━ ✦ your point of view ✦ ━
11:56 pm — research center - Shibuya
you had just arrived at a huge research center of Shibuya. it probably had like 15 floors, or maybe even more. you slowly entered it and saw that other people were already there. your eyes widened and you immediately ran up to a group of girls which were three in total. "hey– do you know where all the people are?!" you asked, urgency in your voice but they all just looked at you for a few seconds before turning their heads away from you. you scoffed and stepped away from them, spotting a small table with phones on it. it had a sign in front of it which said, 'one per person'. you grabbed one and attempted to turn it on, but it suddenly turned on by itself, the same white screen as the big screen in the city earlier. "face registration in progress. . ." the black letters on the screen loaded for a few moments before a new sentence appeared on the screen. "registration complete." which followed with a dinging sound from the phone speaker.
another person stepped in and grabbed the last phone on the table, registrating himself before a TV which was placed on a wall lit up with the words; "registration closed. there are currently 22 participants." an mechanic voice spoke up, "game name: lie to die." you raised an eyebrow at these words. what kind of game would this possibly be? "game difficulty: eight of hearts." the mechanical voice said, making you grimace an confused expression. "nine of hearts?" you asked and eyed any of the other participants for an answer. a man with glasses walked up to you and placed an hand on your shoulder, "let me explain it to you," he said and looked at you. he was maybe three inches taller than you, looking down on your like some worthless servant, but maybe it was just his usual expression. he had no reason to judge you, and his tone of voice was also gentle and friendly.
you nodded, "please do." you said and stuffed your hand into the pockets of your jacket. he smiled, "so, as you probably know.. there are four total shapes of these representing playing cards." he paused for a moment, exhaling slowly. "spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds. each one of them has a different meaning. the numbers of the cards represents the difficulty of the game; one to ten. easiest to hardest." he said and glanced around before locking eyes with you once again. "let me explain each shape for you, 'kay?" you just nod at his question, waiting for him to continue. "diamonds stands for logic and rationality, while spades stands for physical strength and endurance. clubs stands for cooperation or all of the other types in one game." he paused to take a breath, closing his eyes for a moment before reopening them again and continueing his explanation. "hearts stands for playing with other participants hearts and betrayal." he said, giving you a sly smile. he crossed his arms, "I'm hijiya, how about you?" he introduced himself.
you were currently in a hearts game. seven of hearts to be exact, so you couldn't trust anybody right now. you weren't sure if anyone in this room knew you, due to your reputation as a celebrity, but lying would be better than telling everyone your real name right away. he held out his hand for you to shake. you took it and shook it, "alluka." you introduced yourself, obviously with a fake name. the mechanical voice spoke up again, making you let go of hijiya's hand. "the game will begin in a minute, please go to the elevator at the end of the hallway." you sighed and immediately went over to the entrance of the hallway, stuffing your other hand back into your jacket's pocket while simply walking towards the elevator. once we all arrived there, the mechanical voice echoed through the hallway, "game rules: all the players will split into two teams in a game of Q&A in the given time. from each team one player will come forward whom a question will be asked. everyone must participate in the game. you have to give true and correct answers to proceed the game, will a player lie or tell a no correct answer, will be eliminated immediately. the time limit is; two hours."
you ran a hand through your hair before tying it up into a high ponytail, leaving your bangs out on your forehead and the sides of your face. "eliminated, huh?" you muttered to yourself, knitting your eyebrows together while thinking what elimination could mean in this game. "you may separate in two different groups. the time limit for the first floor: one hour." you chuckled to yourself and crossed your arms, leaning against a wall next to the elevator doors. you eyed all the people who were discussing who to join and who not to join. after a while you all separated into two groups of each 11 people. you flinched as you suddenly heard the mechanical voice again, the sound of it was already getting annoying. the elevator doors opened, "one player of each team may step into the elevator. time limit: one minute." spoke the voice, echoing through your ears like a parasite. they all began to shout in panic about who should step in first. you sighed and simply stepped into the right side of the elevator while a random young man stepped into the left side, facing you.
you leaned against the elevator wall, eyeing him up and down to make him anxious. "are you famous?" asked the voice, making you scoff whole the man in front of you put on an proud smile. "hell yeah! of course I am!" he said confidently while you shifted a bit in your standing position. "well, I am famous. a celebrity you could say." you stated and placed one of your hands on your hip while smiling a bit. from the outside of the elevator, a small screen suddenly turned red with an 'X' on it. "one of the players is lying. investigate who is lying to eliminate them, or all players will be eliminated except for the liar." all the other participants began to whisper and mutter of who could be lying. "a celebrity you say?! on what platform, huh?!" the guy in front of you spoke up, basically yelling at you. "on Instagram with 3,5 million followers. my username is @__y/n." you said calmly, uncrossing your arms and letting them fall to your sides. he raised an eyebrow and was about to attack you, "how about you?" you spoke up, making him freeze up. "the name's hiroki shuji!! 1K followers on TikTok!" he said proudly. one of them suddenly pointed at the man in front of you, "he......"
to be continued...
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words in total: 1178.
