In A Parallel World With Random Skills, I Reluctantly Become A Mafia Boss?

Chapter 2: Bet

To make sure, I pinch my skin, hard..

"Ah, it hurts..."

It didn't work. This was without a doubt, not a dream. Though I can't be completely sure since the only way I knew how to confirm it was inflicting a self-injury. After establishing the fact, my head started to hurt. The pressure of my impending death that I suppressed a few moments ago, all came back crashing down like a hammer crushing a nail.

There was nothing that I could do. I didn't even have my smartphone that I could've used to contact someone. It was hopeless. All I could do was wait for my execution tomorrow..

Maybe being a sacrifice wasn't too bad? No, no, I'm starting to run away from reality. I mean, what else could I do? There was nothing here except me, the clothes on my back, and this giant cage that trapped me inside it..

While holding my head with both hands, writhing and wriggling to think of a way out of my predicament, I noticed something in the corner of my vision. I didn't notice it before, but maybe that was because I was in a panic.

"Eh?"

When I picked it up from the cold, metallic ground, what was in front of my eyes, that I could barely make out in the darkness, was a piece of paper with words written on it..

From what I could see, it wasn't written in Japanese, but it wasn't in a foreign language either. I had a bit of knowledge of this since game development had a language studies course after all. The letters used were completely alien to me.

But for some reason, the words suddenly changed in front of my eyes, a moment after I glanced at it. The next thing I knew, all the words had become Japanese characters. It was strange no matter how you looked at it..

Still, this was no time to nitpick on the details. This piece of paper might be a clue. As I resolved myself to read its contents, a voice interrupted my concentration.

"Hey human, what are you doing there? Staring at the ground like that.."

I was considerably surprised from the voice but I knew I couldn't let my true feelings out, or else it would be troublesome. They might rat me out to their boss or something.

"Are you blind? Can't you see that I'm reading this piece of paper?"

So I continued to appear calm and collected while admonishing the devil guard.

"Why you little!? I could ask you the same question. Are you going crazy already? All that's there is the metal ground. This is why humans are.."

Eh, can he really not see the paper? I tried holding it in my hand, then proceeded to wave it around like a flag of surrender in front of the devil's eyes, but he had shown no reaction except tilting his head with a confused expression.