I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 115

We rested for about an hour at the entrance of the passage.

We had just broken through that darkness filled with curses. There was no reason to push ourselves.

We rested, drank water, and ate some simple snacks.

Once everyone was feeling better, I picked up the blue flame torch and stood up.

‘Okay, we can’t camp here. Shall we get moving?’

My party members all got up.

Lukas was in the lead, Damian was second, I was in the middle, followed by Junior and Evangeline.

Forming a line, we started walking along the passage.

Not long after we started walking.

‘Ugh, ugh…….’

Damian, who had his head down, made a strange noise. I asked worriedly.

‘Are you okay, Damian? Are you hurt somewhere?’

‘No, it’s not that I’m hurt…….’

Damian covered his face with both hands and made a ‘woooaaah’ sound.

‘I’m, I’m embarrassed…….’

‘Hey. What’s there to be embarrassed about?’

‘I have no idea why I did that earlier, ugh…….’

‘It’s okay. We all experienced something scary there. We all understand you.’

I smiled brightly and made a fist, striking a fighting pose.

‘Cheer up, Damian!’

‘Cheer up!’

‘Cheer up!’

‘Let’s cheer up~!’

The rest of the party members shouted in succession, in the same order as before.

‘That repertoire…… please stop it…… ugh…….’

Damian was dying of embarrassment. The rest of the party members laughed wickedly. How fun.

The passage was long and repetitive, without a single pattern. It was a little confusing whether we were moving forward properly.

Since it was a boring time, I explained the gimmicks and tricks of the Colosseum, as I had mentioned earlier.

‘The Colosseum has a different progression method than normal dungeons.’

The dungeons of this Lake Kingdom are basically made up of rooms and corridors.

The method is to clear the rooms where various events occur and go to the next room through the corridors.

‘The Colosseum has only one room, and enemies keep appearing in this place. There are a total of seven waves.’

If you only hear this, it seems similar to the wave defense type dungeons that are sometimes available.

But the Colosseum has a unique feature.

‘The Colosseum has a system called betting.’

‘Betting?’

‘In the Colosseum, people bet on who will win. For example, let’s say I and Lukas have a match in the arena.’

At my words, Lukas, who was walking in the lead, jumped up.

‘Then I will immediately cut off my neck and offer it to you, my lord!’

‘No…… I’m just giving an example…… don’t die…….’

I can’t say anything, man.

‘Anyway, back to it. Let’s say I and Lukas are fighting in the arena. Who do you think will win?’

‘Um…….’

Damian looked at me and then cautiously answered.

‘Sir Lukas……?’

‘What do the others think?’

‘Uncle Lukas.’

‘I think Sir Lukas will win too.’

Evangeline and Junior also predicted that Lukas would win. Only Lukas shook his head violently.

‘My lord will win, without a doubt!’

‘Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so, what is the win prediction ratio? It’s 3 to 1, right?’

I smiled and continued my explanation.

‘Then, what is the winning payout ratio? Let’s say we all bet 100 Adels [currency]. If Lukas wins, how much will you three get?’

Evangeline calculated with a ‘hmm’.

‘Since the total bet is 400 Adels…… if we divide it by three, it will be 133 Adels.’

‘That’s right. You bet 100 Adels and earned 133 Adels. That means the winning payout ratio for those who bet on Lukas is 1.33 times. Got it?’

I pointed to myself.

‘Conversely, if I win, how much will Lukas get?’

‘All 400 Adels, my lord!’

‘Right. What’s the payout ratio? It’s 4 times.’

Lukas clenched his fist.

‘I knew I could trust you, my lord!’

‘I’m sometimes afraid of your loyalty, Lukas…….’

Isn’t loyalty perhaps a kind of twisted crazy power? Sometimes you scare me.

‘Well, this is a simple view, and in the real Colosseum, there are fees to take, and the amount of money people bet is different. There will be more complex numbers and formulas, but I think everyone understands.’

I’m not explaining the operation of the real Colosseum right now, but explaining the unique gimmick of this dungeon. Let’s move on appropriately.

‘Anyway, the winning payout ratios were 1.33 and 4, right?’

‘Yes.’

‘In the Colosseum dungeon we are heading to, your attack power is increased by this payout ratio.’

‘What?’

‘Lukas’s attack power increases by 1.33 times, and mine increases by 4 times. We fight in that state.’

Everyone looked at me with dumbfounded eyes. I smiled.

‘The match has become quite doable for me, right? In other words, the weaker you are, the more likely people think you will lose, the more advantageous you become. It’s a kind of balancing. To make the game fun to watch.’

‘But, then…….’

Junior tilted his head.

‘Isn’t the weaker side always advantageous? That doesn’t seem fun to watch either.’

‘That’s right. It’s too disadvantageous for the stronger side. So, it doesn’t keep increasing the attack power.’

I raised my index finger.

‘Only for the first time. This coefficient is applied only to each person’s first attack.’

For the first attack, Lukas hits me 1.3 times stronger than usual, and I hit Lukas 4 times stronger.

‘It was a bit complicated, but to put it simply.’

Lukas, who was nodding, summarized.

‘The weaker and less popular side can fight with an advantage for the first hit only.’

‘That’s right. The underdog’s rebellion is always fun, so they added a system to compensate for it.’

It’s not a big loss for the stronger side either.

Anyway, the attack power of both sides is increased for the first attack. If you hit faster and stronger to finish it, it’s fine.

‘Now, then.’

I clapped my hands and looked back and forth at my party members.

‘To exploit this rule, what should we do?’

‘The first hit…….’

Evangeline spun her fist around.

‘We should hit it really hard, right?’

‘That’s right. We need to hit the solar plexus really, really hard! So they pass out in one hit.’

I looked proudly at the long magic rifle that Damian was carrying.

‘That’s why I brought it.’

Black Queen.

The strongest death spear we have.

It’s already a weapon with ridiculously high damage, but if you get the first hit bonus unique to the Colosseum.

No matter who the opponent is, it’s usually a one-shot one-kill.

‘The Colosseum is a dungeon in the 5th area. With our current level, we can’t even try to fight it head-on.’

I smiled wickedly.

‘In other words, everyone will predict that we will lose. The winning payout ratio will be incredibly high.’

The faces of the party members who understood the gimmick also spread into smiles. I nodded.

‘Let’s show them the underdog’s upset death spear.’

I briefly recited the list of boss monsters that appear in the Colosseum.

Most of them were too much for our current level. But if we use this gimmick, we can all defeat them.

The problem is the last boss, the boss of Wave 7.

‘And finally…… the gladiator king, Jackal, the ruler of the Colosseum, will step forward.’

NPC boss, Jackal.

He is one of the few humanoid bosses in this Lake Kingdom.

‘This guy is the real deal. He’s incredibly strong. With the five of us now, we probably can’t beat him even if we die and wake up.’

‘Even with the application of the winning payout ratio coefficient?’

‘Yeah. We can’t beat him.’

That’s because, annoyingly, Jackal’s special ability is ‘unconditionally evade the first attack’.

The fact that the boss of the dungeon is an existence that counters the dungeon’s gimmick. In a way, it can be seen as a proper design.

‘But, there’s a trick, too.’

I shrugged my shoulders.

‘I can’t say anything other than to leave this to me. It’s hard to explain.’

Then the party members all nodded.

‘Of course, we trust you, my lord.’

‘We came all the way down here trusting you in the first place, senior.’

‘Hehe. I’ll trust and leave it to you, Your Highness.’

Junior, who had been listening to the other party members’ reactions, whispered to me.

‘You are trusted.’

‘Well, we’ve all been through the line of death together so far.’

‘It’s nice to see.’

‘You’ll be like this even if you don’t want to after rolling around in a few defense battles together?’

‘Haha.’

Junior, who smiled faintly, murmured softly.

‘I see…… I wish I could be.’

***

How many hours have we walked this long passage?

The scenery of the passage, which seemed like it would never change, changed.

The opposite wall got closer and closer, and a vertical passage with a ladder began to appear.

‘It seems we’ve arrived.’

‘How long have we been walking?’

‘I think it’s been over three hours.’

Time perception becomes dull in a place like this. I took out my pocket watch and checked it.

‘Wow, it’s been about five hours in total.’

We took short breaks in between, but we walked most of the time without resting.

‘Is that true, my lord? Are your legs okay?’

‘I’m fine. Don’t worry.’

‘I’m not okay. I wondered why my legs were hurting…… ouch.’

‘My back hurts…… Does anyone need healing magic?’

Everyone said something, and Junior opened his mouth a beat late.

‘Cough!’

‘You’re not just coughing up blood first, are you?!’

No matter where it hurts, do you just spit out blood first? Huh?

Anyway, since we reached the end of the corridor, let’s take another break.

The fatigue that I didn’t feel while walking came late.

We sat down and rested our legs, which had been overworked by the long march.

But we didn’t come all the way here to rest for eternity.

When the fatigue was moderately relieved, I ordered us to move forward.

‘There won’t be any curses like before this time.’

I said, looking up at the vertical passage leading upwards.

There is a bright light above.

It’s much more comfortable to go out into the bright outside like this than to go into the darkness like before.

I stretched my shoulders and spoke loudly.

‘Okay, let’s go up!’

***

When we went down the dark vertical passage earlier, it felt like it took a very long time.

This time, climbing the bright vertical passage was instantaneous. It seems the height is not that high.

‘Heave-ho! I’m all the way up.’

I said that after climbing the ladder, following Lukas in the lead.

‘…….’

Lukas, who had climbed up first, was silent. I was a little puzzled.

‘Lukas? What’s wrong?’

‘My lord.’

Lukas looked back at me with a tense look.

‘This place…….’

‘This place?’

‘……is the enemy’s camp.’

Huh? What does that mean?

I tried to look around, raising my head. And at that very moment.

Flash!

Fwoosh!

Blinding lights poured in from all directions. Ugh! What is it!

After a while, when I finally opened my eyes, which had adjusted to the light.

[5th Area: The Fiery Colosseum]

A system window was floating in front of me.

And the place where we were standing was right in the middle of the Colosseum arena.

We had opened the manhole cover on the arena floor and climbed up here.

‘Holy shit.’

No, why is there a manhole cover in the middle of the arena?!

Evangeline, who entered the arena after me, asked me with a dumbfounded face.

‘No, senior? You didn’t say anything about entering the arena right away!’

‘Well…….’

I was dazed for a moment, then I shouted back.

‘I didn’t know either, you shit!’

In the game, we went straight into battle without loading, but I thought it was just game logic! I didn’t know it was a historical fact!