Pioneering the Apocalyptic World - Chapter 116
Chapter 46: Rainy day games
It had been raining since the morning that day.
When it rains, Uru usually gets grumpy. In fact, she is glaring the sky with a face that looked like she was about to start growling.
If there is thunder on top of that, I’d get yelled “Don’t go outside!” Well, unless I have something special to do, I won’t go out of my way to get wet in the rain. Especially if the weather is bad enough to cause thunderclouds. However, I can’t afford to remain cooped up forever, so I created an underground passageway so that I can move around the base without having to go outside.
However, in the summer, clouds develop easily and lightning becomes more likely to occur. It’s also troubling that Uru’s mental state take damage every time. Is there anything that can be done about it?
… I still don’t have a good way of defeating Altair, so I have to find a solution other than defeating him… Hmm.
While thinking about this and that, I used the slime material from the other day to create an umbrella and raincoat enchanted with water repellency. Umbrellas are for use in base, and raincoats are for travel. It’s too hot to wear raincoats, however you can’t have hands tied in a place where you don’t know what’s going to happen.
“Hmm, I guess one problem is that she don’t have much else to do, so she tends to have too much free time…”
Because Uru can’t make things yet… I want to quickly find a durable material and make a tool that won’t break even with Uru’s power.
“Should I build an indoor sports field where she can exercise even if it’s raining?”
Speaking of indoor sports, there are things like volleyball and basketball, but for all of them we don’t have enough players, and all I could see was a future where the balls would break and the nets and goals would be destroyed.
How to kill time without moving the body… Ah.
“I was thinking of making a card game or some other toy, but I forgot.”
Playing cards and reversi can be made without much effort, and I can teach her how to play them. I’ve never played Shogi or Go, so those are out.
How about puzzles or Jenga? The game of life… Isn’t it a bit tough? I don’t know what happens in a life of a normal person in this world.
I don’t know what Uru will like, but if I make a lot of games, she’ll get into at least one of them… I hope.
“So, let’s begin the first playing cards competition.”
“I don’t know how did you come to this conclusion, but… Well, I have free time, it’s fine.”
I gathered everyone in the relaxing room and declared this. I was surprised that even the earth god came, but… Well, this god also seems to have a lot of free time… Or rather, I don’t remember seeing her working before. Well, she’s currently recuperating, so there’s a good chance she’s working when I wasn’t looking.
Zephyr is lying on the bean cushion in the corner of the room…. I don’t want it to cry that it wants to go out to play in the rain, so I guess I’ll just leave it alone.
“This thing is called playing cards that I used to play with in my hometown.”
“Fumu?”
That said, there have been some changes made to bring it closer to Asteria style.
First, the four symbols – Heart, Diamond, Spade, and Clover were changed to the colors and symbols representing the gods of fire, earth, wind, and water, respectively.
After wondering what to do with Joker, I decided to make it a miko for the time being…
“… I don’t understand why you lose if you have Joker (Rion-sama).”
“It’s just a game, okay…?”
There were some complaints (?) about the old maid explanation, so I decided to change it to a card with the God of Destruction symbol in games where having a Joker would be disadvantageous, even though it was a hassle. When I said that it can be used as a helper in place of other cards in other games, they were easily convinced. It’s hard to make things along the way, isn’t it?
By the way, these playing cards are made from thick paper made from tree bark, lightly coated with slime material to give them strength and smoothness. Slimes can be surprisingly useful. … Fricka is tilting her head for some reason, but let’s hope she doesn’t notice.
We played various games together while explaining the rules. Everyone’s characteristics come out in every game, which makes it interesting.
For the Old maid. I quickly came to the conclusion that we shouldn’t play it anymore.
… Because everyone got caught in my bluffs so much that made me think ‘Are they really okay? Aren’t you guys going to be fooled by a scammer someday?’.
“Huh? But Rion ,you looked like you didn’t want this card to be taken… Why is this the God of Destruction (Joker)…!”
Being too honest is a problem. However, it would be more troublesome, if someone turns black-bellied with this event as trigger.
Even if they didn’t try to deceive the others like I did, Fricka and earth god, whose facial expressions didn’t move, were at the top.
For Poker. This is basically luck, so everyone was pretty similar.
However, sometimes Fin would show great luck from nowhere.
“A r-royal flush… How…”
“When I replaced it randomly, everything matched.”
Speed card. It was Uru’s unchallenged win. The way the cards were put out onto the field at an unbelievable speed is nothing short of impressive. However, It was amusing that she sometimes got the numbers in the wrong order.
Next was Regulus and Liese’s meat-… They had good reflexes.
“Hahaha, you guys still have a long way to go.”
“Ugh…”
“I’ll show you that I’ll win someday…!”
Memory game. This was the turn of intelligent group(?) of Fricka and Earth God
“Even if it’s the earth god, I won’t hold back, okay?”
“You’ve got quite a nerve. That’s good. Don’t hold back and do your best.”
… It’s a game, so everyone gets along, right? Well, I think these two will be okay though.
Daifugo*. I often won because I was used to playing cards strategically.
However… Fin showed her mysterious luck here as well.
“Ugh, the day and night are reversed…!?”
“… I had all four of them, so… It just happened.”
Black Jack. Uru, Regulus, and Liese were the gambling group, Fricka and the Earth God were the steady group, and Fin was playing just for fun.
… Hmm, this is a pretty easy-to-understand way of dividing their individuality.
“Waaah, I’m over twenty-one!”
“… I’ve surpassed it too…”
“Come, come… Yes, twenty-one!”
“I’m twenty-one too. It’s a draw, Uru-chan.”
“(Sixteen in total… If you subtract anymore, the probability of exceeding it is high…) I’ll stop here.”
“(The number of cards that my opponent can see is eleven… There’s a high possibility that it’s a pretty good hand… I guess I’ll draw one more card here…)… I over, this is my loss.”
Just like that, the day passed peacefully and harmoniously, although Zephyr occasionally woke up with loud voices.
“Nuu… Even though I haven’t been moving my body, I feel so tired…”
“Ahaha, I guess it’s because you had to use your head a lot.”
As we were getting ready for bed, Uru said this while turning her head.
I myself don’t play card games with that much thought, but I do use my brain to some extent.
“Uru, how was it?”
“What do you mean?”
“It was fun?”
“… Hmm, that’s right…”
Uru closed her eyes and remained silent for a while, perhaps ruminating on what happened today.
… There was a bit of a long period of silence, and when I started to think, “Actually, you weren’t having fun?” and was momentarily anxious, her words came out.
“… Everything, was new to me.”
“Well… I guess so.”
Let alone the rules, she didn’t even know anything about cards before. Although it was the same for everyone, not just Uru.
Uru slowly clasps and opens her hands as she continues to speak in a confused manner.
“A lot of people gathering together. Being passionate, but also calm. Everyone was happy and sad about the result…. I’ve never experienced anything like this before. How describe it? It’s a strange feeling.”
… Maybe she had never played like this before she lost his memory?
Even if there are no cards, there is likely to be some simple physical activity, such as tag or playing with balls (…In Uru’s case, it seems like the ball would break easily and become unusable)… There were no other children of the same age around her?
I wonder how Uru spent her time before meeting me.
There was no way to find out since the person himself had lost the memory, but I couldn’t help but get caught up in it.
Ignoring my doubts, Uru squeezed her hand tightly, then slowly turned her head towards me.
“… Yeah, that’s right. I had fun.”
“I see, that’s-”
“That’s good,” I tried to continue.
But Uru’s next words took my breath away.
“The best part for me is that you seemed to be having fun.”
“–”
After saying that, Uru smiled softly.
There was no trace of the grumpiness brought about by the rain.
My plan was a success– But there was something even more heart-warming than that.
“… Well, in your case, you seem to be having fun while making things… but it was good that you didn’t let out that creepy laugh.
“Hey!?”
Please don’t destroy the moment!?
*TN: Daifugo is a japanese card game that is also named tycoon in US with some rules and name changed, I never played any version of it and the jp site compared it to a japanese UNO, I don’t have the confidence to translate any rules or terms correctly, so I just MTL-ed it from jp.
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