"Looks like we've reached the final round. Everyone's checked the number of chips in front of them, right?"
For once, the game had stayed neck and neck all the way to the end.
Then Ms. Rodion glanced down at her hand and said, perfectly calm, "Hm. I'm all in."
Wait, all in?
Even the woman named Aid seemed startled by how suddenly the stakes had jumped, and asked again, "...All in?"
"Wow~ looks like you got dealt a pretty hand, Rodion?"
"Hah~ you've been getting on my nerves for a while now. What are you betting on, acting so cocky? If you lose here, you're done for, you know?"
"I've always been the type to stake everything at the end."
Ms. Rodion smoothly brushed off the pressure from the Ironworks boss and pressed down on her wrist, as if she were about to stick on a wish sticker.
"..."
-thunk.
"Stop right there. Roll up your sleeve. Did you just slip one past us?"
Ah, damn it. She got caught.
"That wish sticker you just stole from the Kongkongi Gang boss— you stuck it on your arm, didn't you?"
"You were planning to dump all your chips here and swallow the [Golden Bough] for yourself, weren't you?"
"Now, everybody look! This here under her wrist— this, this. That ain't a sticker?"
"...Got proof?"
With a faintly uneasy expression, Ms. Rodion said that to the Ironworks boss.
"Rodion, sorry, but could I take a look at your wrist for a second?"
"..."
When Sonya tried to check Ms. Rodion's wrist, the Ironworks boss flew into a rage and stopped him.
"Hey, now! Don't touch her. How am I supposed to know you ain't all in on it together?"
"Now then, I'll open it up, so watch closely, will ya? I knew this little brat was acting shady."
...Why did this situation feel so familiar?
"This scene... this line... it feels like I've seen this before. Déjà vu?"
Even as Aid muttered that, the argument kept escalating.
"What a waste of a body. Do you really have to be this petty?"
"Don't go throwing around stolen wish power so carelessly. Nobody taught you that on the way in?"
"...You've watched too many movies. What do you mean, stolen?"
"And if there isn't any left, what, are you going to withdraw yourself from the game?"
And the more heated the quarrel became, the more it resembled something I'd seen before.
"Well, you've got guts. Fine. I'll bet my elimination that there's still wish power left on your wrist. What're you putting up?"
"Same thing. So one of us is getting knocked out right now, yeah? You're not getting cold feet, are you?"
...Isn't this [Ship of Theseus]?
"Pahahaha! Well, look at that, you've seen a thing or two. Anyway, this is a proper wager, right?"
"Uh... it's a total copy... if this is how it goes, then the ending is definitely..."
Did [Ship of Theseus] get released here too?
How does that side know it so well?
"Now then, time for a check~"
"..."
And then the Ironworks boss, who had opened Ms. Rodion's wrist, froze solid.
"What? What's going on?"
"I saw it! I saw this little brat touching her wrist! Th-this can't be happening..."
In the bewildered Ironworks boss's ears, Sonya's calm death sentence rang out.
"You're out. What a shame."
"Out? What happens when you're out? What, do they cut off your wrist or something?"
That was definitely how it went in the original...
"I'm joking, Rodion. What use is a wrist to a cyborg?"
Well, that's true too.
"No, this... this can't be... no way..."
"We can be lenient with the loser, but we need to be far more careful with the one who took the wrong turn."
"Huh, wait—?"
The moment Aid said that, as if sensing something, a loud cracking sound rang in everyone's ears.
-crunch
"..."
The Ironworks boss, who had been gripping Ms. Rodion's wrist and pressing down on her, was crushed flat under the press and vanished on the spot.
The sight of the arm still clamped around Ms. Rodion's wrist made the scene twice as grotesque.
"Ghk... what the hell...!"
...Was he really dead? For real?
"Damn it, turn on your blinker before you do that! Turn on your blinker!"
"Ugh... look at the oil and brain matter leaking out... bleh."
The angle kept me from seeing it directly, but the sight of a full-body cyborg getting crushed under a press was... not hard to imagine, and that made it even more horrifying.
"Remember, Rodion? This was in that junkyard back in the back alleys."
"..."
"I told you, didn't I?"
"That the working class should unite, overthrow the ruling class, and build a new society."
"And you answered, didn't you?"
"If you mean flattening all the rich under that press, then I'm in, you said."
What a genuinely terrifying person.
He remembered what she said back then all this time, and now he's saying it while actually crushing a person under a press?
"...More precisely, I said they should be 'squashed flat.'"
"...Did you."
After staring into space for a moment as if thinking, he turned his head back toward Ms. Rodion.
"Rodion, you still don't plan on coming back to Yurodivy?"
"I..."
Just as Ms. Rodion dragged out her words, clearly thinking it over, a sound came from among the prisoners.
"Didn't we just hear a bang?"
Could Gregor not see what was right in front of him?
"We did. Right after something about wish power..."
Ms. Sword was the same, only commenting on the sound.
"What? Did those bastards catch on? Hey, what are you doing? Hurry up and turn the clock back."
As Heathcliff said that, he leaned forward.
Wait, if this keeps up...!
"Ugh, don't push. ...Ah!"
"W-whoa...?"
-crash!!
Unfortunately, the prisoners had shoved against a flimsy door made of paper-thin window lattice.
The door, already hanging by a thread from the people watching it, couldn't take the extra force and flew open.
And us being shoved into the gambling hall was the natural next step.
In an instant, the atmosphere turned chaotic.
The first thing out of my mouth in that situation was...
"Uh... hello?"
"Uh... who the hell are you people...?"
Well. How am I supposed to explain this...?
""
"Rodion, looks like you've made some new friends in the meantime."
Sonya spread both hands and laid down every card he was holding.
"The game is over."
"You won, Rosion. No objections."
Then he opened the door and walked out, never to return.
...What kind of person was that?
-clap clap clap clap!
While I was still staring in the direction Sonya had left, sudden applause came from behind us.
"Hah, wow... that was a good game. But..."
"I'm not as cool as Sonya."
"As a little celebration for bringing friends along, I'll introduce you to some of mine too."
If I had to interpret that... she meant she was going to beat us by force and declare herself the winner, right?
Gregor seemed to understand her too, and said in a slightly dumbfounded tone, "...What was it again? Your organization said gambling was only supposed to be for fun."
"Yep. Isn't it more fun this way than just accepting the result right away?"
Ah, so she never intended to accept it in the first place?
"No matter who won, you were planning to push through with force, weren't you?"
When Ms. Rodion pressed her, Aid let out a faint sneer and said, "Pfft. Hey, think about it. I've got muscle and I've got subordinates— you really think I'd hand over the [Golden Bough] for the sake of a single game?"
"Fine. That's even better."
"I was getting antsy anyway."
...I don't want to fight, Ms. Rodion.
Of course, I knew my opinion didn't matter one bit in this situation.
Ah, right.
"So we're fighting all the way from the first floor to the top floor?"
""
So the real plan was just a scrap of paper after all.
Nothing had gone right.
As Aid had warned, a considerable number of men in ponchos appeared behind her.
Right... this is how it always goes for us, isn't it?
If we lose, all the trouble we've gone through until now disappears, so we have to win.
I raised my weapon and faced them.
"..."
The one who broke the fragile balance in that precarious atmosphere was Heathcliff.
"...Why are you all just standing there looking so damn hesitant? I'm going!"
"Fine, I'm going too!"
Gregor followed after Heathcliff and charged in.
I can't just stand here either.
**
"Covering you!"
-whoosh—
-clang—!
Just maracas colliding with a polearm, and yet it made a vicious sound no ordinary clash should ever make.
One bad hit and someone would die on the spot.
Still, since we'd already fought these people to death on the second floor, they weren't going to go down that easily.
The real problem was...
"You son of a bitch!"
-whoosh——
"Heh, this is fun."
Aid, dancing leisurely as she dodged every attack.
Heathcliff seemed to hate that singular, showy dance of hers and kept glaring at her, but...
-whoosh——!
"Come on, try harder. Maybe you'll hit me."
He only kept slicing through empty air.
Normally, we'd have been able to pressure the enemy with our overwhelming numbers of thirteen, but the enemy had about the same number as us.
And their skill was about equal too, so the fight wasn't going to be easy.
-clang—
"Ah!"
-thud thud— thud—!
In an instant, Sinclair made a mistake, his stance collapsed, and the enemy's merciless barrage came down on him.
"Ah, ah..."
...At this rate, one of us is out of the fight.
This is going to get a lot harder...
========================
The website for reading paid chapters is available on my Patreon. The number of chapters on Patreon: 85
Link: patreon.com/UltraMagnus_T