novelraw Chapter 317 - 259 - The Table for Food and Game
Chapter 317 - 259 - The Table for Food and Game
"I guess I'm hanging out with you all," Shouri mumbled as he read his tuner the following morning.
"Don't say that like it's a problem, bossman," Rebecca chuckled, elbowing her Maestro while they waited for Pacifica and Taika to finish getting ready.
"Apparently, Zephyr and Miro had gotten into a bit of a scuffle, nothing too crazy," Shouri reported. Thankfully, for the guildmaster's blood pressure, his cute little guild members were on the right side of history and didn't instigate it. He was glad they handled themselves well. That being said, Vince informed Shouri in the same message that he, his girls, and Miro would be hanging out elsewhere in the city.
He figured that Vince and the others were their own people; they didn't need to hang out with the main group all the time. Shouri only considered himself the leader of PTRS in name only. Sure, he managed the day to day stuff, but that was only because he knew no one else would do it. At the end of the day, it was his dream he selfishly dragged the rest of his friends through--even if they did agree with his beliefs.
Either way, Pacifica was ready to unlock more story content, so they went downstairs to brave the hotel cafeteria once again.
Only to find it was far less busy than the previous morning's pandemonium.
"Why?" Shouri questioned. He knew from booking their rooms that there should have been plenty of people staying in the hotel for the entire duration of the event.
"I wonder if today's story updates has to do with it," Pacifica said, taking her tuner from her Maestro's side to investigate.
After scrutinizing where the app was sending them today, she came to a realization. "Oh! Today's the food and game event. So they want us to go play some of the games that the vendors set up. Rather than having us go a specific location, we just have to pay for a game and get food at a stall and it'll give us the stories for today," Pacifica informed her companions.
"Easy enough, I guess. We were already gonna do that," Rebecca said, with a shrug.
"What kind of games?" Taika wondered.
"Probably like carnival games. So like knock down the bottles, ring tosses, shooting galleries--that kind of thing," said the otter.
Taika wasn't too familiar with them. She remembered things like that in the amusement park she and Shouri visited on their date; but that was almost a year ago and the part that stuck out in her mind was the Ferris wheel ride and then subsequent dog flattening.
"Sounds like fun," the lunar fox decided.
The lines for food were, as expected, insane. So, with hunger in their hearts, Shouri and the girls set their sights on the games.
"What do we have to do?" asked Rebecca.
"Just win one game," Pacifica replied, confirming on her tuner.
"Yeah, good luck with that," Shouri scoffed, rolling his eyes.
All sorts of games were on display. Things like ring toss, and ladder climbing, down to a birthday guessing game. Scoping out the competition, all the easy ones had decent gatherings. Various prizes were on offer to those skilled enough to best their challenges, ranging from small toys and trinkets all the way up to expensive electronics. There was the pity prize of simply getting the next story chunk out of the festival app, which it appeared many were subjected to.
Pacifica hummed, scrutinizing the games being played. Dejected festival goers left, having lost their chances and trying a different stand. The longer she watched, the more her suspicion grew. She closed her eyes and focused on her rhythm, centering herself on the workers running the games.
"Oh, I see," whispered the otter. "Let's win some prizes, girls!" Pacifica declared with brazen confidence as she led the charge.
Shouri shrugged and followed.
Taika was up first at ring toss. The fox studied how the game worked as another festival goer tried their hand at the seemingly innocuous game. She watched as time and time again the poor man tried and failed to win anything as the rings just bounced off the tops of the bottles. The yellow haired Resonator manning the booth even made sure to add in taunts and jeers just to throw off the poor customer.
Finally, it was her turn. A stack of rings was provided to her and the game began. Taika, however, didn't immediately start her attempt. Her eyes scanned everything in the booth. She held one ring and moved it up and down, feeling the weight in her hands. Five rings to work with. All she had to do was land one. For a Resonator trained in the arts of spacial awareness, this "challenge" was a joke.
With a casual flick of her wrist, the first flew into the small cluster of bottles, easily bouncing off.
The blond Resonator behind the booth resumed his boisterous taunting, but Taika entirely ignored him, tossing a second ring. This time it spun around the lip of a different bottle before ultimately getting ejected. Taika narrowed her eyes, her gaze flicking between the bottles and the jeering carny.
"Damn, that was close!" Rebecca hissed.
"No it wasn't." Taika now finally paid the worker Resonator proper attention. "È il tuo colore di capelli naturale?" she asked.
The man paled, whipping his head away.
The lunar vixen smirked. "È quello che pensavo." She fanned out the remaining rings and tossed them all at once. All three landed on bottles with practiced precision.
"W-winner!"
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The trio walked away with a small model car for Rebecca, a video game mascot plush for Pacifica, and a magic eight ball for Shouri.
As they walked away, Taika spoke quietly. "He's lunar, not lightning. He was batting the rings away with Volontà Estesa," she explained.
"That cheat!" Rebecca turned back, but Pacifica grabbed her fellow Resonator's shoulder.
"They're like all meant to be frustratingly impossible to win. It says so in the legend here," said the otter, waving her tuner. One of the two story peices for the day had been unlocked.
While they moved towards the next game, Pacifica read if off for the party.
"Sam was the crew's sharpshooter. The platypus loved to flex his ability to be able to strike any target no matter how impossible the odds. He loved games, no matter if they were chance or skill based. Above all else, he was a trickster though--so all's fair in love and war."
"That explains the rigged games," Rebecca grumbled.
"They're only allowed to cheat today from what I'm reading here," said Pacifica. "Doesn't mean we can't implement some tricks of our own though," the otter grinned mischeivously. "The key is you can't let your trick get exposed, this goes for both the game master and the participant."
"Ohhhh, that's why when Taika called that guy out for being a lunar he cut his shit out," Rebecca realized, which earned a satisfied grin from the lunar fox.
Shouri shook his head, but smiled. As long as they were having fun, that was all that mattered to him.
Next up, was a ladder game, and Rebecca knew she was on deck. Like Taika before her, she watched another festival goer give it a shot. It was pretty simple--climb the ladder and ring the bell at the end. The difficulty came from the ladder itself. It hung at an awkward angle, nearly horizontal over a bed of mattresses. Further complicating matters, the entire thing was poorly secured and could sway violently with the climbers body weight and momentum. Even the individual rungs were hazards on their own, being plastic pipes that could and would spin if grasped wrong. The Renard watched as the people ahead of her tried to reach the bell--they always started with such gusto, but quickly grew tired and fell off, walking away much more worn out than they should have been for the experience.
A water Resonator ran this game and the fire fox figured out what was happening immediately. "Sho, I have an idea, Fiamme Sacre in Rubato. Paci, gimmie your gloves."
Pacifica and Shouri both complied and provided their backing in the forms of hand coverings and rhythm. Outfitted in her ass-kicking attire, Rebecca stepped up. She removed her socks and shoes, as the Resonator maintaining the booth cleaned the ladder before its next use.
Ladder blasted to a shine, the water element worker motioned with his head for the fire fox to give it a shot. Rebecca began her ascent. They'd certainly call her out for using her ad-Lib.
She focused on her feet, staying just below the level of setting them ablaze. If she had Corpo Fuoco, this would have been child's play. Perhaps not. Either way, she knew her strategy would easily best this trick.
The Renard jumped onto the ladder just like those who came before her. It hit her instantly, a suspicious slick coated every rung. It attacked her rhythm and attempted to drain it like a poison. Even Pacifica's gloves failed to stop it from affecting her.
Thankfully that's not why she borrowed the otter's gloves. Rebecca focused on the rhythm being provided by Shouri and cast Fiamme Sacre. The glow from her hands was hidden as she avoided allowing the spell to leave her palms. Almost immediately she felt the relief pour into her as the Solar-Fire ossia purified whatever gunk clung to the rungs.
It was a much easier ascent thanks to that. Given what kind of high flying stunts she did with her ad-Lib, the sudden spinning of the ladder wasn't even a minor inconvenience. She just climbed right to the top and smashed the bell with ease.
Rebecca got Taika a big bag of candy as her prize.
"He wasn't cleaning the ladder with water--he was using Melma, the slime spell. It lets you change the properties of the slime at lento rank," the battle expert informed her compatriots. "He must have developed a low grade poison mild enough to not trigger a status change on the tuner, but still sapping the climbers," she further theorized.
The final stop on their tour was the birthday guessing game--a simple test of social deduction. The Resonator running this booth was full of confidence, until Pacifica stepped up.
Her expression was as nuetral as a statue, and her rhythm broadast so much noise the poor guy had to just play the numbers game.
After Pacifica stumped the poor Resonator, she turned back to deliver one last gut-punch. "Your birthday is February 29th by the way--Happy late birthday."
Needless to say, that man would remember the otter girl that completely humiliated him for the rest of his carny days.
"Well that was fun. What do you all think about getting lunch since we completely skipped breakfast?" Shouri asked.
"Sounds good," Rebecca replied.
"Yeah, probably a good idea to not win too much--they might jump us if we do," Pacifica laughed heartily.
"Food sounds good," Taika said, in between bites of a chocolate bar.
"Hm, I wonder what Vince is up to," Shouri hummed in thought.
"Didn't he say they were hanging out with someone?" Rebecca questioned.
"He did. Wasn't very specific about it." The Maestro shrugged. "Either way, they're grown ass adults, just as long as we don't have to post bail for them later, they can do what they want."