Setting his life to 1 wouldn't be a bad idea to keel him in check I agree, but it's not like they knew he could just take control of being the player by just using the compact yk? But I love your comments they always bring up really good questions! If you join our discord I'd love to continue it on there! : )
Wouldn't work. Japan has romanticized the concept of a lovers suicide, so if you cut off all other options but that he might just throw a match to get em both killed or rage quit.
I think this mostly falls under the same category of temporarily beating him into submission. Do it for a little bit to get some peace and quiet, let him get his inevitable rocks off backstabbing attempt in (preferably via showing a fake weakness for him to take advantage of and go along with) , and move onto whatever the next act of traitorous sabotage he's going to engage in. Or use it tactically when you have a reasonable suspicion you can end the game if you can find a way to ensure it surprises him.
Unfortunately at this point I think he might have learned to start reading patch notes so I wouldn't bet on it, but for a #1 player he sure has shown himself to be way too slow at reading notifications thanks to his arrogance at being top in the original game.
I suppose this means that in order to control him you basically need a game of cat and mouse to occupy his time which really just wastes time everyone's time/energy that could be spent on trying to git gud or strategize. It really feels like Akiba's just going to hit a wall of talent (again since this has happened multiple times already) because he was too busy with this crap while the people below him were improving or getting better gear.
As for Akiba standard blackmail tactics being brought up earlier, he doesn't need actual dirt. He only needs to invent dirt. You don't get around that by being squeaky clean outside of the short term where he gets frustrated by a lack of progress. You get around it by letting him think he has something to lord over you before it turns out you don't care or are pretending you care.
The fact that items can be brought in opens up some interesting possibilities for keeping Akiba in check. If you're hanging out with friends and family at the time of a match you can:
have them examine a camera
place it on your person in such a way that its impossible for you to tamper with anything
go into a match
record the match
instantly have an hour of footage from their perspective
Have people outside the game keeping Shibuya away from Akiba without revealing they know about the game since I don't think distance between player and controller matters.
Or just take some drugs while inside for unlimited highs if it's resetting items from RL back to their original form? Painkillers or performance enhancing drugs would certainly be useful during a match if they don't mess with your head.
Akiba being so trash at stalking people might also work since he can get framed for something and put in jail for a bit if you can set him up without him finding out. I suspect this route is too dangerous since it really feels like Shibuya's original family is allied with the Yakuza or something. If he tries stalking her within their eyesight he's probably going to die. The game might not let her register a new player upon his death or brings him back for games.
Come to think of it, there's all of the people she attempted to team up with that she can turn to for some help depending on their disposition. They might not want to do anything too outrageous, but they can certainly help with a few things outside the game or even do what Adachi was doing without any danger of threats from Akiba by just acting like he's spouting gibberish. They can just walk in on Akiba doing something, beat the shit out of him and send him to jail because he has nothing to threaten them with. Unfortunately Japan isn't known for punishing rape or sexual assaults (not that the west is particularly known for being anything but lenient either), so this plan may underwhelm in such an edgy setting.
