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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 612: Money and Dreams Move People’s Hearts Part 2

「Ummm……」

「Oh well, what’s the problem? After all, we are all in the same boat here, isn’t that right? Besides, I can guarantee you that my abilities are next to none here!」

「If you decide to leave things to me, I can guarantee you that you are not going to go bankrupt anytime soon. And what’s more, I have a huge amount of information on how things tend to operate around this layer, so it would only serve to be of even greater use to you, right?」

Well, he has a point there alright. So, even though I was not happy in the slightest about this, I……

* * *

「Okay, listen here and listen well, because this is really important. Both the Trading Card Game and the Slots machines are no good in here. They are too risky and too unbalanced to guarantee you profit every time you partake in them, and even if it was the case in here, it would simply take way too much time to actually get anywhere with it in a reasonable amount of time. And as we all know, time is of the essence here in more sense than one.」

「Yeah, yeah, I know, I know! You don’t have to remind me that!

「Hey, could you keep it quiet for a moment? I am not done yet. There is still more that needs to be said here. So you’d do well to listen to the whole story!」

And just like that, after finally graduating from his Gambling Madness, Yashirou Bird casually joined our party. And just like that, after taking a stroll through the entire Entertainment Area, we decided to take a break and perform a quick strategy meeting to decide what we were going to do from now on.

「We cannot go and participate in anything that involves competing against other people. Our aim should obviously be the Gravity Board…… Or in other words, the roulette.」

「The Roulette? Are we talking about that machinery that keep on turning people into minced meat?」

Up until this point in time the mortality rate of this particular “attraction” was over seventy percent and still rising. But for something like this to be officially sanctioned attraction? Wouldn’t you find something like that in the underground gambling dens or pleasure quarters?

「Those two things tend to work based on simple physics alone, the player specs have very little to do with them.」

「Hmm, I see…… So, what do you think we should do, Sanraku? After all, you are the leader of our small group right here.」

「Huh? Ahh, yeah, let’s see…… Because I’m the one who formed this whole party to begin with?」

Well, yeah, I guess that a line of thinking like that makes a whole lot of sense. As for the options available to us…… Gravity board is an extreme competition in which you ride on a floating boards and physically fly from one area to the next. It seems that the number of challengers is not one hundred percent equal to the number of players being squashed to death, but that is only because of the magical safety nets that catch the players who flew off course and then would be placed back on the racing course, albeit with a whole lot of disadvantage when it comes to their placement in the race.

And then we have the Roulette, or in other words the machine that turns people into minced meat en masse. In that regard, it is more like an Execution device rather than gambling attraction. I know that it’s all about people deciding on the spots where the ball is going to fall onto the wheel, but in its current form this is nothing more but a way to just declare the way and the spot that is going to decide your doom.

「…… Incidentally, what seems to be wrong with that whole competition?」

「You see, there was supposed to be one hell of a dispute here because at a certain time it was possible for the human players to be jockeys as well, but then it was brought to an end because of the infinite amount of trouble and problem it was starting to cause. You know, the usual cheating and the like…… And then there was also the issue of the Red One to top it all off. As if the things were not bad enough already.」

「HUMAN MIND IS A FICKLE THING THAT IS EASILY PRONE TO CHANGE, AS THEY SAY. AND I AM INCLINED TO BELIEVE THAT IT IS OH SO TRUE.」

「Well, imagine this: one way or another, the ones who are most commonly accused of cheating in the races tend to get for themselves the most points…… And it really checks itself out on more occasion than one. I wonder why that is, hmm? Really makes you wonder, don’t you think?」

「WARNING! BECAUSE THIS HERE “BRAVE FISH” IS NOT AN OMNIPOTENT BEING, THERE ARE STILL THINGS AND MYSTERIES IN THIS WORLD THAT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND ALL THAT WELL MYSELF.」

Ohh, so, is that how it all works? Is it like a mechanism or something like that? The condition in here for us to be able to go up to the fourth layer would be to participate in various form of gambling activities, which would require us to amass about a ten thousand worth of betting chips. Now, normally this process would take really long and would be too much work to be worth the trouble. But if you were to cheat and betray your allies…… Well, that would be an entire different story altogether. But it would require a whole lot of cheating and a whole lot of betrayal.

「What in the hell is even a Red One? Is that some sort of a monster? Or maybe some other creature like that?」

「No, it’s nothing like that. So not even close. You see, a “Red One” is actually the player who appears at the very top and is shown as a red number, and since this is the venue for the Tactical Warbeasts races this means that the Red One is going to change depending on which one of them is currently in the lead…… But that being said, the Red One usually stays the same, as it easily destroys all competition with ease. Honestly, it almost feels like making the entire mini-game pretty much invalid from the get-go. But oh well, it is certainly rather interesting of a thing to behold. So once the Red One shows up, most people are going to be on the lookout for it, so we should do that as well while we are being at it. You know, make the most out of things while we are still here.」

Red One, Red “One”, Very Strong…… Hmm, I see? I see? I see? I get it? I get it? I understand everything perfectly?

「I have a good feeling about this, from now on I think that I can go even faster than before.」

It’s not just the money alone that manage to catch people’s hearts. When it comes to races, there are also those that tend to go forward strictly on a romantic sense and nothing else.