The remaining three members of Keroro platoon went through the portal, and it closed behind them. The first thing they saw was the open front door of grandma Akina's home. The low table and cushion could be seen, yet the one sitting there was not Akina, but a white-haired old man.
"I'm the keeper of level 3, Lord White Eagle. All three of you, decide an order, and come in one by one. After eliminating one of you, go up the hill, look for a small plane, fly to the next level, the top of Mount Fuji. Clear enough? Hurry up. I'm waiting for the first one." After the old man finished his words, the doors slid together, blocking their sights.
Keroro got a chill from the way Lord White Eagle spoke, concentrating on how to avoid danger. After a while he made up his mind. Maintaining a leader posture, he commanded. "I will be the last one. Dororo go there first, and Giroro stay here with me. You both agree, right? So let it be." He didn't give them any chance to voice their opinions. After saying that he just found a comfortable place to rest.
Dororo accepted the arrangement and went into the house with no complaints. Suddenly he recalled his childhood, when he was always the one to explore the way in those "adventures". But it's different now. If he could reduce their risk by being the pioneer, he was willing to take any risk alone.
He sat down beside the low table, waiting patiently, until Lord White Eagle put a revolver on the table.
Dororo couldn't help letting out a wry smile. This was truly the wrong arrangement. They should have let Giroro to be the first. No one knows guns better than him.
Lord White Eagle said coldly. "Can you see this gun? The six chambers are all empty. But-" He put a bullet on the table. "Put this bullet in one of those chambers. Any one of them. Then you leave, and tell the next one to come in. He will use this gun, and shoot himself." He told Dororo all those with a smile.
"In your dreams!" Dororo bounced up, knife unsheathed, visibly enraged. The first three victims merely disappeared, not dead. Why are them forced to kill each other in this level?
"Want to kill me? It's useless. If I'm dead, you will be trapped in this world, this level forever. Even if you don't starve to death, you will never find the other three players."
His words sobered Dororo down. He sat down again, asked the question. "Where are those three?" Anyone, he was only asked to put one bullet in. Maybe he could at least ensure Keroro and Giroro's safety...
"They are at where they should be. Calm down, young man. I haven't finished telling the rules. If the second one shoots but the gun doesn't fire, he will put in the second bullet. Then the third one come in, repeat this process, and the first one again. In other words, after six chambers are all filled, this gun will certainly fire."
That would be his turn... No, the risk was too high. He'd better fill the bullet in the third chamber. So he slipped the bullet in, prepared for his own death.
When he opened the door, he saw Keroro and Giroro quarreling for whatever reason, unable to tell them about this Russian roulette.
They had been friends since childhood, and now they had to kill each other. Although there used to be similar situations, he still felt sad.
Giroro asked immediately. "What's in this level?"
Dororo considered what to tell him. "Your speciality."
Giroro got the meaning easily, entered the house without asking twice.
Rules didn't change. Giroro didn't hesitate when shooting himself. Of course the gun didn't fire. Lord White Eagle gave him the bullet. Giroro smiled seeing it, swung out the cylinder, filled the second bullet into the fifth chamber. Then he rotated the cylinder before closing it. Now the third and sixth chambers had bullets.
When Giroro walked out, Keroro had already known the rules, and was trembling with fright. Giroro patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, you won't die. Load the last chamber." Then he continued. "If this level is my speciality, then I will most likely be useless in the next level. There's no such coincidence."
Keroro did everything as he was told in a cold sweat.
Dororo prepared himself again, saying nothing to his teammates, going through the door.
If he could choose, he really hated ending his life in this way. Compared to controllable and graceful cold weapons, guns were too violent for his likes. But he had no choice.
He took a deep breath, pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened. Confused, his heart sunk. Why?
Dororo swung the cylinder open, only to find the bullets in the first, fourth and fifth chamber.
Sure enough, he knew nothing about this kind of weapon. Keron army do have trainings on guns, but that's for standard laser guns, which are completely different from guns on earth. Only Giroro knew the mechanical structure of revolvers. And basing on what little he knew about guns, the revolver was sure to fire no matter which chamber he chose.
Not everyone knows the cylinder could be rotated...
Dororo could do nothing but put the bullet in the last chamber. Putting down the gun, determined to kill the manipulator of this game by himself.
Giroro said goodbye to them without any trace of sorrow, as if he was just about to go on a journey.
The door closed. The gun fired. Keroro and Dororo stood in silent tribute for a minute, then they set out to look for the plane.
A track was built on the mountain top. On it was a small two-seat airplane with traditional piston engine and mechanical transmission. Keroro was dumbfounded. "No autopilot? Then how can we-"
Dororo climbed into the pilot seat. Thankfully the plane has been adjusted to fit keronian's size. He checked the fuel tank and flight instruments, motioned to Keroro to board the plane.
Engine start, taxing, climbout, level flight, aiming at Mount Fuji in the south.
Keroro shrank down into his seat. "The last level is coming... I'm afraid, really afraid. I don't want the prize! I want to be in Inner Tokyo, even if I'm the only one left... I fear the last level will be more cruel, I fear that I'm too useless as a leader and will lose anyway... Dororo, can you go to Mount Fuji by yourself? I want to return to Inner Tokyo..."
Dororo understood Keroro's thoughts all too well. He had considered giving up long ago. Beside the pressure of going to the end alone, the nightmare accompanied by that "victory" was enough to drive one crazy. If he hadn't sworn to avenge his teammates, he would never go to Mount Fuji.
But Keroro was different. He could escape from this fate. Inner Tokyo wasn't far from their route. If he could send Keroro back to the Hinatas' home, perhaps he could be safe.
At the thought of saving one of his teammates, Dororo reorient according to the flight instruments, moving the vertical tail to the left. The plane followed.
Suddenly the plane was out of control. The barometer elevation dropped to zero, and the engine was also about to stall. If not for the environmental regulator on their hat, they could have been dead by then.
Dororo yanked the lever back into place, seconds later they were back in the original route. Everything came back to normal.
"Kero... does it mean we are still restricted by the Adventure Line?"
That's the most reasonable explanation. So they could only fly to Mount Fuji.
There was a clearing without snow on the top of Mount Fuji. A young woman in her twenties gazed at the approaching plane. She heaved a sigh, said to herself. "I don't really know, whether I expect this final or not."
About the plane part: As a student in Beihang University, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, I've always imagined Dororo-kun flying a plane. I just can't help it...
