Chapter 29: In or Out

22.8K 757 742
                                    

"An ultimate hope test?" Quentin echoed suspiciously.
"Yup," Bodil confirmed. "Hopefully you all have more hope than mister Ty over here, who was so dumb I was able to convince him to dress up like me as I disguise as him."
Ty gave Bodil a death glare but said nothing.
"Ty, why did you agree to disguise as Bodil, anyway?" Tyler asked.
Ty sighed. "He told me that as being one of the most hopeful people in the world, everyone would be targeting me. You see, in the real world, I was working besides Notch himself to bring hope to Minecraftia, so I was well-known for that. I thought that Bodil was trying to hide me because he was a true friend. It was really just to shock you all when the truth came out. By the way, you know when he shocks and confuses you it makes it kinda easier for you all to fall to despair? Stop being shocked by things."
"Yeah, I was really persuasive, wasn't I?" Bodil sighed happily and giggled. "Anyway," he suddenly said, snapping back into serious mode. "Ultimate Hope Test. Proves your hope to the world. Ty's not allowed to interfere."
Ty rolled his eyes. "I'm not exactly allowed to anyway-"
"AS I WAS SAYING," Bodil interrupted in an obnoxiously loud voice, "The test is very difficult and despairingly despairing-you have to listen to me read a haiku I wrote without falling into deep, deep despair."
"Wait...seriously?" Jerome had asked flatly with a raised eyebrow, but Bodil had already pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from who-knows-where and read:
Despair despair despair despair despair
Despair despair despair despair despair despair despair
Despair despair despair despair despair
Bodil finished and looked around proudly. "Well? Despairing yet?"
"...You know that haikus have five, seven and five syllables, right? Not words," Brice said after a couple moments of awkward silence.
"Really?" Bodil asked sadly. "And I worked so hard on that haiku, too..." he moaned sadly, twirling his tie. "Oh, well!" Suddenly he was normal again. "That was just a bluff. That's not the real test."
"You're a real idiot," Ryan told Bodil bluntly. "Also, get to it with your hope test already or I'll personally come over there and hang you by your candy cane tie."
"I'll gladly help," Jason agreed with a glare at Bodil, unusually aggressive.
Bodil sighed. "Fine. So this is how the real test will work...to pass the Hope Test and escape this mansion with your lives, you have to all make a simple decision. Stay here in this mansion forever, or escape to the real world?"
"But that's a given," Quentin argued. "We all obviously want to escape, right?"
"Oh?" Bodil grinned. raising an eyebrow. "I haven't finished yet. I need to show you the full deal first, right? You'd need to know what you're agreeing to."
The wall behind Bodil parted, where the giant slot machine usually slid out, but instead there was a large television screen. Everyone watched as the screen flickered to life, and played back-to-back footage of what seemed to be various news reports, in many different languages.
The news reports showed many similar, terrifying scenes that showed the 'outside world'. They showed destroyed server hubs filled with people with blank, white Herobrine eyes angrily running around and breaking things, setting things on fire, and even attacking other people. Some scenes also showed villages burnt down, people with regular eyes fleeing from Herobrine-eyed people, statues and creations being destroyed and rebuilt as statues of Bodil and Herobrine, dirty city streets littered with dead bodies and Herobrine-eyed people walking around bearing crude weapons or sitting and laying down on streets and sidewalks, and many other terrible scenes.
After a while of watching, the television slid back into the wall and the wall closed.
"Well? Whaddaya think?" Bodil asked. "The outside world. Filled with despair."
"All those people..." Jason trailed, eyes wide.
"Haha, those Herobrine-eyed people were all victims of despair, like 95% of the world today," Bodil exclaimed.
"This is what Notch and I were trying to stop," Ty explained. "The normal-eyed people are the ones that still have hope. Sadly, most are either now Herobrine-eyed, or those dead bodies on the streets you saw."
"That's the outside world?" Jerome asked in disbelief.
Bodil nodded. "The world you all really wanted to get to? Hahaha! You idiots don't understand. This mansion is your safe haven!"
"What do you mean?" Tyler asked nervously.
"Let me explain," Bodil said, getting serious again. "The outside world is riddled with despair. Like what you saw. Havoc and chaos everywhere. This mansion cuts off all your access to the outside world, meaning that you're cut off from worldwide despair-just intern despair that I can easily control. Escaping to the real world would take your safety and comfort away. You wouldn't last a day out there! So would you really want to be there, or stay here in comfort and safety the rest of your lives?"
Tyler glanced nervously around at everyone. Brice and Jerome were looking nervous. Quentin looked slightly troubled, trying to pull off his best poker face to hide it. Jason and Ryan seemed too busy glaring at Bodil with Ty to be worried.
"So those are your two choices! Inside, where you live safely in this mansion, or Outside, where you face the terrible despair-ridden world. You all get to vote for one of the two! But, there's a twist. Every choice comes with an execution. This is a trial, after all. You all have to make the same vote. If even one of you votes differently from the rest, I get to execute all of you!"
Brice and Jerome looked more nervous. Quentin's eyes widened. Jason and Ryan kept glaring. Ty looked angry but unfazed.
"So you all have two choices, and you all have to vote the same or you all die," Bodil continued. "However, if you all vote for Outside, you get to face the despair-ridden world, and I am executed. And if you vote for Inside, you all get to safely stay here. And the execution will be one of you. And that would be..." He looked around at everyone with a grin, then pointed at Tyler. "You!"
Everyone was silent. "Why me?!" Tyler exclaimed. Bodil grinned. "You were already gonna be executed. So why not?"
"You all can't be actually listening to him, right?" Tyler asked everyone. "Of course we have to choose Outside! We can't stay here forever!"
"But...you saw those videos..." Brice said, looking at the floor. "Bodil's right. We wouldn't last a minute."
"But if you chose Inside, then the execution-" Tyler protested, but looked around at everyone. They all wanted to chose Inside, and sacrifice him. And this was all part of Bodil's plan. They were all going to chose Inside, and if Tyler voted for Outside then they would all die. The only way they could all make it out of ere with their lives was through the Outside choice-but how could Tyler get everyone to vote for it?
"You really-" Ty started angrily, but Bodil cut him off. "Ah! No interfering, remember? Cheater."
Ty shut up but looked furious.
"So what's it gonna be, everyone?" Bodil asked. "Inside, or Outside? And you'd all better vote together, or it's game over for you all!"
"Even if I can't interfere," Ty said with a sneaky grin, "I know someone who can."
Bodil raised an eyebrow. "Notch? Because he can't interfere either. He's not a houseguest. A living houseguest, I might add."
Ty shook his head. "Of course not. But did you think you were the only one with secret agents working for you in this house?"
Bodil frowned. "W...what?"
Ty laughed. "Your agents are all dead. But I'm smart. Mine are still alive, and as living houseguests they can definitely show everyone true hope."
"What?!" Bodil asked, outraged.
"We're secret agents, too," Jason told Bodil with a determined smile.
"And we're gonna make sure you're the only death today," Ryan added.
Tyler watched in shock as Ty, along with his 'secret agents' Jason and Ryan, all grinned challengingly at a very baffled and confused Bodil.

Dangan Ronpa MinecraftWhere stories live. Discover now