Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

Kana spent all of Wednesday obsessing over every word of every sentence in the rulebook of the competition. The day that she had ended up spending extra time inside the Monster Dimension, her mind had been too occupied by her guilt over being rescued by Ruby Passion. It hadn’t paid attention to something quite unusual. Something that the rulebook did not mention at all, and only tried to imply to maintain fear.

The moment she had entered the gate again, her point total had been calculated once more. It had been added to the total, too. The only reason it didn’t make much of a difference was that, well, it wasn’t all that impressive. It did, however, go against the idea that spending any time inside the Dimension after the doors closed was useless. That was what the rulebook said.

“No points will be calculated if a group fails to make it inside the gate before it closes.” Kana repeated, looking at Yamazaki, “Do you see what I mean?”

Both of them were waiting for Jina to get out of the recording booth. She was the only one out of the three singers who hadn’t sung all her parts. Once she got done here, they would have to get ready for the competition and leave. In the meantime, the team would work on mixing the song for the weekend release. One week after that, they were scheduled to have their first performance.

Yamazaki shook his head, taking the book from her, “That has been a rule ever since the Coalition was created. I really don’t understand what you’re trying to say. Every day, the match lasts from ten to one. Those are the rules.”

“No, no, no!” Kana smiled, “The main gate with the sensors is open from ten to one every weekday night. That is the only statement the rules explicitly make. The rules don’t really stop you from staying in the dimension. They just say that if you, let’s just say, enter this world from a different place after one o’clock, your points won’t be calculated.”

“But…”

“And it does not mention how long points are maintained. As far as we know, they are infinitely stored in your personal systems, right?” Kana touched the implant on the back of her neck.

It had been put there on the day she had joined the training center and picked her Bomber class. Everyone had one attached there to directly reach the nervous system.

“It transmits data to the main server, yes, but the actual data itself is stored locally.” She added, “Which means that…?”

She raised her eyebrows, hoping that he caught on and finished the sentence for her. Kana trusted Yamazaki enough to understand what she was getting at. If he acted like he did not understand, then it clearly meant that he was actively trying not to consider the possibility. And that just wouldn’t do.

“That…is too dangerous.” He decided to go with the safest answer, “I can’t endorse it, on my own conscience. It’s reckless, idiotic, and really, really not worth the payoff.”

“How do you know that?”

“What?”

“If no team has ever tried to do this, then how do you know that the payoff is not worth it? Maybe it very much is. Maybe…there are more monsters outside in the day. I mean, consider us. We humans, stay at home during the night, but the streets are filled during the day.”

“So…instead of sneaking into their world to massacre them at night like we usually do, you want to wait until the morning so that you can kill them all while they are living their usual lives?”

“Yamazaki-san, please don’t get attached to the demons.” She sighed and stood up, “We enter their land, and they immediately attack us. I cannot hold any particularly positive emotions in my heart when they start like that. We’re gonna do this. Jina is in, and now we know the rules are on our side. Nothing could possibly go wrong.”

“I find that to be a particularly positive death flag, Minami-san.” He stood up beside her, “Reconsider this, please. I will not stop you if you decide to go through with it, but I also do not want to support this. We have no idea what happens in that world during the day. It is not worth the risk. There will be no help available for you. Medical, or otherwise.”

“It’s fine, Yamazaki-san. We’ll figure it out. If things go well, then we won’t need medical attention anyway. But think about it. Almost twenty hours to rack up more points. That’s twenty hours that Ruby Passion Jr. won’t have to their name.”

“Yes, but I…”

The door opened, and a yawning Jina stepped out of the booth. Looking at the two of them, she grinned and gave them a thumbs up. The song was done, then. At least their part in it was. Now, it was up to Sakai and his editors. Kana took the chance to start a conversation with her as they left the room. Yamazaki followed, still flustered over the idea.

“Yamazaki-san?” Kana asked.

“Yes…”

“Please contact Yamada-san. We will be going ahead with the plan, after all. But don’t tell him. Just let him know that I want to talk to RiRi right away. Tell him to ask her and get her to call me.”

“RiRi?” Jina asked, “Not Sanada?”

“Sanada’s got a broken leg. We don’t need a liability like that in case there is a higher number of demons. Kelsey won’t listen to us, no matter what we do. She’s already lost in her head. At the very least, RiRi is reasonable. She might be dumb, but she is a dumb person who is willing to listen. So, Yamazaki-san, please.”

“I’ll do it right away. But, still…”

Kana ignored him and kept walking.

_____________

When the time for the competition came, Yamada was all alone with RiRi, just as expected. Kana had been clear with her instructions when she had talked to the Pink Beats member. RiRi knew that Kana was putting on an act. Everyone except Sanada knew that. So, she had fallen that much more easily.

As she got out of the car and walked to the door, RiRi’s anger was palpable. It hung in the air all around her, almost dragging Kana’s good mood down with it.

“You will destroy our group?” She asked, “You dare threaten me that you will uproot everything that I have worked so hard to create?!”

Kana sighed, “Yet, here you are. Isn’t that true?”

“Kana Minami, I have been very charitable towards you.” RiRi put her hand on the door before Yamada could approach with the key. Staring down at the twin-tailed girl, her face showed genuine rage for the first time ever, “I am here to tell you that we will not be playing along with your tricks any longer. You have no idea how hard we all worked to get where we are.”

Jina put her hand on RiRi’s and pulled it away. She had already grabbed the keys from Yamada, which she tossed to Kana. With a smile on her face, the leader of Velvet Choker opened the door. The chill breeze from the other side hit all three of them. For some reason, Kana felt almost happy to feel it. She was at peace, knowing that she was this much closer to winning.

“Let’s see it, then.” She told RiRi as she walked in, “You keep saying you worked so hard, but your group’s standings don’t replicate that. Clearly, all your hard work meant nothing and went down the drain. If you’re so hard working, then help us out this time, and I’ll actually reward you for your perseverance, for once.”

Jina pushed past RiRi, right behind Kana. Only then did the leader of Pink Beats aggressively start following them.

“Minami!”

“Yes, Rin?” She looked back with a smile, “Look, just calm down, alright? We both know your group is dead in the water if I don’t do something about it. I’ll apologize to Kelsey and remove Sanada’s voice from the song if you want. Fine? Just help us out this once. We need at least three people.”

“I hardly need your help to save my group, Minami. Stop acting so cocky. I came here because…”

Kana took out her grenade launcher and started for the meeting place she had agreed upon. Jina, behind her, addressed RiRi.

“Because…?”

RiRi scowled, “Shut up and tell me what I need to do.”

Kana laughed. Just a chuckle at first, and then slowly wilder and wilder until she was cackling loud enough for everyone around them to hear. It hadn’t taken her very long to switch up on them. All of her passionate ramblings, only to give up immediately and admit defeat. It almost endeared her to Kana. It was a respectable sense of self that you didn’t find easily.

But then again, she had also let go of it that easily. Just like anyone could put in effort and work hard, anyone could carry self-respect and pride. However, RiRi’s pride had crumbled just as fast as her career. Only this time she wasn’t trying to deny it. She saw just as well as Kana that Pink Beats was a dead group anyway. What was happening now was like blowing the head off a zombie.

She didn’t bother to speak after that, obviously. RiRi had gotten the point and already taken her pistol out. That was another reason why Pink Beats was so bad. Sanada was a Melee Class. RiRi was a Handgun Class. Kelsey, for some reason, was a Sniper. They had no synergy at all. In comparison to them, the other girls were much, much better. The other girls she had invited here, that was.

In the distance, the shining neon of their dresses clashed beautifully against the red wasteland. It had been a long time since Kana had talked to them properly, but they had still responded to her call. The reason to have them here was quite simple. If the rules did happen to work against them because of some extra clause in the smallest font possible, the Coalition would lose two agencies instead of one.

They could not afford that. Kana knew they couldn’t, especially if they wanted to keep the façade of a fair competition up. Lilac Shower had 2 out of 8 competitors under its belt. That was a mere 25% of the competition. High, but not high enough to be bothersome. If they were 2 out of 6, it would be 33%. Businessmen like the agency presidents would suddenly start to get itchy.

“So, what do you want?” Neptune acted cold, like usual.

“You are below us! Ranking-wise, that is.” Kana remarked with a mischievous smile.

Saturn mockingly chuckled, “Yeah, we noticed. What is this? A student-has-surpassed-the-master roasting session?”

“No, no!” Jina chimed in, “We just wanted to help you out, since you helped us out. We are assuming you’ve noticed everything about Ruby Passion Jr., right?”

“Everything?” Atlas asked, “They’re participating individually, without relation to the original. That’s good, then. What else do you mean?”

Kana spilled the beans. Little by little, she explained her theory about what Kenji Tanaka was doing by dividing the teams and how his strategy would hurt the other teams in the long run. How it would permanently cement Lilac Shower’s place in the top two. Thus, making them industry titans that could not be dethroned.

“So, we need your help to kick them down a notch and show them their place!” Kana explained, “You are sixth, and we are fifth. They are fourth. If we get enough points and we take fourth place, you can get enough points to get fifth. Together, we knock them down to sixth and delay their climb by at least a week.”

“Hmm.” Atlas considered it, “What if we took fourth place, and you took fifth place instead?”

Jina laughed, “Then, you can do that! We’ll find out what happens, won’t we? We all do our best, and whoever wins, wins. We just want Ruby Passion Jr. to lose!”

“That, I can get behind. I didn’t even imagine that bastard Tanaka was up to something like that.” Neptune groaned.

“Well, let’s settle down and find a spot, then!”

“What? Find a spot?” Atlas asked.

“Mhmm.” Kana nodded her head and started hopping forward as the others followed her, “We’re gonna stay here after the doors close, and farm points the entire day tomorrow. Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it?”

The three girls in neon stopped in their tracks. They looked at each other, and then back at Kana and Jina. For a second, it looked like they were considering whether they had heard it right. Just to aid that, Kana repeated herself, waiting for a response.

Atlas cleared her throat, “I am sorry. We did not know that. What do you mean by that?”

“Well…”

“We’re not doing that.” Neptune sighed, “No matter what you say. We’re not doing that. It is a terrible idea. We’ll all just die of hunger and thirst. We’re tired enough already.”

Kana nodded and repeated herself, “Well…”

_____________

That night, as the doors closed at one in the night, the teams representing Sakai Entertainment and HMC did not return.

A first in Coalition history.