Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Devil's Gamble - Rules (2)
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Familiarly, but slowly.
I turned once in place.
Survival Rule 1.
First, grasp the environment.
No particular dangers were visible.
No anomalies.
Was it a casino, or should it be called a massive theater?
What spread out before my eyes was a vast space.
Countless people sat at tables lined up on all sides.
The emotions they exuded shook the air like shouts.
This space was stacked in four layers.
The center was hollowed out in a circle, structured like a circular arena where one could look down at the middle.
If I lifted my gaze upward, stairs climbed along the pillars connecting each floor, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors had the exact same layout as the 1st floor where I stood.
Between the pillars, dazzling lights blinked periodically, dyeing the space like stage spotlights.
Whether gazing down from above or up from below, all lines of sight converged on the central "stage."
And at its heart—
There stood the massive roulette wheel I'd seen upon first entering.
A splendidly spinning reel scattered sparkles across the entire space.
Inside it, a single silver ball bounced and darted about.
My gaze was momentarily stolen by that ball, but I soon pulled it away and scanned the surroundings.
1st floor.
The floor where I currently stood.
Punching machines and card tables.
And between them.
Bartenders carrying trays of food and drinks, and women in bunny girl outfits bustled about, attending to the guests.
‘...This is supposed to be an anomaly?’
It felt a bit different from the anomalies I'd experienced so far.
Anomalies had a certain vibe to them.
The twisted sensation that hit you the moment you saw it, instinctively telling you you'd entered another world.
But this place was different.
On the surface, it just seemed like I'd stepped into the middle of a flashy casino.
For now, it was too early to judge hastily.
I'd only done a light turn in place.
In this space, there were no doors that looked like exits.
Not even a single ordinary window.
All that was there.
Was an endlessly vast area, countless people, and never-ending gaming machines.
I tuned my ears to the surrounding sounds.
Conversations that seemed normal, yet subtly warped.
"Fuck...!! A whole thousand dollars! I bet it all on this round!! Please, please, please!!"
"I even put up my dad's car as collateral!! Winning this will end it all!!"
Their voices were desperate, their expressions bordering on madness.
They were far too lifelike to pass as dolls created by an anomaly.
It looked like I needed to gather more information.
My gaze shifted to the bottom right.
The chat window was already buzzing with lively conversation.
Not particularly relevant to me.
[Sky Emperor]: ...132nd run success. 3 seconds lost.
[Crazy Woman]: 74th run success. 13 seconds lost. Quite the haul, huh? A real bumper crop? You fucking bastards?
ㄴ[Flounder]: But it was still a success, right?
ㄴ[Crazy Woman]: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ[Crazy Woman]: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I'll kill you. Yeah, I'm gonna kill you. That's what I've decided. Yup! I'll slaughter you the moment I see you.
ㄴ[Flounder]: ...Over something this minor. You're joking, right?
ㄴ[Crazy Woman]: Does it look like I'm joking?
Runs.
Seconds lost, and such.
Hard to make sense of it.
Were they regressing like me?
Then, a familiar ID caught my eye.
[Serious Junkie]: ...13th run success.
[Sky Emperor]: Fuck. Aren't you gonna handle that bait post, mod?
[Crazy Woman]: I'm going insaneI'm going insaneI'm going insaneI'm going insaneI'm going insane
[Serious Junkie]: What the hell.. Why? How are bait posts popping up like this in such a short time? I underestimated you anomaly gallery freaks. You vicious bastards!
The surroundings were noisy with all sorts of sounds.
Cheers, laughter, curses, machine noises.
I cautiously tried making a sound.
"...Ah."
For some reason, it felt like unlike previous anomalies, talking or speaking out loud here would be fine.
My small mutter was quickly swallowed by the din.
But that was okay.
What I'd wanted to confirm in the first place was whether it was safe to make noise.
"Does anyone know where the rulebook is?"
Soon, the chat window erupted in response to my question.
[Sky Emperor]: In our world's timeline, it's usually on top of the roulette wheel.
[Crazy Woman]: What? On the roulette? Don't you usually just scatter them on the floor?
ㄴ [Cream Bun]: Yeah, our space is so huge we just scatter hundreds on the ground.
[Mink Jelly]: Ours was on the lucky machine. They're all so different;;
Roulette. Machine. Scattered on the floor.
I organized the clues flowing from the chat window in my mind.
Nothing else came up, so to find the rulebook, I slowly wandered through the casino hall.
Peering between tables, in the gaps of machines, even under people's feet.
One thing kept entering my view as I did.
Overhead.
Banners placed at 5-meter intervals amid the ceiling's golden decorations.
[Golden Coin]
This could be a clue too.
I committed it to memory.
After wandering for about five minutes or so.
At the edge of my vision.
Amid the people's feet, I spotted a single sheet of paper on the floor.
I slowly bent down and picked it up.
It looked no different from that cheap flyer I'd seen when entering.
Thinking I'd grabbed the wrong one, I shook my wrist to toss it away.
That's when the casino's cheers, curses, machine noises.
All sounds evaporated in an instant.
And the writing on the paper I held began to slowly change in my hand.
Like ink spreading, black letters were etched one by one onto the flyer.
[Devil's Gamble - Rulebook]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
You are currently in sector 777-KQJ-19.
You have entered the 'Devil's Gamble' anomaly.
This document is not a low-quality joke or prank.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
***
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Omitted]
This space is not a mere amusement hall. The 'games' conducted here demand your time and existence as payment.
The cheap flyer you held in your hand before entering this space was the invitation to this ritual.
Now, you are the invited.
Upon entry, familiarize yourself with the rules.
Pay the entry fee.
The chips here are not currency, but your time and life.
You are not permitted to leave the casino arbitrarily before paying the appropriate price.
The rules listed below are the minimum guidelines for survival in this place.
Violating them may result in mental contamination, physical harm, or erasure, for which the Anomaly Management Bureau bears no responsibility.
This guide is valid only within the casino hall.
Attempts to transmit, copy, or remove it externally will be automatically nullified, and the document will be immediately purged.
View the rulebook only within the casino hall.
[Devil's Gamble – Rules]
Rule 1. Invitation
1-1. The moment you grasp the yellow flyer while craving money, the invitation is already established.
1-2. There is no option to refuse the invitation.
ㄴ The act of picking up the paper itself is judged as 'intent to participate.'
Rule 2. Game
2-1. Sitting down at any game immediately starts it.
ㄴ If the dealer says "Place your bets," you must put out chips. Size and number do not matter.
2-2. If you hesitate or refuse—
Rule 3. Chips and Coins
3-1. Chips can be obtained from the pawn shop, and what you can pawn is your 'lifespan.'
ㄴ Chip settlements are processed when all chips are depleted or when you leave the gaming area.
3-2. The moment your chips reach 0, you become subservient to the casino.
Rule 4. ———
Rule 5. ———
Rule 6. ———
Rule 00. Escape
0-1. Exit is permitted only to those who have 'settled' completely.
ㄴ Once the entry fee is fully paid, you may leave at any time.
ㄴ At that moment, a second choice is given: continue the game or stop.
0-2. If you decide to leave, never look back.
ㄴ The moment you do, the casino classifies you as a 'customer with lingering regrets' and immediately resummons you.
Safe Zone: Everywhere (until you start a game.)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Just like last time, the rulebook had gaps here and there.
If it were complete.
It would be managed through nullification, so that was to be expected.
My hand flipping the paper paused.
I'd found a difference from the previous anomaly's rulebook.
The emblem.
Unlike before, there wasn't just one emblem.
My finger traced the paper.
The Anomaly Management Bureau's mark.
And next to it, an unfamiliar emblem was stamped.
‘Not just the Management Bureau... Another organization?’
Unclear.
For now, I decided to focus on the given information.
The rulebook stated clearly.
Once I paid what was called the entry fee, I could leave this space anytime.
What I needed to do now.
Was head to the pawn shop first to exchange for chips and buy the entry fee.
"Let's go to the pawn shop first."
That's when my gaze caught a banner hanging above the hall, amid the golden decorations.
[Golden Coin for dollars, euros, won, yen.]
[We exchange for anything.]
I'd brushed it off without much thought, but then my mind stopped.
I'm not good at gambling.
In fact, I'd never done it once in my life.
But I had.
An ability that meant I didn't need to fear failure.
Collect coins to leave?
And I could even exchange coins for money?
'No way I'm not—'
I immediately raised my left hand and slapped my face hard.
My hazy mind cleared.
To think I'd even considered exploiting the anomaly for a moment.
Just now, my heart had raced, greed nearly overwhelming me.
"I'm crazy."
The surrounding golden scenery now looked entirely different.