GAMBLE: Rule of Cards

THE INVITATION

“Good evening.” The voice has gathered the attention of all the people inside the venue. The voice came from a man on his formal attire in front of all the people. He was wearing a grin on his face, holding the mic with his right hand. A presentation followed his greetings. It shows the logo of the said company who gave all the recruits the black cards. The presentation did not utter what the WIC in the company name but just showed a grey logo. “I bet you all have the same in reason in coming here, right? That is to earn an urgent and instant money.”

Denton laughed his ass out that gained the other guy’s attention which was also sitting on the same table with him. “Now that you told me that, it really looks like a networking now,” he muttered while laughing his ass out. The other guy did not give a damn and continued listening to what the speaker is talking about. “Why did you have to tell me that? I cannot stop laughing while thinking of it.”

He has a point. The way the emcee talks and acts does look like a networking staff urging people to invest in their company. “So, how would you earn money through our company?” he asked the recruits. He never waited for any response as he continued on flipping the page of the presentation. “Our company offers a handful of money by just winning a game organized by us…” He continued on talking while switching slides of the presentation. “You all are selected as the players of the game.”

The crowd went clapping after hearing the news. After all, they are all chasing for money and that news is a good news to them. While the recruited players are clapping their hands, a hand raising in between of people clapping stood out. “I have a question,” a girl muttered before standing up. The host focused on the girl who stood up. “Can you tell me… how much exactly is the prize money?”

The way she talked, it just shows how she is also desperate of winning the prize money. “The prize money must be revealed on the first day of the game.” The place was then surrounded by people’s groans about the prize money not getting revealed right away. “However, we can assure you that it is not just thousands but more than that. The prize money is, however, not negotiable but is already enough to pay for your debts and loans.”

“Still,” the girl muttered again which gained the attention of everyone. “I have more questions to ask,” she said. “About the winners… can I ask whether there can be a multiple sets of winners or there can be only one winner? Is it negotiable? We are all in deep need of money. Is it okay to win the prize money in half or something like that?”

The desperation in that girl’s voice stands out. All the other people agreed with what the girl said. They all need money to survive and to pay for all of their debts. It must be hard to compete but they have to do it, if ever there is only one winner… “There is only one winner.” The emcee ended that statement with a smile towards the girl. “The number of winner depends on the owner of the company. As this game has been planned all along, even before the players have been chosen, and it was signed by the owner of the WIC Company, we, the staffs, have no control to that. Given that this is a competition, there must and will always be one winner.”

One middle-aged guy stood up and opened his mouth. “How about the players who were not lucky enough to win the game? What will happen to them?” For the second time around, the other recruited players agreed with it again. “Are there any sort of consolation prize or prize for participation?”

“Consolation prize are only for weak, mister. Once you know that there is a consolation prize for those people who would not win the game, all of you will probably just lose in purpose to claim the consolation prize.” The players showed that they are really disappointed by how the game works. “In line with that, the only prize that will be given is for that certain people who will win the game. If you wanted to get your life easier by winning the game, be competitive enough and play hard.”

“This is bullshit!” One guy, putting on a formal attire, stood up and cursed the emcee. “f**k you and your company. You are using us for clout. You just wanted to play with us. If you really wanted to help us, you could have just given us a decent job or a donation.”

“When you were selected during the selection process, our agents did not tell you that you will be given a decent job nor you will be getting the money as our donation to your poor asses. The only thing our agents asked you is if you want to make an urgent and instant handful of money. You all came here because you are all desperate of having money and you all must work for it.” The crowd became silent for the meantime. The emcee was right; there is no anything like giving the recruits decent jobs that has been talked about with their agent. “About the players who will not win the game, they will all be eliminated, for sure. And we, the WIC Company, does not assure your life upon leaving the game arena.”

With that last statement of the emcee, the recruits were covered with thoughts and worry. “Then, I do not want to join the game,” one of the people who were protesting in front of the emcee scowled. The emcee remained motionless. Plenty of people has been in front of him, protesting about the game rules and all. “I still want to live with my family, even though we are just poor.”

“Doesn’t it hurt your feeling to not feed your children the proper meals every day, mister?” The middle-aged guy opened his eyes wide as the emcee’s assumptions were true and that he was not able to feed and provide his children’s needs. “This is the only and the fastest way to earn such a handful of money and you all are complaining? Anyway, you have no chance of giving up at this point already.”

It was like the time has stopped for the recruited players. “What… do you mean?”

“Everyone has already drunk the champagne that we offered you.” The people panicked as they hold their necks, trying to breathe as they are all losing their breath already. The emcee smiled while looking at the players trying themselves to abstain but cannot do anything because of their situation. “Any minute now, you will lose your breath temporarily and the moment you open your eyes, the game has begun.”

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DENTON OPENED his eyes as he felt the lights surrounding the place where he is sleeping. He was greeted by the all-white motif of the room where he is right now. There are a total of eleven double decks inside the room and he is prettily laying on the bed on the side-most part of the room. “Where am I?” he asked himself as he scratched his eyes, feeling odd and worried while sitting on his deck.

He went down from the second deck to meet the other people who are also inside the same room with him. Denton started on counting the heads and realized that there are twenty-two people, including him. “What the hell is this place?” one guy cussed while looking at the full-white background of the room. Even the decks and the beds are white that it might look like it’s not visible. The only things that have colors were them, wearing the gray vest that they just realized they were wearing at that time. “And what the hell is this?”

A static sound suddenly surrounded the whole area. It was a real pain in their ears that they are starting to groan and cover their ears but to no avail. The static sound lasted for almost a minute and a half, long enough to wreck someone’s eardrums. A weird music started on playing before a human’s voice surrounded the whole area. It is coming from the speaker that was connected on the ceiling, with the speaker’s voice being distorted. “The first game will begin an hour after the lunch time. Welcome to the game called… Rule of Cards.”