Editing Rapid Fire King:Volume1 Chapter 2 (section)

===2===

The Super Rapid Fire cabinet had become a battlefield the night before.

The player ship had reached its maximum of 10 bullets fired side by side at once. That barrage had three times the width of the player ship and it could shoot through the enemies as often as the player could hit the button for their rapid fire.

The background scrolled by, the clouds swayed as if in the wind, the ocean had parts in shadow and parts in the sun, and the stars flowed by with a different distance for each. The game had been full of things he had never before seen. For example, Stage 4 included a scene where the player dropped down and descended into the Grand Canyon, Stage 5 included a scene where the player rose through the sunset clouds, passed through the stratosphere, and arrived in outer space, and the Final Stage had a scene where the player flew while looking down at a fleet battle being fought in outer space.

The aerial warship that acted as the boss of Stage 1 split the sea of clouds from below as it made its appearance.

There was also a giant tank that dropped from the sky while the game zoomed in or out on the player character.

The player ship was shot down just once. In a careless move, an enemy bullet had hit it.

However, the next life snagged the powerup items while dodging the enemy attacks to return to full power in just a few minutes.

The final boss warship started off partially fading into the background before gradually growing solid and the main ship transformed each time one of its parts was destroyed. It had looked like a giant version of the player ship at first, but then it had become a multi-jointed serpent, a cannon, a huge bird, and a giant fighter craft made of straight lines. In the last transformation, the head portion separated off and began to flee.

You apparently had to destroy it before it escaped and a countdown timer appeared at the top of the screen.

You only had ten seconds.

The screen scrolled rapidly down to show how the enemy was trying to escape and they fired a powerful attack at the very end.

The screen was lit up by bullets like someone had set off some fireworks.

But the red ship rapid-fired.

The enemy rapid-fired in response.

The red ship slipped between the incoming bullets and lasers and destroyed the fleeing enemy aerial warship.

The timer stopped with 1 second remaining.

The ending was a simple thing.

A few images were displayed in a sepia tone and then the screen went black.

After that, a movie-like credits roll played for about 10 seconds.

Finally, the company name was displayed in large letters with “The End” below it.

The name entry came after that.

When you earned a high score in an arcade game, you could use the stick and buttons to enter three letters. In other words, only those who had earned a high score were allowed to enter their name.

The limited number of letters meant most people entered their initials. Some people found it too much effort and just hit the button without choosing letters, leaving them with AAA.

The Freeter made sure to use the stick to choose the letters for a name: WIN.

Then the high score ranking was displayed.

The power had been reset to change the difficulty, so only he had played it. The high score ranking was filled with the preset default scores, but there was a 5 digit difference between the scores in 1st place and 2nd place.

And the entry for WIN had the letters ALL displayed after the score.

That was like a medal given by the game to anyone who cleared every stage and saw the ending.

Those three letters proved that person had completed their battle.

Then the Freeter sighed.

“Now, then.”

And he stood up.

His back moved. It was a small thing, but Takamura took a step back. Why did he do that? Because it had felt like the arcade’s atmosphere was moving with that man.

But Takamura was the only one to respond like that and no one – not the Freeter and not anyone else – was looking his way.

No one noticed him as the Owner uncrossed his arms and held a hand out toward the Freeter.

The Freeter took the Owner’s hand and laughed a little.

“Ha ha. I did it, Owner.”

“So you did. You said you were thinking of changing what name you used, but I notice you’re sticking with that.”

“I had some other thoughts on the matter. Oh, but more importantly, you should change the difficulty back. If you don’t hurry it up, some customer might make a fool of themselves.”

Takamura heard that from behind because he had started to leave the arcade. And in a way that was best described as “slipping away”.

He was not sure why, but he felt like he could not stay there any longer.

And while he walked toward the exit…

“Eh?”

He realized something. He had not been the only one watching them. A woman was standing near the entrance.

She wore glasses and was taller than he was. Based on the smile she was directing the Freeter’s way, he guessed they knew each other.

But she had nothing to do with Takamura, so he walked past her and walked toward the exit.

He pressed the button for the automatic door, and…

“Ha.”

He stepped out of the arcade.

He felt the chilly breeze of that spring night and started to say something, but…

“…”

He could not say a word.

He also had no idea what it was he had wanted to say, so he scratched his head in confusion, shook his head, and sighed.

He checked the clock to see it was 9:02.

That meant the Freeter had been fighting for more than half an hour straight.

A single hit meant death in that unforgiving world where he had spent the whole time dodging, attacking, and rapid-firing.

…''A thirty minute battle.

Something occurred to Takamura then.

…''Could I do that?

The hand scratching his head had a distinctive tan. The box of tanned skin on the back of his left hand was from a glove. He had that thanks to the school baseball team.

“Baseball.”

''Baseball is a battle between two teams,'' he thought.

The games lasted from two to three hours.

However…

…''You don’t have to stay tense and focused the entire time.

There were times when you sat on the bench waiting for your turn at bat and times on defense when the pitcher was switched out. You were not standing in the batter box throughout and you did not have balls flying your way all the time.

So could he really maintain that level of tension for half an hour?

He would have to keep fighting on his own without any teammates to pick up the slack if he was tagged out or made an error.

…''Could I really do that?

He compared himself with that man.

And he recalled what the Freeter had said before making the attempt.

“He was serious,” he muttered as he thought about that word.

''Is that what it means to be serious?

And if that man could do it…

…''There are people who can get serious about video games.

Just as he confirmed that for himself, he returned his focus to the outside world.

Shifting from that replaying memory to the present time felt a lot like waking up.

He groaned while straightening up and finding the school cafeteria around him.