GAMBLE: Rule of Cards

WILL SHE SURVIVE?

MINUTES LATER, upon removing all the thoughts inside her head, Jannah was able to sleep tight. Denton also assured that Jannah was already sleeping. He then placed himself on the bed and started on thinking about his children. “The irony of me saying that Jannah should not overthink when I am here, doing the same,” he muttered to himself. Anyway, the safety circle was still there but Denton can’t take himself to sleep as he was still worried that something might happen. “That Hector might still be awake and so, I need to protect my team from him. I can’t let him attack my team.”

However, Denton was visited by the power of sleep and so, he slept a little later after yawning for several times. He tries to stay awake as possible, but he can’t as he was really tired of doing everything before the day ended. He was the one tasked to open the hole and was also the one who protected Sandra from Hector. If there is one person who is really exhausted of everything that day, that will be Denton.

Hours later, the light lit up and the guards suddenly entered the arena. They were all ready for such an early time. Sandra was the one who woke up first, then started on waking up all her teammates. “Denton, wake up,” she muttered to Denton who was still awake but still pushed himself to wake up. Even Jannah, who was still sleepy, woke up after hearing the guards entering the arena. They are carrying boxes and the players assumed it was the food for their breakfast. Fortunately, their guess was right and that, it was the food for their breakfast. The guards waited no chance and started on giving foods to the players like a candidate running for a political position.

Denton looked at his three members. “Did you all sleep well?” he asked. Jannah just nodded to his response while Paul and Sandra gave him a reassuring look. “I guess that is a yes. I am glad to hear that you all slept well yesternight. That means you are ready to fight for today’s match.” He looked at the lunchbox and opened it. “I do not think they will postpone today’s match just to find the lost guard, guys. Since the game head is really strict, I do not think they will do such thing. They will probably continue the game even without finding the lost guard.”

“Yeah, I think so,” Paul muttered as he placed a food inside his mouth. He started chewing it out loud that it annoys Sandra beside him. Sandra, however, just let him do what he wants to do. “Anyway, can you just eat what you are given to eat. For us to gain more energy, we must be eating this. The rice will give us more energy, guys. I cannot believe in this hellish place, they can serve foods as savory as this. Why did they make this place as a hell when they can just make this as a restaurant. They made such an awful decision for turning this into a bloodshedding place.”

“Just eat that, Paul,” Denton muttered to stop Paul from uttering more words that might affect others. “But I agree with Paul, preparing for the game hours before it happen, it will help us gain more energy before the match even happen. Be sure to eat all that food inside the lunchbox. The game might be physical, we do not know actually. Just gain more energy. The more energy we have, the more probability we can survive this main match.”

“If I were to be asked, the next main match would not be more on physical but not that mental also,” Jannah noted. “I think the sixth main match will be more on probability. I do not know where I am coming from this, but this is only what I can feel now that the sixth main match is close to happening,” Jannah muttered. “However, you can’t remove the pressure and nervousness inside my body. My mind is really full of thoughts right now. What if I mess up and die later? I honestly do not think I would do it.”

Sandra looked at Jannah with disagreeing look. “You can do that,” she muttered as she cheered Jannah. “How many times must I have to tell you that you can do this? We trust you can do this and now, it’s your turn to trust yourself that you can do this. Tell yourself that you can do this, because you will. You will do this, for sure.”

Hours later, the speaker showed up on the monitor for the announcement. “The sixth main match will now start,” he muttered. The players all have different expressions after hearing the speaker’s announcement. “The guards will let guide you to the battlefield.”

Denton looked at his teammates who are looking ready but there is this worry in their eyes. “Everything will be fine,” he muttered to the three of them as they started on walking towards the battlefield. The players eventually entered the battlefield with surprised faces, maybe because they are shocked to see what is in the battlefield. “What the hell is this?” He looked at his three members and told them something. “Maybe, Jannah was right. This looks like some sort of looks inside the gamble room.”

“Welcome to the sixth main match of the game Rule of Cards. The sixth main match is entitled as The Monkey Game.” A lot of people doubted on what they heard after hearing that. They think that the title of the game is an absurd title to name a game. “Here is the mechanics. The remaining players will play by group. There will be a group of 5’s who will play the game. On the first minute of the game, they will be given a total of 7 cards each and they will drop the pairs of similar numbers while one card will be hidden by a facilitator. Once they have done dropping the pairs of similar numbers, they will now start grabbing one card on the remaining deck constantly. Once they get a similar card to one of their card, they should drop the two. Once all the player has done getting the cards of the remaining deck and there are a lot of players who still have their cards, they will then get one card from the player on the right of them consecutively.” The speaker paused for a second before he continued to tell the mechanics. “The game will end with one of the player having one card, and that is the pair of the hidden card. That player who has the pair of the hidden card will be the monkey of the game. Once a player has lost all of his card, that player will be eliminated. Unlike the typical monkey game, the monkey will be considered as the winner of the game. Useful Cards: once the player shows a swap card, that player will be given a chance to swap cards with someone on their group. Swap cards are useful of only one usage. Number cards are nulled in this game.”

The players started on gathering in front of the guards who are giving their table number. “Jannah is right in this game,” Sandra told the other three who was yet to line because they chose to talk about the game first. “The game is like gamble. It is a game of probability. We will win if we take the game into our hands. In that case, I don’t know how to do that. What must be our strategy, Denton? Do you have any idea what to do to win this game?”

“This game will be hard since it is a battle between an individual and the other four players of the table. As much as everybody want to survive, I don’t think they will not take this game for real,” Denton replied. “This game is the game to lose the most players, throughout the game. Since it is a set of five, I think only eighteen players will be left today. In that eighteen, ten will participate in the escaping game, and only one will survive. The rest will probably stay in the game and do the next main match. This will be a difficult round since the possibility of losing is bigger than the possibility of winning. Although it is hard, you must all get the momentum and win the game.” Denton replied. “I played this back when I was in the Philippines since I was young, it is a really known card game there. The only thing I want to advice you is to always observe the other players. Jannah, you must survive this to play the escaping match.”

Jannah just slowly nodded. Paul suddenly talked and interrupted Denton. “Since the cards will be depending on the cards of the players preceding us, we must observe how they are holding and protecting their cards. As much as possible, do not get the cards you think you have the similar one,” Paul noted. “We must fall in line with each other in front of us, since they are giving the conceding table number to people conceding the current player they are giving the table number. Let’s go.”