Liar, Liar - Volume 4 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The MTCG

I spent the morning before the May Interschool Competition’s fourth day in a meeting with the rest of Team Eimei.

“I’m joining MTCG to obtain that wild card we just talked about… That means you four will have to hold out in ASTRAL for the first half of the day. I’m not exactly happy about it, but Enomoto will be calling the shots for the time being.”

“That’s Mr. Enomoto to you. You really need to learn some manners, Shinohara.”

“Who cares about that? If you’re gone, Shino, does that mean I need to start listening to Shinji…? I guess I can deal with it…”

Enomoto grumbled about my lack of formality, while Asamiya kicked her legs and complained about him being in charge. Despite what she said, I don’t think Asamiya minded this arrangement too much. Hopefully, they’d both give today their best and really showcase their talents.

“Hee-hee-hee…”

Akizuki, meanwhile, sidled up to me after I finished giving my outline. She wore a cloying smile.

“Good luck, Hiroto!   And don’t worry. You’ve got Noa, Eimei’s ace, handling things in ASTRAL!  ”

“I see. Yes, perhaps having my master participate in MTCG isn’t so bad, since it will keep Ms. Akizuki away from him.”

“Hey! Quit bein’ so mean! Oh, but a long-distance relationship might be nice, too…  ”

“You certainly know how to put a positive spin on things.”

Himeji and Akizuki kept up their usual friendly banter. It helped keep the mood light. Now that we’d gone over everything we needed, Enomoto straightened up in his seat, which was across from mine.

“Okay, we’ll be holding down the fort while Shinohara is gone. As a Six Star and president of Eimei School’s student council, I will take command of this team and keep our battle line firm. Shinohara, you are safe to focus entirely on MTCG. In fact, if you waste too much time, we might beat the Chameleon by ourselves.”

A joke from Enomoto was a true rarity.

It was now nine in the morning. The meeting had ended a little while ago.

“Oh, it’s pretty close…”

After loading the map data I received from Libra, I had my voice assistant (actually, it was Kagaya) lead me to the MTCG site.

MTCG was the May Interschool Competition’s open Game. It was being held in Central Garden, an event hall in the middle of Ward Zero. It was a roughly ten-minute walk from the hotel and pretty big, capable of holding five thousand people.

Once inside the main-floor arena, I checked in at the front desk and saw that there were still nearly a thousand high school students gathered, despite this being the fourth day. The hall was large enough that things didn’t feel cramped, but the sheer size of this event floored me.

The arena itself was just a large empty space, nothing too noteworthy about it. There were screens on the outer edges showing live footage from ASTRAL, and nearby booths sold drinks, snacks, and so on. A “battle stage” stood in the center of the area, clearly delineated from the rest of the arena.

“…?”

A question surfaced in my mind.

“Meow! Let me explain!”

Something flashed, and then a calico cat appeared out of nowhere. And it had Kazami’s voice.

Yes, this was my familiar, one of the more unusual elements of MTCG. It was just an AR projection, nothing tangible, but its vision and hearing were linked to Suzuran Kazami, who was working behind the scenes, which allowed her to be with me in the arena without anyone knowing.

The cat jumped up on my shoulder and let out a few cute meows.

“That spot in the center is reserved for the final battle. It’s only for when someone challenges Tsumugi. Other than that, it’s basically empty space!”

Shiina sure loves to stand out…

I sighed a bit. She’d seemed like a painfully shy girl at first, but I guess bashfulness didn’t mean she couldn’t also be a massive show-off. Talking one-on-one with someone was different from addressing an adoring audience, after all.

I looked around while Kazami gave me her rundown. Evidently, my mere presence attracted attention. I guess my self-elimination yesterday was still fresh in everyone’s mind. I sensed a lot of eyes on me, some questioning, some wary, and some angry. An innumerable number of gazes pierced through me mercilessly.

My fingers traced across my device’s screen unconsciously while I was lost in thought. If I hoped to speedrun MTCG (as discussed yesterday), the most crucial element would be how well I could gather coins. To provide an extreme example, an infinite coin glitch would make it hardly require any time at all. Unfortunately, that was unrealistic. Teaming up with a few other players would let me take advantage of the trade system to speed things up, but I was bound to hit a wall with that tactic eventually.

Thus, I was going to tap into a little trick.

I thought I’d wait a bit before diving in…but I’m a magnet for attention either way, so maybe I ought to get things moving.

Before I started, I opened the MTCG app from my device’s main menu. It displayed my current stats.

Coins: 1000 / Quest Tier: 1 / Level: 3

Since I’d be taking the toughest quests, my first target level was six. After confirming that, I strolled forward, and that’s when it happened.

“Heh… Heh-heh… Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! What a hilarious sight!”

Hmm?

Someone near the front desk was calling to me. I saw a group of five or so people hanging out there, and their leader looked familiar. I’d faced him in ASTRAL the other day. He was Kanade Yuikawa, the Five Star from the Fifteenth Ward’s Ibara School. He brushed his hair back with a laugh, clearly enjoying every moment of this, and beamed at me from ear to ear.

“Hello there, Hiroto Shinohara! What’s it been—two days? Do you remember me? I’m Yuikawa from Ibara School, and I got kicked out of ASTRAL thanks to you!”

“Yeah. I mean, it wasn’t that long ago, so…”

“Oh, you do! Excellent. I couldn’t be happier. You’ve finally fallen down to my level, so I can finally crush you.”

Yuikawa let out a scornful laugh, as though it wasn’t already obvious he wanted to get a rise out of me.

“I know you’re the hot-blooded type, so I’m sure you’re after the wild card…but you’re too late. Far too late. You’ve come into MTCG so late… How are you ever going to beat the toughest route? Looks to me like you’ve got no plan.”

“…”

“Meanwhile, I came in here prepared. I set up a group to divert coins and cards to me as a safety net to secure a comeback if I was eliminated from ASTRAL. Thanks to them, I’m just about to tackle the fifth-tier quest. You’ll never catch up to me, Shinohara.”

He spread his arms wide, smiling as he hurled his words at me. His strategy was the most efficient way to tackle MTCG. Pooling resources with friends or schoolmates was best. It would lose efficacy as the Game went into the second half, but it was still a good tactic.

Yuikawa’s smile widened at my silence.

“Heh… Now that’s the face I like to see! You’re trying to keep all composed, but you’re probably panicking on the inside, right? Just being here to see that is a huge win for me!”

“…Were you always this obnoxious, or is it an act?”

“There’s no need to get so angry and insult me, you know. I’m just commenting on what I see. So, Shinohara, are you looking for a three card? Or maybe a four? If you’re in a rush, I could be convinced to trade with you. Of course, you’ll have to go a little above the normal rate…say, one hundred thousand coins.”

“…”

“Oh, but I’m sure you don’t have the resources for that yet, right? Hmm, that’s a problem… Okay, how about you get on your hands and knees? Do that where everybody can see you, and I’ll give it to you for free. Man, I’m too generous for my own good.”

He kept trying to rile me up, and his smile slowly started to resemble a mad grin. I had known I’d run into guys like him, since trading was all about players trying to win out over each other. Admittedly, calling myself the best on the Academy all day had made me a lot of enemies, so I couldn’t be too upset.

Maybe other Eimei students will lend me a hand…but they might not have the cards I need. Either way, I gotta start laying the groundwork.

I sighed a bit as I gauged the situation. Fully ignoring Yuikawa, I decided to leave and go ahead with my plan.

“…Hey.”

A girl stepped right into my path before I got far. She didn’t seem to care at all that Yuikawa was talking to me. She wore the Tsuyuri Girls’ Institute uniform, which I was pretty familiar with by now. If memory served, she was one of Hell’s Priestess’s teammates. She’d been with Kururugi until the end of yesterday’s battle.

She peered at me from behind her bangs.

“What number card do you want?” she asked.

“Huh? Four. I need a four.”

“All right. I’ll trade my four for your one, and…let’s say a hundred coins.”

“Whaaat?” Yuikawa reacted to the offer before I could. He stormed up to the girl, his voice lower than before.

“First you barge into our conversation, and now this? We were in the middle of something, you know. You sure you want to go through with that trade? If you help him, Ibara School will do everything possible to destroy you.”

“Is a hundred too much for you?”

“Hey! Don’t ignore me!” Yuikawa grabbed the girl by her shoulder, speaking more roughly now. She didn’t move a bit, her eyes still fixed on me. I was surprised at how collected she was.

“…I’d normally need three thousand, five hundred coins and about an hour of wait time to upgrade a one to a four. If you’ll let me skip that for a hundred coins, then great, but can I ask you why first?”

“Do you need to know?”

“Yeah. Kururugi got away from me, but I did take out half of your school’s team. It would make a lot more sense if you resented me as much as she does.”

“…”

The girl lowered her head, acting like I’d asked her a difficult question. When she looked back up, she had an eyebrow raised.

“You’re…trying to beat her, right? The Chameleon?”

Why does she know that…?

I gasped internally. My leaving ASTRAL and joining MTCG was a huge topic of conversation on ITube and STOC, but my goals were still unknown—and nobody had much information to go on. No one knew except for Libra and Team Eimei, yet this girl calmly laid it all out like it was common knowledge.

“It looked like you abandoned ASTRAL…but if you’re here in MTCG, looking for a wild card, I have to assume you have a plan to take on the Chameleon, right? I knew that much the moment I saw you here.”

“Oh yeah? Well, what is it, then?”

“That’s easy.” The girl stood firm against my attempt to skirt the topic. “Senri—my leader—went and joined the Chameleon for Tsuyuri Girls’ Institute. Senri’s always so strong, calm, and logical… She never makes mistakes. I’m sure she’s made the right choice this time, too. At least, I think she has. But there’s something weird about it. Knowing she was forced to join the Chameleon because we’re so weak is frustrating. We don’t need some fake second-place finish won by bowing our heads to someone else. We need to rise up. Tsuyuri needs us to.”

“…”

“I…want you to go back into ASTRAL. I want you to let Senri rest easy for a change. I…I don’t think anyone else deserves that wild card but you.”

Her heartfelt statement silenced me, Yuikawa, and everyone else nearby. Amid this atmosphere, I took out my device and executed the card trade. I selected one of my cards and entered a hundred coins as my payment, and in an instant, the card left my device and was replaced with a four.

After ensuring the trade went through, I waved my device at the girl as a gesture of my appreciation.

“Thanks. And keep your eye on me, okay? I’m not fighting for Tsuyuri or anything, but I’m taking down the Chameleon. And Senri Kururugi, too.”

“…All right. That’s fine.”

The girl from Tsuyuri smiled a bit as she left. Yuikawa let out a peeved groan and returned to his friends. This was an unexpected development to be sure, and an extremely fortunate one. That trade gave me a hand of two ones and a four, bringing me to level six. The hardest route of the first-tier quest required targeting a sixth-level opponent, and now I was ready.

“…Meow! Now you just need to stock up on skill cards.”

Kazami showed up again in cat form, whispering in my ear.

“The player who challenges someone to battle gets to use one more card than their opponent. If you have a Cancel Skill card and start a fight, you can use that to basically guarantee a win, but they’re pretty expensive, so you can’t go using them willy-nilly. Generally speaking, you’ll want to have at least one Level Up card on hand—then you’ll read your opponent to see whether you need to play it or not!”

She was giving me a quick recap of the rules, along with a little basic opening strategy. I had no reason to defy that custom, so I purchased one Level Up and one Reward Up card on my device. Then, as Kazami had instructed, I brought the device up to face height. It projected little marks on the heads of some of the students in the crowd, like the destination marks on a map app. This was a special search function Libra had set up for me. The marked students were all level six.

I grabbed one of them at random.

“Hey.”

“Huh? Ah! Sh-Shinohara?! Wh-what do you want with me?”

“What do I want? Isn’t it obvious? I’m asking you to battle me.”

“Battle you?! No way! You joined MTCG less than ten minutes ago…”

He stared at me blankly, shaking a little. Despite his agitated panic, his device accepted my request and lit up a shade of blue along with mine. The battle participation fees (five hundred coins for a first-tier quest) were paid automatically, and with that, our familiars appeared. I had the cute calico cat that also served as Kazami’s avatar, of course, and my opponent had a snake with sharp-looking fangs.

“Okay, this is your first step to victory, meow! Show him what you’ve got, Shinohara!”

With those quiet words of encouragement, the cat gracefully hopped from my shoulder to face off against the snake. It looked a lot stronger than my familiar, but their appearances were random and had nothing to do with stats.

A total of five cards appeared before me, my three number cards and the two I’d purchased a moment ago. The last two were both lit blue, indicating that I could tap them to put them into play.

“…”

I quietly considered my options while glancing at my opponent. The only thing worth deliberating over was whether he was going to use a Level Up card. We were both level six, so I’d win if neither of us played a Level Up. In MTCG, you were informed when an enemy played a skill card, but not what type. This guy would definitely play one, but for all I knew, it could be a Reward Up, a bluff.

Just being challenged to battle seemed to surprise him… He must think I’m getting ahead of myself by plunging into the fight this early on. If so, there’s a pretty good chance he’ll play a Level Up card. He must think it’s safer to boost his level against a beginner.

I made this assumption while keeping utterly cool on the outside. Then, for starters, I decided to play my Reward Up card. My opponent had the right to play a card next, and he made his choice quickly. Unsurprisingly, he did play a skill card. I added my Level Up card to finish things.

“Okay, that’s the end of the card phase. Now we just gotta wait for our levels to be revealed.”

“Y-yeah. I’m sure I’ll beat someone who started ten minutes ago…but let’s see.”

Considering his attempt at confidence and the way he warily eyed his familiar, he had to be flustered. A moment later, we proceeded to the showdown phase, and our skill cards went into effect. Our familiars flashed blue for a moment, a bright seal appearing on each. They were displayed over my cat’s head and on the tip of the snake’s tongue, and both sported the Roman numeral VII.

“We have a match. I win,” I said.

“What?!”

My opponent must have used a Level Up card after all. He collapsed in utter shock.

According to Kazami, players earned bonus coins according to how many challenges they successfully defended against in a row, but the number was reset to zero when they lost.

This had proved a decent tutorial for me. With my tier-one quest completed, I obtained some coins, and my new quest tier appeared on my device. Twenty minutes had passed since the start of MTCG.

Not bad… But I can’t exactly take it easy. It’s time to start making some real moves.

Luckily, all preparations for my cheating were already in place. After sharing a nod with the cat, who’d returned to my shoulder, I set off for a certain place in the arena.

MTCG had an official known as the Fixer. Quests could only be completed by defeating players with a matching level, meaning there was a chance no player in the arena matched what you needed, especially in the later stages. To deal with that, Libra had inserted a single Fixer into the Game who could adjust their level up or down as necessary.

In addition to stepping in as needed in case of emergency, the Fixer had another role. They functioned as a sort of shop. If you purchased a card by accident or had some unnecessary ones, you could trade them to the Fixer for something else, as long as you paid, or were paid, the correct fee. I’d just used all my skill cards in the first round, so I had nothing to trade. For the tier-two quest, I needed to defeat a thirteenth-level player, and there were plenty of those, so I didn’t have any reason to seek out the Fixer. Despite that…

“Are you the Fixer?”

…I hurried to a screen on one side of the arena and spoke to a girl sitting on one of the bleachers.

“Yes, you can call me Alpha Fixer. Did you need something?”

After the discussion with Libra last night, she must have known that I’d come here, yet she blithely greeted me like nothing was unusual. I took a seat near her and nodded.

“I’d like to request a card trade.”

“All right. When trading with the Fixer, any difference in card value is made up for with coins, following the official going rates in MTCG. I cannot raise or lower the price associated with any card in a trade. Is that all right?”

“Sure, no problem.”

Her stock lines undoubtedly served to help her deal with people quickly, and I didn’t argue. I wasn’t going to cheat that blatantly. If the Fixer gave me a discount on cards or set me up with a coin loan, people would notice immediately, and Libra and I would be in a heap of trouble.

There’s no need to break the rules at all…

If trades were conducted based strictly on the going rates for cards…then no matter what kind of insane trade you asked for, you were guaranteed to receive a standard exchange.

“Okay, I’d like to trade this one-value card here for a Reward Up card, please.”

“…”

“““Huh?”””

The Alpha Fixer blinked a couple of times at the offer, and a few people watching started exchanging whispers. I could see why, too. Normally, a player would only trade number cards for number cards or skill cards for skill cards. You could only carry three number cards at most, after all. Dumping one of them offered no advantage.

“Are you…sure about that?” The puzzled Alpha Fixer gave me a questioning look. “I’m not officially a player in this Game, so I’m allowed to carry four or more number cards if need be. But if you do that, you’ll have only two number cards left. The maximum value of a number card is nine, so the maximum level you could hope to attain is eighteen. That would make it impossible to beat the Game, unless you took the extremely easy route.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. So will you do the trade?”

“The exchange itself is possible, yes. And the value difference between the one card and a Reward Up is…?!”

“What? How big’s the difference?”

“E-excuse me. As I was saying, the value difference between a one card and a Reward Up is ninety-nine thousand coins. Are you okay with that?”

Everyone watching was taken aback by the Alpha Fixer’s words. Ninety-nine thousand was obviously a lot. Since I was on tier two right now, I was awarded a thousand coins per hour. I was about to instantly earn what would normally take me ninety-nine hours to get.

It made sense within the rules of the Game, though. Like the Alpha Fixer had suggested, number cards were worth far more than skill cards, since the latter could be easily purchased. It was only natural that the former was worth so many coins.

Still, this isn’t entirely fair…

I boldly smiled. Until yesterday, Fixers had been treated like regular players in the Game. Apart from their sliding levels, they had been subject to the same rules, and they could only possess three number cards. I’d asked Libra to change that for me. Perhaps it was a bit much, but no one had tried to gain an extra number card or trade one away to the Fixer yet. That meant they’d never know this was cheating.

“…Sounds good. Let’s go for it.”

After a curt nod, I held up my device. One of the one-value cards disappeared from my hand, and I received a Reward Up and ninety-nine thousand coins.

“Great. Thanks, Alpha Fixer.”

“No need to thank me. I’m simply following the set rates…but making that trade has just exhausted my coin count. I’m afraid I will have to refrain from trading with anyone for a period of time.”

After saying as much without even the slightest hint of a smile, the Alpha Fixer turned away from me. You couldn’t exactly call it excellent service, but she was probably trying to keep a straight face. When Kazami tapped her for this role, she’d seemed incredibly nervous. Himeji had even given the girl playing the Alpha Fixer a lecture on maintaining composure, I think.

“Meow-heh-heh… She did great! I’m so glad Libra’s got so many young members with big potential!”

The cat that was the avatar for Libra’s top ace looked rather pleased with herself.

“Right, sure. I’m not asking you to do anything you can’t…but can I count on you?”

It was 9:52 AM. After obtaining a small fortune by trading with the Alpha Fixer, I quickly began throwing money around, requesting trades one after the other. It allowed me to reach level thirteen in a flash, getting me past the second tier without any problem at all.

In that time, my cards had gone from one and four to six and seven, which had cost me about seventy thousand coins. Had I upgraded my cards the usual way, I would’ve needed fifty thousand and two and a half hours. Considering the time I’d saved, it seemed entirely worth it to me.

“Roger that. See you later, then.”

My call ended right after I completed my tier-two quest. I returned my device to my pocket. I’d been talking with someone to do some…well, I suppose you could call it prep work. None of it benefited me immediately. I was laying the groundwork necessary to pass some later quests.

“Okay…”

With that done, I refocused myself on the present. Normally, I’d be utterly helpless against the tier-three quest. On the toughest route, the target level was twenty-one, a value impossible for me to reach with only two number cards.

However, there was a work-around.

Every player’s level was managed in real time across MTCG. The data was updated whenever someone’s level changed via trade or upgrade. Accessing that system was how I knew which players to target.

However, changes in level during a battle weren’t recorded in the main database. Since a skill card could temporarily change a player’s level, the system didn’t officially update their level until after the battle. That made sense, of course. If an opponent kept changing their level in a fight, it would be impossible to complete a quest. Basically, a quest’s target level only mattered for issuing a challenge. And in MTCG, participants were perfectly free to trade cards during a fight, too.

Armed with that knowledge, it wasn’t difficult to figure out the rest. I simply needed to find a target with no winning streak who was part of a team. Once the battle began, I’d negotiate with one of their teammates to trade with them so my target’s level went down. They wouldn’t do it for free, of course, but I still had over thirty thousand coins left.

Finding players that met the necessary conditions took Kagaya only a few minutes.

“Huh? You want me to drop my level? Why would I ever say yes to that?”

“What? You’ll give me thirty thousand coins if I agree? Really? …All of it?”

“W-well, umm… Okay. I mean, if you’re sure?”

And with that, I cleared tier three without upgrading my hand at all.

Now I had a six card, a seven card, and four thousand coins remaining. My resources were dwindling, but after passing the first three tiers of the hardest quest route, I hit the arena’s break lounge and took out my device.

“Looks like I’ve unlocked some special cards…?”

That’s right. As Kazami had mentioned during her rule rundown, there were special skill cards in addition to the three standard ones. These finisher-type moves were automatically unlocked after a player beat a third-tier quest, and I was allowed to purchase whichever I liked.

According to Kazami, Tsumugi Shiina—the “last boss” of the toughest route—was set to level thirty, so I’d need to grab that Limit Breaker card to have a chance.

“…Meow! Don’t forget, there’s a chance that her level isn’t actually what it seems,” the cat sitting on my shoulder said. “In fact, I think it’s safe to say something’s up. I mean, if Tsumugi’s level really was thirty, someone would’ve beaten her by now.”

“Yeah. There’s definitely some meddling happening. I don’t know if it’s Tsumugi or an accomplice, but someone’s got to be altering her data. She told me that she’ll never lose. I doubt she’d say that if her level really was locked at thirty.”

I recalled her use of the word invincible late last night and shook my head. The cat on my shoulder let out a meow of (I think) sadness.

“It’s weird, isn’t it? We created this Game, but someone’s accessing our server and rewriting data… And we can’t even do anything about it…”

“Why can’t you? Shiina’s part of the staff, right? She’s not a regular player. Shouldn’t you be able to fix whatever’s wrong? That doesn’t seem like it would hurt anyone,” I said.

“Yeah… Meow! But Tsumugi’s data has a lot of really tough protections placed on it. Libra’s supposed to have the original access permissions, but we can’t break through for some reason… It’s awful! I really wish Libra was more than just a media group. If only we were really good at computers, too…”

“Hmm? Did someone call for me?”

“Huh?!”

The sleepy interjection that made Kazami the cat jump came from Kagaya, of course. Presumably, she’d also sent her audio from my earpiece over to Kazami. The sudden interference must’ve surprised the cat a little, given how it was hissing with its hackles up.

“Wh-who’s there? What are you?!”

“Mmm, I can’t really give my name, but I’m not a bad guy, okay? I’m just a kindly helper who happens to be passing through. I heard you mention something about needing access but someone’s keeping you out. Is that right?”

“Y…yes, um, Ms. Good Guy…”

“Mmm… Okay. I’ll have you know I’m great at cracking protections, but, oh, would you look at that? I don’t have access to the relevant data. Do you think you could help me out, little kitty?”

Kagaya gave a rather nefarious laugh. Kazami was pretty suspicious, and she had every right to be, but after steeling her resolve, she nodded in agreement. With that, the Company and Libra formed the greatest tag team there was.

For all our success, none of it meant much until I made it to Shiina.

“…I lost.”

It was 10:49 when I defeated my fifth-level target to clear the fourth tier of MTCG’s toughest route. That’s right. My opponent was at level five.

It turned out that the tier-four quest in MTCG was a little unusual, because it was the only one where the target had to be of a lower level than on my previous tier. That seems like it would be easy, but this Game didn’t offer any way to deliberately weaken yourself, so if you wanted to downgrade your cards, you had to trade with a bunch of other players. Between that and the Fixer being out of service, it was actually quite difficult.

But, of course, that only applied to those playing the Game normally. By relying on the Company’s help to see exactly what cards each player was looking for, I made the impossible fourth-tier quest more like a bonus stage. It took no time at all to change my hand from a six and a seven to a two and a three.

All right. So far, so good.

While playing it cool on the outside, I gave myself a pat on the back in my mind. Two hours had passed since the start of the fourth day of the May Interschool Competition. I was lagging a bit behind my goal, but I thought I was still doing well enough.

“Okay, next up is the fifth tier… The hardest route’s target level is twenty-seven…”

Inamura had taken Kagaya’s place while she was working on that protection. He didn’t sound as pitiful coming through the earpiece as he had in the past.

Twenty-seven was the standard maximum level, barring interference from skill cards. It required a hand of three nines. Considering how the Game had forced me to drop my level really low on the previous tier, this was positively fiendish.

“Don’t forget…you only have two number cards, Shinohara. And you don’t have the coins to pull something off like you did during the tier-two quest.”

“Yeah, you’re right…”

Without the right compensation, I’d never convince anyone to lower their levels for me. Besides, there were hardly any players at level twenty-seven anyway. I’d almost definitely be playing against the Alpha Fixer, and there was no negotiating with her.

Hopefully that prep work from before has gone through okay…

The pressure began to creep into my mind.

“…Shinohara!!”

I heard rapid footsteps behind me. There was a tap on my shoulder, and then a girl stepped in front of me. Her short ponytail bounced around, and her high skirt swayed gently.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Shinohara. It’s me, Fuuka Tatara, the most dependable class president out there!”

That’s right. After beating tier two roughly an hour ago, I’d called Fuuka Tatara, the energetic Three Star president of Class 2-A. I had known before the event began that she was participating in MTCG.

I nodded in greeting to Tatara and quickly got down to business.

“Thanks a lot, Tatara. I didn’t think you’d get here so quickly.”

“Oh, it’s totally fine, Shinohara! I gotta help a classmate in distress! That’s my mission as class president!” She gave me two thumbs up to emphasize her point. “Um, so…like you asked, I looked for someone who might be able to help. You wanted three people with a nine card, right?”

I bobbed my head. “Yeah.”

Basically, I needed to rely on friends to boost my level for me, like with Yuikawa. I’d reached out to my classmates and everyone else at Eimei School, looking for anyone willing to give up a nine for me. I knew people would be reluctant to help. It was an extreme request, after all. However, the right motivation would help.

“Unfortunately, I can’t pay the going rate for those cards in coins, but if I win MTCG, I’ll get that wild card, and that’ll boost Eimei’s winning chances in ASTRAL… In other words, Eimei will get more stars coming its way. I was hoping that might be enough to persuade a few people.”

“I getcha! Personally, I’m perfectly okay with giving you my nine! I’m class president, after all!”

“…That’s not really a valid reason.”

“Oh, it’s fine! In my opinion, the ideal class president is the sort of person who kinda just goes with the flow! So don’t worry, Shinohara! Just take the help!”

Tatara gave me a carefree smile as she espoused her extremely self-serving theories on leadership. So long as I got the cards, I didn’t mind too much. While I breathed a sigh of relief, Tatara looked around.

“Tsuji said he’d help out, too. He should be here soon…”

“Actually…I already am.”

Whoa?!

The reply came from behind me. I turned around, yelping internally a bit, and saw Yuuki Tsuji, a guy I wasn’t sure whether to describe as handsome or beautiful.

“I got excited wondering when he might notice me, but you spoiled it, Tatara.”

“Oh! Sorry, sorry. You were totally hidden behind Shinohara, so I didn’t notice!”

“It’s fine…and I guess I hid a little too well.”

Tsuji stepped out of my shadow, smiling a little.

“Anyway, I’m your second assistant, Shinohara. Actually, I guess I’m your second and third.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, uh, where to begin? I talked a little about the sixth player for Eimei School before, right?”

“The sixth player? Oh, right.”

I nodded at Tsuji. Enomoto had mentioned a sixth player before the May Interschool Competition began. Essentially, Eimei had a strong player working inside MTCG, the idea being that she’d win the wild card and join ASTRAL as a powerful sixth team member. Her name was Mayu Minakami, and she was supposed to be a ringer. However, Tsuji had told me she’d already dropped out of MTCG.

“Yeah, Minakami,” Tsuji said. He shrugged, looking a little crestfallen. “She has a lot of talent, but zero competitive drive. She was in MTCG since the first day, zooming through quests faster than anyone else, but she didn’t show up on the second day. She said her favorite commentator was doing a marathon stream on ITube, so…”

“Uh, really?” I asked.

“Ha-ha… Yeah, Minakami’s been out of the Game for a while. However, she allowed me to borrow her device for this event, saying, ‘Do whatever you want with it.’”

Tsuji spoke like all of this was a little funny to him. Despite Minakami’s attitude, why had she given her device to someone else? It served as a smartphone, wallet, and ID. That was beyond laziness. It was more like carelessness as an art form.

“Anyway, Minakami has a nine in her hand, so like she suggested, I’m going to do what I want with it. Trade me some skill card you don’t need for it so you can fill up your hand again. Then I’ll give you my own nine so you’ll have three.”

“You sure you want to do that? I can take Minakami’s since she’s not in the Game anymore, but…”

“Tatara’s helping you out, so I can’t just sit back and watch. I like to think of myself as your first friend on the Academy.”

“Thanks.”

“Not at all! For a regular person like me, MTCG’s just a fun social event more than anything. Even if I somehow win, I’d only earn an Ability at most. But if you take it, you’ll get back into ASTRAL. Eimei might even get a huge comeback, and I want to see that. So don’t worry about it, okay?”

Tsuji smiled sweetly as he spoke, and for a moment, I thought I was talking to a lovely girl.

What a cute—I mean, what a help this is.

Thanks to Tsuji, Tatara, and Mayu Minakami, whom I had yet to meet, my hand went from a two and a three to a set of nines. All that remained was to take all of Minakami’s coins and purchase some useful skill cards, and then I’d clear tier five without any trouble.

While I was busy with all the exchanging…

“…Hey, Hiro, got a minute?”

…I heard Kagaya’s voice and brought my right hand to my ear.

“With a little help from that kitty, I’ve managed to access Tsum-Tsum’s data—Tsumugi’s, I mean. We can’t quite get past this one final bit of authentication, though. It needs a password, and I think it’ll lock us out permanently if we try to brute-force it… So could we ask you for some help with that, Hiro? The final password is supposedly Tsumugi’s actual level.”

“…”

It was rare to hear Kagaya ask me for help. I thought on the problem quietly.

It was time for my final MTCG challenge.

The fifth-tier quest flew by without any significant trouble. I’d used a Cancel Skill card to breeze past the Alpha Fixer, who played as a twenty-seventh-level adversary for me. With that, I’d reached the end of all the MTCG quests. Normally, that’s when I’d receive a prize, but since I was on the toughest route, it wasn’t going to be that easy.

I need to beat Shiina, the secret boss, and then I’ll have completed the Game… Hmm. That’s weird. The target data on my device isn’t updating.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

A powerful laugh broke off my train of thought. Unsurprisingly, although I admit it was a bit strange that I’d expected it, the sound came from Kanade Yuikawa. He stood on the battle stage, the platform in the middle of the arena reserved for the final battle. His hands were raised in triumph.

“Shinohara! Awww, Shinohara, you were so close! You played well but weren’t fast enough to catch up with me! Now you just sit tight, and watch in despair as I achieve my ultimate victory!”

Yuikawa was getting pretty stoked on himself, presumably because of the large crowd.

A young girl stood on the battle stage with him, ready to fight. Her small, delicate frame made it easy to guess at her age. She wore a long robe over her usual gothic attire, and the hood was drawn so far down her face you could hardly see it. Complex patterns covered the robe. Between that outfit and the glimpses of red from one of her eyes beneath the hood, she was undoubtedly Tsumugi Shiina, the girl in her edgy fantasy world and loving it.

Yuikawa shifted his focus from me to Shiina. “Hello there, last boss,” he said, more confident than ever. “Good to meet you. Are you a girl? Sorry in advance. I’d hate to make a girl cry, but there’s nothing I can do. This is war.”

“…”

“Not interested in chatting? Too bad.”

With that, Yuikawa took out his device with a flourish, as though he were drawing a sword. In apparent response, the MTCG AR system generated a ferocious-looking black dragon above his head. It was huge and terrifying. Yuikawa grinned at the sight of it.

“My apologies if this startled you…but this is my familiar. The rules say these are selected at random, but maybe those in charge were kind enough to match me up with something suitable. Meanwhile, Hiroto Shinohara has a house cat! A cat! It’s pathetic!”

“Be quiet…”

“Huh? Oh, sorry. Maybe I got a little carried away. If you’re that ready to finish this Game, then let’s get on with it.”

Yuikawa sounded a little miffed as he took a step forward. He pointed a finger straight at Shiina like a detective in a mystery novel accusing the killer.

“Many players have made it to you, the last boss of the hardest quest route. Yet none of them have won, even those who brought special cards to the fight. The reason has to be because you’re stronger! Thirty is the highest level achievable with a Limit Breaker card. Combined with two Level Up cards, that brings the highest possible total to thirty-two. I believe your actual level must be thirty-three!”

Yuikawa was shouting more to the audience than Shiina, sporting all the swagger of a pro wrestler. His logic was reasonable. If being at level thirty-two wasn’t enough, then Shiina had to be higher.

“But I’m going to surpass your insurmountable level! Did you know that the special card Limit Breaker not only transforms any nines in your hand into tens but also removes the limits on your cards’ maximum values? That’s right. It only applies during a battle, of course, but it basically means there’s no maximum level. You also have to remember that the upgrade command is available during battle. MTCG doesn’t place any time limits on fights, and you’re allowed to upgrade cards during a fight!”

A stir ran through the audience. Shiina, meanwhile, said nothing, keeping her head lowered and her eyes on the ground.

“Ha-ha-ha! Too afraid to speak now that your plan has been ruined? After using Limit Breaker to gain three tens, I upgraded all of them! Now I hold a set of elevens for a total of thirty-three! I hope you’re ready, final boss!”

After revealing his strategy, Yuikawa let out a boisterous laugh.

His logic’s not bad, but unfortunately for him, he’s got it wrong, I thought while watching Yuikawa. There were no clear misconceptions in his reasoning, but his whole perception of the situation was incorrect. I’d considered relying on Limit Breaker and boosting my level in a similar way, but if winning was that simple, someone else would’ve done so. I was confident she wasn’t playing that fairly.

“…No. I don’t wanna wait that long.”

The moment Shiina muttered that, there was an audible boom, followed by an intense wave of heat and wind. I instinctively shut my eyes as it rushed over my body. I figured it was just part of her performance, but it was so real that I had to keep myself from staggering back a step.

After a moment of silence, I carefully opened my eyes and saw that Shiina had pulled back her hood to reveal her heterochromous eyes. What’s more, a three-headed Cerberus stood proudly before her.

“…You’re wrong. You’re completely wrong,” Shiina declared. “You think I’m only level thirty-three? Of course not. I’m not that weak at all. Let’s end this little contest. I can’t wait forever, you know.”

“Wha…? W-wait. I’m not ready ye—”

“Just be quiet.”

Shiina threw a hand forward, commanding her Cerberus to attack. It leaped into action, lunging at the black dragon and catching the creature in its mouths. The dragon roared at this sudden strike, but it was clearly no match for the Cerberus’s speed. Before long, it was helpless and wounded all over.

“Rrr…rrgh…”

Yuikawa’s black dragon slumped to the ground in no more than thirty seconds.

Shiina watched all of this unfold in silence, sighing when it was over. “Ugh… You’re not allowed to stall all day, you know. It’s not good manners to waste time when you’ve got no chance of winning.”

“M-manners? No, this was a perfectly valid strate—”

“I told you you can’t beat me that way. Better luck next time.”

Shiina laid down her judgment without even bothering to look at her opponent. Given how painfully shy she was, maybe she was too nervous to meet his eyes. Ultimately, I guess it didn’t matter.

“O-oh…”

Yuikawa dejectedly stepped down from the battle stage in a daze. Shiina watched, and as soon as he was gone, she turned her attention to me. A grin spread across her face, breaking her dark and mysterious persona. She folded her arms in an attempt to look as strong as possible.

“Come on up… I’ve been waiting for you.”

Shiina and I stood on the battle stage.

“I’m so glad I’ll get to fight you!”

Shiina stood across from me, dressed in her anime-villain-esque clothing. She was all smiles. Her expression had noticeably softened from earlier, and her voice bounced a bit when she spoke.

“Hey, how about we place a bet on this match? Let’s say the loser has to do whatever the winner says, just like before!”

“Still as confident as ever, I see. Don’t forget that you lost pretty spectacularly two days ago.”

“Oh, I’ll be fine! There’s no way I’d lose this Game!”

She patted the Cerberus’s three heads as it sidled up beside her. She looked entirely sure of herself. Meanwhile, I was deep in contemplation.

“No way I’d lose.” She’s said so to me a few times now. Beating Shiina is absolutely impossible. She seems to think so, anyway.

That much was clear. And if that was the case, it narrowed down her possible level quite a bit. Yuikawa had just demonstrated that it was possible to reach levels beyond thirty. Shiina was powerful, but couldn’t be invincible.

“You can only beat quests in MTCG by starting the match with the same level as your opponent. Raising your level doesn’t help much in that respect. It could be thirty-three or ninety-nine, and it wouldn’t matter. A Limit Breaker can raise your total after the battle starts, but no matter how much you upgraded your cards, an opponent could do the same. It would never make you totally invincible.”

Once I understood that, the solution was clear.

“It’s negative, isn’t it, Shiina? Your level is less than zero. I don’t know the exact number, but it’s definitely not zero or higher. That’s why you keep saying no one can beat you.”

“…”

I’d waited for just the right moment to lay this out. Shiina gawked at me for a second, seemingly stunned.

“…Wow.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “You really are amazing. You’re right… This puppy’s level is negative ninety-nine. Lloyd’s the guardian of hell, after all, and levels work in reverse down there.”

“Yeah… I figured it was something like that. Lloyd’s pretty clever.”

“Of course he is! He’s my treasure! And you gave him to me!”

Shiina didn’t hesitate to reveal everything. Her level was negative ninety-nine. There was no beating that. I could sell all my number cards to reach a value of zero, but MTCG didn’t offer any mechanisms to push it lower. Shiina really was invincible. From a player’s perspective, this was a fight they were doomed to lose.

Negative levels… That’s just the sort of thing Shiina would think up.

She acted sweet with me, but there was nothing cute about her deviousness. Still, I couldn’t help but smile with her. Now that I knew the truth, I had everything I needed. The conditions for my victory had been met.

I took a step forward, tapping on my earpiece twice.

“All right, Shiina, let’s finish this.”

“Um, okay…but I’m gonna win, you know. And when I do, you’re gonna play games with me for the rest of my life, okay?”

“That sounds really unreasonable…but all right. I’m not going to lose, so it doesn’t matter.”

I waved my device to summon my familiar. The calico cat linked to Kazami waved back at me and nodded, as if to say, “Ready to go!” After receiving that confirmation, I brought my device up.

“Let’s begin. I’ve got three nines in my hand, and I’ll use Limit Breaker to upgrade them to tens for a total of thirty. I’ve got a Cancel Skill card, too, so no matter what you play, our levels are locked where they are.”

“Wh-what? That’s all?! B-but my level’s negative ninety-nine, so—”

“What’re you talking about? I know that’s a lie.”

Shiina quickly grew flustered as I laid out the truth.

“Listen, Shiina, you claim your level’s in the negatives because it fits your story. If everything you said was true, no one would ever be able to beat you. And I doubt Libra would approve of that.”

“B-but it’s tru—”

“It’s not. My level’s thirty. Let’s see what you’ve got, Shiina.”

“Oooh…”

I was in my element, even as Shiina let out a disapproving groan. Very reluctantly, she brought her device to her eyes, and then her expression changed. It went from puzzled to utterly shocked in an instant.

She had every reason to be surprised.

“Wha…? Why?! Why is Lloyd level thirty now?!”

That’s right.

The whole setup was quite simple. Libra oversaw MTCG, and Shiina had broken into the system to adjust her level. Her strong protections had kept Kazami and the others from doing anything about the altered data.

However, I had both Libra and the Company in my corner. Once I knew Shiina’s level, which was the last password we needed to access her modified data, it was a simple thing for my friends to return the value to what it was supposed to be.

“…Who knows? Maybe you only thought he was invincible this whole time.” I smiled dauntlessly as I spoke.

With a wave of my arm, my cat, surrounded by a blue aura, leaped at her foe. Her claws ripped into the Cerberus like a scratching post, and it wasn’t long before Lloyd dissolved into a cloud of luminous particles. A moment later, the original plush Lloyd dropped back into Shiina’s arms.

And with that, I had cleared the toughest route in MTCG.

“…”

I worried that Shiina might take this poorly. She stared at me blankly. Eventually, she squeezed Lloyd tightly, looking positively elated.

“Wow… Wow! Wow, wow, wow! You really are the best!”

“…”

“Ohh, this makes me so happy! Spending time with you has been so much fun, and this is even better!”

She shot for me like an energetic little fireball, grinning bright and wild. There was something innocent about her expression, but also something a little crazed, like she was obsessed.

“I thought for sure you couldn’t win, but you did anyway! Oh, wow! And I’m actually totally fine with this, too! You really do need to get back into ASTRAL, you know! Right now!”

“Why?

“Just do it!”

Shiina was all bright smiles and adulation, but there was a firmness to her voice. Something about her had always struck me as a little off, and I finally knew why. She’d challenged me to a bunch of games and dragged me around the hotel. And after a few days of that, she was sending me back to ASTRAL. I knew someone else who liked to mess around with people, too.

“Hey, Shiina…if I recall, you said that whoever wins gets to make the loser do whatever they want, right?”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot… Sure. What’s your wish?”

Shiina raised an eyebrow at me as she held the Cerberus close. Right now, she didn’t seem like anything but a cute girl, maybe a younger sister.

“Answer this question—you’re the Chameleon, aren’t you?”

“…!”

Her mismatched eyes shot wide. The crowd began to buzz over this. No one else knew all the details, so this had come out of nowhere from their perspective. Shiina stared at me, seemingly ignorant of all the whispering.

“Is that…is that an order? Do I haaaaaaaave to answer it?”

“Yep.”

“Mmmmmgh. All right. That was the bet.”

She didn’t seem to mind very much, if her smile was any indication. She twirled, her robe flowing in the air like the wings of some hellish monster. Her delight reached its peak.

“That’s right—I’m the Chameleon. Congratulations! You’ve beaten the toughest route in MTCG! But this is where the real game begins. This was all just a preliminary, a little ritual to get you back on track. Next time, we’ll be fighting in ASTRAL, okay? I wanna keep playing, and playing, and playing with you until we finally crown a winner!”

This girl was the Chameleon, the one dominating ASTRAL and stomping all around the Game, yet there wasn’t a hint of malice in her eyes. They only held pure joy.

“H-hurry up, Shinohara! There’s not much time left…”

“Ah! Yeah, I know!”

Shortly after beating MTCG, I hurried back to the Shiki Island Grand Hotel in a taxi I’d booked in advance. From there, Kazami took me to Libra’s headquarters in the basement. It was 11:47 in the morning, and I’d managed to finish MTCG in time, but only just barely. I would’ve liked a bit more time, but this would have to do. The first half of the fourth day hadn’t ended yet.

“Meow! We’re here!”

The moment we stepped into the control room, Kazami announced our arrival as loudly as she could. All the Libra members instantly turned our way. Presumably, they’d been keeping tabs on MTCG while running ASTRAL. Their eyes all held a faint glimmer of hope that had been absent yesterday.

“Huff…huff… Okay, I’m gonna run the wild card program to get you back into the Game, Shinohara. You can use any of the stuff over there if you like. Let me know if something comes up!”

“Sure. I’ll do that. And thanks.”

“No problem, meow!”

Kazami nodded briskly, then sat at a nearby desk and started pounding away on the keyboard. Meanwhile, I walked up to the large monitor in the middle of the control room, the main screen that displayed what was happening all across ASTRAL.

“…”

Things had hardly improved since I’d been away. The black area indicating Seijo School’s territory now occupied over half of the nonneutral region of the map. The Chameleon—really Tsumugi Shiina and her United Force—now had an overwhelming amount of power.

If Shiina was truly the Chameleon, that meant she’d been playing ASTRAL and MTCG simultaneously. I supposed that was doable enough. She was only projecting herself in ASTRAL anyhow. There was no need for her to be physically present. She could join from her hotel room, the MTCG lounge, or just about anywhere else. It must have been like playing a video game to her.

Meanwhile, her United Force had been slowly acquiring more territory. Eimei’s turf hadn’t changed all that much since yesterday.

Good. I made it in time.

Relief welled up from deep inside my heart. With the Chameleon’s team taking everything over, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Eimei had been swallowed whole by now. Simply maintaining what we had was more than enough.

Once I had a grasp on the situation, I decided to ask a Libra member how to work these desk monitors. Following her instructions, I attached my device to one of the computer setups in front of me, and a window on the monitor displayed a list of parameters and actions in ASTRAL. There was one command in the middle of the screen that I didn’t remember seeing in the Game, however.

“Admin Contact,” huh?

Kazami had told me about it last night. It allowed someone to forcibly communicate with players inside the ASTRAL Game world. This was the whole reason I’d wanted to finish MTCG before the first half finished today. I needed to tap into this admin feature.

“…Hey, guys. Can you hear me?”

“““?!?!?!”””

The audio went out to every player who wasn’t part of the Chameleon’s force, and I was trying to make myself sound bolder and more domineering than usual. Nearly twenty players visibly reacted on-screen. A few looked scared, while others were confused. Saionji seemed relieved, although she was doing her best to hide it. And Himeji remained completely emotionless, but gave a little nod. The reactions really ran the gamut, but the common element was surprise.

I guess I couldn’t blame them. Contacting other teams wasn’t supposed to be possible in ASTRAL, yet an eliminated player was reaching out to everyone. It almost resembled a horror movie setup.

Realizing that, I decided to play it up a bit, even grinning, although only my voice was being transmitted.

“It’s me, Hiroto Shinohara. Sorry I missed out on this morning’s action. How’s it been going?”

“Wha-wha…? What’s going on here?!”

Numerous responses came in, but an exclamation from a Tenth Ward player cut through the rest, his voice cracking. He didn’t sound angry, just incredibly astonished.

“Hiroto Shinohara?! Why are you… Wait, are you the Chameleon?!”

“You think I’m the faker? Normally I’d praise your deduction, but unfortunately, you’re wrong. Besides, why would she impersonate me? If she pretended to be someone who’d been eliminated, you’d spot her instantly.”

“Y-yeah, I guess…but if it’s really you, then this is crazy! You just said you’re out of the Game! How are you talking to m—”

“Oh, you want to know how I’m still accessing ASTRAL?” I interjected. I looked at Saionji and the Eimei School members through the monitor.

“Well, it’s because I’ve finished MTCG and gotten my wild card. I won’t actually be able to rejoin ASTRAL until the latter half of the day, but I’ve got my ticket back.”

“Wha…? Are you serious?!”

“I sure am. And this little chat we’re having right now is the proof. ASTRAL doesn’t normally let players communicate across teams, yet that’s exactly what I’m doing. My voice is going out to around twenty people. I bet you’re wondering how, right? Maybe you think it’s because of a job-based Ability. Well, that’s right. My revival after clearing MTCG has changed my job from Commander to Ghost/Commander.”

“Ghost/Commander…? Oh. Was that your reward for earning the wild card?”

The Tenth Ward guy swallowed nervously as I explained with as much bravado as I could. He didn’t voice any doubts about my claim, which was useful since it was all a lie. Libra would change my displayed job on my device later, but I was still just a Commander. Obtaining that wild card hadn’t awarded me any new features.

To be honest, that didn’t matter. Only one person could win their way back into ASTRAL by competing in MTCG. No matter what kind of junk I made up, there was no way to know I was making it up. The important thing was that it was an enticing lie that everyone wanted to believe.

“…Okay, listen, everyone.”

I took a deep breath before addressing my audience again.

“Now that you understand what’s happening, I should tell you that Ghost/Commander has another feature that permits me to see detailed information on opponents. I can only use it once, though, so I tried it on the Chameleon, and I found something very interesting.”

“Interesting…?”

“Very interesting. It turns out that the Chameleon isn’t even officially participating in this event. She’s a straight-up enemy the administrators inserted.”

“Huh?”

“Ahhh!”

Players raised their eyebrows on the screen, skeptical of my claim. Kazami was panicking, along with the rest of Libra, but I gave them a reassuring look and continued with a grin.

“That’s right, she’s just an enemy for us all. Check the MTCG highlights later and you’ll see she’s a middle schooler named Tsumugi Shiina. She’s not a standard ASTRAL player or even part of the star system. Her presence is just meant to stir up trouble in this competition.”

“Huh? No, but… That’s crazy…”

“Do you really think so? None of this strikes you as weird? Seven teams have joined the Chameleon under that United Force Ability. It clearly goes way beyond what the rules would allow, but the admins have continued to let it slide. There’s only one explanation—those in charge created the Chameleon. It explains why she hasn’t been exposed yet.”

“““…!”””

“Are you all fine to let her keep kicking your asses? At this rate, she won’t have any trouble winning ASTRAL. The truth will come out during the closing ceremony, and no one will be named the winner. I doubt anyone wants that, right?”

I watched everyone’s reactions on the monitor while I spoke. Naturally, I couldn’t reveal the entire truth, but hopefully, they would believe this story. The Chameleon didn’t respect the rules because she wasn’t a player in the same sense that we were. She was an unfair enemy the admins had devised.

“There’s still a chance for us,” I said.

“““!”””

A hush fell over the players. They all wore somber looks. When I told them all wasn’t lost, a few of them lifted their heads. I knew they couldn’t see me, but they stared at their devices, almost clinging to them.

As I watched them, I asked the Libra team to stop all cameras set up inside ASTRAL. Then I outlined my plan to the players still in the Game, talking like I was sharing a guarded secret.

“Here’s the deal. At the moment, the Chameleon has two thousand, four hundred and eighty-eight hexes. That’s forty-nine point two percent of all nonneutral hexes. In other words, if we all work together, maybe form a Truce, we’ll have a bit more power than her.”

“However, we’re not a United Force like what the Chameleon has. We’re more of an alliance, I guess. We’re fighting for different schools, and we’ve all lost a lot of popularity in the polls.”

“But we can win back fan support anytime we like. People only support the Chameleon because she was an unexpected twist. With all the attention she’s garnered, it’s no wonder votes favored her. But it’s gotten so one-sided by now, she’s starting to turn off some people. Opinions are splitting. So where are those votes going to go now? If the audience is sick of seeing the overpowered Chameleon dominate the Game, who will they support instead?”

“Well, think about it. I’m the kind of reckless Commander who left ASTRAL to prepare to face that crazy-strong character the admins created. And let’s not forget that the Eimei School team is currently in last. A comeback seems impossible. If you were watching things, what would you think? Would you prefer a bland conclusion where the Chameleon blows everyone away or a major upset where the biggest underdog of all works with everyone else to beat her?”

“““…”””

The players on the other side of my monitor had fallen silent. I assumed they were trying to work out what to do. Would they submit to the Chameleon or trust me? They had to choose one or the other. Sitting on the sidelines wasn’t an option anymore.

“I’m not exactly thrilled that Shinohara will be in charge…but I guess we’ve got no choice.”

While most waited to see how others would react, Saionji accepted a Truce with Eimei. Ohga School, which stood a distant second to the Chameleon, was joining the alliance. That proved to be the trigger. Players joined one after another with all the speed of a dam bursting. With that, we had our Truce, and the alliance was united to bring down the Chameleon. We had twenty people across six teams, giving us slightly more players than the Chameleon’s United Force.

I watched things unfold on the screen with a pleased expression.

“Heh! Glad to see we’re on the same page. Listen, our Game—our ASTRAL—starts now. We’re not at the Chameleon’s mercy anymore. She’s nothing but an unfair enemy mob, and anyone working for her is a traitor. We can’t let them get away with this anymore. We can’t afford to lose. Let’s show them…”

I paused to take a deep breath, lifting my device in front of me and acting as powerfully pretentious as I could.

“…that it’s our turn now.”

I grinned through the whole act.

Island Tube comments / end of MTCG

11:35 Oh maaaaaaan, Hiroto’s way too awesome…

11:35 Huh? Did Shinohara seriously beat the MTCG while I was making lunch?

11:35 Hilarious how much he dominates. The Seven Star is nuts.

11:35 He didn’t even take three hours. Think about that. It’s insane. My friend’s been in it since day one and he’s still on tier three.

11:35 The wild card sure went to the right dude.

11:35 Yeah. But the Chameleon reveal is even bigger news to me.

11:36 [BREAKING] The Chameleon’s a cute middle schooler…!

11:36 Tsumugi’s so cuuute! I wanna pat her on the head! I’m sure she’d kill me if I did, but still!

11:36 Despite her looks, she picked a fight with the Empress and completely took over ASTRAL. She’s way too strong… I think I’m in love. Libra really knows how to put on a show!

11:36 Now we know why it looked like she was cheating.

11:36 Right, she’s not even a player… Hey, not to bring this up after the fact, but was Yuikawa from Ibara always such an asshole?

11:36 Yeah.

11:36 Totally.

11:36 I thought so, too.

11:36 Lol. It’s unanimous.