Chapter 71: The End of the Festival
Chapter 71: The End of the Festival
As soon as he entered the player box and closed the door, it suddenly grew quiet, as if soundproofing had been installed. Thanks to that, even his mind seemed to settle.
Seeing the familiar arcade machine sitting there quietly also made him feel as if he, too, was finally ready for the match.
Pansi walked over and sat down, testing the lever and buttons with his hands. There were no problems. No, its condition actually felt much better than the arcade he usually visited.
Just as he felt relieved, a voice came from somewhere inside the room.
“You may now choose your character and begin the game.”
Pansi flinched slightly at the unexpected voice, but soon followed the instructions and began moving the lever.
He had already decided which character he would use. Pansi swiftly selected the agile Dark Elf boxer Muhammad Ali and pressed the button.
His opponent was the giant human boxer Golovkin.
<READY! FIGHT!>
Pansi rushed forward and immediately began throwing jabs.
His opponent’s reaction was typical. Using Golovkin’s special skill, he endured the jabs head-on and charged straight in.
If Pansi failed to judge the distance correctly here, Golovkin’s powerful special move, Axe Hook, would completely break his guard, leaving him staggered and open to a devastating combo.
But Pansi was a genuine Ali player. He was extremely skilled at hit-and-run tactics. He immediately used command footwork to retreat in an instant, then chained it into a high-speed jab with an additional command input.
His opponent was skilled as well. This technique, which almost nobody back home could dodge, was barely blocked at the last moment.
The exchange continued like this for some time.
This is working somehow?
Even Pansi himself felt that his concentration had reached its peak.
And perhaps because his play was satisfying to watch, he could faintly hear the audience cheering even inside the soundproof room.
But instead of losing focus, the sound only made him feel better, and the hands moving the lever became even faster.
Ali’s fists on the screen felt as though they were his own.
Moreover, he could read his opponent’s movements. It was as if his instincts had sharpened. Even while throwing punches nonstop, whenever he thought a counterattack was about to come, it always did. At those moments, Pansi would slip backward like a ghost and fire off a checking strike.
It felt amazing.
He did not think he had ever played like this before.
The fierce struggle at the start now seemed as though it had merely been a probing exchange, as Pansi began overwhelmingly dominating his opponent and pummeling him almost one-sidedly.
The enemy’s health bar rapidly melted away.
As that happened, the opponent’s movements became passive. Then he started getting dragged along by Pansi’s pace entirely.
In the end, Pansi even finished him off with Ali’s barrage super move.
In truth, Ali’s super move was famous for looking flashy while rarely landing successfully, but the opponent had been dragged so deeply into Pansi’s rhythm that he ended up suffering that humiliation.
After defeating his opponent, Pansi practically felt like he was floating.
But even though he had lost the first round, the opponent was by no means weak. That player was also the champion of his own region.
In the second round, the opponent charged in with overwhelming aggression.
He pushed through Ali’s pokes as though they did not hurt at all. The completely different rhythm from the first round caught Pansi slightly off guard.
“Ah...”
As a result, he began getting pushed back and was defeated miserably.
Pansi clenched his teeth.
So in the final round, he displayed truly peak out-boxing.
He absolutely refused to allow any approach and endlessly repeated swaying movements.
The momentum gradually shifted back toward Pansi, and after repeatedly chipping away at the opponent’s health with pokes and intercepting punches, he finally managed to put him on the ground.
Thus, after a fierce battle, he secured victory with two wins and one loss.
After that, he rode the momentum and continued defeating opponents one after another.
Well, saying it so easily felt wrong since each individual match had been quite difficult, but regardless, the fact remained that he was the winner.
Am I actually going to win this thing?
Even though there were no easy opponents, Pansi somehow kept winning, and thoughts like that began to arise.
“Player Pansi wins!”
Each match ended quickly.
Compared to games like Star Craft, where a single match took at least twenty minutes, these fights were over in an instant.
However, following the carefully planned schedule created by Arcade Game Land’s Event Department, there were performances and break times mixed in to control the pacing.
Thanks to that, the tournament itself maintained a fairly long runtime.
And so the first day came to an end.
After leaving the arena, Pansi toured the capital a little during the evening, then returned to the hotel and enjoyed a delicious dinner using the meal voucher provided to him before falling asleep in high spirits.
Then came the next day.
He continued his winning streak for a while, carrying over the momentum from the previous day.
But it seemed people truly should not become arrogant.
Eventually, he met his match.
“Huh?! Uh...”
The Dwarf he encountered in the semifinals used Michael Tyson, the Dwarf boxer character, and his aggression was unbelievable.
Pansi could not escape even with footwork.
At least he managed to endure for a while by reducing damage with the special skill Rope-a-Dope.
But the opponent’s Tyson dodged attacks with incredible rhythm even in close combat, threw hooks nonstop, then slammed in the Nuclear Punch super move, causing Pansi’s health to disappear in an instant.
<What was your original plan?>
Before he realized it, Pansi’s character had collapsed onto the floor, while the opposing Dwarf boxer stood there with folded arms and delivered that line.
Pansi knew it was merely one of the character’s in-game voice lines, but he still found himself clutching his forehead unconsciously.
In the end, unable to come up with any real countermeasure in the second round either, he was knocked to the floor once again and lost 2:0.
The defeat felt empty, as though he had been completely helpless.
But he did not feel wronged.
The opponent had simply been too good.
Honestly, Pansi had lost in pure skill.
He even felt that this Dwarf deserved to win the championship.
However, there was apparently always someone stronger.
The Dwarf player using Michael Tyson ultimately lost after a fierce battle against a canine Beastman player using Naseem Hamed.
After barely winning the third-place match, Pansi was finally able to watch the finals from the spectator seats.
The two finalists were truly inhuman.
Well, technically they were not human since one was a Dwarf and the other a Beastman.
“...!”
In any case, the audience watched the two characters exchange unbelievable attacks and defenses, forgetting even to make any sound.
Most of the spectators were simply people who liked the game.
Some were companions of participants, while others had only come because they heard such an event was happening nearby.
But after watching the tournament matches, especially the finals, it no longer felt like merely watching someone else play a game.
Instead, it felt like witnessing art performed by talents utterly beyond reach in an actual sporting event.
The immersion was so intense that people wanted to keep watching forever.
But fighting games, by nature, could only have short matches, so the battles ended quickly, leaving the audience even more disappointed.
“The championship trophy goes to William from Sangfer!!”
When the winner was decided, the audience erupted into cheers.
The applause was so overwhelming that it felt as though it would continue forever.
But all things eventually came to an end.
This exciting event concluded after the Beastman player William received the championship trophy and prize money, followed by a brief closing performance.
As Pansi left the arena, it felt as though he had experienced a wonderful dream.
Well, the heavy prize money in his pocket did remind him this was not merely a dream.
It was not as much as the first-place prize, but three thousand Del was still by no means a small amount.
And they had said there would be another tournament next time.
Perhaps then, he himself could stand in the place William occupied today.
Thinking that, Pansi boarded the train back to his hometown.
The game tournament concluded as a tremendous success.
“The advertising effect seems pretty good.”
Even Utaro, who had worried this might end up being a pointless waste of money, finally looked relieved.
Although it had failed to make it onto public broadcasting, it had become a huge topic in game magazines and local newspapers. Some major newspapers had even published small articles about it.
“Really? That’s good to hear.”
But in Ras’s opinion, that was not the only gain they had obtained this time.
It might still be a little early, but judging from the audience reaction during the finals, he had definitely seen the potential of eSports.
And the emergence of sportsification and star players could drastically extend a game’s lifespan.
Prize money and public attention created reasons to immerse oneself in a game beyond simple enjoyment.
There would be people who dreamed of becoming such players themselves.
And even among those who did not, many would begin playing simply because they wanted to share in the excitement enjoyed by others.
In that regard, games actually had advantages over ordinary sports.
Going to an arcade and playing games was incomparably easier than playing basketball, soccer, or baseball.
And eSports itself also possessed enormous value.
If things went extremely well, it could produce effects equivalent to owning an entire professional sports league.
Recognition, advertising value, related businesses, merchandise—it possessed limitless potential value.
Of course, the event had not even managed to appear as a short news segment on television yet, so there was still a long way to go.
Unlike the lukewarm reaction from public broadcasters, this tournament delivered a massive shock to certain people.
That naturally included the gamers who attended the event, but it also strongly inspired game developers.
“That was incredible!”
Zek, a game developer at Imiz Soft and a passionate Arcade Game Land customer, shouted excitedly inside the office.
He enjoyed fighting games too, but had merely regarded them as one game genre among many.
However, after hearing about the game event, he attended the tournament and was deeply shocked.
The event itself had been fun.
But more than that, the sight of the players’ godlike duel displayed on the giant screen during the finals, along with the countless spectators silently watching while holding their breath, was a full-on cultural shock.
“Really? Was it that fun, you bastard?”
His coworker Azem responded in a tone mixed half with interest and half with irritation.
That was understandable since the subcontracted work they had received from Flight Soft was not even finished yet, but Zek had run off to enjoy himself the moment his own share was done.
Even now, Azem was still furiously pounding away at the keyboard because the work had not been completed.
“It wasn’t just fun! You should’ve seen it too.”
Regardless, Zek continued pouring out his emotions excitedly.
Even though he had yet to create a proper hit title and was still barely scraping by through occasional subcontract work, he was still a game developer.
Lately he had leaned more toward chasing money, but he had originally entered this field because he wanted to create games people could truly lose themselves in.
And after returning from this tournament, he remembered those old feelings once again and became convinced.
This is it.
“We should make one too. Something like Fighters’ Club.”
“What? A sports game?”
Truban, who had been casually helping Azem while crunching on snacks, responded indifferently.
Despite his massive physique, he actually disliked sports.
According to him, the sports games that arcade machines focused on were too shallow in gameplay and relied purely on the subject matter to attract players.
But Zek and Azem, who had been friends with him since childhood, knew the real reason.
Because Truban had always been large since he was young, he had constantly been dragged into athletic competitions due to his dependable appearance.
But he had never been able to meet people’s expectations and had instead become the target of ridicule.