“Whoa, what? Their spawn patterns are different!”
The enemies’ spawn patterns, made more intense with the stage difficulty increase, were different from Yano’s run.
Mmgh. They aren’t half bad! Getting 50,000 will be harder than I expected!
There was no telling how many different patterns there were, but getting to 100,000 seemed outright impossible without really turning my analysis skills up to eleven. Still, I somehow managed to persevere. My score went up past 70,000, then 80,000, and finally the boss appeared on-screen again.
Then, the screen grew even wider!
“Man, it got bigger again!”
It proved to be too much even for me. Before long, I died.
“Ooh. Good job, little buddy! Your score was 82,000! Here’s your Warp Stone!”
“Thanks!”
I wanted to hit 100,000, but hey, I got a Warp Stone. Good enough!
“Nice going, Ren!” Akira cheered.
“Aww, I lost,” Yano complained. “That sucks! Here I thought I was pretty good too.”
“Well, I did get to watch you play first. That helped me memorize most of it. Really wish I’d hit a hundred thousand, though.”
“Hey, everyone, look over there!” Maeda’s eyes were shining; she seemed to have found something exciting.
“Oh, a racing game!”
“Now it’s my turn, right? Let’s do that next!”
Will Maeda be the one who wins us a Special Warp Stone?!
Much like the shooting-game stand, the racing-game stand was very popular. It was surrounded by people. There were several individual consoles set up, just like you’d see in a regular arcade. Their screens were way larger than normal, though, making them pretty intimidating. From what I could see, this was one of those games where you raced through cities littered with tons of obstacles.
This stand also had a little old man NPC who was calling out to the players. “Today’s goal is to hit the finish line within three minutes for a Warp Stone, or two and a half minutes for a Special Warp Stone!”
Yep, just like I thought. They all give out Warp Stones!
“Then I shall take the wheel!”
“Oh, wait, Maeda. How about I go first, as a sort of recon? Learn from what you see and go for a Special Warp Stone!”
If I went first and she watched, then she ought to be able to go for the gold.
“Hmm, I see. Very well.”
“Nice. I’ll go first, my good man. Lemme at ’em!”
“Hm? Well, little buddy, you’ve already gotten a Warp Stone today, so you won’t win any rewards. Do you still want to play?”
“Huh? Really? So it’s one Warp Stone a day across all games.”
I’d thought we might be able to get more from different games, but the answer was no. I was just going to give Maeda a preview, though, so that was fine.
“No prob. I still wanna play!”
“But of course!”
I was about to go ham on this dumb office park! While evading other vehicles, signs falling from the sky, shattered glass, and more, I headed for the gold.
“Your clear time is two minutes, fifty seconds!” the NPC announced. “I can’t give you a Warp Stone, but well done!”
Impressed, Akira raised a brow. “Wow, Ren. You could get a Warp Stone in any game you want.”
“I’d prefer a Special Warp Stone, but maybe Maeda can get us one today!”
“Yes, leave it to me! I will not let your sacrifice be in vain!”
“Kotomi, that’s what you say to dead people. He’s kinda not dead.”
“Haha, I just wanted to say it once!”
Maeda was clearly feeling in her element. She normally never made such silly jokes.
“Hello, good sir. I would like to play next!”
“Yes, ma’am. Good luck! Ready, set... Go!”
Thus, Maeda began her race.
“Oh! The stage is different.”
“Dang, they changed it?!”
This time, the stage was something straight out of Kyoto, with shrines and temples lining the streets. The cherry blossoms raining down were pretty, but they only served to block her vision, increasing the difficulty of the track.
“What?! This one looks a lot harder!” Akira shouted.
Yano groaned. “Aargh, what bad luck!”
“It’s okay. This isn’t as fast as the airship on nitro, so I can keep up with ease! Besides, I can get more into it on the first attempt.”
“So my scouting was pointless... But damn, you’re good!”
“Wow! You go, girl!”
“I’ve never seen a car move like that! You’re killin’ it, Kotomi!”
With obviously greater speed, Maeda rushed through the stage. Her result?
“Your time is one minute and fifty-five seconds! I’ve never seen someone get under two minutes! Congratulations! Here’s your Special Warp Stone.”
“Thank you so much!”
“Nice, nice! Good stuff, Maeda.”
“Kotomi’s the best there is!” Akira cheered.
Yano gave her a pat on the back. “Nice work!”
Everyone watching broke out into applause. Having received her Special Warp Stone, Maeda puffed up with pride.
“A warning for you, though. Once you’ve won a Special Warp Stone, you won’t get any more from this game. Tomorrow, that time’s just going to earn you a normal Warp Stone.”
Aww, dang it!
I’d been hoping Maeda would be able to farm us some Special Warp Stones. In that case, we would have to save this one for when we really needed it. Still, a guaranteed Warp Stone a day from Maeda was good enough. With her skill, I doubted she would fail to get it at any point.
Now that we’d conquered the racing game with ease, we searched for a stand to suit Akira’s taste.
“Guess I’m up next, huh? Let’s find a fighting game!”
After some walking, we arrived at a stand that looked to fit the bill.
“This is... kind of a fighting game, I guess?”
There was one large monitor with two stands modeled after the red and blue corners of a ring. The stands had no controllers, but they seemed to trace the motions of players standing on them. You would stand and move as if you were fighting, and the robots on-screen would mimic your punches and kicks. To put it in anime terms, it was like the Mobile Trace System!
It was a large-scale game, but it only had one set of stands to fight on. There, while two players duked it out, the audience cheered with excitement.
“Ooh, robot fighting!” Akira cried, eyes aglitter. “That looks fun!”
“Wanna try it?” I asked her. “It tracks your movement, so it might be a little different from the kind of fighting games you normally play.”
“I actually know some real-life self-defense moves. I think I can do it!”