abcnovels
Chapter 206
Chapter 206
Chapter 206
206 – Balance
March 30, 2022
Tl note: this one is supposed to be fine, I remember I did this one proofread already.
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Exercise Corner.
The exercise booth exists because it acts as an attraction, and it has become a staple at gaming events due to one problem.
Namely [lack of exercise among gamers], a problem that has been in the spotlight ever since the term “esports” was invented and began to gain a certain amount of acknowledgment.
[it’s like, when you did a lot of indoor activity and not strictly gaming, you tend to do less exercise than you hoped to.]
That kind of article stirs up the topic, and it leads to talk about [health] and [healthy lifestyle] and so on and so forth.
Putting aside the details, the main issue is that [esports athletes look inadequate from the outside, and they don’t look good compared to other sports.]
When you have a well-trained body, even a dull face will become dignified and cool(or so they say).
Of course, esports players should place the highest priority on their gaming skills, but if they don’t look good, they won’t be able to attract sponsors.
This means that esports players are now expected to have a certain level of [professionalism].
And as part of this trend, the following is a brief summary of how the esports industry responds to it.
We want to prove to the general public that esports players are doing their best in sports as well! The exercise corner was the result of this project.
At first, a fitness game corner centered on muscle training and aerobic exercise was prepared, and there was a good response to it.
Gradually it escalated, and even though it was a game convention, they started to set up athletic and physical fitness testing machines.
Even so, this corner boasts a mysterious popularity that attracts enough visitors to cover its initial cost.
This is how we end up setting up exercise corner at almost every major game convention.
“I remember playing with the punching machine when I went on a date with Rin-chan years ago.”
“That’s right. You finally remembered.”
“Yeah, well… it’s not a very good memory…”
For the first six years after I started living alone, Rin-chan and I rarely saw each other due to our conflicting schedules, but we still saw each other a few times a year to have fun.
When it came to dates with Rin-chan, most of it was filled with fun-filled memories of our dates. However, they’re also the time when it wasn’t so.
That day I was so excited about my date with Rin-chan that day that I failed to make the adjustments that I normally would have made.
Let me briefly explain what happened.
I hit the punching machine that had been prepared as the centerpiece of the exercise corner without any restraint.
As a result, I caused a bit of a commotion and was dragged out by security.
Fortunately, I was released soon after, but I am sure that it remained in my head as a slightly unpleasant memory.
“So… why now Nana does the demonstration?
“Here’s why.”
“Hmm?”
Rin-chan showed us the table screen to answer the expected question by Touka-chan, and the three of us looked at it she gave us.
“What is that…?”
“Pro-gamer punching power competition?”
“That’s right.”
As the name suggests, the competition is to measure the punching power of pro-gamers and determine who is the best among them.
In this exercise corner, there is a test section with the latest health measurement equipment. Well, it’s basically a machine that looks at the results of biometric scans of your movements and gets a variety of information from it. It also has a function to measure punching power, and they want to use it for this match.
I wonder what they are going to do after they find out the punching power of a professional gamer.
“I’m curious…”
“Suu-chan??”
Surprised by the comment from an unexpected direction, Touka-chan clasped her hands, and she understood something.
“I see… so that’s your plan? Rin-ane-sama used Nana-sama as a decoy to avoid the offer that came to her, right?”
“Tsk, you realized……”
Rin-chan clicked her tongue while Touka-chan smuggling smiled ear to ear after her answer hit the bullseye.
“You may not know this, Nana-sama, but Rin-ane-sama is often chosen as a subject for fun in one of these exercise exhibitions. Well, you know, it’s because her body is constitutions bit strange…”
“Yeah, it’s to be expected….”
“Nana??”
“Don’t mind it, Rinne.”
Because it’s already a well-known fact that Rin-chan’s body strength is abysmal. How much worse it is? we could talk about her body’s weakness, and someone could mistake it for an anime scene.
The exercises that Rin-chan could do without making mistakes were limited to the span of her daily life; she could even fall on her own when she does a little run.
Thankfully in the VR space, the story is different. It seems that she has trained so much that she can finally do some decent fighting.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, I want Nana to participate in this. If you give it your all and show your ability, you can sell your name, right?”
“I don’t really want to be famous or anything… but… Are you sure about this?”
(Because I will show it to the public.)
In response to my unspoken question, Rin-chan nodded without hesitation.
When I was a child, it was Rin-chan idea to not “show” my power. This was to avoid the malicious stare that people would direct at me. She established this rule to protect both me and the world.
I did not like hurting people, so I accepted. I also suppress my physical abilities to gain control of my power.
Even so, it was not something I could always hide, and only occasionally, when Rin-chan allowed me to do so, I would vent it out.
But even when doing so, I had always turned up my physical abilities so I did not fall into the “athletic freak” category.
This is one of the things that hasn’t changed in the six years I’ve been away from Rin-chan.
My strength may be slightly beyond the reach of human standards, but I have tried everything in my power to keep mine as humanly as possible.
Even though Rin-chan has told people about me, and even after I had confirmed that it was true, my viewers have only seen me in the game at best.
Even the little tricks with props that I showed in a live stream a while ago were only technique-oriented. And in VR games, you can only see the reaction speed as the strength of the players.
My game avatar [Sukuna] had reached level 99 after defeating Nocturne the Moon Wolf, but even so, her physical abilities are still far inferior to mine in the real world.
And by this time, everyone must have heard only half the truth about [the real world’s Nanaka Futayado is a real monster].
The only people who know this are those who are close to Rin-chan in the Takajou family.
And if we narrow it down even more, the ones who truly understand my condition were only Rin-chan, Toki, and Ron, who had been studying my body.
And the problem is that I am now a professional gamer belonging to HEROES.
When I was taken away by the security guards for breaking the punching machine before, I was just a civilian.
And Rin-chan was wearing a disguise, so even if the video had gone viral, it would have been difficult to trace it back to me personally. {says who}
But now it is different.
Now I am “Nana of HEROES.”
I am not the old me that Rin-chan protected and always hid behind her.
I am now had been given a certain standing in this field. And it seemed very risky for me to publicly announce that I was a monster if I considered my position.
“Nana, you know what? I know that this is because of me somehow forcing Nana to accept the offer that should come to me, but don’t you think this is just the right opportunity for you?”
“Opportunity?”
“Yes, it’s the time to prove that Nana is a match for Rinne.”
Rin-chan grinned as she said this.
“I’ve built up a track record over the last six years. I’m called the best female professional gamer in the world, so anyone has to have the right ‘value’ to stand next to me. Of course, Nana is more valuable to me than anything else, but only people like Touka, who knew us in the past, will understand that. Other people’s views of Nana right now are just outsiders taking advantage of her position as [Rinne’s friend].”
“That’s true.”
She once reigned as the world’s number one in WGCS.
A person with over 10 million followers on her channel.
A girl that has produced many professional gaming teams and is still contributing greatly to improving the image of esports.
Due to a great number of her achievements, the fame that Rinne has gained in the world of esports is tremendous.
I only know about her from the summary information on the Internet, but I know that Rin-chan is a very popular person.
Just as an idol is scorned when she marries someone from the general public, I must seem like a parasitic newcomer to Rin-chan to some observers.
Just like a popular professional baseball player marrying a pretty female announcer, it is important that everything is balanced.
Rin-chan and I are balanced in the sense that we are both [monsters], but unfortunately, we are not yet balanced in terms of [social standing].
“I know Nana doesn’t mind being scorned. But I also don’t like to see my best friend will always be underestimated. You can take it seriously, Nana, because it’s still hard for people to accept that you’re good at games. For now, go prove with your [prowess] that you’re the strongest in the world.”
I see.
I thought it would be unacceptable for me to be a monster next to you, Rin-chan.
But I was wrong. To balance her monstrous track record, it was just right to show myself here.
“I’m not sure if that’s enough reason. But I know you’re serious… is it really okay?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
“Okay.”
With a little joy, I squeezed my right hand.
If Rin-chan says so.
If she says it is okay to do so here in reality and not in WLO.
===*
Nana has never properly shown her physical abilities to her viewers.
What Nana did in the live stream was a small portion of her skill. For better or worse, her physical ability was irrelevant in that.