Looking at Tanaka Masao's utterly dejected expression, Eriri was extremely pleased with herself. She planted her hands on her hips, smug to the extreme.
"So? See how amazing I am? Ahahaha~"
The classic results screen played out: the winner laughing triumphantly, the loser hanging his head in despair.
Masao clicked his tongue and complained, "That was totally luck. You just happened to mash out a finisher."
"Huh? Luck?" Eriri puffed up proudly.
"What do you mean luck? That was pure skill, okay? You could've used it too—I wasn't stopping you."
Even though the finisher really had come out from random button-mashing, that didn't dampen Eriri's joy in the slightest. If anything, the fact that it was unintentional made it even more satisfying.
"I'm not satisfied. I demand a rematch," Masao declared.
Eriri covered her face with her left hand, propped her right elbow up, and struck a textbook JOJO pose.
"I accept your challenge."
Round two—start!
This time, unlike before, they didn't just poke at each other with basic punches and kicks. They started experimenting with combos.
"Ah! I shot a ki blast! Check it out—Hadouken, Hadouken!"
"That's cheating! Teach me!"
"What is this? A mini finisher combo? That's awesome!"
"How did you trigger that finisher just now?"
"I dunno… like this? No, wait—this?"
"I'll try too—nope, didn't work."
After looking up some combo guides and taking turns experimenting, Masao was the first to successfully unleash a finisher. Less than a minute later, Eriri managed to pull one off as well.
"We did it!" ×2
They cheered in unison and couldn't help high-fiving.
At this point, they'd completely forgotten about winning or losing. They were just happy that both of them had managed to land a finisher.
After being hyped up for a while, Eriri finally came back to her senses when she noticed the huge grin on Masao's face. She immediately reined in her smile and crossed her arms.
"It's just a finisher. Not that big a deal. Alright, I've totally mastered this game now. Let's go play something else."
"Sure," Masao said, standing up as well. He was ready to try something different too.
The two of them headed over to the racing game section.
The oversized seats simulated real driving surprisingly well—without the risk of actually crashing if you messed up. Basically paradise for road menaces.
Eriri settled into her seat, grabbed the steering wheel, and turned it a few times to test the feel.
"You ready? I can't wait for a heart-pounding race."
Masao rolled his wrists and cracked his neck.
"All set. Let me show you the skills of a veteran driver with ten years under his belt."
That wasn't a lie—back in his previous life, he really had been licensed and driving for nearly a decade.
[3… 2… 1… START!]
As soon as the countdown ended, Eriri floored the accelerator.
"Go!"
The racing seat's immersion was intense; Eriri immediately felt a strong push against her back. Her blood started pumping.
Masao, on the other hand, drove like he would in real life—pressing the accelerator slowly and steadily. Once he hit around sixty, he stopped accelerating and maintained that speed.
In real life, that would be perfectly normal.
In a racing game, though, it was turtle speed.
Just as Masao was fully focused on driving, Eriri suddenly screamed from the seat next to him.
"Ah—! Aah—!"
She'd been going too fast to handle the turn and panicked, yanking the steering wheel hard. In real life, that would've almost certainly been fatal.
Thankfully, this was just a game. Eriri herself was fine—but the realistic seat didn't hold back, shaking violently.
It left her feeling miserable.
Masao glanced over briefly and snorted.
"That's what you get for driving so fast. Crashed already, huh?"
Then he turned his attention right back to the screen—no distractions while driving.
Once the seat finally settled down, Eriri caught her breath and shot back, "I don't want to hear that from someone who plays racing games with a speed limit. Hmph. Coward."
She called him a coward, but her body was honest—she didn't floor the accelerator again.
Masao reached the first corner. He eased off the gas, tapped the brake lightly, and passed through smoothly.
Drifting?
Too dangerous. Even in a game.
Hadn't you just heard Eriri screaming next to him?
The camera shifted to Eriri.
Even after slowing down, her speed was still pretty high, so she kept scraping walls and guardrails when turning. Her seat rocked back and forth like a kiddie ride, and Eriri herself yelped with every jolt.
While she was busy crashing into everything, Masao—slow and steady, zero mistakes—caught up.
Eriri had just managed to straighten her car when she saw that ridiculously slow vehicle actually overtake her. The humiliation hit her like a truck.
Fury flared up instantly. She locked onto the car ahead and slammed the accelerator.
"Die, you bastard!"
With a loud BAM, the two cars collided hard on-screen.
Masao's seat shook violently. Caught completely off guard, he blurted out a very traditional Chinese curse—
"Holy shit!"
After stabilizing himself, he turned and glared at Eriri.
"Eriri, what the hell was that for?!"
Eriri, who'd clearly been prepared, hadn't taken much of a hit. Facing Masao's accusation, she showed zero remorse—instead, she looked oddly pleased.
"Bumping into someone while driving is normal. Besides, if you're going to blame anyone, blame yourself for going so slow and blocking my way."
"You—!"
Seeing her shameless attitude, Masao's temper flared.
"Fine. Then I'll show you what I can do."
Masao stepped on the gas and quickly pulled up alongside Eriri's car.
The moment she saw him suddenly close in, a bad feeling crept over her.
"W-what are you doing? Don't come any closer!"
She tried to floor it and escape, but it was already too late.
Masao's car slammed straight into the side of hers.
The violent impact sent Eriri's car—previously driving down the middle of the road—crashing straight into the wall. It scraped along the surface with a piercing screech.
In the real seat, Eriri felt every bit of it.
The violent shaking and jolting nearly threw her out of the chair; she could only cling desperately to the steering wheel.
"What are you doing?! You jerk! This is making me so mad—ah! Ah! Aah!"