Chapter 99: Deadman Wonderland Side Part 9

In Deadman Wonderland, there is no such thing as money. Well, there is a replacement that acts as money - Cast Point (CP).

If you have CP, you can buy clothes, alcohol, cigarettes, and all sorts of things. It wasn't stated in the rule book, but there are rumors that you can even shorten your sentence if you've got enough CP.

Not that it matters to me. Shortening the death row penalty just means I would die faster. No thanks.

To survive in this place, CP plays a vital role. Without CP, you will only be able to live at the lowest standards.

Candy plays an equally important role if you want to survive as well. But unlike CP, which you can live without, the moment you don't have candy, you're screwed.

Why? Because candy is the cure to the poison being injected into your neck by the necklet. The time limit is three days; we die if we don't ingest a candy every three days.

In the cafeteria, I ordered myself a scrumptious meal of hamburger steak. I "borrowed" some of the CP from the dude who stole my candy on Day 1. CP won't grow from staying inside the card, so why not spend it on treating myself?

BANG!

But there are always these people who just refuse to have any moment of peace, aren't there?

The "local bully" had a short crop of black hair and light brown eyes, a necklace around his neck, and a luxurious feather cape draped around him.

Phew...rich kids. He was currently bullying an old man who claimed that he spent two years collecting those CP. Usually, I would sympathize and stand up for him, but in this prison filled with nothing but the worst of the worsts criminals, I don't trust anyone here. Except for Shiro, of course. Mainly because she's simple-minded and only thinks of playing and eating.

The bully took a bowl of ramen and tossed it at the old man, scalding him and producing more screams from him.

"GAHAHAHA! Hey, be happy!" The man laughed boisterously, "You've got more hair now!"

Ignoring the daily occurrence in this place, I made my way to my seat, doing my best to erase my presence to the very minimum.

"Hey, you there!"

But of course, all three plot, fate, and luck failed me yet again as the bully noticed me.

Like, how?!

"GAHAHA! I've never seen you around, kid; you a newb? The name's Kouzuji." Kouzuji greeted me "friendlily."

There are two ways to get out of this.

One, ignore him, earn Kouzuji's ire, and get attacked before beating him up.

Two, face him, earn Kouzuij's ire, and get attacked before beating him up.

Hmm... it seems like both choices lead to the exact same outcome.

Sigh...this place sucks.

"What do you want from me?" Since I can't avoid confrontation either way, I might as well assert my dominance so that no one would be like this retard.

"Huh?" Kouzuij immediately threw a punch at me. As expected, none of these people are good people.

Dodging the punch casually and putting down my expensive hamburger steak, I raised my leg and stopped his punch mid-air.

"Now, if you wanna fight, let me put down my food first. After all, food is expensive here, isn't it?"

"You little-"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm a little brat." I said as I twisted my leg such that Kouzuij's fist also turned, causing him to topple down to the floor, "The insults are getting repetitive. Can you come up with something more interesting?"

The whole cafeteria became speechless at the sudden turn of events. They must have thought I would be like any other prisoner here - tortured and fearful of a guy with such big proportions.

"Y-You!!"

"Hao, hai... I'm Fuutarou. Nice to meet you." I spoke as my legs got ready to kick the standing man down again, "I hope we won't get along."

Without wasting any more time on an extra, I kicked his chin cleanly, resulting in him fainting in the middle of the cafeteria. Afterward, I picked up my luxurious lunch and walked out of the cafeteria to dine in a quiet place.

∞

"Fuutarou! Let's play!" A head suddenly popped up in front of me, and I almost spit out my drink from the surprise. Hanging from the ceiling was Shiro, and she widely grinned as she asked.

"Shiro...can you normally appear in front of me next time? If this keeps up, I won't live for very long..."

"Oh no! Are you sick, Fuutarou! You need candy!"

Um...sigh...whatever.

"So, what do you want to play?"

"Let's race together!"

"Race?"

"Yeah! There are a lot of toys there!" Shiro thought for a while before adding, "Anpan is also there!"

Anpan? Looking at the hamburger steak in front of me, I blinked.

"Do you want some of my food?"

"Really? Can I have it? Ah~" Shiro asked, opening her mouth wide open as she closed her eyes, waiting for the food to start moving by itself into her mouth.

"Back to the great old times, huh?" I muttered as I started feeding this child.

"Anyway, what rules are there in the race?" I asked as I fed this girl. Nothing is normal in this Wonderland, and while I'm not exactly aiming to win or anything (Anpan isn't a very grand prize when you have steak in front of you), it doesn't hurt to get prepared.

"Rules? Snacks are once a day, but Shiro eats five! Fuutarou don't follow the rules if Fuutarou don't want to!" Shiro cheered as she munched on the meat, oil spreading all over her mouth.

I wasn't asking for that, but Shiro was Shiro.

Taking a napkin, I wiped her mouth clean after finishing the rest of the meal.

Finally! Some entertainment for me that isn't fighting!

It's time for a race!

∞

"...Aaaand, the race is about to begin! Deadman Wonderland's smash-hit show, the dog race show!" An announcement could be heard throughout the entire stadium, "We do not recommend customers under the age of fifteen to..."

It was so loud that it could even be heard from underground, where Shiro and I were, along with other competitors.

"An! Pan! An! Pan!" Shiro cheered with no holding back, ignoring everyone and everything happening around her.

"You really like Anpan, huh?"

"Shiro loves Anpan! But Shiro loves snacks even more!"

A sudden hush arrived in the room as we were having fun, as everybody but Shiro and me quietened down.

"Hey, there's a lot of our friends here today! Well, the reward is 100,000 CP...I've got-"

"Oi, Kouzuji!"

"Huh? Who...you..." Kouzuji's eyes narrowed as he noticed me. Waving towards him with a bright smile, I mocked, "How's the head? I'm surprised that you could even make it for this event."

"I'll kill you..."

"Come, then." My smile never faltered as I continued taunting him, "I'm right here. A weak, middle-school student that's barely three-quarters your height."

I've never killed a single human in my life before. But I'm getting more and more irritated day by day. Yesterday was some random dude with a shovel, and today was a thug who thought of himself to be all-powerful.

I've been sent here because I "killed" my entire class and all my friends. Maybe it's time to actually do what I was imprisoned for. After all, everyone here is on death row; getting rid of one early doesn't affect my conscience much.

"You-"

"Hey! What's going on here?!" The door to the room suddenly opened, and a guard entered, eyeing everyone suspiciously. His sight landed on Kouzuji a tad longer than the other prisoners before eventually speaking when no one else spoke, "You lot get in the docks! We start in ten minutes!"

Standing at the beginning line, the emcee announced the prizes again, which Shiro was very interested in. Without saying much, the race started.

Everyone started running, and within seconds, we had reached the first round.

"The first big hurdle: 'The slice and Dice'!" The emcee shouted in excitement, "Will the contestants be able to get past the bladed pendulums!?"

This stage wasn't too hard if you could predict the path of the swinging pendulum. It wasn't as though it was completely random; the law of thermodynamics helped make my decisions.

Even without it, my reflexes are high enough to dodge a simple pendulum swing.

The second stage came immediately after the pendulums.

This time, it was slightly more challenging as the arrows didn't shoot out periodically, meaning it was purposefully aimed at the contestants and not just acting as an obstacle to pass.

As for the three lackeys who are about to jump on top of me...I couldn't ignore them even if I wanted to. The noise and screams they made on their way down were obnoxiously loud for some grown men.

Sigh...

Bang! Looking at the culprit who pushed me away from the jumping men, I smiled wryly, "What is it now, Shiro?"

"Fuutarou wide open!" Shiro cheered as I pushed the attackers to the side, where they got electrocuted to death. Surprisingly, for my first kill, I felt no feelings towards it.

I mean, sure, there were some pent-up irritation and frustration from being in this trial for so long that I wanted to release some steam, but towards the action of killing, there were minimal feelings involved.

"He's clumsy. You can't be like that!" Shiro casually commented while staring at the floating piece of burnt meat in the water, "Because Shiro want eat Anpan with Fuutarou."

This girl...

"Let's continue then."

The rounds were actually pretty fun, if you ignore the dead bodies and pools of blood around, that is.

There was the laser-tag game where you used tools and weapons instead of harmless lasers. There was the dodgeball of death, but with a spiked iron ball rather than a harmless rubber ball. There was a suspension bridge game, but instead of falling into water or mud if you lose, you fall into a wave of landmines which blew everyone up.

With Shiro around, the games only got more fun as she kept making more problems for the other contestants, which always ended up with their deaths.

For example, she rode a bull and literally bulldozed everyone in her path. Where did she get the robotic bull? We all had no idea.

She also managed to cut the ropes off at crucial times, leaving an entire row of people who were holding on to the rope to fall into the landmines, creating a rainbow of explosion.

Ahh...the sounds of explosions might now be my favorite thing to hear right now. Oops...better not go down that road.

When we got to the final stage, I saw everyone's tattered and worn-out clothes. Compared to Shiro and my pristine and clean clothing, it looked as though they had just gone to hell and come back.

"And nooooow, what you've all been waiting for! The final stage is a battle royale of all the victorious contestants!"

"The rules are simple! Whoever has the deadman ball when the timer runs out wins!"

"Hold ball whole time and win!" Shiro cheered by my side. Am I really that stupid that a simple girl like Shiro is constantly trying to tell me how to win? Or is it just because she's so simple that she's just speaking whatever is on your mind.

"Start!"

Immediately after the ball was thrown, everybody dashed towards the ball. Suddenly, a deadman face/logo appeared under my feet.

Having a sudden bad feeling, I immediately leaped towards another panel and landed safely. The others behind me who couldn't stop in time were not so lucky, directly falling into the ground filled with bloody spikes.

"The floor panels will deteriorate at a rate of one every five seconds! Who will survive?! Don't drop the ball - or your heads!" The emcee loudly crackled as everybody stared coldly at the two bodies being pierced through.

*****************

A/N: My bad habit of writing canon arrived once more. This is what happens when you refer to the manga as you write because you have already forgotten everything.

Sigh, I haven't written anything in 7 weeks now. School really sucks~

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https://www.patréon.com/spirits_everywhere. We are currently 8 chapters ahead~