Even with chuunibyou, let's learn together!

Page 312

"Um…"

Hayakawa felt the gentle pressure on his shoulder and said listlessly, "I still like you. The way you were so arrogant when you said I was useless. Do you want to do it again?"

"Haha, where can I find it?"

Xiaomai's expression stiffened, and she smiled ingratiatingly with a wandering gaze, "You are the peer I admire most. I have always respected you."

"well said."

Hayakawa liked hearing this. After all, Umaru was also a target he needed to defeat. Her submission gave Hayakawa a great sense of superiority, and he was extremely pleased with himself, so he forgave her earlier offense.

This woman is already my captive. It seems she won't be a threat in the final exams. Indeed, my only real rivals are those two.

Hayakawa's gaze sharpened as the image of those two terrifying figures, one tall and one short, flashed through his mind.

……

The rules for the second game were soon revealed. After reading the contents on the blackboard, Umaru's expression immediately turned serious and her eyes lit up. She swept away her previous dejection and became full of confidence.

Hayakawa glanced at it and, as expected, it was indeed the game content: a match against arcade players, with the loser eliminated and the winner advancing to the next round. The match was a best-of-three system, and after two rounds, the remaining four players advanced to the finals.

"Hayakawa, we don't need you this round."

Xiaomai walked over with high spirits and said, "Anyway, as long as one person from the male or female side advances, it's enough. It doesn't matter if you don't win the first round."

After saying that, she tilted her head back and gave Hayakawa a smug smile, a stark contrast to her fawning demeanor when she was massaging Hayakawa's shoulders earlier.

"..."

Hayakawa paused for a moment before slowly saying, "I'm telling you... didn't you read the rules carefully? I suggest you take a look at them again."

"Huh? What does that mean?"

Umaru turned his head blankly. He had only seen the arcade game and confidently came to Hayakawa to find a place to play, without really reading the rules carefully.

However, for a top player like her who can hold her own against professional players, no amount of restrictions or rules would make beating low-level random players a piece of cake, so she didn't take it seriously.

Now that Hayakawa said that, she glanced at the board with some doubt, and immediately froze on the spot.

"this…"

Hayakawa said, "It's a two-player arcade game."

"..."

Two-player arcade battles are games where two people cooperate to play. One person controls the joystick to move the character, while the other controls the buttons to unleash skills. This is completely different from traditional arcade battles. If the two cooperate well, they can naturally unleash their full potential, but if they don't cooperate well, the outcome is predictable.

"..."

"What... what a joke! All the information on the game forums is wrong. It's not like either the male or female player can advance just by winning!"

Umaru's face flushed red with anger, her small chest heaving, and she gritted her teeth, saying, "It was all cooperation, not at all..."

Halfway through her speech, she seemed to catch her breath and felt a little dizzy.

"Thinking about it carefully, that makes sense,"

Hayakawa, standing nearby, made a sarcastic remark: "These are definitely games that require two people to cooperate, otherwise why would they only allow couples to compete?"

Umaru rolled her eyes, but she had to admit that Hayakawa was right, so she could only nod.

"listen."

After thinking for a moment, Xiaomai said directly, "You'll be following my instructions from now on. Control it exactly as I tell you to, and don't hold me back, understand?"

"what?"

Hayakawa frowned and said with dissatisfaction, "Why should I? And what do you mean by 'I won't hold you back'? It's you who shouldn't hold me back."

"I consistently rank in the top three on the arcade battle leaderboard. I can be number one anytime, anywhere, whenever I want to play."

Umaru pointed to herself, then to Hayakawa: "And you've basically never played this game. You couldn't beat me when we played against each other when we were kids, let alone now. There's a difference in our skill levels. What's wrong with you listening to me?"

When Hayakawa mentioned playing video games as a child, his face darkened. The experience of being thoroughly outplayed by Umaru was something he didn't want to recall.

It has to be admitted that when it comes to playing video games, ten Hayakawas tied together are no match for one Umaru.

However, this is also true; Hayakawa doesn't want to be controlled by others.

Chapter 492 Invincible Umaru

"Tch..."

Hayakawa made a barely perceptible sound as all sorts of insidious plans raced through his mind.

He planned to seize control of the character from Umaru at the most crucial moment of the match, causing her to lose the game and be left to live a lonely life filled with regret.

Okay, let's do it that way.

Soon, the two encountered their first opponent, who was also a couple. However, this couple was not like the college student couple from before; they were older. The boy wore high-prescription glasses and looked pale and listless. He looked like a homebody who rarely went out.

You can tell at a glance that he's incredibly good at games; he probably won't fail without even having to lift a finger.

Hayakawa couldn't help but glance at Umaru next to her, only to find that her expression remained unchanged, and that self-assured confidence emanated naturally from her body.

嘁…

Seeing this, Hayakawa became even angrier. At this moment, he seemed to see Furuhashi Fumino before the humanities exam and Ogata Riju before the science exam, both of them so confident and invincible.

But this time is different; I will take action.

Hayakawa lowered his head, secretly watching Umaru with a veiled and extremely sinister look.

How arrogant! I wonder what kind of despair will show on your confident face later.

……

The match began quickly, with each contestant entering a small room containing only a standard arcade game console, with a joystick for controlling the character on one side and skill buttons on the other.

Hayakawa consciously took the position to control the character's movement. In this kind of arcade game, skill is generally much more important than movement. Experts don't even need to move the character; they can just use one hand to keep pressing the skill buttons to defeat the opponent. Umaru's gaming skills far surpass Hayakawa's, so naturally she is in charge of controlling the skill buttons. Presumably, the opponent is doing the same.

The game begins, and both sides choose their heroes. Umaru selects a tall, muscular woman with a ponytail, which is her best character. She usually prefers female characters with low stats and low strength, but who require a lot of skill to play.

The guy on the other side was much more pragmatic, choosing a male character whose invincibility was written all over his face, making him look very powerful.

Both sides chose people they were confident in, but this was meaningless to Hayakawa, as he didn't know either of them.

Upon entering the battle screen, Umaru's attacks were exaggeratedly sharp. Before Hayakawa could even react, she unleashed several smooth and rapid combos that left the opposing male character defenseless. The boy's expression tightened, his hands trembled, and sweat beaded on his forehead.

Hayakawa realized this wouldn't do, so he immediately pulled the joystick forward on purpose, ruining the distance Umaru had carefully planned and sending the character to get hit in the other person's face.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Umaru exclaimed in surprise. These arcade fighting games are very much about the rhythm of operation. His attack was incredibly smooth just now. As long as he didn't make a mistake, he was likely to kill his opponent in one combo, or even achieve a full-health kill. Now that Hayakawa interrupted him like this, unless the opponent is bad, he will most likely find a chance to counterattack.

As expected, the opponent was clearly skilled as well. Although he was far inferior to Umaru, he still seized the opportunity and unleashed a smooth and powerful combo that significantly reduced Umaru's health. If Umaru hadn't repeatedly used her skills to block and counterattack, she probably would have lost even more health.

"Hayakawa, what are you doing!"

Seeing this, even Xiaomai got angry again and shouted, "Even if we don't need your help, don't come and make things worse!"

Hayakawa looked completely innocent upon hearing this: "What are you talking about? I just wanted to help you. I wanted you to be closer so I could fight the other side better."

Hearing Hayakawa's manipulative words, Umaru was so angry she wanted to vomit blood. But now was a critical moment and she didn't have time to argue with him. She could only keep up with Hayakawa's erratic actions while pressing her skills to fight back. However, no matter how Hayakawa controlled her character to move left, right, up, down, and crouch erratically, Umaru managed to fight him to a 50/50 chance.

"Uh…"

Hayakawa was dumbfounded. How could the opponents be so bad? He had tried his best, but the game was still so difficult.

It wasn't that the other team was bad; in fact, their skill level was quite high. It was just that Umaru was too strong.

"That's enough!"

Meanwhile, Umaru was so angry at Hayakawa's antics that the veins on her forehead bulged, and a twisted smile appeared on her pretty face. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, she put down her hands from the skill buttons and stabbed Hayakawa hard in the waist with one hand.

"Ugh!"

That was quite a blow. Hayakawa felt as if he had been stabbed in the kidney with a dagger. The intense pain instantly swept through his body, and he immediately released the joystick and squatted down, sweating profusely just like the boy opposite him.

Xiaomai naturally wouldn't let this precious opportunity slip by. She didn't cheat by touching the character's movement, since every battle was monitored by staff. She didn't even need to control the character; she just quickly unleashed a few combos, and her opponent's health bar was emptied, leaving him lying on the ground, unable to get up.

The game is over, the winner has been decided!

Whether in the game or in real-life competition, Umaru always wins, while the losers are the boy on the other side and Hayakawa, who is lying on the ground.

"Seriously, what are you doing?"

Seeing that she had won, Umaru first wiped her forehead. This was the first time she had ever had such a hard-fought battle, and she was actually feeling a rare surge of excitement.

"Well…"

Hayakawa clutched his lower back, silent. The physical wounds caused him pain, but the wounds in his heart filled him with even greater despair.

I lost again... I failed once more.

Is it possible that even with such a huge advantage and the most despicable means, I still can't win against these people with top-tier talent...?

The pain of defeat broke his heart, and the helplessness he felt when facing Furuhashi and Ogata surged back into his mind, leaving Hayakawa's eyes empty and devoid of light.

"Ah, dead?!"

Umaru was startled and quickly reached out to pull Hayakawa up, shaking her vigorously: "Are you alright? Are you alright? Wake up!"

Hayakawa turned her head, a pale smile on her face: "I want to go home..."

"His intelligence has vanished?!"

Just as Umaru was performing CPR on Hayakawa, the couple from the other room came over. The boy didn't look dejected at the defeat; instead, he expressed his admiration for Umaru, saying things like, "You're the strongest player I've ever met." He even wanted her autograph, believing that if Umaru went on to become a professional gamer, she would definitely become a celebrity.

"Eh?"

Umaru was a little flustered by the sudden appearance of the fans and was completely stunned.

Chapter 493 Couple Hug Challenge

The sudden appearance of fans startled Umaru, but she quickly calmed down thanks to her excellent interpersonal skills.

This boy was clearly a fan of arcade games. Although she couldn't knock him off, Xiaomai didn't make any sarcastic remarks like "taking him on as an apprentice" or "whether he has developed intelligence yet." She just modestly offered some encouragement, but she decided against signing an autograph, since she definitely wouldn't be a professional gamer in the future.

With such good grades, you can go to any university. Your future is entirely in your own hands. There's no need to take the unstable path of professional esports.

After seeing off her opponent, Umaru continued to perform CPR on Hayakawa, and after a long time, Hayakawa finally regained consciousness.

"You're really amazing..."

Hayakawa raised his lifeless, emotionless eyes and slowly said, "You managed to win with all this?"

"They almost lost, really."

When Umaru saw that Hayakawa wasn't waking up, she released him impatiently: "This is the only time. You're not allowed to cause trouble in the next match. You don't have to do anything, but you're not allowed to mess around."

"Do not worry."

Hayakawa nodded and said, "The victor is king, the loser is villain; I accept it."

Why do you sound so serious?

Umaru was puzzled, then looked at Hayakawa with some doubt: "Really?"

"Ah."

Hayakawa said seriously, "Don't worry."

……

"Aren't you still causing trouble? You'd better stop!"

……

In the end, Umaru still managed to advance against all odds, even with Hayakawa who was deliberately dragging her down. In the morning, looking at the sign for her formidable opponent in the final round, she remained silent for a long time before finally letting out a sigh.

Sigh... It's not an easy thing to beat these kinds of people after all.

Taking shortcuts might have a short-term effect, but it will never lead to final victory. What will truly help you is long-term effort and perseverance.

At this moment, Hayakawa realized that it was a mistake to try to deal with Furuhashi and Ogata by using despicable means. He had painstakingly planned for so long, but their grades hadn't dropped; they were still getting perfect scores without fail, which showed that it was meaningless.

What I really need to do is raise my score to a perfect score and compete with them fairly... or give them laxatives before the exam so that they underperform or can't participate at all, then I'll consider myself a winner.

But even if they drugged me this time, I'll still take the exam normally next time, and then I'll still lose...

Huh?! Then why don't I just give them laxatives every time?

Hayakawa fell into deep thought, his brows furrowing slightly as he considered the feasibility of the plan.

"call…"

The little girl next to him took a deep breath and said, "Finally, it's the finals. We're just one step away from qualifying for the game. I hope it's still a game showdown."