Chapter 14: Snow White’s Weakness

2 WEEKS AGO 5 COMMENTS

Translated and Edited by: ynlucca.

Gaming.

After the whole challenge debacle, I made a new account and practiced for about thirty minutes… Or at least, that’s what I planned to do.

“Kuzuhara-kun, how do I move this ‘white pointy thing’? Is it the mouse?”

“The ‘white pointy thing’ is not the mouse… It doesn’t work in the air, so place it back on the table.”

“I’m getting nothing but lowercase English characters… What is this? A virus?!”

“Press the Hankaku key to change the input mode. You can use romaji, okay?”

“W-What should I do, I broke the internet.”

“It’d be a global catastrophe then. Let me see… Oh, the LAN cable is disconnected.”

One of Tohka Shirayuki’s many weaknesses—she’s computer illiterate. She’s always been weak with any machines, so she’s still using a feature phone with keys and everything. Even then, she doesn’t remember how to operate it properly.

But oh well… Didn’t expect it to be this bad.

We managed to finish setting up the game and finally started practicing APE.

“Well then, let’s start with how movement works,” I’ve played this game a few times at my friend Yogiri’s house, so I knew the basics at least.

Hence, I was assigned the role of Shirayuki’s teacher.

“In these PC games, you use the keyboard to move your character around. To move forward, press the ’W’ key—”

“I see, I see…” She listened to my explanations intently, and carefully digested everything I taught her, subject by subject.

Her quick learning speed is as expected from her. In just three minutes, she had the basic movement down, managed to control her recoil well, and had a good feel for hitting the target.

This is a blessing in disguise. Although she’s computer illiterate, she’s not bad at games.

With this skill level, maybe she’ll be able to win…?

However, despite my thoughts at the time, Shirayuki still lost.

“Ho, ho, ho! Ha, ha, ha! Sorry, sorry, but is this the extent of the president’s ability?” Yuzuki wore a smug smile.

“Guh… It wasn’t supposed to be like this…” Shirayuki clenched her fists in frustration.

Hey… That gunplay was at a professional level.

Shirayuki played well, so well in fact I could praise her with open arms and tell her she’s done amazing in less than an hour of practice.

However, Rin Yuzuki, the head of the Computer Research Club, had insane 1v1 skills.

“Yuzuki-senpai… You’ve been playing this game for quite a while, haven’t you?”

“Whew, it’s not a surprise. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m the up-and-coming streamer Yuzurin! I’m live every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10 pm, so please subscribe! I’d also love it if you’d follow me on Nicotter!”

She was a marketing strategist, giving a whole promotional speech so quickly it rolled off her tongue. How could she ever ask for a subscription with this kind of atmosphere?

“… Stop talking nonsense and let’s have a rematch. This time, I won’t make the same mistake!”

“Huh, I don’t mind. I’ll beat you up until you cry!”

A heated battle ensued soon after.

Shirayuki’s skills rapidly improve during their rematches, and she came close several times… But she still has only one day of practice.

After five fierce battles, she suffered five consecutive defeats.

“Ha, ha! Weak, weak, weak, weak! Is the daughter of the prestigious Shirayuki conglomerate this weak?”

Yuzuki-senpai, gloating about her winning streak, relentlessly shoots Shirayuki’s already fallen character, over, over, and over again. She’s shooting her corpse, excited by the situation.

Even Shirayuki, who doesn’t know about the toxicity you usually find in FPS games, knows she’s being ridiculed.

“…!” Her face was burning-red as she trembled in frustration. If she keeps going, she’ll only get worse.

Yuzuki-senpai… You shouldn’t shoot a dead player, you know? If you play with fire, you get burned.

“Fuh… Play against me next.”

“Mmm, as I recall, you’re the vice-president Kuzu…. Um, Kuzu-kun!”

“—Kuzuhara.”

Don’t give up halfway like that, try a bit harder… I believe my name is rather easy to remember…

“Well, I’m the vice-president. If you wanna say you’ve defeated the student council, you have to defeat me first.”

“Well, you do have a point,” she said while urging me to sit down with a glance.

Shirayuki passed me the baton, and I sat down on the gaming chair… Honestly, I don’t know how they got the budget for this either.

“Oh well, you look experienced Kuzu-kun… What’s your rank?”

“I just played it at a friend’s house before.”

“Huh… Doesn’t this mean you’re just small-fry, then?”

“Yeah, that’s how it is.”

“Hah! This is really stupid! I’m a professional gamer who once finished top-four of a pro-hosted tournament! The difference between just playing and actually competing — I’ll get that into your system!”

She’s awfully happy to hunt newbies as a super-advanced pro-player, huh. What a kind-hearted and popular senior we have.

I sigh a bit as Shirayuki looks at me with unease.

“K-Kuzuhara-kun, will you be okay?”

“Haven’t properly played this game in six months, but I remember the basics… Yeah, it’s doable. I’ve also seen all I need.”

“—Eh?”

After that, Yuzuki-senpai and I moved to the shooting range and we each chose our weapons.

The rules of this 1v1 are very simple. You can equip two firearms with no restrictions for any weapon type. Though, all bombs, such as grenades, are prohibited. The first player to kill the other wins.

I chose two of the heaviest sniper rifles in-game — The Claymores.

“Pfft, a sniper rifle in a 1v1,” She sneered while grabbing a submachine gun and a shotgun.

Once we were both equipped, we moved to the center of the map and glared at each other across the map’s shields.

“Are you two ready?” A member of the club acting as a referee asked. We both nodded our heads.

“And so—Begin!”

Immediately after the referee issued the beginning of the match, a thunderous bang echoed throughout the arena—It was over in a flash.

“—Hah?”

Headshot.

In one bang, Yuzuki’s character falls down.