When Valerius arrived at Room Two, Himeko and Kafka were in relatively better shape than the others—though even they couldn't hide their boredom.
"Ladies," Valerius said calmly, "a game console. One point per person. Interested?"
Same terms as before. He made the offer again.
"No need. What do you think?"
Himeko rejected it without hesitation. She was bored, but not enough to play games—especially not with Kafka.
"I don't need it either," Kafka said flatly. She had no interest in games at all.
"All right. Goodbye, then."
The deal fell through, but Valerius didn't seem bothered. There was plenty of time.
[Firefly]: Good thing it's Kafka this time.
[Blade]: Mm.
[Silver Wolf]: What do you mean by that? If it were me, I'd buy it once and never touch it again. You think anyone here could outlast me? I'd stay locked in for 200 days.
Silver Wolf felt she was the perfect fit. Buy the console once, then just grind it out. A mere hundred days? Easy.
[Rosaria]: One point for something to kill time isn't a bad deal.
[Lynette]: For one point, it's acceptable.
[Screwllum]: Not necessarily. Once one trades with Valerius, their resolve weakens. Holding onto points afterward becomes difficult.
[Dr. Ratio]: Agreed. Once a person compromises once, they'll keep lowering their bottom line.
[Zhongli]: A sound observation.
[Ruan Mei]: It's likely Valerius will offer even harder-to-refuse trades later.
Many felt that one point wasn't much—time was long, after all.
But those who thought faster had already noticed the trap.
This was only a game console.
What would come next?
More than a few began to wonder—if Valerius really offered something they wanted, could they still hold out?
After visiting all four rooms, Valerius had completed only one transaction.
That alone made him reassess the group.
Still too early, he thought.
He returned the food cart, then headed to Room One to install the console for Jean and Kuki Shinobu.
"Mr. Valerius," Shinobu asked curiously, "how many games are on it?"
"One."
Both of them froze.
A whole point… for one game?
"Heh, don't rush." Valerius smiled. "This is the world's best-selling game. Every round plays differently."
"…That helps," Shinobu said, finally relaxing a bit. Even with one game, it could pass the time—and world's best-selling sounded impressive.
"So what game is it?" Jean asked. "It must be amazing."
"Heh." Valerius grinned smugly.
"Tetris."
"Oh!"
Neither of them had any idea what Tetris was—but if it sold the most copies in the world, it had to be incredible.
Valerius inserted a yellow cartridge into the console and smiled brightly.
"Installation complete. Enjoy yourselves."
"Thank you, Mr. Valerius."
After he left, both women turned their attention to the screen.
Jean hadn't wanted the console at first—but since they'd bought it, they might as well use it.
"Come on, let's try."
She handed a controller to Shinobu. The two of them sat cross-legged in front of the TV and started the game.
[Silver Wolf]: World's best-selling game? I want to try it.
[Firefly]: If it's number one, it should kill some time.
[Trailblazer]: What genre do you think it is?
[Silver Wolf]: RPG.
[Firefly]: Action.
[Qingque]: Strategy.
[Jing Yuan]: Galgame.
[Sushang]: WHAT?! General Jing Yuan plays galgames?!
[Fu Xuan]: You—step down immediately. The Luofu cannot afford this disgrace!
[Ningguang]: What's a galgame? Why is everyone reacting like this?
[March 7th]: Dating sim.
[Trailblazer]: Dating sim.
[Yanqing]: G-General…?
Yanqing was stunned. What does he even play all day?!
[Black Swan]: Unexpected…
[Feixiao]: The Luofu is doomed.
[Jiaoqiu]: "Season of Love.JPG"—found it in General Feixiao's drawer.
[Feixiao]: ...
[Yunli]: Yaoguang isn't far behind.
[Valerius]: Kindred spirits! Generals, contact me sometime—I've got even better ones.
Even Valerius hadn't expected two Xianzhou generals to be into dating sims. The mental image was painfully mismatched.
[Silver Wolf]: Uh… doesn't this look a bit primitive?
At that moment, Jean had already started playing.
All the viewers saw were blocks of different shapes falling from the top of the screen. Jean could only rotate them and move them sideways.
[Trailblazer]: This is the world's best-selling game?
[March 7th]: That's an 8-bit console!
[Silver Wolf]: Is this even 100 KB?
Everyone watching was dumbfounded.
This was the world's best-selling game?
That's it?
What a scam.
Silver Wolf's opinion of Valerius dropped sharply.
A game smaller than one megabyte—and he charged one whole point for it?
Robbery in broad daylight.
She could recreate this thing in minutes.
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