Using the People Around You Is a Legitimate Skill
Give up.
In the end, that was the conclusion I reached.
Chat was already in full festival mode. They were so delighted I'd dropped out on the first stage again that the Iztomo were sprouting like weeds—far too many to bother counting.
But what I was giving up on was forcing my way through them on skill alone and into the next stage. I was not giving up on being showered, for no good reason at all, with furious praise.
In other words, it was time to use my finishing move.
This stage was called Brilliant Fireworks.
Hit by a firework flying in from anywhere, and you were out. They only came faster as time went on. Halfway through, the stage even flipped once and scrambled every character's position at random, which was why the map had such a reputation for being brutal.
The bell that announced the start of the match rang, and once again a swarm of characters charged straight at me.
I was opening a fresh lobby after every round, so how were the Iztomo all still trying to knock me out in exactly the same way? Shouldn't at least one of them be trying to help?
"Eep...!"
So far the fireworks were extremely sparse, so dodging them wasn't hard no matter how much they got in my way. Even so, if things kept on like this, elimination was obvious. At last I slowly cleared my throat, ready to deploy my secret plan.
"Hmm. Ahem."
It was a little embarrassing that it had come to this on the very first stage, but I didn't have a choice. No matter what anyone said, these guys were dead serious about knocking me out here. At this rate I would keep falling on the first stage until the stream ended. That much was certain.
"A-ah~! T-today, I kind of... m-maybe I want to come in f-first?"
"L-lately I've been r-really working hard, so m-maybe I want an insane amount of praise?"
I ignored the confusion in chat and laid out my objective subtly. No—blatantly.
"If I get first here, m-maybe I want e-everyone to hype me up?!"
I was mortified, so I really wished they would be quiet. But you guys were the bad ones. All I'd wanted was to enjoy the game with everyone, pick up a first place along the way, and hear something like Mei-chan, you're amazing!
"I-if you'd let me get first, that'd be r-really nice~."
At my steady campaigning, the Iztomo characters hemming me in began to ease back, little by little. A few of them even started shoving other Iztomo instead of me, until gradually no one was left around me at all.
Sincerity... actually gets through, huh.
"I-I finally cleared the first stage...!"
I swallowed the words This is all your fault. Say them out loud, and if they came charging to knock me out again on the next stage, I'd be in real trouble.
Every Iztomo who hadn't placed in the top sixty tumbled to the floor in a heap. This was the first time I had ever seen that screen without my own character on it. The feeling was strangely hard to name.
The second stage—the first I had ever reached—was Trampoline Race.
As the word "race" suggested, all you had to do was run to the finish. Trampolines sat along the path at intervals, though, and stepping on one launched you toward the goal at a ridiculous speed. To use one you had to climb a fairly tall support, and since everyone piled onto them, there were times when simply walking was faster.
So: commit from the start, hit the trampoline, and fly? Give up on that one and aim for the next? Or abandon them entirely and just sprint for the finish? The map demanded a three-way mind game.
At the bell, all sixty characters moved at once. Not everyone was running for the finish, though. Quite a few were moving specifically to get in other characters' way.
And me?
"Heh, heheh..."
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, I didn't obstruct a single person.
Only four characters were ahead of me. That put me in fifth, and this race would let thirty-five survive. By any ordinary measure, it was a rank I couldn't possibly lose from. The only problem would be the Iztomo getting in my way—and right now they were working to make me first.
So there were no variables...!
Before I knew it, I had reached the support holding the first trampoline. Of the four ahead of me, two started climbing, and the other two chose to keep running. I, of course, climbed onto the trampoline. Right now, no one was interfering with me. And as if to prove that choice hadn't been wrong—
"I-I won...!"
I crossed the finish in third.
"I-it's fine, okay? I'm a super cutie, so..."
Understand this. A super cutie, so long as she isn't committing actual crimes, is a being who can be forgiven no matter what she does. Sure, on the inside I'm closer to a guy—but outwardly I am a super cutie, which means that even if I do something a little bad, the correct response is to treat it as adorable and praise me. I am an absolute existence.
"Fu, fufufu..."
"I-it's finally the finals."
Somehow, only five of us were left. This stage would decide the last one standing.
The last stage was My Ball, Your Ball.
Put simply, the player who owned the ball at the end was eliminated. When the match began, a ball dropped in the center and an owner was assigned at the same time. That owner had one minute to pass the role off to another player. Succeed, and the new owner spent whatever time remained passing the ball on again. Repeat.
Simple, and still a mind game. There were basically three strategies.
The first was to bolt the moment it started and keep dodging the ball.
The second, if you began as the owner, was to cling to the ball until the very end, then dump it on another player without warning.
The third used the rule that touching the ball made you its owner: touch it on purpose, then seize control of the map.
After the bell rang, the strategy I chose was not among those three.
What I chose was simply to stand still.
The reason was simple. Of the four people left in the final besides me, one was a loyal-retainer Iztomo!
The cat with that proud blue fur had, from the first stage all the way here, blocked every other Iztomo who tried to get in my way—and was skilled enough to reach the final while doing it. A player that good was moving for my victory. There was no need for me to move first and take a risk.
The one who became the ball's owner at the start wasn't my loyalist, but another Iztomo. He hurled the ball at me as if it were obvious—but the blue cat blocked it in my place, as if I didn't even need to dodge, and became the owner instead. He burned as much time as he could, and with three seconds left, eliminated the white cat who had been the original owner.
After that, it was slaughter, on repeat. With overwhelming skill, the blue cat eliminated the two Iztomo who remained.
"Th-the winner makes the rules, okay? And K-Kurokami-senpai said that using the people around you is a p-perfectly legitimate skill, too..."
In the end, only I and my loyal blue cat remained.
"It's finally over..."
After all that waiting, the fact that I could finally win washed over me, and the notice that two survivors remained told me this wasn't a dream.
"Heheh..."
As if by fate, the blue cat was the last owner of the ball. Maybe he wanted to show off one final trick—he picked up the ball and started darting this way and that.
"Whoa..."
His movement made the gap between him and every other Iztomo unmistakable. And when five seconds remained, as if he wanted to thank me for watching the performance, he dropped the ball to the floor and stepped lightly up onto it.
"S-so cool."
And then.
Before I knew it, the ball had struck my slime's shoulder, bounced, and gone flying.
"...Huh?"
It wasn't that I failed to react at all the moment the ball came at me. But I had already half let go of the controls, trusting him while I admired the show, so no matter how fast I moved, the best I could do was nudge the slime a little to the side. And that much movement was only enough to keep the ball from hitting my slime dead center.
Those words rose on my screen.
"Huh?"
My character fell toward the floor. And the rank displayed on my screen—
Without the slightest room for doubt, it said 2nd.
"H-huh? Why?"
"Why...? Uuuu..."
It was only a game, and still the feelings surged up until my vision blurred.
"Waaaaaah...?!"
I slammed the desk, but this anger showed no sign of going away. If anything, it felt like it was getting stronger.
"Th-that's so mean! I trusted you! I r-really trusted you!"
I hadn't even considered that I would be betrayed at the end. I had believed he would hand the win to me.
"I h-hate everyone...!"
But I, having realized the reality of a cruel betrayal—
"I really hate you..."
—quietly ended the stream.