GAMBLE: Rule of Cards

CHAPTER 12

“THE FOURTH game will now commence,” the speaker muttered. All the players have gathered on the battlefield, as the commencement of the fourth player is already starting. The battlefield was still the same but a red line is dividing the battlefield into two. There are also two tables in both side of the battlefield which caught the players red-handed. “There is a total of one hundred and seventy-eight players that are still alive up to this point. Total of thirty-nine were slew from the third game. One managed to escape using the escaping match that happened after the main match.”

Paul smirked. “They are giving a lot of details for the first time in forever,” he muttered to Denton who was carefully taking a look at the battlefield. For him, it seems so different that the battlefield changed something that is too obvious to see, and of course, everyone can see the difference. “Don’t you think it is so odd that they changed the layout of the battlefield? Though they do that, but it is an obvious change. Something big might happen later. This is a big change to cause a big plot twist. I’m expecting it.”

“The fourth main match is called The Zombie Game,” the speaker muttered. Every one inside the battlefield was confused as to why it was called The Zombie Game, and the speaker held no back and explained the mechanics of the fourth main match. “The mechanics is easy. The game will start at two players being the human king and zombie king. They will have to urge the players in becoming one of their kind. The number of players is in the odd number. Once a player wants to become a human, that player must approach the human king and tell him/her. Once a player wants to become a zombie, that player should eat a piece of meat in the table. The zombie king only has five chops of the meat and has the power to cut the meat in how many portions. Once a zombie wants to become a human again, he will have to drink the potion that the human king has. The human king only has fifteen of the potions. Only the kings of each kind cannot turn into another one. When the game ends, between the two kinds, the human and zombie, the kind with the more players will continue on the next round while the kind that has lesser player will all be killed.” The speaker took his time to pause for a moment. “Useful cards that can be used in this match. Once the player shows a pull card, they can pull a person from another team to include in his/her team. Another card that might be helpful here is the potion card, once this is given to the human king, the humans will be given another bottle of potion. Each card will be useful for one usage. Let us start the game.”

“The game is so weird,” Denton muttered. Paul looked back at him as he worded out that statement. “The losing team will all be eliminated, meaning there is only fifty percent of us surviving and also fifty percent of us dying in this game. The losing team will be eliminated, meaning that there can be a possibility that half of the currently surviving players might be eliminated.”

Paul nodded. “The hardships will all be placed on the king of a kind’s shoulder. It must be a burden.”

“Let us now pick the kings of their own kind,” the speaker mumbled as he vanished on the screen. The monitor showed a blank screen where the name of the king will be shown. The guards also moved their asses and started on placing the meats and the potions on each of the king’s table. “The king of the zombie kind will be…” The monitor showed a code name as the speaker muttered it. “C-15.” The guy who has the code name looked straight at the monitor and even asked if it was really him. “The king of the human kind will be…” Everyone is hoping for their code names to not be called and only one, unfortunate player will lead the kind. “You will be the king of the human kind, M-22.”

Denton was surprised to hear his code name being called as the king of the human kind. Both the kings of zombie and human kind were guided towards their table which will be called as the office. The zombie king was greeted by meats, properly grilled and were surrounded with oozing smell while Denton was greeted by the vials of potions. “Why the hell was I picked as the human king, for f**k’s sake?”

“Remember that both the kings cannot eat nor drink the meat and the potions. However, whether they drink or eat that, there will never be an effect.” The speaker paused for a moment. Both the kings took the time to observe and look at the food and the potions in front of them. “There will be three rounds, which each one of them will run up to ten minutes. After the third round, the game will halt and the winning team must be identified by the time. The round one will start now. Players, other than the kings will now start identifying their desired teams. Timer starts now.”

The other players have started walking their feet towards the battlefield. As expected from Paul, as a loyal friend, he walked towards the human kind and greeted the king. “Your highness,” he muttered, throwing a joke towards his friend who suddenly became a king. “So, what is the plan, Denton? How should we attract these players to come to your palace and be a human?”

“This was too sudden. I did not even wish to be a king,” Denton muttered and heaved a deep sigh after. He looked at the zombie king who was attracting a lot of players due to the grilled meats that were looking so delicious, he thought. He won’t deny that fact. “He can easily attract people using that food since we are unable to eat that kind of thing while living in this hell. How must I attract them to come here?”

Denton was stopped as his eyes landed on a girl, which happened to be Jannah. She was walking on the line between the human and the zombie lane and was looking undecided. However, she looked at the zombie lane and entered it as she was welcomed by the zombie kind. “That was the girl you are asking to be with your group, right?” Denton nodded. “You can see that she is prone to doing betrayals, right? She just betrayed you while you asked her to come to your group.”

“We can still ask her to go here and let her drink the potion we have here,” Denton muttered. They stopped talking about the girl and started on placing the vials of the potions on the table in a neat manner. Denton stopped moving as he was greeted by a woman who was standing tall in front of him. “Oh, you are the woman who helped me on the second main match?”

“Yes, and I never had a chance to formally tell you what my name is. I am Sandra Casper,” the woman named Sandra muttered. “I really do think you are a great player, so I went directly here and entered the human kind. Do I have to drink the potion or what?”

“No, you will have to drink the potion if you ate the meat on the other kind and wanted to change your kind but as far as I know, this kind is your first kind to go to so, you can just chill inside this lane,” Denton muttered and smiled. “Thank you for trusting me and my kind. Please don’t change your mind a lot and stick here, as possible as you can.”

Paul wandered around the human lane as he silently counted the players inside. “We are just close to fifty and is a lot lower in number, compared to the zombie kind,” he muttered as he walked towards Denton who was looking so worried. “Don’t worry. Though the time of the first round may be finishing soon but we still have chance for the second round. We will get those zombies back to humanity.” Paul looked at the humans inside their lane and gathered their attention. “Please give us your attention. Our king will tell something, our plan.”

“Me? I will tell something? Our plan?” Denton was, for sure, confused but still managed to smile towards the humans inside their lane. “Uhm, of course, as we are on the same kind. We need to exert our power and pull those zombies back to our kind. In this case that we are just under fifty, we will never win against them.” Denton paused. “Since I am the king of this kind, can you entrust me all of your pull and potion cards? At least, they will be of help… to us all. We can all survive this match.”

All of the human players smiled and gave Denton their pull and potion cards without hesitation. This just state that they have trust for Denton and his leadership. A great way to start the cooperation game. If they were to compare their kind to the other kind, they were a lot more peaceful while the other one is a holiday party, if that is the greatest way to describe their kind. With their peace, they can all understand what each of them are talking about.