61.1) Side Story 6 - King of Diamonds [1]

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"I hope that all of them together can see the game for it truly is: a bluff. A bluff meant to fool a god. A simple trial, with layers of fluff to imitate difficulty. But beneath it all... Is a simple trial of endurance."

===Zakū Raisunei===
High School Student
Specialty:

– – – – – –

My body was thrown against a shelf, the force punching the air out my lungs.

I laughed.

"God damn! You piss me off so fucking much!" Kazato spat, his two goons behind him.

"Oh, well, at least it's mutual." I shot back, my eyes darting to the ceiling, flashing an eye roll.

He raised his fist again, but I pulled my hands up, in a surrendering motion. "Hey, can't knock me up too hard, or else I can't help you on next week's chemistry test. You've already gotten me pretty bad–any worse, and even your dad's money won't be able to keep you from expulsion."

"He's right, Kazato." One of his friends said from behind him. "We've already done a pretty hefty number. We should give it a break."

He hesitated for a second, before dropping my collar. I fell to the ground, brushing the hair out of my eyes, as they walked away, no one saying another word.

I sighed, standing back up and brushing off the dust on my shirt, then tore a piece of paper from a towel, dabbing up the blood that ran down my chin; my lip had been busted.

It was a typical Friday, with the typical routine. Kazato would take out his frustration on me–my inability to yield to him, my lack of fear, lack of intimidation by his mere presence, unlike anyone else at this school.

Why was I like this? Was it courage? Was it confidence? No–it was simply apathy. I couldn't care less about his presence. He, however, did not like that, and would make an example out of me each week.

Now, I would've taken my own measures long ago, if it weren't for the fact that both my parents are employed under one of the firms his dad owns. A step out of line, and they could both be fired under Kazato's wish. This was no ideal life, but again, all I felt towards this was apathy.

Whether I keep living, whether I die tomorrow...

All just a sense of apathy.

I opened the door, hands in my pocket, the other closing it again.

"Oh!" The headmaster said, as he passed by the hall. "Young man, you're not supposed to be in there."

"Don't act like you don't know my name." I said, walking away from him. "I was inside getting beat by the boy you refuse to expel so your pockets and keep being filled."

Ignoring his additional comments, I turned the corner, yelping as a short figure crashed into me.

His backpack fell to the ground, a couple wooden blocks and a black mask tumbling out. "Oops, sorry about that, I–"

We made eye contact–it was Charī Kasutoro. He gasped upon seeing who I was, silencing himself, packing up his materials and briskly walking away. He wore gloves–it was forty degrees today.

'What was that all about? Why was he carrying those wooden blocks, and why is he wearing gloves in this weather?'

I shrugged, pushing it off my mind; most people feared me too, that interaction with me would associate them into Kazato's radar. Walking through the falls, I ran my hands through the various scars and healing cuts: healing bruises on my knees, a dark maroon scab on my elbow, and various light scratches on my arms and ankles.

Outside, the world was dull. Was this all life had to offer? I sighed, walking down the steps. Kazato wouldn't be an issue for any longer; like always, I had a plan.

– – – – – –

(Ōta Ward)

The King of Diamonds venue was a luxury cruise ship. Large streams of gold ran along its lengths, deep navy blue streaks across the dozens of windows and balconies. It towered over us, like a floating building, obscuring the sky and casting the entire avenue behind it under a shadow. A large digital board was displayed above the door.

3/5 Players required are present

"Oh, perfect." Maeda said. "We're the last two."

Maeda Mihoko
High School Student
Specialty:

I took a deep breath, stretching my shoulders. In the distance, a clap of thunder rumbled, a recurring noise since the Second Stage. "Do you think you're ready? Again, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm willing to go in myself."

"No." She shook her head. "Even if only one of us can make it out, both of us going in means we can work as a team."

"I don't doubt your abilities, you know. You cleared that Five of Diamonds on your first day, and even managed to save Tori."

"I won out of the charity of one of the players. And even then, I only saved Tori because of a trick."

"That's all intellectual games are: just tricks." I said. "Poker, chess, every strategy and gambit in those games are just attempts to trick your opponent. Your trick was no different. And plus... I still haven't finished the final game of Ascension to Hell... For Charī. Maybe this game could prove to be some inspiration."

She nodded, her mouth pressing into a remembering frown. "Alright. Let's go, then."

We entered the floor one deck, and the door slammed shut behind us. Three people were present, including a girl with purple hair, several nose and eyebrow piercings, and a rose tattooed across her arm.

Yua Tanaka
High-School Dropout
Specialty:

"Oh you're kidding me." She said, rolling her eyes. "The hardest game of intellectuals, and we get two kids?"

"Don't judge them yet, the fact they survived until now is telling." A man in a brown blazer said, stepping forward.

Kaito Watanabe
Economist
Specialty:

He turned to us. "I'm an economist. What are your credentials?"

"Well, I cleared the Jack of Hearts on the First Day of Exhibitions..." I said. "And also cleared the Ten of Clubs last stage."

"I also cleared the Ten of Clubs." Maeda said.

"The Ten of Clubs?" The man in the corner with graying hair asked. "I assume you two are from the Beach? Are all those rumors and urban legends true?"

Misashi Ogawa
Calculus Professor
Specialty:

"Yup." I replied, mouth firm.

"So what are your credentials?" Maeda asked, turning to the older man and young woman.

"Calculus professor–over forty years." He said with a smile.

"I don't have any cool-ass jobs, but I have these two:" She pulled out a Nine and Ten of Diamonds card from her pocket, and allowed a slight smirk.

"All players, if you may follow the signs to enter the playing area, then the game will commence." A male voice announced. "Thank you."

"Is that... The King of Diamonds?" The economist asked, following the signs up a set of stairs.

"Interesting." Maeda noted. "He's announcing his game himself."

We followed the signs up onto the eighth floor, then down a long corridor, which opened into a large, open chamber devoid of any furniture, save for six large desks arranged in the center, all facing each other in a hexagon. A conveyer at the ground led from each table into a large structure in the center, with a television screen facing each seat.

At the desk at the very end of the room was a tall man sitting down, the left part of his face covered in an intricate tattoo of flowers, patterns, and lines of various colors.

Nakasone Kenji
Tattoo Artist
Specialty:

"Hello, players." He said, a polite yet professional smile forming. "I am Nakasone, the King of Diamonds. Please take a seat and shackle your ankles to the seats, and I shall explain the rules."

Surrounding the desks was a glass floor, which Maeda stepped on with a light foot. "The sea is right below us."

"Game Over... Your chair falls and you drown." I said.

"Your face." The rebel woman said. "Were you a tattoo artist?"

He smiled again. "Indeed."

Me and Maeda sat next to each other. Beside me, on the side of the table, a pocket was filled with blank cards. There was a tablet which could be picked up, and also a cup of pens, the cup attached to the table, and each pen tied to the cup with a thin metal chain. After everyone else took their seats, Nakasone cleared his throat, and the TVs all turned on, displaying the King of Diamonds card.

Vickrey Coin Auction

"Vickrey auction." The economist said. "It's a style of sealed-bid auction where all participants will submit a bid once, then the highest payer will win, but pay the price of the second-highest bidder."

"Correct." Nakasone nodded. "That is the core essence of Vickrey Coin Auction. Let us begin." All the tablets turned on too, each showing all of our 100 coins.

"The game progresses in rounds." He explained. "Each round, you will be using your coins, to bid for more coins. The amount of coins that is up for auction each round is half the number of coins as the person with the least coins. During the five allotted minutes, each person will write the amount of coins they wish to bid, then submit it by placing it onto the conveyor belt. When the round ends, each player's bid is revealed, and even if they did not win the bid, the amount they bid is deducted from their total. However, the person who won the bid–the person who bid the most coins–will only be deducted the second-highest bid, like I said earlier.

"After that, the winner receives the winning amount, and the rounds start again. If multiple players bid the winning amount, then the auction will be split evenly between them. Now, to win and die. Every three rounds, the player or players tied, with the least amount of coins, will be sapped–Game Over. And then... To achieve a Game Clear...

"Be the last player remaining."

I stayed silent, my skin filling with a tingling sensation, ice sinking into my hands and feet. With a slow shift, I cranked my head until me and Maeda met eyes, and I nodded.

One of us must die. But together, we can make sure it is one of us who lives.

"That completes the rules." Nakasone said. "However, I will say this: I'm willing to adjust some of the rules not integral to the game itself, if it better suits your comfort. I've run countless renditions of the game, and won't mind something new. And in addition, I want to ensure my esteemed guests are at their utmost comfort, in order to play the best that they possibly can."

"Pen and paper." The rebel said. "Why pen and paper? Why not just input them digitally? The tablet's already right here."

"Two reasons." He said. "First of all, I think your thoughts and submissions are better collected when you physically write them out. Second, this is to give you all an assurance that there isn't any foul play from me, that the answer's you'd input digitally aren't in any way getting transferred to me."

"All this assurance that this game is fair..." The professor said.

"I am not putting it slightly when I say that I genuinely want this game to be as comfortable and accommodating to the players as possible. With that, would everyone now be okay with the first round starting?"

Me and Maeda nodded, sharing a glance. Everyone else replicated our acceptance, and Nakasone gave us all a final nod, and the time for the first round began.

"Okay, Zakū–" Maeda began.

"No." I cut her off. "First round, we don't collude or say anything for anyone else to hear. We let the first round progress completely naturally, and let everyone think solely for themselves."

"Oh..." She said, turning back to her tablet. "Okay. Got it."

Then, I pulled out a single note card and pen, running my hand through my hair. 'WHere do I even begin to think for this game? When people are searching for something, if they do so left-to-right or front-to-back, the typical order–they tend to miss things. So, I'll start at the end. Imagine A-san is at round three, and is in last place. Is there any chance for them to recover? If they have 10 coins, but everyone else has 16, it'll be impossible for them to recover. If they bid 1 coin, and everyone else bids 0, they'll only gain up to fifteen. However, let's say B-san is at 11 coins. What then?

'A-san needs to win the five coins, but so does B-san. But if everyone else knows this, they'll all bid nine coins. If A-san bids all their coins, then they'll spend nine coins, but only earn five back. That's a -4 profit. So... If you're in last place by the elimination round, there isn't much you can do. Everyone else can simply corner you.

'Unless... A-san was at 10 coins, but everyone else was only a couple more than A-san. Then they can't afford to spend the nine coins to plunge A-san into negative profit. At that point, A-san can... They can...'

Both the rebel and Nakasone had already written their answers, and laid it onto the conveyor belt.

"How the fuck–" Maeda stammered, scratching her head. The economist and professor exchanged a glance, and my mind blurred.

'Come on! Okay, so then A-san would... Wait. Is it even worth spending time to deliberate how this scenario would go down? How likely is it that during an elimination round, most people would be near the lowest player? That's so unlikely! If you think about it... The first round is the most pivotal, because its winner will likely dominate for the rest of the game. With each round that passes, the amount of coins in the auction will exponentially reduce. This makes sense, or else the winner of the first round would be able to dominate, but puts a huge advantage on whoever wins the first round. Well, not who wins the first round, because win doesn't guarantee earnings, but whoever gains the largest lead.'

The professor and economist both had several notecards sprawled across their table, each beginning to fill with equations and calculations. Maeda turned to me, pointing her thumb at them and tilting her head.

I shook my head, pointed between us, then gave a thumbs up–we were fine. 'In such a high game of intelligence, excess rationality is a pitfall, because perfect rationality is perfectly predictable. I don't need to know the best solution, which is objective, I just need the best solution given the context of my opponents. So if I think back to the first round, the winner of the first round will most definitely be Nakasone, because his mind is simply better than all of ours.

One might think: what is the point of bidding any more than the auctioned amount? If 50 coins are up for auction, is there any reason to bid 51? The answer is yes, absolutely. Let's say the bids are this:

A: 60  -  B: 55  -  C: 40  -  D: 40  -  E: 40  -  F: 40

'A-san would lose 5 coins... But in the process, B-san would lose 55, and everyone else would lose 40. So, in order to purposely conflate the auction so that you'll lose coins to make everyone else lose even more coins than you, overbidding for a negative profit is a vital strategy of this game.

'So, I have all these core tenants of the game, so now, I need to apply them. How much do I put in for the first round? This would be easier if I could communicate with Maeda, but any conversation with her would betray our plan. Unless we use the note cards to–'

Something poked me in the cheek; Maeda had thrown me a paper airplane made from the notecard. 'Of course, she's thought of this.'

Tell me what to choose for this round

I nodded. Nakasone, however, raised his eyebrow, as the professor submitted his answer. "Interesting play. This isn't the first time friends have battled in this game together... But it is the first time that they're continuing their alliance, even knowing one of them would die."

"We'd rather work together to clear this game, even if it means one of us dying." Maeda said, while I folded up her crumpled card.

"I respect that." He said, with a nod.

'Well, when I think about it, is there any reason to bid anywhere near below the auctioned amount? If there's 50 coins, there's no point in bidding 49, because someone could easily overbid, and your coins would sink. But... The same principle applies to bidding 45, or 40, or 30... Anyone could simply overbid. But if you bid 0, you have zero chance of profit nor loss, but guarantee the overbidders a victory. So are the only two rational choices here to either bid zero, or N + 1? I'm adding +1, because someone might always bid the exact auction to maintain at least their amount. There can't be–if there were only two rational options that can so easily be realized, this wouldn't be the King of Diamonds. But this is a deductive milestone, and I think the rebel came to this same milestone, so for this round, this is where I'll settle.

One minute remained, and I wrapped up my analysis. 'If everyone chooses N + 1, then one person bids zero, then you wouldn't want to bid 52, because then you'd be paying the price of 51 for 50 instead of 0 for 8, 50 divided six-ways. But if that's the case... There's no point in underbidding either. So... The most rational choice is 50. Everyone will lose points, but the net change is 0 regardless of if you bid higher than 50. But if no one ever deviates... We'll all reach an equilibrium by the first round. How did the King not see this coming? Unless I'm missing something? Is N + 1 not the best choice here?

'No! I made a mistake: I can't assume everyone will be perfectly rational! Someone will always overbid past N + 1, even if it compromises maximum potential profit, since it'll further sabotage those who do choose N  + 1 by sinking their points all by 51!'

I wrote what I wanted Maeda to submit, then, with a ping in my gut, scratched it out and input a new number. Afterwards, I crumpled it into a ball, throwing it to her, before writing my own submission and passing it onto the conveyor belt. Me and Maeda were the last two to submit, by only a few seconds.

The scoreboard displayed the results with our photos, and also revealed all our names.

Round 1: Bids
Auction: 50

===
Nakasone (King): 0
Kaito (Economist): 51
Maeda: 0
Misashi (Calculus Professor): 50
Yua (High-School Dropout): 0
Zakū: 0

"Heh." I chuckled, the air blowing some of my hair out my face. "I thought 62, but changed my mind last minute. I had a gut feeling, and in the end, chose to play it safe."

"Wait... How... How did you know?" Misashi asked. "Why did no one else choose 50 or 51?"

"You both assumed we would all be perfectly rational, didn't you?" Yua asked, leaning forward. "Book smarts and math won't be of much help in this game, unfortunately for you two. You'll have to utilize a completely different type of intelligence: people's smarts."

"Wait... No. This isn't good for me at all!" Misashi yelled.

"As long as I was certain at least two people would choose something 50 or higher, I was safe to choose 0." Yua said.

Round 1: Results
Nakasone: 100
Kaito: 100
Maeda: 100
Misashi: 50
Yua: 100
Zakū: 100
===
2nd Auction: 25

"The second round has just begun." Naksone said. "Good luck."

'Okay, so if you know for a fact that at least two people will overbid, choose zero. Then–' This round, Yua and Kaito's submission were instantaneous. Maeda furled her

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