A little chat

"Yeah, Beta, man I miss that place, which beta were you on?" Hans thinks for a moment. "It was Beta 2Z if I remember right, I know it was a two at least, what about you?" Jack doesn't even take a second to answer, "10H I remember it like my weapons, there was one amazing view there, it felt like I was a Seagull flying above the ocean. But enough of that, if you don't mind me asking, why'd you become a player? Any special reason?"

"Ruling a galaxy is pretty tempting, but also I was hoping to experience a great adventure, even if I were to die before getting to the world after DK if I live long enough, maybe a love life," He chuckles at the thought. "but that's highly unlikely with the place we live in today." Which Jack nods to. "If only it were that easy, I wonder how it was in the 2100s, too bad Terra died in 2208. But hey, we had to learn how to Street a world properly somehow." He shrugs.

"At least we weren't alive back then, apparently half the population couldn't get off Terra for another fifty years, and when anyone got back to it, there was only a quarter of the population left and in a large battle to see who would survive. That's where they got an idea for the player system so that the human population wouldn't exceed its limits and a ton of people join because who wouldn't want to rule a galaxy?"

"We all had a history class at least once, I know where the player system came from." Jack looks over at Hans who now seemed to be meditating." That was an obvious lie. "Just wanted to see if you could catch it." He shakes his head to that as well. "Your so easy to read it's kind of weird." He opens his eyes to look at Jack. "I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or insult."

"Oh no! It's neither, most people just have tells and for the most part, they can't help it, yours are pretty obvious." Jack tilts his head when he says that, "For one, this one is pretty common, your tone changes, for you it changes to a bit of discomfort as if you hate lying. Second, you stuff your hand into your pockets as if you're trying to hide something, I assume it's fidgeting with your hands or fingers. There are some other super minor ones but if you want to get rid of the obvious ones I'd work on those two."

"And I'm supposed to do that... how?" Hans smiles. "Be more confident, but not overconfident. Convince yourself that the lie is real before saying it, a second before you really say it, I say a second because you can't hesitate, hesitation is always a big tell. As for the hands, do what you would normally do with hands, and don't think about it."

"You know you said all of that like it was nothing right? I don't think I'm going to get it that quickly." Hans nods. "Right! Baby steps, I was just giving you a goal to get to, but I can help you if you want?"

"You sure you want to help me? I could shoot you in the head when you least expect on DK." Hans gives him a light smile, "Bit better but still pretty obvious." Jack sighs. "And I really thought that one would get through."

"Straight to the point, why won't you shoot me in the back of the head?" He's met with silence for a second. "Because I think of you as an 'acquaintance' of sorts" Putting air quotes around acquaintance. "you're the only person I've actually talked to, and I'm not bad at something you can't control, there's no point in being so."

"That's a first, everyone has normally gotten mad at me and stayed that way for a good bit, thanks." Hans stands up stretching a bit, "Thanks for the chat. It was good being able to casually talk to someone for once." Jack looks at the time on his wristband. "Oh wow almost ten, it would help if the time actually changed in here, I'll come with you." Jack stands up as well, being careful since he was so close to the edge. The elevator doors open and Hans holds them open so Jack could get in which he quickly does. Hans scans his wristband before tapping the residential floor, which the doors quickly open. "Wait, this isn't-"

"You just realized this wasn't a normal elevator? Takes less than three seconds for It to get from here to the medical floor." He then walks out of the elevator with a wave, quickly going down the right hall, and Jack goes down the left with a sigh. Entering his room he falls onto the bed, his stomach however disagreed with him, as it grumbled. Getting up he quickly sifts through the packets, finding a toasted 'BLT' as it's called though he didn't know what it was, all he knew was that it was some sort of sandwich. Taking it out of the weird machine he's decided to call A.C. he finds that it really was just like a sandwich just toasted. "Now why does no one on Koria sell this?"

Finishing the BLT he goes back to his bed and sleeps.

-----

The remaining days in the facility went by like the wind Jack rejecting Alex's offer, and soon it was the last day and the day of the briefing. Everyone was lead to a room with rows of chairs, the room could seat twenty people with the chairs currently in it, but if needed could fit some more people. Once everyone was seated a person walked into the room, but it was hard to see them since the room's lights were shut off when the players sat down.

But as soon as he finished that thought the screen in front of them lit up revealing that it was Dr. Smith. "Hello players, first I want to congratulate all of you for making it to this point, even if a minor one, but now the difficulty will escalate, significantly. As you all know the next place you're going to is known as Death's Kingdom, this briefing is to make sure you know how it works and to give you just a little bit of info on the world after it."

The screen changes from an all-white screen to an image of a leaderboard from first to one-hundredth. "As you all should know, the way you get to advance is being on the leaderboard, however, you needing to be top ten is a myth. Instead, you only need to be top one-hundred, now ranking is always changing but it only updates at ten pm every day, so you won't know where you are on said leaderboard until then. However, leaderboard updating is not the only thing that will happen then, as soon as it hits ten you will all be teleported to a personal safe room on a specified part of the planet depending on which one you are going to."

When she says that last part someone raises a hand, it was Alex. "What do you mean 'depending on which one you're going to'?" The doctor nods, "We'll get to that part later, now every day the terrain changes between several settings, a city, jungle, ruins, dessert, a maze, and last a mix of all five. Don't worry you will be able to use your map on all types some days however it may be the same as yesterday's that is normal."

The screen in the meantime was flipping through pictures of those scenes before stopping at a picture of the jungle scene but now it was flooded. "Like terrain, there is a random chance that a disaster can occur however this could be anywhere from rain, a hurricane, or volcano erupting. Though it could just be a normal day, anyway, that's not important what is, is what you will do on Death's Kingdom." The screen goes back to a blank white screen.

"First things first, food, food will be in your safe space and, if on your person or in your storage can be taken out of said safe space, there will, however, be small animals and water sources scattered along the place. In case you don't have any food on you, I do suggest that you just keep a cube in your mouth for a long as you can as it will sustain you for the day. The water you can just fill containers and put them in your storage. Now one of the most important things about death's island is the fact that if you have one hundred or more kills if you die you will not actually die and be teleported to a medical professional and will be saved for the day. The second most important thing is if you gain ten-thousand kills you will automatically move on to the next world, however, won't be participating in its current activity. The world after Death's Kingdom is set up as a tournament, and that's all I'm saying." It didn't seem like what Dr. Smith was saying was following too much of a pattern but it was relatively easy to understand.

"And I swear the last thing, you're not all going to the same Death's Kingdom."