Chapter 2:- Game 1- Count
"Let the game... BEGIN!!".
"Umm... I have a lot of questions to ask..." I said, "And you are?" asked Mr. 144 let us just refer to the man as that for now. "Murata Kyousuke." I replied, Mr. 144 pulled out what seemed like a booklet he turned one page and was murmuring while searching for my name "M-m-m... Ahh!! Murata Kyousuke, player 1331. This will be your first and only question you will get to ask me right now.". "Who are you guys and what did you do to our teachers?" I asked, "Hehe, you think you can ask me two questions while framing it as one sentence? You sly bastard. I will only answer one question, you choose the question I get to answer" he replied. "Well then, who are you guys?" asked him while giving a glare, "We? we are just a bunch of nobodies trying to find the real fun."
I was infuriated by the reply he gave me, and I sat down in that quiet rage.
"Then can I get to ask you a question as he did?" said a random classmate of mine while pointing his index finger at me, "Go on. Player 1320" replied Mr.144. It was at this moment most people knew something was up with that man. He asked my name to know my player code, but he didn't ask her... something is seriously off about him. "What happened to the staff?" asked the girl, "Don't worry, we have put them to sleep and won't wake up for at least 7 to 9 days if they are your 'average' teachers".
Hirai Shizuko, a girl who is above average in her studies, might not look like much but she is smarter than an average top student except she doesn't use that brain for studies. She noticed his odd behavior about the way he didn't know about me but knew about player 1320, she stood up "I ha-" pointed the gun at her "Enough questions or else it's life over, and let's start the game. Your first game's name is 'Count', rules are simple just count numbers as fast as you can in one minute, but the twist is that you need to count the odd numbers and even numbers in two different languages you are comfortable with. Oh, and one more thing, you are disqualified as soon as you stutter even a little".
"This guy is definitely hiding something. Is she related to him? Nah Nah, that can't be after all she looked like she would piss anytime while asking him that question... It's that mask after all the moment he looked at me the eye part of the mask glowed. What could be the difference between her and me that he wasn't able to recognize me? My positioning? Nah..." I turned to the window "Tree! it's the tree that's blocking the light from reaching me, meaning the camera couldn't scan my face due to the bad lighting. If they easily abducted an entire adult staff of 50+ people, then there is a possibility that these guys are equipped with some high-tech stuff... but wait if they really are equipped with technology like that then couldn't it mean that there is a night filter to detect me or wa-" My thought process was stopped by him when he announced the first player on stage.
"Player 1342 Kataoka Izanagi, please come up here" ordered Mr.144. The guy stood up and started walking to the stage, we all could see how scared he was we could see his knees wobble while walks and then he stops at the place where Mr. 144 wanted him to stand and turned around in fear. Mr. 144 pointed the gun at his head and said "Start" Izanagi started counting "One, Ni, three, fo- yo-", "Stop right there! you are disqualified. Alright, next person-" Mr.144 was stopped by Izanagi's begging him on the ground "NO PLEASE GIVE ME ANOTHER CHAN-", Mr. 144 pointed his gun at Izanagi's head "Oi! One more word and consider yourself fuck'n dead, now go to your seat.". Izanagi heads back to his seat with a face filled with tears of fear, while Mr. 144 keeps his gun back and announces to the next player "Player 1320 Sera Yukiko, please step in the area.". She stands up and starts walking away from her place and towards the 'area', now after reaching she turns around Mr. 144 takes the pistol out and points at her head, and says "Start.", Yukiko takes a deep breath and starts counting in a slow way having a time gap about 1.5 to 2 seconds between each number and then she slowly started picking the pace about a second between each number and like that she reached till number 48. "You pass. Now go to your place," said Mr.144, Yukiko walks to her place, and after reaching halfway to her place she fainted. "Good thing she passed..." Mr. 144 commented on the incident.
Meanwhile in class 3B:-
"What is the meaning of this?! Four people played and none of them passed!" Masashi thought to himself. "Aoki-san I think I might have figured out why none of our classmates have won so far." Masashi hands a folded piece of paper to Arisu, Arisu unfolds the piece of paper "Play slow don't hurry." was written on it "Pass it over to everyone who is going to play." suggests Masashi to Arisu, Arisu nods in agreement and passes the piece of paper.
Back to class 2A:-
Out of 10 people who played so far only 4 of them passed. Even after people saw how Yukiko played only a few observed how she played if this keeps up only 20 students or fewer might pass the test.
After about 25 minutes since the game started in class 3B:-
12 people failed and 11 people passed. "Guess fear took over and they lost the ability to process." thought Arisu. "Guess my plan didn't have that much of an effect on them, it's most likely because of fear." Masahi thought to himself. "Hachi Ju kyu! (89!)" the room's entire attention shifted to the person even the people who were lost in a state of depression lifted their heads. "Who is that?", "wait it's Isa Tatsuo.", "wait how the heck did he do that?! He isn't even in the top 100!" people started gossiping about him. Isa Tatsuo class 3B's delinquent, you know what a delinquent is right so no need for further explanation about his personality, but his background is just pure evil, he threatened a businessman, he got nearly arrested several times for public violence, he was about to get expelled if it wasn't for his father, other than violence there are two more things he is very good at his level of concentration and his ability to play board games that mainly utilizes players knowledge on the game and logical and critical thinking of the player.
"Silence! any more noise shall not be tolerated. Next player 1434 Tokuda Nobu please step in."
After 43 minutes in class 2A:-
Out of 38 members, 35 got to play and only 16 passed the game. My time finally came, as soon as I got to the 'area' Mr. 144 pointed his pistol at my head and said "Start." I started counting, it went well for like 38 seconds and I stopped at number 35 because I realized my brain wasn't keeping up, so after 3 seconds I resumed, this time I counted slowly and picked up the pace as Yukiko did. 1 minute later I stopped at number 57 "You pass. Next player 1387, Taketa Hideo please step in."
After 48 minutes, the game was finished, and he announced the top 5 of our class "Kita Kamiko, 1st, counted to 71. Nishi Ryuu, 2nd, counted to 69. Akagi Eri, 3rd, counted to 65. Sonada Takumi, 4th, counted to 63, and finally, Murata Kyousuke, counted to 57. You all shall go and rest in the canteen area, those who passed but didn't make it to the top 5 please go to the stage room. For those who failed CONGRATULATIONS!! your fate is in the hands of the final winner!" "Sir, it's about time." said the man standing near the door, "Oh, I didn't notice you there, those who failed, follow this dude quietly if I hear a noise. Pew.", "No wai-" *BANG!* a bullet pierces the throat of the classmate. "Didn't you hear what I just said, kid!" said Mr. 144, after that, the failures left the class in silence.
After a while, those who didn't make it to the top 5 went to the stage room, and then after 2 minutes, he told us to go to the canteen area. Everyone left until I and Mr. 144 were left alone "I have questions and it looks like there is still time for game 2, what do ya say?" I asked, "What are your questions? kid," he asked, "How come I haven't seen people come to the school to check for gunshots and why did you point the gun since you wouldn't shoot in the middle of a game?" I asked, "Gunshots, Ehh you need not to worry about that, and the gun-pointing thing was to generate fear since an average teenage mind which lived an ordinary life wouldn't be able to process simple logic as that" takes out his pistol "and also this gun ain't just a gun it sure does have a design of Remington R51 but this is specifically designed for this game." he replied, "But why our school?" I asked "Aaa, you need not worry about that. Well then bye now. Go to the canteen area" his voice changed as if he is threatening me "and one more thing don't go too deep just enjoy the game." now his voice went back to normal "Well then, this time goodbye for real. We may meet next time."