Idle Hamster

Clink.

Clatter.

"Eek — looks like a coin came out!"

"Ah... ...."

"Congratulations. Mr. Yu Hyeonjae has obtained a Fragment of Life."

It wasn't a whole coin. It was a fan-shaped shard of one.

"It appears to be exactly one-quarter of the size," Yu Hyeonjae murmured, studying the tiny fragment. "If I'd answered more, would it have come out bigger? Five correct answers for a quarter, so... ...."

If that guess held, it would take twenty correct answers to complete a single gold coin. Which was impossible. Answering ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠twenty questions in twenty-one seconds simply couldn't be done. Even if you dragged in a genius who could solve any question thrown at them, it wouldn't help — the mere act of reading a question with your eyes and speaking the answer aloud ate up time.

"But there's no penalty for this one, then... ...?" Hwang Juyeon asked quietly, almost to herself.

Could it be that the oracle itself was already judged as the penalty being carried out?

"Whoa, then maybe I should've done this one instead. What about you trying it too, unnie? This one seems like the safest bet."

"Hmm... ... though looking at it, the questions seemed awfully tricky? Honestly, I'd probably miss the very first one." The freelance magician rubbed the back of her neck, embarrassed.

"It might be a system where you take the penalty if you can't answer even one... ...," Lee Jinsu added in a low voice, and Hwang Juyeon nodded.

"Right. That's the feeling I got too."

While Hwang Juyeon sank back into deliberation, I was still turning over Project Delphi in my mind. If I played it — what oracle would descend on me? Would a proper oracle even come down at all? If the prophecy completed itself even when I deliberately twisted my answers in resistance... ... then it would mean that future truly could not be changed. Because it would mean even my twisting of the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠answers had been foreseen. In that case, perhaps the best move was simply not to try. The moment I heard my future, I would shackle myself to it. Even if that oracle had no credibility whatsoever — even if it was nothing more than a blanket curse that dealt everyone roughly the same content. And yet... ...

"I'll just go with this one, then."

The box was shorter than the one for True Stories, sized so that a standard deck of poker cards would fit with room to spare.

"It's unusual in that it uses poker hand rankings, apparently. Poker's the one card game I've actually played a bit." The freelance magician, comfortable with cards, tapped the instructions printed on the back of the box.

"Ms. Hwang Juyeon. Will you be enjoying Idle Hamster?"

"Yep. I'll give it a go."

The host guided Hwang Juyeon to the table and took a seat across from her.

"Let me explain it briefly."

Hosu opened the box and drew out the cards. Inside were two decks — one of ordinary poker cards, and one printed with hamsters. The hamster deck was far thinner.

The face of each hamster card bore a single hamster, and every one of them looked a little different.

Even each hamster's individual traits were written out separately. Judging by the description, the numbers printed beneath the hamsters seemed to be identification numbers for each individual.

"Idle Hamster is a game where you raise these little ones well and sell off as many as you can," the host said.

When Hwang Juyeon tilted her head and asked why, he answered with the same faint smile he always wore. "Well. What would be the point of merely raising them? Why raise them at all if you don't intend to sell? For the record, these little ones are better suited as pets than as food."

"What you must do, Ms. Hwang Juyeon, is feed them well, groom them well, and tame them well. Quite simple, isn't it?"

Hosu laid two trump cards on the table, then drew six more and dealt three apiece to Hwang Juyeon and himself.

"Using your three dealt cards and the two shared cards on the table — five in all — you and I will compare our hand rankings to decide the winner. Naturally, the stronger hand wins."

The rankings followed the Texas Hold'em hierarchy printed on the back of the box.

"So there's no... betting? Nothing like drawing more cards, either?"

"No. There is not."

"We shall call this process of comparing hands to decide a winner a Bargain. Once the Bargain begins, Ms. Hwang Juyeon, you will check your own hand, then choose one little one from the Stable and place it in the Cage."

The host took the hamster card sitting at the top of the hamster deck — the Stable — and set it beside the two shared cards. At once, a white rectangular border drew itself around the card. Like a cage.

"And if you win the Bargain, Ms. Hwang Juyeon, you may perform one of three actions upon this little one."

Feeding. Grooming. Taming.

Feeding lowered the Hunger stat. Grooming raised Prettiness. Taming raised Obedience.

"A little one that isn't fed well will eat its friends. A little one that isn't groomed well won't sell. And a little one that isn't tamed well will be abandoned by its owner."

The piano instructor's brow creased slightly. "And if I lose this Bargain, what happens?"

"Then I will immediately take the little one and put it up on the Market. You see, I am the dealer of this Idle Hamster."

"Sufficiently pretty little ones will sell quickly, of course. And defective inventory that goes unsold after a certain time must, by rights, be disposed of."

"All that matters is that it sells. Don't concern yourself with the little ones who are abandoned after they're sold. The more little ones you sell, the larger your Fragment of Life grows."

If it came to it, she could abandon the Obedience stat entirely and simply manage Hunger and Prettiness well.

"... ...So what does the Prettiness stat have to be for it to sell? And how low do I have to keep the Hunger stat?"

"That depends on the tastes of our prospective buyers. Statistically speaking, however, it is advantageous to exceed 5. That depends on the little one's temperament. Statistically speaking, however, it is advantageous not to exceed 5."

The hamster card he'd placed in the cage as a demonstration looked, right now, perfectly ripe for selling. Its Prettiness exceeded 5, and its Hunger had not yet crossed that line.

"But then aren't the hamsters sold early on mostly at a disadvantage?" Hwang Juyeon pointed out. A hamster denied the chance to be fed, groomed, and tamed wouldn't sell for anything like its full worth, would it?

The host-dealer tilted his head to one side. "I don't quite understand. If you'd rather not sell a little one that isn't ready, then all you need do is win the Bargain."

"Idle Hamster does not end until every little one in the Stable has been put up on the Market. Though whether those little ones sell well or not is anyone's guess."

Of course, at lottery odds, the thing humans trapped in an invasive labyrinth had least of all was luck.

"Now then — let us begin Idle Hamster. Straight into the first Bargain, shall we?"

The host set two shared cards beside the cage and dealt out three cards to each player.

"Ms. Hwang Juyeon, please choose a little one from the Stable and place it in the Cage."

"I'll go with this one, as is."

Having checked her hand, Hwang Juyeon placed the very card used in the rules demonstration into the white border of the cage without much deliberation. A sensibly good choice. A hamster that was fine to sell now, and fine if it didn't sell, either.

"Shall we see the result of the Bargain?"

With no exchanges or betting rounds, every card was revealed the moment the deal was made and the hamster card placed in the cage.

"Ms. Hwang Juyeon, a pair of threes. Dealer, nine high."

Hwang Juyeon held ♥3 and ♣3 — one pair. It was no strong hand, but it beat the dealer's high card, which hadn't managed even a pair.

"Ms. Hwang Juyeon has won the Bargain."

It felt no different from each side rolling a die and comparing numbers, but between dice and cards there was one crucial difference. No matter how many times you rolled a die, you could never predict what number would come next. Cards, however, could be predicted. A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠deck of trump cards held fifty-two. Early on, prediction was impossible — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but as the game wore on, you could reckon what cards remained and what hands could still be built from them. Even the opponent's hand.

"What action will you take upon 845?"

"Feeding."

This was how you controlled which hamsters had to sell now and which ones needed their stats managed instead. If a hand looked unwinnable, you put a ready-to-sell hamster card in the cage; if it looked winnable, you put in one that still needed raising. The question was simply whether Hwang Juyeon could count cards or not. ... ...I'd say she could, to a degree. If it was Hwang Juyeon. Not with perfect precision, perhaps — but as far as I remembered, she had once played a life-or-death game of poker against Do-ssi, and had kept at it for quite a long while.

"845 seems quite full now."

The hamster card's Hunger stat had changed. Of course, no one here was naive enough anymore to be startled by numbers changing on their own atop a card.

"But that thing... ... I bet the numbers change again as time goes on... ..." Lee Jinsu murmured, half to himself, and Lee Nahyeon turned her head.

"Huh? What changes?"

"Oh. Ah... ... well, the, the Hunger stat climbing, or the Prettiness stat dropping — I figure they'd drift up and down like that... ..."

"How very plausible."

After all, a starving hamster in the Stable would soon set the tragedy of cannibalism in motion among its own kind.