The Absconsion

The Reminiscence

The next day, when the players woke up. They all felt light. A good night's sleep was all it required to freshen them. They were still thinking about the events of yesterday, but the intensity was lower. It bothered them but at a tolerable level. The players looked at the screen to check if their rewards were updated, but they did not. They were disappointed. The Organizer then appeared and said, ' Good morning, players. I hope that you all had a good sleep and I can see that on your faces. Do not be disappointed about rewards not being updated, by the time you complete your breakfast, it will be done. So for now, just follow the officers to complete your morning activities. '

By this time, very few players compared to when the events had not begun. During the bath, male and female segregation was still there, and the shyness that existed when they first got here did not exist anymore. Everyone minded their own business. Even though some of the players were still not as comfortable as the others, they had to bathe because that was the only way to feel fresh. After they came out of the bathing hall, the breakfast was ready. It was fruits again and a bottle of milk. The excitement about what food is going to be served was not there anymore. They ate what was available and given to them without making any fuss about it. I1 again asked E7 if he could spare the milk and E7 gave it to him after drinking half of it. In order to be focused and fit to play the game well, every player must eat well. Maybe that was the reason why the robotic voice said to eat well when they invited the players to participate in this opportunity. Players should be in a good position to withstand the mental pressure. Till now, they did not play any game that involved physical strength. If that were the case, then it would be unfair to the people who are not so strong and lean. Anyways, everyone completed their breakfast in peace. As they submitted back the bottles and plates, they could see the screen on which the rewards were displayed being refreshed. The excitement and anxiety of the players peaked. They wanted to see how much they were getting paid for keeping their lives on the line. They wanted the figures to be worth it. Some of them held their hands together as if they were praying to god that the rewarded sum would be a very high amount. And when the rewards were finally refreshed, there was an expression of awe on everybody's faces. They were awestruck by the amount that have been added.

 I believe the new earned rewards are worth the risk you all had taken. All the teams that have successfully completed the second round are given 50 million dollars per team, which means each of the team members would be receiving a sum of 10 million dollars. Adding this to the already won prize would make it 13 million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In addition to this, since some of the players did not abide by the rules, their reward is being distributed to the other players equally. There were five players who broke the rules and created disorder and chaos. Therefore the fifty million dollars is again split. As there are 50 players, each one of them would be getting an additional million dollars. That makes it 14 million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. '

One of the players asked, ' You have distributed the amount that was earned by the players who lost in the second round. What about the earnings of their first-round? '

' Since they have completed the first round by following all the rules communicated prior to the round, that reward is retained and will be sent to their families. '

Even though the players were happy after seeing the reward updated on the screen, they still have their suspicions about whether that money would be given to them or all this is just for nothing. This was a common doubt for everyone but none of them asked until now.

' You are saying that we are the owners of millions of dollars, but we have not seen any real money till now. how should we believe you? ' Questioned one of the players.

' We were expecting this question for a long time and it has finally been asked. '

The organizer then made hand gestures and then the wall above the main door of the hall became transparent and all the players could see through it. There was a big box which was wrapped with red-colored cloth like a gift box. The box was also knotted with a yellow thread. A robotic arm came from above and untied the knots. When the box opened, all the mouths of the players were also opened in awe. the box was half-filled with money. they could see real money floating inside the box. If only it was possible, all the players would have run and grabbed as much money as possible. But no, they can't do it. Anyhow seeing the real currency helped in casting away the suspicions they had. the enthusiasm to play the next round heightened. 

It was funny how money can make people change their minds at the speed of thought. Everyone was pretty shaken to their core because of the deaths they have witnessed the previous day, but everything got changed today when they saw the abundant currency notes. That's how unstable the human mind is. More than half of the people who entered here have vanished, but that did not scare them now. They were alive and that is what is matters. The reward might even induce more greediness in people that if killing one another is also involved then they would not hesitate to take others' lives. That is the level of influence money has over people. Maybe it is not about money, maybe it is about possessing something that one doesn't have. The people who were here were living a pathetic life because they did not have enough money to live a good life, they did not have enough money which prevented their access to quality education, and many other reasons. The greed of finally having the one thing that screwed their lives over was messing with their brains. They are not caring about their lives anymore. Other than money, there is also a hidden factor that is making them feel excited to play the game despite the risk of death. It is the thrill that they were feeling while they are in the game, the excitement, the feeling of being alive. All their lives, they were alive but dead inside. But now, they are a part of something that is giving them what they are craving for and also eliminating the mediocrity in their lives.

P4: That money is more than enough to drive all my problems away. I do not want any more money, I just wish there is an option that we can choose by which we can walk out of here with the money that we had earned till this point.

E3: Well, that is the freedom that the organizer would not be providing us. If that was possible, all of the people would have taken the three million dollars and left the place.

E7: If they are giving such a huge amount to us, then they might be expecting more from us. They can not let us walk away with the money. I do not know the ulterior motive behind all this, but I am sure of one thing. The big sharks might be betting on us like people usually bet on horses. We are puppets for their entertainment. I know that seeing these rewards is making us a little crazy, but we should not let that get to our heads. We still need to make sure that we would survive whatever that is coming next.

P9: Do not be a party pooper, E7. We were stressed a lot the earlier day, and we require some time off. And thinking about what we can do with the money when we get back home is all I can think about for now. I do not want to think about what happens next or what round we are going to play or whether we are going to survive it or not. I just want to enjoy the present moment.

E7: Well, you can enjoy it once you are out of here. This is neither the place nor the time to enjoy. Right now, all you have to think about is how to survive.

P9: Alright then. To do that we need to know about the next round, and there is no way we would know what the next round is going to be.

E7: Well, if we do not know about the future, I suggest we think of what we already know and then try to find a pattern or link or connection. We need to have some insights that may possibly help us in further rounds.

E3: So far, the things that we can think of are the games that we played and the stories that the organizer narrated. I can see some connections between the story and the game. They sort of give us a hint about which kind of game would we be playing. If we can understand how to derive the game from the story, then we will be able to decipher our next game after the narrator tells us the story.

P4: That is a really good point. Okay then let me summarize what all happened till now. Our first story was about two friends who had different beliefs. One dreamed big and cleared the obstacles that came his way, and the other lost whatever that he had because of the principles that he adhered to. As time progressed, one expanded his business, while the other contracted. And the game that we played after that story was prey and predator in which the predator can save the prey only by executing a living thing. So, what can connect between these two?

E7: Okay. My perspective is the one who had chosen prey, symbolizes the one who adheres to the values. Maybe it is like controlling the emotion or urge to do something in presence of the danger. And the one who chose a predator must be like the other one who is willing to do anything to overcome the obstacle and move forward. Therefore, the characteristics of the people in the story must be observed very well as their behavior is what would help us in overcoming the round.

E3: It is really a subtle hint, but is definitely true for the first round. If either of the players failed to behave like the persons in the story, then one of them would have lost the round. And coming to the second story is a tale from an epic Hindu mythology book called "Mahabharata." In this, the Pandavas were asked some questions, one by one, and they were killed if ignored or answered incorrectly. And the game that we played after that was " The Shark Attack, " and it also involved asking questions, where people are killed upon giving an incorrect answer.

P4: So ignoring from the story can be connected to the last row being eliminated. I can not tell how exactly it matches, but it seems like a fit from what we know. And giving an incorrect answer also takes a life which was already mentioned by the organizer very clearly.

I1: All this time, the organizer dropped hints for us to pick up, but we kind of ignored them.

E7: Well, at least, we figured it now. So I think we all should closely listen to what the next story organizer will be saying before the next game. Anyhow, he will provide us some time after he narrates it, so it will give us enough time to figure out the kind of game that we will be playing.

----*----

D18: With everything that had been going on, I forgot to ask you one thing. Are you really the person behind the application called "Connect"? I have no doubt about your intelligence, but I wonder if what you said during the game was true.

H8: Yes, D18. I created the app that people are so crazy about. I created the app which has now crossed 5 billion downloads, and it may soon enter the league of big players like f******k.

D18: What happened then, if I may ask, and if you are willing to share?

H8 is the kind of person who prefers to remain mysterious rather than an open book. He likes to listen rather than tell. But this moment was an exception. For a long time, Harald was his only friend and it did not bother him. He did not even want to find more friends. He was happy with what he had. But only when Harald showed his true colors, then he thought about how it would have been if he had so many friends. He would have not been alone and abandoned. He had no one to share his pain with and no one to help him. He was devastated to think that if Harald is not his friend anymore, then there is not a single person on the planet who knows him or cares for him. Even if he dies here, no one would even know or care. Because of all these reasons, H8 thought this to be a nice opportunity to share his pain.

H8: It is okay, D18. I will tell you everything. Most of the children when they are born, they have the luxury of loving parents who would constantly care about the well-being of the baby. Unfortunately, I do not belong to that category. I do not know who my parents were. I grew up in an orphanage and when I became sufficiently mature, I realized that this was the place the children end up when their parents expire or abandon them. I used to wonder why I was here and I used to ask the people who used to take care of me every day. They used to give me vague answers. Some of them told me my parents were dead, some told me that they left me at the doorstep for unknown reasons. I heard so many things that I did not care about how and why I got here. I did not want to think about the people who left me there. Because no matter how much affection the orphanage shows, it never parallels the affection showered by one's parents. I was a cute kid, so I got picked faster than the other unfortunate children. The staff said I was lucky to be selected and that I would be nurtured and receive the love that I was craving. But the truth is I did not crave any love. I never even imagined how it would have been if I had grown up with my parents. Whatever situation I was in, good or bad, I was okay with that.

So, when I got adopted, I do not know if it was foster homes or permanent adoption, I did not like it. No matter how much the family had tried from their end, my response was always neutral. I did not want to reciprocate the feeling. It is not that I hate it, but I did not like it too. Being adopted did not feel like a change. It was the same except that I was the only kid in the house. I wanted to run out of the house, but I did not want to trouble the people who wanted to do good to me. I wanted to tell them I can not live here anymore and that I wish to leave, but I am not a people person. I am not good at communicating with people when it involves feelings and emotions plus I was still a kid and I did not know how to tell them. So, one day when I could not take it anymore, I wrote a letter about what I wanted and how am I feeling and gave it to them. The family was sad that they could not make me happy, but respected my wish and let me go back to the orphanage. They left me at the entrance of the orphanage and left. As I was going inside, a thought occurred to me. If I go inside, then eventually another family might pick me, and the cycle begins again. So I walked away from the orphanage to an unknown destination with no plan or strategy. If we skip to a bit future, then I worked really hard in the college and at that time I met Harald. Harald was also from an indigent background, but he was a people person. He could easily convince the people with the way he talks. Not that he tricks them into doing sinful deeds, just small things that help him. I used to be very reserved and some uncoordinated incidents led to our meeting and he was the only person I used to talk with every now and then. We used to talk only a few times, but in those brief meetings, he knew that I was intelligent.

So while I was in college, I started to work on an app. Bullies used to make fun of me every time, but I did not have time to think about it over and over and feel sad. I kept the project that I have been working on separated from my college. I used to compartmentalize because I believed that it would block unnecessary stuff from flowing between and thereby enhance the efficiency of the work done. When I was in my final year, I almost completed the app that I was working on. Luckily, in order to find brilliant minds and their ideas, a group of investors created a group that is called " The Fast-Track Pitch," where people who are ready with ideas and require investment for implementation can present their ideas, and if an investor is moved by the presentation, then they will invest in your idea. I was thrilled when I heard that they would be coming to our college. Everything was ready, but I was not comfortable giving a presentation to business tycoons. And if I fail to persuade them to invest in my idea, then I would lose a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So, at that time, an idea struck my mind. Harald can do it, of course only after educating him. I approached him and he instantly said yes after the proposal I put forward to him. I taught him everything that is needed, and since he was charismatic, things worked out well. From that point onward, I lived and controlled the company from the shadows, while Harald attended meetings and talked to clients and gave interviews. I did not want to do any of them anyway, but when he backstabbed me and kicked me from my own company, I wished I had had. And now I am here because I need a lot of money to take back what was once mine. '

A15: That is really impressive to build something from scratch and take it to a level that amazes the whole world. But life does not like people to prosper and live happily. It wants people to suffer. But H8, you will definitely achieve what you want and I believe in you and my admiration towards you increased after knowing your story. All the best for your future.

D18: Yeah that is really impressive, but can I ask a few doubts about the app?

H8: Yeah, sure. Go ahead.

D18: Recently I heard that apps like Connect and f******k steal data from the users and sell them. Is that true?

H8: I do not think stealing is a correct term. Yes, we do have the date of all the users that register on our platform in a database. We know what you look, what you like, and what you skip. Since in the present day, information is money, many unethical groups attempt to hack our databases and steal the information. We personally do not use your information for immoral reasons.

D18: So, what do you do after knowing about our likes and dislikes? And how do you earn money by keeping the registration free of cost?

H8: Well, first I would like to address how we earn the money. It is simple. We advertise. That alone gives us enough to make huge profits. And coming to knowing about interests, have you wondered how the stuff that I have searched for gets recommended to me to buy? It is because of the data that we collect from the individual and feed it to a machine and it analyses the pattern and recommends to you the stuff that you might be interested in. This is called Machine Learning. The reason we use a machine here is that it is impossible for a human to process data coming from billions of users. More than 3.1 million gigabytes of data are generated every minute, so this requires the usage of a machine.

D18: That is really cool to hear. But how does a machine learn? As far as I know, it only does what we say but nothing creative.

H8: Yes, every machine is coded to perform a certain function. Like our washing machines are used for washing clothes and not any other task. But, just like humans, the machine can also be taught. but it requires a lot of data to create an accurate intelligent machine. I know your next question would be, how do we make a machine intelligent? When a child is small, we show them a picture and then tell them what it is. After repeating this process many a time, the child will say the name whenever they look at it. Thus, the child had learned that piece of information. Similarly, in order for a machine to learn something, we feed millions of images of the thing that we want it to learn. Let us say we feed the images of dogs and then tell it that this is called a dog. The machine inside performs various computations and analyses like eye color, fur color, length of feet, and many complex calculations. So, in short, we profit if we know your interests.

D18: Maybe with all this money, after I get out, I will learn machine learning and make machines intelligent.

H8: I am sure that you will.

From the horrendous experience all the players had yesterday, a normal conversation was all it required for them to feel better. Because what comes ahead would be something that is very difficult and messed up. They need these moments before they face the horrors ahead of them.