Mysteries: Arcana Wars

Gamari didn't want to go home so early. She continued walking on the road while thinking about the man's strange words.

But I felt hungry along the way.

A woman who kowtows will not realize that she still has the responsibilities of a mother, and there will be nothing to eat even if she returns home.

She simply walked around the park several times and strolled around the surrounding streets several times. After making sure that she was not being followed by her mother or any other suspicious man, she secretly began to dig a hole under an inconspicuous tree.

An old tin box was seized, and inside it were all of Gamari's belongings, including a found electronic account certificate and a lot of loose cash.

She didn't know who the owner of the chip was. When she picked it up, there was neither much Cima nor biometric verification program in it, so she used it to save some small amount of money that her mother didn't know about.

The main source of this money was the change I got from lying about the price when I bought big leaf powder for my mother.

In the 14th century when money was electronic, almost no one in Bayam used cash, except for those lawless people who evaded official supervision through cash transactions, such as the Daye merchant that Gamari had been patronizing.

Gamari has not eaten since yesterday. All the remaining money in the family was spent by her mother on buying broad-leaf flour. There is still some time before the relief funds are distributed, and the only food, muffins, has been taken away by her mother again. The little girl decided to bite the bullet and use her pocket money to buy some low-quality nutritional paste to fill her stomach.

"Hey! That kid!"

The park ranger noticed something strange in the woods and immediately flew a drone equipped with a large loudspeaker towards Gamari.

"What are you doing, you little bastard! Do you know that the trees in these cities are much more valuable than you?"

The arc of light jumped in front of the drone, and Gamari ran away. She was usually very careful to avoid these patrol drones, but there were many times like today when she failed, so that she had figured out all the cameras around her.

How severe the electric shock was depended on how fast the little girl ran away. Unfortunately, today's patrol drones seemed unusually excited, and there were more of them than usual, chasing after the petty thieves who destroyed the trees.

After a few streets, the hungry Gamali began to lose her footing and lost her direction of escape. Finally, before she ran out of energy, she shook off the annoying drone, but at the cost of entering an unfamiliar street.

Gamari touched her ankle which was injured by the electric arc, and then simply explored forward, trying her luck to see if she could find a store that would accept cash and sell energy bars.

The unfamiliar narrow alleys only reveal a small section of the sky, like a dark crack in an advanced modern city. Even the scorching sun in the daytime is cast with depressing shadows by the layers of electric wires and iron poles, accusing the world of the ruthless plunder of land by cities during the period of rapid development.

I vaguely sense a familiar atmosphere from the dilapidated high-rise buildings on both sides. This place should be the same as the Daye merchant house that my mother often visited, where Bayam's black industry is entrenched.

A sense of crisis gradually crept into her heart. Gamari couldn't help but hold her breath and walked slowly, cautiously leaning against the wall.

The sudden commotion startled Gamari so much that he hid immediately.

A man was thrown out of the house. He was shouting and cursing in anger and frustration, but out of fear of the bodyguards at the door, he didn't dare to rush back into the house.

"You bitch! You stole my stuff!

"My ring! My jewel! And my watch! You stole them all!"

The poor man kept shouting and cursing for a long time, and finally a woman with a seductive, plump and sexy figure walked out slowly from the house. She looked at the man crying on the ground with pity in her charming eyes.

"My poor guest, your plight is very sad, but what has it to do with me?"

The man became furious and rushed towards the charming woman, but was stopped by the security guard.

"You damned thief and liar! You stole my things. The antique ruby ​​ring was in your hand!"

"Guest, this has always been my treasure. I just sent it out for maintenance when I received you before. You are also a regular customer, and you know that I like antique jewelry the most.

The woman smiled, and even spoke with a hint of grievance, but her eyes were full of mockery.

"If you say that, you'd better be able to prove that it's yours and not that you stole it from my maintenance shop."

"you……!"

The man pointed angrily.

"You liar! It was you, this vicious woman, who set a trap for me and made me sign that damn contract!!"

"Look at what you said, sir. You signed the contract willingly. How can you blame me, a lowly, weak and pathetic prostitute?"

The seductive woman smiled, took out a cigarette from her chest, lit it, and then exhaled the smoke gracefully.

"Did we use force to force you? Did we have the power to threaten you? Did we put a knife to your neck and force you to sign or we would kill you?

"No, we didn't do anything. You signed the contract before I even said anything, saying you would give me a bright future. I would no longer have to sell my body and could walk in the sun.

"Then keep it a secret from your wife and be her lover.

"Ah!"

The seductive woman's eyes turned cold and she flicked the ash into the man's hair.

"Beat up this troublemaker.

"Wait, don't stay here, it will affect the business, drag him out and beat him up."

The man was dragged away by the bodyguards cursing, and soon painful howls were heard from a distance.

The owner of the brothel just turned around and gave instructions to his men with a charming smile.

"Notify the girls and boys that we should move to another place."

Then the hostess spotted Gamari hiding in the shadows and peeping out of the corner of her eye.

"Where did this wild kid come from? What are you doing here?

"You look pretty good. Do you want to do it with me? Forget it, you're too young. Come find me when you're an adult. I don't want to be punished by God now."

After asking several questions, Gamari didn't say anything. Perhaps the little girl's expressionless face aroused the hostess's anger and dissatisfaction, so she simply raised her hand and pointed at the little girl.

"Beat her too. Don't stop until I tell you to."

Fists and kicks rained down like raindrops, with far more brutal force than that of the poisonous dog mother, but Gamari still had no expression. Apart from the physical tears brought by the pain, she did not cry or beg for mercy like her peers. She just stared blankly at the graceful hostess in front of her.

This aroused the charming woman's interest again. She walked slowly to Gamari in her high heels, squatted down, and blew smoke rings on the little girl's face.

"Why, do you think what I did was wrong?"

"...Mom said...you are..." Gamari said intermittently, "...stealing...cheating..."

"Stealing? Cheating? Ha! No, no, no, there is no such thing as stealing and cheating in this world, just like he couldn't prove that this antique ring and the money were his, because his name wasn't written on them.

“Anyway, now that I have them, they are mine, even if the lost god wakes up, it’s my ring, my money.

“This is my ability.”

The charming woman finally exhaled a long puff of smoke, kissed the little girl's bruised forehead affectionately with her bright lipstick, then put out the cigarette butt in Gamari's hand, and finally gave the girl a touching smile, turned around and left without looking back.

But suddenly, a fire seemed to ignite in Gamali's brain. The physical pain and mental oppression seemed to disappear at that moment, becoming an infinite echo in the distance outside the plastic bag.

In her little world, there are only the charming and elegant tricks and conspiracies of a woman, and that charming smile. These complicated, treacherous, tempting and dangerous chess games are like the fire in a dry forest and the bright light in a dark cellar, lighting up Gamari's dull and numb life. The colorful fun immediately permeates this damn gray world. A desire that has been lurking in the depths of the soul for many years but cannot be interpreted bursts out at this moment, and the confusion and puzzlement of many years are answered at this moment.

Cheating, theft, trickery, Gamari was completely fascinated by their beauty and uniqueness.

This... is what I should pursue in my life!

Happiness, something I've never found in this damn life, turns out to be here!

I exist just to feel the charm of this art!

The next day, limping, Gamali came to the bench again, carrying the iron box containing all her belongings.

Sure enough, the man who called himself Diamond Three was still lying there basking in the sun, holding a bag of muffins that he had stolen from some hotel.

"I knew you would come back, you would say yes, you would become one of us,

"Because you have the same blood as us, and crave the same pleasure."

Gamari suddenly shuddered, and then a familiar excitement surged through his limbs.

Perhaps... from the moment I met this man until now, I have already fallen into an elaborate conspiracy?

The Three of Diamonds didn't say much, but just showed Gamali the playing cards, which seemed to have one or two more cards than yesterday.

"Choose the one you like. When you sacrifice your name, these playing cards will be your real names, and Gamali Heart is just a false identity of yours."

Gamari was silent for a moment, then closed her eyes, drew a card, and turned it over.

【Plum Blossom Five】

"Okay, from today on, you are our new generation of Little Plum Blossom Five. Eat something first, and I will take you to the boss to complete the ceremony in the evening."

"Will you teach me how to cheat and steal?"

"Well... I think I have a better choice. Believe me, she is more suitable to be your teacher in this regard."

Seeing Gamali wolfing down the food, the Three of Diamonds couldn't help but touch the little girl's head.

"By the way, did you come out while mom was out?"

Gamari took a big bite of her muffin.

"I poured all the big leaf powder in the house into the muffins from the day before yesterday, and now my mother will never stop me."