked up like that, I guess that you can say that this game if fairly interesting, right?」

「Ahh, umm, y-yeah, I guess that you could certainly say that……? It’s just that…… Seeing all of this so suddenly is actually making me feel pretty worried, you know?」

I have played many shitty games in my life. And I have also played a whole lot of decent games that managed to devolve into shitty games over time…… But seeing a shitty game that actually started to solve all of its problems and was on its way to become decent? That’s news to me. But, on the other hand, I have seen cases where freshly devolved shitty games managed to retain its enjoyability factor quite a lot, so I cannot deny that the reverse of this process is also very much possible.

「Well then, in that case, how about we will also go here…… What do you say to that?」

「Ahh, thank you very much for being so thoughtful…… Hmm?」

「Is there…… Is there something wrong?」

…… Huh? What the……? No, but still…… Yeah, unconsciousness……?

「Umm, Rakuro…… -kun? Is there something wrong?」

「N-Nothing…… It’s nothing, Rei-san.」

「Kuchyuu!」

What was that just now? It sounded as if someone was closing the running faucet just now……

「No, it’s just that…… Before I even knew what I was doing, I called you by your first name just like that, so I thought that…… maybe you did not like…… that……? Is that it?」

「…… (All smiles)」

「Umm, you’ll have to forgive me, but I do not know what that smile is even supposed to mean……?」

「…… (All smiles)」

Why is she acting like an NPC whose AI broke down all of a sudden?

It seems that Saiga-san has completely froze up with the widest smile you could ever see frozen on her face as well. However, with the seconds passing you could also see that very same face becoming bright red with possible embarrassment. No, scratch that. We were already way past that point, and Saiga-san’s face was already starting to go blue.

「Umm…… Saiga-san? You did not forget how to breathe by any chance, right?」

「BUHAH!?」

I did not mean that seriously when I suggested that Saiga-san might actually be suffocating, but I guess that this is exactly what happened here. Heck, she even turned herself away from me for a moment, but then she reached out her hand and showed me a gesture that could only be universally understood as: “I’m okay! There’s no problem!”

「Ahh…… Yeah, I knew it. Calling you by your first name like that all of a sudden was a pretty bad thing of me to do.」

「N-No! No, no, no! It’s alright! Really! No problem! I have absolutely no problem with that! Not at all!」

「I-I see, whatever you say, Saiga-san.」

「I-It’s easier to call ourselves by our first names when there are just the two of us here, so there is no problem at all! So don’t mind me and you can call me by my first name!」

「Y-Yeah. Alright.」

Shupapapapapapah! Saiga-san at the current moment was making some weird movements with her hands, as if she was trying to erect an invisible wall in between the two of us. And while she was doing just that, the train progressed even further towards its goal.

I wonder why? The weather outside looks to be good and sunny, with no sight of clouds anywhere nearby. However, for some inexplicable reason I feel like there is a storm that is going to approach me really soon.