Dec 19, 2025
Author's Commentary #17:
Time to talk about Chapter 17: The unstoppable Coca-Cola Gambit.
Ugh, I think writing this game made me lose brain cells. Considering how awful the gameplay was, it was no wonder I decided to have Utami's game take place first as this game would have completely ruined the tense atmosphere.
Numakawa is an idiot. In the original, I actually was debating having him win this game, but since I wanted the team even to end in a draw, he had to lose, resulting in him getting his entire head and body shaved and waxed. However, that was in the original, as here, the team actually wins and thus, none of its members are subjected to the mini punishments. That being said, Numakawa still loses because he's an idiot.
The Yuzuha-Mona game on the other hand is actually the fastest possible way to achieve a stalemate. This very game is actually the root of Season 10's plot in the original. I initially wanted Yuzuha and Mona to have a proper game with Mona gaining an overwhelming advantage, only to get too arrogant and blunder into stalemate, thus giving the chess club the win. I thus searched for games that ended in stalemate and found Troitsky-Vogt, a game played in 1896 where famed Russian chess theoretician, Alexy Troitsky, managed to swindle his opponent, Vogt, into a stalemate trap. Unfortunately, the exact moves leading up to that point are lost to time as Troitsky's notes containing them were destroyed in the Siege of Leningrad. Thus, I instead made the Troitsky game the central theme of Season 10, while here, I decided to just have Mona have a DESPER-induced condition where she hypnotizes those less skilled than her to stalemate along with her. The activation of this condition is random.
On a more serious note, Skaberghast is incredibly sadistic despite his lazy attitude. He essentially decided to subject his subordinates to punishments all for the purpose of running an experiment on the DESPER.
Going back to the first game, the Coca-Cola Gambit is truly awful, but sadly this will be far from the last time it appears in the story. I truly did hate writing this game and had to take multiple breaks from writing it because I hated it so much.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
