Chapter 165: Holding Hands!

With a bewildered look on his face, Tsukasa Aoki sat in front of the arcade cabinet, staring blankly as his character was pinned into a corner of the screen and relentlessly beaten to a pulp, still not quite processing what had just happened.

Heaven only knows what that girl calling herself UMR was thinking. He had merely taken one careless step out of the crowd, and she had immediately treated him as a challenger. Before Tsukasa could even refuse, the crowd had erupted into cheers, with Kokomi Teruhashi shouting words of encouragement from behind.

By the time he came to his senses, Tsukasa realized he had already selected his character and started the match.

How on earth was he supposed to play this arcade game? He had played fighting games like King of Fighters '97 at game centers when he was a child, but his expertise was strictly limited to choosing Iori Yagami and spamming blue ghost fire projectiles onto the ground. He had no clue how to execute advanced combos, running attacks, or reversal throws.

The game playing now bore a striking resemblance to Street Fighter, which he had heard about before. While its difficulty might not have been overwhelmingly high, it was more than enough to plunge someone like Tsukasa into despair, given that he knew absolutely zero combos.

Apart from relying on his superhuman reflexes to continuously block, Tsukasa had no way of fighting back and could do nothing but take a beating.

Should he just forfeit? While pondering how to extricate himself from this mess, Tsukasa controlled his on-screen avatar to jump up and down, frantically blocking incoming attacks. Fortunately, just like in King of Fighters, holding the joystick in the opposite direction served as the blocking command.

"You can do it, Tsukasa-kun!" Kokomi flushed, raising one hand and cheering loudly for Tsukasa from within the crowd.

The group of otaku surrounding them, who had been shouting "UMR," let out collective cries of "Oh-hsu!" upon spotting Kokomi, and then chanted even louder out of pure jealousy: "Go UMR!"

"He's just defending! Finish him, UMR!"

"Hey, does he even know how to play this game?"

"UMR, UMR, UMR!"

The girl known as UMR kept her gaze locked tightly on the game screen, wearing a serious expression that others failed to notice: This bald guy is seriously strong!

Low attacks, mid attacks, high attacks—he managed to block every single one of them? Can someone really achieve such an airtight defense purely by turtling?

Damn it, why isn't he counterattacking? Is he looking down on me?

UMR bit her lower lip, her gamer's pride driving her to quicken her assaults.

Her joystick was being rattled furiously, and the buttons under her right hand clicked away with a continuous, rapid-fire clatter.

The muscular man in the orange cape on-screen launched into a fiercely aggressive offensive, unleashing all kinds of special moves and fighting techniques. Yet, none of them could break through her opponent's guard, merely landing on his block and dealing negligible damage.

Although this tiny amount of damage accumulated over time and shaved away more than a quarter of her opponent's health bar, the rapidly depleting timer made UMR realize that if things kept going this way, victory would soon be hers.

Even so, UMR felt extremely annoyed.

Finally, losing her patience, she blurted out, "What are you doing? Are you looking down on me?"

Hearing her crisp, youthful girl's voice, Tsukasa twitched the corner of his mouth and let out a wry smile. "No, I genuinely just don't know how to play."

"You..." UMR assumed Tsukasa was mocking her. Clenching her teeth, she attacked even more ferociously—I refuse to believe I can't land a single hit on you today!

Tsukasa cast a sidelong glance at her and, seeing her gloomy and indignant expression, gathered that she must have some sort of misunderstanding about him. But he was telling the absolute truth! With time running out, however, Tsukasa didn't want to give up just yet. If he could manage to defend all the way to the end, losing wouldn't look too embarrassing, right?

"Ten, nine, eight, seven..." The onlookers began a loud countdown, their expressions brimming with excitement.

From their perspective, Tsukasa was clearly nothing more than a punching bag, cornered and getting heavily beaten.

Watching this scene, Kokomi felt a pang of sadness: Tsukasa-kun doesn't know how to play this game at all, yet he stepped onto the stage because of my encouragement, only to be bullied like this by his opponent while the crowd eggs them on. He must feel terrible right now.

Oh no, his pride and competitive spirit are both so strong; he must be furious under these circumstances, right? And as the culprit behind all this, will Tsukasa-kun end up hating me? But I didn't do it on purpose either—I just poked him with my finger, never expecting him to be so sensitive and ticklish.

Kokomi's pretty face turned slightly pale as she desperately tried to reassure herself: Tsukasa-kun is so gentle, he certainly wouldn't get mad at me...

"Three, two, one!" Amidst the sudden uproar of cheers from the surrounding crowd, the time-up notice finally appeared on the arcade screen. UMR, who hadn't lost a single drop of health, was declared the victor based on her health advantage.

Tsukasa finally breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and smiled. "You're really good at this."

He wasn't exaggerating in the slightest. If arcade games like this didn't feature straightforward punches and kicks where blocking simply required crouching or standing to cover all directions, he would have long since been beaten senseless by a string of combos.

With a complicated expression, UMR stared directly into Tsukasa's eyes, her voice still laced with resentment. "What's your name?"

"Huh?" Tsukasa blinked, feeling somewhat baffled.

"Your gamer tag! An expert like you must have your own ID!" UMR glared at the onlookers, who seemed quite surprised by her words, and let out a huff, unwilling to offer explanations to ordinary bystanders whose skills fell far short of her own.

This guy was a super expert who spent the entire match relying solely on defense, yet didn't let her break his guard even once! And this bunch of people actually thought she had won purely on her own merit—how mortifying!

Seeing Tsukasa's blank expression, UMR assumed he was simply refusing to reveal his tag. Blushing with vexation, she stood up and declared loudly, "No matter who you are, since you're so good at the game, you're definitely going to participate in the upcoming tournament, right? I'm going home to thoroughly study how to break your defense, and I'll defeat you fair and square next time!"

Watching UMR drop her parting words and storm off, Tsukasa rubbed the back of his head in speechlessness: What on earth is this girl talking about?

The surrounding onlookers only then snapped back to their senses, breaking into stunned and animated discussions.

"So that's how it was!"

"This nameless bald expert actually chose to play purely defensively on purpose!"

"Hiss... Now that I think about it, his guard was never broken even once! Not even UMR could crack his defense?"

"Could this be the legendary absolute defense? Seeing him wear a mask, I originally thought he was just some punk delinquent, but he turns out to be a gaming god!"

"Hiss... Terrifying, simply terrifying!"

"Absolute defense!" "Absolute defense!"

Listening to the crowd passionately shouting second-grade chunibyo phrases like "terrifying" and "absolute defense," Tsukasa felt immensely grateful that he had worn a face mask today.

Wait, if he took off his mask right now, would these people have the decency to leave? But looking at their fanatical expressions—which practically mirrored obsessive fans meeting a teenage idol—Tsukasa felt a rare lapse in confidence regarding his own intimidation factor.

"Great master, please teach me how to play!"

"Excuse me, how did you pull that off?"

"How do you practice the absolute defense technique?"

Seeing the crowd surge toward him with the momentum of a mob, Tsukasa realized that if he didn't leave right now, he wouldn't be escaping anytime soon. He hurriedly stepped forward, grabbed Kokomi's wrist, and broke into a sprint, dragging her along as he bolted toward the exit.

"Great master, don't leave!"

"Damn it... he actually grabbed the goddess's hand."

"Terrifying, simply terrifying."

The moment her wrist was seized, Kokomi's mind went completely blank. Her legs moved mechanically, allowing Tsukasa to pull her along as she ran, leaving only three endlessly repeating words echoing in her head: We're holding hands?

We're holding hands? We're holding hands!

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PS: Three chapters today for good luck, as tomorrow is the official launch.

I'm the author, and right now I'm freaking out like crazy. I kindly ask my esteemed readers to support with money if you have it, or just show up for the popularity if you don't. Even if you honestly feel my book isn't worth spending a few bucks on, a first-day subscription would still mean the world. (Though if you all just go read pirated versions, I'll stage a sudden death right in front of you!)