"Umm… Sorry for having you accompany me…" Ries muttered, intentionally averting her gaze from me.

I tilted my head at her, "Why would you say that?"

"I… I didn't know what we could do so… I just thought this place might be good…"

I looked up at the robot arena building that she was taking me to spectate, the one that was in front of the Battle Royale tower we had been competing in not that long ago.

Amber and Lea had gone to the gambling district once again to gamble despite Ries and Amber losing about two hundred and fifty thousand Credits there yesterday.

Since this was still within the budget of the Credits Linc gave to us to have fun with, I did not see that as a loss.

Amber did make me give her a 'kiss of absolute luck' before she went though, which basically involved a quick make out session with her that lasted for a good five minutes as she pushed me down to kiss me.

I'm actually surprised she didn't just escalate it further and left with a satisfied look on her face.

Ries then told me that she wanted to go watch the robot battle arena which was why we were here.

I shrugged, "I was kind of interested in this anyway, since I've never actually seen something like this before."

"Oh right… Because you don't have robots in your… Err… Your World?"

We kind of agreed that saying that I was from another universe would sound weird in public so we just say that I was from a different World instead.

Ironically that would raise less eyebrows and it was still technically true as well.

I scratched my head, "We did… But we don't use them for entertainment like this. They were reserved for manual labour instead."

"So… This would be your first time seeing fighting robots?"

"In person? Yes. In movies? No."

She nodded in understanding and we proceeded to the entrance of the arena where everyone else was also heading to.

There were several counters at the entrance that seemed to be the place where you would make your bets on who would be the upcoming winners of the matches.

They had the lineup for today's matches displayed on the board above the counter and you could bet on the outcome of each match individually.

From what I can see, this wasn't a tournament where the winner of each round would move to the next round but just individual fights happening between two different robots.

"Do the robots belong to the station as well?" I asked.

Ries turned to me with an excited look, "Oh, not at all! There are people who specialise in building, maintaining and customising these robots! It's quite a popular sport actually! Roboteers… Err… That's what we call people who participate in these competitions with their robots, would travel around with their battle robots to compete with each other!"

"What do they get out of this though?"

"Oh, they get winnings of course! Aside from their own bets on themselves, they would also get a cut of the losing guy's betting pool and their entry fee. There's also a really big tournament both in the outer colonies and inner colonies where only the biggest names of Roboteers can compete in! In fact, if you get well known enough in the outer colonies, you could get a permit to enter the inner colonies as well!"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Oh wow, that means this sport must be really popular for them to do that.

I looked up at the screen above the betting counter, intending to see what were the robots competing in the upcoming matches.

It seems like the screen displayed the names of the robots themselves which I assumed were the names the so called Roboteers had given them.

They all had varying names that ranged from "The Wrecking Ball" to "Annihilator Champion" to even "Nipple Sky Penetrator".

Yeah… I wasn't joking about the last one…

They had portraits of the robots displayed beside those names and that particular one had two drills popping out from its chest so I guess that's why it was given that name…

"Should we make some bets too, Boss?" Ries asked innocently.

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Even though you lost a lot of money yesterday?"

She poked her fingers together, "That's… That's why this will help me earn it back!"

"That's the kind of attitude that would cause you to keep losing money, Ries…" I admonished her.

"Ehh… With Boss here, I don't think we can lose though. You have incredible luck after all."

I rolled my eyes, "Well since we're here anyway, I guess we might as well make a bet or two."

I then led us towards one of the empty counters where I was mildly surprised to see it was manned by a floating robot instead of a real person.

Probably because this place is a robot arena, they decided to match the theme by staffing it with robots too?

"Greetings. Would you like to place a bet today?" The robot asked.

"Yes."

"Very well. The next match that you would be able to bet on is between 'Bob The Unbuilder' and 'Teddy'. The odds for the match are four to two."

Wow, four for Bob? That means I would be able to get back four times my betting amount if he wins.

But for him to have an odd of four means the other guy was more likely to win…

I turned to Ries, "Who would you be betting on?"

"I'll follow you, Boss."

Thanks for putting the pressure on me…

Well fuck it, the Bob guy sounds like a character I know so I selected him.

I tapped on my Codex, "One hundred thousand Credits on 'Bob The Unbuilder' please."

Ries quickly took out her personal terminal as well, "The same please! Three hundred thousand Credits!!"

I widened my eyes at her, "Really, Ries?"

She nodded excitedly, "Don't worry Boss! I still have some extra Credits left!"

That's not the problem but… Ah whatever…

"Money received. A hundred thousand Credits and three hundred thousand Credits for contestant 'Bob the Unbuilder'. Please collect your betting slips from the dispenser. Do note that Linc Pleasure Station will accept no responsibility for the loss of slips and--"

I tuned out the rest of the disclaimer that came from the bot and took the betting slips that dropped out from the machine beside the counter.

Ries frowned, "They're using physical betting slips? How rudimentary… Normally they would just have a virtual confirmation sent to our personal--- Oh… I get it…"

I nodded while walking away from the counter, "Yeah… So that the option of making you lose the betting slip is also on the table for them to avoid a payout…"

"Bleh… No wonder Lea doesn't like places like this…"

I was just about to comment on that when someone behind us snorted, "Did you really just bet on that battlebot?"

Battlebot? I guess that's the shortened name for battle robot.

I turned to see a middle aged guy with yellow cybernetic eyes raising an eyebrow at me.

"What's it to you?" I asked.

"Nothing, since you've already made the bet anyway so it's too late to change. That poor bot has been on a losing streak so far. The last six fights he's in he got wiped pretty bad with one of them having his head knocked clean off. I'm more surprised the Roboteer hasn't retired him yet since the only thing he's 'unbuilding' is himself."

I shrugged, "Well, I guess it's too late. We're really just here to watch the show anyway."

He nodded, "In that case, sorry for the unsolicited comments."

Without giving us a second glance, he walked up to the counter and made a fifty thousand Credit bet on 'Teddy'.

At least he was nice about it?

We went past the counters to enter the arena proper.

The place itself was arranged like a boxing arena with a large rectangular, tiered seating area facing towards a rather large boxing ring where the ropes surrounding it were made of metallic cables instead.

There also seemed to be a transparent box surrounding the boxing ring with two openings on two opposite faces which I assumed was put there to protect the audience in case parts from the robots came flying out.

It seemed like it was a free seating arrangement and the place was already quite packed so Ries and I ended up having to take a seat somewhere in the middle of the stands, stuck between a group of boisterous young men and a young couple.

Incidentally, the boys were busy talking amongst themselves and completely ignored us while the couple was eyeing at us like they were looking at pieces of meat.

Sorry, but I'm not into swinging, so you guys can stop looking at me like that.

We were just in time for the next match to start and the match we bet on would only start after this so we would be able to watch this without worry for now.

Alright, time for my first ever bot match in this universe!