"Alrighty! Time's up! Let's see what the viewers have decided on for our dear contestants." Mister Θ pulls out a tablet and scrolls through the contents. "Hmmm, yes...yes. I see. Okay! The results are in! Have a look."

Mister Θ points his gloved hand towards a large screen which displays the poll results in four neat pie charts. The starting weapons for Gustaf and Inka are 'Item Box S' and 'Item Box B', respectively. As for the starting pills, they are 'Pill S' and 'Pill P', respectively. As the viewers stare at the screen, clueless and hoping for an explanation, Mister Θ is seen giggling at the side.

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Remembering that a camera is still directed at him, Mister Θ quickly composes himself. "Ahem, allow me to explain the selections the majority has made. Let's start with Gustaf Kohl...as you can see, 32% of the voters chose 'Item Box S'. I can probably guess that you guys might have thought that the 'S' stands for 'Sword', am I right? Unfortunately, the correct answer is...'slingshot with no ammo'!"

Mister Θ gasps in fake surprise as he fans himself. "Shocking, isn't it? You guys regretting it now, eh? Well, no worries! It's all in the past. Gustaf will just have to make do with what he gets."

"Next, we have the starting pill. Most of you have decided on 'Pill S'. Excellent choice! This pill will allow the user to gain extra strength upon consumption. Seems like the Heavens have not forsaken our dear German friend."

"Okay! It seems your luck is fairly good. Let's see what we have next? For Ms. Sheinfeld, 30% of the viewers have voted for 'Item Box B' and 32% of the viewers have voted 'Pill P'."

"Hmm, I bet people thought the 'B' stood for 'Bow' or 'Blade', right? Wrong! The actual item is...'B' as in 'Baseball Bat'! Though it isn't what you may have expected, however, this weapon is still a fair choice."

"As for the pill...unfortunately, Lady Luck was not on your side. Pill 'P' is actually a slow-acting 'Poison' pill. Things aren't looking so well for Inka. Can she survive through it? Only time will tell."

Mister Θ pauses and looks around slowly for dramatic effect. "Now that the starting choices have been selected, it is time to move on to the next step. Come! Let's change the stage!"

The masked host snaps his fingers twice and points his finger at the box-shaped, glass room. Suddenly, the room begins to tremble as it slowly descends below the ground. In the meantime, four large pillars emerge from the four corners of the room. Once the glass room disappears into the ground, the pillars begin to light up and a whirring noise soon follows. After a few moments, the room begins to vibrate and the surroundings start to change. Seconds later, the once dark room becomes a moldy, old basement-like room with torches on the sides. In front of the camera are two people. They are naturally the two contestants of today's show - Gustaf Kohl and Inka Sheinfeld. Mister Θ walks up to the camera and lifts it up to his shoulder. He approaches the two contestants and sticks his hand through them.

"Now, don't be alarmed folks. This is normal. As you can see, my hand passes through them like a hot knife through butter. That's because, I'm sure you know, they are actually not in this room. In other words...this is a hologram. Now, how is this a hologram? As I mentioned last year, we have many high-tech mini-drones flying around on the dungeon floors along with the contestants, capturing their every move, which is then compiled into what we see here. Luckily, the rooms on each dungeon floor is a bit smaller than the room we're in right now. So, you don't have to worry about any missing or overlapping content."

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"As of now, they are just about to receive some instructions on getting their starting items. Silence everyone...and enjoy the show." Mister Θ disappears from the camera's view as he expertly zooms the camera towards the two contestants.

..........

In the Base Room....

..........

After waking up and finding themselves in another unknown room, the two individuals - Gustaf and Inka - search around the trapezoid-shaped room to look for a way out. Minutes later, the two give up in frustration.

"Goddamn room! There's no outlet. How the fuck did we even get in here?" Gustaf kicks a nearby wall, causing dust to shake off.

Inka, on the other hand, crouches by a corner with her hands clasped together over her head as she silently prays.

Suddenly, a buzzing noise could be heard. The two participants look around, trying to locate the source of the sound. After a while, they finally find out that the buzzing sound is coming from Gustaf. The German man quickly searches through his clothes and finds a cell phone. Someone was calling him!

Gustaf quickly swipes right, unlocking the phone and answering the call. As he brings the phone to his ear, he realizes that the phone is automatically on speaker. Gustaf holds the phone up for the two of them to hear.

"Ahem...ahem...can you guys hear me? Hello?" The voice did not appear to belong to Mister Θ.

"What the fuck do you want? Get us out of here!" Gustaf roars into the phone.

The voice hisses sharply, "Ow, that smarts. Quiet down will you? You're hurting my ears."

"Wait, who are you? You're not the masked man." Inka asks as she recalls the voice to be different from what she heard from Mister Θ.

"You're right! The name is Εpsilon...but you can call me Professor E."

"P-Professor E? Why are you doing this to us?"

"Because, my dear Inka, you were chosen...just like Mr. Gustaf here."

"Chosen? How!?" Gustaf bellows into the phone, causing Professor E to hiss sharply once more.

"Silence, you barbarian! I cannot disclose too much information. Anyways, let's begin the games."

"Wai-!"

The phone disconnects before Gustaf could utter another word. The man angrily grips the phone. The look in his eyes seem to signal his destructive intent. Before Gustaf could smash the cell phone onto the ground, it vibrates once more. As Gustaf forcefully calms himself down, Inka grabs the phone from the man's hands and looks at the display. A message has appeared.

The game is about to start. You will each get a 'Starting Weapon' and a 'Starting Pill' as decided by the viewers through majority vote. The items will show up soon after you finish reading this message. Use your weapons to fight off the enemies on this floor. You can't use someone else's starting weapon as these weapons are bound to their respective owner. Make sure you take your pill within a minute after it arrives or face the consequence of dying. After you prepare yourself, the doors to the dungeon will open. Enter and win! Defeat your enemies and live!

Oh, and one more thing. Any injuries you incur during the game will be healed upon completion of the dungeon floor. No matter how serious, as long as you have breath, you will be healed.

As soon as Inka finishes reading the message out loud, the two of them hear a 'shwoop' followed by two dull thuds. They glance around and see two boxes of varying sizes on the floor a couple of feet before them. Where did they come from? Gustaf takes the initiative and grabs both boxes. As he holds them up, they both see some words on each box - 'For Gustaf Kohl' and 'For Inka Sheinfeld'.

The two glances at each other momentarily before opening their respective boxes. Gustaf rips open his box and uncovers what looks to be a wooden slingshot and a small, porcelain container. This slingshot appears to be his starting weapon and whatever is inside the container appears to be his pill. He glances towards Inka and sees her pull out a wooden baseball bat and a similarly-shaped porcelain container. If it isn't for the fact that the starting weapons were bound to the respective users, Gustaf would have stolen Inka's weapon by now.

Remembering that they need to consume the pill within a minute, the man and woman uncork their porcelain containers and pour out the contents. Each container held one pill - a spherical brown consumable with a strong medicinal aroma. Without wasting any more time, Gustaf swallows his pill. He suddenly roars with vitality and energy. His strength had multiplied by two-fold! Seeing the German man's positive reaction to his pill, Inka swallows hers in hopes of acquiring the same benefits. However, nothing happens. Inka scratches her head anxiously. Is her pill a placebo? After a few seconds of waiting, there was still nothing...no effects occurred. Inka grimaces as she realizes that the pill she ate may very well be a fake.

Once the two contestants finish preparing, the room vibrates for a short while and a door appears in the far end. The two participants look at each other briefly before walking in.