GAMBLE: Rule of Cards

OPEN, PASS

“Don’t you feel it?” asked Paul who was scratching his brows. “It is not that I can tell a time, obviously not. But... I already am used to sleeping at a certain time and being woken up at a certain time, as well. If my body was woken up at the time I was woke up yesterday, my body would not react. But, it is not the case here. My body woke up in an earlier time and that is why I reacted a lot. I don’t know about you but there are people who are just like me. Our body clock is really strong.”

Denton nodded. “I would not doubt you and your body clock, Paul. What I was thinking about is why the hell would they wake us up earlier than how they wake us up before?” Sandra shrugged her shoulders, indirectly telling Denton that she does not know what is the reason behind also. “If there are some changes, there must really be changes in the game as well. We must anticipate something when the seventh main match arrives. Do not let your guards down, guys. They might be planning something that is totally not expected. Beware.”

Minutes later, the guards barged inside the arena and gave away foods for the breakfast. The guards immediately left the players after they have given out foods like it was just nothing. Time has quickly been passing that all the players is again eating for their lunch. The lunch was fried chicken with rice, but instead of eating, Paul was thinking about something that he feels different. “The lunch time was also moved earlier. They are making us eat and do everything in not the usual time that we are used to do. This is entirely weird and different for me.”

Denton was surprised to hear that from Paul. For him, there is no difference at all, but Paul has extremely active body clock, so he could feel sone difference in time. “Does that mean, they would let us play the seventh main match earlier than the time we usually play the main match?” Paul nodded on what Sandra asked him. “Then, that is really a big adjustment for the players. Who knows there are also people who noticed the same thing, Paul?”

“There might be,” Denton interrupted the two’s talk. Denton was carefully listening at the two’s remarks and retorts to each other. “I only have one thing in mind, a guess on why they would change the time. I think the seventh main match would be longer than any of the usual main match? If it were so, we should anticipate a level higher mode of difficulty for the next round and for the last round. They, for sure, will raise the level of difficulty since these are the last two rounds.”

Paul nodded. “For sure, they will,” Paul replied with a hint of worry in his face. “I just feel like it will be a tough time for us, to escape or to win the game. We should just trust ourselves, nonetheless.”

Hours later, the monitor lit up and the speaker showed up, immediately. “The seventh main match will now commence,” he muttered, which caused the attentions of the players to turn into him. Denton looked at Paul and Sandra, his look was definitely a sign, before they all nodded at each other. “The guards will now take you to the battlefield now. Please fall in line.”

The remaining eight players fell in line as they followed the guards which were guiding them towards the battlefield. When the gate of the battlefield opened, the players’ mouth gaped open as they saw a different style of the battlefield. “Until when did the battlefield had a roof,” Paul, who was amazed, asked. He pointed his index finger to the eight mini cottages inside the battlefield. “There are also eight cottages at the back of the battlefield. I wonder how was that necessary to all of the players.”

“Welcome to the seventh main match titled: Open, Pass,” the speaker muttered. Denton looked at the monitor whose screen changed and showed players the visual graphics to further explain the mechanics of the main match. “The remaining players will play individually. They will be given a deck of fifteen (15) cards. The cards include numbers from one to ten, while the remaining five (5) cards have the four fundamental operations and an absolute card that can make anything positive. The dealer will then test each player. There will be eight blanks in which they can put their cards in. The dealer will be the one to ask if the player wants to open the card or pass. The mathematical expression should be an operation between the numbers. Once the numbers are placed beside each other, the number on the right will be nulled. Once the operation is placed beside each other, the operation card on the right will be nulled. The absolute card will be placed to the number before it was opened. The player with the two highest value obtained will move onto the next game. The player with the third highest to the lowest value will be automatically the players for the seventh and last escaping match. The only possibility of the player with the lowest value obtained to survive is to have two zeros (0) in the final obtained numbers.” The players are all amazed how the game head could think of this game. “For the useful cards, once the game starts, the player can put the card in their deck of cards. The useful tools here are the multiplication, addition and number ten (10) cards. The four fundamental operations are also welcomed to be added on the deck of the player’s card. The cards are only valid for one usage.”

Denton looked at Paul and Sandra who were blinking their eyes, trying to process the machanics. “It seems like I can’t process the things the speaker explained because I was woken up earlier than I expected,” Paul noted, still blaming the speaker who announced the waking up ceremony earlier. “Anyway, we just have to be good at basic arithmetics, right?”

“That is a strategy, though, we need something more than that,” Denton replied. “Since we cannot see what is in the cards while they were facing aback at us, we have to place our guts too. This is also a game of probability, we have to be lucky enough to get higher-numbered cards and positive operation cards to be safe. As much as possible, we must avoid getting five and lower cards, and the subtraction and division cards. It might make our total value lower.”

The speaker again opened his mic. “There are eight cottages inside the battlefield. These players will inhabit one of each while they are trying to strategize what to do,” the speaker muttered. “Also, these cottages will be covered with glass door, so they will get to see what the other players are doing, but... these doors will make the cottages sound proof and no soundwaves outside can enter the room. You can look at each of the player’s performance on the screen, which will telecast each of the player’s performance. In case someone got two zeros in their final value, it will automatically be the final player which will go directly to the last round of the game, together with the player with the highest value attained.”

All the players were placed in the cottages, Denton was placed on the third to the left while Sandra and Paul were placed on the last two cottages. Before the cottages were closed with the clear door or cover, the guards secured that all the players have already entered the cottages. The guards immediately gave each of the players the set of twenty cards. “These twenty cards are not the final set of cards. You can add cards on your set with your existing cards, but you also must take one card from the given card for every card that you will add.” Denton looked at his card which were just basically cards, with lower values having more in terms of number of cards. “By the end of the thirty minutes, each players will be given time outside to play with the dealer. Once the player is playing with the dealer, the telecast of their play will be shown live on the monitor. The final value of your cards will be placed on the ranking on the other monitor, to see who ranks high and how much did one player get. The order of play will be from the left player to the right player. You can now observe your card. The thirty minutes will start now.”

As the thirty minutes started, the doors were shut down and inside, Denton couldn’t hear any noise from the outside. “The back of the cards are the same as the back of the existing cards that I collected,” Denton muttered to himself. He grabbed one card from the given cards and one from his existing set of cards. He turned it back as he tried to think what is the possible difference between the two. “Wait a minute...” he mumbled as he placed the cards near his eyes. “I now know how can I identify my cards amidst them facing aback at me...”