Chapter 10

They had all had quick breakfast downstairs. Kiana and William were still a bit upset at her for lying to them, but they did understand that this was a game of survival, so they weren't too angry at her.

[6 new players will now join the game of Survive.]

The door was opened, and three boys and three girls walked in.

"Don't! If you come in, you won't be able to get out again unless you play death games!" Daphne cried.

One of the boys said, "We know. We don't have a choice. We were told that if we don't walk in, we'll die. At least we have a chance of surviving this way."

[On the table, there are ten name tags. Pick up the one with your photo and name and put it on.]

Daphne looked over at the table, and sure enough, ten name tags were on the table. How they got there still surprised her, but she ignored it and picked up the one with a picture of her and the name 'Daphne'. She put it on and watched as her friends and the newcomers put theirs on. There was a bluenette named Mavin, a brunette names Jason, a redhead named Aaron, and blonde-haired triplets named Opera, Bianca, and Biance. However, it seemed like Eli didn't have a nametag.

[Your next challenge will be a game of Hide and Seek. Eli has been chosen as the seeker. Eli will close his eyes and count to a hundred. If he peeks, he will be eliminated. The rest of the players can hide around all the unlocked floors. Once Eli finished counting, he will have ten minutes to search for all of you. While he's searching, you may run around from your hiding spot. To 'find' one of you, he must spot you and take your nametag. Once your nametag is taken, you will be eliminated. If Eli doesn't find more than four players before his time runs out, he will be eliminated. If he finds all of you before time runs out, then the last one to be found will be able to proceed to the next level with him. The game starts now.]

Eli closed his eyes and started counting. "1... 2... 3... 4... 5..."

Everyone hurried away, trying to find their own places to hide. Daphne decided to run and hide on the third floor, in Eli's own room. She hoped that the risk would pay off. If Eli searched the rooms, he wouldn't start with his, and since his room was the nearest to the stairs, it would give her a bit of time to run.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Eli's voice rang out. Daphne stood right behind his door so that if he opened it, the door would block him from his immediate sight. There were no rules stating that they couldn't fight back, so she held onto his notebook as well. His pencil and sharpener were missing. She stood there, and after just five minutes, she had heard three yells that were cut off abruptly. She held her breath as she heard Eli's soft humming as he walked past his room. Once his voice seemed far away enough, she peeked out of his door and saw him at the other end of the hall. He was about to turn around, so she decided to make a run for it and bolted. She ran down the stairs, trying to avoid Eli, but when she turned back, she realized he wasn't chasing her. She paused for breath, and that was when she heard a male voice yell, "Leave me alone!" She turned to see Jason, the brunette, running frantically away from Eli. He spotted Daphne and running past her. yelled, "Just catch her! She isn't running!"

Eli was behind, his feet flying across the floor. He was so fast. Daphne tried to stand up to run, even though she knew that she couldn't outrun him. But to her surprise, he ran right past her and towards Jason. Stretching out his hand, he pulled the name tag off of Jason's neck, and Jason started to scream before he exploded. Eli turned to Daphne. "Aaron, Kiana, and William are on the fourth floor. Go join them."

Daphne blinked but decided not to question why Eli was sparing her life and followed his order, running up the stairs to where Aaron, Kiana, and William were. When they saw her, William asked, "Did Eli ask you to come up too?"

"Yeah," Daphne answered. "I wonder why he spared our lives. He's so fast, I'm sure he could have easily caught me."

"Us too," Kiana spoke up. "William and I were hiding in the kitchen on the second floor with Biance. Eli found us and grabbed Biance's name tag, but told us to come up here and left us alone."

"Each time the players die, they're replaced with new players." Eli's voice made the three jump in surprise. "I don't know the other six, but I do know you three, which means we'll at least know a bit about each other as we move up the levels."

"I'm guessing you save me to use me as a test subject?" Aaron muttered.

"Yes," Eli nodded.

"Where do they even get this many players?" Daphne wondered. "Creator said that the people watching us for entertainment think that we're dead, but how are there so many people who are dead to the world?"

"It isn't as hard as you think," Eli said. "Many kids die of accidents like drunk driving, unhealthy eating, suicide, and so on. Plus, if they don't have enough players, they can always set a fire to a place where there are lots of children, then use the children from there to become players. I think that the rules are explained to the new players, except for Kim, beforehand, but they don't know much about each other."

Kiana asked, "The way the guns and everything appears, the way the food is still fresh, the way that Creator can make us explode as will, do you think it's magic?"

"I doubt it," Eli replied. "I think it's just a lot of technology. It wouldn't be hard to implant bombs in us and there could be all sorts of mechanism in this building that makes the slots for the role cards and guns to pop out. After all, there must be some signal out here for cameras to work."

[Time is up. The player Eli has captured more than three name tags. He and the remaining players can now proceed to the next floor.]

The metal barrier lifted up, and the four of them walked up the stairs. There was a large, spacious hall with two iron rings on the wall, like hoops to throw in balls. There was a big container of various balls, as well as sheep costumes on the floor. [Put on the sheep costumes.]

The five of them slipped on the sheep costumes that were like hoodies. Suddenly, the ground rumbled and from the ground, a large, mechanical-looking wolf nailed on a wooden platform came out. It was wearing a black, spiked collar with a silver button on the middle and a long, leather rope hanging off the collar, a ferocious expression on its face.

[This game is called The Wolf and the Sheep. Your goal as the Sheep is to tame the Wolf by pressing a button on Wolf's collar to tighten the collar. There is no time limit. The game of Wolf and Sheep will only end when either the Sheep tame the Wolf, or the Wolf finishes off the Sheeps.]

"What does Creator mean, 'finishes off the Sheeps'?" Aaron asked. At the same time, the eyes of Wolf seemed to gleam, and Wolf's head popped off its body, its head, and body connected only by a wire. The head flew towards Aaron, who was the closest, and its jaws closed around Aaron's upper half of the body. Its head flew back to its body, reattaching itself as it crunched Aaron up and dropped the bottom half of his body onto the ground.

The other four looked on, shocked. With no time limit, this game suddenly looked to be one of the deadliest ones yet.