What in the world is this in front of me?
No, I know it's the premium tendon bowl from Echigoya that costs 2,980 yen. Personally, I think spending 3k on a rice bowl dish is a bit much. I could play "Guardian Troopers" six times for that.
No, no, that's not the issue here.
The portly man sitting arrogantly before me is our company's Director of Human Resources. Though only a son-in-law, he's part of the president's family and ranks fairly high in the company caste - a being on a cloud as far as I'm concerned.
So how did this whole thing start...?
Apparently because I didn't pick up the slack for my colleagues yesterday, they weren't able to meet their quotas before leaving.
Then this morning, more than half of them didn't show up. If you can't meet your quotas, our tenacious boss will thoroughly berate you in front of everyone - mental anguish the faint of heart can't endure.
It's not uncommon at our workplace for people to stop coming in, citing illness, or just disappear without a trace. But this was an unprecedented mass desertion.
Leaving without permission and being unreachable - they definitely fled. Looks like their corporate slave brainwashing broke down en masse. The backbone of a black company is surprisingly fragile.
With most of our capable workers gone, we're left severely shorthanded. Ah, Tabata-senpai is still here, but surely he's not the one who instigated this mass escape...? Only inexperienced temp workers remain. This current project is doomed, no question.
When my direct boss, having leisurely arrived, started chewing me out about management responsibility as a lowly grunt, I reminded him who was actually the manager. He then flew into a rage, spewing froth and tantrums.
Normally managers don't do much actual work, but their job is to take responsibility at times like this, right? Am I getting fired? Will I get off with just being fired?
Realizing his own head was on the chopping block, my boss might have lost it a bit. Hyperventilating and hysterical, he unleashed a torrent of verbal abuse at me.
I had already resigned myself to potentially being fired, so none of it fazed me. No matter how loudly my boss raged in his unhinged frenzy, I felt no fear - it was almost comical.
Seeing me so unflustered just made my boss heat up even more. The ruckus drew the attention of the executives, who came to gawk, turning it into an unexpectedly huge scene. But then...
For some reason, the Director of HR summoned me during lunch break to go out for a meal together.
Echigoya is a rather upscale soba restaurant near the company. The owner is related to our president, making it a hangout for executives.
Since the execs are part of the president's family, they can write off wining and dining as a business expense while funneling money back to the family.
So here I am, at a private Echigoya tatami room, sitting across from the Director and his premium tendon bowl, staring each other down.
"This place is famous for its tendon bowls, so it's my treat - eat up without restraint."
Saying that, the Director unceremoniously shoved a shrimp tempura in his mouth and started chomping away. Well, if he's treating, I'll dig in too, snapping apart my chopstick case.
More than a tendon bowl, this is a tempura rice topping platter. A mountain of assorted tempura pieces rises above a bowl of rice drenched in tsuyu broth at the bottom.
Shumai dumplings, chilled noodles and kakuteki on the side, plus mini soba too. Fairly lavish, but also haphazardly thrown together. Not to mention having to eat it sitting across from this gruff old man.
"You see, when I was young, I actively sought out hardships. If you keep working hard, the higher-ups will definitely recognize it."
What is he blathering about? I haven't gotten a raise in 5 years since joining and have been forced to do unpaid overtime.
"You're quite the capable worker, I hear. But don't forget the debt you owe the company for cultivating you."
Wasn't the policy to not train anyone and only hire immediately operational staff? If they bothered nurturing employees, people wouldn't easily run away. Does he fail to grasp the situation, or is he just pretending to be clueless?
I ignore him and just keep eating.
Apparently before opening Echigoya, the owner used to work sales at some paper company. With nothing substantive to do, he got an online certification as a chef, so I assume he has some culinary talent.
For banquets they bring in professional cooks to help out, but normally it seems the owner single-handedly runs the place. I don't see any other staff around, so the food was likely prepared just by him during this time slot.
The shrimp tempura looks legit, but unfortunately the taste is lacking in various ways. First, the frying oil temperature was too low, making the batter soggily undercooked. On top of that, the jumbo shrimp over 20cm long weren't fully cooked through, leaving the center still raw. Is this intentionally rare-fried? The soggy batter combined with the undercooked shrimp just doesn't agree with me. But I can't call it an outright failure either. In this world, there may very well be people who actually prefer that kind of taste - it's just very much a matter of personal preference. The renkon lotus root crisps were nicely fried at least.
"Since we're a cozy venture, those who persevere and drive up our performance will eventually see paths open to management positions."
I know all the executives are the president's family members. I guess it is rather cozy...for the family.
The reason our company has been perpetually in the red is for tax avoidance purposes. Profits disappear through legal loopholes into the executives' pockets.
In other words, no matter how hard us corporate slaves work, the company posts losses - using the "poor performance" excuse to avoid raising salaries or paying bonuses.
Instead of dangling "management promotions" as bait, how about just raising our measly pay a little? His pointless spiel is making this already unappetizing meal taste even worse.
You make your way through most of the tempura and start on the rice. The bonito dashi used in the tentsuyu sauce is from my favorite well-known brand - I can immediately recognize its distinctive sweetness. More efficient than making dashi from scratch, but for a 3,000 yen premium tendon bowl, it's a bit of a letdown.
"The kuruma shrimp from Tokyo Bay are top-notch in flavor and aroma, aren't they?"
The HR Director boasts proudly. Admittedly the shrimp were huge, but the undercooked tempura left much to be desired. I would have preferred them to be properly cooked through.
In my opinion, the frozen Black Tiger shrimp tendon bowls actually taste better, but if I said that, this guy who fancies himself a foodie would probably relentlessly mock me.
"Well, if you work hard enough, you too can enjoy decent lunches like this daily. Let today's meal motivate you to give it your all."
Frankly, I'm disappointed that our HR Director is this mediocre of a man. I'll do the work commensurate with my pay without needing this kind of pandering.
Then again, if they feel the need to keep someone like me placated, the company management must truly be in dire straits.
"Hey Kinchi-san, I watched your match from yesterday!"
Jimmy came running up to me at the arcade. This place is great - it really makes me feel alive.
"Yesterday's match? The one for the Christmas event, you mean?"
"Using humanoid gear for wrestling moves, what kind of motion data did you register?"
Apparently "Humanoid Gear" is the official term for the mecha weapons in "Guardian Troopers."
"Why Humanoid Gear though? Shouldn't it be Guardian Troopers since that's the title?"
"But the US title is Planet Mercenaries."
"Planet...Ma?"
"Mercenaries means mercenaries, you know. We're supposed to be mercenary pilots, remember?"
Come to think of it, there was some kind of story premise like that. It's such a clichéd setup for these kinds of games that I never really paid attention.
"I guess the Japanese title was changed to be more marketable here. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose."
"Wait, was this game originally foreign?"
"What are you saying, just look at the mech designs!"
Now that he mentions it, the mech aesthetics did strike me as rather peculiar. But enough to identify it as a Western game at a glance? As expected of Jimmy, the designer prodigy.
Well, as long as it's fun, I don't really care if it's a Japanese or Western game.
"Anyway, time to continue the Christmas Tournament."
"Ah, the second tournament round won't be unlocked until the day after tomorrow."
What? Why are you killing my motivation like that?
Apparently it's a consideration for players who can't play every day, so the tournament is being held one round at a time over several days. It wouldn't be fun to get automatically disqualified just for missing a single day.
"You'll want to come early on the unlock day to get your matches in. If you're late, you might struggle to find opponents."
I see, that makes sense. Alright, I'll make sure to completely ditch service overtime on the unlock day.
In any case, time to load up the cabinet. Since the tournament is a no-go today, I should test out the new weapons I acquired.
The Sword Breaker and Hand Launcher P. Being small, I can easily mount them on the simple racks without issue. I try fixing them to the left and right thigh racks, and there's no particular interference.
Come to think of it, Jimmy mentioned something about motion data registration.
If you pre-register frequently used movements, you can apparently bind them to buttons or command inputs for execution.
Basically macros, I suppose. Bringing work into the game doesn't really appeal to me though. I prefer full manual control.
Not that it's pure raw input - an intelligent AI learns my control habits and makes minor corrections for me. Unlike early on, sloppy inputs now generally produce the intended results, which is much easier.
Basically, it's judging my intentions from the situation and my inputs, ignoring minor mistakes to move according to my intent. Probably.
The longer I play, the more data it accumulates about me, allowing the AI to become smarter. All that accumulated info must be stored on my pilot card.
At first, just wielding a weapon was an ordeal, but now mounting them onto racks is almost an unconscious action. That unconsciousness is key - overthinking the control sequences just leads to confusion.
Motion registration is probably convenient for shooting, but for sword combat, full manual is fine by me. Mostly it's just too much hassle to register everything individually.
I'll try out the plasma launcher first.
The plasma launcher is a type of energy weapon that fires ball-shaped plasma projectiles. They come in various sizes from pistols to bazooka-types, but most have slow velocities and generally poor reputations.
This one came from yesterday's gacha ticket, labeled "Hand Launcher P" - the P is probably for plasma?
It has the appearance of an oversized pistol with an unnaturally thick barrel. Cool looking? It's on the line. A bit toy-like, I suppose.
Test firing it launches a spherical ball of plasma lightning.
The ejected plasma rapidly decelerates, floating aimlessly for a while before dissipating.
With that poor a ballistic trajectory, lock-ons would be meaningless. The wire anchors are far more accurate as a ranged option.
Not really a precision aiming weapon, but the hitbox seems quite generous, so it could work for suppressive fire at least?
It has good bullet-clearing ability, and seems fairly potent on hits. Might be better to think of it as a floating mine rather than a gun.
The downside is the risk of accidentally hitting yourself. Also, despite only firing single shots, the charge time is quite long.
Being an ultra-lightweight class, it's well-suited as a backup sidearm. But I can't really see many situations where I'd actually use this thing.
Next is the Sword Breaker, which despite looking like an army knife, is bizarrely classified as a shield-type. You see weird categorization inconsistencies like this in games sometimes - probably a communication breakdown in the dev team.
Low attack power, but surprisingly high durability despite appearances. Could be handy for deflecting enemy fire.
The issue is its small hitbox, but that's acceptable for a backup weapon. Its featherweight matches the Hand Launcher, which is nice.
What intrigues me is the implied weapon-breaking ability from its name. Apparently it can drastically reduce the durability of bladed melee weapons. Enough to instantly shatter something like a crustacean mech's massive claws - real cheat code stuff.
For a sword fighter like me, that makes it a formidable counter-weapon. I'll need countermeasures in case enemies bring Sword Breakers. Maybe carry a backup beam sword?
At this rate, I'll end up loaded down with too many auxiliary weapons. Unlike the heavily-armed Sagittarius type, overburdening my Lynx would negatively impact its mobility. That would be unwise.