9 Someone Everyone Hates

A panel came down from the ceiling, close to the wall.

The music stopped, adding to the anxiety of everyone, forgetting about poker.

The screen flashed and turned on.

The image focused on a middle-aged man wearing glasses, and a wrinkled white shirt under his wool vest. In the background, a scenario filled with computers.

The gentleman on the screen looked striking and unpleasant. He was skinny and his long face clashed with his old-fashioned glasses. His hair was something else_ long and plastered with gel, combed to the right. To Haruki, the man looked like he was out of an anime series from the 80s.

The face on the screen scrutinized each one of them, before starting to speak. So Haruki took the initiative, impatient,

"Yes, we are real and we are stuck! Get us out of here!"

"Oh, it's really true!" the man said, looking over his shoulder at someone out of sight. Looking at the camera again, he greeted them,

"I am Honda Seichiro, responsible for the Otome Game," he said his name carefully.

"Honda-san, something went terribly wrong. And we were sucked into the game. Can you get us out of here?" asked Yoshida Saito, giving the men the benefit of the doubt and addressing him politely.

"Ahem, you connected very early. And," he said in a high-pitched voice, clearing his throat with obvious discomfort, "And it happened like that. Ahem, the system, our Okami, which is an Artificial Intelligence... Ahem, our Okami took care of you. It protected you well, you are safe..."

"What? Did it take care of us? Did it make us safe? A failure? I don't believe it! It's utter bullshit. We almost starved from not having food here! And since when is artificial intelligence necessary for a simple game like otome?!" Sasaki Jun yelled indignantly at the engineer, with clenched fists and an angry face.

"Calm down, gentlemen, please!" Turning his neck again to look to the side, the man ordered, "Make them a feast."

Turning his attention to them, he continued, "I'll be back after the banquet. Gentlemen, enjoy your meal. It's my apology, for now, Sasaki-san." Honda Seichiro said goodbye quickly.

The screen went up, and the room returned to normal.

A slight discomfort followed, and everyone looked at each other. But no one has spoken yet.

When the singer looked Jun in the eye, the 'bad boy' raised an eyebrow,

"Haruki, I'm still waiting to see your cards," asked Jun.

The singer looked at his hand once more and victoriously placed them on the table.

Seriously, Jun turned over his cards one by one.

Yoshida Saito tilted his head slightly, narrowing his eyes.

Jun had the biggest hand.

Yamada Daisuke exclaimed, clapping excitedly,

"Jun-san, you're the best!"

The singer smiled, shaking his head in agreement, although internally disappointed. His previous experience as a junior athlete taught him to have fair play.

Jun deliberately dragged the 100 chips across the table towards him, looking Haruki in the eyes, like a cat. He was implying he would make excellent use of his power to have a slave for a day.

"When are we going to pay gambling debts?" asked Noguchi Takashi, who had smaller debts.

Yoshida Saito twirled his 50 in his fingers, carefully storing it in his vest pocket,

"When we find it convenient, right?" saying that, he turned to Jun.

Jun glanced at him and nodded.

Haruki now couldn't ignore that Jun and Saito didn't sympathize with each other, as this was becoming more and more evident.

An appetizing smell of food filled the room.

"Honda-san was attentive to Jun-san's complaints," said Takashi Noguchi, commenting on the fact.

"But he could have stayed a little longer," Daisuke complained.

"And answered some questions," Haruki added.

"I am going to eat! Aren't you going?" Okane Hinata exclaimed, jumping from the table towards the door.

They discovered a new open path that took them to the ballroom on the ground floor, where Honda-san's apology was served.

Haruki had never seen all those dishes together in one place. Perhaps most of them, only in manga or movies. It was a little tacky, but delicious and in exaggerated quantities.

"Honda-san is wasting away because he just needs to have it drawn! ' exclaimed Haruki, 'But the important thing is that here everything is real for us!"

Everyone agreed with his opinion, taking advantage of the extravagant and expensive delicacies. Today, even the elegant Saito was not frugal.

Although there were several Asian foods that he knew, Haruki could not identify so many European dishes alone. Daisuke and Takashi were the experts in these foreign delicacies and were naming the delicacies, of unpronounceable names: pork, veal, lamb, poultry and pasta, creams, and desserts. Haruki went by picking up a little bit of everything. Screw his low-carb diet!

After satiated, greedy Hinata returned to conjecture on what was happening, "Haruki-senpai, I think your friend went to talk to Honda-san. You can already forgive him."

"I agree it seemed to be that, in the broadcast. Honda-san was checking the veracity of the illustrator's story," Takashi agreed with Hinata.

"Honda-san is a cynic son-of-a-bitch. Blaming it on us. For having accessed the program before the defined date. And exempting his fucking company. As if what they were planning was right," Jun accused.

"Is cursing them your strategy to leave, Sasaki-san?" scoffed Saito.

"Honda-san said he will be back. He was surprised. For it seems that the AI ​​worked without sending them notifications," Daisuke tried to appease the mood and dismiss the conflict, We signed on to give them an hour, so I think the system will soon withdraw us."

"Ah, now I'm not even in a hurry. It started to get fun here," Hinata, who was still chewing, spoke, looking thrilled.

"Yes, Hinata-kun! Now that we know they are working to get us out of this situation, we had better enjoy our last hours on Okami," Daisuke agreed with the senior student.

(CONTINUES)

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