Yikes! My hands are numb now due to my intense nervousness. Just thinking about what could happen if I won makes me so excited! But... if we lose... we could just become online Idols.
With Hanamaru Kyouka, I entered the event room of the building and saw... that It's much bigger and wider than the event room of the league. What's actually bothering me is the people gathered here.
They all have formal clothing and It seems all of them are managers of a professional Idol group. Even professionals are aiming for the Tokyo Dome, huh? Even if they're professionals, they can't just perform on it.
I even see Ryota Kaneshiro and other managers from the league. It seems like... this is a battle of managers. The manager that could get the Tokyo Dome will... emerge victoriously!
Seeing how many professionals gathered here, It actually makes me realize how serious this is. Hanamaru Kyouka just looked in my eyes and smirked at me.
After some minutes, an announcer finally arrived. I gulped down some saliva and prepared for the announcer's speech.
"All right. It's already time to start. But before we start, I would like to inform you that the total of representative that participated in this preliminaries are..."
From what I can see, there are 100 people here. As expected, there are so many people aiming for the Tokyo Dome. It's a very huge opportunity after all. Even the professionals will desire it. So It's 100 participants, huh?
"7,000. The total of representatives that participated in these preliminaries, is 7,000."
What? What... the hell...? I looked around me and saw the shocked faces of the other managers. No one would even imagine how many It is! It's so damn many! Out of 7,000 people, only 2 will emerge victoriously?!
"This preliminary... is on a nationwide basis. There are buildings like this that are holding the event, and all of them are being held at the same time."
All of the managers in Japan are now competing? This is not some kind of joke, right? This is a huge event! Does how much power and riches those guys possess!?
"We invested so much money for this Grand Cultural Festival, and all of you will benefit if you actually won and was able to perform at the Tokyo Dome. In short, all of you have equal chances... to fly... to shine... to reach the top."
The announcer clenched his fists while saying those words. The top? To reach the top? Is that even possible? True, if we can perform at the Tokyo Dome, we will be closer to the top. We'll be a whole lot closer! We can even reach the sun!
And there's so much money too! I could... rise from poverty! I can change my life! I can... give my mother a stress-free life! But what would the rich guys stand to gain from this? I set aside that question for now and stared at the announcer with my fists clenched and eyes of determination.
"Now, we will begin... the battle for the Tokyo Dome! We will find the... Ultimate Survivor."
+++++
The battle for the ultimate survivor, huh? I don't really like Its tone but I'll play along for now.
"Before we start, we're going to segregate. For the people who don't have any war funds, please go here to the left, and for the people who have war funds, go here to the right."
So many people went to the right, while only 10 of us went to the left. Since there are 100 of us in this room, 90 people are rich, huh? I'd say that this whole building holds 100 people and holds the same event.
Hanamaru Kyouka left me for a while because she said that scouts are not allowed to participate in the Stock Wars. I'm quite worried about this Stock Wars that we're going to do.
We waited inside the room for 5 minutes and someone opened the door and entered this whole room. He has a tuxedo and I'd guess that he's in his 50's.
"Isn't that... Arimoto... Itsuro?"
Arimoto Itsuro!? The one who proposed this event and at the same time... Arimoto Yumeko's father! He stood at the platform in front of us and begun spoking.
"Good evening to you all. For today's event, I'm going to be your host, Arimoto Itsuro. But rest assured, if you win a certain game of ours, you'll surely gain enough money to battle with them."
In short, war funds. In gambling, not having any war funds is the same as not having any weapons in battle. It's one of the basic concepts of gambling.
Mr. Arimoto asked something to the staff and he immediately complied. After a few seconds, the lights were suddenly turned off and and a light to the ground was lit. Wait, what the hell is this? After doing all of this, Mr. Arimoto continued speaking:
"Now, the game you're going to play is... Sugoroku Poker."
Sugoroku Poker?
END OF CHAPTER 40