I'm bored.
The project has been canceled, so I have nothing to do for a while. It's not unusual for me to come to the office and have no work, but this time the situation is a bit different. Although most of the staff have fled, it's our fault that we couldn't meet the deadline. As a subcontractor...well, further down the subcontracting chain for a small company, this is bad. If we fumble, we might not get any more work.
With no temps coming in, our partitioned island is deserted. Finally, it's just me and Tabata left.
Well, there are some things you can only do at a time like this.
Tabata seems to be pretending to clean up. The area around his desk might be a little tidier, maybe.
Since I have almost no personal belongings, it takes me less than a minute to clean. The secret to cleaning is to not own things. If you get rid of everything you don't need, you won't waste time organizing. Of course, I don't buy anything since I have no money.
With nothing to do, I boot up my computer and start tinkering with a custom spreadsheet plugin I made.
I'm not doing anything particularly amazing, but a little ingenuity can dramatically improve work efficiency. Work is basically just repeating routine tasks, after all. Write a little macro, and a job that took an hour is done with a single click.
I keep it a secret from others at the company - improving efficiency just means they'll cut staff. And any credit will go to the bosses, while I'll get blamed for any issues. No doubt about it.
Speaking of our idiotic bosses, they've been awfully quiet lately. They come to the office, but hardly show their faces around here. They must have dumped all the responsibility for this mess on us, but I don't feel sorry for them.
"Why are you working so seriously?"
Tabata sits down next to me with a mischievous grin, handing me a scrap of paper. It's a list of the executives with their salaries and even family situations noted.
"What's this?"
"I'm like a super hacker, right? Ridiculous."
The president's salary was listed at just over 500,000, which didn't seem like much for a president's annual pay - but it was his monthly pay. His young wife, who often comes by the office looking like she works at a fuzoku club, makes over 300,000 a month. The president's family takes home at least a million a month before bonuses and "president's awards", over ten times what we regular employees make.
"What do you think?"
"It's a lot, but not as much as I expected."
Compared to a regular employee like me, it is a lot. But I'm not particularly envious. The executives all seem to have spendthrift wives, are burdened by car and home loans, pay for their kids' private schools and get gouged for donations. Considering their outgoings, they might be even more miserable than us. They come to the company but barely work, just constantly complaining about not having enough money. In a way, it's pitiful.
"But they get that kind of take-home pay without really working at all. Tasty, isn't it?"
I can see Tabata's point.
For me, as long as I get paid a reasonable wage for my labor, without excessive unpaid overtime and such, I'm satisfied.
These days, most young people don't have high expectations and will diligently work for low wages without complaint. If the higher-ups showed us regular workers a little consideration, no one would have fled. The company could have kept running smoothly.
It reminds me of the old story about the greedy farmer who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. Wasn't it Ieyasu who said, "Don't kill it, but don't let it live either"? Balance is important in everything.
Since there's no work, there's no overtime. Leaving the office at 5pm gives an unparalleled feeling of freedom.
With all this free time, I decide to cook dinner for myself.
I stop by the supermarket near my apartment and stock up on ingredients. Chicken thighs and potatoes were on sale, so I'll make yakitori chicken for the first time in ages, a dish that got me through my student days. It looks fancy and tastes great, but including potato salad, the ingredients for one meal fit within a 500 yen budget. No, I'll make it fit.
The key to living frugally is keeping track of vegetable prices. Onion prices were within an acceptable range, but carrots were expensive so I skipped them. I hadn't really been paying attention lately, but food prices seem to be swinging more and more wildly year by year. According to the internet, carrot retail prices fluctuated nearly tenfold just this month. At times like this, you have to stock up when prices hit rock bottom.
Back at my apartment, I get right to cooking. My cooking style is self-taught, so it's simple. For "yakitori chicken", I just mix soy sauce and mirin to make a tare glaze, put the chicken thighs and tare directly into an oven tray, and bake it in the fish grill.
I remembered my girlfriend from my student days making a fuss about how using the fish grill to bake yakitori chicken would start a fire. The instruction manual did clearly state not to grill anything other than fish, but it doesn't make sense that fish would be okay while chicken isn't. I have a fire extinguisher and as long as I don't leave it unattended, it should probably be fine.
While slowly grilling the chicken over low heat, I prepare the potato salad. I know potato eyes contain toxins, so I casually cut the potatoes while removing the eyes. I haphazardly peel off the skins since that's too much hassle. Leaving some potato skin gives it a slightly bitter taste, but you can think of it as part of the potato flavor and not mind too much. I slice the onions raw, then mix them with the boiled potatoes and mayonnaise. A very casual potato salad, the epitome of a man's cooking.
As soon as the rice finishes cooking, I dig right in, just devouring it.
The savory tare mixed with chicken fat blends perfectly with the potato salad for an exquisite flavor. Homemade yakitori tare is not only cheap but incredibly delicious. I add a bit of sugar to the soy sauce and mirin, costing a tenth of what bottled tare costs. Spices? Luxury is the enemy.
It pairs amazingly with freshly cooked rice. The chicken and rice, potato and rice, tare and rice - all fantastic. One rice cooker cup wasn't enough.
I wrap up the leftover potato salad and put it in the fridge that I haven't used in a while. A potato sandwich for breakfast tomorrow sounds good. Making extra for a lunch box will save even more money.
It felt like I experienced a human lifestyle again after so long. I crawl into bed with a satisfied feeling. Even if there's no hope for the future, a person can find happiness with teriyaki chicken and potato salad. I feel like I'm forgetting something important, but I'll ignore it.
Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I remembered today was the unlock date for the second round of the Christmas tournament. I jolted awake instantly. Checking the clock, it was just past 8pm. Good, I can still make it.
I arrived at the game center before 9pm, about the usual time. Due to the unlock, it was a bit busier than normal but I didn't have to wait too long for my turn.
Right before entering the pod, I noticed a dejected-looking Jimmy, who must have been eliminated in the second round. I didn't have room to worry about him - I had to win first.
Luckily, an opponent was found quickly. After some hesitation, I deployed with my usual loadout plus a Sword Breaker and Plasma Launcher.
A wasteland stage, and the sunset version too. The atmosphere is nice, but I don't care for sunset stages since the distance perception is strangely hard to gauge.
I don't know the enemy's position, but if possible I want to engage with the sun at my back. Not just for flair, having a clear line of sight is advantageous in combat.
The enemy isn't firing at all. A high-stealth unit maybe? My passive scanners still aren't detecting anything. If both sides' score remains zero until time runs out, it counts as a draw and loss for both I think. I start feeling tense, but losing my cool here means losing.
There they were, boldly standing smack in the middle of the wasteland. Dual-wielding Buster Swords?
I've tried dual-wielding before but found the blade balance, weight shifting timing, and other finer points too cumbersome for practical use, so I dismissed it. But the enemy dual-wielding is a bit unnerving.
The enemy unit looks like a Scutum at first glance, but the silhouette seems slightly off somehow. Maybe because there's no shield equipped?
Well, if they're going for close combat too then it works in my favor. I don't need to bother sneaking up and closing distance under covering fire.
I closed the distance rapidly. The enemy still wasn't moving. I didn't like that - it's hard to read their first strike when they're just waiting passively, while my own moves are somewhat predictable from my actions.
Should I stop just outside their range and reset? No, they might just be bluffing and really standing still after all.
Deciding to probe with a hit-and-run strike, I charge in. Since we both have Buster Swords, the reach and timing should be the same.
But they parried my sword with one blade while slashing at me with the other. So this is dual-wielding.
I barely avoided it by a paper's width, losing my balance badly. Not missing the opening, they gleefully leapt at me.
Up close, the details were clearly different from a Scutum. The bulky shoulder unit, while not as heavy-duty as a Taurus, was obviously designed ruggedly for close combat. Like a Scutum variant specialized for melee.
My Links is also a melee specialist, but its combat style is sneaking in under enemy fire to deliver a fatal sword blow up close. Against a ranged-focused unit like a Sagittarius, getting in close range is lethal for them.
This enemy doesn't seem as agile as a Links. It's probably poor at evading ranged fire. But it's sturdy and powerful, designed to dominate close-quarters dogfights. Its prey is likely lightweight melee specialists like the Links.
Which means for me, it's a natural enemy. Recklessly charging in against an unknown opponent - I must look like easy prey to it. A dire predicament, but my blood was racing with excitement. Bring on the tough enemy, let's do this.
I have a slight mobility advantage, but it whirls its twin blades furiously like a kung fu movie, trying to overwhelm with speed. I want to reset, but it's incredibly fast at closing distance, making it hard to disengage.
The only reason I can dodge its furious rushes is because its dual-blade combos must be pre-registered motion patterns. No matter how fierce, as long as I know the next move, it's not too hard to evade. Of course, there's always the chance it uses multiple motion sets, so I can't let my guard down.
In the meantime, the durability of my Buster Sword is rapidly depleting. Simple math says it'll get chewed up twice as fast. It's clearly aiming for a weapon destruction win.
Damn, in that case dual-wield against dual-wield, weapon destruction against weapon destruction. I wanted to keep the Sword Breaker a secret until later in the tournament, but if I lose here, that won't matter anymore.
I swiftly switch to a one-handed grip on the Buster Sword in my right hand while equipping the Sword Breaker in my left - a split-second gear change where any tiny mistake is critical, but a motion my body knows from endless repetition.
Parrying the predictable enemy attacks with the Buster Sword, I catch one of their blades on the Sword Breaker.
Their sword must have been pretty worn down too - it shattered in a shower of sparks on impact with the Breaker.
I thought I was free of that annoying dual-wield, but this enemy is no slouch. They promptly discarded the remaining Buster Sword and activated the beam swords built into both arms.
A standard Scutum's integrated right arm is a beam sword while the left has a beam gun - both only pack a token punch. But this one has beam swords in both arms that look far from token level, at least more powerful than a Scutum's.
A physical blade has the advantage against beam weapons, but against two of them, even the Sword Breaker's knife-sized blade can't fully block.
Still, I sensed a way to win. Why did they discard the intact sword too? My guess is that their dual-wield patterns require both weapons be identical to keep the balance.
They'll probably just stick to the same predictable combo, just with beam swords instead of physical blades. In which case, I have an idea.
Using a gun against a sword is a bit cheap, but let me try the Plasma Launcher. The floating plasma shot can be used as a shield - it'll dissipate instantly against a physical blade, but it should withstand a beam sword for a while.
Seizing a split second opening, I return the Sword Breaker to my left leg rack, transfer the Buster Sword to my left hand, and quickly draw the Launcher with my right - I'm still not used to shooting left-handed.
The enemy clearly looked flustered. Not good against projectile weapons, huh? Predictable.
They try to circle around to my left, dodging the Launcher to close in for a slash. But that works for me - I bat away the twin beams with the Buster Sword in my left hand, while driving the Launcher grip in my right hand like a backfist at point-blank... or so I intended.
I was too close and ended up pistol-whipping their head unit. Must have hit a vital spot as their neck bent at an odd angle. I see, there's a point-blank safety preventing firing. Acting on reflex, I kneed their body to create some distance, then fired.
Into the blinding plasma detonation flash, I launched a wire anchor to reel in the staggered enemy for a killing Buster Sword blow. Ended up like some sort of linked attack.
The flash probably left my opponent unable to see what was happening. Even I wasn't sure in that split second.
In PvP matches, the conclusion often comes suddenly before you know what hit you. Victory is a matter of seizing the moment, I guess... Well, the important thing is I won.