The arena looked as though a medieval colosseum had been picked up and set down here as is, and it was packed with grotesque shapes. The match seemed about to start; they were all holding placards and placing bets.
[You may join the betting as well, Beginner Investor No. 3029.]
"No. I'll just watch today."
When I flatly turned down Darkness, who was laughing eerily, he lowered the corners of his eyes as if disappointed.
[Still, Expert Investor No. 2011 is taking part today, so there should be something worth watching.]
Darkness pointed at a woman with long straight hair as he spoke, and my eyes gleamed quietly. A number in the 2000s meant she had been here longer than the old woman, at the very least, so it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on her.
[Everyone, I am Falsehood, the Colosseum's Manager of Wailing.]
As Falsehood, a giant snake with several heads, made his announcement over the microphone, thunderous applause poured down. Every one of Falsehood's heads wore a smiling mask, and he pointed at a spinning wheel.
[Today it's a Random Draw! What will come up?!]
The wheel spun, and the needle stopped on Hide-and-Seek. I didn't know what that meant, but beside me, Darkness was clapping as though thrilled. Whatever it was, it couldn't mean anything good.
[Ah. Hide-and-Seek has come up for the first time in a while. Now then, we will choose the seeker at random.]
At the words "choose the seeker," the straight-haired woman rushed at Falsehood and slid up against him, pressing her body to his. One other participant did the same. Then random lights began sweeping back and forth, and the seeker was chosen.
[Today's seeker is a new participant. Beginner Investor No. 5007!]
When I looked at the man caught in the spotlight, it was the man I had seen in the reception room earlier. The one who had scowled at me. To take part in the Colosseum from the very start, without any information, he must have some nerve.
[Now then, we will blindfold the seeker!]
At the same moment, several spiders came out of the floor and crawled up the man's body.
"Agh! What is this?! Get away! Kuaaaagh!!"
The spiders that had crawled up No. 5007's body sewed his eyes shut, winding the thread round and round. Blood flowed from his eyes, and the man writhed in pain.
[After all, there can be no cheating in Hide-and-Seek!]
Only then did I understand why the straight-haired woman and the other participant had clung to Falsehood.
Since Falsehood was a manager and couldn't be the seeker, hiding beneath his giant body made it far less likely they would be caught in the spotlight. They had acted strategically to keep their eyes from being sewn shut.
'I'd better keep an eye on them.'
It meant they at least knew the rules of every game in the Colosseum, where the game was decided at random each time, so I had to watch for a chance and make some contact with them.
[The time limit is 30 minutes! Avoid being caught by the seeker until then, and you earn points. If you're caught, all your points go to the seeker! Ready~ Start!]
The time appeared on the clock in the center, but this game was the seeker's loss no matter how you looked at it. No. 5007 was still slumped on the floor clutching his eyes, unable to pull himself together. While Darkness was focused on the game, I secretly took out the notebook and looked for the entries on the Colosseum.
Colosseum.
1. Games are held at random each time, with difficulty ranging from B to F.
2. Difficulties above B are said to appear too, but very rarely.
(Because everyone dies, and the bets cannot be settled.)
3. The points that can be earned differ by difficulty, and points can be collected to raise one's grade.
4. Weapons and items are permitted.
5. There is no standard whatsoever for cheating, so one must always take part with one's life on the line.
The basic rule was simple: find a person within 30 minutes and touch them. After the game, the eyes could be restored by spending points. Looking at the notebook, I saw that the old woman had written down her own tips for using items to gain the upper hand in the game.
An item called the Ghost's Eye, and an Invisibility Cloak. The red star marks suggested they were special items, hard to come by, that only the old woman had. With these, even if I joined the same game later, I could clear it easily.
'Idiot.'
He had only just become a Beginner Investor and had no points yet, so chances were good those eyes couldn't be restored. Before that, it was anyone's guess whether he would even make it out of the market today.
The game ended in an instant. The four participants who had simply stood still earned points automatically.
The points awarded were 10.
"So this is an F-difficulty game...."
The notes said B and F rarely came up. That meant they appeared now and then to keep things balanced. Even if you were lucky enough to land the lowest difficulty, without information you could end up like that man.
Gulp.
Even if a game that wasn't in the notebook came up here, I had to survive. The anxious thought made me swallow dryly.
[Huh? I smell something tasty on this human?]
When I whipped my head around, the man from the reception room who had paid with his memories was standing there, trembling, his face gone deathly pale. The reason I kept seeing so many oddly familiar faces today was probably that there were only so many places a beginner would go.
[Human. Won't you give me the terror, the fear, you're feeling right now?]
"Pardon?"
[I've just got the munchies. Let's trade it for 3 points.]
I strained every nerve toward the conversation between the man and the grotesque thing, nothing but teeth floating huge in the air. Come to think of it, one of the ways Darkness had mentioned for raising one's grade was fulfilling their requests. So points could be earned this way, too.
'Hurry up and say you'll give it to him. It's a chance to get a whole 3 points.'
The man hesitated to answer, and, frustrated, I walked over to him.
"Wouldn't it be better if that went away? Do you need to advertise to everyone here that you're a chicken?"
The trade between the man and the Tooth Ghost went through. Afterward, the Tooth Ghost sniffed at me, saying I seemed to smell similar. But soon, after seeing my dark circles and my naturally bloodless face, it lost interest, saying I looked like I would taste bad.
'Tch. That was a chance to earn points.'
Here, it seemed, the flavor of the emotions each person carried was judged differently. As I stared regretfully in the direction the ghost had vanished, Darkness came over.
[You will be receiving requests soon too, Investor No. 3029.]
"Does this kind of thing happen often?"
[Everyone's tastes differ, so not often, but the scent of despair coming off you, Investor, is quite high-end, so there will be good news before long.]
Despair.
A hollow laugh escaped me at the word. The wounds left in me now were too deep. The depth of the despair and loneliness felt deep inside, something only those who have climbed high and then fallen can experience, is beyond anyone else's reckoning.
"Thank you for helping me. It's my first time here...."
While I was lost in my thoughts, the man who had traded with the Tooth Ghost came over and bowed his head in greeting. Then he glanced me up and down and hesitantly opened his mouth.
"You seem like you've been here a long time. I guess you use the reception room for personal matters and such."
"That's private."
It looked like he had pegged me as a market veteran and was carefully watching my face, hoping for information. I didn't see any need to go out of my way to tell him the truth, so I let the misunderstanding stand and walked beside him.
"I'm Cha...."
"No. 3029. I don't think there's any reason to reveal our real names here."
"Haha. Right. I'm No. 5005."
Even without a wish, in South Korea someone could easily find me outside the market with just a name. This was a place where having your personal details exposed put you at a disadvantage, so I didn't reveal mine.
"By the way, what are you going to use them on?"
"Pardon?"
"Your points, I mean."
I understood the structure, where you had to collect points to raise your grade. But funds for trading and points were separate concepts.
"Ah... I haven't thought about that yet."
"Give me 1 point, and I'll tell you how best to use them."
No. 5005 thought it over, then nodded, and the trade went through. Just as the notebook said, 1 point moved to me through the key.
DING—
I checked the transferred point.
"If you've no intention of taking part in the Colosseum, convert your points into funds for now."
If you weren't in a hurry to raise your grade, converting points into the currency here was the effective way to go. After all, you could trade for wishes without risk, up to however much you had converted into funds. After giving No. 5005 the hint, I quickly left and moved to a place where I could be alone and quiet.
[Convert 1 point into funds?]
I pressed the button, partly to check how much 1 point was worth.
[Converted into 100 credits.]
Right away, I spat out my next words.
"Convert the pain of 5 of my toenails into funds."
A burning pain shot through my right foot. It was the second time I had been through it, but it was pain I could never get used to.
[The pain has been converted into 500 credits.]
I let go of my right foot, which I had been clutching, and wiped the sweat running down my forehead. Too little was converted into funds compared to the pain. It was a system where converting points was the better deal.
'In the end, joining the Colosseum is a must.'
Of course it was. If there were a safe way, those veterans wouldn't have bothered taking part in the Colosseum. In the market, where funds meant power, having no money was a serious matter that could cost you your life.
"Then now convert 100 credits into real-world money."
[No. 3029, this is an E-Grade wish and costs 100 credits. Proceed?]
"......."
Taking the market's funds outside counted as a wish too. Then I would be spending 200 credits in total, and I couldn't tell whether that was a fair trade. But I needed to know what 100 credits here amounted to in the real world.
"Proceed."
[100 credits have been converted into cash and delivered to Beginner Investor No. 3029.]
Even though the message appeared, no cash showed up in front of me. Where and how it had been delivered, I couldn't know until I left the market, and how much it had been converted into was a mystery too.
'Now I've got 400 credits left....'
At that moment, a message window popped up in the air.
[E-Grade wish trade complete. 1 point has been awarded.]
I had 1 point again.
When I checked the notebook for the most effective way to use points, the explanation of investor grades I had skimmed past earlier caught my eye.
Beginner Investor
Promising Investor: Required points 100
Experienced Investor: Required points 500
Expert Investor: Required points 1000
Mogul Investor: Required points 5000
The Ghost Story Market's grades were divided into 5 tiers: Beginner, Promising, Experienced, Expert, and Mogul. And the points needed to go from Beginner Investor to Promising Investor were 100.
From Promising Investor on, rising to the next grade cost a good deal of points.
Trading like this, I would likely stay a Promising Investor for life. I urgently needed a plan.
When your grade went up, your wish grade went up with it. You could make wishes of higher quality.
[Don't you want revenge?]
"What?"
At the unfamiliar voice in my ear, I looked around, but no one was there. Had I heard wrong? The word "revenge," which might have been a hallucination, oddly kept lodging in my mind and echoing in my chest. Soon my head cleared, and my heart churned at the thought of going back to reality and using the information in the notebook. I would find a way to get my revenge faster than anyone.