“A sheep… yet it’s a Chicken Race, huh?”
“Yeah… well, that part is a bit concerning…”
The sheep were moving slowly on the grass, bleating, making it so pastoral that it was easy to forget this was a Death Game arena.
“Is the devil messing with us!? What is this!? Why sheep!?”
“Yay! Sheep! Fluffy sheep!”
“Try to hesitate a little before acting!”
Kaito immediately cried out, “I’m done for!” while Baka cheerfully charged into the flock of sheep, burying himself in their fluffy wool. The smell of the sun made Baka feel happy. The sheep, however, looked annoyed.
“Hey! Yo! Tama-san! You guys chose that Baka, didn’t you!? That means you’re responsible for supervising him! Say something!”
“Ah, well, yeah, I guess Kabashima-kun is like this. Haha…”
“…Sheep are cute, aren’t they? So fluffy.”
“You guys are useless too! It’s all over!”
Yo and Tama were both staring blankly at the sheep and the words “Chiki Chiki! Sheep Dark Pot Chicken Race!” Kaito, still not completely out of it, was making a fuss.
But then.
“…Huh? This sheep has something on its neck. What is it? A name tag?”
Baka noticed the collar on the sheep’s neck and the tag attached to it.
“…Hmm? This sheep has a weird name!”
“Oh, really? What is it? Does it say Philip K. Dick or something?”
Ignoring Kaito’s words, Baka looked at the tag on the sheep’s collar… and read it out cheerfully.
“It says, ‘100g of Beef’!”
“…So, that means that sheep is ‘100g of Beef’-chan.”
“Eh… yeah… well, naming a sheep that, it’s, well, I can’t quite wrap my head around it…”
“Oh! This sheep is apparently named ‘500g of Butter’! Oh, and this one is ’30g of Sea Milk’! This one is… huh? ‘Aconitum 5g’… Is that English? I can’t read it! And this one is ’10 Iron Nails’!”
“No, that’s definitely wrong! Is that really a name!?”
Kaito’s head was starting to hurt as he listened to Baka catching sheep one after another and reading out the tags.
“…Well, I guess they’re mostly things to be used in the Game.”
“Let’s try going to the center for now. Uh…”
“We have to push through the sheep…!?”
…And so, in the end, they all pushed through the fluffy flock of sheep and somehow made their way to what looked like a central kitchen studio.
The kitchen studio was like a tower. It was probably built that way to keep the sheep from climbing up.
The four of them climbed the ladder and reached the central kitchen studio. Then, the monitor at the top displayed “Rule Explanation!” followed by text.
…And then.
“You will now partake in a hot pot!”
That was the first thing that was displayed.
“Yay! I’m hungry!”
Baka was delighted after reading the words. After all, Baka was starting to feel a little hungry.
Come to think of it, last time, he got hungry at a similar time and ended up eating a piranha-like fish. Baka’s stomach clock was accurate.
“This is really a Death Game, right…?”
“Maybe it’s a hot pot competition.”
Yo was starting to hold his head, but Tama remained calm. Tama had come to this hot pot competition after going through a tricky quiz competition, so she probably didn’t really feel the reality of the Death Game.
“Currently, there are 2 liters of broth in the pot. It’s a combination of bonito and kelp broth. The ingredients that the sheep will bring will be added to it!”
“Sh-sheep…?”
Kaito was speechless, but Baka was smiling, saying, “The sheep are going to make the hot pot for us! How cute!”
“You can take servings of the hot pot into your own bowls in turns. Declare how much you want. You have a total of 5 chances to serve. After 5 rounds, the meal will be over.”
Baka decided, “We can only serve 5 times! Then I have to serve a lot and eat a lot!”
“However, you must not waste food! If you throw away or leave any ingredients, there will be a penalty! Everything you throw away or don’t eat after taking it into your bowl will be forced upon you!”
Baka agreed, “That’s right! My old man also said that we shouldn’t waste food!”
“Furthermore! If the contents of the pot are not below 200g!”
“…The person who has eaten the least by that point will be forced to eat everything that’s left!”
Baka was confused, “So… does that mean, if you don’t eat, you can eat more!?”
“Forced, huh… hmm.”
“It’s better not to have high hopes. Oh well… I’m not much of a big eater…”
Yo and Kaito immediately made disgusted faces. Baka tilted his head, “We can eat a lot of hot pot, so is something wrong?”
Then.
“By the way, the total weight of the ingredients scheduled to be added is approximately 10kg.”
That was displayed on the monitor.
Immediately, Yo and Kaito were speechless.
“Eh… 10, kg…”
“Seriously, we have to eat 10kg!?”
The two of them were even starting to look pale. On the other hand, Tama was calm, though with a slightly grim expression.
“…In reality, it’s a declaration to kill someone. There’s no way 4 people can eat 10kg.”
“10 kilos, huh? Hmm, I wonder if I can do it.”
…Well, the phrase “total weight of ingredients is 10kg” was interpreted a little differently by different people. No, Baka was the only one who interpreted it very differently.
“Eh… ah, well, yeah, it’s weird how I feel like Kabashima-kun can do it.”
“If it was me and my senpais, 10kg would be a piece of cake…”
“I’d like to see the faces of your senpais!”
Baka thought, “If only my senpais were here,” but that was that. The only ones here now were Baka, Kaito, Yo, and Tama. Just the four of them.
In order for the four of them to finish the hot pot, they had to look at the rules properly. Baka stared at the rules seriously.
“The ingredients to be added and their weights are all written on ingredient cards. And the ingredient cards are attached to the sheep’s necks.”
“Kabashima-kun. It seems like those weren’t name tags after all.”
“Ehh!? ’10 Iron Nails’ is such a cool name though!”
“What’s wrong with your sense?”
Apparently, all the ingredients that would go into the hot pot could be known beforehand. Well, that was if they could check all the sheep here…
“By removing the ingredient card from a sheep’s neck, you can prevent that ingredient from being added to the pot. If there’s an ingredient you don’t want to add, catch the corresponding sheep and remove the ingredient card from its neck.”
“…Huh!? Now that I think about it, 10 iron nails are bad, aren’t they!? There’s no way we can eat that!”
“Ah… thinking about it more, the ‘Aconitum’ that Kabashima-kun mentioned earlier might be ‘Aconitum’… which is monkshood. If that’s the case, things might get bad. It’s going to be boiled…”
“Is it bad!? I don’t want a hot pot that’s not delicious!?”
“No one is talking about the taste anymore!? We’re on the verge of life and death!?”
Everyone except Baka was tense.
…That’s right. Baka didn’t quite understand, but the essence of this game was a Chicken Race.
From the start, there was no way they could finish it. That’s why they couldn’t become the “person who ate the least.” But “the hot pot is likely to be poisonous.”
This was a Chicken Race to eat poison. One person would definitely die, and if they were careless, they could all be annihilated. It was truly a devil’s game.
…But.
“Well then, let’s start the meal in 30 minutes. Enjoy your meal!”
“Kabashima!”
The moment the “remaining time” was displayed on the monitor, Kaito shouted.
“If you don’t want to die… no! If you want to eat a delicious hot pot! Catch all the sheep you can!”
“Delicious hot pot!? We can eat a delicious hot pot!? Yay! Then I’ll do my best to gather the sheep!”
And, following Kaito’s instructions, Baka…
“WoooOOOOOON!”
…Let out a loud howl and started running towards the sheep all at once!
…On all fours!
In other words, the sheepdog, Kabashima Tsuyoshi, was born.