He wakes up in a room that has no windows. There is nothing but concrete walls and a light overhead. In the room were 4 doors with one on each wall in a room perfectly square shaped. That seemed rather odd to him. Should he get up and check them perhaps?
On his left he sees an unconscious young woman with glasses. He thinks she must be no more than 15 or 16 by the looks of her. Her modest clothes and innocent face while she sleeps on the cold concrete gives her the look of a young angel who just happened to fall out of the sky and forgot her halo.
On his right is a man he would guess is a bit older than him; perhaps 30 and in a fairly inexpensive business suit. Though young, he is already starting to bald and slightly overweight. He smells of alcohol and fast food.
Suddenly a green window display pops up in front of him
*Congratulations on entering the game! We wish you the best of luck! For more instructions see the help menu and to see your status see the status screen*
Had it really worked? He was sure it was a joke and simply typed the phone number in to see if there would be some odd answering message or if there was some sort of phone game show. He never expected to be brought here. The message said 'see status screen' but as he tried to touch the screen his hand went through it and it disappeared.
He didn’t know what else to do so he figured why not try saying it out loud to see if anything happened. He said “status screen” and suddenly a screen popped up.
NAME: WILLIAM MITCHELL TAYLOR
AGE: 27
HT: 5’10
WT: 175
SKILLS: NONE
CLASS: N/A
HP: 20/20
MP: 0/0
LV: 1
STR: 15
INT: 10
DEX: 15
WIS: 10
STA: 10
CHA: 10
Points: 5
Would you like to spend any points at this time or see point option screen?
He looked at it for a moment not knowing what to make of it. It was his name and height and weight…. He was sure he was 170 not too long ago. Did he gain some? Well no point worrying about that right now. He guessed from his past game playing experience the stats were for strength, intelligence, dexterity, wisdom, stamina and charisma.
What were the points for though? Should he use them now and how would he even use them? Put them in strength or intelligence he supposed? Before he could think more about it the young girl and the man in the suit began to wake up. They looked around confused and then just stared into the air looking puzzled. What where the looking at exactly? He had an idea and figured why not ask.
“Hello are either of you hurt?”
They both replied they were okay and looked at him then looked back into the empty air.
William followed his hunch “Are you both by chance looking at some sort of status screen or a congratulations message?”
“Yes I am, you can see it too?” The young lady kept looking at him and toward her status screen.
“I can’t see yours but I do see one of my own. I take it then that you can’t see mine then?”
She looked to him and at the air above him and shook her head.
The man in the business suit joined their conversation “do any of you have a clue what is going on here”
After he told them what he had done to see his status screen both said “status screen”. He could tell it worked for both seeing their faces react to the change and the way they were reading.
Before they could talk more a red messaged appeared
*Thank you for playing. It's time to begin to the game. Please select difficultly of game by picking levels 1-10. Remember that the higher the difficulty the more points. This challenge is a mental game. If you have above 25 points in intelligence or wisdom you get double points for completion*
A second message appeared below it
*At least one new member is in this group. Groups with new members cannot pick a difficulty higher than 5. Please select difficultly level and remember no member can pick the same difficulty level 2 times in a row*
A screen was floating in the air that had all the numbers 1-5 on it.
The young girl asked “has either of you ever done this before?”
“No this is my first time."
The man in the business suit said the same thing.
After thinking about it William thought of something “Since this is all our first time doing this I guess it makes sense to pick the lowest level of difficulty don’t you think?”
The guy is the business suit said “Well there might be some good reason to pick higher difficulties, Maybe if we win the award will be bigger?”
William did think about it and said “I would guess that is true but even if so how much? Is it really worth it?”
The girl simply sat there silently watching them both talk, William looked at her curled up and oddly thought she reminded them of a cat in the way she huddled in a corner. He thought it looked a little cute but then he reminded himself she was obviously way too young for him.
William turned to her and said “What do you think?”
She shyly looked at the screen and said “I honestly don’t know. I'll go with whatever you two decide”
The guy in the suit looked back at him “Even though the reward may be bigger I think you are right and we should probably stick with level one."
William said to the screen “level one” but nothing happened. He tried again “Select level one?”
*Level one selected. Points for game will be level squared multiplied by players. Points available for this game are determined to be 3 which will be divided to all players who pass the game rounded to the nearest whole number. Difficulty for game set to level 1. Please enjoy your game!*
The guy is the business stratched his head “So I guess it's more points for each level. I wonder how much harder each ;evel gets. If we selected level 2 it looks like we would be playing for 12 points instead of 3 though”.
William nodded. “Yes but this all just seems very odd. I think playing it safe was for the best”. Suddenly a screen popped up
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
*Doors game will now begin. Bonus for selecting easiest difficultly: Instead of only 1 safe door there will be 2 safe doors and only 1 question of an unknown category. Rules: Each player may answer a single question from each door. If answered correctly the door will display if safe or not safe. To win points exit though a safe door. If you exit through a wrong door or in any way attempt to help another player answer their selected question you are out of the game. Players may choose to exit through different doors if they so desire. Time to completion no more than 10 minutes; the countdown will start now!*
A clock appeared in the air with a green status screen. It read 10:00, 9:59, 9:58…. It appeared they would need to answer questions in a timely manner but there would be no real rush.
They all read it very carefully. The girl looked concerned “so we just need to answer questions and if we get them right we get to know if a door is good or bad. I wonder what it means by out of the game. Does it mean you just don’t get the points?”
William rubbed his chin “I've no idea. I guess we just need to play and find out”. He hoped she was right but for some reason he thought this would not be the case.
All 4 doors had a green box in front of them and they all had something different written on them. The green boxes in front of the doors read math, science, geography and unknown. After reading them carefully William said “So I guess we all pick a category now. Does anyone have a category they would like to answer?”
The main in the suit said “I'm very good at math so I am sure I could answer that question so that is the one I’d like to do”.
William turned to the young girl and asked “how are you are math?”
She shook her head “honestly it's my worst subject in school so I’d rather not do it. I guess I’d be okay at geography but I can’t promise to get it for sure. Science could be anything really though”.
William looked to the man in the business suit “how are you at geography and science? The odds are this being level 1 I can probably answer this math question too. If you think you can do either of the other ones well that would probably be more helpful”.
The man in the suit shook his head “I would just like to do the math question. It be best to just nail that one down for sure”.
William thought he may just want to answer the question cause it was probably relatively easy and he was not thinking about the group and the challenge overall as much as he should have been. He decided not to say anything. He thought if need be he could answer science but like the young woman said… science could include a lot of questions. It was a huge subject.
William said “okay go ahead.”
The business man walked to the door and tried to touch the green status screen. His hand went through it. After thinking a moment he said “select math”
*confirmed player Tom selects math*
William said “So your name is Tom. I guess we should have done introductions. I’m William”.
He turned to the girl who said “I’m Lisa” then shyly tucked her body closer to itself.
The question appeared on the screen.
*What is 4 cubed minus 8 divided by 2? Remember order of operations*
William rolled his eyes, that was easy. He knew for sure he could answer it and figured even young timid Lisa could too.
After taking longer than he thought needed to be taken by a man who was so confident in his math skills Tom said “60 is my answer”
*Answer correct! Well done player Tom. The door will now reveal itself as red for bad or green for good*
The door turned bright red.
William thought Tom looked much too pleased with himself. William said to him “Good job but we are not out of this yet. If your door was green it wouldn’t matter if we didn’t get a single other question right. We still need to get 1 more correct or we will be at best guessing at 66%
Tom turned to him with a satisfied look saying “Well, that is on you. I did my part”.
William thought to himself ‘yeah and you got the only question that could definitely be answered if you just took your time and knew basic math’. He didn’t say this out loud of course.
William looked to the clock and saw there were 7 minutes and 49 seconds left. He turned to Lisa and asked “you feel most confident in geography right?” She nodded her head slowly.
William said “Well I’ll pick science or the unknown then”. He felt he had a good handle on science and the unknown worried him. Still he knew science could mean anything. He decided it wasn’t going to get easier as time went on and he wanted to leave as much time for Lisa as possible. He walked to the door and said “select science”
*confirmed player William selects science*
*What tends to be bigger in a human, white or red blood cells?*
He had no idea. He was hoping for animals or maybe the solar system but he wasn’t up to date on biology. He figured at worse he had a 50/50 shot. He knew white blood cells ate viruses and viruses are really small even compared to red blood cells right? He figured he wouldn’t know for sure so he guessed “red blood cells are my answer".
*Answer incorrect! The door will stay unrevealed, better luck next time!*
William shook his head. Maybe he should have taken the unknown question. He saw out of the corner of his eye Tom shaking his head. What a jerk, if we was so confident he should have let me have the math question then. He decided to only say “Well, sorry guys. I just took a guess”.
Lisa slowly stood up and walked to the door that said geography. She said “select geography”
*confirmed player Lisa selects geography*
*What is closer to Egypt; Greece or Kazakhstan?”*
Tom was high on himself. He got his question right and acted like he knew the other. Maybe he did know. In any case he slowly walked next to William and said “that’s okay man. You did your best I am sure. Me and Lisa will get ours right and this will work out. This one looks pretty easy too. I mean aren’t Egypt and Kazakhstan both in the Middle East and Greece is in Europe. Seems pretty obvious to me”
William thought of replying Egpyt is actually part of Africa but before he was deciding if he should or shouldn't...
*Altert, player Tom has attempted to offer assistance to player Lisa before she has answered her question. This constitutes a violation of the rules. Player Tom will now be eliminated from the game*
Tom said “What? I was talking to Will though. It isn’t my fault if Lisa heard me. I think this is a bunch of bull-“
Just before he could finish saying bullshit his head exploded. He was now out of the game
“Holy fucking shit!” William screamed. Tom’s brains were now covering him and Lisa and the blood pumped out from his neck jetting all over the floor. His heart hadn’t stopped beating yet William thought. What a morbid thought to think at a time like this.
“Lisa was against the wall screaming”. William wanted to calm her down and have her answer the question. The clock read 5:34 now. He knew now what would happen if they didn’t pick the right door. He wasn’t sure if it would be considered helping but he felt he had no choice.
“Lisa!” he grabbed her “Lisa, please calm down. Listen to me, do you see that clock? That clock right there is counting down. I think if we are not out of this room by the time that happens both of us are going to look like Tom. Please you need to get a hold of yourself and try to answer as best you can!”
She cried a bit more through her now stained black hair and started to stop when she glanced at the clock. It indeed was going down. Now it said 4:55 and was dropping lower all the time. Nodding her head she turned back towards the door.
She then said *Greece is closer to Egypt is my answer*
*Answer correct! Well done player Lisa. The door will now reveal itself as red for bad or green for good*
The door showed itself to be red as well. Tom got depressed for a moment and then perked up. “Well now we know where both bad doors are right? I guess we can pick either of the other ones we want now and they will be safe."
Lisa nodded silently “I'm sorry I freaked out before. Listen, I don’t know you but I am really scared. Would you mind just holding me for a few seconds right now?”
William looked at the time 4:21 left… he would rather be out of this room now but he figured he had time. He went to Lisa and put her in a a tight hug up against him “It is okay now, you're safe. The game is over and we can leave”.
Lisa said to him “Well, the game isn’t actually over until the time is up”. William then felt something cold and hard go in his throat. William wasn’t sure of what happened but before he could inspect it with his hand it was out and he was coughing up blood. Then he felt the same sensation in his chest. He looked down and Lisa was smiling as she sunk the knife into his heart. She pulled it out and push him to the ground.
Oddly William thought “where was she hiding that?” Then he thought no more.
Lisa wiped the knife off on Toms cheap suit and exited through one of the safe doors.
*Congratulations player Lisa Ann Heart. You have passed the game, as the only player to complete the game you will receive all 3 points due to status bonus this will be doubled to 6. Players Tom and William had 5 unused points each; would you like to receive their points as well?*
Lisa said “I would very much like to receive their points”.
*confirmed, a total of 16 points will be awarded to Lisa.
Lisa said “status screen”
NAME: LISA ANN HEART
AGE: 16
HT: 5’3
WT: 127
SKILLS: ASSASSIN, DECEPTION, INSPECT, POINT STEALER, STRATEGY MASTER, DARK MAGIC USER,
CLASS: WITCH
HP: 153/153
MP: 20/20
LV: 14
STR: 45
INT: 73
DEX: 55
WIS: 57
STA: 43
CHA: 45
Points: 43 + 16 = 59
*Would you like to spend any points at this time or see the point option screen?*
“Not, right now; I think I deserve a break. Status screen off”
She knew she could decide what to do with those points after exiting the game. Maybe she would use some on her stats or save a bunch of them to buy a truly special skill. In any case there was no rush to decide as such things could be done outside the game.
"I wish to exit the game"
*Confirmed, player Lisa is now exiting game. At this time all magic skills will be disabled. Status points and other skills will still be optional. Thank you for playing and we hope you play again soon!*
The game arena as well as the 2 bodies were twisted into non-existance.
It all went dark and then she was back in her bedroom. She said to herself "16 points isn't much but that was a fairly productive night. I hope I get more points next time though". She then feel soundly asleep dreaming of all the fun games she had played and would play in the futue.