Doomed to Self Destruct

Tch.

"The rules sound more ridiculous by the second, eh? Triple three?" 103 voiced out from my side, in a clearly amused tone. His lax attitude towards all Lilith said, almost made the woman lose it.

"I agree with that, and these seats are the least bit cool. They weren't even well made." 008 exclaimed toying with her short locks of hair, an uninterested look plastered on her face.

The corners of Lilith's lips twitched in anger, as her wide grin slowly contorted into a forced smile.

"My, My, the management doesn't sound as creative as I pegged them, they really are so predictable." 321, the only man with his number written twice on the back of both his palms, spewed out, pinching his chin.

These people were certainly... interesting.

Lilith, did not share the same sentiment.

"Acting tough won't save you any more time, there's no avoiding this." Lilith announced, firmly stepping on the heads of the players at her mercy. "You went through the rules, didn't you? So there's no way imaginable to..." Blondie's prolonged sigh cut her off rudely.

Lilith turned her head sharply in his direction, only to find him cleaning his ears and paying her no mind at all.

"We did go through the rules, but that doesn't mean anything. We're the ones who have to do the killing after all, you better speak to us with some respect." 008 retorted, sending a death glare at a disgruntled Lilith.

As a counter, Lily switched personalities, "what's this? You're all acting like commiting murder doesn't bother you. Hmmm, care to share why?" She pouted, staring at me in particular.

For some seconds, everyone remained silent, the tension was indeed so thick I could cut through it. And for some reason, all the attention was pinned on me, anything I said now would affect this execution.

"Whoever said we'd be killing anyone?" I finally spoke up, meeting Lilith's surprised expression.

"If you're not going to take a life, then how do you suppose we conclude..."

"Rule 4: No one is permitted to kill anyone without earning "Killing Rights" I announced over her voice, receipting the fourth rules amongst the ten we were given.

"If caught, the offender is immediately killed and his points divided to all upper ranked participants." 103 went on to say, smirking from ear to ear as he spoke.

"One must obtain a minimum of two points to get valid  Killing Rights. And a maximum of five points, for  compulsory Killing Rights." 008 stated in a firm tone, crossing one leg over the one.

"Let's see now, participation in a game gives a player an automatic point. And clearing the game credits a player with another point with adds up to two. Hence, all eight of us have what you call valid killing rights." I said to her, making sure I was loud enough for everyone else to hear.

"If I'm not mistaken, having two points doesn't make it mandatory to take a life. As long as we haven't exceeded the limit of five points, we still retain the right to chose whether or not we decide to take a life. With that in mind..." I took a pause, and pointed directly at Lilith, who stared at me with wide eyed astonishment.

"This execution is a joke." My gaze involuntarily landed on 205, whose eyes were sore from crying and ears reddened like a tomato.

"A joke..." Lilith mumbled under her breath, staring at both her palms, with eyes as still as stagnant waters.

"Oh-ho! So you do get vulnerable? That's the endgame of having such a predictable play. Did you really think we'd lose our heads over how forceful you've been?" 008 said in a teasing tone, looking down on Lilith.

"A jo... joke?" Lilith repeated, in a much more quieter voice, one that I somehow managed to catch.

"All we have to do really is know when to withdraw from playing, reaching five points sounds easy enough." I heard 103 remark to the person next to him.

"What's more, according to the points we accumulate expire after every seven days. Which only means that, we can just start over from zero points and stop at four every new week." 008 let out, disclosing this part to the others intentionally.

My ears picked up on the sound of the heartbeats closest to me, they were racing with newfound excitement. The shaky sigh of relief should have marked the drawing of the curtain of this so called execution.

But...

"Pfft!!!" Lilith covered her mouth with bold palms and shut both eyes close in a full snicker.

"What's so funny?" 321 ended up asking, coming out more than he should have. The reckless look on his face hinted that he was no longer going to be a wallflower character.

Lilith sat on the heads of the other players legs crossed, bearing a wicked look on her face. "Is that your surefire way to cheat the game?" She rhetorically asked, not expecting a word out of us.

"And what about the rankings?" She pointed out, "did you also read through that?" Her cryptic tone hinted that she had a thing or two to say.

"It wasn't part of the rules." I replied her swiftly, cracking my fingers in a bid to ward off my tensed nerves. Her new tone was giving me a gut wrenching feeling, something wrong would happen here.

"Oh? I wonder why they wouldn't include that. This might come as a shock but not every player is equal. Just like in reality, there is a class distinction between my flowers in this garden." She piped up, her bloodlust gradually seeping out.

"I figured as much." Blondie remarked in a lazy tone, staring at his nails with zero zeal in his eyes.

On the other hand, the rest of us were walking on rather thin ice.

"There are four ranks, having class A at the top and class D at the bottom. From the very moment you all regained consciousness, you were placed in class D, with zero points added to your name. But currently, all eight of you have ascended to class C, with two points distinction from the others."

The more Lilith spoke, the paler everyone's skin turned, though this was due to the lack of oxygen flowing through their bodies, something about her words made us sick.

"What of it? Ascending the rank doesn't sound so bad now does it?" 008 inserted into the conversation, placing a damper on the anxiety spread out.

Come to think of it, the bloodlust detector I gained needed to be unlocked at a certain level. It made sense that we were ranked, but the main issue now, had to be what Lilith got out of that.

"I have a question." Blondie blurted out, sounding far more polite than his personally gave him credit for.

"On what exactly, are these rankings based off of?" His question was exactly the thoughts on my mind. I was glad he was willing to voice out the obvious.

"That's easy, by your kill points." Lilith announced with a smile, shifting to her cute personality.

"Players at D level have zero to one point to their names. Players at C level must have attained two to four points. While players at B level are decided by the outcome of a duel between two C level players. Once a player makes it to B level, they merely need to gain one more point after to reach A level." She noted, stretching her limbs whilst she lazily yawned.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, deep in thought as to how the ranking could possibly influence our decision to take a life.

My gaze alternated from Blondie's perplexed expression to Lilith's amused grin. There was something about the ranks that I had surely not taken account for.

A disadvantage this ranking places us at...

"Oh, and least I forget, the most important thing about the ranking." Her voice drew me out of my deep rooted thoughts.

"Only the members of class D are subjected to being the prey for other predators to hunt after. That is to say..."

It was at that moment a thread of realisation snapped in my head, allowing me to see through the lines clearly.

"I see how it works now." Blondie remarked sounding a bit on edge.

"Having our points expire actually places us at a bigger disadvantage than we imagined." He stated, crushing the souls of the other players.

"What the hell is your sadistic ass talking about?" 103 hollered with no restraint in his voice.

Blondie ignored him completely and focused his sights on Lilith, who could barely cage her laughter.

"You see, if you don't take a life now, your kill points will all expire by next week." Lilith stated, standing to her feet.

"If that happens, whose to say you're going to be the one to win the next round? What guarantees you that the new set of C level players won't be ambitious? If anything triple three, I'd say this strategy of yours is doomed to self destruct. Because..." She took a pause and cocked a sly grin.

"Whoever is to say a king today, won't become a pawn tomorrow."