The Loop

Chapter 4: The Help.

'So… what to do?' He asked himself.

What's there to do that has nothing to do with his power? Something that doesn't involve fighting. Yes, there's a lot of enjoyable stuff that he can do with that. Something like…

'Like…'

…

What's there to do besides play around with his power? For so long the only way he could entertain himself is by testing those around him how useless they'd fare against his power. And now that it's out of the question, he has no idea what to do.

He can try reading perhaps? Wait no, he'd done that before and it really fucking sucks. He'll have to leave it at the very last option. But it being on a list that is really narrow doesn't seem very reassuring. Maybe it will grow the more he spends in this time loop. Hopefully.

What about games though? It had been the ultimate activity to do to escape reality done by many. There was even a cult called 'gamers', where only people who would dedicate their lives to such weird notions are labeled as such. It could also be called an addiction.

…

Yeah, He can try playing games.

…

The shopping district is loud. That's his first impression of it. Even though it's already nearing 5 pm it's still loud. Well, that's probably what's gonna happen when you put every shopping commodity into a single district.

His face was disgruntled when he noticed the arcade to be fully packed with people. The smell of cigarettes and sour-y pear wafting in the air, it infuriates him so much. He can't help but just start reflecting the smells away.

With an unwilling heart but with feet that have a mind of its own, he began walking in, anticipating for the worst. And it really is the worst that he can imagine.

It's loud. Louder than it is outside. He had these please manage to put up with this much noise? In such a small place nevertheless. He's surprised that they haven't gone deaf yet.

And then there's the people themselves. He'd always thought that the target audiences for these games would be boys from the age of 11 - 15. But most of the people he's seeing are girls. He could even spot a few Tokiwadai uniforms from here! What the fuck are they doing here anyways? This place is unfitting for people from such prestigious institutions!

Rolling his eyes, he looked for a more empty corner of the place. It didn't take long for him to find the exact place he wanted to be in. It's a fighting game of some sort, and there's less than 5 people around it, all positioned far away from it too.

From here the loud retro beepings and sound effects are barely inaudible. He'd gotten plenty of coins to use earlier. Mostly from Kakine's now mashed corpse. But hey, it's not stealing if it's already dead.

It was a good thing that the machine has a tutorial, he has no idea how to operate these machines. From the visuals alone, he could tell the game is gonna be gory as shit. The characters are generic, but the girls were wearing tight and skimpy type shit as well. He chuckled. "This might be something."

And 10 minutes into the game tutorial, he knew that he wasn't built for it. The game mechanics aren't hard, you can't even call it complicated! But the fucking combos! What the fuck is that?! He can't hit it in time to pull it off before getting hit!

But surely this doesn't translate to a poorly done matchmaking that puts the beginners against a seasoned player so that there is no bad blood between people here that makes them wanna crucify each other, right?

Wrong. It's exactly that.

His opponent is really testing his fucking patience. He could hear him from here, screaming "GG, Ez no RE." He knows it's him because he'd scream exactly that whenever he lost. He has no idea what those words could possibly mean, but he knows it's nothing good.