Pointless Death Game 7

Adonis: ...I don’t understand. What is Tenshouin-senpai hoping to accomplish by cooperating with a virus who is hurting everyone?

Rei: Who knows? Even I cannot see the full picture at this moment in time. However, I am certain that he is in cahoots with Gatekeeper.

Adonis: Cahoots?

Rei: They’re working toward each other’s interests.

Looking around at the situation in Chuugoku, this is the only conclusion I could reach.

It is the SS Administration Committee which determines the contents of the SS Qualifying Rounds, and Gatekeeper stands at the very top—

In other words, Gatekeeper is the one who decides what happens during the Qualifying Rounds... And there are some inexplicable things happening here and there.

I imagine there are a number of things Gatekeeper did not decide on his own—including those troublesome orders.

I have the feeling that Tenshouin-kun has influenced his decisions.

Of course, I cannot be absolutely sure this is Tenshouin-kun’s work. But it does not change that someone other than Gatekeeper is likely involved.

No. This is the conclusion I’ve come to as a result of looking into the unnatural, unsettling details I’ve noticed.

We may not know the current state of the other regions due to the restrictions on the information we can access.

But we can get a good grasp on it by merely looking around at the Chuugoku region itself.

Adonis: ...Hm.

Rei: In the end, this is all just conjecture. It’s very well possible that while we are stranded in isolation here, those in Chuugoku are hosting far more typical Qualifying Rounds.

tho

Adonis: More typical? What do you mean by that?

Rei: That perhaps, things are going as originally planned for the idols stationed in Chuugoku—that they are earning SSL$ and otherwise carrying out normal idol activities.

This is what I’ve concluded after examining the images of the desert that we’ve been sent.

The number of idols being forced to play strange games in the desert are too few, too unbalanced.

Chuugoku is supposed to be a gathering of the best of the best, and yet those big names are nowhere to be found in the desert.

Most of these idols are in the same position as us—famous only in certain circles.

Adonis: Ah... It’s true that the Chuugoku region was supposed to have much more influential idols than UNDEAD.

Rei: Yes. But there are no such idols in the desert. At the very least, Kaoru-kun and Hinata-kun do not appear to have encountered any of them.

I had wondered if they had hidden away in a lodging facility in the safety zones, but there’s no evidence of that.

If they were so powerful and famous, they would do something to prove themselves worthy of that description.

And the only idols who upload videos to OasisTube are those of equal or lower standing to us.

Adonis: In other words...?

Rei: Those who have been thrown into the same baffling circumstances as us... That is to say, those who have been tossed into the desert or some other unknown location—

They are only the ones whom the Administration expects will fail the qualifying rounds.

We are being made to waste our time here—

To exchange the SSL$ we’ve earned by uploading videos with some meaningless currency called Desert Coins—but in order to save our companions, we have no choice but to do so.

And so, while we are unable to accumulate our own SSL$, the powerful units are carrying out normal idol activities in Chuugoku, steadily amassing their own reserves.

We don’t know when we will be released from this situation... But I imagine it will be after the wealth gap has widened such that a comeback is no longer possible.

And just as planned, just as the Administration expects, we will fail the Qualifying Rounds.

These Qualifying Rounds are set up so that the Administration will save who they wish to save. The other regions are probably much the same.

Adonis: If that’s what you think, Sakuma-senpai, then it may be true.

But then, why are we being treated this way? Why does the Administration, that Gatekeeper person—why do they all hate us so much?

Rei: I’m sure they do not hate us. As I said, they are in cahoots with someone.

It is likely Tenshouin-kun who wants us out of the Qualifying Rounds.

Gatekeeper would have only send us to our deaths at his request, or because he was able to surmise by himself what his intentions were—

To eliminate the purported leader of the Five Oddballs, a formidable foe who Tenshouin-kun cannot ignore.

Rei: In other words, I am to blame for the pitiful situation we have found ourselves in.

I feel bad. For Koga, who was dearly looking forward to SS, and for you and Kaoru-kun, too.

And of course, for our fans, who were excited to see what we would do.

...The past leaves scars on our hearts forever. Can we never free ourselves from these chains?

Adonis: ......

Rei: However, as you can see, I am forbidden to even speak this much out loud. I was frustrated, unable to share reason or apology as I’ve just done.

Adonis: So your orders really are that you can’t speak?

Rei: No, that’s not exactly correct.

The secret order I was given was to without fail follow the commands given to me—by 2wink.

Adonis: ...? By 2wink? What’s the purpose of that secret order?

Rei: I haven’t figured that out. This is only a guess, but—

In some circumstances, you may need to make rather regrettable decisions... I’d like to believe in the Aoi twins, but I also understand how they feel.

Adonis: ...?

Rei: Practically everything depends on 2wink now. Are they the good children everyone expects them to be—

Or are they simply monsters whom no one can comprehend, whom no one can control? The answer to such a question will decide our fates, as well.

jp proofing: Moricchiichan
eng proofing: Soph