Are You The Complete Player?

2/2 IS KISSING CONSIDERED LEWD?

“I don’t trust Carmella Cortez at all. Something isn’t quite right about her,” Emerson said bitterly to his friends.

“Why? Because she’s immune to your charm? Dude,” Aksel said, shaking his head in disbelief while laughing.

“No, it’s not that. I haven’t even tried getting close to her,” Emerson responded. “It’s just that she seemed to excel in every game. Maybe she’s running the whole thing. Where did she even come from? That girl is shady as hell. But she’ll fall for me. You guys just watch and see.”

“I heard from the girls that she got a wildcard for the French Open,” Lev said. “That’s not exactly shady.”

“Yeah, bro. I think you’re just jealous a mediocre Lithuanian had already won her over before you could even try,” Maxim said with a cackle. Emerson glared at him but that didn’t faze him, and it just made him cackle louder.

“Do you think she’s in any way related to Will Cortez, the American player who disappeared about 10 years ago?” Eliyaz Gruber asked, which garnered a curious look from the players seated at the table beside theirs.

Akira Tanaka and Marco Torres exchanged glances. Crina Aldea who was seated beside Akira pretended to be typing something on her phone but was really paying attention to the conversation nearby. Marco and Akira had always thought Will Cortez was a little weird but didn’t dare say it to anyone when they were questioned following Will’s disappearance.

They once hung out with their friend Krystupas Pavlis to play video games in his hotel room. Krystupas invited Will along with the two of them, and Akira’s best friend Zhizhen Chang. Marco and Akira remembered Will talking about how he wished he could shoot everyone on tour just like the characters in the video game they were playing. He didn’t seem to be joking. But they were also smoking weed at that time so they thought maybe Will was just high and never really meant it.

But that didn’t stop there. Will also loved drawing sketches of how he envisioned people to die, and more often than not, the drawings were very disturbing images that depicted gore and brutality. When they noticed Krystupas himself had eventually stopped hanging out with Will Cortez, they weren’t surprised.

Marco had always believed Will Cortez pissed off the wrong people eventually and that led to his disappearance. He believed Will went missing because whoever murdered him managed to dispose his body away from the prying eyes of the police and everyone who was looking for him at that time.

“That makes sense,” they heard Emerson answer, after his initial shock upon hearing Eliyaz’s question. “Maybe that’s why she got the wildcard. Anyway, I never liked that Will Cortez weirdo. I wasn’t all that sad when he was gone. He could still be in the top ten by now if he were still around. Good riddance!”

The voice suddenly came back through the speakers. It sounded more amplified than ever.

“I see everyone is enjoying their breakfast. But as Emerson Fischer of Germany just said, good riddance. Good riddance to your food, that is.”

The voice faked a chuckle and continued, “I’m afraid breakfast is over, players. I want all of you to go to your beds. You’ll find an envelope and a bracelet. Wear the bracelet and open the envelope. It contains the rest of the instructions that will surely help you make it to the final eight. Remember, players, refusal to follow the rules shall result in your instant elimination.”

The players did as they were told as fast as they could. Hearing that voice was enough to make them spring into action right away.

Carmella saw an envelope lying on her bed and felt a sense of déjà vu. It was similar to the envelope she found in her house that contained the letter in which the sender claimed to know where Will was. She picked it up nervously and noticed the WIC logo right away. On a crisp-looking paper, an itemised list of rules was printed.

RULES TO FOLLOW

1. Any form of s****l or lewd act is strictly prohibited.

2. Shower time is scheduled everyday, and it shouldn’t last more than 5 minutes. Toilet breaks for a maximum of 3 minutes is allowed once in every 24 hours only.

3. Stealing properties of other players is strictly prohibited.

4. Any attempt on another player’s life outside of the games is strictly prohibited.

5. Wear the WIC bracelet and uniform at ALL times.

Note: Total points won from all the games and warm up challenges will determine the eight players who would qualify for the final round. The rest of the players who will not make it to the top eight are automatically eliminated.

“Holy crap! No s*x?” Emerson said out loud, sounding very much scandalised. He was holding an envelope in his hand and couldn’t believe what he had just read. “This is crazy. There is no way I’ll survive this.” His friends laughed at his proclamation, except for Lev Ivanov who had been nudging him to watch his words.

“Stop! Don’t complain. If you don’t want to end up dead, keep your mouth shut,” Lev said in a whisper.

“There’s just no way I’m showering in five minutes,” Charlotte Adams complained from her bunk.

Other players started complaining about a particular rule among their friends, but they were well aware that they had no choice but to follow what the majority thought were stupid prison rules anyway.

“I think the bracelet is for tracking us,” Marek theorised. “Which makes me think there’s a way to escape this place. If they can’t track us, we can make our escape plan.”

“Are you suggesting we don’t wear the bracelet?” Gavro asked, frowning. “We are going to die.”

“Marek is right,” Miroslav said in a whisper. “There was no mention of anything about attempting to escape in the rules. That means we can plan our escape eventually, but we can’t not wear the bracelet for now. It’s against the rules. I suggest we ditch it on our way out, but first, we have to make a concrete escape plan.”

Galyna Bondar felt hope for the first time in what felt like a long time. Maybe there was a way for them to escape this hellhole after all. Whoever was running WIC, they clearly underestimated the players’ intelligence. What did they think? Every player will just bend over to them and wouldn’t ever think of escaping? They were obviously wrong.

Galyna wasn’t really friends with anyone on tour. She was grateful her husband Artem whom she just married recently, had bright friends. Miroslav and Marek were proving to be such strong leaders.

“Darling, do you think kissing is considered ‘lewd’?” Artem asked her, as soon as he put his bracelet on.

Galyna didn’t think so. She kissed her husband on the lips instead of voicing out her reply. Others in their group gasped with worried looks on their faces, but WIC seemed to agree with Galyna. She and Artem didn’t drop dead to the ground after the kiss.

When Liam and Freja saw it, they both breathed a sigh of relief and kissed each other passionately.

“Shower time!” Everyone suddenly heard the dreaded voice announced in the midst of their conversations about the rules. “You will notice on your bracelet that there’s a green button. Press it only when you are already in front of your chosen stall. It shall open the door for you. Press the wrong button and you’ll be eliminated. Just a friendly reminder: the door won’t budge if you try to open it any other way from the outside, so I suggest you don’t waste your time trying.”

Everyone started running at once to find the shower area. The 5-minute timer had already started. They couldn’t waste even just few precious seconds on the timer. Fortunately, the players quickly saw what looked like huge shower rooms, one for men and one for women, appearing out of nowhere. There were enough stalls for everyone. Towels and clean shirts, underwear and pants were also provided. There was a laundry basket in which they were instructed to put their dirty clothes in. Hair products, soap, shampoo, lotion, and other toiletries were also provided. Everything had a WIC logo on them.

“Sixty seconds left! Hurry up, players! Your time is running out,” the voice warned after four minutes had passed.

The sound of opening and closing the shower stall doors were heard all over both shower rooms. Everyone seemed to be hurrying to make it out before the time ran out.

In about twenty seconds left on the timer, every stall was already empty except for one.

“Who’s in there?” Grace Brown asked around nervously. Every female in the shower room glanced around one another trying to figure out who was missing.

Estere Kavace kicked the closed stall door as hard as she could to save whoever was still in there before the timer goes to zero. She kicked it about four times in succession, but just like what the disembodied warned, the door didn’t budge at all.

Instead of water, the players noticed a pool of blood coming out of the closed stall. The floor of the entire shower room got covered in red pretty quickly. Some players felt themselves getting squeamish over the sight of too much blood.

They watched in horrified silence as the closed stall door suddenly opened by itself. Lying on the floor inside the stall was the lifeless, naked body of Charlotte Adams, covered in blood; stomach slashed wide open, and some internal organs poking out.

Aimilie Tamm, who was standing beside Estere, threw up upon seeing the corpse.

“I’m sorry, Charlotte Adams of Canada. You didn’t make it out in time. Still, congratulations to you. You definitely went out with a bang. Bye, Canadian Barbie,” the voice said in an amused tone.

Everyone was too shocked to move or speak. WIC had murdered Charlotte Adams brutally for simply breaking the newly-imposed five-minute shower rule…