"Coming, coming. Logging on now."
Receiving her teammates' call, the White-Haired Girl reached out and pressed the switch on the desk, turning off the monitor.
Then she activated Gale Step to return to her room, quickly changed into a gaming suit, and climbed into the Game Pod.
As the pod's lid slowly lowered, the smile on her face was submerged in nutrient solution.
"Click."
The cage reserved for bad cats opened just then, and the Orange Cat possessed by Fate Throat slowly walked out.
It came to the center of the room and looked up in puzzlement at the White-Haired Girl inside the Game Pod.
Now, it had confirmed that this Minor World was the "debtor world" it had been searching for.
But many questions in its mind remained unanswered.
Fate Throat scanned the room, extending its mind beyond its body and weaving a mental barrier that enveloped the room.
Then it left the Orange Cat and assumed its true form, black Baleful Wind coiling around its body.
The Bone Staff in its hand tapped the floor lightly. Black Baleful Qi immediately gathered before it, forming an Ancient Contract Table. A scroll seemingly made of parchment unfurled silently, followed by the appearance of the Fate Scales.
The vortex on its Silver Mist mask spun rapidly.
It released the Bone Staff, letting it hover above the Contract Table.
Fate Throat called out then, its voice sounding like multiple layers superimposed, as though millions of voices were making the same sound at once.
Immediately, the parchment scroll on the Contract Table stirred without wind, revealing densely packed Incantations.
Before long, a voice descended:
"Fate Throat, state your gambling request."
Hearing the Great Fate Lord's-their patriarch's-voice ring in its ears, Fate Throat pressed a hand onto the left pan of the scales.
This