(POV Gi-hun) The room was more than huge, the walls all black and overloaded with golden ornaments. Comfortable fluffy couches stood everywhere and in each corner there was a waiter with drinks and snacks on his tray. The whole room just screamed abundance and excess. In the middle you could see the eye catcher: it was a gigantic screen with curtains to the left and to the right where the games would be transferred - they could probably watch the players life-size. The VIPs were already there, dressed in something that looked like a golden bathrobe and with the sparkling animal-masks on their faces they were hard to miss. 'Ridiculous dresscode', I thought with a silent snort. I was unsure what to do and next to me the Frontman seemed tense as well.
"VIPs, welcome to the fourth game. You will notice that we modified this game's rules a little to favor the weak players, to make the whole thing more exciting. You surely agree that it gets boring if only the weak get eliminated – it's so predictable, isn't it?" He sounded so casual as if he would talk about today's weather outlook and nothing in his voice gave his true opinion about the VIPs away. I realized that In-ho was truly a professional when it came to business.
"You are not alone today, Frontman? Who is accompanying you today?", a VIP with a lion mask asked, weirdly eyeing me. In-ho gave me a sign with his hand to step forward.
"He is my first personal assistant. I decided that he was ready to meet all of you tonight. I highly value his opinion on how to improve the games and I can assure you that his experiences will be invaluable for all of us when the time comes."
"I already value his looks, even with the mask on he's definitely an eyecatcher." Again the lion-masked man was speaking and I could feel In-ho's body freeze next to me.
"I'm afraid he's not here for our amusement.", he declared, his voice cold as ice and I saw the weird, horny VIP shrink back.
"Not so shy, young man. We should drink to welcome you among us.", another VIP suggested and at once the waiters came with their trays loaded with colorful drinks. I took a glass and eyed it suspiciously.
"Thank you, sir.", I answered, surprised at my own coolness. Only the drink made me worry a little because I remembered the Frontman's warning about the drugs inside. But as everyone was raising their glass I knew I didn't really have a choice. I tried the drink and to my surprise it tasted actually pretty good – after some sips I felt my body instantly relaxing. But I didn't have time to think about the drink's ingredients too much because the game was about to start: I could see the players standing in a white room with nothing in it, one half on the left, mostly women and elderly people, the other half on the right, mostly tall and strong men. Then a guard joined them to announce the rules:
"The fourth game is called: monkey bars. You already built one group of people who considered themselves weak and another group who considered themselves strong. Now all players are instructed to make teams of seven. Each team shall contain both strong and weak people. As soon as you're done the members of each team will line up, first the weakest, last the strongest." I watched in confusion how the players did as they were told: building groups of seven and each grouped actually contained at least 2 to 3 people who had considered themselves weak. As they lined up from the weakest to the strongest I could see one group led by Player 222, pregnant Jun-hee, or another group led by Player 149, the old woman. The Frontman had announced that due to fairness he wanted to give the weaker an advantage – I was curious how this was supposed to work. I wouldn't let him fool me this fast, I wouldn't forget that he was a cunning bastard who played with other people's lives. The guard continued talking to the players:
"You built teams of seven people, lined up from the weakest to the strongest. In front of you you can see 20 rods of monkey bars. To make it fair for the weaker, the first player has to pass at least 5 bars. Goal of the game is, that every player reaches at least one bar further than the player before him. Those who can't reach the next bar are to be eliminated. Who reaches the end after 20 bars automatically passes, even if the player on front of him reaches the end as well." The VIPs applauded while realization was still spinning through my mind. According to those rules the weakest would probably all survive while those who had considered themselves the strongest – all violent O-Voters – would most likely be struggling to survive. My mouth dropped – In-ho really was a genius if he wanted to. Automatically I turned to him and saw that he was piercing me with his gaze; he wanted to see my reaction and it obviously pleased him that he had surprised me with his new concept.
"Don't flatter yourself, Frontman", I whispered in his direction."One kind act of yours doesn't make me forget who you are." He didn't answer but I could swear I heard a laughing noise coming from him.
The VIPs had placed their bets – 'Disgusting people' – and the game began. The first one who had to pass five monkey bars was in fact Jun-hee. Already starting at the first bar she had only 4 more to master and I exhaled in relief as she did it. The middle-aged woman who came after her also passed but the third, an elderly man started to struggle. The fourth was a guy who had considered himself strong and I expected him to pass as well when I suddenly heard a scream and I saw him fall to his death. I froze in shock, immediately fixing In-ho with my eyes but he avoided looking at me.
Even though the game seemed feasible I witnessed more and more people falling to their death while the weak all survived, even the old woman. Seeing the strong die seemed to be a new fascination to the VIPs as they were cheering every time one of them was falling to meet his fate. Those people disgusted me so much I automatically took another drink from the tray as the waiter arrived anew. Whatever was inside those drinks it made being among those heartless creatures endurable. I hate to admit it but I couldn't suppress a satisfied smile when I saw Player 124, the rapper's cruel friend, lose his grip and fall down in screams, followed by Player 100, the greedy elderly man. This time it was me who avoided the Frontman's gaze because I was sure he saw my reaction. I couldn't tell where this was coming from but suddenly I saw a certain justice in those games – I almost forgot to hate In-ho for being responsible for all of this.
When the game was over 22 Players were dead, so 49 remaining. The VIPs were cheering; the whole thing had been a success.
"Congratulations to the Frontman and his handsome accomplice!" The lion-masked dude raised his glass at us and we couldn't avoid drinking too. "Could they perhaps avoid calling you handsome all the time!?", I heard In-ho's irritated whispers and I saw that his body language was tense again. I only gave him a mocking smirk. All of this had been his idea and now he would endure the well-deserved consequences.
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Author's note: helloooo hope you enjoyed :) What will happen at the after-party when the Frontman gets jealous and Gi-hun drinks too much? Stay tuned xx