"No Game No Life" volume 7 by Kamiya Yuu. After the depressing backstory of volume 6, we are back to the usual program, the "game" part of No Game No Life. This time, it's one giant snakes and ladders game.
Consistent with the earlier volumes, this is not simply any plain board game, but one played on a much larger scale, with kilometer sized squares and life threatening hazards. Advancing on this board requires rolling some dice, and each dice corresponds to a fraction of the player's life. Things got serious really quickly... at least until chapter 1, where Shiro and Sora concluded: "this game is lame, let's give up."
Of course, the story didn't just end after 65 pages. It actually didn't finish within this volume either. But the gamer-oriented carefree atmosphere was prevalent throughout this book, making it much more fun to read than volume 6. The usual dose of meta game is also present: this volume came with a set of rules that are specific to this board game, careful reading of these rules led to a famous game theory outcome in chapter 1, and some ghostly aberrations in chapter 3. It was very interesting to see all the subtleties contained in merely two pages unfold later to unsuspecting readers.
This volume ended on another cliffhanger. I wonder if the author has seriously wrote himself into a corner this time? I am very curious at how things may be resolved in future volumes, possibly with some casualties.
Previous (2015-10-01): "The World of Obfuscated, Esoteric, Artistic Programming" by Yusuke Endoh
Next (2015-10-29): "Eromanga Sensei" volume 1 by Fushimi Tsukasa