Manipulating Odds in an Apocalyptic World

Odds. 

The probability or likelihood of an event occurring.

For example a simple coin flip, everyone must know that the coin has a 50% to land on tails and 50% on heads, or one in two for each option.

Getting a specific card in a card deck has the odds of one in 52, or around 1.9%.

What do you think would be the odds of a particular person finding their 'perfect' partner? That's way more complex, isn't it?

People have different preferences, values, and priorities when it comes to relationships, making it difficult to define a "perfect" partner universally. Additionally, what may be considered perfect for one person may not be the same for another.

Factors such as perfect timing, communication, personal growth and simply compatibility also play a huge role in forming a successful and 'perfect' relationship.

The odds of finding a so-called 'perfect' partner would be one in 285,000 or roughly 0.00035%.

With odds like that, it's hard to imagine you'd ever find your 'perfect' partner. But you factor in that there are around 8 billion people on the planet Earth, 8 billion divided by the odds of finding your 'perfect' partner and you realize that there are around 31 thousand people who could be your 'perfect' partner and it doesn't feel as rare anymore.

***

An alarm tone played, and Olexia woke up with a tired expression. She picked up her phone and stopped the alarm.

Olexia sighed. "Ugh, how long did I sleep for? It barely feels like I even slept."

Olexia unlocked her phone and checked her notifications. Her eyes almost immediately widened and started to shine. `He's messaged me?`

She quickly went on to check the message.

Sam - We'll chat more tomorrow, you should actually try going to sleep now its almost 4 am.

- Read at 3.48 AM - Sent more than 6 hours ago.

Oly - I know but its just so exciting with you even if its just on text.

- Read at 3.48 AM - Sent more than 6 hours ago.

Sam - Lets vc for 10 mins then we should actually try and sleep.

- Read at 3.49 AM - Sent more than 6 hours ago.

- You started a voice call that lasted 18 minutes. -

Sam - Now go to sleep!!

- Read at 4.07 AM - Sent 5 hours and 54 minutes ago.

-New messages-

Sam - You awake? 

- Read at 10:01 AM - Sent 1 hour and 3 minutes ago.

Sam - Can you meet me at the library at like 11 and 30?

-Read at 10:01 AM - Sent 1 hour and 3 minutes ago.

Sam - I have a surprise for you

-Read at 10:01 AM - Sent 1 hour and 2 minutes ago.

Sam was Olexia's 'perfect' partner, or at least she thinks he is, he seems like a perfect match for her. Not only that but he's extremely charismatic and he's also a decent fighter. He confessed to her a while back and they've been dating for around 2 months now.

`11:30? I have a bus at around 10:45! I need to get ready fast!`

She typed back a response. - On it - `That's good right?` She tapped on the send button.

She quickly got up, and she stood in one place.

"Ah, damn, iron deficiency." She stood in one place for a few seconds. "Good. Oh, and these."

She picked up her glasses and put them on. "Much better."

She fast-walked towards her bathroom and started washing her teeth and doing her skincare routine.

... 

She walked out of the bathroom and checked the time on her phone.

-10:23 AM-

`Twenty minutes left, that's enough...I think?`

She walked in front of a large mirror and styled her hair into a ponytail and some long-ish bangs on the side.

Olexia went over to her wardrobe and just looked at it for a few seconds.

She picked out a leather jacket, a long-sleeved white shirt with a picture of a four-leaved clover on it and black cargo pants.

She put them on and checked the time again.

-10:37 AM-

`Oh god, there's barely any time left.`

She quickly put on her shoes and got out of the apartment building.

She started to run towards her bus stop, crossing a road in the process. Since the roads around her neighbourhood are almost always empty she thought it would be fine doing that.

Olexia heard a loud horn.

One in 495,000

Those are the odds of being hit by a bus, and although it's almost twice as rare as finding a 'perfect' partner... Olexia got just unlucky enough to be that 1.

The bus's alarm was going off and people started to get out to check if Olexia was okay.

She was on the ground with her legs broken, she couldn't move and she could barely breathe, her ears ringing and her vision blurred as she lost her glasses. She could barely see the people around her.

Her ribs were fractured and her heart was racing and lots of blood was spilling out of her at a rapid pace.

She thought this was where she was going to die, even though her mind was hoping she could somehow live through this.

She tried to keep her eyes open but it was incredibly hard.

She finally closed her eyes, and she died.

Blinded by her love and excitement, she ended the longest experience a human could have experienced.

***

And even though she died with even more absurd odds, she was given another chance at life.

She stood on the same street she was right before she got hit by the bus, except she was in another world.

Most of the buildings were destroyed, weird monsters were flying around the place, tentacles coming out of the ground from almost anywhere and large towers were built from various materials.

`Where the hell am I!?` Olexia wondered, still shocked from her previous 'death'.

"WELCOME DEAR ENTERTAINERS, YOU ARE HERE SINCE YOU RECENTLY DIED." A ton of different voices could be heard at the same time.

"ALL OF YOU ARE HERE FOR A SIMPLE PURPOSE, ENTERTAINMENT. YOU ARE HERE TO MAKE GREAT STORIES FOR US, SOMETHING WORTH WATCHING AND SOMETHING WORTH INVESTING IN." The multiple voices continued.

"MANY OF YOU SHOULD GET THE HELP OF A LOW-RANKING GOD OR DEVIL TO HELP YOU GROW AND ALSO MAKE THINGS MORE INTERESTING FOR US... AND FOR THOSE WHO DON'T, YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN." The voices explained.

`What the fuck is happening?!` Olexia thought.

"AND IF YOU'RE FEELING A LITTLE DISCOURAGED SEEING ALL THE MONSTERS NEAR YOU, THERE IS ALSO A REWARD FOR BEING THE BEST 'ENTERTAINER'. A WISH. WE'LL LEAVE IT AT THAT GOOD LUCK." The voices stopped.

"And try not to die so fast!" A few of the voices continued.

"Wait hold on am I just supposed to forget about my old life, about Sam?? I can't just forget that!" Olexia yelled to herself.

After a few seconds of Olexia just looking around a simple peach appeared above her. Upon appearing it made this demonic low-pitched tone that left Olexia's ears ringing. Eyes also popped out on the peach.

"Greetings Olexia." The peach spoke in a deep voice. "Weird name..." It muttered.

"I am the Great Devil of Probability! And I'll b-" The Demon was cut off

"What's with the deep voice?" Olexia asked the Devil.

"Ah is this better?" The Devil changed its voice to a way more high-pitched one, though it didn't sound like a kid, more like an artificial voice.

"I guess?" Olexia replied.

"Alright let's continue. I'm the Great Devil of Probability and I'll be your companion for this game show, I'm here accompanying you since I- blah blah blah, let's skip this part... Ah here. And I'll be lending you my power and both of us will grow together to become the best in this apocalyptic world." The Devil explained.

"Greaat, so what exactly is your 'power'?" Olexia asked.

"I can almost perfectly predict the probability of something happening, and I can also manipulate probability to some extent. As we both grow as a team my ability to manipulate probability will also get stronger." The Devil explained.

"Good, and one more question." Olexia added.

"Yeah?" The Devil replied.

"Why are you a peach? Olexia asked.

"I um, thought you would like it. I kind of picked this form as I thought it would be most appealing to you. I can shapeshift to almost anything that's around the size of this peach, and if my physical form gets in our way I can always go in your mind, wanna see what it's like?" The Devil explained and asked, while floating around Olexia.

"Uh, sure." Olexia replied.

"Here goes nothing!" The Devil slammed into Olexia's head, knocking her back a little.

The physical form of the Devil vanished and Olexia's left eye turned red.

"So how do you feel?" The Devil's voice, now inside Olexia's mind and thoughts asked.

"I can... feel you inside my mind, I can even see the peach in the corner of my mind... Also, everything I see from my left eye is slightly tinted orange?" She explained.

"Ah, I see from that one eye, It should display the probability of something happening if you say it out loud." The Devil's voice explained in her thoughts.

"Oh? So if I say something like... the odds of me being here?

Olexia saw a small pop-up appear in her left eye.

- 1 in 10,200,000 -

"One in ten million!? Isn't that way too much?" Olexia asked, surprised.

"Why would you think that way you are literally in an alternative universe from your old one. If something like that happened to me I'd think it has one crazy odds for it to happen." The Devil explained in a surprised tone.

"I guess you're right."

Some rumbling was heard from a nearby destroyed building, a goblin popped out from within the rubble. And in just a few seconds the goblin noticed Olexia and started to sprint right for her.

Olexia also quickly noticed the goblin

"UH, CHANCE OF ME BEATING THIS GOBLIN?" Olexia said anxiously.

- 1 in 7 -

"I suggest you run away, you have a one in two chance of escaping it that way." The Devil said.

In just a moment Olexia started running from the goblin trying to take as make turns as possible to lose it.

"The chance of me losing it is the same as me getting tails on a coin flip?!" Olexia muttered under her breath.

"Yes, and also you don't need to talk, I can hear your thoughts."

`Right.`

Olexia looked behind just to see that the goblin had gotten closer to her.

It was running faster than her.

`Devil, uh Peach what the hell do we do?? If that thing gets a hold of me I'm probably dead right?!`

"Yes, you have a 1 in 3 chance of dying and a guaranteed chance of getting majorly hurt if that goblin gets to you."

The goblin was only a few meters away from Olexia.

`Aren't you supposed to help me?! Manipulate some odds, make it trip and lose sight of me!`

The goblin was almost within arms reach of Olexia.