ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 553 Part 1
ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 553: The Guidance of the North Star Part 1
Once the train reached the station where I was supposed to get off with Rei, we arrived in the center of the capital city of Tokyo. Now, I can’t be all too sure if this place is always so crowded all year long, but today the sheer number of people gathered around the station seemed to be extremely high for some reason. I try to think about it for a moment out there, and then I turn towards Rei as I decided to voice my concerns out loud to her as well. Because this may or may not be of extreme importance to us here.
「Uwah, it looks to be really crowded out there already……」
「It’s a scary thought to have here, but maybe this crowd consists entirely of the people going to the JGE? It’s possible, don’t you think?」
Yeah, even though I would like for it to not be the case, it seems to be just that here. After all, the literal river of people all seemed to be heading towards the same general direction as us, not to mention that some of those people were wearing clothes with various game logos and designs, as well as carrying shopping bags with them that could carry a hefty amount of gaming goods that you could acquire on the convention’s site.
「It looks like we were not the only ones who came up with the idea of coming here earlier just to be on the safe side……」
「W-We must watch out as to not get swept away by this crowd……」
「Rei-san, I don’t think that we are going to be able to get out through the North Exit at this rate…… Let’s try heading towards the Eastern one! It might be less crowded over there! …… Huh? Rei-san? Can you hear me? Rei-san!?」」
「FUHYAAAHYIII.」
Yes, I guess that this situation right here pretty much affirms it all. However, we need to get out of this human river of general tickets as soon as possible, before we are going to be swept away by it somewhere where we are going to get separated. But it’s something that is way easier said than done, I’m afraid.
We have the special ticket on us, so the problems of the general public do not concern us at all. However, all those people with normal tickets need to go towards the main entrance to the venue and start to line up in large and long queues. But man, talk about this place being crowded as fuck…… Isn’t it even worse than it was during the time of the GGC? Ahhh, screw it! Out of my way! Out of my way! This is simply outrageous! I have the special ticket, but at this rate I am going to be squashed flat by all this crowd who could easily be compared to the crowd of stampeding elephants!? Give me a fucking break here!
Kuh, at this rate this is going to be really hard not to get separated, especially since the people around us seem to not be paying attention as to what they are doing, at all! …… Oh yeah! And won’t you look at that! Before we could even do something, we got completely swept away by the crowd and separated! God damn it! This freaking crowd! Why are there so many people here so early on!? Where is the wide area annihilation magic when you need it the most!? …… Geh, retreat! Fall back! Fall back! Before we are going to get completely decimated!
…
………
……………
「Okay, the traffic should be normal around these parts, but for some reason this place looks unusually empty.」
「T-That’s right…… It’s pretty weird, no matter how you look at it……」
We can see the crowd of people, or rather the river of human bodies in the distance. Now, when compared to that side over there that looks pretty much like a bunch of sardines trying to fit in the can, this side right here was relatively empty, and almost gave off the impression of being vacant.
「Ah, now that we are here on this site…… It seems to be a little bit further away than from the other side, but I guess that we can find the way towards the venue, right? At least I sure hope so.」
「Ah, you think so? Thank you for checking that out in advance, Rei-san! You are a lifesaver!」
「N-No! It was nothing! Not at all! It’s the least I could do here, so……」
For the time being, I do realize that we still have some time before the ticket gates are going to be opened, but seeing the congestion of people that reminded me of the overcrowd that even a shitty game like Cosmo Buster would not frown upon, I cannot help it but to feel nothing more but an anxiety. Battleship assistance becoming unavailable all of a sudden, surrounded from every possible side with nowhere else to go, ammunition and rations running low…… Ugh, all of that is making my head hurt like hell. Not to mention the micromanagement that you need to be able to pull off if you ever want to think about getting the high score on every single battle…… But I mean, if that’s what other players find attractive, then who am I to rain down on their parade? Even though this is the fate that they are bringing down on themselves.
「Yeah, moderation sure is best when it comes to things like that…… Moderation……」
「…… Hmm?」
Now, I understand the frustrations caused by some of the game’s elements, but those things need to stay in there so that the balance can be maintained. Otherwise if we were to just weed out the things that we do not like as we please, the game would have become an unplayable shitty garbage ages ago……
No, that’s not the case here right now. No matter how annoying they may seem, people are still people. However, if you try to get ahead of the curve without regard to anyone else, you are going to be outed without a second thought. Besides, Rei and I are not part of the common folk here, not since we have the special ticket. This means that we are “above” the crowd, no matter how you look at it. So we can look down on all of them with a mixture of both pity and compassion in our eyes.
「But still, for a one-day-event this thing surely is making the crowd overly excited.」
「Yes, that’s right…… Ah, this is…… Ricky, was it? Yes, I think that’s how it’s called.」
「H-Hmmm……? I-Is that so……?」
No matter where you try to look here, it’s pretty much JGE this and JGE that…… Even at the nearby convenience stores you can see limited lines of products that seem to be doing a collaboration with JGE. Even the road signs pointing towards the venue have the characters from the video games printed all over them, almost probably from the games that are going to be showcased during the event. I know that some of those characters tend to be pretty famous out there in the video games world, but since I have been mostly a shitty games player, some of those characters were completely unknown to me.
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