44 Second Encounter (1/2)
”Between all hundreds of contestant that you make, one of you is a monster in disguise.”
Aldrien's voice struck like thunder. Silence issued after his declaration, before a torrent of murmurs surged.
”A monster? How?”
”What kind of joke is this!”
”Well, that's a change of pace. A monster between us players. It's sure gonna be fun,” said DepressedRyan.
He then pondered for a second before adding, ”But won't that be way too easy. Finding the monster between us that is. We can just all decide on answering an obvious question from the real world and the one who doesn't answer will obviously be the monster.”
Hearing this, Shesmu chuckled. If only it was so simple.
”What makes you think that the monster doesn't know about real-world knowledge. Also, by what criteria are you going to eliminate people. If someone is slow on answering, do we kill him? Because, you know, once the first person answers, the monster will immediately imitate him. Plus, I think that standing out so early is a dangerous idea.”
”Why do you think so, Shes?” Leo asked.
”Well, this game might look like a simple find the odd one out type of game, but actually it's far from it. This is a psychological game. Tell me, what will happen if I say that someone is a monster, but it turns out he isn't?”
Leo pondered for a second before DepressedRyan cut in.
”You'll be toasted. Everyone will think that you're the monster and that you wanted to kill us using a borrowed knife. And, even if they don't immediately think so, the monster can urge them to do so.”
”You're right, that's what will happen. That's why the best thing to do in this type of situation is to sit back and let the heroes try and be heroes. We'll keep gathering clues from the sidelines until the time is right. Understood?”
”Understood.”
”Cough, cough” Aldrien coughed two times to get everyone's attention. ”You don't need to worry as of now. The monster won't attack until you enter the first floor. For now, you can rest easy.”
Aldrien then pointed with his finger to his right and a new portal appeared. ”You can challenge the tower by entering this portal. Contestants, I wish you the best of luck.”
All of the players made their way to the blue portal. Shesmu stopped both Leo and DepressedRyan dead in their tracks.
”The key to heaven is noodles.”
”Huh?”
”Nothing, that's our safeword. If the monster is a shapeshifter, it will help distinguish real from fake.”
Not even giving them the time to be confused, Shesmu jumped into the portal before the duo came after him.
Shesmu came out of the portal and found himself in a cave. The blue portal was still open behind him. After a few seconds, both Leo and DepressedRyan came out.
”What is the key to heaven?” Shesmu asked.
””Noodles!””
Both of Shesmu's friends answered immediately and without hesitation.
Sorry guys, this is the only way to check if you're real or not. The AI has a hard time absorbing all the information from your brain immediately, so this is the only possible time to confuse it.
”Good, seems like none of us is the imposter-”
Shesmu was about to continue his speech when a new party passed through the portal. A man and a woman of teenager age appeared. The boy had brown hair that matched his eyes, while the girl had long purple hair with ruby eyes.
”Master!”