Put it up for Auction

I had heard there was an official website for Guardian Troopers, but I honestly looked down on it, thinking it was just a site to introduce the game. 

I didn't know you could actually buy real merchandise with score points.

You can only purchase game-related goods, but since they are unavailable elsewhere, they can be sold at auctions for high prices. Even a pilot card strap case that costs 5,000 points is being auctioned off for around 8,000 yen. Isn't this like modern-day alchemy? It's not just about enjoying free play anymore.

I'll try purchasing some goods and putting them up for auction. Even if there are no bidders, I wanted those items for myself anyway, so there's no risk.

The dedicated headgear cost 240k points. Purchasing this would deplete almost all of my accumulated score points. Although this item is being auctioned off for around 100,000 yen, earning steadily with straps is lower risk. 

But I bought it anyway. I wanted it for myself. I wanted to try using the headgear in the game. If I don't like it, I can auction it off for real money, so I probably won't lose out, right?

The goods I ordered arrived by courier the next day. Seeing the missed delivery notice, I went to pick them up at the office in the middle of the night. 

After opening them, driven by momentum, I photographed all the goods and listed them online, finishing around 5am. 

Despite being up all night, I was able to work at a feverishly high pace at the company. Thanks to some mysterious energy, I felt like I could work endlessly today. I couldn't wait to try out the headgear, feeling childishly excited.

Around the time for unpaid overtime, my battery seemed to run out and I dozed off. Loud managers had already left, and since a co-worker died from overwork last year, dozing during unpaid overtime has been overlooked, so it wasn't a problem.

After a 30-minute nap that cleared my head, it was finally time to deploy. I headed eagerly to the arcade. 

I climbed into the game pod and inserted a 500 yen coin from my wallet. Since I'd been playing with score points lately, this felt refreshingly novel.

I took out the dedicated headgear from my bag and connected it to the pod with a cable. 

When I put it on, a reticle appeared on the goggle's LCD lenses. Naturally, it was moving. 

"Beginning initial adjustment of the display site system, please look at the crosshairs in the center of the screen."

I could hear Betty's navigator AI voice clearly in my ear. The goggles must have built-in speakers. I made a good purchase, didn't I?

The initial adjustment seemed to finish in a few seconds. The LCD display became clear.

Well then, first up is the safe CPU Battle Stage 1. I wonder what this dedicated headgear is like?

The narrow field of view due to the goggle's edges is clearly a disadvantage. But in actual combat it doesn't seem to matter much, though a wider view is definitely better.

Wearing the headgear seems to have synced my head movements with the robot's head unit more accurately. For machines equipped with a head vulcan, this would be a big advantage, but my Links doesn't have that optional equipment, so I can't test it.

It seems compatible with the fire control system, but in my case I never use shooting mode at all, so that's meaningless too. 

Links is specialized for close combat after all, so it doesn't even have a fire control system installed.

I feel like the machine's balance is slightly easier than usual, but maybe that's just a placebo effect? 

To avoid missing surrounding sounds, I play with the BGM off, but the sense of realism from the battle sounds through the goggle speakers is incredible. This minor thing is quite an advantage. 

The goggle's effect became clearer in the battle against the crab mecha on Stage 3. Being able to sense enemies behind me by sound is advantageous in close combat. I think I'll keep using it for a while instead of auctioning it off. 

After somehow defeating the crab mecha and clearing Stage 3, Stage 4 is a boss battle. 

Since it's not the last boss, it's probably a mid-boss. A multi-legged battleship. I've fought it before but never won.

It's the first CPU enemy to use live ammunition, and the guided missiles are especially troublesome. 

For missile countermeasures, I'm supposed to equip a decoy launcher pod. A decoy, in other words, a dummy rocket. But they're disposable and quite expensive, so I can't afford to use them. Being poor is tough.

Missiles cause damage even without a direct hit, from the blast. Even if I somehow manage to dodge and get close, there's still the barrage of machine gun fire waiting. 

Is it really impossible to defeat this thing in close combat? My life gauge is already less than half.

My hand reaches for the eject button, but then I remember - the built-in weapon, the wire anchor, could I use that in a situation like this? Entangling the legs of a huge multi-legged mecha to topple it is a classic move from the movies. It's worth a try.

Holding my sword in one hand, I aim my free left arm at the battleship's legs, and a simple reticle appears on my goggles. It doesn't seem to be locking on, but I can roughly tell where it will fire. A simple system like this is easier for me to use.

I fire the anchor and it lodges successfully in the leg, but it doesn't go according to my plan. As I reel in the wire, my whole machine gets pulled towards the enemy. Of course, they're far heavier than me.

Unable to evade the incoming barrage, before I know it I'm a sitting duck under the multi-legged battleship's belly. 

Careful not to get crushed by the massive legs, I detach the anchor. For some reason I'm not being attacked - is it because under the belly is a blind spot for the enemy's guns? Thinking about it, this is a common pattern too.

I've found a safe zone. In the end, what I was lacking was the courage to charge into the barrage. It's just a game, I'm not actually going to die, but my chicken heart is troublesome.

With a safe zone, all that's left is swinging my sword. I start peeling away at the belly armor.

Trying to forcefully cut through the tough armor quickly dulls my Buster Sword's blade. Such a waste - a beam sword would be more convenient for a task like this.

With the time limit approaching, I decide to finish it recklessly. I strike the exposed reactor with my sword, then boost-dash to escape before the explosion. If I had a beam gun I could safely destroy it from a distance. If I could actually hit it, that is.

Perhaps my sword-only fighting style really does have its limits. I've grown attached to my Links, so I don't want to switch to another machine, but I should probably practice shooting a bit.

Links doesn't have a built-in fire control system, but there are external ones, and some sniper rifles have dedicated fire control built into the gun itself. This game is pretty flexible if you put in some effort.

In any case, Stage 4 first clear. Congratulations to me.

I seem to have received some item. Is there a first-time reward? Oh yeah, I got Links itself on the first Stage 2 clear. Maybe you get items on even-numbered stages?

The item is an unusually designed weapon that looks like a huge sword. Well, it could be a gun too, I suppose.

Checking the info, the item name is Links Exclusive Sword. Glad it's not a gun. Not sure of the value, but the word "exclusive" feels nice somehow.

Links is in tatters now, but should I repair it with score points and challenge Stage 5? I do want to test out this exclusive sword.

No no, calm down and think. Stage 5 is uncharted territory, can I really go in with an unfamiliar weapon? At worst, I might break the new equipment right away.

For now, I'll choose to withdraw today. I'll get the survival bonus too.

Back at my apartment, I check the auctions and everything had been bid up to pretty high prices. 

Over 10,000 yen for a strap case, are you kidding? Surely it's not a prank bid?

In player matches, even if you lose you get 500 points per play. So even an extremely bad player can earn 5,000 points guaranteed by playing 10 times with 5,000 yen. Then why would a 5,000 point prize item be bid over 10,000 yen? The math doesn't add up. I'm grateful it sells high, but it's bugging me a bit.

The winning bids kept climbing higher, and in the end over 50,000 yen was deposited into my account. This is insane. 

Working an honest job is starting to feel a little foolish. Do I need to report these earnings to the tax office? I'm not sure, I'll look into it later.

Well, I don't expect this lucrative opportunity to last forever. But I won't let this chance pass me by. I'm going to put all my remaining score points into prize items and auction them off again.

With this 50,000 yen, I can play 100 times. Earning 7k per play, that's 700k points, enough for 140 strap prizes.

If each strap sells for 10,000 yen, that's a 1,350,000 yen profit.

This is crazy, too crazy. Working over 360 hours a month for a measly 180,000 yen take-home? No way.