The Cycle Continues: Alice in Borderland Novel

58.1) Side Story 5 - Nine of Hearts [1]

"It contained the stipulations that I must follow as a citizen, and what I could and couldn't do with my games. The terms were simple, really."

The following is a side story

Feel free to either read this as an intermission to the King of Clubs, or to save it until after the King of Clubs, if you wish to finish Osmosis in one go.

===Rafferty Bucke===

All five of us had all been strapped in a seat around the table. A revolver laid in front of each of us, and a single message was displayed on the tablet in front of me. The strap around my neck limited me from moving my head too much.

Do not touch the weapons yet, or else your participation rights will be revoked.

"Pistols? In front of each of us?" An older man with a snowy mustache and thin, graying air asked. "What could this game be?"

"It looks like some sort of Russian roulette." A young woman with light blonde hair said. She wore a tight crop top, and had hot pink nails.

"I... I have no idea what's going on!" A panicking doctor in his mid-thirties cried. He was still in uniform. "I just got here today!"

I chuckled. "Same here."

"Let's just get this game over with." A man—he appeared to be a mobster—said. "I have a group I need to get back to."

Each of our tablets were tilted towards us, and we all sat away from each other. Below our tablets was a shielded area with four buttons. Two were red. One of the red buttons was a man aiming a gun towards his head, while the other was the man aiming the gun elsewhere. One was blue, with a shield containing the number three at its center, while one was white, with a cross. In front of the buttons, embedded behind the confidential shield, was a tablet.

"None of the rest of you guys seem new here." I said, after having remained silent until now.

"Two newcomers?" A woman in a brown coat asked. "I haven't seen one in a while. This'll be interesting."

The mobster laughed. "Well, this is heading to be a Diamonds game. If you're smart, then you're in luck."

"...Diamonds?" I murmured.

"If this is a competitive game, us veterans are in luck." The blonde said. "If it's cooperative, then, well, let's hope these people don't royally fuck us over."

"Slim chance this'll be a cooperative game." The woman in brown said.

"The game will now be beginning." A voice said. The tablets changed, and showed a playing card, with the game title beneath it. The Nine of Hearts.

Russian Roulette

"Oh god." The blonde stammered, her soft demeanor stiffening.

"Well I'll be damned." The mobster said, crossing his arms. "Tonight will be a hell of a night."

"The game will be turn-based. Inside of each revolver are twelve chambers, two of which contain a bullet. However, across all twelve bullets currently present at this table, only one is in each position of any given gun. So, for example, there's only one bullet in all six guns located in the first slot, only one bullet in all six guns located in the second slot, and so forth."

'Okay... So far that makes sense.' I thought. 'So, hypothetically, if the bullets in my gun are at spots three and six, no one else's gun will have a bullet at three or six.'