The game in which you'll all be participating.
It is called...
The Downsizing Game!
Of the nine players present, whoever is downsized will be the loser.
The remaining eight will be winners.
Nao Kanzaki
3 days ago
Could she be...
Downsizing Game
There'll be eight winners?
Hang on a minute!
That's not what we signed up for!
I beg your pardon?
Everyone here lost the second-round game!
We're at least 100 million in the hole!
We were told we could wipe our debts clean if we came here!
That description is not incorrect.
The hell it's not!
Is there a prize or isn't there?!
The loser will be forced to surrender 100 million yen.
That 100 million will be split among the eight winners.
That is the prize.
So we'd only get 12.5 million each?
That's barely a drop in the bucket!
You are mistaken.
The prize is not the only way to make money in this game.
As you can see, the venue is barren.
Neither food nor drinking water are available.
To survive this game, you will find yourselves needing various things.
You may use your M Tickets to purchase these things.
For instance, let us say you are desperate for a drink of water.
Another player offers it to you for 500 yen.
You agree to this deal.
Transaction with: Takahiro Kikuzawa
Terms
Amount
Hiroto Kitamura
Takahiro Kikuzawa
Sell one bottle of water
Buy one bottle of water
Transaction with: Hiroto Kitamura
At this time, both buyer and seller will write
the terms of their exchange and the arranged price on their M Tickets.
A tournament official will certify them, thus completing the trade.
Anyone who fails to fulfill their part of such a deal
will be issued a penalty of 100 million yen.
Those who find the prize insufficient need only sell what they can to earn more.
You can buy or sell absolutely anything with M Tickets.
They did mention that on the invitation...
That we could bring anything in with us.
The Losers' Revival Match will begin at the date, time, and place listed here.
Please scan this QR code
Please be on time. You may bring anything to the venue, excluding illegal items (guns, bladed weapons, narcotics, stimulants, etc.). To ensure your victory, we recommend that you come fully prepared.
I didn't bring anything anyone would want to buy.
There's not a damn thing we could bring that'd fetch hundreds of millions!
Damn it all!
All will become clear once the game begins.
The most unexpected things may fetch a high price indeed.
Now, allow me to move on to an explanation of the game.
This is an L Ticket.
It is a ballot slip with five spaces for names.
In these spaces,
you will write the names of players you wish to see move on to the third game.
Nao Kanzaki
Takayoshi Miura
Hiroto Kitamura
Teruyuki Eda
Yuji Fukunaga
Nao Kanzaki
You may write the same name five times if you wish.
However, you may not write your own name,
nor may you write ineligible names.
You will vote once per hour, for a total of ten times.
Then, once the voting is complete,
the player with the fewest votes will be downsized.
They will be declared the loser.
Now, let the game begin!
The first vote will take place three hours from now.
Even if I won, I'd still only earn 12.5 million...
That's not nearly enough to save Akiyama-san.
And these M Tickets...
Will I really find a way to utilize them before the game ends?
Plus, there's one other thing I don't understand.
Everyone here seems so strangely calm.
It's as if they all feel assured of their victory...
Heya, Nao-chan.
Need a drink?
Miura-san?
I've got a whole selection!
There's mineral water, there's ginger ale...
All the vending machines here are busted.
N-Not at the moment.
Sheesh.
I'm not gonna earn squat with these M Tickets.
Um, can I ask why you seem so calm?
You and everyone else here...
Why d'you think?
We all know who's gonna lose.
Fukunaga's getting downsized hard.
Everyone agrees on that.
The eight of us here besides you...
We were all in the same group for the second game.
Oh, that's right!
And you probably know that every last one of us ended up 100 mil in the red.
I'd like to do a whole lot more than just see that little weasel lose.
I'd dish out a whole bloody beating if I could.
I see it now. They're all clearly avoiding Fukunaga-san.
I get it. If I were in their shoes...
Okay, everyone. Listen up.
We have three whole hours before the vote.
To kill time before then...
How about we hold a little pitch meeting?
Pitch meeting? The hell?
So that we can all make our case.
About how much we want to win.
Take your little schemes and shove 'em!
You're not changing what we've all agreed on!
That you're going down!
Perfectly fine by me.
Don't go getting the wrong idea.
I'm genuinely just trying to kill time.
I'm fully aware that I'm walking out of here a loser.
But what about the rest of you?
Come the third game, you'll be back to fighting each other.
When that happens, you'll need to figure out who to cut loose.
You should use this time to consider it...
"Who's on the chopping block after her?"
Yeah, I guess.
Not like we have much else to do for three hours.
And so the pitch meeting began.
Everyone had their reasons for wanting to win.
"I'll never reach my dream if I go bankrupt."
"It'll upset my parents."
Everyone made a desperate pitch in the hopes of their own survival.
And when my turn came...
May I ask a question?
What exactly are you doing here?
What do you mean? A tournament official came by...
You know that's not what I mean.
How deep in debt are you again?
I'm not in any debt.
What? No debt at all?!
She's not...
...in debt?
Wait, are you telling me you won big in the second game?
Yes.
But you knew that, didn't you?
Hey, everyone, did you hear that?!
She's not like us at all!
Not only is she not in debt, but she made bank in the second game!
In that instant...
I could tell that the way they looked at me changed.
That's all I needed to know.
I can't wait to hear why you're playing,
even though you're already swimming in cash.
Go on, make your pitch!
I was trapped.
Fukunaga-san had planned this all out.
The feeling in the hall, united against her up to that point...
suddenly turned against me instead.
You've become the odd woman out, Nao.
Fukunaga-san!
You tricked me, didn't you?!
I most certainly did.
But not just you.
I tricked everyone else, too!
Wh-What do you mean?
All of that was just a feint.
I've cleared a guaranteed path to victory for us.
Did you say... "us"?
There's a surefire way to win this game.
If the vote were about who to downsize,
either you or I would inevitably lose.
But that's not how the game works.
We vote for who, besides ourselves, we'd like to see go on to the third game,
and the person with the fewest votes gets downsized.
Right...
Which makes it simple.
You and I need only vote for each other.
Nao Kanzaki
I'll write your name in all five slots on my L Tickets.
In exchange, you do the same for me.
Yuji Fukunaga
How many votes will that earn us?
Ten rounds of five votes each...
Fifty votes.
Exactly.
And in this game, once you have fifty votes, it's impossible to lose.
Votes Cast
Votes Held
There are nine players here, each with fifty votes to spend.
That's 450 votes available.
You and I guarantee each other fifty votes.
For us to be at the bottom,
all the remaining players would have to secure 51 votes each.
Is that doable?
Well...
For the remaining seven players to get 51 votes each,
there would have to be a total pool of 457 votes.
So it's not possible!
That's right.
Which means we can't conceivably lose.
It's in the bag!
But what if everyone ties at fifty votes?
I held the pitch meeting to eliminate any chance of that.
I intentionally singled you out to set you up as a heel.
But that works in our favor!
There are now two heels in the venue—both of us.
They'll think, "One of them is sure to get downsized. I don't have to do anything."
A single heel wouldn't create that sense of safety, but two heels would.
"If the two of them trade votes, they're guaranteed to win."
They'd figure it out if they really thought about it.
But their sense of safety will prevent them from even thinking that far ahead.
And what will happen as a result?
In the first vote, someone will end up with fewer than five votes.
That's when the true horror of the game kicks in.
Whoever falls behind in the first vote will never climb back up.
After all, even if they trade votes,
they can never reach the fifty-vote safe zone.
So whoever's at the bottom in the first vote has a 100% chance of losing.
By that same token...
you and I have a 100% chance of victory!
Amazing.
So, do you agree to my plan?
Yes, of course I do!
Excellent.
Well, the vote is in two hours.
You know what to do when the time comes.
Oh, and while I'm at it...
Don't tell anyone about this, all right?
Right!
See you in two hours.
U-Um, Fukunaga-san...
Thank you very much...
for saving me.
Likewise, of course.
We're both in the lurch. We have to help each other out.
The time has arrived.
We will now hold the first vote.
At the very least, now I won't lose.
We will now tally the votes.
Teruyuki Eda Yuji Fukunaga Kosuke Tsunoda Hiroto Kitamura Tetsuzo Sato
Eda. Fukunaga.
Tsunoda.
Kitamura.
Miura.
Sato.
Fujita.
Fukunaga.
Eda.
This concludes the voting.
The result is as you see here.
Yuji Fukunaga Hiroto Kitamura Kosuke Tsunoda Tetsuzo Sato Takayoshi Miura Shingo Fujita Teruyuki Eda Takahiro Kikuzawa Nao Kanzaki
Wh-What's going on?
Why do I have zero votes?
The next vote will take place in an hour.
No... No...
Let us meet again then.
Fukunaga-san! Explain yourself this instant!
You promised you'd give me five votes!
I did make that promise, yes.
But I was never going to keep it.
This is the Liar Game.
And you've been lied to...
by me!
She got me. She got me again...
No, now's not the time to break down.
We'll be voting nine more times.
I have to ask the others to vote for me!
Excuse me.
Excuse me. I'd like to talk—
Why? Why is everyone walking away?
The time has arrived.
We will now hold the second vote.
No!
I haven't done anything yet!
Yuji Fukunaga Hiroto Kitamura Kosuke Tsunoda Tetsuzo Sato Takayoshi Miura Shingo Fujita Teruyuki Eda Takahiro Kikuzawa Nao Kanzaki
The second vote was as cruel as the first.
What Fukunaga-san had predicted became reality.
Nao Kanzaki
I'd fallen to the bottom in the first vote,
and I didn't get a single vote the second time through.
Someone, please help me!
At least talk to me!
Yuji Fukunaga Tetsuzo Sato Takayoshi Miura Shingo Fujita Hiroto Kitamura Kosuke Tsunoda Teruyuki Eda Takahiro Kikuzawa Nao Kanzaki
Third Vote
Have some.
I'm not gonna charge you.
Miura-san...
Thank you.
No need to thank me.
I'd throw some votes your way if I could.
I just can't.
What do you mean?
Man, you've really got no clue...
You made a deal with Fukunaga to vote for each other, right?
Yes. She said it was guaranteed.
The rest of us had the same idea.
We were all gonna trade votes in small groups
to ensure either you or Fukunaga lost.
What are we whispering about?
Let me guess.
You're discussing your approach to this game.
You'll break into groups of two or three, trade votes,
and guarantee fifty votes for each of you.
Thus, you'll take down either Nao or me.
Did you really think you could ride it out that way?
Of course we can!
As long as we get fifty votes, we can't possibly lose!
You certainly can't lose that way, true.
But what if Nao and I made a pact of our own?
Hang on, did you...
That's right. We're working together.
Now you can't possibly win.
On the contrary, one of you is guaranteed to lose.
Huh? Whaddya mean by that?!
Nao Kanzaki has money, remember?
Once the deadlock becomes clear, she'll make her move.
She'll shave one of you off from the rest.
Shave one of us off?
She'll propose a betrayal.
"I'll give you 40 million yen if you cast a single vote for me."
I'd... I'd never betray anyone.
Maybe you wouldn't, but can you be so sure about your partner?
In a game with a meager prize of 12.5 mil, another 40 would go a long way.
How many people here could say no to such a juicy offer?
Now, it might sound like I'm here to scare you...
but I actually want to help you.
Pay me 5 million each,
for a total of 35 million,
and I'll save you all.
Save us? How?
I'll stab Nao Kanzaki in the back.
I'll give my fifty votes to you.
Then Nao Kanzaki is guaranteed to receive zero votes and lose.
Meanwhile, your survival is guaranteed.
But where do we get the five million?
Oh, you know where!
You can buy my betrayal with these.
What did you think these M Tickets were for?
Think back.
To survive this game, you will find yourselves needing various things.
You may use your M Tickets to purchase these things.
The thing you need most in this game isn't water or food.
It's strategy.
Strategy, tactics, foolproof plans...
Abstract concepts, to be sure, but they go for a premium here.
That's what this game is all about.
So, what do you think of my plan?
Will you buy in? Or no deal?
We all bought in on Fukunaga's plan.
She's using the M Tickets like contracts.
Transaction with: Fukunaga
Terms
Amount
Remaining
Takayoshi Miura
I, Miura, will cast all my votes for Fukunaga until the 10th vote.
I'm swapping my votes with Fukunaga.
I, Miura, will cast all my votes for Fukunaga until the 10th vote. Amount ¥100,000
I, Miura, will cast all my votes for Fukunaga until the 10th vote.
I, Fukunaga, will cast all my votes for Miura until the 10th vote. Amount ¥100,000
I, Fukunaga, will cast all my votes for Miura until the 10th vote.
We both bought the voting setup from each other for 100,000 yen.
The 100,000-yen payments cancel each other out,
but the letter of the deal still stands.
And I can't break it with the 100-million penalty.
We're all in the same boat.
The M Ticket contracts mean our votes are locked in until the tenth vote.
Which means there's not a single thing you can do to—
You bastard!
I said no talking to Nao, you stupid piece of shit!
Stop it!
Fukunaga-san, stop it!
Whatever. My plan is all but complete.
It should be clear now that you're going down!
It's 100% guaranteed!
Next Time
Light and Darkness