Editing Rapid Fire King:Volume1 Chapter 4 (section)

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Takamura saw the runway on the screen in front of him.

That straight line looked like a long highway and a red aircraft with a thick design raced along it.

It floated up and its shadow appeared on the ground.

Takeoff.

At the same time, his finger began to move.

He began rapid firing.

His finger rapidly shook to audibly press the button.

He immediately heard a voice from behind.

“Oh, that’s-”

It was the Freeter, but what had he been about to say?

Takamura did not know.

But it became obvious enough a moment later.

The screen suddenly lit up.

There was an explosion there, but his ship was fine.

The explosion had occurred almost directly below his ship. A red blast filling up nearly a third of the screen had appeared there.

Flames engulfed the ground.

The world pictured on the screen shook.

At the same time, an explosive sound echoed two or three times from the cabinet.

“Geh!”

That odd sound came from Takamura.

He knew exactly what he had done now that the explosion was fading away.

…''That was the bomb button!?

He had hit the bomb button instead of the bullet one.

…''I totally forgot.

Most shoot ‘em up games let you fire a more powerful secondary weapon commonly just called a bomb.

You only had so many of those, but they created an explosion that filled a third of the screen and did major damage to every enemy in range.

Your own ship would not take any damage.

Not only did the explosion damage the enemies without damaging you, but it eliminated the enemy’s bullets too. That meant you could fly into the blast to avoid taking any damage at all.

So normally…

…''You use your bombs as a last resort when surrounded by enemy bullets, or as an attack to quickly take out an enemy with a brutal attack.

That was one of the strategic elements of shoot ‘em up games. Since you only had so many of them, strategy was crucial.

In Super Rapid Fire, you started the game with three bombs.

Takamura had just fired one of those.

The reason was quite simple.

…''I mixed up the buttons.

He glanced down at the button arrangement real quick.

There were two buttons side by side. He had accidentally hit the one on the right.

He knew exactly why he had mixed them up.

First, there were no labels telling you what they did.

But more than that, it was due to the home console he had been playing to practice. That system’s stick had three buttons lined up, but few shoot ‘em up games used three buttons. In that case, the left and right ones would fire bullets and the center one fired a bomb.

He had gotten used to hitting the far right button to fire bullets.

But a mistake was a mistake.

Arcade games costed money.

In Super Rapid Fire, you started with three lives. Counting all three lives, you were given a total of nine bombs.

A game cost 50 yen, so….

…''Each bomb is worth about 5.5 yen.

In that sense, accidentally firing one was a painful loss.

“Oh.”

He came back to his senses when the first enemy flew in from the top of the screen.

He could see it.

But his mind was preoccupied with regret over the bomb, so he was slow to respond. Should he dodge or fire? He knew he was shaken, but that kept him from trusting his own judgment here.

…''Fine, let’s just do this!

His fingertips were tense, but he tried to brush off his worries by rapid firing the correct button this time.

However…

…''That’s way too slow.

What his fingers produced could not be called “rapid”.

He was simply repeatedly tapping the button.

That was not what he wanted to do. He pictured something much faster in his mind, but his nerves and his stupid mistake had tensed up his entire hand.

''Oh, no,'' he thought, but that only shook him more and created new tension in a negative feedback loop.

…''A-argh.

''What is happening?'' he wondered. Everything had gone so well the night before and that thought only made him panic more.

Something like confusion filled his mind.

So he lost a life almost immediately.

The slow bullet fired by the enemy flew straight toward his ship.

It hit him.

His ship flashed bright and exploded.

With an explosive sound effect, a game life worth approximately 17 yen went up in smoke.

At the same time, he gasped.

He was shaken after losing a life, but that loss also reset his mood.

…''U-um.

He managed to regain some control of his mind and could comprehend the events on the screen once more.

But that clarity led to another piece of misfortune.

He noticed the man in a brown suit faintly reflected in the screen’s acrylic panel.

He could see him. Which meant…

…''He can see me.

Takamura felt himself blushing.

The heat and dampness made the inside of his uniform feel heavy.

…''C-compared to last night…

This was about the worst start he could have had.

And he ultimately failed to even complete Stage 1.