<280 - A Fair Duel>
The lower class students weren’t very close to Oknodie, but they were quite moved to have the chance to build a friendship on the cruise ship.
“Wow, look! There’s a virtual shooting range!”
“Bowling is fun~!”
“Crew member, can I have another egg tarot?”
Unlike the defenseless students playing around, the guard members from the Warrior’s Guard were watching from a distance with a mix of dissatisfaction and envy.
“Are we really just going to watch like this?”
“We came out for some fun…”
“Even if Oknodie and the foundation seem suspicious, is it really necessary to be this vigilant?”
We want to have fun too!
Saintess Yufi tried to soothe the complaining guards.
“Cruise trips don’t just end in one day. Let’s at least spend today together, okay?”
Unlike Ishtar, who had a reputation for having skills but a terrible personality, Yufi had a good image.
Though her true nature wasn’t much different from Ishtar’s, Ishtar stood out and received a lot of criticism, making Yufi’s friendly demeanor and title as a saintess cloud people’s judgment.
Thanks to this, the guards reluctantly followed Yufi’s persuasion and gave up the luxurious services and rooms on the cruise ship, gathering together in the third-class cabin.
“We’re practically enemies of the foundation. Even if we get ambushed at night, don’t leave this room with the magic circle set up to resist status effects.”
Yufi’s precautions were somewhat rational, and the guards spent the night in the third-class cabin.
They lay on a bare floor with only a mat to sleep on, relying on a single blanket.
The sleeping conditions were even more cramped than the four-person rooms in the academy.
“Ugh, my shoulders feel stiff.”
“I couldn’t sleep well.”
“In the end, there wasn’t a sudden attack.”
Half relieved to have made it through the night and half complaining about the uncomfortable sleeping arrangement, the guards trudged to the cafeteria and felt something was off.
The students in the cafeteria were far fewer than expected.
“Why is that guy trembling so much?”
In a corner of the cafeteria, a male student sat alone, spaced out and shaking.
With every scoop of rice, more than half the grains fell from his trembling hand, resembling a conscript who had been dragged to the battlefield and survived alone.
“Hey, classmate. You look unwell. Are you okay?”
“Eek!!”
“Calm down! I don’t plan to harm you. I’m a warrior.”
“I don’t like it anymore! I’m scared of the foundation and scared of warriors!”
“…Yufi.”
“Ugh. The calming spell shouldn’t be used when one’s affected, but there’s no help for it.”
The calming magic temporarily erased emotions from the male student’s body.
His once incessantly shaking spoon immediately stopped trembling.
“Warrior. I’ll tell you, but you have to protect me too.”
“If it’s valuable information.”
“We were four new members who joined the Paper Dungeon Expedition Team following Oknodie. We were excited to be invited and had fun all day long, but I started feeling sick due to seasickness, so I just watched. Suddenly, an announcement came on.”
“…An announcement?”
“It called out the name of one of us exactly, and they were taken away by the crew. And they didn’t come back after a long time.”
A chill ran through everyone.
Not just Ishtar but all the guards became tense and started listening carefully, their breaths barely audible.
“When one of my friends asked the crew why, they heard it was because their boarding points went negative, and they were taken to pay off their debt. After that, the announcement played again and that guy was taken away too, apparently because of that question.”
“Boarding points… Is it that number on the boarding ticket?”
“I think so. Every facility here has a usage fee. Entertainment, relaxation, accommodation, all of it.”
“They’ve fallen into the foundation’s trap.”
“To survive on this ship, we either have to live frugally or earn boarding points.”
“How can we earn points?”
“I heard we can work part-time, helping the crew.”
The guards asked from behind.
“Then, are there students helping in the kitchen too?”
“No way.”
Feeling weirdly uneasy despite trying to laugh it off.
A curious student, unable to resist, peeked into the kitchen and made eye contact with a student in a red apron doing the dishes.
The student held up a rubber glove covered in bubbles and said,
“Don’t eat rare food… One bite will ruin you, and you’ll end up washing dishes until you get off the ship…”
The guards’ appetites plummeted, and they were relieved they had brought the black bread they had saved up at the academy.
“What should we do now, Warrior?”
“We’ll trust you and the Saintess.”
The elven archer Skola glared from the side and added, “And the archer too.”
“Let’s find a way to earn boarding points. The foundation has imitated the academy’s property system with points. They’re not real points, but that makes them easier to earn.”
They say you see what you know.
As they began gathering intel, they observed students who were blissfully unaware of the point system, struggling for points, some already bankrupt and working, and others like them busily collecting points.
“You, you, and you. You three come with me.”
The three guard members chosen by Skola followed him without objection.
Skola was an archer.
The advantage of archers is their broad vision and excellent observation skills.
In fact, some archers can even take on the role of thieves, making them quite valuable.
Moreover, Skola was a disciple of a legendary archer, having been taught archery by a skilled person.
Compared to the powerful but socially challenged warrior, or the saintess who is kind but her observation skills are uncertain, Skola was much more reliable.
“If your points drop below zero, you’ll face forced conscription, so while the value of points received decreases, if you have more than zero, you receive ten times the reward for the same task.”
“They say you can receive a boarding point by completing requests from passengers. The more difficult the request, the higher the reward. That’s tempting. Remember the names, faces, and requests.”
“In this arcade, if you score the top score in any game, you’ll receive all the points you spent on that game. So those confident should give it a shot.”
After a busy morning of running around the boat gathering information, Skola brought back a surprising amount of intel that made all the guards’ jaws drop.
“There are three options: go bankrupt and end up in forced labor, fulfill valuable requests, or challenge the tasks available in the facilities.”
Though there were small groups with more members than the guards, none had gathered as much information as they had.
At the very least, all members of the Warrior’s Guard felt assured and smiles began to bloom.
Oknodie might have invited them intending to trap them, but sadly for him, it felt like they would be the only ones getting off the ship safely.
“Do you think Oknodie knows?”
“Of course. Look, he’s finishing his third bowl of rare food.”
The warrior pointed to Oknodie, who was on his third bowl of rare food in one corner of the cafeteria.
In the kitchen, someone’s frustrated mumbling was unavoidably leaking out: “Why hasn’t he gone bankrupt…? Why…?”
To the warrior’s eyes, that sight didn’t look good either.
So they approached.
“Hello, Ishtar!”
“It’s unfair. You have infinite points.”
“Yup?”
“I heard how high the prices of rare food were from someone who went bankrupt earlier. If you can eat so much and not go bankrupt, you must not be affected by the boarding points.”
Oknodie chuckled lightly.
He seemed to be teasing, but before they could get angry, he pulled out his boarding ticket.
“Look!”
[Oknodie, No.0397759]
While others struggled to stay above 100,000 points, Oknodie alone had racked up almost 400,000 boarding points.
But it felt ambiguous to think he was cheating with infinite points, leading to disbelief.
“Did you collect them?”
“Of course!”
“…I guess that was a pointless question. Let me change my question.”
The warrior glared at Oknodie.
“Did you bring your friends knowing this would happen?”
“You were invited as my friend too, weren’t you?”
“Why would I be your friend?”
“Friends grow by fighting together!”
“…”
Is this kid for real?
Haven’t they fought fiercely till now?
I still don’t get his intentions.
A suspicious, uncomfortable, and in a way, scary kid.
“We’re not falling for this. Only your foolish companions will lose their boarding points and blame you. We won’t be forced to become foundation scholarship students.”
They confidently declared, but couldn’t shake off their uncertainties.
If he hadn’t aimed for it, it meant that Oknodie had earned points under the same conditions they had.
Where the heck did he get all those points to eat so much rare food?
“Chef!”
“Did you call, Miss?”
“Thanks for the meal!”
As the chef smiled, feeling good, he took off his hat and reached for a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his forehead just as Oknodie’s hand moved like lightning to yank the chef’s hair.
“!?”
To be precise, Oknodie snatched off the ‘wig’ and promptly placed it back on.
The chef, confused by the strange feeling, had no idea that Oknodie’s hand already held up a point card marked with [+100,000].
So that’s why he has an abundance of points.
The warrior Ishtar found herself nodding in understanding.
