Heated Strongest Overheat

"Congratulations on making it through the fifth round, Uncle NekoMimi."

"You've become cute with NekoMimi."

"I watched your match video. Can I call you Mr. NekoMimi from now on?"

"You missed out on NekoMimi, bro."

It seems that everyone has already watched the video of yesterday's match. The number of views has already exceeded eight thousand. Since the automatic editing cut out the part until the start of the encounter battle, the scene where I was desperately creating decoys is not shown, which is unfortunate. The saddest part is that the highlight was the enemy Lynx II's concentrated fire. It's even sadder that the Christmas tournament battle videos are not covered by the guarantee system.

For some reason, my comrades seem to be focusing only on the NekoMimi of the Lynx. I might have ended up carrying the heavy cross of being a NekoMimi fetishist.

"Well, in any case, it's great. Since it's Friday, let's go out and drink."

Mr. Trisky always tries to find reasons to drink.

Hey, I just got here, and I haven't played a single game yet.

Besides, I don't have weekends off. I'm a corporate slave at a black company, after all.

Well, whatever, I'll drink myself silly today. I'll go to work with a hangover. There won't be any managers at the office on Saturday anyway.

We all head to a yakitori (grilled chicken skewer) restaurant not too far from the game center. Apparently, it's run by an acquaintance of Mr. Trisky's, and we frequent it lately. They prepared a private room where we can be noisy.

First, we toast with beer.

Even though it's a yakitori restaurant, we always end up getting excited over fried chicken sets and beer. In the end, we just enjoy talking about games.

"The auction price for the Radiator blueprint is skyrocketing. It could be bought for 2M this morning, but it has broken through the 10M wall and is still rising."

Even while drinking, Sergeant Hawkeye never fails to check the official website. This guy is apparently the president of a listed company, but he's a bit of an eccentric, to say the least.

The Radiator blueprint seems to be an ultra-limited item distributed to all winners of the fifth round of the Christmas tournament. I should have received it too, but I haven't checked yet.

To be honest, I've accumulated quite a few items from events and such in my gift box.

In general games, expired gift items are often cleared, but the official "Guardian Troopers" website states that gifts are stored indefinitely. While the system seems questionable, it's very convenient for players.

I decided not to take out items I wouldn't use, but before I knew it, the contents of my gift box had exceeded 100 items. However, taking them out reduces the storage space. Well, since the gift box capacity also seems to be virtually unlimited, I guess I'll just keep accumulating these brined items. 

It's actually better to convert unnecessary items into score points. Score points are a virtual currency that can be exchanged for real money at the casino terminal in the special district. In "Guardian Troopers," you can put in-game items up for auction. While you can use the auction system online without going to the game center, there are apparently people who repeatedly resell items to increase their score points.

Oddly enough, there's no trade function despite having an auction feature. I don't have any particular issues, but many players seem to be eager for a trade function to be implemented. Well, if it is implemented, troubles akin to fraud are likely to occur.

Still, the Radiator blueprint is selling for 10M?

With a rate of around 100 yen per 1k score points, 10M is about 1 million yen. It's questionable to spend that much on a game item, but it's not uncommon in other games these days.

Wait, if I sell it now, I can get 1 million yen... should I sell it? Should I sell it?

"Not many people are selling it, so the resellers will make it go up even more."

"Mr. Kinchi, have you used the blueprint yet?"

"No, um, can you actually produce something with the blueprint?"

"Using it allows you to add special functions to your unit, but you should at least check the official information."

You're right, but lately, maybe due to my age, I tend to fall asleep easily. The air conditioner is broken, and gas and heating oil are expensive, so in winter, it's best to just sleep in the futon. Considering that I was practically confined to the office due to work during the year-end last year, just being able to sleep in a futon is heaven.

Ah, come to think of it, I've been slacking off on net auctions lately. Since I can easily earn money through the guarantee system, I've become lazy about earning bit by bit. Considering the hassle of shipping and dealing with complaints, it's not really worth it. I can definitely earn more by just playing one more game in that time.

But the sad reality is that my company job is the least worthwhile. Not only did I not get a winter bonus, but my base salary was also drastically reduced. Apparently, in order to get through the company's crisis, the employees have to come together, and the president and regular employees all took a 30% pay cut across the board. If I didn't earn money from games, I wouldn't be able to pay rent and would've ended up wandering the cold streets.

"The Radiator's effects are mainly two: shortening of all cooldown times and reduction of continuous damage during overheat. The degree of effect seems to vary depending on the unit."

"So, does that mean beam guns can fire continuously? It doesn't really benefit me since I fight with a sword."

Not only is there no benefit, but it relatively weakens me. If the enemy's beam gun cooldown gets shorter, it'll be tough. 

"You won't have to worry so much about overheating, isn't that great?"

"I've never overheated before."

The air in the room froze for a moment. Huh? Did I say something weird again?

"You're lying, right?"

"If you move intensely, you'll overheat right away, won't you? With Mr. Kinchi's maneuvers, it'd be crazy."

Hmm, no, I know that the heat gauge is displayed below the energy gauge. It spikes when I use a boost move.

But I only use boost moves momentarily. Both the energy and heat gauges recover quickly, and I rarely even enter the yellow zone.

"If you rely on boost moves all the time, you won't be able to depend on them when you really need to."

"That theory is flawed in many ways." 

"It's the default for Mr. Kinchi to be flawed, so I'm not surprised anymore."

"If he can move like that without boosting, could the Lynx have cheat-like mobility?"

It doesn't seem like I need the Radiator. If I can sell it for 1 million yen, I should definitely turn it into cash. I could become unemployed at any moment.

I log into the official website with the old smartphone I've been using since college. First, I need to take it out of the gift box.

I drag the blueprint from the gift box and drop it into the storage.

Huh? The item didn't drop.

I frantically check the gift box, but it's only filled with junk items and not there.

Even after sorting the items in the storage into a list view, it's nowhere to be found.

Could I have thrown it into the trash bin? That's impossible. But just in case, I check, and the trash bin is indeed empty.

A cold sweat breaks out on my back.

"What's wrong? You look pale."

Mr. Trisky worriedly asks.

"The blueprint seems to have disappeared."

"Ah, if you drop the blueprint into the storage, it's treated as used."

Mr. Hawkeye, you should've told me if you knew.

Apparently, I had to drop it directly into the auction box. But for a valuable item, they should've at least prompted a confirmation before using it.

"But it's fine, isn't it? Everyone aiming for the sixth round will use it themselves."

"Being able to fight in an overheated state is practically cheating, so now we can't beat Mr. Kinchi."

"Well, we never had a chance of winning against him anyway."

"That's too self-deprecating. If we train, we might be able to one day."

"You know, after watching the video, I realized there are two kinds of people in this world: those who can cut beams and those who can't."

"You're right, it's sad, but us chumps can never cut beams no matter how hard we try."

"But Uncle Kinchi, don't forget, the chosen one has the duty to carry our expectations and win."

"That's right, you have to aim for the national championship."

They all seem to be saying cool things, but they're just drunk and getting excited about games.

Since I'm worried about the item, I head back to the game center without joining the second round of drinking. Even if I have to give up on the 1 million yen, I at least want the Radiator to be properly applied to the Lynx.

"The Radiator blueprint? Was it applied properly?"

Not knowing where to check, I end up asking Betty. This is how the spread of intelligent AIs is making humans lazier.

"It has been applied. The details of the effect are unknown. I suggest collecting data from actual combat."

Well, 'actual combat' is just a game, though.

I'll check it out first in a CPU battle. Sortie with the 38 Cannon.

When I fire the 38 Cannon continuously, the cooldown time does seem to be slightly shorter. It feels like I can fire three shots in the time it used to take to fire two. It's probably a welcome effect for beam gun users.

Being able to fire continuously means the energy gauge depletes faster. Units with low generator output might run out of energy quickly.

You then try continuously using the boost move that you normally only use momentarily. Repeatedly accelerating and decelerating rapidly drains the energy gauge and increases the heat gauge.

Since you've never paid attention to how it was before, you don't really notice the difference.

Excessive boosting isn't that bad when you try it - it naturally increases your top speed. However, the gaps during deceleration are still significant. 

Well, today is just a test, so you have to at least overheat to see what happens. It's not that difficult. You just have to keep boosting.

"Overheated!"

"Yeah, I know."

"Right."

Your unit is enveloped in a red effect. The HP gauge gradually decreases, but stopping the boost move slows down the rate of decrease. After a while, the heat gauge returns to the yellow zone and the overheat state is canceled.

Is that all there is to it?

"Please try it one more time. This time, try attacking a target while in the overheated state." 

Geez, Betty is demanding.

You detach the Buster Sword from the rack on your back and fix the 38 Cannon in its place.

Since the one-handed Buster Sword allows easy weapon swapping, it's not an issue. But for the Xcalibur, your arm power is a bit lacking - at most, you can only hold the Xcalibur in one hand for a few seconds after the pulling motion. In that time, you have to quickly fix the 38 Cannon onto the back rack and re-grip the Xcalibur with both hands.

You can succeed when completely stationary, but swapping while moving is difficult. If you fail, you'll drop your weapon.

Swapping to the Xcalibur during combat is too risky this way. It's safer to discard the 38 Cannon first before drawing the Xcalibur.

You charge at a spider-legged mech while boosting with the Buster Sword readied, and reflexively slash it as usual. Oops, you were supposed to slash after overheating.

You boost intensely left and right with some footwork, re-entering overheat. 

When you slash at a new spider mech, you cleanly bisect it. It felt more like you smashed it apart with brute force rather than slashed it.

"Whoa, did you power up? You're definitely stronger."

"While unstable, it does seem like a 50-80% power increase. Generator output has also improved by around 10%."

Powering up from overheating? What kind of hot-blooded super robot is this?

It could be fun if used well, but your opponents will have the same ability too.

Well, whatever. Call it a blessing in disguise - I'm glad I didn't sell the blueprint at the auction. 

It seems I'm steadily becoming a gaming shutin. Oh well, it's fine to be a shutin, I'll just master this game to the utmost.