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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 268: With Enough Money and Time, One Can Take Advantage of Most Events In Life Part 2
「That’s right, about that! You see, when we mentioned that problem, our dear Sanraku-kun said “Just leave the last person to me!”. He looked pretty confident, so we basically decided to let him handle that without asking any further questions.」
「My vote is on the fact that he is going to change his gender and will try to pretend he is someone else.」
「That would certainly be interesting. Not to mention that it would probably made all lewd artists and message boards go literal ape shit.」
Sulk…… Aside from Katsu, whose eyes literally looked dead and unfocused, everyone else were casting me doubtful glances. But even if I tried to do something like that, what’s wrong with that!? It’s called creativity!
「Now then, onto the next point: are there any rules to this team duel or not?」
「……? It should be that both teams select five members to participate and then those teams go at each other’s throats, right?」
「That is a correct answer, Kyo-Timate. Katsu, as punishment, please go and stand in the hallway until you understand what you did wrong.」
「Don’t you think that’s a little bit too unreasonable?」
It’s a joke, man. You should just laugh it off and be done with it.
And that’s right. The rules of this duel are pretty minimalistic, amounting only to a five one on
one duels between the members of the two guilds. And since only the members of each
respective guild were eligible to participate, Kyo-Timate had no other choice but to officially
join the ranks of “Wolfgang”.
「Alright then, the second question…… What about retiring from the battle? Is it a thing or
not?」
That was actually a clever question. And could it be that Pencilgton was the only one who
noticed that? Katsu and Kyo-Timate did not? Was that the reason for their attitude just now?
She then looks at me with a funny smile on her lips.
「Eh? Seriously?」
「Yeah, seriously. Really seriously.」
「What do you mean?」
Pencilgton casts another glance at me. Normally I would be overjoyed to have been able to
make other people for fools, but now was not the time for that. So I offer a quick and simple
explanation.
「Well, this is really simple, you know? When you are at the disadvantage of four versus
five, what do you think is the quickest way to turn the situation around?」
Just then, on the other side of the arena we could see how Rei handed something to Saiga-
100. It was the exact amount of money she needed to be relieved of her role in “Black
Wolves” and so that she could transfer somewhere else.
Ri…… what was that duchebag’s name again? Whatever, what’s important here is that he
opens his mouth wide, probably speechless and unable to believe what he just witnessed.
Then Rei, now a free player that could do whatever she felt like doing, casually came to our
side.
「Umm, this is…… Arthur Pencilgton, -san……?」
「Sure, sure! Now, what is it that you want to ask about?」
「Umm…… I was hoping that you would…… let me join your guild…… your
“Wolfgang”……」
「Okay, fine with me! Welcome, welcome! It’s a pleasure to have you here!」
How do you turn around the situation where you are at disadvantage four versus five? It’s
easy and simple: you just have to convert someone from the other side onto yours, turning a
four versus five match into a five versus four match.
Please try to remember, Black Wolves. “As soon as Saiga-0 manages to pay off the amount
of money that was spent on raising her to the level she is today, plus the amount of money
for the expendable magic scrolls she had consumed, she is going to be relegated from the
guild “Black Wolves”.
Your precious leader said that herself.
With the amount of money that Rei had to pay off, it would not be possible to earn tens of
millions, or even hundreds of millions of mani in such short amount of time. At least…… not
through normal means, anyway……
However, there are groups and individuals who are holding a large amounts of money in this
game, some of them even, and some of them even exceeding the amount that Rei had to
pay off. People or groups officially recognized by the game’s system.
So I proposed to Rei that we draw a certain “contract”. This way, through official means Rei
was able to shift all of her debt over to the “Wolfgang” guild. I was fine with that solution,
because for now I had money to spare, but since Rei was such a lawful person, she was
adamant on repaying that debt to me in full. But thanks to that maneuver, she was able to
leave the “Black Wolves” and come to the side of “Wolfgang” at just the right time. This
would also mean that “Black Wolves” just lost one of their most reliable fighters for this duel.
「Incidentally, my dear Sanraku-kun? How much money do you have in your wallet right
now?」
「Forget about it. I’m not paying your debt off. Not in a million years.」
「Doesn’t that mean that you have small fortune on you right now……!? Considering Zero-
chan’s debt and that attitude of yours…… Don’t tell me!? You have way over one hundered
million mani!?」
Getting a rough estimate on someone’s bank account just from a few information is really
scary, you know? Please stop doing that.
Pencilgton still has a lots of debts to pay off as a result of her criminal past, but from what I
heard, she is managing to pay it off just fine through some grinding and shady business
transactions. Looking at her made me feel thankful that I am not irresponsible with my own
money, because of which this whole situation right now was possible in the first place.
「Come on now! Don’t you feel like lending you dependable Older Sister a hand from time to
time?」
「Katsu, if you were a billionare, would you be willing to pay off Pencilgton’s debt? Just for
the reference’s sake.」
「Not a chance. You were the one who drove yourself into debt, then you will be one to
make your way out. Even if you need to starve.」
「Hot damn…… Won’t you look at that? Took the words right out of my mouth! Can’t really
argue with something like that, right?」
We were riding on the same wavelength here, so it was actually pretty amusing to see our
dear Pencilgton agonizing over how cold and uncaring towards her both of us were.
I think that if this is what friendship amounts to these days, then Humanity should be
bleached clean right this instant……
「Cough, cough…… Oh well, it’s not like I need to ask anyone for help, my money
laundering and negotiations have me covered. By the way…… Good job on getting Zero-
chan on our side, Sanraku-kun.」
「Sure thing.」
「Sorry to say this, but I don’t feel like doing five versus four right about now. How about we
force them into four versus four instead?」
Technically, if we were to go five versus four right about now, the other side would not take
kindly to it and might try to act unreasonable. But do we honestly should care about that at
this point?
She must be plotting something…… I am sure she is…… Oh well, I am going to leave that
alone for now.
「Now then, it seems we have no other choice but to get rid of this one for good. As such, I
shall now proceed to explain our strategy.」
At that moment Pencilgton smiled in a way that would surely put her fellow models to shame,
and said to Katsu in a cheerful voice.
「Katsu-kun, why don’t you show them the reason why you don’t want to fuck with the
Tactical War Beasts?」
「Alright.」
This meant more or less that “Black Wolves” were sentenced to death.