"[Curse]!!!"
"It's a [Curse]!!!"
"!!"
The three newcomers also reacted at this moment, looking at Yuki at the door and wanting to follow her immediately.
At the same time, in extreme fear, a deep resentment towards Yuki surged in their hearts. They resented her for running so fast without even warning them.
However, resentment was for later; the most urgent matter now was escape!!
The Glasses Man was still the quickest to react, but his first instinct wasn't to run. Instead, he abruptly pushed a scrawny newcomer next to him to the ground!
When danger strikes, it's not important whether you run fast; what matters is running faster than your companions. Clearly, in a crisis, the Glasses Man had a profound understanding of this "truth."
It's just... he seemed a bit too eager. The [Curse] was still far from them, yet he had already attacked his companion.
However, the next scene made him even more dumbfounded—
"Saotome, come back!"
A voice familiar to the Glasses Man and the others rang out from the cafeteria entrance.
The [Curse] that was crawling towards them instantly stopped its limbs, unwilling black smoke overflowing from its mouth, and crimson sparks flew between its shark-like fangs.
Its greedy gaze swept over the Glasses Man and the others, finally fixing on the scrawny man who had been pushed down, seemingly craving his flesh and blood.
But in the end, it still let out a few unwilling roars and retreated in the direction of the voice.
Hmm... it retreated backward, its gaze still fixed on the scrawny man, its charred, twisted face filled with greed for flesh and blood.
And following its movements, everyone finally saw Hayashi.
"This... is this reasonable?"
The Glasses Man stopped, staring in astonishment as the [Curse] retreated like a vicious dog to Hayashi's feet, prostrating itself on the ground. He asked in disbelief, his voice choked.
"Astonishing!"
Yuki replied.
She had, at some point, led Asuna around from the back door and returned to face everyone.
Ignoring the stunned Glasses Man and the others, she first looked down at the female [Curse] in front of Hayashi.
Watching its attitude of both awe and greed towards Hayashi, many conjectures flashed through her mind. Finally, unable to suppress her curiosity, she directly asked Hayashi,
"How did you do that?"
"Suou-senpai is experienced; why don't you take a guess?"
Hayashi lightly patted the female [Curse]'s head, his tone slightly teasing as he retorted.
"I wouldn't dare be called 'senpai.' This is my first time seeing a newcomer capable of taming a [Curse] at their first dungeon. Just call me Yuki. Let me guess..."
Yuki's delicate face regained an elegant smile, as if it wasn't she who had just fled in disarray. She calmly analyzed:
"A bet's a bet; you won a gamble against this [Curse] and thus subdued it, didn't you?"
Although she appeared calm, her heart was already in turmoil, exclaiming that Hayashi was a monster!
A newcomer! On the first day!
Yukino-san... is he really a student? Does he not have a side job?
"As expected of Suou-senpai, you guessed correctly. 'A bet's a bet,' I tried it, and these gambling [Curse]s really do follow the rules!"
Following Yuki's suggested address, Hayashi said casually.
He spoke lightly, as if winning against these [Curse]s was easy, but Yuki knew it was far from it.
Hyakkaou Private Academy was founded on gambling, and none of its students were mediocre gamblers. Even if not all were gambling gods, they were at least skilled gamblers.
Yuki dared to gamble with a [Curse] only because she observed that student had the worst gambling skills.
Moreover, the price of an arm was something she could afford—it would regenerate when she returned to the villa anyway. Or she could directly use a cursed tool to exempt the cost? But compared to consuming a cursed tool once, the cost of a severed arm was smaller.
She bet an arm and won against the [Curse], gaining nothing more than a student ID card.
But what about Hayashi? What did he stake? His brains?
This guy is simply audacious. Such an act, if he lost, would be recklessness; if he won, it would be courage. And he won.
In the dungeon, only the outcome matters!
"A bet's a bet'... winning against this [Curse]..."
Suppressing the surging waves in her heart, Yuki had already acknowledged Hayashi's strength and decided to bring him into her team with Yukino and Kaguya.
It had been a long time since she had seen such a promising newcomer!
He was exactly the good teammate they urgently needed.
"Saotome Mary."
"?"
Hayashi's abrupt words startled Yuki. He then pointed to the female [Curse] at his feet.
"Oh, that's the name of this female [Curse]."
Yuki suddenly understood, but for her, a name was far less important than Hayashi's method of victory.
Unable to contain her curiosity, she pressed on:
"Hayashi-san, could you enlighten me on how you won against this female [Curse]?"
"It's simple; she cheated."
Hayashi said frankly. He had no intention of hiding it; with the ability to reload at any time, he feared nothing, and besides, Yuki had indeed shown goodwill towards him from the start.
"Hm?"
Yuki was stunned, unable to comprehend for a moment—the opponent cheated but lost?! How could this [Curse] lose if it dared to cheat?
While Yuki was pondering, Asuna behind her was equally confused.
However, what attracted her attention more than that was the [Curse] at Hayashi's feet!
—That fully demonized Saotome!
Its hideous face terrified Asuna to no end, but she knew she had to overcome this fear, so she endured the trembling and forced herself to look directly at it!
Her peeking and poking manner was just like a little penguin shivering behind Yuki, its 'mother.'
"So... did you expose her cheating, or did you turn her trick against her?"
Yuki mused for a moment, offering two possibilities.
Gambling and cheating are fundamentally one; cheating is the essence of a gamble, provided... it isn't exposed.
"Something like that."
Hayashi nodded and said.
In fact, he had already prepared to use the 'reload' function to strategize and repeatedly test the waters.
Who knew that the gamble Saotome proposed was exactly like the one between her and Jabami Yumeko in 'Kakegurui'—a voting rock-paper-scissors game?
A gamble that required the votes of surrounding students. And all these students were her accomplices. By having all participating students act as her 'shills,' she created a guaranteed winning situation.
Although Saotome had a significant advantage.
However, in the original work, Jabami Yumeko had already cracked this game. Hayashi didn't need 'death' to test it; he directly exposed her cheating method. Saotome was caught cheating and naturally lost.
Thus, this character, who in the original work was a blonde, twin-tailed beauty with a beautiful appearance, an S-personality, and extremely high self-esteem, became his 'possession.'
The slight pity was—after losing the gamble, Saotome reverted to her evil [Curse] form.
As Hayashi and Yuki conversed with a prostrated [Curse] at their feet, the atmosphere on the other side dropped to freezing point.
The Glasses Man was being stared at by the scrawny man with eyes filled with extreme anger. The betrayal at the brink of life and death had made them mortal enemies.
The Glasses Man regretted it now, but he didn't regret pushing the person. Instead, he regretted habitually stepping on Hayashi when he first flattered Yuki.
Now, looking at 'Saotome' beside Hayashi, seeing her terrifying charcoal-like body and sharp, spear-like claws, he was extremely afraid. Afraid that Hayashi would discover him and retaliate.
However, it was clear that his worries were unnecessary; neither Hayashi nor Yuki truly cared about him.
In Yuki's eyes, such infighting was far too common. These people generally wouldn't survive more than a few dungeons.
TL Notes:
Sorry for the late update…
Wait… There is no schedule in the first place. Anyway, I was busy editing previous chapters… The author uses three different terms for monster (so far, ghoul, ghost, and cursed), so I just unite them as curse (previously ghost but it doesn't really cover all in my opinion.)