Future Diary Survival Game-Chapter 55 : Diet - 4

Chapter 55: Diet - 4
Naturally, Magireta was resurrected without any problem.
The faces of the participants, who had been jumping for joy, twisted in despair.
In contrast, a faint smile spread across Magireta’s face.
“Such nice faces. Hmm, it looks a bit crooked though. Did I put my neck on wrong?”
“……”
“There, that’s better. Anyway, it’s been a while since I last got my neck cut off. I guess experience really does make a difference.”
Sienne lightly bit her lip.
Even though she knew she couldn’t kill her, she had attacked—most likely out of resentment from the previous round.
Then Berseum muttered,
“Since we’ve confirmed she doesn’t counterattack, how about we all rush her together?”
“No. We haven’t even had a chance to coordinate in battle yet. More than that, I doubt we’d get the ticket that way.”
“But still.”
“I agree with Sienne. The supervisor’s rules were meaningless from the start anyway.”
When even Aina said that, Berseum sighed and nodded.
However, Armelia folded her arms and murmured,
“Is it really meaningless? Then why would she make such a rule in the first place?”
“Don’t bother trying to understand what that demon is thinking. It’s only a loss for you.”
“Hmm. But still…”
Just as she was about to say something more, Magireta’s voice rang out.
“No more challengers?”
“……”
“You can still aim for the ticket later if you want. Whoever gets this will become the supervisor. But until then, we’ll proceed as if there isn’t one.”
With that, Magireta slipped the ticket back into her bosom.
“Now then, shall we all go inside?”
She pointed toward the front entrance of the building.
The participants hesitated before stepping inside.
The main door stood atop a rather high flight of stairs.
Armelia spoke up.
“This looks like the kind of villa nobles or royalty might use.”
“In what way?”
“People of high status usually don’t design their front doors to be level with the ground. The number of stairs shows off how important they think they are.”
“……”
“Even so, this is too much. At this level, it’s practically fit for royalty.”
I merely shrugged.
The exterior of the building looked plain, but the interior was as splendid as if we had stepped into the Imperial Palace itself.
The first floor was a large lobby.
On the central wall, the number 1F was engraved in gold.
But what drew everyone’s attention the most—was the mountain of bread.
An enormous amount of bread.
It wasn’t an exaggeration or a metaphor; the hall was literally filled to the brim with loaves of bread.
But the bread lay beyond a glass wall.
“This glass wall can only be crossed by the supervisor. Ordinary participants can slam into it all they want, but it’ll never break, so don’t waste your energy.”
“……”
“But since there’s no supervisor right now…”
Snap.
Magireta flicked her fingers again.
With a mechanical whirring sound, the glass wall slowly began to rise.
Soon, the fragrant aroma made everyone’s mouths water.
The loaves stacked like mountains looked crispy, as if freshly baked.
“Until a supervisor is appointed, you can eat as much as you like. Dieting is hard work, you know? Push yourself too much and you’ll just ruin your health, so take it easy.”
Her gentle words, of course, didn’t come from kindness.
She clearly meant to fatten everyone up and get them eliminated.
I swallowed down the words that rose to my throat.
Magireta continued speaking.
“Now, for the most important part.”
“……?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know. We have to check your current weights, don’t we?”
“W-wait! You’re not going to reveal that, are you?”
Armelia shouted in panic for some reason.
She must have really hated the idea of her weight being made public.
But as everyone knew, Magireta delighted in the things people hated most.
“Ta-da! Here are your weights!”
Rustle.
A huge sheet of paper suddenly unfurled in midair.
It resembled the bulletin board from the Third Quest that displayed everyone’s scores.
There, written clearly, were the current weights of all fifty participants, including mine.
“I’m seventy-two kilograms… Ah, what about everyone else—”
Whack!
My vision went black as Armelia and Aina each covered one of my eyes.
“Don’t look!”
“What are you doing, trying to peek at everyone else’s numbers?”
Why—why?
Then Sienne muttered quietly,
“I’d prefer if you didn’t look at mine either. Aina, could you check my weight for me?”
“Got it.”
Aina turned me around one hundred and eighty degrees first.
Then she approached Sienne and whispered something to her.
Seriously? Was this really necessary?
I caught sight of Berseum smirking faintly.
Yeah, he must’ve been thinking the same thing as me.
“You’re all overreacting. It’s just weight—no need to make a fuss.”
“Hmm. But I’m curious, Mason.”
“Yes, sir?”
“You’ve been single all your life, haven’t you?”
“Uh… yes, for the last three years that I can remember.”
But why bring that up?
Berseum muttered,
“I figured as much.”
After the public weight show ended, Magireta spoke again.
“One last thing.”
She waved her arm like a conductor.
At once, the participants’ bags—including ours—opened automatically.
Jerky, fruit, and other supplies spilled out.
Even the things people had hidden in their pockets or clothes.
Crunch.
Magireta clenched her fist, and all that precious food turned to ash and vanished.
“As written in the rules, you can’t eat any ingredients brought from outside.”
“What about drinking water, Miss?”
“There’ll be purifiers in each of your rooms. Drink as much as you want from those.”
“What’s a purifier?”
“You’ll know when you see it.”
I shrugged.
As expected, preparing food in advance before the game had been pointless.
Now we’d have to live solely on that “incredibly delicious” bread.
I asked Magireta,
“So, has the game started already?”
“Yes. Technically, it began the moment the bulletin appeared.”
“Then you won’t interfere with the game anymore, right? No changing rules midway or tampering with the bread?”
At my question, Magireta smiled meaningfully.
“Why do you ask that?”
“……”
“Well, I’ll answer you this once. After the game starts, I won’t intervene in any way.”
Good.
I relaxed and clapped my hands lightly.
Fifty pairs of eyes turned toward me.
“Everyone. My name is Mason Gear.”
“Oh? That name sounds familiar.”
“Ah, someone I teamed up with during the Fourth Quest told me. They said they received tremendous help from a man named Mason.”
Just like before, it seemed my name was gradually spreading among all the participants across the continent.
Thanks to that, I was able to earn their trust without much difficulty.
Reputation management really was important.
I cleared my throat and continued speaking like a proper orator.
“What do you all think about this game? Don’t you find it a little too easy?”
“……?”
“Normally, dieting is a difficult process because your life isn’t on the line. But if anyone had to risk their life—if failing to lose weight meant death—they’d succeed at dieting.”
“Well, that’s true.”
“Then there’s no way Magireta would come up with a game that simple. So, I made a deduction.”
Though it wasn’t a deduction, really. I had seen it in the future diary.
“Magireta must have done something to that bread. She must have made it so we can’t stop ourselves from eating it.”
“H-how could that even be possible?”
“There are several ways… hmm. For instance, what if the bread were so delicious you simply couldn’t stop?”
Light laughter spread through the room.
Of course, right now it would only sound like a joke to them.
It certainly wasn’t something easily imaginable through ordinary logic.
Then Armelia spoke, her expression suddenly serious.
“What’s so funny?”
“……?”
“You should all realize that you’re letting a golden opportunity slip by. Normally, Mason has no obligation to give you such valuable advice.”
“S-sorry.”
“In case you didn’t know, Mason has helped a great number of participants pass the previous quests. Trusting his words is your only way to survive.”
Her tone, unusually for her, was sharp and commanding.
Aina shook her head and muttered,
“She’s got it bad. Seriously.”
“I can understand Her Highness’s feelings. I have a beloved wife myself, after all.”
“Same here. If someone laughed at my lover, I’d be angry too. Aina, I hope one day you’ll come to understand that feeling.”
“You’re all so nosy, you know that?”
At any rate, thanks to Armelia, my words carried more weight now.
“The idea that the bread is delicious is just one example. What if it’s laced with drugs?”
“……!”
“Now you’re getting it, aren’t you? What if those drugs were crafted by Magireta’s omnipotence—so addictive that no human could possibly resist them?”
“Ugh…”
Everyone’s faces turned pale.
I glanced briefly at Magireta.
She was simply watching, saying nothing either way.
‘If that witch’s words are to be believed, what I’m saying now would be considered spoiling her fun.’
But she didn’t seem to care.
Well, the game had already begun, and Magireta could no longer interfere anyway.
I turned my attention away from her and continued explaining.
“So we must be cautious. Let’s consume only a very small amount of bread.”
“……”
“This is a weight-loss game, after all. If we avoid addiction and lose weight at the same time, we’ll pass easily.”
“How small an amount are we talking about?”
“Well, hmm.”
I tilted my head as if in thought.
But I already knew the correct answer—from the future diary.
“How about one loaf every two days?”
“One every two days.”
“Yes. She said there’s something called a purifier in each room, right? If we soak the bread in water from there, it should make us feel a bit fuller.”
“……”
“It’ll be hard, but we have to endure. We all need to survive and return to our loved ones.”
The light returned to the participants’ eyes.
Each face burned with renewed determination.
That would do.
After all, since I wasn’t the supervisor, I couldn’t actually enforce bread distribution beyond this.
I gathered my thoughts and said,
“Then let’s begin. Anyone want to take some bread today?”
Silence.
It was only the first day, so naturally everyone wanted to observe the situation first.
I looked at my companions.
They all shook their heads.
“Then let’s head up. We’ll all skip eating today.”
There were twenty-five rooms each on the second and third floors.
Fifty rooms total, matching the number of participants.
Our group chose the rooms at the far end of the third floor in sequence.
But that was in name only. Before long, everyone gathered in my room.
I started the discussion.
“Let’s set our food policy.”
Including our group, all participants decided to fast for today.
But we couldn’t keep fasting forever.
If we ate one loaf every two days, addiction wouldn’t occur—so tomorrow, we could eat.
No, we had to eat.
We couldn’t risk starving to death just to avoid elimination.
“As you all know, eating one loaf every two days is fine.”
“Do you mean we split one loaf in half and eat it over two days?”
“No. That won’t work. Once you pick up a loaf, you have to eat it that day.”
Rule number eight.
<8. If you pick up a loaf of bread and don’t eat it by the end of the day, you’re disqualified.>
“So we can’t stockpile bread. We’ll have to go one day completely fasting, and eat one loaf the next.”
Armelia nodded and added,
“And even on days we eat, we shouldn’t divide it into breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Eating multiple times a day might increase the risk of addiction.”
I agreed that she had a point.
In the end, we decided to gather together tomorrow evening at eight to eat the bread.
However, not everyone would take a bite at the same time.
The order would be me first, then Armelia, Aina, Berseum, and finally Sienne.
According to the future diary, Magireta had written that eating one loaf every two days wouldn’t cause addiction, but might cause a mild itching sensation as a side effect.
If any of our party couldn’t resist that urge, the others would have to stop them.
And thus, our basic strategy for the Diet Game was established.