Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Arcade

Keith had always thought of himself as a man of determination. Was there not a saying that where there is a will, there is a way? At first, Keith genuinely believed he could buckle down and study properly, but before long he had set the book aside and sprawled across the table.

“Ah... so there really are some things in this world that no amount of forcing can make happen, like advanced mathematics...” Keith yawned in boredom. Without customers, it was easy to grow sleepy.

“Trainer! Trainer!” Just as Keith was wondering whether he ought to head back to the dorm early and get some proper rest, he saw Zorua bouncing over with a bright, delighted face.

“What is it, Zorua?” Keith asked, leaning against the cabinet.

“Trainer, what kind of place is that arcade mentioned in this novel?” Zorua asked, her eyes full of curiosity.

After she asked, Keith noticed that Farfetch'd had also stopped its wok-flipping motion. It was clear that Farfetch'd was interested in the arcade as well. Only Charmander was still resting; it had just finished an entire round of exercise, and sweat kept dripping from its body.

Keith frowned. Zorua’s question was not strange at all. After all, there were naturally arcades in the world of Pokemon too, where one could exchange money for tokens, earn points, and redeem different prizes.

It was just that Keith did not especially like that sort of game, something like a rigged, exploitative grind. It was rather like the old pachinko machines mentioned in anime, an industry that had found a loophole in the Alliance’s rules and managed to survive to this day.

Of course, there was another reason Keith did not like going to arcades.

“The arcade? An arcade is a place with all kinds of amusement machines. You put in coins and play, and there are claw machines and the like too,” Keith explained briefly. Zorua’s eyes immediately lit up like stars, and she looked at him with eager anticipation.

Keith’s mouth twitched. He deliberately turned his head away, but the next moment Zorua’s face appeared again in his field of view. She gazed at him plaintively, her tail swaying back and forth.

“...All right. I’ll take you to have a look, but don’t get your hopes up too high.” Keith glanced at Zorua and sighed helplessly. Farfetch'd burst into cheers at once, twirling its wok before landing steadily on the ground.

“Come on, let’s go park the vehicle.” Keith set the self-driving function in the driver’s seat, then brought his food truck to the arcade.

The arcade in Evergreen City was quite interesting. It stood on a spot diagonally opposite the Officer Jenny dormitory, and could almost be called the farthest point in the whole city from that dorm. Even so, the service there was considerate.

Using the automatic driving function, Keith parked the truck in the designated space. Parking fees here were very cheap, so there were usually many cars in this area.

Although it was the humid spring season, with thick fog in the air, Keith saw that there were still plenty of cars parked here. It seemed the arcade had quite a few customers.

“Phew... I hope those guys aren’t here.” Standing at the arcade entrance, Keith drew in a deep breath.

“Trainer, what’s wrong?” Zorua asked curiously. Farfetch'd and Charmander stood beside Keith as well, though compared to Farfetch'd’s high spirits, Charmander looked somewhat listless.

“Nothing. I just don’t really want to go in.” Keith looked at the glass door before him and licked his lips.

Seeing Zorua’s puzzled expression, Keith still reached out and pushed the door open.

The moment he opened it, Keith saw several dance machines in the very center of the arcade. That alone was nothing unusual; after all, having dance machines in an arcade was not strange. What left Keith too exhausted even to complain about were the figures writhing on the dance floor.

One after another, Machoke were desperately twisting their bodies up there, moving to the sweet vocals and pleasant music with abandon. Those heaving heaps of muscle made Keith suck in a cold breath.

Those fellows were certainly diligent, dancing here even in the damp spring weather. Beside the Machoke were a group of equally unyielding Hariyama, who were also writhing with all their might. Only, Hariyama had a build more like sumo wrestlers.

So when they danced, the flesh on their bodies rippled up and down like waves, making Keith’s scalp go numb.

“...Can we go home?” Zorua covered her eyes in pain, trying to erase the horrific scene from her memory, though the effect did not seem especially strong so far.

“Since we’re here already, let’s play a bit.” Keith closed the door, then courteously skirted around the dancing Machoke and Hariyama, and led Farfetch'd, who now looked deeply doubtful about duck life, together with Charmander, who was staring enviously at the muscle on the Machoke, to the counter.

Keith bought a hundred Alliance credits’ worth of tokens. Because of the humid spring event, he ended up with two hundred game tokens, which he was fairly satisfied with.

“Trainer! What is that?” Freed from the eerie dance machines, Zorua quickly regained her energy. Keith found that rather enviable; the first time he had seen them, it had taken him a long time to wash the memory away.

Following the direction Zorua was pointing, Keith looked over. There was a pool of about twenty square meters there, its surface floating with all kinds of plastic balls.

“So here’s the question: looking at that thing, what do you think that place is for?” Keith asked Zorua with a smile.

“Hmm... I guess it’s a water park!” Zorua pondered for a moment, then gave an excited answer.

Keith shrugged and shook his head. Zorua fell silent again, thought deeply, and then offered a question about a children’s amusement area. Keith still shook his head.

“That’s a claw machine, only the gameplay is rather unusual, and the odds of winning are also rather... mystical.” Seeing that Zorua could not guess it, Keith finally gave the answer with a smile.

Farfetch'd immediately widened its eyes. It stared blankly at the pool ahead. No matter how one looked at it, that thing did not resemble a claw machine at all. Shouldn’t a claw machine be one of those little machines placed beside the dance machines?

Charmander also became interested. It looked curiously at the pool ahead, then up into the air above it. There was nothing there at all—no claw, no other mechanism. Why would this be a claw machine?

“Want to try it? Ten game tokens per attempt.” Keith asked his Pokemon. Zorua hesitated for a moment, then nodded. She wanted to see just what kind of claw machine this was.