About How The Childhood Friends I Don't Get Along With is my Friend in an FPS Game I'm Addicted To Chapter 1 Apr 25, 2020

Childhood Friend and Best Friend

It all started 5 years ago.

“Shintarou! We're going to see a movie!”

My childhood friend Natsuki yanked on my headset as she yelled at me.

“…Can't you see I'm in the middle of a game?” I said as coldly as possible.

Hearing that, the girl responded;

“…but you promised to go see a movie today…”

“Then try next Sunday.”

“That's what you said last week…I know you're sad from your aunt's death, but you need to get out once in a while…”

“…shut it, will you.”

“…!”

“I feel 100 times better trying to kill some strong fellows on the screen rather than being with you.”

The moment the girl flinched upon my words, I took my headset back and turned towards the screen once again. Natsuki cried, but I couldn't care less.

“Then…that means you'll be with me if I get stronger than you, right?”

“…”

Being too focused on the game, I couldn't catch what Natsuki said to me.

Five years later, the story unfolds.

“I'll be going.”

Basking in the morning glow of late May, Amekawa Shintarou, which is me, walked out of the front door in my wrinkled blazer with my eyes still drowsy. My body feels heavy, but I feel like my head is boiling.

I took my phone from my pocket, put my headset on both ears and checked out the highlight of the fight last night that was uploaded to YouTube.

“I swear 2N has a god aim…” I praised my friend, 2N, seen running through the battlefield, with a dumb voice.

Be it long or medium range, he could quickly hold his gun steady and align his reticle to his enemy's head. He's really the one person who really suits the title of a fierce god.

The game I've been obsessing about, “Real Life Rivalry”, is an FPS game where 25 4-men squad, totaling 100 players at once, parachute into an uninhabited island. They'd arm themselves with the weapons they find after landing and fight until only one team survives. There are around 600 million players across the world, so it's a big title.

Within that 600 million players, the second ranked player in the Asia server is 2N. For people that don't know RLR, they'd say “Is he like the Saori Yoshida of the FPS world?” and that would be an underestimation. That's how strong he is.

During the Golden Week, I paired up with 2N to participate in the National High School E-Sports Tournament for the Shikoku Server Branch. Normally it would be a 4-men squad, but I'm the only one who can keep up with 2N's playing behavior, so we participated with just the two of us. Needless to say, the two of us achieved overwhelming victory. The two of us placed first with 12 points difference with the team in second place.

With that, we earned the rights to participate in the RLR national competition to be the number 1 players.

“Hey, you're in the way.” A mysterious, rather hostile voice could be heard from behind me.

I timidly turned around. My childhood friend whom I've known for more than 10 years, Haruna Natsuki, openly bared her hostility towards me as her brow creases. Even as she startled me with her forceful gaze, I snarked back at her who keeps finding fault.

“No, can't you just normally walk through?”

The sidewalk I'm going through is not the type that's so cramped that only one person can walk through. Rather, it's a wide sidewalk peculiar to the rural area. Her problem is something that can be solved by passing through me by walking slightly to the right.

“Step aside.”

Looking at how she glared at me as she smacked her lips, it's clear that her aim is not to hear a sound argument. She just wanted to hurl abuse at me instead.

I unwillingly moved to the right, but she still unnaturally collided her shoulder with mine as she moved quickly forward.

“…sigh.”

She used to be so close that we promised we'd marry each other, but right now she treats me like an annoyance.

I know why she had adopted that attitude. I'm sure it was five years ago, when Natsuki and I were in the first grade of middle school, when I became abnormally obsessed with FPS. Because of a certain reason, I fell into an irresponsible addiction, shutting myself in my room almost to the point of being a complete shut-in. As she saw me becoming more and more useless, she tried to encourage and gallantly look after me, but in return, I trampled over her kind gestures. I even went so far as to shout unreasonable abuses at her.

The result of that is as one could see. I'm paying for my mistakes. Even if she had reasons to be angry at me, I don't have any reasons to be angry at her. My time of puberty is over, and it's too late for me to regret what I did. The girl won't listen to me anymore. I felt a bit guilty…no, I felt it a lot, but I can't reverse what I had done. All I can do is to wait for a chance to apologize.

Ping!, rang my phone. There's a message from 2N.

[Good morning. Slept well?]

My cheeks slackened involuntarily.

I met 2N several months after my relationship with my childhood friend turned stormy. He sent me a friend request despite having no point of contact at all between him and I, so I thought he's quite a rude person at the beginning, but my opinion of him turned around quickly.

We got along with each other too well. Our coordination, where we throw our grenades, the timing of our rush, and our cooperation are a perfect match. It's like he's my childhood friend that I've hung out together for more than 10 years. We both match each other without any complaint from me. Even beyond that, as if we're fated, the games we like, the food we like, the movies we like, they're all the same. Even in other games, 2N and I would be friends and play together.

The two of us continually develop our skills and before long we registered into an official tournament and we've obtained victory, even if it's just the qualifying round.

“I wonder what kind of person 2N is”, I whispered like a maiden in love.

We've won the qualifiers that gave us a ticket to the national competition, so if it goes as planned, the playoffs would be conducted in Tokyo…which means the two of us will be able to meet face-to-face.

As close as we are, we still don't know each other's name, gender and age. Now and up till now, the two of us only talked through the game chat. We never really used voice chat, and both of us played in silence. Other players were really shocked when I told them that, but even I'm not really sure why 2N and I could cooperate in silence like that.

There's another reason why I don't know of 2N's personal information. Every time the topic of our conversation gets close to his personal information, he would get shaken. He would start sending typos, his Japanese turned weird, and he ended up trying to avoid that topic. I thought that perhaps he doesn't like to talk about it, so I distanced myself from the topic.

Anyways, 2N and I will get to meet at that time. I look forward to it, but at the same time I feel uneasy about it. It's really a weird feeling.

“I should really ask him if he's planning to participate in the national tournament…”

I'm pretty sure he'll participate, but I should send him a message to be sure. With a mixed feeling of unease and expectation, I passed through the school gate.

“HUUUUHH!?” I shouted as I looked at the screen of my phone.

2N's message was displayed on the screen, saying [I'm sorry, I can't go to the tournament with you]

“Why…we tried so hard though…!!”

I was frustrated at 2N's reply. You could even say that I'm furious. We practiced so hard to get the ticket to the national tournament to kick down our rivals and obtain victory. He's not in the place or circumstances to simply say he can't go.

One might ask why I am getting worked up since it's just a game, but it's not an exaggeration to say that this game encapsulates everything in our lives for people like us. It's like we've achieved our way to compete in the Koushien¹.

“Oy, Amekawa!”

“What!! I'm in deep trouble right now!”

“…Oh for sure you are. Come to the faculty office after class.”

“…huh?”

The homeroom teacher talked to me as if he's pouring cold water on me. When I regained my composure and looked around, I realized that my classmates are all looking at me as if I'm an oddball. One of them is my childhood friend, Natsuki, whose face was, for some reason, beet red.

“I…I'm sorry…” I said as I bowed on my table.

Despite that, I kept tapping away on my smartphone under the desk.

[Can you tell me why?]

Calm down, perhaps 2N have his reasons too. The organizers will take care of your travel expenses and hotel charge, which means that couldn't be the reason. If it's something I can do to help, I'll do anything to help him. 2N and I are so close that I wouldn't object if someone says we're best friends. We're both guys, but in FPS, we get along like a married couple. If such a person had a problem that prevents him from going to the tournament, I'd love to help him.

My phone vibrates once again. 2N responded to my message. Fearfully, I looked at my phone.

[Because I still…haven't gotten stronger than you yet.]

“…huh?”

I wasn't able to understand the meaning of his message.

¹ Koushien: a big high school baseball competition. If you can compete here your career is pretty much set, it's that big of an achievement.

I found this series since someone I followed on twitter retweeted its serialization (which is gonna be on the 28th of April) and realized it's an interesting webnovel that hasn't been translated yet so here we are. Don't know how far I'll go with it but here we go again.

Hope you've enjoyed it, and have a great day.