31 The Era When Robots Fight
Agents, professional fighters, shop managers.
It’s not limited to just specialized professions—even ordinary people become fighters when they pick up a deck and fight.
Students belonging to fight clubs, salarymen fighting for business entertainment, delinquents fighting rival delinquent groups in their territorial disputes.
No matter which, they’re all fighters.
There are even fighters that aren’t human. Erea would be a typical example.
A monster as a fighter, possessing the special characteristic of adding themselves to their own deck—none of this deviates from the definition of fighter.
So, fighters like this exist too.
“You there. I would like to request a fight from you. Piga-ga-pi.”
It was a robot that stopped me as I was wandering around town for some reason over the past few days.
It had a design that looked like it belonged in a hobby anime—a bit quirky and fun.
And it was adding “Piga-ga-pi” to the end of its sentences.
I turned toward the robot right away, as if I’d been waiting for this.
“Is that okay with me?”
“Yes. I am Mecha-Shi, a fight robot. I desire a fight with you. Piga-ga-pi.”
So “Piga-ga-pi” is some kind of sentence ender?
The robot, which apparently went by the name Mecha-Shi, rattled its typical ring-shaped arms back and forth while showing me an Ignition Board.
It seemed like it was genuinely asking me for a fight.
Currently, I was on my day off. I wasn’t opposed to accepting a street fight.
Or rather, I’d actually been bored, so such an invitation was… well, highly welcome. Though, my opponent was a robot.
Not that it’s strange in this world for such a fighter to exist.
But whether I myself had ever fought one was another matter entirely.
…Actually, I’ve fought invading advanced robot soldiers from another dimension about twice.
I’ve also fought cyborg fighters, though they weren’t completely robots.
And fully armed Erea is kind of robot-like too.
What do you know, I’ve actually fought a lot… No, wait. This would be my first time fighting a pure robot.
Don’t get confused…
“Got it. A fight, huh. I have no objections.”
“Understood, thank you for your cooperation. Piga-ga-pi.”
Saying this, I took out my deck.
“For formality’s sake, let me introduce myself. I’m…”
“I am already aware. Card shop ‘Duelist’ manager, Mitsuru Tanafuda. Piga-ga-pi.”
“Well, that’s quite an honor.”
“Our company’s database contains data on all the ‘strong ones’ in this world.”
The company that made Mecha-Shi seemed very enthusiastic about collecting data on strong fighters.
In the first place, Mecha-Shi’s whole reason for existing was probably to collect data from fights.
But regardless of those circumstances, that wasn’t my concern.
As a fighter who’d accepted the challenge, I would simply face my opponent.
Alright, let me fight and obtain “that.”
“Let’s go, Ignition!”
“Ignition! Piga-ga-pi!”
…Does it really have to say “Piga-ga-pi” even during the Ignition declaration?
“Finishing blow, [Arc Lord-Michael]! Attack [Mecha Mecha Shielder—Gold-Plated Knight]!”
“Piga-ga-pi!”
The fight was my victory.
The “Mecha Mecha Shielder” monsters controlled by Mecha-Shi were, true to their name, a robot brigade that wielded mechamechanical shields.
Most of their effects were defensive, and at first we were both in a defensive stance, falling into a state of deadlock.
Ultimately, I called out my more aggressive ace to change the battle situation, but… the defensive power of “Mecha Mecha Shielder” was the real deal. It was quite a tough fight.
“That was admirable, Manager Mitsuru. Piga-ga-pi.”
“You fought well too, Mecha-Shi.”
Mecha-Shi came back after being blown away in a way fitting of defeat.
Black smoke was pouring out of its entire body, but surely it was fine…
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“I am grateful, Manager Mitsuru. With my fight reflected in my data… I will surely evolve into an even stronger fighter. Piga-ga-pi.”
“Being told that kind of makes me embarrassed.”
“On that note, if you would be so kind as to scan the QR code now displayed and answer the survey regarding this fight, I would be most grateful. Those who answer will receive a special deck case as a gift.”
“You just got super business-like all of a sudden!?”
A QR code and a survey? Answer a survey and get a special deck case?
What kind of sales pitch is this? Well, I’ll answer anyway.
It’s not like I wanted the deck case or anything. I just thought the whole “fight robot” concept was interesting.
I didn’t want a deck case.
Research on fight robots—in other words, AI-powered cyber fighters—has been conducted for a long time.
To be honest, the results haven’t been particularly impressive.
Although this world’s technological level does surpass that of my previous world in some aspects.
The reason is simple: this world has too many cards.
“But you’ve got it tough, don’t you? The concept of collecting fight data while improving your own performance through street fights seems brutal.”
“…? What do you mean by that?”
“Huh? Well, isn’t that obvious? There are countless fighters in this world, and cards. Their types vary widely—the amount of content to learn is just too much. Even if you collect data, there’s no guarantee you’ll get stronger.”
For some reason, Mecha-Shi didn’t seem to understand where I was coming from.
I continued the conversation while operating my smartphone to answer the survey.
“I mean, that’s how it should be, right? Generally, fight robots work by learning card effects and selecting actions that match the situation from what they’ve learned. That’s what I’ve heard.”
“I see. That is indeed how a typical fight robot operates. However, I am not a typical fight robot. Piga-ga-pi.”
“What do you mean by that…?”
I tilted my head. Mecha-Shi’s eyes—or what amounted to eyes—began to glow with pride.
Well, it was actually just a reflection of light. Also, the black smoke had stopped at some point.
That’s a relief…
“I am an experience-learning fight robot. Through each fight, I learn from the ‘experience’ of fighting, not just from card effects. Piga-ga-pi.”
“Um… so what does that mean exactly?”
“It is the same as a human. Humans don’t generally memorize every single card. They search for the most optimal countermeasure from their hand through their experience and execute it.”
So basically, this fight robot, Mecha-Shi, had a completely different design concept than typical fight robots.
“Previous fight robots were fixated on making use of the robot’s advantages alone. Piga-ga-pi.”
“Those being the massive data and how to utilize it…?”
“Yes, precisely. However, that only resulted in allocating resources solely to data utilization. In fact, that was what prevented fight robots from utilizing their true processing power advantage.”
I see. This world’s technology level is higher compared to my previous world.
Technologies were needed to project monsters for fighting, and so on.
Plus, ordinary super-technological overkill just tends to be lying around.
So super-robots that could perform thinking indistinguishable from humans definitely exist.
But even such super-robots couldn’t possibly memorize the effects of every single card and fight accordingly.
So, a reversal of thinking: why not just fight like a human does?
Discard the advantage of being a robot once, and learn to fight like a human to become stronger.
You might think that defeats the purpose, but the fact that it’s a robot means its learning capacity is higher than a human’s. Once I understood that, the survey was complete.
“Alright, I’m done.”
“Thank you for answering our survey. We hope you will continue to support our company’s fight robot, Mecha-Shi. Piga-ga-pi.”
“After all that, you still don’t drop the ‘Piga-ga-pi,’ huh… And now it’s gotten formal again too.”
Anyway, I obtained a new deck case as compensation for answering the survey.
“So anyway, look Erea. A new deck case.”
“Ooh… So that’s what you’ve been up to, Manager. Running around town on your days off and eyeing passersby to see if they’d pick a fight with you…”
“N-n-no that’s not it!”
Days later, after showing the deck case I’d received to Erea, she pointed it out with her usual deadpan expression.
N-no that’s not right! That’s not it at all!
It’s not like I heard that robot fighters appearing in town give out deck cases or anything, so I hung around on my days off or whatever!
It’s not like I think deck cases are cool or anything!
TIPS: A deck case that looks like the bag for elementary school calligraphy sets or sewing kits. Necca, Crow, Daia, the Manager, and Ren all love it.
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