Chapter 612: Money and Dreams Are What Move People's Hearts

For now, PhyloGeo is out of the question; I can't just brute force it with pure specs. Strictly speaking, I just don't have the time to train the thought processes necessary to actually put those specs to use.

Glossing over the fact that I got immensely sidetracked by my own personal affairs, I shared the results of my investigation, and the other two began explaining what they'd spent the last hour play... I mean, the results of their hour of research.

"On my, end... Um, I saw Rust-san."

"Rust?"

"Um... She went bankrupt from debt... and was working as a jockey in a sport similar to... horse racing."

Hold on a second, isn't it completely foul play to suddenly drop a bomb like that!? What the hell, I absolutely want to see that. What did she even do? You can easily earn Score just by hunting Meat in the layer right below this one, so actually managing to go bankrupt requires serious effort!

"Umm... It was something like... Robo-horse racing?"

"I see, suddenly everything makes perfect sense."

Of course she went bankrupt, she probably went all-in on a losing hand with a massive grin on her face. Seriously, what is that idiot doing? If she just progressed to the Fourth Layer, she could get official models instead of rentals... Though I'm sure she's having the absolute time of her life right now. Harboring that conviction, I turned my gaze toward the real problem, Survival.

"...And?"

"Here's my haul: A slot-addicted Yokai."

"Hey... I'm really sorry to ask this so soon, but could you lend me some Score?"

"Throw him back where you found him."

『Yashirobird, you are currently hovering right on the edge of bankruptcy; you really should manage your Score a little more responsibly.』

She just completely dropped the honorifics. But judging from her tone, this isn't the result of an increase in intimacy—it's from her affection rating hitting rock bottom. I mean, "Isana" is making a face I've never seen before; this is the face of an NPC whose route has been permanently locked out.

Just what the hell happened to this dandyYashirobird? An actual company president is displaying the terminal symptoms of a hopeless gambling addict right now.

"Survival, did Ato... Yashirobird always look like this?"

"Nah, he used to carry himself with a bit more dignity... But he claims he absolutely needs one of the slot machine prizes no matter what."

"It's an Only-One item, there's only one of it... No, seriously, if I just had a little more, I could win. The wind is blowing my way, you know?"

He fully understands his own destitution but has zero intention of stopping—this is a textbook case. We'd be better off stranding him on a deserted island for two months to forcibly detach him from capitalist society.

"Hey 'Isana', what is this Only-One item?"

『It is a specially painted ranged-combat unit offered as the Grand Jackpot reward for the slots. According to my records, it is indeed a one-of-a-kind paint pattern, however...』

"Hmm?"

『Do you have a question? "Isana" will naturally answer anything you ask.』

A specially painted ranged-combat unit? A one-of-a-kind paint pattern in the world? Phrasing it like that implies...

"Hey Sunraku, that means..."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Eh? Is something wrong?"

"Umm... The thing that's the only one of its kind in the world... is just the paint job... Isn't it?"

"......?"

Ah, so that's exactly what it means.

"Hey 'Isana', skip the details and just give me the summary. This prize—can the default-color version of it be obtained in the Fourth Layer or beyond?"

『Of course, that goes without saying. With a few exceptions, the Fourth Shell Layer is an arsenal where all Leviathan-manufactured combat units, devices, and armaments are produced.』

Hearing "Isana" answer so casually, as if wondering why I was asking something so obvious, the three of us—Rei-shi, Survival, and myself—silently turned our gazes toward the man who had nearly bankrupted himself purely for a gaudy color scheme.

As for the idiot in question... he smoothed out the wrinkles in his disheveled clothes, readjusted the cowboy hat-style headgear that was slipping off his head, and struck not a signature pose, but a smug signature expression.

"Well, well. I heard from Survival that you're heading up. When are we making our proper move? I'll be coming along too."

"I wonder which way the scale will tip between his personality defects and his raw spec utility."

"Umm..."

"Well, we're from the 'same hometown.' I can vouch for his skills at least."

"Leave it to me. I didn't nearly go bankrupt for nothing. I'm practically an expert on all the information regarding this Shell Layer."

That's really nothing to brag about, you know...

◆

"Listen up, PhyloGeo and the slots are a no-go. It'll take way too much time if we want to get through here as fast as possible."

"Spoken like someone with real experience, hey."

"Don't mock me, Survival. We need to keep this moving."

Having incorporated the rehabilitated gambling addict Yashirobird into our party, the four of us were currently in the middle of a strategy meeting on how to break through this amusement zone.

"Competitive Mech racing is out too. Our best targets are the Gravity Board or... the Roulette."

"The Roulette? You mean that meat grinder machine?"

That 70% fatality rate isn't just for show. Honestly, an amusement facility with a 70% death rate sounds like something you'd only find in an underground society or a black market, doesn't it?

"Those two operate on simple physics calculations. We can probably brute-force them with pure player specs."

"I see... What's the call, Sunraku? You're technically the leader here."

"Eh? Ah, right, I formed the party, so I guess that makes sense..."

Let's see... The Gravity Board is a rather extreme minigame where you ride a floating board and physically launch yourself to the next area. Apparently, they scoop you up mid-air with something like teleportation magic, so the number of challengers doesn't exactly equal the number of squashed tomatoes.

And then there's the Roulette. It's been called everything from a meat grinder to an execution device, and honestly, if the game is demanding that a human act as the roulette ball, it's straight-up a murder machine.

"...By the way, why is the Competitive Mech racing out of the question?"

"Because players can act as the jockeys there, match-fixing was supposed to be possible, but for some reason, there are an awful lot of betrayals. On top of that, there's 'Red One'."

『The human heart is ever so fickle, after all.』

"Strangely enough, the ones who betray the others somehow end up with a massive amount of Score. Honestly... I wonder why?"

『Even 'Isana' is not omniscient and omnipotent; there are things I simply do not knooow〜』

Ah, so that's how it works. The condition to advance to the Fourth Layer via the Mech races is to hit a Perfect Trifecta, predicting the exact placements from 1st all the way to last. If even one person betrays the group, the entire bet collapses.

"What's this 'Red One'? Some kind of monster spawning?"

"Red One is the player who comes out wearing the red Number 1 jersey. In the Mech races, combat between the racing tactical units can happen... but Red One always destroys every single other unit, voiding the race entirely. Well, it's an entertaining spectacle on its own, so most people who watch when Red One is participating just accept it for what it is."

Red One, the red "Number 1", who is absurdly strong...... Hmm, I see, I see, I see???

"I've got a brilliant idea. If we do this, we can get up there the fastest."

Money isn't the only thing that reels people in; there's a certain breed of people who move entirely on romanticism.

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Author's Afterword

Red One, just who in the world could it be...