Exploring the Resort I

Kimberly finished up her food and started exploring the resort on her own. She didn’t want to waste any time, and finding a game room to increase her BP was a priority for her. She didn’t look at the shop to see what was inside but knew that the more BP she had, the better off she’d be. Kimberly couldn’t earn victory points even if she wanted to. However, she still isn’t quite ready to seduce Max yet.

Kimberly scanned the luxurious hallways searching for a game room. The few doors she’d opened so far had been normal rooms or empty rooms. She opened a janitor’s closet, and a library, and found a room consisting of a slide that goes to the beach. None of those were particularly helpful now. Even if the library did catch her interest for a moment. She wondered if they were simply a recreation of the books they had in their universe and if they had records of the things that happened on previous shows. It was something to check out later if she had time.

Not too long after, she opened a door that revealed an older-looking room. The walls were painted black with random words scattered across them in red text that read, ‘Beware. Turn Back. The fear is everlasting. Your purpose is to die. Feed those that remain. There’s no escape.’

In the middle of the room, there was what looked like a VR headset. She guessed that this was the game room, but just to make sure.

“Maid Guidance,” she said aloud, hoping that Ann wasn’t lying to them.

Sure enough, one of the maids popped up in the room she was in and stared at her silently and without emotion.

“Is this a game room?”

“Yes, it is. You merely have to put on that headset to start.”

“Is there a reason why there are all these words on the wall?”

“Usually, a game room’s appearance gives a hint of what the game’s theme is. The words on the wall give it a hint on what the game you’ll be playing will be like.”

Kimberly looked back at the wall with a worried expression. She didn’t like what was written, but she needed those points. She put on the headset, and darkness filled her vision for a second. The next thing she knew she was sitting at a rundown bar in an old wooden building as a faraway voice whispered in her ear.

“Choose a perk.”

She looked down to see a piece of paper with three different perks on it.

Dasher: Increased movement speed of yourself and vehicles.

Assassin: Quiets your footsteps and makes it easier to sneak up on things.

Attacker: Increase the damage and knockback of your weapon.

Kimberly had to decide whether she wanted to focus on running, sneaking around, or attacking. If she knew what the true purpose of this game was, then choosing one of the options would be easier. However, the perks themselves also hint at what she is going to be doing. The fact that attacking was an option showed that she would have to encounter and defeat enemies. Hopefully, she could run or hide as well since assassin and dasher were the other two perks. Each had its pros and cons, but she instantly eliminated the dasher option from the list. She didn’t have the stamina to constantly run around all over the place, and a small increase to her already relatively slow speed wouldn’t help much. The attacker option was more appealing, but she ultimately decided against it too. She wasn’t that strong, so increasing the damage of her weapon also didn’t sound that great to her. The assassin option was the best option for her since she didn’t need to have good baseline strength or speed to make the best out of it. Plus, she had plenty of experience trying to sneak past her husband.

Kimberly grabbed a nearby pen and checked the option for Assassin. The paper glowed blue before it faded away. In its place, weapons of various kinds appeared on the bar and throughout the bar. There were pistols, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, and more. It seemed like every gun in existence was in here. She even spotted an RPG. There were more mundane weapons, such as a baseball bat, a knife, and a taser.

“Choose your weapon,” she heard the course voice whisper a little louder this time and far closer.

She searched around for where the voice was coming from and found nothing. Kimberly did end up finding what looked to be a health bar on the top right of her vision, which filled her with a small sense of relief. This was a game, and she wasn’t in any danger.

She chose Assassin as her perk, so she didn’t want a loud weapon, or it’ll make her perk useless. Unfortunately, it meant all the guns were out since there wasn’t any silencer on them. After looking around for a bit, she settled on a machete to use. It wasn’t too heavy to carry around and would be able to do some damage if she needed to.

After picking up her weapon, the rest of them disappeared in the same blue light as some blue text appeared in front of her.

Beware the Zombies! SURVIVE THE REAPER!!! Your reward will be determined by how long you do so.

The doors of the bar slammed open as she heard the growls and moans of nearby zombies. She felt afraid once again and quickly moved out of the bar. She couldn’t stay here anymore, and she had a feeling that she would die quickly if she did. The game was on, and she immediately felt a pair of eyes locked onto her.

She sneaked into an alleyway of a nearby building when she saw a bunch of zombies making their way to the bar. She tried to be as quiet as possible as she fled the scene. It didn’t take long until she tripped on a rock and caused one of the nearby zombies to notice her. He moaned as he hobbled his way over to her. Thankfully, he was slow enough to easily escape, but she did notice something in the distance that unsettled her. Two red eyes locked onto her as she continued to flee.

I can’t get caught. I have to keep moving. Staying still is a **** sentence.

Gina left the cafeteria with a smirk on her face. If those fools wanted to make her life easier, then who was she to stop them? There wasn’t any reason not to agree to that joke of an alliance. It was unfortunate that Max wasn’t there since she couldn’t gauge how much he hated her or work on getting some victory points.

Gina walked a bit away from the cafeteria before she started opening some doors. Luckily, the first door she opened revealed a white room with a brown chest in the middle of it. She couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the sight. Gina supposed Ann did say that the result was based on video games, so she shouldn’t be too surprised to see that there are treasure chests here. She wondered what was inside as she approached. Gina didn’t have any idea about what kind of items were available or useful, but anything to help win this game would be appreciated. There was a keyhole in the front of the chest, which made her think that she needed a key to unlock it, but she was able to move the top of it up without it, so she assumed she didn’t need it. After she opened the treasure chest, she heard a click before being sprayed in the face with some pink gas.

Gina felt her phone vibrate and looked at it to see a notification pop up.

Trap Activated (Southern Drawl): For the next 12 hours, you have the speech patterns and accent of someone who grew up in the South on a farm

Gina certainly felt like that was annoying but pushed it aside to see what was inside the chest. She grabbed a small bag of orange candy. There was a note attached to it.

Speed Candy: Triple your normal speed when moving (walking, sprinting, running, etc.) for 20 minutes [Three uses]

Gina wasn’t sure how much this was going to help her now as she stuffed it into her pocket. However, having a way to get from one place to another faster would be useful in the future. She just wished it didn’t come with a punishment attached to it. She was going to have to be careful of traps in the future. Gina left the room and opened a nearby one to find one of the game rooms that Ann was talking about.

The room looked like a disco room as there were sparkling lights that shined across the room giving it the vibe of being one despite there being no music. There was a single inactive game inside the center of the room that was named, ‘Dance Dance Revolution’. Gina walked toward it and sighed knowing that she wasn’t the best dancer as she pressed a red button to activate it.

The console roared to life as the screen popped up and displayed a miniature version of her on the screen wearing the same outfit. The mini version of her picked a song, and Gina hopped onto the platform and readied herself. It picked a random pop song, and Gina found herself doing better than she thought she was going to. All she had to do was hit her feet on the arrows at the exact moment she was supposed to. She did make a mistake and missed one as a red X appeared on the side of the screen. Gina supposed that three strikes, and she was out.

It didn’t matter as much to her since she was having fun for the first time since she got here. The steady, calm music was oddly soothing as she let herself follow the beat. Her feet tapped against the arrows in perfect sync with the music. It didn’t take long until the song ended before it came on again slightly faster. It was harder to keep up with it, but she managed to do it. It wasn’t until the third time around that she found herself struggling to keep track of the rhythm and made a couple of mistakes that led to her defeat.

38 BP Gained

Gina didn’t have much time to ponder her defeat as someone else entered the room. A dark-skinned woman with wavy black hair entered the room. If she wasn’t mistaken, she thinks her name is Serena.

“Hey, we haven’t talked since we’ve been summoned here. I’m Serena, and you are?”

Gina figured she humored her since there was no sense in making enemies when she didn’t have to.

“Hello darling, it's nice to meet ya,” replied Gina with her southern accent.

Serena eyes widened with clear interest, “Wow, what happened to you, or are you normally like this?”

Gina forgot she had that stupid accent. She might as well tell the truth and give the illusion she’s following their alliance.

“Well, y’all might’ve noticed that this place is video game-themed, which means that they’re traps to this place as well. I’ve unfortunately encountered one.”

Serena eyes sparked, “Interesting, this place keeps getting better and better. I wonder what it's going to throw at us next.”

“Hon, shouldn’t you be more concerned? They’ve got us trapped like fish in a barrel.”

“There’s no reason to. I love living life on the edge. Also, if there was never any risk of failing, then life would be boring. I’m sure that you can relate in some way.”

Gina did agree that the challenge of seducing people and manipulating people was fun since there was a slight chance of failure, but she’d rather have a guarantee if she could. She decided to tell Serena what was up with this room in the hopes that she’d give her some interesting information in the future.

“Be it as it may sugar. I just did this game room. I could give you some tips to help you out,” Gina internally cringed at having to listen to herself speak this way. These changes are the real deal and need to be taken much more seriously.

“Thanks, but it's more fun if I don't know,” responded Serena as she pressed the button, and a mini-Serena appeared on the screen. A faster-paced song than the one did appeared on the screen as Serena started her turn on the machine. Gina figured that the game’s challenge was not the same for each person. That’s good to know for the future as she left the room. She wasn’t going to waste time watching Serena to see how well she was doing.

She brought out her phone to see the amount of BP she gained and opened the shop. There was a search bar for items, and she looked up the word ‘traps’ to see if there was anything she could buy to take away the risk of traps.

There were a few items that popped up.

Trap Scanner App (Free): Scan the area around you to see if there are any traps nearby [25 BP per scan]

Special Lockpick: Unlock a single treasure chest without triggering any traps one [100 BP]

Ultimate Lockpick: Can unlock any chest without triggering any traps (Unlimited Use) [1,500 BP]

Disarm Trap: Disarm a nearby trap that isn’t a treasure chest trap (50 BP)

Gina frowned at how expensive they all were. She couldn’t afford any of the options at the moment apart from the app. She immediately downloaded it since it was free, even if it couldn’t help her much now. Gina did have enough for a scan, but doing a scan and figuring out that there was a trap wouldn’t help her if she couldn’t disarm it. The shop also gave a clue based on its items that there were other traps scattered around this place that weren’t attached to chests. The ultimate lockpick could be very useful depending on the number of treasure chests and how valuable the things inside could be. She figured that the more valuable the chest was, the worse the traps attached to it would be. However, it cost so much money that she didn’t even consider it an option now. If everything in the shop was as expensive as this, then one game room wasn’t nearly enough BP to get what she needed. She needed much more. She set out in search of more rooms to explore.

Lisa left the cafeteria with some uncertainty about the alliance Nicole proposed. It was only good if everyone was honest with each other and trusted each other. Forget about withholding information, she was more worried about the spread of wrong information since it was their lives on the line. Lisa thought about sticking together with Brianna since they were teammates, but they would cover more ground if they didn’t stick together. Plus, the less time they were seen together, the better. She didn’t want people to know she teamed up with Brianna since they could try to use the partnership against them.

Lisa searched the resort to try and find the game room that Ann mentioned. She opened a couple of doors to find nothing of note before she entered a room with various colored notecards scattered across the floor. She saw a huge screen in the center of the room that had the text, ‘Anime Trivia’, on it. Lisa wasn’t the most knowledgeable about the topic, but she’d had a coworker who used to talk her ear off about it.

She went to the TV and touched the screen for it to start.

Haikyuu!! is a sports anime that has a protagonist by the name of Shōyō Hinata. What sport do they play?

Basketball

Soccer

Volleyball

She remembered that it was all about volleyball since they were determined not to let the ball touch the floor. She clicked her answer, and the screen blinked green as a new question appeared.

What genre of anime is geared toward young boys?

Shonen

Romance

Shojo

An even easier question in Lisa’s mind as she picked Shonen. The screen blinked green as another question appeared.

Which show is the anime’s story currently unfinished?

Fullmetal Alchemist

**** Classroom

Blue Lock

Lisa believed it was Blue Lock since it came out recently compared to the other two. The screen blinked green once again as she continued to answer them right. She continued to guess the right answers as best as she could. She got three incorrect before the game shut off and awarded her with her points.

55 BP gained

She was going to leave the room when she saw that a misty, purple door appeared on the wall of the room for a split second before disappearing. Lisa reached the space in the wall where she saw the door and pressed her hand against it. The purple door instantly appeared in front of her, and she couldn’t help but wonder why such a door existed. She opened the door and walked inside to see a dark room with Ann in the center of it with a glass crystal ball.

“Congratulations, Lisa. You’re the first one to find the glitched room. I thought it’d be someone more observant like Crystal, but I’m always happy to be surprised.”

“Glitched room?”

“Yeah, the purple door is hard to notice and easily missed most of the time. It shows itself every couple of minutes, so you’ll have to keep an eye out if you want to encounter it in the future. That door leads to the glitched room. Let’s just say it's a door to another aspect of reality. Only one person can enter, and nothing that is done here will reach the eyes or ears of anyone else, including the master.”

“What is the purpose of this place?’”

Ann smiled deviously, “You can ask any yes or no question about anyone else on the island, and the ball will give you a truthful answer. The downside is that its location is randomized each day and can only be accessed once per day.”

Lisa thought that it was incredibly useful, but it would be even more useful if she had encountered it in a couple of days where she had a better idea of the rest of the contestants and what they were planning on doing. Now, she only had three questions she wanted to ask.

Is Kimberly planning to screw everyone else over to win?

Is Gina planning to screw everyone else over to win?

Is Ann sabotaging people’s chances without the contestant’s knowledge?

The first two questions were a result of not being able to see their introduction. The introduction **** them to tell the truth so anything they said could be believed, and she could work out their motivations from there. For example, Jessica told everyone that she genuinely believed that everything would make her way to her. That’s why she could confidently leave Jessica to her own devices since she’s not going to make any moves since she’ll feel it would be unnecessary. She knew nothing about Kimberly or Gina, and that was concerning to her. Even if she could ask them to tell her about themselves, they could easily lie to her. The last question was for her piece of mind that this game wasn’t rigged to help one contestant win over all the others. However, even if she suspects there might be foul play, she shouldn’t waste her question on it. Even if there was, she didn’t have the power to change it. She’s currently in a space between dimensions, and Ann has the literal power of magic at her fingertips.

The real question is: did she want to verify Kimberly or Gina’s innocence more?

Kimberly was hard to read, but she seemed somewhat hopeful yet depressed at the same time. It was hard to tell what topic she could be hopeful about while the feeling of depression could stem from many things. Gina was even harder to read. She always had a poker face up, and knowing she was angry at participating in the first place didn’t ease her consciousness either. What was worse was that she gave off a similar feeling as the loan sharks who hounded her to pay back her mother’s debts.

After mulling over for a bit she asked, “Can Kimberly be trusted to help everyone win?”

The crystal ball showed the text, ‘No', before she snapped back into the room she was in before. The answer didn’t make her feel better, but at least she knew that she wasn’t going to put her trust in Kimberly.

Lisa (Alternate Outfit)