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I Got a New Skill Every Time I Was Exiled, and After 100 Different Worlds, I Was Unmatched (Web Novel) - Chapter 317: The Possibility Isn't Zero, Rather, "It's Worse Than Zero"
Chapter 317: The Possibility Isn't Zero, Rather, "It's Worse Than Zero"
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”Inside a casino, in a small dining area, I sat down, and Hero Nico was bowing his head to me, apologizing profusely. Moreover, since it appeared that a girl who looked not yet of age was desperately apologizing to me, the situation was quite awkward.
“Ah, no, don’t worry about it. I don’t mind at all.”
“That won’t do! Come on, Kanan and Arielle-san, please apologize properly!”
“I’m very sorry, Ed-san. I can’t believe I became so engrossed in arguing with Kanan…”
“Hmph! It’s your pathetic face that’s the problem.”
“Kanan!”
“…Fine, I was wrong.”
Scolded by Nico and Arielle, Kanan turned away and said that. Ah, this feeling is nostalgic. If Rouge was like a barking dog, would Kanan be like a cat curled up asleep and indifferent? Kanan seemed more peaceful because she wouldn’t bite.
“Come on now. It’s no use apologizing forever. Come on, Nico-chan, cheer up?”
“Chan… Um, Lunaritia-san? I’m a boy, so ‘chan’ is a bit…”
“Oh, you can call me Tia. Wait, boy!? Nico-chan is a boy!?”
With an apologetic look on his face, Nico asserted, and Tia exclaimed in surprise. Well, since Nico’s face is evidently girlish and his voice hasn’t changed yet, misunderstanding him is not unusual. I was quite surprised the first time around too.
Even after hearing he was a boy, I accidentally walked in on him changing clothes at the inn and was screamed at with a “Kyaa!”, and I thought, “Is this guy really a boy?” But that’s a memory of the distant past, so I don’t mind.
(T/N: Ahh yes the shota/trap troupe)
“…Hey, Ed. You’re not thinking something perverted, are you?”
“What!? Wh-What are you talking about!? No way!”
“Mmm…”
“Pervert, we have a pervert here!”
“Kanan, you mustn’t say such things. God accepts people with any peculiar fetishes, even if it’s a vulgar person who imagines the hero’s nudity… Ah, it’s not good. Men thinking about each other like that… Fuu.”
“Hyaaaa…”
“Hey, isn’t my treatment a bit harsh?”
I was stared at with furrowed brows by Tia and given a disgusted look by Kanan. Arielle was praying to God with a blissful expression, and Nico was covering his blushing face with both hands, looking at me through the gaps between his fingers.
What’s going on… What is this? The male-to-female ratio should be three to two between the Hero Party and us, but I feel like I’m the only one being cornered here. For an honest and gentlemanly person like me to be treated so unfairly… It’s fine, the world is always unfair to people like me.
“Sigh… Well, it’s fine. So, what exactly was troubling you and your party, Nico?”
“Oh, yes! Why were you so desperate to earn chips?”
Since we were getting nowhere, I steered the conversation back on track. I knew the answer, but I couldn’t jump to it without asking. As Tia also joined the conversation, Nico slowly began to explain.
“Ah, yes. That’s because… there is an ancient ruin in this country. We obtained information that there’s a magical tool there that would help in our journey to defeat the Demon King, so we all went in together, but…”
“What was in the innermost part of the ruins was a sealed door. To open it, we needed a key in the form of a jewel orb. We obtained two out of three, but…”
“The last one is a prize in this casino. That’s why the hero was indulging in gambling here to get it.”
“I see…”
I nodded deeply at the explanation from the three of them. Hmm, so the situation here hasn’t changed either. Then, the thing they need is probably the same too.
“By the way, what is that prize?”
“Yes. It’s the Yellow Orb, worth 500,000 chips.”
“500,000!? One gold coin is 1,000 chips, so… 5,000 coins! That’s quite a sum.”
Tia expressed her astonishment at Nico’s answer. Of course, 5,000 gold coins are not an amount that can be handled personally. It’s an amount that comes up in large-scale commercial transactions or the operating expenses of medium-sized cities, and it’s not something that Tia or I could easily earn. But…
“However, umm… Nico-chan… I mean, Nico-kun, you’re a hero, right? If it’s necessary to defeat the Demon King, can’t you draw out that amount of financial aid?”
That’s the thing. While it’s a tremendous amount for an individual, it’s not that much from a national perspective. Of course, it’s not an amount to be easily spent, but it’s not an amount that can’t be scraped together.
Tia, who tilted her head at this question, received an answer not from Nico, but from Arielle, who shook her head with a downcast expression.
“That’s the problem. There’s a rule in this casino that a person can only buy and hold up to 100,000 chips.”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
“It means exactly that you can only buy up to 100,000 chips. You can buy more if you have less than 100,000, but you can’t buy more if you have 100,000. So, you can’t get the chips you need unless you win them at the casino.”
With a click, I tilted the cup placed on the table, and explained to Tia. Given the location, the content was alcohol, but since the alcohol content was light, I wouldn’t get drunk with this amount.
By the way, only Nico was drinking milk instead of alcohol. He had a rather dissatisfied look on his face when it was handed to him, but now he was blowing on the steaming milk and drinking it with a pleasant smile, so it wasn’t a problem.
“In short, it’s about avoiding having the prizes gathered for attracting customers being bought with money. Casinos aren’t stores, you know. If the eye-catching products were bought with cash, it would ruin the business, right? So they’re saying you have to play in the casino and win, no matter what.”
“Hmph, what a sordid business. Winning against the house in gambling is impossible if you play normally.”
I shrugged my shoulders, and Kanan spoke with a scowl. And that was indeed true. The fact that such a big casino was running meant that no matter what, the house would win. It would take extraordinary luck to increase the original amount fivefold in such a place.
“I see, so that’s why you asked me how to win at the casino. I understand the reason, but… it’s difficult, isn’t it?”
“It is…”
“Oh, but in that case, what if we all buy 100,000 chips and pool them together? It’ll cost money, but that way we can quickly make it 500,000.”
“No good. Borrowing and lending chips is prohibited, and if caught, they’ll all be confiscated. Of course, the casino won’t fuss about small amounts like five or ten, but they won’t overlook 100,000. Besides, hiding it by pretending to lose, or gathering it by pretending to win, is a common trick. There’s no way the casino wouldn’t keep track of such large wins and losses. If you hadn’t actually won or lost, they’d find out right away.”
“Right. A place dealing with money wouldn’t leave such sloppy loopholes.”
“Mu…”
At Kanan’s and my words, Tia made a difficult face and thought. Thinking about it normally, this was indeed a difficult problem. The most realistic thing was to always bet 100,000 chips on something that could pay more than five times in one shot, but no matter how much money we had, it wouldn’t be enough, and to my knowledge, the maximum bet at one time was usually about 10,000.
In other words, using legitimate means, we couldn’t get that prize. There were rumors that you could bet even higher amounts in the special rooms if you spent a lot of money, but I hadn’t actually been in there, so I didn’t know if it was true, and we weren’t the kind of rich people to be invited there.
“Alright, I understand the situation. So…”
“Ed-san? Do you have a good idea!?”
Nico, who was gleaming at my knee slap, asked me. So I boldly spoke the only real answer.
“It’s a waste of time. Give up!”
“…Sigh, it seems we’ve wasted our time. Let’s go.”
“Eh!? But…”
“It can’t be helped, Yuusha-sama. It would be a bother to pester this passerby any further…”
“That’s…”
“No, no, wait, wait. Listen to what I’m saying.”
I told the three, who were showing various expressions of astonishment, confusion, and resignation, as they stood up, trying to control them with my hands. But the three of them, especially Kanan, were glaring at me with cold eyes.
“What is it? Your opinion was to ‘give up,’ right? That’s no use to us if we can’t do that.”
“What are you talking about? What I said to ‘give up’ was just about getting the ‘Yellow Orb.'”
“? So…”
“In other words, this is what I mean… I’ll get that magical tool you guys are after.”
“…Huh?”
With the three of them looking dumbfounded, I smiled smugly and thumped my chest.
