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Looking for a game was harder than they expected. Any game they attempted to get involved in was already closed with either enough people or the registration ended right as they approached. Yuumi definitely was nervous, he hadn't had this much trouble finding a game before. Sora and Aya weren't showing it, but they were freaking the fuck out. They really didn't have time to deal with this shit of not finding a game. They needed to find a game or all three of them would be dead tonight.
Yuumi turned his head, "This way." He saw an arrow. The trio made their way down the street to an abandoned warehouse.
Aya grabbed Sora's arm. "Why do I feel like if we go in there, I'm dying?" Aya whispered.
Sora couldn't stop his eyes from rolling. "I told you watching all those true crime videos was a bad idea." Sora commented under his breath. Aya smacked his arm, walking in front of him with her nose up in the air. "Aya!" Yuumi looked over his shoulder to Aya and Sora, shaking his head.
He knew a couple of his friends "shipped" Sora and Aya together when they got behind-the-scenes photos and videos from the filming of their newest drama. Yuumi didn't see it – and he really didn't see it now. If anything, they were like Tom and Jerry.
"Mind hurrying up, we don't have all night." Yuumi called out, getting the attention of Sora and Aya. "Come on, I promise no one is going to jump out and kill us." Yuumi was lying. He didn't know if someone was laying low in that warehouse right now, ready to kill them.
Yuumi walked through the open doors, registering the laser he went through. He sighed with relief knowing he had found a game for them. "Seriously, come on!" Yuumi shouted.
Sora and Aya ran towards the large doors, walking through after Yuumi. In front of them was a large square that stood on beams. There were two different sets of staircases but the second one was blocked off by beams and it looked like those stairs led to the exit. Sora walked over to the table, grabbing a phone like he was supposed to.
There were only three phones left.
He brought it up to his face, seeing the message he saw last night. However, instead telling him how long they had left before registration was closed, the automatic voice said, "Registration closed. Please proceed to the glass room." The sheets that the trio didn't realize were around the square fell to the ground. Like the automatic voice said, there were four rooms with glass while the other rooms didn't have a single pane of glass anywhere.
Sora looked over at Aya and Yuumi. Even Yuumi didn't know what was happening. He just grabbed a phone and headed to the stairs. Aya had a bad feeling about this, but she couldn't back out. Not without dying. Sora was behind Yuumi as they made their way up the stairs to the glass room.
Including them, there were thirty people standing around, waiting for the game to begin. According to the sighs of relief from some of them, they were waiting on three other players before the game began. Sora looked at Aya. She looked nervous as hell.
Once the door closed, all the phones chimed. "The game will now commence."
Yuumi looked at the phone, waiting to see what game they'd be playing and what the card was going to be. He really hoped for a good one – he didn't need another Ace card for a while.
Sora held up his phone as the automatic voice continued, "Game: Platforms and Probabilities." There were hushed whispers amongst the players, not understanding the game title. "Difficulty: 6 of Diamonds." Yuumi looked over at Sora and Aya – right when he said he was due for a Diamonds game, he got a Diamonds game. He didn't know if Sora was lucky or a jinx. But at the same time, six days of freedom before needing to do another game – Yuumi was happy about that.
Aya took a deep breath. She recalled what Yuumi said about Diamonds games... how they were based on intelligence.
"Rule: Clear all three rooms." Aya looked to the side, seeing four rooms, not three. "Clear condition: Pick one of the two rooms and watch the dice, whichever room has the higher value wins and moves onto the second room." That was straightforward, at least to Aya. It is a 50-50 shot to get the right room. "Time limit: 20 minutes per room. After 20 minutes, one of the rooms will be knocked down by a wrecking ball." Aya's eyes widened.
"Shit."
"They're fucking kidding, right?"
"There's no way." However, right outside the window of the main room, two wrecking balls were controlled until it was pulled back enough to either side of the glass room. The players' eyes widened at the sight of the wrecking balls.
Aya looked around, seeing the two rooms on either side of the glass one. One said: OUTCOME while the other said: BASE.
Sᴛᴀʀᴛ
The doors opened on either side of the glass room, showing the dice on the walls of either room. One blue, one red – giving both rooms to see what the other had. Aya looked down at the phone, seeing the twenty minutes had started for the first room. Sora approached her, "Okay, I'm counting on you, Miss MBA." Aya rolled her eyes, hushing him.
Aya didn't tell anyone outside of Sora and the rest of the talent agency she worked for that she was going to get her MBA while acting. And as of last year, Miki Aya had her MBA. Aya didn't want anyone to know about her Masters, just because she knew people would question her about why she took the courses she did. A lot of Japanese actors went to university while acting, but usually for degrees that helped them in the long run.
Aya's MBA didn't help her with her acting career, it was just something she was passionate about.
But Sora was right, this was definitely her type of game.
Aya looked back and forth, "Well, we have a 50-50 chance." Aya walked towards the BASE room, peering inside. There wasn't much in the room outside of the computer screens with the blue and red die. There was a door on the right side. Aya suspected that the door led to the next room.
Aya chewed at her bottom lip for a second before walking across the room to the other door to see if it was identical. She figured it would be, but you never know. But like Aya thought, the rooms were identical. She turned to look at Sora, addressing him and no one else. "The rooms are identical. Two screens with die and a door leading to the next room." Aya walked the length of the glass, looking out over the square they were in.
The beams were all the exact same height.
Sora approached Aya. "So, 50-50?"
Aya nodded. "Doesn't matter what we pick, it will be 50-50. The dice will be the answer to whether we picked the right room." Aya spoke.
Someone scoffed at Aya's comment. She turned her head slowly, looking over at the player who didn't care for what she just said. Aya crossed her arms at him, "Got a better odd?" Aya asked.
Sora placed a hand on Aya's shoulder, basically a signal to keep her from causing a problem. Sora knew that Aya could handle herself, even if she had a stunt double for her action shots, that didn't know she didn't know how to throw a damn good punch. Sora could confirm that.
"I don't know how many games you've played but going off 50-50 odds will get yourself killed." he said with a smirk. "Maybe it's a good thing."
Aya stepped forward but Sora pulled her back. "Don't." Sora said lowly get his point across. He really didn't need Aya to attack someone right now.
Aya didn't listen. "Why? Does it really matter in the case of other games you've played? From what I've heard, it doesn't matter." Aya looked to Yuumi. He looked up at the glass ceiling, not wanting to be a part of this. "We have two options, either base," Aya pointed to the right. "Or outcome." Then left. "You can't tell me that isn't 50-50 right there. We pick, and the dice decide our fate." Aya explained.
The man scoffed again.
"Please stop scoffing, it's pissing me off."
"You know nothing about this."
Aya's eyes narrowed, "You are talking to the wrong person, ass. My MBA says otherwise." Yuumi's head snapped to Aya, unaware that Aya had finished going to school. He heard a few of his classes talking about her and saying she was in the process of going to university. But it turns out, Aya already had her MBA. "I know what I'm talking about." Aya watched the smug expression on the players face fall upon hearing about her degree.
Aya stepped forward, looking at the other players. "Everyone here must pick one of the rooms, whether it is base or outcome, after that, best of luck." Aya was keeping the mentality of don't make groups like Yuumi mentioned. Outside of Sora, she didn't want to be anyone else's friend. Aya just wanted to survive this world and go home. If that meant being harsh to everyone else around her, so be it.
Sora stood behind her, whispering, "Is it really 50-50? Or were you just saying that?"
Aya kept her eyes on the asshole who tried to second guess her. "For the first round, yes, after that, I'll see." Aya said.
Sora wasn't going to question her about what she knew and what she didn't. They were just playing the game and trying to survive it. A wrecking ball death wasn't on Sora's to-do list, so he hoped to God above that Aya knew what she was talking about for the first round.
Yuumi walked over to the pair, "So, which room?"
"Base." However, Aya gestured her head to outcome. Yuumi nodded slowly, understanding what Aya was picking. Yuumi placed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, giving her a smile. "We've got 17 minutes to decide though." Aya wasn't going to go towards her real choice until 2 minutes until the 20 minutes were up. "Sora," Aya looked over her shoulder at him.
He gave a nod. "Got it." Sora was extremely likeable. He would be able to warm the hearts of almost everyone in the room. That way he could figure out what room they were going to pick. Yuumi watched him walk away, a smile on his face.
"And here I thought he was an introvert."
"Oh, he is." Aya laughed. "But he knows how to pull the heartstrings of people around him. He's a great actor in that sense." Aya said as she walked over to the wall that had the base room. She leaned against it, waiting for the time to continue to tick downward, and she hoped her plan worked against the asshole who was glaring at her.
As the 20 minutes started to become less and less, Sora made his way back over to Aya. There were only seven people standing around, trying to figure out what side to go on. "Three of them are waiting to see if you actually go into the base room or if you just said that." Aya smirked proudly.
Sora pulled out the phone, showing her the time. "3 minutes. I think that's enough time." Sora looked over, seeing Yuumi heading over to outcome instead of base. Aya looked at her nails as she pushed herself away from the wall. Sora followed right after her, putting the phone into his back pocket.
Aya continued to smirk as she entered the outcome room, seeing the asshole from earlier. He made his decision early on, setting everyone else off. There were about fifteen people in there before Yuumi, Aya, and Sora entered. The three others who were wondering if Aya was bullshitting or not followed suit.
The asshole player's face fell. "You said-"
"We're playing a game, and you trusted me?" Aya laughed at his reaction to her question. Yuumi realized that Sora and Aya learned quick – even if this was their second game. Sure, they were scared shitless, they all were. Thinking about the possibility of dying to a wrecking ball wasn't something they imagined.
But Aya was a good player, even if she was hiding her true feelings behind that smirk.
It was too late for the asshole player to change his mind, as soon as the last player entered the outcome room, the doors closed and locked behind her. There was still a minute, 30 left on the timer. Aya held out her phone, watching the time obsessively.
The moment the timer hit zero, the dice spun on the screen. She looked over at the screens, watching the blue die slow down until it landed on a 3. The red die did the same, only this time, landing on a 4.
The room shook as the wrecking ball slammed through the other room, killing everyone inside. The screams were haunting when they couldn't see anything. When the door opened to the outcome room, leading them into the next room, they could see the damage that was done.
Bodies were lying down below; some were hanging off the beams. Blood was splattered across the glass of the other room that wouldn't be used for the game. But Aya noticed something – the glass room, it was slightly higher. The wrecking ball couldn't touch it from the way it was pulled back.
Yuumi noticed it too, but he was curious what Aya would do. A smirk briefly appeared on his face before it became a smile. "Good job, Aya! Room one complete!" He pumped his fists into the sky.
Aya nodded, keeping her eyes locked on the room across the way. Was that the condition? Staying in the glass room instead of picking a room? It was 50-50 if the rooms were just considered, but the glass room was an option too. "I wonder." Aya whispered to herself, looking at the phone when the automatic voice said, "Time limit for this room: 20 minutes."
She had twenty minutes to figure it out.