A triangle of pro, kusoge, and retro.
"No way, Black Pepper, you're into kusoge?" Sunraku asked, incredulous.
"Well, it's a long story with some… unique reasons," Black Pepper replied. "What about you, Sunraku? You pretty deep into this game?"
"Oh yeah, cleared the story mode up to the final boss," Sunraku grinned.
Having stumbled upon Rakuro—aka Sunraku, his convenience store acquaintance—on his first login to Berserk Online Passion (B.O.P.), Black Pepper soaked up insights from the seasoned player. As Bushikatzo had warned, the game's attack startups and speeds were absurd, punishing players without razor-sharp reflexes.
"Hey, Sunraku, mind a spar?" Black Pepper ventured.
"Hell yeah! Bugs on or off?" Sunraku replied.
"Bugs on, obviously. Let's do this," Black Pepper said.
Black Pepper's first B.O.P. opponent was Sunraku, with a 3-round, best-of-two ruleset. The virtual gong echoed through the night sky, signaling the start.
"…"
"Not coming at me?" Sunraku taunted.
Black Pepper crouched slightly, adopting a versatile stance ready for grabs or strikes. Sunraku, hands in his shorts pockets, stood firm and relaxed.
(This situation… that move should work,) Black Pepper thought, recalling the wiki. He shuffled his left foot back, leaned slightly forward, and unleashed it.
"!"
He executed a bug technique from the B.O.P. wiki: Yoyo, a move that shifted the avatar's hitbox with its texture. By extending a limb with Yoyo's mechanics, it propelled the hitbox forward, enabling a super-fast, straight-line strike with massive knockback—dubbed Rubber Snap by B.O.P. players.
"Whoa, pulling off Rubber Snap fresh out the gate? You're better than I thought, Black Pepper," Sunraku said.
"What?!" Black Pepper gasped.
To his shock, Sunraku had dodged the lightning-fast Rubber Snap with a slight tilt of his head.
"Rubber Snap's solid for mid-range, but the risk is huge if you miss!" Sunraku called out.
"Damn, I can't recover in time!" Black Pepper realized.
Rubber Snap's drawback was brutal: a miss left the user's leg extended, immobile for three seconds—a sitting duck for counterattacks.
"Eat this!" Sunraku roared.
With Black Pepper defenseless, Sunraku's punch motion twisted, his arm slackening and trembling. A beginner's must-learn bug technique, it delivered a two-hit combo with double damage, named after a siege weapon.
"Pile Bunker!" Sunraku shouted.
"Guh?!" Black Pepper grunted as Sunraku's fist slammed into his face, vision blurring. A relentless Pile Bunker barrage followed, draining his health to zero. "KO!" flashed across the screen.
Over a dozen matches followed, and the results were brutal. Sunraku's Doppelganger bug split him into two, pummeling Black Pepper. Another time, a spinning dodge triggered Metamorphose, warping Sunraku's body like slime to choke him out with a constricting hold. It was a massacre.
Yet Black Pepper adapted, syncing Yoyo with opponents' moves and countering Pile Bunker with Rubber Snap. He was learning.
"Nice, Black Pepper! But you're still green!" Sunraku taunted.
"Damn it! Even the same Pile Bunker hits this hard?!" Black Pepper gritted.
Sunraku combined Yoyo and Pile Bunker in a devastating bug synergy. Black Pepper tried to gain distance with Yoyo, but Sunraku matched it, twisting his fist for another Pile Bunker.
(This is bad! Dodge? No, I can't escape! Then parry with my legs! Remember why I'm here!)
His thoughts raced, nerves aligning for a leg parry. Adjusting his stance, setting his core, processing visual input—Sunraku's Pile Bunker aimed for his solar plexus.
"Here!" Black Pepper roared.
Activating Rubber Snap with a kick, he launched Sunraku's Pile Bunker upward, sending him reeling. In that instant, the ideal form of a leg parry crystallized in Black Pepper's mind.
Reacting's too slow. Like clearing a falling-block puzzle's endgame, snapshot the scene, predict the opponent's move, and align your leg with precision. That was the truth of leg parrying.
"No way! You parried with your leg in that moment?!" Sunraku exclaimed, knocked back but thrilled.
"Now I'll—?!" Black Pepper started, moving for a Pile Bunker counter. But as Sunraku shoved his other hand into his shorts, a chill stopped him cold.
"What? That was your chance!" Sunraku said.
"I… had a feeling if I'd gone for it, I'd have lost," Black Pepper admitted, sweating but holding his stance.
Caution and foresight were his strengths. Yet, he realized he couldn't beat Sunraku in his current state.
"All or nothing!" Black Pepper declared.
He prepped Rubber Snap with his right foot. Sunraku crouched to counter. But as Black Pepper canceled the kick into a step—a bug triggered.
His right foot split into countless copies before him.
"What the hell?!" Sunraku yelped.
"What is this?!" Black Pepper screamed, as his foot multiplied like squid tentacles.
Worse, the duplicated legs unleashed a barrage of Rubber Snap attacks, moving independently of his control—a relentless storm like a Gatling cannon shredding a condemned prisoner.
"Sunraku, dodge! Get out now!" Black Pepper shouted, unable to stop the onslaught.
But Sunraku, calm as still water, smirked. "I'd love to tank it, but at this speed—I can shoot them all down!"
A grinding sound erupted from Sunraku's shorts. Then, countless fists burst from his pockets, clashing with the swarm of legs, shattering them into polygons.
Black Pepper stared, awestruck. It's like an iaido flurry, twinkling like a meteor shower.
The eternal clash ended as Sunraku's barrage obliterated the rogue legs. Closing the gap with Yoyo, he unleashed another meteor-like fist storm, draining Black Pepper's health to zero.
"I lost. You're incredible, Sunraku," Black Pepper said, sprawled on the ground, staring up at Sunraku, hands still in his pockets.
"Nah, that leg parry freaked me out. Blowing me back with Rubber Snap? Didn't see it coming. Plus, that new bug was awesome," Sunraku said, grinning. "Made my day."
The Gatling-like Rubber Snap barrage, triggered without his control, must be the new bug Sunraku meant.
"I lost this time, but I think I got the hang of leg parries. Thanks for humoring a newbie, Sunraku. Next time, I'm winning," Black Pepper declared, his eyes burning with resolve.
"Hell yeah. And, uh, drop the '-kun.' Just Sunraku's fine," he replied.
"Got it. Sunraku it is," Black Pepper said.
"Sweet. Nice to meet ya, Black Pepper," Sunraku said, shaking his hand.
Their握手 sealed Black Pepper's first B.O.P. friend.
"So, why'd you pick B.O.P.?" Sunraku asked.
"Oh, I'm meeting a gamer buddy here to practice leg parries. He should show up soon…"
"Yo, Black Pepper! Knew you'd be brawling already!" a familiar voice called. Turning, Black Pepper saw a blonde player in all-white gear—white gauntlets, boots, and a vermilion headband covering his eyes. Player name: Modorukatzo.
"No way, Modorukatzo! Been ages since you logged in," Sunraku said.
"Hey, Sunraku, long time. Remember my email? Said a newbie was joining B.O.P.," Modorukatzo replied.
"Wait, that's Black Pepper?" Sunraku asked.
"Yup, I'm Modorukatzo's friend, Black Pepper. Nice to meet you, Sunraku," Black Pepper said, bowing.
Modorukatzo turned to Sunraku. "By the way, Black Pepper's a beast at retro games."
"Oh? What's his win rate?" Sunraku asked.
"Embarrassing, but in retro fighters, he's got me beat," Modorukatzo admitted. "Plus, he knows Pencil. They're both playing Shangri-La Frontier."
Sunraku's jaw dropped. "Seriously?"
It was hard to believe. Modorukatzo, a top-tier pro with a 70%+ win rate against global competitors, was outdone in his specialty by Black Pepper. But his candid respect convinced Sunraku of Black Pepper's skill.
"Damn… and you know Pencil Warrior?" Sunraku asked.
"Pencil Warrior? Wait, you're the 'kusoge revolutionary' Modorukatzo mentioned?" Black Pepper realized.
"Yup. Didn't know you knew that much," Sunraku said.
Black Pepper nodded, and Sunraku's shock deepened. Friends with Japan's top pro gamer and a charismatic model? Is this guy a secret big shot?
"So, Sunraku, I'm thinking of starting Shangri-La Frontier," Modorukatzo dropped.
"For real?!" Sunraku exclaimed.
No surprise there—Modorukatzo, like Sunraku, thrived on unfair kusoge. A god-tier game like Shangri-La Frontier seemed out of character.
"Pencil sent me a personal email, full-on mocking me," Modorukatzo explained. "'Skipping the hot new Shangri-La Frontier? Lame, dried-up Katzo-kun! Can you even call yourself a pro?' Total taunt fest. Pissed me off, and it sounds like she's scheming something. Plus, I'm kinda curious about it."
His reasons were split: half fueled by Pencil's provocation, half by intel from a mysterious "info broker."
Sunraku smirked. "If you start Shangri-La Frontier with Pencil and leave me out, you're gonna roast me, aren't you?"
"Obviously. I'll tease the hell outta you, kusoge-master Sunraku!" Modorukatzo laughed.
Black Pepper could vividly picture Pencilgon and Modorukatzo ganging up to mock Sunraku. As Modorukatzo cackled, Sunraku's forehead twitched with a vein.
"Fine, bring it, Modorukatzo, you bastard! Once I clear that legendary kusoge F.A.Q., I'm jumping into Shangri-La Frontier. Get ready!" Sunraku roared.
"You're playing F.A.Q.?! That demonic nun's so infuriating I came to B.O.P. to vent!" Sunraku fumed.
Pro and kusoge gamers, huh? What's this F.A.Q.? Black Pepper wondered.
"Ugh, thinking about that demon nun makes me wanna punch something. Black Pepper, Modorukatzo, let's fight!" Sunraku declared.
"Wait, I just got wrecked!" Black Pepper protested.
"C'mon, Black Pepper, let's dive into bug techniques in real combat!" Modorukatzo urged.
"My stomach's already full from Sunraku's beatdown!" Black Pepper groaned.
Yup, I'm their punching bag, he thought, resigned.
As predicted, Modorukatzo unleashed his retro-game grudges, and Sunraku vented his F.A.Q. rage. Black Pepper didn't win a single round, baptized in B.O.P.'s brutal bug techniques. Yet, he absorbed their moves, mastering a few leg parries against two of the game's top players.
The Baptism of B.O.P., Harsh and Merciless
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