“Wh-what?”
“You can identify a bullet by the rifling marks,” he explained. “If a dead body turns up later in the evening, they can compare forensics to what they have here. It’s a kind of deterrent. Everybody fears reprisal, after all.”
Midori still didn’t quite understand, but nonetheless did as directed, firing a shot from her self-defense pistol into the metal box and wincing. Even in a game like this, it seemed she still wasn’t used to firing guns.
After that was the metal detector. If anyone had lied at the previous stage about the weapons they were carrying, they would be caught out here. The elderly gentleman grinned as he addressed them.
“All clear, sir, miss. Welcome to Sky Impact. And do not worry, your rifling marks will only be stored until tonight’s event is over, at which point all data we have on you will be deleted.”
“In a game like Money (Game) Master?” said Midori. “You’d have to be a child to believe that.”
Each individual gun may leave different rifling marks, but that was easy to conceal simply by switching out parts for spares. Kaname was always getting into gunfights and earning grudges, and he wouldn’t have gotten this far without sparing a thought for basic OPSEC. If there was any chance of an information leak, Kaname would disassemble his weapon and switch out the parts before the night was out.
Midori waved her hand to clear the gunsmoke and whispered:
“Why don’t they just take everyone’s guns at the front door?”
“The PMCs might be fully armed, but if the hosts decided to kill everyone and steal all their valuables, the venue could easily become a bloodbath.”
It was like a dodgy deal down by the harbor at night. Neither side wanted to give up their only means of defense in case things turned sour.
Given all this, it seemed unlikely Takamasa would simply show up at the front door flaunting his Legacy for all to see. But he could command the PMC bouncers simply by humming a tune. No doubt there were any number of ways he could smuggle a gun inside, and Kaname wouldn’t put anything past him.
Meanwhile, it wasn’t only humans wearing splendid dresses.
“Look at all these she-devils hanging off their masters’ arms.”
“That’s just the kind of game this is.”
“I wish at least one of them would be an angel or something.”
At last, they were aboard the two-hundred-meter-long airship. Midori glanced around.
“Erm.”
“Starboard deck five, hall B.”
“Oh, err…”
Midori continued making confused noises until Kaname let out a soft sigh.
“Up above the main deck. Didn’t I say? This ship is an event venue. It’s not like a cruise liner, with loads of little cabins packed around like a beehive. It’s made up of multiple large halls connected by staircases and passageways.”
The building also had shared catering facilities, sound and lighting control rooms, employee lounges, and power management rooms. While it looked like a boat, it wasn’t actually seaworthy, and so there were no wheelhouse, radio room, engine room, or ballast tanks anywhere on the ship.
The pair entered the interior halls via a door on the deck and were greeted with plush carpets and cold air conditioning. So cold, in fact, it gave the two of them goosebumps. Perhaps whoever controlled the cooling in this place was trying a little too hard to impress.
The hall was lined with doors on both sides, spaced quite far apart. The two-hundred-meter-long ship could only accommodate six of these large exhibition halls, each about the size of a school gymnasium.
“So it’s not…just the auction, huh?”
As she walked through the corridors of the ship with easy listening music playing in the background, Midori felt very small, as if she were running late for an important school assembly. Unlike stores or movie theaters, which had a distinct purpose, the event halls felt strangely noncommittal. Unless you headed out with a purpose, you’d never find your way. It was a little like the open-world style of Money (Game) Master itself.
Midori felt a bit out of place looking over the events on the schedule. They were all dinner parties and fundraising galas, things with little relevance to a schoolgirl like her.
“Even a large wedding reception wouldn’t be enough to cover a whole day’s operating costs. They’d go broke,” Kaname explained. “It’s the same principle whether you run a ramen shop or an exclusive event venue; you need to cycle through guests as quickly as possible.”
The girl with the twin tails walked nervously past a bouquet of flowers in a vase.
“So there’s no passenger cabins or anything…?”
“Not really. They’re essentially an event venue. Though they might have greenrooms for orchestra members and the like.”
A white smoke, like dry ice, filtered through a set of doors that had been left slightly ajar. The sound of classical music and people’s voices could be heard from beyond, as though begging to let it be known that they were a special group of people who couldn’t just meet up over social media. It stank of pretentiousness and greed, a true fancy of the aristocracy.
As they descended a staircase and headed below deck, Midori pointed at something.
“There it is, starboard deck five, hall B… That’s where Pavilion’s auction is happening, right? We’d better sneak in and…”
“Midori.”
Kaname placed his hand on Midori’s little head just as she was about to charge in like a fool. A cloakroom attendant pushing a cart piled with handbags gave the pair a quizzical look.
“What are you planning to do walking in through the front door? We won’t be able to tell if Pavilion’s in danger on stage just by watching from the crowded guest seating.”
“Huh? Then why did we even come here?”
“Obviously, we’re going to be taking a slightly different route from all these guests who think they’re so special—one that’ll allow us to get much closer to Pavilion.”
Kaname pointed to a spot on a map hanging nearby, and just as he’d said, the area indicated didn’t lead into the main guest hall.
“Remember what I told you earlier? Sky Impact has lots of event halls, but they all share a few common facilities.”