Chapter 288, Gift

"Damn it! There's nothing wrong with the angle and timing. This store must have tampered with the machine!"

"No, the grip in this arcade is quite strong, so it's relatively easy to grab it."

Half a month later, after the last school day before Christmas, the three of them took a detour and walked into a game hall. Zhuo put paper and pen into the currency exchange machine while answering Ren who kept complaining beside him.

It wasn't that Zhuo wanted to sabotage his friend and refused to give him any way out - he was mainly afraid that Ren would be beaten by the shop assistants here.

And what Zhuo said was true.

Zhuo put the change into his wallet and walked back to Ren who was standing in front of the claw machine. He seemed to be having a problem with the machine and was now stuffing a stack of currency into it.

The mechanical claw moved... fell and closed... grabbed a huge score card, and then slid down again... Kiritani Jin scratched his head frantically and howled at the sky...

All in one go.

"Can you grab this points card and help me get revenge?"

"Well, it can't."

"..."

Facing Ren's angry voice, Zhuo told the truth frankly. Ren was dumbfounded when he heard it, while Kanda, who had been watching from the side, laughed out loud.

In fact, Zhuo is not very interested in the score cards in these claw machines. Although points are the key point in the game hall, the boss is not a fool. How could he let you use 100 yen to get points worth 1 or even tens of thousands of yen?
Of course, there are also talented people who may really be able to do these things - for example, Her Royal Highness the Princess, I believe she can do it.

However, doing this too much is obviously not good, and the store owner will reject you. Don't underestimate the store owners of these game halls.

You should know that the laws of Japan also clearly stipulate that gambling is illegal. Other laws also clearly stipulate that except for public gambling games opened by the state (such as horse racing, boat racing, and bicycle keirin racing in Japan), no other gambling is allowed.

In other words, in Japan, any non-public gambling activities are illegal.

Of course, if you're just betting on an item for fun, that's another matter.

The arcades have been able to flourish by taking advantage of this loophole - oh, it doesn't mean that you can only exchange items in the arcades in Japan. It means that there are countermeasures for every policy, and where there is profit, there is gray.

——Everyone has only one goal, which is money.

This prize cashing process has a well-known closed loop, that is, the Japanese mafia is involved. Guests can sell the prizes they win to the mafia, and the mafia will then wholesale the prizes bought from guests to the pinball parlors. This forms a closed loop.

Therefore, in the most prosperous areas of Japan, whether in commercial centers or near stations, the shops that are always indispensable are Japanese gambling game shops, and generally, the locations of these shops are very good and they are particularly large.

The neon underworld played a crucial role in this.

Emmmm...Since we are talking about the Japanese underworld, we naturally cannot avoid the Snake Eight Clans.

If I remember correctly, the family in charge of finance among the eight families of Snake should be the "Sakurai family" among the lower five families.

Kanda was about to exchange the 2000 yen coins, but after seeing the angry and unconvinced expression on Kiritani Jin's face, he silently put the 2000 yen bill back into his wallet. Seeing Zhuo who couldn't help but look at him, he smiled.

——Those who understand current affairs are heroes.

"I didn't expect you to choose a place like this for a party. I always felt that you weren't the type who liked such noisy places. You scared me." Kanda spoke to Zhuo as if nothing had happened.

"That's an exaggeration. I will still go to the arcade. But I don't want to waste money, so I won't come unless it's something important."

"Yeah. So what's the big deal coming to the arcade today?"

"Come and play claw machine."

"Ok?"

"I just don't have any money."

Rather than saying that she has no money, it is better to say that Ling hopes to save some money. Tomorrow is Christmas, and it is also Ling's birthday. Zhuo asked her what gifts she needed. After all, even if she is not planning to celebrate her birthday, she still needs birthday gifts, so she asked Ling. As a result, Ling really doesn't want any gifts anymore, and no matter what, she said that she doesn't need anything.

Finally, seeing that Zhuo was unwilling to give up, I gave him 2000 yen and asked him to go to the game hall to see if he could get some gifts to take back.

Rather than hoping to get prizes from the arcade as gifts, it would be more accurate to say that she wanted to use this method to let Zhuo have some fun.

"...See, it's not that simple."

Since Zhuo failed to grab the doll after inserting the coin for the first time, Ren expressed his feelings and sighed with relief. Zhuo told him that he should try everything, and took him to change to a doll machine, and randomly inserted the coins into the machine.

And then continue to fail.

This process was repeated more than ten times, and 2000 yen of 1700 yen was spent until Zhuo had only three coins left. At this time, Zhuo turned his attention to the administrator who had been paying attention to this side.

"Hello, can you help me?"

"Of course you can... You may not have played this kind of game before. Catching dolls requires skills. As long as you understand the center of gravity and configuration of the object, and the way the gripper applies force, you can catch them accurately... Our gripper is strong enough, so it is relatively easy to catch them."

"Oh~ Is that so? Thank you very much."

Although Zhuo didn't understand it very well, under the guidance of the administrator, Zhuo aimed the gripper at the head and body of the rabbit doll, and then everything went smoothly, and the doll's head was hung on the gripper. Although the doll's body was drooping, the gripper still fixed the doll with the support of the head and caught it.

Next, just remove your hand from the joystick and the doll will automatically fall to the pickup port.

With a clang, the rabbit doll fell down. Zhuo took it out and waved it gently to the two of them, and thanked the administrator again.

Then several little girls who were probably in junior high school shouted "Wow", and then Zhuo, accompanied by the administrator with a smile, went to another claw machine.

"The doll here requires some skill. You can catch it by inserting the gripper here."

"For this one, just pass the handle through the label loop. It's attached for the convenience of customers."

Under the curious and surprised gazes of Kanda Kazuhito and several little girls, Zhuo tried it on three machines and successfully caught three dolls.

"The grips in the arcade here are strong and the staff are very friendly. If you have trouble, they will teach you how to grip, so it is also suitable for beginners to come to this store."

"Is that why Moriya said this place is good?"

“I see.” Kanda nodded as if he understood.

But Zhuo also understood that what he said was meant for the administrator behind him. Sure enough, after hearing the two's comments, the administrator smiled and gave them a 500-point points card. Although it was not much, it could be exchanged for some small prizes such as lunch boxes and pendants.

It was all thanks to the time when his mother followed Sachiko around everywhere since he was a child. Sachiko, who was not very good at anything but could do almost everything, taught him this strange skill of 'showing weakness and asking for help without being rejected'.

Since his mother is a woman, there is no problem. Zhuo rarely uses this skill.

Zhuo's expression softened as he thought back, but Ren, who did not receive a points card, looked obviously dissatisfied.

"Zhuo, are you too nice to Zhihe?" "It's your fault for not understanding the meaning of it."

"You are just too proud to admit it. I believe you still love me."

"Don't say such cheesy things, I——"

"Yes, there is only one person who loves Zhuo."

Ren whispered, but since the content was superfluous, Zhuo pressed his knuckles to Ren's temple and attacked him lightly.

Kanda also knew that it was Ren's fault this time, so he just smiled and said "Ren is so stupid" while watching the fun without stopping it.

While being forced to roll around his temple by Zhuo, Ren laughed and didn't seem to be in any pain.

In fact, Zhuo didn't use much force, so it shouldn't have hurt much, but his calm look made people feel a little angry.

"That's right. It can be seen that Zhuo is very dedicated."

"Kanda, why do you want to try this trick too?"

"I didn't say I was loyal to something. How do I mean loyal to something?"

The hearty smile in front of him left Zhuo speechless, and he turned his head to look to the side.

Maybe Zhuo's attitude was too funny, both Ren and Kanda couldn't help laughing. This was very embarrassing for Zhuo - hum, hum, Tuozi hum - Zhuo, who had always been 'indestructible', didn't have the face to refute this time.

……

"…So, what are all these things?"

After dinner, Ling seemed very concerned. She glanced at the bag of spoils leaning against the side of the sofa and asked Zhuo.

"Huh? It's a puppet."

Even though tomorrow was Christmas and Zero's birthday, Zhuo didn't intend to hide it. Besides, it was not a secret in the first place. So he picked up the bag and placed it on his knees, and answered while tearing off the tape.

"Muppet?"

"birthday present?"

“Why is it a question?”

"Because even though you said you didn't need it, I still thought it would be better to give you something before going to the arcade, and this was on the premise that you also knew about it... I don't know if this counts."

Zhuo looked at the cat on his lap and the rabbit in his arms, thinking, "What a cheap gift," and then Ling raised his face.

Although her face showed no expression, her eyes revealed a different kind of dissatisfaction than before.

“I’ve already received a gift.”

She seemed to care about the fact that she had received a gift once, but did not receive a gift on her last birthday.

"It's my own wishful thinking. It has nothing to do with you."

"It's not just gifts," Ling shook his head, his long blond hair cascading down, "there are many more."

"Have it."

"a lot of."

Even if Ling said so, Zhuo couldn't understand what Ling was talking about. Instead, Zhuo felt that he had received too much care from her, and this little thing was not enough to repay her kindness.

Finally, Zero stared at the three dolls, nodded, and said, "I knew you would do this. Consider it a Christmas present," and then accepted it.

"Then it's my turn to return the gift. I'm sorry I didn't prepare anything in advance."

"Well, I haven't thought about Christmas presents. I don't even plan to celebrate my birthday."

"These are two different things. Please tell me. As long as I can give, anything is fine."

Zhuo felt that Ling would do whatever he said, so he felt that it was not good. Thinking of the "reward" proposed by Ling a few days ago, he felt a little uneasy.

"I don't have anything in particular I want."

"Like what you want me to do..."

"Let Zero do that? Emmmm... Can you give me two more servings of meat tonight?"

"I'm not talking about this... Never mind. If there isn't one, there's no need to mention one."

Zhuo didn't have desires, or rather, he felt that even if he had desires, it was not a good thing to "take advantage of others' opportunities" at this time. Not only might he not achieve his goal, but he would also be despised by Ling - although Zhuo felt that Ling would not do that, and would quietly satisfy his desires. Nevertheless, considering that forcing others was not good, Zhuo did not do so.

Having said that, it would not be good to say nothing, so Zhuo just talked about a small thing.

Zero stared into his eyes as if to confirm something and asked, "Is this really the only thing?"

"Stop talking nonsense." Zhuo turned his face away.

"Okay, then as you say..." Zero stood up and walked towards the kitchen.

Zhuo raised his head from the table and found that Ling had stopped at some point and was standing in front of the kitchen door, looking back at him.

"After all, true wishes should be fulfilled by oneself." She looked at Zhuo and said something incomprehensible.

"What's your real wish?"

"Well, not only your wish, but mine as well."

"what?"

"What do you think it will be?"

“…No, I don’t know.”

"Really? It doesn't matter. Just keep the status quo, that's enough."

Hearing Zhuo's words, Ling nodded slightly and really walked towards the kitchen.

(End of this chapter)