Are You The Complete Player?

2/2 ARE YOU THE WEAKEST LINK?

“Estere!” Aimilie wailed. “No!!!!”

“Galyna! I love you. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, darling…” Artem knelt on the ground, feeling his strength abandoning him.

Miroslav wept silently for his good friend Gavro. Lev choked on his tears realising Aksel was gone forever.

An hour or so later, the voice came back booming over the speakers, mocking everyone in grief.

“I never thought athletes can be such great dramatic actors and actresses. WIC should start a drama competition next season,” the voice said, laughing at its own joke. “Let’s proceed to our official game #3, shall we? When I call your names, go to the centre stage.”

“Marco Torres of Spain, Pietro Romano of Italy, Borysko Adamovich of Ukraine, Selene Argyros of Greece, Dragan Pavic of Serbia, Lucija Babic of Croatia, and Eliyaz Gruber of Austria,” the voice announced the names as if they were pageant contestants.

Selene and Lucija held each other’s hands instinctively. They had done this a thousand times before in tough moments, having known each other since childhood. Losing Nika made them both decide to forgive each other without talking about their recent feud. Pietro protectively draped his hand around Lucija. Marco, who was trying to calm his own nerves, stood beside Eliyaz,

“I have some very exciting news for all of you, players. We asked our guest gamemakers to come up with the challenges for you. Yep, you heard me right. Game # 3 challenges are not courtesy of WIC, but was cleverly thought of by our guest gamemakers instead. Exciting, right?”

No one answered. Everyone else that wasn’t on the stage was relieved they weren’t called to be part of the first batch of players.

“Our guest gamemaker #6 came up with this challenge. This is so simple and I bet some of you here would immensely enjoy this. Players on the stage, when the timer starts, you need to remove every piece of your clothing. You should go stark naked as fast as you could. The last player in the group to do the challenge would lose. The other six would be safe. Your timer starts now!”

“What? You said lewdness is not allowed! Are you absolutely insane?” shouted Lucija. “I am not taking my clothes off, you psycho.”

“Nudity is not lewdness, Lucija Babic. It is rather a form of art,” the voice replied. The timer started despite the protest from the players. Marco Torres was the first to finish the challenge. He took off every piece of clothing he was wearing. Nudity was certainly better than death to him. Borysko, Dragan, and Eliyaz followed shortly after, realising they’d rather be humiliated than dead. Pietro whispered to Lucija they needed to do it soon because there were only three of them left and if they weren’t quick enough, one of them would be the loser.

Selene seemed to have heard the muffled conversation because she suddenly took every piece of her clothing off in a dash, before either Pietro or Lucija could.

“No!” Pietro cried. “Come on, Luce, do it. Take your clothes off. This is life or death, no one would care!” Maybe it was time for him to sacrifice for her.

But Lucija didn’t make any attempt to take anything off. She just started crying and said, “Do it. I can’t. I can’t let you die…”

While Pietro loved her, he realised he didn’t want to die after all. The attempt to sacrifice for her a minute earlier was just said out of his guilt for hooking up with Mia Ricci behind her back. “I’m sorry, mi amore,” he said as he hurriedly took off his shirt down to his underwear.

“Isn’t that exciting, folks?” the voice teased. “Lucija Babic of Croatia, you lost. Move to the losers’ corner. X marks the spot.”

Lucija followed the instruction carefully. At least WIC said she lost, not that she was eliminated. Maybe there was still a chance to get out of the game alive, after all.

“The rest of you, nude kings and queen, you may put your clothes back on,” the voice said with a chuckle. While the other six were scrambling to put their clothes back on, the voice started calling the next participants.

“Krystupas Pavlis of Lithuania, Aimilie Tamm of Estonia, Miroslav Petrovic of Serbia, Drew Martin of Canada, Mia Ricci of Italy, and Jules Bernard of France, go to the centre stage.”

“You can do it, Krys. Just close your eyes and pretend no one is watching you strip,” Carmella whispered, though she was reassuring herself more. She wasn’t really sure she could get naked in front of all these strangers.

“Thank you, Carmella. That helps,” Krystupas said. In no time, the players whose names were called were already at the stage waiting for the signal to begin.

“Ah, this challenge here is from our guest gamemaker #1. Players, there are seven straws in that tin on the table. They all look the same size, but they are not. Each of you must draw one straw. Whoever gets the shortest one is our not-so-lucky loser in this batch. The other six, needless to say, you are safe.”

“What? There’s no nudity challenge anymore?” grumbled Luis Rojaz Navarro. “This is so lame.” Some guys chuckled, but the voice seemed unfazed.

“I know, right? Luis Rojaz Navarro, I’ll make sure the gamemaker who came up with this challenge knows what you think,” the voice responded. “Your timer starts now, players, take your pick.”

The seven players on the stage lined up nervously and picked a straw as fast as they could. As the timer ran out, they were asked to go back to present the straw they had drawn. Krystupas, Miroslav, Mia, and Joanna drew straws of equal lengths, while Aimilie, Drew, and Jules, had shorter ones. The three players compared straws and Aimilie had the shortest.

Aimilie Tamm didn’t weep. She had no more tears left to cry. When Estere was murdered by WIC, she had lost every will to fight. She proceeded to the losers’ corner, and stood beside Lucija.

The other players who still hadn’t played a challenge were on edge, crossing their fingers for a challenge as easy as that last one rather than something degrading and embarrassing like the first.

“That was kind of a boring challenge. I almost fell asleep,” the voice mocked. “Next in line: Jihan Jung of South Korea, Carmella Cortez of USA, Francois Laurent of France, Hana Watanabe of Japan, Adam Evans of Great Britain, Marek Cerny of Czech Republic and Akira Tanaka of Japan.”

Carmella walked to the stage nervously with the other six players who were called. She prayed hard for the challenge to be an easy one.

“This one is a challenge from our guest gamemaker #4. This is very interesting. Players, get off the stage and stand on the dining table in the order your names were called. No leaving the table, no slouching, no using one another for support. This challenge has no time limit. It will only end if one of you is not standing up anymore. That person shall be the loser of this challenge then and the other 6 shall be safe. This means you all can be standing there all day, all week, or all year. And for the rest of you not in this challenge, you are not allowed to talk to any of the seven participants until we have our loser. Breaking this rule will result to an automatic elimination,” the voice explained.

Carmella swallowed in panic. What if no one yielded? Would they really be standing there all day, or worse, all week long? She looked at the faces of the other participants. They all seemed determined not to lose. What if she lost the challenge? Would she be murdered horribly? She wished she could talk to Krystupas, but the voice had just warned them it wasn’t allowed. As she stood between Jihan Jung and Francois Laurent, her eyes went searching for him. She spotted him standing with a girl next to him. She was glaring at no one in particular. Carmella didn’t notice her before but now that she was looking at her face closely, the girl seemed familiar to her. She vaguely remembered Will having a picture of her. Was she an old girlfriend of her brother?

“Since we could be waiting for the loser of our current challenge all year, let’s move on to the next participants,” the voice said with a laugh. “Emerson Fischer of Germany, Maxim Popov of Russia, Luis Rojaz Navarro of Spain, Crina Aldea of Romania, Olga Smirnova of Kazakhstan, Grace Brown of Australia, and Chloe Lavigne of France, take a spot on the centre stage. Each one of you shall open the ice cream tub provided for you and spill its contents onto your head. Just a reminder: this isn’t for the faint-hearted. If you faint, you lose. Otherwise, the last player to do the challenge will lose.”

The players went over to the stage and picked an ice cream stub each. Emerson laughed at the ridiculousness of the challenge. You just have to spill ice cream all over your head? Lame, he thought. But as soon as he opened the tub, he froze. Instead of ice cream, the content were nasty baby rats. He almost threw up on the spot if he didn’t hear Olga Smirnova shriek like a dying hyena.

“This is disgusting. You’re sick. You’re going to hell, whoever you are. I’m going to sue you when I get out of here. I’m going to…” Olga began, but she fainted before she could finish voicing out the rest of her threats. She had a phobia of rats all her life.

“Looks like we have a loser just like that,” the voice laughed. Grace and Chloe who were also frozen when they saw the contents of their tubs suddenly sprang into action to try to revive Olga. The voice instructed Maxim and Emerson to carry Olga over to the losers’ corner. Both guys looked annoyed as if they would rather not touch the big-mouthed player from Kazakhstan. But of course, that was a more preferable task than spilling nasty rats over their heads.

“Are we allowed to steal the spot of the players standing on the table?” Krystupas asked the voice. He had been watching Carmella and the other players struggling to remain standing upright.

“Aww, aren’t you the sweetest little thief, Krystupas Pavlis? Are you planning to steal someone’s spot like you stole grams of weed before?” the voice taunted. “No, you aren’t allowed to steal. It is against the law.” Krystupas paled, but bit back the urge to defend himself over the accusation. He glanced at Carmella once again. She was sweating hard and staring down on her feet. They had been standing there for over ten minutes. He wished he could do anything rather than stand and watch helplessly. But there was nothing he could do.

“Last batch: Freja Larsson of Sweden, Lev Ivanov of Russia, Adela Horackova of Czech Republic, Keavy Filan of Ireland, Basil Andino of Greece, Artem Bondar of France and Mira Ivanova of Belarus, take the centre stage,” the voice demanded. Most of the players called were still grieving, but they did as were told nonetheless.

“Wow, what a really cool challenge idea from guest gamemaker #1. Players, the challenge is simple: one of you shall volunteer to lose before the timer runs out, or else, all of you shall be considered losers.”

“I volunteer to lose,” Freja said while crying, before anyone could even complain about the unfairness of the challenge. There was no point getting out of there alive for her. Liam was already murdered cruelly. She couldn’t bear to keep fighting for her life without him.

“That was quick, Freja Larsson. Now wipe your snot and go to the loser’s corner,” the voice chuckled.

No one among the players on the standing challenge had given up. They were all still standing, refusing to be the loser in their group. Marek had always cared for the welfare of others, but it was not enough to sacrifice his own life. He had been observing all the game #3 challenges and noticed WIC hadn’t really killed any of the losers. Maybe there would be a twist. Maybe losing didn’t mean elimination or death all along. He noticed two of the players standing beside him had already peed their pants. Maybe it was worth taking the risk. He needed to do something.

“I got this, guys,” he whispered to the other six players in the challenge.

He sat down, not allowing himself to change his mind, to officially finish the challenge for his batch. The voice instructed him to go to the losers’ corner, seemingly disappointed that one had given up too soon for its liking. Marek’s heart thudded as he walked towards the losers’ corner. He prayed that he didn’t make the worst decision of his life.

“And finally, the bonus challenge for the losers. See? WIC is so generous to give you another chance. This was contributed by guest gamemaker #2. Listen carefully, players. I have three bonus questions. All you have to do is raise your hand if you want to answer, but it has to be correct, otherwise, you’re eliminated. I will only read each question once. This bonus challenge is to be played for only five minutes. Every loser who hasn’t answered a question correctly by then shall be eliminated. Good luck, players. Are you ready to rumble?” the voice said, mimicking the tone of a wrestling match announcer.

“First question: Two men were playing tennis. They played five sets and each won three sets in a best-of-5 match. How can this be possible?” the voice said, donning a quizmaster voice this time.

Marek raised his hand, and the spotlight quickly shone on him. “Because the men were doubles partners, not opponents. They won the match in three sets.”

“Can you believe how quick that was, folks? Very good, Marek Cerny. You are now safe from elimination. Next question: This word, which is also part of the title in a song featured in Grease, has absolutely no value in tennis. What word is this?”

Olga who had just recovered from fainting, answered without bothering to raise her hand. “You’re the one that I want?”

“I said ‘word’, Olga Smirnova, not song title. You were threatening to sue WIC but you don’t even have the brains for it. Besides, you also disobeyed an instruction. You are eliminated. I’m definitely the one that you want, Olga,” the voice said, sounding very much amused.

Olga tried to open her mouth to argue more, but she suddenly dropped dead, brains blown off in an instant. Freja, Aimilie, and Lucija let out a scream collectively.

“Yikes, that was messy. Sorry about that. Anyway, how about you, girls? Can any of you answer the question? If you only just paid attention in our film viewing, maybe this would have been easy for you to answer.”

Aimilie didn’t really pay attention to the movie, but she had an answer in mind for a word that has no value in tennis. She raised her hand, and took a deep breath when the spotlight was shone on her. “Love. It has no value in tennis. Because it means zero in tennis.”

“Love indeed is a many splendored thing, Aimilie Tamm. Splendid enough to save your life. You are correct, Aimilie,” the voice declared.

Aimilie sighed. She thought of Estere’s last words to her and started crying silently in a corner again.

There was only 55 seconds left on timer. “And for the final question of the day: what is this thing that can be served but cannot be eaten?”

Lucija raised her hand, before she could even think of an answer. She just knew she had to beat Freja at the chance to answer first. As the time started dwindling, she looked at the other players who were all nervously watching the final battle between her and Freja.

She looked at Pietro, whom she noticed was mouthing something at her. It sounded like…

“A ball?” she said, unsure of her answer. And then it dawned on her…. “You can serve a ball, like a tennis ball for example. But you can’t eat it.”

“Impressive analogy, Lucija Babic. You are safe. And as for you Freja Larsson, so long and farewell to you, my friend,” the voice said.

Freja closed her eyes anticipating her death. She prayed for a painless one. In a few seconds, she dropped dead, her brains scattered to the ground. Marek muttered a silent apology to Liam’s soul for failing to help Freja.

Lucija ran towards Pietro, hugged him and whispered: “They aren’t all-knowing. They didn’t kill you for coaching me.”

“They never said cheating is prohibited,” Pietro whispered back, with a wink.

“As we wrap up Game #3, let me introduce you our guest gamemakers. Drum roll, please,” the voice said with an exaggerated effect.

One by one, six people started appearing on the stage. Everyone could not believe it. The guest gamemakers who made them suffer for the cruel challenges they had just finished playing were the six players they thought had already died for getting the lowest total points in two games. Galyna Bondar, Gavro Nikolic, Daniela Perez, Estere Kavace, Aksel Olsen and Astro Lindahl stood before their eyes, unharmed, as the voice announced animatedly to the players that all six of them were still officially in the competition…