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Mike looked back at the dilapidated storefront, then walked with Cole toward their family's territory.
"Sigh... if only we had our own console," Cole said wistfully.
"Yeah..." Mike murmured. After a moment's thought, he asked, "How much does a console cost?"
Cole held up three fingers. "Here? I heard it's thirty gold crowns a unit."
Mike sucked in a breath. "That expensive? How could we ever afford that?"
"Expensive?" Cole scoffed. "You can't even buy one for thirty gold crowns. Production is limited—only eight or nine hundred units made per day."
"That's still a lot."
"A lot? You're kidding." Cole shook his head. "Do you know how many merchants are camped outside the Illusionist's door day and night, just hoping to buy a few more consoles to resell? Mike, do you know how much these sell for in Crimson Port? In the Moonwatch Empire?"
"How much?"
"Ten gold crowns."
"Uh... we still can't afford that either..."
House Flamestrike was considered a medium-sized family in the Lion Kingdom. With a large population, Mike and Cole were merely branches of branches. Apart from contact during ceremonial gatherings with the noble main family, there was essentially no connection.
Both their fathers worked as clerks at the Mercenary Guild—decent income, all things considered. But asking their fathers to spend ten gold crowns on a gaming console? The brothers figured that was only possible if they could get into Radiance Academy.
"Sigh..." The two cousins exhaled in unison.
As the brothers sighed their way down the street, in a luxurious hotel not far to their right, Cassius of House Everflame sat in the room his aunt had rented. He glanced over to see Aunt Cassandra and Victor locked in an intense Street Fighter match.
Victor was going easy, of course. But it was clear that his aunt—like Victor—was terrible at most games yet showed genuine talent for fighting games.
Aunt Cassandra had chosen Chun-Li. Victor had chosen Guile.
Earlier, Victor had felt he hadn't met any particularly special girl yet, so after getting Caelan's permission, he'd given the fourth "Friendship Edition console" to Cassandra as a gift celebrating her emergence from seclusion.
Only upon delivery did they realize her research into a new spell had completely failed. It was rare to hear his aunt laugh so freely—Cassius and Victor had assumed she'd succeeded. But Aunt Cassandra herself was carefree about it, laughing and saying she was relieved to have finally escaped that sea of suffering.
Cassius's gaze returned to his own screen. He clicked on My Account.
Account: 1001 (Reset Password)
Real Name: Cassius of House Everflame
Nickname: Flame Controller
Gender: Male
Age: 19 (Details)
Account Balance: 500 gold crowns (Top Up)
Game Achievements:(Details)
He clicked on the detailed information for Game Achievements.
Gold Achievement: First Clear of "Chronicle of Fierce Tortoise Warriors"
Cassius felt a surge of satisfaction seeing it. He checked it daily, basically. Pulling up the completion leaderboard for Chronicle, he'd been completely knocked out of the top ten. He scrolled down and found himself currently ranked twenty-third.
Rank | Name | Country | Deaths | Difficulty | Score | Character(Ranked by Score)
1st | Sainted Fury | Shadow Reach Empire | 1 | Expert | 2,148,700 | Nunchaku / Michelangelo
2nd | Gideon of House Leapingdrake | Dragonspire Empire | 2 | Expert | 2,059,200 | Dual Swords / Donatello
3rd | Ronan the Drifter | Moonwatch Empire | 2 | Expert | 2,058,300 | Long Staff / Donatello
4th | Quinn of House Stormcall | Moonwatch Empire | 1 | Expert | 1,935,200 | Nunchaku / Michelangelo
5th | Crimson Beggar | Moonwatch Empire | 3 | Expert | 1,823,400 | Dual Swords / Donatello
...
23rd | Flame Controller | Moonwatch Empire | 0 | Normal | 1,685,200 | Nunchaku / Michelangelo
Rankings could display either Real Name or Nickname, changeable at any time.
Damn it. These freaks, each one more inhuman than the last, Cassius silently cursed.
Suddenly, a message notification popped up. Cassius knew without looking that it was from his girlfriend, Nicole.
He opened the message.
Nicole: "Your match today was so exciting! As expected of my boyfriend—you must aim for first place!"
Cassius typed slowly. Even after more than ten days, his typing speed was still painfully slow. It took him a while to compose a paragraph: "The chances of getting first place are very slim. I currently have no confidence in beating that genius from Radiance Academy."
Nicole: "Just do your best."
Cassius: "Mm. Are you done with your work?"
Nicole: "Done. Game?"
Cassius: "Okay, which one?"
Nicole: "Squirrel or Snowman."
Cassius: "Snowman."
Nicole: "Come, you create the room."
The two logged into Snow Bros. Cassius created a room, announced the room number, Nicole joined and readied up, then Cassius hit start. The game entered a brief cutscene:
"In the far north of the Frostpeak Empire, there lived a pair of brothers..."
Simply put, it was a "prince saves princess" story. But because the setting was Frostpeak Empire, players from that nation were thrilled, posting messages on the Forum to thank the Illusionist. People from other empires also left messages, hoping future games would feature more characters and backgrounds from their own countries. Some even said they wouldn't mind being villains—especially hoping that strong characters from their empires would appear in Super Street Fighter.
"Hahaha! I won again!" Aunt Cassandra's laughter rang out beside him. "It seems someone with a Gold rank isn't all that great after all."
"Speaking of which, Auntie—your skill level is clearly Gold-tier already. Why don't you do your promotion match?"
"No fun. So I won't."
The rank system was something entirely new that Caelan had created for Super Street Fighter—essentially ranked play. However, Caelan himself didn't fully understand competitive ranking systems and hadn't researched the topic beforehand, so his mind palace had no reference material. He'd basically made it up as he went along.
Surprisingly, even though it was a haphazard creation, it ignited everyone's enthusiasm. Thousands of people participated in ranked matches every day.
Currently, there were five ranks: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Amethyst. Each rank was divided into five sub-levels marked by stars. Exceeding five stars triggered a promotion match.
The promotion rules: after five consecutive wins, a promotion match was initiated. The player would battle ten opponents of the same rank in best-of-five-round matches. Win against seven of them to be promoted.
Similarly, five consecutive losses triggered a demotion match.
Since a prerequisite for promoting from Gold to Amethyst was clearing Nightmare Difficulty, only a handful of people had currently reached Amethyst rank.
Victor's rank was Gold Four Stars. Cassius was Gold One Star—because he had to spend time with his girlfriend. And Cassandra was... Iron Three Stars.
Her actual skill level was quite good among current Street Fighter players. She could easily achieve Gold in Caelan's rudimentary ranked system. But this woman simply refused to play ranked matches, preferring casual matches every day. According to her, casual matches made it easier to encounter noobs, and crushing them was more satisfying.
"By the way," Cassandra suddenly asked, "is your friend really that busy? As his good friends, he didn't even come to cheer you two on during the Elite Academy Tournament?" She tilted her head. "I still want to ask him who the seventeenth character in Street Fighter really is."