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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 6 Chapter 4.1

Episode 4: The Beginning of the First Stage (Battle Battle Battle)

1

「Well then, let’s do our best. 」

With those words, President Yuiga disappeared into the theme park late at night. I parted ways with him, stuffed the booklet I received at the Winning Strategy Seminar into my pocket, and started walking alone.

After that, five minutes passed in the blink of an eye as I walked slowly. Of course I wasn’t just wondering around aimlessly. I passed several battle areas and had several participants shout to me, 「Let’s compete in this battle area! 」.

There is no way I will not compete with these people though.

The people who were shouting out to me seemed to be practicing the strategy that M talked about at the seminar: 「How to pull opponents into a favorable battle area「. In other words, the designated battle area is set up with rules that will give those people an advantage.

Knowing this, I can’t bring myself to accept a challenge willingly.

As I was thinking about this, another participant approached me with a smile on his face.

「Yo, yo, why don’t we have a match in this battle area. 」

Do I want to play? No, I don’t want to play with you. No matter how many offers I get, I’m not going to fall for that.

「…..or so I thought. 」

Three minutes later I was in a battle area, a room in a certain building.

Why? Because I was brought here by a girl who was a participant.

This was the moment where I realized that men are really stupid creatures. I get it, the series of events leading up to being brought here was a trap.

But if you see a pretty girl with glasses on the side of the road, it is natural to ask her, 「Are you all right? 」 I mean seriously! I don’t remember such a cute girl with glasses participating in this event. As I was getting excited the girl said, 「I think there’s an infirmary over there. 」

Well, you know, I thought it was strange, actually. I mean isn’t it? I mean there’s not going to be anyone in the doctor’s office at this time of night.

When I realized this I thought, 「What does this mean? 」

After thinking about it I came to a conclusion and smiled intelligently.

In other words, since there’s no one else around, I’m going to have to take the place of the doctor and examine this cute girl in glasses. Right?

It’s the middle of the night, we were all alone in the doctor’s office. I say, 「Well, I’m going to examine you, so let’s take off your jacket. 」 She looks down shyly and says 「Okay」, as she undoes the buttons on her chest. By the time I finished this fantasy I was escorting her like a British gentleman saying, 「Please lend me your hand, lovely young lady. 」

And this is how I ended up in a room that seemed to be a battle area with a guy in glasses.

Gah, I’m so stupid! This is depressing!

Well, that’s what I thought, but apparently I wasn’t the only idiot.

「Hey, what are you doing here lolicon? 」

「Who are you calling a lolicon? 」

When the girl with the glasses brought me to the room, Tetsu-kun and a girl were already there.

By the way, the girl seemed a little young, I had seen her on the tram and the seminar.

「What?  Did a young girl trick you into coming here? Jeez, you’re such an idiot Tetsu-kun. 」

「No! I was just taking her to the infirmary because she was in pain on the street! 」

「Oh, you didn’t have any perverted delusions in your mind like, ‘There’s no one else here, so I’ll have to examine you in place of the doctor’? 」

「That’s not true at all! I mean who would think of such a stupid thing? 」

Tetsu is desperately trying to come up with excuses. Hey now, there’s a limit to how unsightly you should be you pervert. Just admit it already and feel better.

Well, having said that Tetsu-kun probably didn’t really have any ulterior motives unlike me, but I tried to ask him about something that was bothering me.

「So why are you still here then? Just because you were brought in? If you don’t want to battle, you should go ahead and leave. 」

If you think about it, we’ve only just been brought into a battle area. If you have no intention of competing you should just say ‘I don’t want to battle’ and leave.

Tetsu-kun let out a big sigh after hearing my question.

「If that’s what you think then try leaving the room. 」

I don’t know what he means by that so I try to leave the room as he said.

Neither of the girls try to stop me. Instead the gorokuma that was standing in the corner as a referee stopped me. And he did so by baring his fangs and hissing at me.

While I flinched in terror, the gorokuma crossed his hands to make an ‘X’ as if to say, ‘You can’t leave.’

「Huh, why? 」

When I looked at Tetsu-kun, he was pointing at a table at the end of the room. Four coins were placed there. Apparently this is the betting table that M described.

「….um so? 」

「Didn’t you read the entire booklet Juugo? 」

「? Well, I only glanced over it, but why do you ask? 」

「Look at the last page. 」

At this request I take out the booklet for my pocket and open it to the very last page.

「Huh, what? ‘first stage behind the scenes special’ … what the heck is this? 」

「I did the same thing. I didn’t read it in detail so I didn’t notice it at all. 」

Apparently, like me, Tetsu-kun never reads the instructions for the games he buys.

So what’s the trick? Hmm what is it what is it… ‘The only condition for a match in the battle area is that the participants are in the battle area and at least one coin has been placed. Therefore, you can force a match by placing coins on the betting table in advance and pulling someone into the battle area.

「…She got me. 」

It’s just a trick. No, M did say that I should read the booklet properly. How kind of her to include all this information in the booklet.

「Now that you understand the situation. 」 「We’d like you to compete with us. 」

The two voices finished each other’s sentence and then laughed at us as we guessed everything. And as they stood side by side I realized what was going on.

「T..twins!? 」

Their faces and cloths are exactly the same. The only difference is that one of them wore glasses. There they were, identical twins.

「….I mean, should you notice that right away? 」

Tetsu-kun looks at me with a very cold gaze.

…sorry, I was only looking at the glasses.

「So you are saying that we can’t leave here until after a match? 」

「That’s right. 」 「Exactly. 」

The twins answer in sync.

「So what are the rules for this battle area? It seems like it’s not going to be one on one since there are four of us.「

「Right, this is the best battle area. 」 「This is the only two on two battle area. 」

And the twins point to the wall at the same time. There was a rule sheet posted there.

《Brain and Communication Nervous Breakdown》

A two on two guessing battle.

The players answer the random questions at the same time by writing their answers on the opposite sides of the screen. Points are awarded if the partner’s answers match.

The first team to five points win. If both teams meet the win conditions at the same time, the game will continue in sudden death.

「….What’s with this? This relaxed quiz show-like atmosphere. 」

Looking around the room I see 4 desks in a row with pens and whiteboards the size of a notebook spread out on them.

Apparently the game is played with that.

I mean what? Wait a minute. Is the whole 《game》 like this?

While I was being confused about the contents of the game, which was different from what I had imagined, the twins started talking while taking identical poses.

「We bet four.「 「Therefore you two need to bet four also. 」

The four coins already placed on the betting table seem to indicate that.

「Seriously? The person who places coins down first gets to decide how many to bet? 」

「Dammit, I don’t have a choice. 」

We realized that in the end we had no choice but to compete. Tetsu-kun and I placed half of the contents of our bags (two coins each) on the betting table for a total of four coins.

Then the gorokuma spread his arms wide as if to say ‘start the battle!’

Then it guided us to our respective desks.

The arrangement of the desks is also strange. Gorokuma is standing in the center and the desks are about three meters away in the northeast-southwest direction from where the four of us are standing facing gorokuma.