ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 560 Part 1
ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 560: Cause – Because You Are the Only One – Part 1
「HELLO WORLD! HELLO JAPAN! FROM THE EXTRA STAGE WITH LOVE AND ALL THAT!!!」
「Ah, umm, this is…… H—Hello! N-Nice to meet you, too……!!」
「This here is nothing more than the Japan Gaming Expo’s Special Stage Event: “Future Reality!!” And I am going to be the one who’s going to comment on it in real time! Really popular and surprisingly crazy about VR stuff in her private life, the one and only –– Towa Amane!」
「And I am Natsume Megumi from the Professional Gaming Team “Cyber Battalion”. Nice to meet you all!」
「Hmm~? Say, Natsume-chan? You seem to be really enthusiastic about this thing, but isn’t your expression actually kind of stiff? Hmm? What’s up with that?」
「Ha, hahaha…… I-I guess that you could say that? I mean, there is no woman out there who would not get nervous getting to co-host some program alongside the super popular Towa Amane.」
「Hmm, rather than using the word “nervous” I would have liked it more if you said “happy” or “overjoyed”, but oh well…… But since I am in a pretty good mood today, I will allow this blunder to slide just this once! After all, I am getting a whole lot of Towa Esthetic Points for being here!」
「Y-Yay! T-That’s actually great to hear…… I guess? Or was that supposed to be some convoluted way of complimenting someone else?」
「Nfufu, Natsume-chan, you have also participated as a player during the exhibition match at the time of GGC, so I wonder if you can also get hooked on the tension that can be felt in the air here?」
「N-No, you see, that’s just my nature, I’m afraid. No matter the kind of event I take a part in, I cannot help it but to feel anxious and nervous about the things that are to come.」
「Ah, I see, I see. Well, the tension is only going to get even higher from this point forward, so you’d better prepare yourself! Otherwise you might be sorry later!」
「But I must say, it is actually pretty amazing that you can come into an event like that and act all natural in it, Amane-san…… Is there some sort of a way or trick on how to do it? Could you share it with me?」
「Hmm, let’s see…… Hmm, but I wonder if what I’m about to say will really ease up your tension or not……? Oh well, we shall do it first, and then worry about the results later! This time around, thanks to the fully-blown cooperation from companies such as Swallow’s Nest and Utopia, the pioneers in the genres of both VR and AR, we will be able to give you all the freshest and most exciting news about what’s currently going on this man-made island through those handy AR projectors! Isn’t technology neat? Now then, please look forward to any further notification from the both of us!」
「No, you see, this is exactly what I was talking about earlier! This is the reason why I am always so nervous! It’s because of people like you who tend to basically ad lib everything from the very beginning and tend to not stick to the plan that……」
「Ad lib is love! Ad lib is life! At least it’s my life! Alright then, everyone! Please enjoy your time here and be seeing you!」
* * *
「( ‘ᾥ’ )」
「W-Well, I mean…… Yeah, I guess that an emoji like does exist in this world, huh……?」
Eh, seriously? You can really make an emoji like that? And people tend to use those things ironically? Well, what do you know? Although, now that I think about it…… Yeah, that’s right. I am fairly sure that this was the exact face that I made when I met Pencilgon for the first time in real life. No doubt about it.
「Ah, umm…………」
「Hmm?」
「This is, umm, I don’t even know how I should put it…… I might be wrong about it, but I get a strange feeling that this person’s behavior resembled that of Pencilgon-san to a great extent……」
「Ah, yeah, I get where you are coming with that…… And yeah, she can get really annoying and obnoxious at times, but that’s not a valid point for disclosing her personal information, you know? At the very least, not now.」
「Y-Yes, you are correct…… Besides, the fact that someone acts and looks somewhat similar to someone you know doesn’t mean that they are the same person……」
「No, that’s not actually what I was talking about. Besides, just take a look at this thing. It looks as if it was made up from scratch, don’t you think?」
「Huh?」
The only good thing here is that she at least did not show up in her fully-blown Arthur Pencilgon avatar. Because if she did just that, it would spell a whole lot of needless trouble and complications on our end. So I’m glad the system here seems to be using her real life face as a base for her model. But to think that the technology has taken such a long time to be able to reproduce someone’s face with so much detail being applied to it all…… Now I get a feeling that using such technology on someone as regrettable as Pencilgon was actually a huge waste of both time and funds. But on the other hand, it seems that it was because she was Towa Amane that they did go an extra length for her. Now then, shall we call it just a temporary lapse in character judgement? Or maybe just a downright bad taste? Because honestly, I don’t know what’s worse in this scenario.
But be that as it may, I don’t actually believe that she is here in person. Or rather, I want that to not be the case. If she is here, then oh well, fine, it’s not like we are going to bump into one another by pure accident or anything like that. But what is Natsume-san doing with her? I thought that those guys go together like water and oil? But could it be…… was that maybe the reason why the amount of male visitors to this JGE is slightly higher than the female ones? Now, I did not bother to check with the list that had all of the companies and performers written down, so maybe that’s my bad here. Because if I did, I would have seen Towa Amane’s name and it would not be that much of a surprise as it was right now.
「Alright, so? What would you like to do now? Would you like to go window-shopping for now? Or maybe you have something specific in mind?」
「Window shopping, huh……? Yes, that’s actually a good idea…… There might be a few things that…… I might find interesting along the way, so……」
「Fufu…… Somehow, I just knew that you are going to say that, Rei-san.」
「Eh? Huh? EHH!?」
Normally people like us would devote the majority of their time to a game such as ShangriLa Frontier. That is exactly why for someone like Rei-san, who seems to be a passionate gamer as well, this kind of event is a great chance to actually enjoy a nice change of pace and try out something different. So while we are still here we might as well try out all the things that this place has to offer, so that we won’t be filled with feelings of regret once the event is over. And oh well, the one who gave us the ticket was none other than Iwamaki-san, and he had a real understanding of how this stuff works. That is why I believe that it is entirely plausible that at least some of the information came from him.
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