Spatial Deceleration Technology

People all had a twisted sense of fun.

They just rarely showed it in front of everyone.

That was why people said things like, "How could someone who usually seems so proper do something like this?"

Grandpa was a Rick, but since he was still a person, he naturally was no exception.

When the stone pillars began to rotate and the prearranged horizontal and vertical lines on the ground flashed with blinding light, Morty and the strike team all thought they were completely screwed this time.

Because Spatial Deceleration Technology, used on its own, might only be a defensive technology. But when paired with an entire universe and used as an energy supply...

It became a bomb capable of annihilating an entire universe!

Who would have thought...

It was fucking Monopoly!

That was right! The board game Monopoly!

Those imposing stone pillars with golden dragons began changing shape after rotating hundreds of times.

Towering buildings rose from the ground.

The silver metal floor was replaced by concrete roads.

Only the grid-like lines on the ground remained.

"Monopoly? He put in this much effort just to make such a brain-dead game?"

One of the Citadel Strike Team Ricks had barely finished mocking it.

When they discovered golden numbers appearing above each of their heads.

Morty had number four. The others were numbered one through twelve, for a total of twelve players.

An ivory die appeared in each of their hands. Other than Player One, none of them could throw theirs away for the time being...

"Fuck! Jesus! That suicidal idiot really wants us to play Monopoly?"

"Do I look like I have that much free time?"

"Piece of shit! Once I get out of here, I'm bringing that bastard back to life and killing him ten thousand times!!!"

The group of Ricks spewed a bunch of useless complaints until they saw the countdown above Player One's head. Only then did they stop whining.

You wanted to play a game, right?

Then let's play!

How hard could Monopoly be?

Roll the dice, make money, win the game. What was so hard about that?

But... this game seemed to have only one winner, didn't it?

The Ricks who knew how Monopoly was won gradually fell silent and stopped complaining and cursing Grandpa.

Because if the rules of this game remained unchanged, it would only allow one winner!

As for what would happen to the losers...

You could figure that out with your toes.

He had put so much effort into building a Monopoly board out of an entire universe. How could he possibly let them leave so easily?

If it really were that simple.

Then he would practically be a copy of Idiot Rick—the shame of the Citadel of Ricks.

After Player One rolled his die and moved four spaces, he stopped before an empty plot and said to everyone, "I have a suggestion. Let's play this game as slowly as possible. While we're at it, we can think of a way to speed up the Portal Guns. As long as a portal opens, we can escape from here."

Morty, Player Four, sneered inwardly.

Almost every Rick had a Portal Gun. It was as common to them as a phone was to an ordinary person.

Whenever one Rick plotted against another Rick.

The first thing they considered was always the Portal Gun.

If you gave someone time to use a Portal Gun, which Rick wouldn't just open a portal and immediately run away?

That was why Spatial Deceleration Technology had naturally been created specifically to counter Portal Guns.

Because the basic teleportation principle of a Portal Gun required portals to be created simultaneously at both Point A and Point B.

If there was a portal at A but none at B.

Then what the hell was the point of teleporting?

So, based on that principle, as long as the speed at which energy traveled from A to B according to coordinates was slowed down, the speed at which a portal formed would become unbearably slow.

Even more despairing was that after the portal opened, the speed at which a person's body and soul traveled together from A to B would also be restricted by this deceleration technology.

Based on the universe they were currently in.

And the results the Ricks had discussed earlier.

Opening a portal here to another world would take roughly one hundred years, plus the time it took for a person to walk through it.

That made two hundred years!

That was why these Ricks had begun considering how to speed it up.

As for destroying the spatial deceleration?

According to the strike team's estimates, this was probably a newly born universe, about ninety trillion light-years from its center to its edge.

Grandpa had directly annihilated everything in this universe and, before a new Big Bang could occur, diverted all of its energy into this anchoring platform.

That also meant the spatial deceleration was suppressing this universe's next explosion.

Once the spatial deceleration was destroyed, it would come down to who could move faster.

Knowing that he could not possibly be taken away the instant the explosion occurred, Morty could only turn his attention back to this Monopoly game.

Because in the memories that had been filled in, in Dimension 0099, he had once asked Grandpa how to defeat a Rick.

He remembered Grandpa saying.

Every Rick had weaknesses. Even Dimension C-137 was only the strongest, not invincible!

If you wanted to defeat a Rick, you absolutely could not use your weakness against a Rick's strength. You had to figure out whether a Rick's weakness overlapped with your own strength.

If it didn't, then just endure it!

Applied to the current situation, Morty felt that his chance of winning had risen from 0% to around 50%.

Because almost every Rick was an idiot when it came to economics!

But that was hardly surprising.

When someone could build nuclear fusion, mechs, AI, and spatial teleportation technology, money no longer had any power to restrain him.

All he needed was an AI and a prototype robot.

Then every material pleasure he desired could be satisfied.

So why would someone who could build mechs bother studying economics? Wouldn't that be a waste of time?

Wasn't overwhelming dimensional superiority better?

Having figured that out, Morty naturally guessed the real purpose behind this Monopoly game.

Grandpa had most likely thought that even if Morty got hold of a Portal Gun, there was still a chance he would be caught by the Citadel Strike Team.

So he had deliberately set up this situation, giving Morty an opportunity to fight the Ricks with his own strengths instead of using his weaknesses against them.

But Morty also knew that Ricks learned everything quickly. He had to seize the advantage as soon as possible and absolutely could not let them figure out the essence of this game.

After patiently waiting for Player Three ahead of him to finish rolling, Morty thought for a moment and decided Grandpa had definitely left him a backdoor.

As long as he dared to try it...

Morty did not throw the die in his hand.

Instead, he slowly crouched down and placed the side showing the number "6" on the ground.

Then he took one step forward, then another, ignoring the suddenly enlightened looks in the eyes of the three Ricks ahead of him, until he stopped on the sixth square.

Bank! Congratulations on being the first to reach the bank! Deposit: 100,000!