Midway Mayhem

(Author's Note: I used http://www.rezsoft.org/deal as a "Deal or No Deal Simulator", and Random Number Generator Plus to determine what boxes had what quantities, as well as which boxes Shishano picked. It was completely random!)

As the 7am Morning alert woke me up the next day, I rolled myself out of bed and got dressed for the day. I decided that, after I ate breakfast, I wanted to check out some of the games in the Carnival Room, and maybe talk to anyone who happened to show up as well.

I made me some French toast and pancakes for breakfast, with powdered sugar on the French toast and maple syrup on the pancakes. Afterwards, I put away my dishes away and headed upstairs to the Fourth Floor. I followed Nekomaru and Fuyuhiko up the stairs, though they both stopped at the Third Floor together. Fuyuhiko mentioned needing to build a mechanism of some sort, but I did not pay much attention.

As I arrived on the Fourth Floor, I took a closer look at all the games in the Carnival Room. My eyes were drawn to the "Stay or Go?" game, with the 20 boxes. It cost 100 Monocoins to play, and I had more than plenty at this point. I scanned my E-Handbook, and the game started.

Twenty boxes showed up on the screen, showing amounts from 1 to 100,000 Monocoins. After about three or four seconds, the boxes had lids dropped over them, with a number on each one, and started shuffling themselves around. Slow at first, then faster and faster, before suddenly stopping, asking me to select a box. I selected Box 10.

Next, I was instructed to select 5 boxes. Having no real rhyme or reason, I went with Box 3. Selecting it on the screen, the box's number slowly pulsed several times, then the box exploded on-screen! When the debris cleared on the screen, a message showed on the screen. "750 Monocoins". This meant that amount was now removed from the game, and could not be my reward.

Ok, could be worse, I suppose. Next, I chose box 5. Box 5's number started to pulse, then exploded, just as Box 3 had done. I sighed when I saw the number. 1000 Monocoins.

Not the worst possible start, but this was not going well. Deciding to go to a higher number, I went with 16. I was rewarded with an exploding box revealing 300 Monocoins.

Still not the greatest start, but the highest quantities are still on the board. Granted, Monocoins were only good in the Store and for betting and playing games, but still, I was intrigued with this game thus far.

I went with boxes 9 and 20 to wrap up the round. I hit paydirt on Box 9, revealing the 1 Monocoin and removing it from the board! Box 20 had 400 Monocoins, still not great, but could be worse.

The boxes went dark, and an offer presented itself on the board: 24,175 Monocoins: Stay or Go? There was no chance of me taking that offer. I chose to Stay.

This time, I only had to pick four boxes, instead of five. I decided, for no particular reason, to go with 18, 6, 13, and 15.

All in all, I did pretty well this well Box 13 had 5,000 Monocoins, but Boxes 18, 6, and 15 each had very low numbers: 75, 10, and 25 Monocoins, respectively.

A new offer presented itself: 23,715 Monocoins. With most of the large amounts still on the board, I chose to Stay.

Someone approached me from the right. Surprised, I spun around, coming face to face with Rantaro. He took a few quick steps back, my reaction to his approach likely surprising him.

"Hey, sorry there, Shishano. I was just looking at some of the games here," Rantaro apologized.

I smiled back, accepting his apology, then glanced back at the game. It was still asking me to select three boxes.

After thinking for a little bit, I decided on 19, 14, and 11. Box 19 had 100 Monocoins, Box 14 had a mere 20 Monocoins, and Box 11 had only 5 Monocoins inside!

Meanwhile, the current offer went up to 32,593 Monocoins. With the 50k, 75k, and 100k still on the board, and only having to choose two boxes next time, I chose to Stay.

"Good call there, Shishano! No reason to cash out now!" Rantaro cheered.

With me getting so many small numbers. I decided to eliminate the two smallest numbers on the board: 1 and 2. However, I decided to do Box 2 first, and was rewarded with 500 Monocoins.

To my dismay, however, Box 1 had the 50k Monocoins. I winced, as that was the third-highest offer on the board. Now, gone.

"Ouch...Sorry," Rantaro's words reflected his pain on seeing the aftermath.

To my surprise, however, my offer went up, albeit slightly, to 35,041 Monocoins, and I only had to pick one box from here on out. At this point, the 50, 200, 10k, 25k, 75k, and 100k remained, and I had one of them...but which one?

"That was a tough break, losing that 50k, but I say you press on," Rantaro suggested. Feeling reasonably confident, I chose to Stay, and selected Box 8, which wiped out the 10k Monocoins.

Still hurt, but I still had the 25k, 75k, and 100k on the board, along with the 50 and the 200, which were junk at this rate.

My offer, meanwhile, jumped up to 40,050 Monocoins, but I decided to Stay. I chose box 17, and my stomach sunk when the box revealed its contents.

The 100k box...was now gone.

"Oof," Rantaro let out a sympathetic groan. I sighed heavily in response. The offer now plummeted down to 25,062 Monocoins. I figured, at this point, as long as I did not have the 50 Monocoins, I was still coming out ahead, so I decided to Stay, choosing Box 4.

I was hit with the 25k Monocoin Box exploding in my face. I closed my eyes and shook my head.

Mercifully, however, the offer barely even moved. 25,083 Monocoins. More angry than anything at this point, I chose to Stay, and promptly chose box 7, revealing the 200 Monocoins.

Now came what was labeled as the "Final Offer", of 37,525 Monocoins. There were just two boxes remaining: one had 50 Monocoins, and another had 75k Monocoins. One of them was in my possession...but which one?

I turned to Rantaro. "This is a tough one. The game costs 100 Monocoins to play, and I can either take this offer, or take my chances with my box. What do you think?"

Rantaro shrugged. "Hard to say. I don't envy your position, Shishano. I'd go with your gut."

I thought carefully. Take the 37,525k Monocoins? Or hold out for a chance at 75k? Yet, if I fail, I end up with only 50 Monocoins, losing half the coins I paid to play this game in the first place...

My gut said to Stay, so I stayed.

Now, a new option revealed itself. "Swap?" The game was giving me the option to swap Box 10 for Box 12. Again, one box had 50, and the other had 75k.

However, despite what the odds said, I saw no real point in swapping my box, so I decided to keep it. The game revealed my own box, which then exploded, revealing...

75k Monocoins! The other box then exploded, revealing its mere 50 Monocoins.

"Congrats, Shishano!" Rantaro cheered. After my payout was transferred to my E-Handbook, I decided to talk to him for a bit before playing another game.

"So, Rantaro, anything on your mind lately?"

Rantaro shrugged. "Besides worrying about my missing sisters, and trying to survive this crazy game, not much."

I understood his sentiment. I walked over and sat down in front of the Whack-a-Rakun! game, and gestured for Rantaro to accompany me. Rantaro obliged, as I smoothed my skirt out.

"Yes, this game has a lot of students..." I thought for a moment. "Does the term 'students' even apply to us? We do not really take classes, we have no teacher aside from that robotic raccoon, and we do not get grades or anything either."

Rantaro nodded, his eyes thoughtful. "Yeah, that's true. I'll admit, Shishano, it is true that you are someone that I wanted to spend some time with. I'm surrounded by strong personalities here, with Fuyuhiko and Sakura and Nekomaru..." Rantaro trailed off, then resumed. "And before they died, even Mondo and Gundham and Tenko, too."

I remembered all of them silently. "Yeah...I just dread wondering who will be next."

"I try not to think about it, myself. I mean, I would be really happy if I could become friends with you and everyone else, Shishano. But it seems like tempers always flare up between people here. Fuyuhiko, Mahiru and Hiyoko; Tenko and Mondo; Fuyuhiko and Mondo; Nekomaru and Monorakun over the Devas...I've even heard Kyoko and Korekiyo exchanging less-than-friendly words, though I wouldn't exactly call it an argument."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, hard to know who to make friends with, when the very rules state to kill someone and get away with it. I assure you, I want out of here just as much as everyone else, but...that is one heavy price to pay for freedom, is it not?"

Rantaro nodded grimly. "Yeah, I know what you mean, but none of us belong in here. We still need to work together to get out of this place, no matter what."

I nodded in agreement, admiring his words but seeing no realistic way of breaking out of this place. The rules stated that the only way to leave is to murder another student, AND get away with the crime. While it was true that none of the others had ever been linked to me specifically (due to lack of a body to prove a murder had taken place), there was no way I would actually attempt to murder someone, let the body be found, AND try to get away with it!

...Would I?