1 Standing on My Robot Vast Land

The time had already passed 9 o'clock, and I worked hard at overtime service again today.

Until recently, after this, I would just go home and sleep. At work, I was immersed in work, and at my cheap apartment, I would only return to sleep. Before I knew it, such a life had become ingrained in my body.

However, now I have a place to stop by after work. The cold winds blowing through the bare trees are nothing; my steps are light as I make my way through the crowds.

When I descend into the underground mall, the heat is stifling, and my glasses fog up white.

I pass through the narrow corridor between the standing soba noodle shop and the yakitori shop. The savory scent of soy sauce broth whets my empty stomach, but food can wait.

Drawn in by the lively noise, I wander towards an old-fashioned game center. The young kids these days seem to call it an amusement center, I hear.

The inside of the shop is a crucible of light and noise, but for some reason, it's calming. I used to go to the game center almost every day during my student days.

Without even glancing at the prize games lined up, I head straight to the back. The game cabinets I'm after are lined up against the wall at the very back.

Four large white cocoons made of reinforced plastic. They are dedicated cabinets for the robot action game "Guardian Troopers."

Inside the cocoons, mechas are crammed in like the cockpit of a spaceship. Aside from the sparkly stickers applied for decoration, everything is equipment necessary for gameplay. If giant combat robots existed in reality, the cockpits might really feel like this.

Behind the four cabinets, there are lines of people waiting in turns, a few people each. According to the local rules among the regulars, A and B are for versus matches, while C and D are for CPU battles.

I line up in the usual queue for Cabinet D.

"Yo!"

A chubby young man I recognize calls out to me. His pilot name was Jimmy, I think? He seems to be a student at a nearby design school, but I always see him here. He's probably spending all day in this shop.

Because of that, Jimmy has become something like the face of the regulars. Well, being young is good enough in itself. Having that much free time to spare is honestly enviable.

"Cabinet D is doing versus matches right now, so Near-san, please switch back to CPU battles."

My pilot name is "Zack Varan," but lately, I've been called by the nickname "Near-Oyaji." I'm still barely in my 20s, so I wish they'd spare me the "Oyaji" (old man) part.

Since I dislike it, everyone has started calling me Near-san to my face, but I wish they'd give me a cooler second name if anything.

In "Guardian Troopers," as per the conventions of this type of game, you can choose between CPU battles and versus matches at the start.

For versus matches, you can choose a cabinet at the same location or match with players from other shops.

If you don't specify an opponent, a versus opponent is randomly selected from cabinets nationwide. It's possible to play CPU battles while waiting for a match, but if you get shot down during that time, it's game over.

The default setting for versus matches is a solo duel with two 180-second rounds, and a draw results in a loss for both sides. If you lose twice, it's game over.

Apparently, there are also options for team battles and tag duels with pairs, but I've never tried those.

For CPU battles, Stage 1 is a tutorial stage where enemies don't attack, and you have 600 seconds to clear it, or it's game over. In other words, if you leave enemies remaining, you can practice as much as you want for 10 minutes.

From Stage 2 onward, enemies attack normally. If you space out, you can get shot down within seconds of the start, earning it the reputation of being an impossible game. But I think it's not that hard to avoid their attacks if you stay focused on controlling the robot properly.

Well, if you can control the robot properly, that is.

The difficulty of controlling the robot is what severely narrows the appeal of this game. Many players give up before even being able to maintain an upright stance, and the reviews are naturally terrible.

Even if you manage to walk, just trying to grab and lift a weapon is another struggle. Shouldn't the focus be elsewhere for a game? Most players leave at this point.

However, the sense of achievement when you finally manage to lift a gun is something you can never experience in other games. Most of the players who make it that far become devoted fans of this game.

Even after learning to control the robot, mastering the operation to lock onto targets is another challenge. And even if you manage to lock on, there's no guarantee of a hit.

The enemies will try to evade as well. Simply put, the game is unforgiving.

Currently, most players can't even take down the basic enemies in Stage 2. Beginners are recommended to first learn how to maneuver the craft in CPU Battle Stage 1, and once they can control it decently, hone their skills through solo duels against other players.

As for me, I can reach Stage 3 of the CPU battles without too much trouble.

"Near-san, Cabinet D is open now."

Urged by Jimmy, I get into the cabinet. The regulars all want to play for as long as possible. I can't dawdle.

I sit in the control seat and present the pilot card I keep carefully in a pass case hung around my neck. The smart machine diligently reads my settings.

One play costs 500 yen, but you can also play for free by paying 5,000 score points, which serve as in-game currency. The rate is 10 points per 1 yen.

I pay the score points and start the game. The faint vibration of the servo motors, the seat position adjusting minutely to fit me.

The foot pedals rise up considerably. Damn, today's youngsters really have long legs, it seems.

The controls for this game use the left and right joysticks and foot pedals for both feet. Each joystick has 7 buttons on the left and right, 14 in total, and it also supports eye tracking and voice input.

You can customize the button assignments through the settings, but for now, you haven't felt any particular inconvenience, so you've left them at the default.

"Welcome back, Sergeant Zack. Shall I prepare your usual equipment?"

The husky machine voice belongs to the navigator AI, Betty. Recent AIs have become impressively capable. This Betty rarely misunderstands my voice inputs.

The walls of the hangar open, and a rugged sword emerges. Equipment name: Buster Sword, likely inspired by the medieval German bastard sword. A hand-and-a-half sword that can be wielded with one hand. You don't know the material, but it looks like iron; apparently, it's supposed to be some incredible metal.

You extend the robot's arm to receive the sword. It's quite heavy, causing the robot's center of gravity to tilt slightly. If you're not used to it, you might topple over and end up crawling on the hangar floor, unable to get back up. Rumor has it that if you dawdle in the hangar for over 10 minutes, it's game over.

"The sword's durability is sufficient, OK, CPU battle start."

"Understood, let's do our best today as well."

Enveloped in a blue light, the robot warps.

A scenery like the Grand Canyon appears on the 360-degree all-around screen. Your robot is in freefall—no, descending. From this height, you won't take damage even if you do nothing, but you instinctively apply a light boost for braking.

You land softly and can't help but smile. Just descending and landing, but it's really fun. This is one of the great things about this game.

You lightly press the foot pedals, and your robot starts running nimbly. The shaking view, the scenery flowing by as if flying—it feels like you've become a giant yourself.

Your beloved Lynx unit is set to be over 10 meters tall, if you remember correctly. Well, common game settings like that don't really matter. What's important is how it moves precisely as you want it to. Not too twitchy, nor too sluggish—it's your favorite mech.

In this game, you can only register one mech to your pilot card, and you can't have multiple pilot cards.

You thought the biometric authentication system requirement for creating pilot cards was an exaggeration, but apparently, in some countries and regions, you can cash out score points, so that must be the reason.

The problem is that because of the card restriction, you can effectively only own one mech per person. If you switch to a new mech, you have to discard your previous one.

Initially, the training mech Orange Pegasus is registered. To switch to a different mech, you need to accumulate points and purchase one from the shop. Occasionally, you can also receive mechs as rewards.

Your Lynx is a rare mech not sold in shops. Apparently, the Lynx II mech that costs 120k points has higher performance. Still, being able to obtain the Lynx for free was quite fortunate.

In your case, you received the Lynx right after clearing up to Stage 2 on your first play. At the time, you didn't think much of it and just switched without hesitation, but it seems most people have to spend tens of thousands of yen before obtaining a shop mech. Some even played until accumulating 100k points, spending hundreds of thousands of yen, so you were extremely lucky.

Just a bit of piloting was enough for you to fall in love with the Lynx's performance, so different from the Orange Pegasus. Of course, it's stronger than the training mech, but what's best is how it moves exactly as you want. For now, you have no intention of switching to another mech.

The Lynx is equipped with wire anchors installed in both arms as fixed armaments. These aren't really for attacking, but more like special equipment for emergency braking or retrieving thrown weapons. Well, you rarely use them anyway.

The Orange Pegasus's fixed armaments were a beam sword in the right hand, a beam gun in the left hand, and a pulse beam gun in the head, so in terms of fixed armaments, you could say it's a downgrade.

However, you prefer physical swords over beam swords, and you're not good at shooting anyway, so it's not an issue since you can't hit targets reliably with guns.

Your main weapon is the one-handed Buster Sword, purchasable from the shop for 3,200 points. Among the physical swords sold, this is the only decent, usable one. The others are just trashy knockoffs, so you have no other choice.

To begin with, there are overwhelmingly fewer melee weapon varieties compared to guns.

As for purchasable melee weapons from the shop, you've tried a couple of beam swords and a few gunblade types, but none of them felt quite right.

The gunblade that was the Orange Pegasus's initial equipped item was quite user-friendly, but since it's not sold in the shop, you can't replenish it once it breaks.

Each weapon has a set durability value, and when it reaches zero, the weapon breaks. You can repair depleted durability, but there's a masochistic design where if the repair fails, the maximum durability decreases.

You've decided to replace the Buster Sword once its maximum durability drops to around 30%. You replace it about once a week, so the cost performance isn't too bad, you think.

Recently, you've improved your swordsmanship, so the sword doesn't get damaged as easily. Blades can last longer depending on how you use them.

A spider-like multi-legged mech appears from behind a rock. It's a bit larger than your robot and quite impressive, but even so, this is the weakest basic enemy in this game.

In Stage 1, 16 of these spider-legged mechs are placed as enemies. They just sluggishly wander around without attacking or evading, making good practice targets for beginners.

You momentarily stomp the foot pedals to full power, giving a brief boost dash to accelerate, then slash at the enemy, slamming your mech into it.

At times like this, if you keep the pedals fully pressed, you'll accelerate too much, making it difficult to control the mech.

While this game doesn't have any hard lock after actions, making big movements will still create openings.

The Buster Sword has a considerably long blade, but compared to beam guns, its range is practically zero. In actual combat, you have to charge in with the intention of making body contact, or the blade won't reach. Of course, actually slamming your body into the enemy would be going too far. You judge the distance, passing paper-thin beside the enemy, and slash diagonally, letting the blade slide across.

To take them down in one hit, destroying the core in the body is most reliable. While the many legs can be obstructive, if you get the angle right, you can cleanly sever the core along with the legs.

In this game, the Buster Sword is treated almost like a blunt weapon, but by skillfully adjusting the angle and quickly sliding the blade, it's possible to inflict severing damage.

Beam swords are the opposite—the slower you slash, the deeper you can cut. More like a welding tool than a blade, where the key is continuously applying it to the same spot.

There was a time when you had a beam sword equipped as a sub-weapon, but you ended up never using it, so you've removed it recently. If you took your time slashing with a beam sword, your time bonus would decrease.

The clear condition for Stage 1 is to defeat all 16 spider-legged mechs. Each one is worth 100 points, and there's also a bonus for clearing the stage.

The details of the clear bonus aren't publicized, but it likely factors in things like the number defeated, your mech's damage taken, hit rate, evasion rate, and clear time.

Your Stage 1 clear time is currently around 100 seconds, which yields a score of around 3,000 points.

Your goal is to earn at least 7,000 points, or 7k, per play session.

With your modest salary, playing a 500 yen per play game daily would be a painful expense. Fortunately, in this game, one play costs 5k points. If you keep scoring high, it's basically free-to-play.

Score points are also needed for ammo and mech repairs. With swords not requiring ammo, that's a nice advantage. The Lynx is set to have high self-repair ability, so it doesn't need repair costs either. Even if heavily damaged, leaving it alone for 8 hours in real-time will fully restore it automatically.

Well, you still need points for replacing and repairing swords, as well as repairs after being shot down, but if you earn 7k each time, you can manage.

So in Stage 1, where enemies don't attack, you have to reliably earn at least 3k, or it'll be tough going forward.

The enemies in Stage 2 start in the exact same placement as Stage 1. However, they'll evade your attacks and counter with beams.

But the spider-legged mechs have practically no melee combat ability, so they're easy prey for you. As long as you learn the timing of when they fire beams, it's just a simple shooting game. Completely evading them isn't too difficult either.

The beam projectile velocity is quite fast for a game. Beam weapon damage calculation is unique—a mere graze does almost no damage. But if you continuously take beams to the same area, your armor will easily melt.

You've interpreted it as something like a flamethrower.

When hit, your armor display changes from green to orange, then red to indicate danger, but if you have time to leisurely watch that, you should be evading instead.

The important thing is to never stop moving. Enemies especially aim for right after you boost, when you're braking hard—they'll turn you into Swiss cheese if you're not careful. That's why you don't boost much.

In an emergency, you can deflect enemy beams with your sword. Apparently, physical swords and shields use a material that can diffuse and reflect beams. If that's the case, they should make mech armor out of that too, but well, it's just a game setting.

Thanks to this setting, physical swords outright beat beam swords. In exchange, beam swords tend to have longer reach than physical blades, and they don't get damaged from deflecting projectiles.

Deflecting incoming beams with your sword looks cool, but it also means you're being forced into unnecessary actions by the enemy. The moment you have to deflect, you're already on the defensive.

To begin with, using the heavy Buster Sword to deflect projectiles makes it easy to lose your balance, potentially resulting in a fall. If your arm-mounted weapon was a beam sword, using it solely for deflecting would make sense. But you don't feel the need to switch to the Lynx II just for that. Initially, it felt wasteful to spend score points, but now you've grown attached to this older Lynx model. You can't even consider switching to another mech anymore.

Since Stage 2 is becoming routine work, you aim to prioritize scoring. 

Today your rhythm was good, and you cleared it without mistakes. Alright, you've surpassed the 7k goal at the Stage 2 clear point. The problem is from here on.

Your next goal is to consistently clear Stage 3. In addition to the spider-legged mechs, Stage 3 introduces crab-like enemy mechs with pincers for melee combat.

The troublesome part is that there are two of these crab mechs in this stage. While you can still handle one, if they coordinate, they become formidable foes. You often end up sandwiched between them, getting pummeled and shot down.

The strategy is probably to keep them from converging, but the enemies don't always move according to your plans.

After wiping out the spider-legged mechs, you realize the crab mechs are lined up, raising their pincers. 

In this situation, all you can do is repeatedly strike and withdraw to avoid getting battered. Maybe you should equip something like a shotgun to keep them in check. A sub-weapon, huh.

You rapidly lose motivation as the situation becomes troublesome. You must be too tired from work today. You'd rather face these guys on a day when you have more energy.

You press the console's intrusion allow button. It's a button that can only be used once during CPU battles, known as the "eject button" among players.

Since your matching priority becomes lower than players who chose to start with versus matches, a challenger may not necessarily appear right away. Well, it's prime time, so someone should come along at this hour.

The cabinets operating nationwide are linked via fiber optic lines. There's a theory that if you don't specify, you'll automatically be matched with players of relatively similar skill levels. Fortunately, a new challenger appears right away! 

Even with a perfect victory in versus matches, the score points earned are only around 3,000, so it's not that rewarding. However, there's currently a campaign where starting a versus match guarantees a 500 point gacha ticket. With good gacha luck, you can apparently obtain rare mechs or weapons.

You proceed to the versus match briefing screen, but since your mech isn't damaged, you only repair your weapon and finish. A repair failure caused the Buster Sword's maximum durability to decrease slightly. You have a vague sense of foreboding.

The battlefield was an urban stage with buildings lining the streets. Lucky, the abundant cover will help.

Keeping your sensors focused, you cautiously advance between the buildings. 

The intricately detailed structures are indistinguishable from reality. Recent games make this level of quality standard, but it's still impressive.

When you put force into your steps, the roads crack, leaving behind your mech's footprints. Going all-out on relatively trivial details is a characteristic of this game.

It's a relief there are no people or cars scurrying about. You'd rather not have to walk over anything like that.

Since time-up draws are no fun, you run while trying to pinpoint the enemy's location. This is no time for hide-and-seek. If they'd just attack you, it would save you the effort of searching.

The shadow of a building looks suspicious, so you adjust your running angle slightly. Sure enough, a beam grazes your side.

The melted glass from the building windows scatters like a fog, glittering.

The enemy mech is one of those called "knights" among players. What was its official name? Oh well.

It wields a large shield in one hand and a beam rifle in the other - standard equipment for that model. Shield-bearers are troublesome.

Despite being a mass-produced shop model, this knight is exceptionally high-performance. The head unit is even a dual-sensor type, with the two cameras side-by-side resembling human eyes. Combined with the horn-like antennae, it looks every bit the anime protagonist mech. Naturally, it's popular.

The paint job doesn't seem modified from the default sold in shops. The base color is white, with red lines following the armor parting lines. Cool-looking but quite noticeable - you wonder how visible it is in live combat.

The beam rifle targeting you is far more powerful compared to the spider mechs' - a direct hit would be fatal. But from this range, evading is easy if you watch the barrel's movements. You narrowly dodge a triple burst, close the distance while its rifle is on cooldown, and slash at it.

Once you enter sword range against an opponent inexperienced in melee combat, you dominate. The knight mech should have an integrated beam sword, but it doesn't try using it. No, maybe it doesn't know how.

Ditch that beam rifle, let's do some sword fighting!

The second round played out almost the same - the opponent overly relied on the beam rifle's performance. When you forced it into melee, it did try defending with the shield, so there was some progress.

But one leg sweep easily toppled it. Before it could recover, you struck its relatively unarmored abdomen for the finish.

It may seem like bullying the weak, but versus games are merciless. Besides, not holding back will help your opponent get stronger too.

Your next opponent was also a knight. With the same beam rifle and shield equipment but repainted green, it was clearly a different player. Come to think of it, you didn't check the previous opponent's name.

Unfortunately, this time it was a desert stage without cover. You chase while evading beams, but the opponent keeps fleeing, preventing you from closing the distance.

You eventually take a graze and lose by the game's judgment.

The second round seemed like a double no-damage draw, but for some reason, you were declared the winner. The game seems to have rather convoluted judging procedures, leading to these occasional bewildering outcomes. 

Players call it an "educational guidance" system, but it's more like judo.

Then the third round. The enemy immediately discarded its shield after the start and fled without attacking, solely relying on boost dashes to escape. Its strategy was likely to snipe you while you gave chase, but you won't fall for such an obvious ploy.

In the end, the third round was a draw leading to a double game over. Even with the swift Lynx, an opponent hell-bent on fleeing without any projectile weapons makes for a tough fight. As you exited the cabinet, your match was being replayed on a large display.

You don't get to see your own mech much while playing, but watching the replay, the Lynx's design definitely looks like a villain mech.

Its organic form composed of three-dimensional curved surfaces. An abnormally slender waist joint like an ant's. As the coup de grâce, a phased array sensor reminiscent of an insect's compound eyes covers the streamlined head unit.

You repainted the default solid navy blue color into a grayish camouflage pattern to suit your tastes. It wouldn't be out of place as some filthy skeleton monster.

No wonder people often say you're playing a different game entirely.

The image of the Lynx savaging white knight robots in the alleys between buildings is the complete picture of a villain.

Objectively, you were just one-sidedly cutting down opponents who could barely maneuver their mechs. Maybe you were bullying beginners. No, but they entered a versus match, after all.

Frankly, the controls in this game are just too difficult. Even I still can't handle guns satisfactorily. I get shot down while clumsily lock-on targeting, and my shots rarely hit either.

To be honest, it's not that I'm limiting myself to melee combat - I just can't do anything but melee combat.

"Not pulling any punches, huh? That opponent was a ranker from Hokkaido."

While blankly watching the replay, Jimmy calls out to you. I see, it's good they weren't a beginner. On that coverless desert stage, I might have been completely dominated.

Unfortunately, your match against the green knight wasn't replayed, but according to Jimmy, in case of a double no-damage result, the one with the higher evasion bonus is judged the winner, though this seems to just be speculation among players rather than official information.

So if the opponent shoots first, you can get the evasion bonus, meaning you don't have to recklessly chase them down afterwards? This is good information.

"The Scutum's fire control system and BAR44 have such amazing synergy, you could call them dedicated equipment. To completely evade all those shots is something only Near-san could pull off."

Hmm, you don't quite understand what he's saying, but you get that it's a compliment. Well, don't mind if I do, let me just bask in it a bit.

Come to think of it, that knight robot was called Scutum, wasn't it? Seems a bit of a wimpy name for a protagonist mech. Tum is no good, they should have at least made it Dum.

Well, as a name for a combat robot, Lynx is definitely way cooler.