Last chapter, the disguised crew booked a room to use in between the Ticket to Dalkan event's games. But before Seric and Karia left to meet up with the others in the room, he spotted Popshot in the main lobby for the event's competitors. With the risk of Popshot still recognizing Seric's voice even while disguised, Seric followed Karia's advice and asked Amandeath to talk to Popshot for him. The conversation went relatively smoothly, with Popshot hating Seric- but still having the hopes that he was somehow forced to commit his crimes...

Seric's P.O.V.

"Yo." Amandeath says after she and Elio walk back into our private "waiting" room that we booked, interrupting my and Metallic's conversation about how exactly he does his self-repairs. Karia's sitting next to me as well on the room's couch, with me serving as a "wall" between her and Metallic who's on the other side of me. Speaking of,

"Hiya!" Metallic greets Amandeath, but she doesn't reply aside from a small nod.

"She hasn't been as close to him recently, now that I think about it. Hope she isn't abandoning him or something... maybe I'll ask her later." I think to myself with a bit of concern.

"Thanks a lot again for doing this, you two. So how was Popshot?" I ask.

"No prob, was bored anyways. And Popshot seems to be doing alright, based on what you told me about his normal self at least. Was smirking a bit and all, and he seemed to like us too. He does seem kinda stressed though, which makes sense considering his Dad's soul is at stake and all," Amandeath says, which makes me feel a bit good at least- even if he still hates me.

"He said that he's wagering on being able to use his win or high score in general in the games to get his Dad free. Thought I'd mention that in case you were wondering about why he was here at least. Anyways, the kid also said he'd be willing to sell us the ticket if he won." Amandeath says which makes me smile.

"Ooooo. Yet another option for you all to "win", beautiful." Quilline says from across the room as she's tinkering with one of her rifles that she took out of her pouch... blegh. Happiness tainted now.

Regardless- Amandeath heads to one of the open chairs by the back of the room. I assume that means she's done, so I open my mouth to thank her ag-

"I found a way to discreetly ask him about his thoughts on you, by the way." She interrupts my thoughts which makes me freeze- but that quickly turns to dullness.

"Why? I already know he probably hates me now." I reply with a scoff- which was probably a bit too mean but, I did warn Amandeath that I didn't want her to ask about me.

"Nah. He said he thinks he's stupid to think it but, he still hopes that you were forced to commit your crimes. Ya know, due to how much he liked you and thought you were cool back when you met. And that's technically true so... lucky you." Amandeath says which makes me laugh in disbelief.

"What? No way. Emilis, is she lying here?" I turn to Elio as he's leaning by a wall near the closed entrance to our room.

"Nope." Is all he says... and so I start to feel "butterflies" fill my chest.

"Wow... I... huh. Good to know." Is all I manage to say as the memories of him that I tried to shove away start flowing back to me. I only knew him for a day or two but... considering my amnesia, and how little friends I have due to being a criminal? It still means a lot to me.

"Nice. I'm happy for you Serreno, even if I have a grudge against the kid. Still though, not trying to be a buzzkill but... you know you still can't meet him, right? Too risky. Maybe someday but... not now. Sorry." Karia says from next to me which- yeah. It hurts but... yeah.

"I agree with her this one time, even if it stings to say so. Not like I'm fond of Popshot anyways either. Back when I knew the boy he acted better than everyone, and was quite cocky. Plus he was also was rude to his captain, despite her saving him and giving him everyone he owned." Metallic adds with a few nods as he crosses his arms... yeah I'm not going to stand for that.

"No offense but, you're probably a bit biased considering you and him didn't get along." I say which makes him open his mouth to respond but- he doesn't end up talking right away.

"...Perhaps. But I'm also trying to protect you. I've recently realized that people can hide the evil parts of themselves VERY well- and so they'll hurt you when they finally reveal their true selves. But what hurts even more, is when the person is careless and their negative traits have been secretly on display the entire time. Then you get hurt, A.N.D. get extra hurt after realizing how much of a fool you were for not seeing the warning signs... and so I'm just trying to warn you. Biased I may be, I'm certain even you can see some warning signs coming from that boy." Metallic says which... I don't agree with. Not fully. Especially since he was pretty clearly taking a stab at Karia there too.

Quilline chips in, "So you're basically saying to watch out for 'red flags'? Pretty sure all of us are red flags though."

"No! Not Serreno, whatever a "red flag" might mean. Not Serreno. He's a good person. He doesn't fit with monsters like us." Metallic says which makes me happy- but also hurts since he's implying he isn't good for me. Not like I'm perfect either...

"Emilis too. Me and Katelym are also trying to be more moral... I think." Amandeath says- yeah, fair enough from what I can tell. Elio doesn't respond to that though.

"Emilis will be a blood red flag once you all leave though~" Quilline says with a hum... no one's ballsy enough to say anything to her this time. Even if we are planning on killing her if we get the chance, but that would be when she isn't at full strength- and when we don't need her anymore.

"Wait- what if she's actually hoping we try to kill her? So that she'd get double the glory from taking on both the Hopian Army AND us?" The morbid thought comes to my mind... I try to snap out of that thinking and focus back on Metallic's face.

"Anyways. My point is Serreno, since I may not always be here to protect you... is just to be careful of who you choose to have as pals. Even if you don't agree with me on Popshot- yet." Metallic says- guess he was just trying to teach me a lesson then? Huh. Normally he'd do that through a story... ahem.

"Right. Will admit, he obviously should've treated you better back when you were on the crew Metallic. One thing I can't really excuse him for." I somewhat lie- since Metallic really used to be a LOT to deal with. So I can't fully blame Popshot if he couldn't deal with Metallic's obsessiveness anymore... but still, Metallic didn't ever mean him any harm I doubt.

"Indeed. Thanks for giving me a listening ear pal." Metallic replies with a smile as he pinches my earlobe... uh, he doesn't let go of it though. I won't stop him though, since yeah- like he said before all these new sensations must be pretty overwhelming for him.

...

"Oh! Also. I've had them in my pouch for safekeeping for now since we haven't gone to a different floor yet, but you'll all need your totally legit ID's that fit with our new appearances. Before we head out for the first game at least. Don't want to get caught by surprise if a random ID check happens after all~" Quilline interrupts the silence- phew, so she wasn't lying about getting us fakes before then. I guess that she got the ID's made using pictures of the eerily human "mannequins" we swapped our appearances with, right after she bought them a couple days ago.

***

2 hours later...

Elio's P.O.V.

"Welcommmmme ladies and gents and all you lovely others! Whether you're spectating these events in person, or watching from the comfort of your homes- we're honored to have you with us tonight. We hope that the games for our Ticket to Dalkan event will be able to take your minds off of some of the tragic, and quite frankly terrifying things that've been happening around here lately." Domino Afolabi's voice booms from the mounted TV screen above me, that I'm watching at the now empty lobby bar. The filthy rich CEO himself however is standing on a big circular stage, that's hovering above the main floor where this game's taking place. Pretty neat tech, one that I don't fully understand even now.

"Before we get started today, if ya'll wouldn't mind, let's take a moment to remember those who we've lost over the past couple of months..." Hm. I take another quick sip of my blue cocktail, put it down, close my eyes, then actually look down at the wooden counter beneath me- as Domino pauses and encourages that moment of silence.

Normally I'd roll my eyes at bullshit like this, considering how scummy this Casino's past is in particular. But considering I technically played a part in helping to kill some of those people... I bow my head in silence for once.

...

"Alright. Let's begin. We've got a whopping 352 competitors here today, so we'll be splitting this game up into multiple rounds- with each competitor being placed in a random round. So I hope no players were expecting to cheat with any of their crafty friends, keeekehehehe!" Domino laughs which makes me cringe... apparently other people somehow find it "entertaining" though, including the spectators.

"Guess I'll have to help the others cheat through multiple rounds then, if they all won't be playing in the same round. Hope I won't get too bored doing it multiple times." I think to myself as I shift to get off the barstool I'm sitting on- but stop after realizing that I should probably wait and see if Domino changed the rules of the game, as compared to what was posted online before.

After all, the plan we came up with for this card game is that I'd just not play at all, and get 0 points this time. The reason being so that I can get the other five a guaranteed high score, since there probably wouldn't be a way for me to cheat using "I'm the Controller" while I'm playing.

The show's camera, which is planted on a drone I'm guessing- flies away from the floating stage that Domino is on and instead points down to the big circular white table that's on the main floor. Damn, it's gotta have like 50 people sitting around it already. Also in the center of the table is a hole that's filled by a giant robot that's painted to look creepily human, with a white dress shirt and tanned skin. It also has extra long arms that I'm guessing can reach across the entire table to hand out cards to every player. The creepy factor is also raised by the fact that the robot only has a torso and no legs... will admit, kinda interested to see it in action though.

"Now: let's get to the rules of this game! Our lovely card dealer and the mascot of this game, Colker, will be handling the distribution of cards and determining who wins each round, just so you all know." Domino's voice still booms from the TV even with the camera being away from him now.

"Let's play, BABY!" The card dealer robot itself answers with a clearly artificial voice. Would say it's a stylistic choice but, I'm guessing it's because Colker just isn't a self-aware or highly developed robot like Restroid was for example. It probably just has predetermined dialogue, and some cheap basic text-to-speech stuff for it's voice.

"I like your attitude Colker, but hold on a sec alright? Gotta explain how this works! On that note, with our hefty amount of competitors here with us today- we realized that playing with a normal deck of cards wouldn't work... so we made our own damn deck! The suits will be the same as any normal cade game, BUT- numbers go from 2 to 30 now to make up for the increase! Of course this means a much bigger deck will be in play, and the values of the Kings and Queens n' all will rank above 30, instead of 10." Domino explains- OK good, so still the same as what leakers were saying it would be online.

"However! On that note- the Kings and Queens have been sent to the guillotine, because they're being replaced in this Hopian Army sponsored game! A Jack is now a Sergeant, a Queen an Officer, a King a Commander, and the indomitable Ace is now a Head Commander!" Domino exclaims as the new kinds of cards are shown on the broadcast.

I chuckle as I'm pretty sure I can hear some booing coming from the live spectators when another camera pans to them as they sit in the sidelines- yikes.

"As for the gameplay itself: with our modified cards, we'll be running a massive game of blackjack, with the number the players can't pass without going bankrupt now being 51 instead of 21! There'll be 20 turns per round, 5k tokens given to each player to use at the start of their round, and the winners will be determined by whoever has the most tokens by the end of the round! And of course, losing all of your tokens before the 20 turns are up will disqualify you early..."

"Alright- time to get going, still not sure if any the crew are in the first round." I think to myself as I get off of my stool and start walking away for real this time, with Quilline having already paid for my drink beforehand as an early payment for being her "henchman"... could've been petty and denied it but, I know better not to now. For now.

After a bit of walking through the dead lobby, I reach our room and go inside- making sure the door is locked after I open it and close it.

I walk over to the couch after that to grab a pillow, drop it on the floor- and crouch down to use the pillow to cushion my knees. Finally I sigh and close my eyes, as I plant my hands down on the carpeted floor and say "I'm the Controller".

"No wonder this place needs fucking human batteries to generate this much energy." I think to myself as my sight gets barraged by the thousands and thousands of shining blue lines of electrical current flowing through the Casino, which my power let's me see. I panic for a sec as I almost forget where to find the game-table that's a lot of rooms away from here- but I find it a few seconds later, thanks to the unique and big-ass electric machine that is Colker the robot card dealer.

"Ok, now let's see if I can find any of their rings..." I think to myself as I try to focus in on all of the pieces of tech that are on/in the players at the table. One person seems to have a heart pacing device in their chest, one person has a... cylindrical vibrating thing near their waist- oh. Ew.

"Real classy."

Anyways, I scan over the rest of the people at the table- until I finally see the shape of the electrical currents that should make up the inside of one of the rings-with-a-screen that we bought 5 of in advance- and that the crew put on their fingers before leaving the lobby.

Not sure who exactly is wearing this ring that I'm detecting but, doesn't matter- even Metallic seemed to understand how we'll be using them to cheat. On that note I do another quick scan across the room to make sure I'm not missing anyone else from our crew who may coincidentally be in the same round, but I don't see anyone.