Part 58: Game, Set, Match

The thread pretty much unanimously agreed that Ox is wrong.

[BGM: Silence]


Hold on!

Huh?

Actually, I don't think we need to spread ourselves thin like that. We can succeed with what we have here.

… Explain.

Okay, so look at this.

[BGM: That Pesky Rodent]


I walked over to the television screen, and used it to illustrate my reasoning.

In Round 8, I'll hitch a ride on Ox.



He'll Stampede again.



Tiger and Bunny will just run for now. Dragon has to stay still and Fire Breath again. Snake will just run.



Horse Gallops three spaces again. Sheep will use all 3 of her actions to Sweet Sleep, which should give her a total of 7 actions next turn.

I-I can do that?

Nothing says you can't.



Rooster will use 'Encouraging Crow on Snake. Then, we can use Monkey's tablet to 'Encouraging Crow' Rooster.

But Monkey's dead!

Yeah, but that doesn't mean her tablet doesn't work.



Dog will run once. And Pig will get burned.

Next, let's look at Round 9. Ox and I can simply run once space each.



Tiger, Bunny, Dragon, and Snake will all use Minor Trinkets, moving 4 spaces each. Horse will Gallop 3 spaces. Sheep uses all 7 of her actions to Sweet Sleep, giving her a total of 15 actions next turn.

Woah!

Yeah, Sheep's power is really useful.



Rooster uses his 'Encouraging Crow' on the person furthest behind up top, that is, Bunny. And then we boost Rooster another four spaces by copying 'Encouraging Crow' with Monkey.



At this point, the closest person in front of Dog will be Tiger, 7 spaces away. So, using his 'Rabid Leap', he can move all the way up to where Ox and I will be. Pig is still burned.

So far, so good.

Round 10. Ox and I will run 1 space.



Tiger, Bunny, Dragon, and Snake each use the Minor Trinket again. Each move 4 spaces. Horse gallops 3 spaces. Sheep uses all 15 of her actions to Sweet Sleep, giving her a total of 31 actions next turn.

Th-this seems a little much...



Rooster uses 'Encouraging Crow' on Tiger, moving her four spaces closer. 'Monkey' uses it on Rooster, moving him four spaces closer. Dog just runs. Pig is still burned.

This is where things get tricky.

Not really, we just need to be coordinated and trust one another. Which we now can.



Ox, Tiger, Bunny, Snake, Dog, and I all run one space.



Dragon, Horse, and Rooster all use Minor Trinkets to move 3 spaces closer. Sheep gets 63 actions for next turn. 'Monkey', to make sure 'Encouraging Crow' is still available to copy with 'Monkey See, Monkey Do', uses it on Sheep.

Is that allowed?

I remember the wording Brian used. It should allow it. ...And Pig is still burned.



Finally, we come to Round 12. Our last round.

Ox and I run to the finish line. Tiger, Bunny, Dragon, and Snake all use Minor Trinkets. All go to the finish line. Horse safely Gallops into the finish line.

Sheep uses all 63 of her actions to fucking zoom right into the finish line in a speed of light. It doesn't matter what Rooster does. What matters is that 'Monkey' uses Encouraging Crow and sends Rooster to the finish line. And Dog runs to the finish line, too.



And from there, Pig can do whatever she wants. 10 people have already tied for first. That can't be undone.

Woah!

So you're saying...

I'm saying we've already won. We've identified the traitors, so there's no reason to distrust anyone in the group. We have everything we need right here, so we can all stay in the cafeteria, taking turns to input in the restroom or something.

Pig, the alive threat, is trapped in that room over there, with no recourse. She'd have to take on all of us to try and escape, which isn't happening. And we can all make it to the end exactly within the time limit.

This is game, set, and match.

[BGM: Silence]


Everyone looked nervously towards each other. Nobody wanted to believe something so miraculous could be true, but... It was. There was no need for some grand climax, some tense finale. We just needed to follow a simple set of orders, and all 10 of us would make it out alive. We'd beat Brian's twisted game.

Well, I think we owe a hand to Mouse, for helping us sort that out.

Oh, me? It was no trouble at all, just logistics sorting is all.

Yes, it was very impressive. Everything in it tracked. I think we can just stay here, and... do that.

And just stay here and do that we did. It was an odd, ominous feeling. In theory, we had already won. There shouldn't be any reason this wouldn't just work and let us escape.

[BGM: Lamb to the Slaughter]


But no one would exactly be celebrating until we were actually out of this demonic building. So instead, we all sort of stood around, in an odd silence. We kept an eye on Pig's door, made small talk, but that was mostly it. Everyone seemed to follow the plan to a tee. Round 9, Round 10... Time passed without any danger popping up.

My mind wandered to strange places. Despite what had been said, what had been shown, I wanted to see Monkey's dead body for myself. I wanted to confirm it was real. Ultimately...



Thread voted to check the body.

Curiosity got the better of me. I strolled over to the classroom where the deed was done, and subtly peered in. ...I don't know what I was expecting. I saw Monkey lying face-first in a puddle of her blood. There was a bit by her neck, but a lot more by her stomach. As soon as I had gotten a clean enough look, I immediately walked away and shook my head. Why did I want to look at that? What perverse impulse had driven me to do such a thing? Thank god it hadn't been a more gruesome scene. Curiosity more than sated, I moved away from the classroom.

Time passed without a threat. Then, I thought I heard some noise coming from the room Pig was occupied in.

[BGM: Silence]


Bunny and I, who were both nearby, went to check it out. As soon as I looked in, I realized something was wrong. Pig had collapsed on the floor, and was spasming, gripping at her throat. Soon enough, she stopped moving at all. I also noticed that the bike chain was no longer locked.

[BGM: Weak Pig]


Without thinking about it, Bunny immediately went to enter the room. I wanted to stop him, but he didn't give me the opportunity. So instead, I just followed him in. I wasn't sure what I was looking at. A glass bottle filled with something had broken right by Pig's body. Her neck was badly burned from some sort of chemical. It was disgusting to look at. What had happened?

Then, my attention turned to a nearby desk. A note had been placed on it, a note with a lot of writing on it. As soon as I looked at it closer, I realized Pig had written it. Was this... a will of some kind? Did Pig do this to herself? I began to read it, and Bunny looked over my shoulder.

[BGM: Sleepy Sheep]


To whoever ends up reading this...

If you're currently reading through this note, this means that I'm dead. How scary to think about. I'm really hoping that it doesn't come to this. But thinking about things realistically, I really have to accept that possibility. Currently, I'm out of options. I'm going to be executed. But, even to the end, I'm not just going to accept dying.

With the chemicals I brought, I've tried to create something that'll burn through the collar around my neck. If I'm careful with it, maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to get this off my neck. ...But I guess that didn't work, huh? So since I'm now, er, dead, I guess this acts something like a will. ...Whoa, that's kind of weird. You usually only get this sort of talk in TV shows and movies. I never thought there'd be an applicable use for that sort of preface, especially one in my life. That's a bright side to dying. I get to go out in a cool way.

...Anyways. I've got a lot of explaining to do, I feel. I don't even know where to begin. I've written so many articles, it's gotten to the point that writing is second nature to me. Words sort of effortlessly spring out without me having to even think about it. I've got the structure down so well I wouldn't even have to think about it. …And here, in perhaps the most important thing I'll ever write, I'm struggling to think of what to write. It's funny. That's not even true, I'm not struggling, I'm rambling, which is even worse, in a way. I'd take a second draft at this, but I don't think I have that sort of time. So this is just going to be stream of consciousness.

I haven't lived a great life. It's not something I have trouble admitting. I mean, I've kind of known this about myself for the longest time. I just never really stopped to face it. That is, until I had to make sure I got that five space movement on the confession. Perhaps that's why Brian put that mechanic in. Everything I said there was true, by the way. I have both remorse and excuses. At the time, I really needed to make ends meet. I had only just begun living on my own, and up until this point, what I was doing wasn't sustainable. My parents didn't support my ambitions in the slightest. Rent was habitually late. So when I was offered the proverbial deal with the devil, well, horrid as it may be, I accepted it without much of a second thought. I mean, if not me, others would be contracted for this.

The fact of the matter is, nowadays there's countless people holding onto these spider threads. Any one of them desperate to move even slightly higher. It's ECON 101. When the supply is so much bigger than the demand, prices fall to the floor. People will fight for scraps. And the deal I got was more than scraps. Properly compensated, given tons of connections. ...My public evisceration of Aaron Morris gave me the life I have today. Aaron Morris wasn't the last person I took down. It's not like I haven't been approached with a deal like that ever since. It's just a simple fact of life – people are just waiting for others to fall. If you treat life like a zero-sum game, as most do, then anyone else falling lifts you up, at least somewhat. Morose schadenfreude. And in my constant drive of going forwards, growing bigger, I didn't even stop to consider what I was doing.

I guess I always thought I'd stop to think about what I really wanted, what I should really be doing later, when I had control of my life. ...But before I could even blink, I'm now at the end of it. The truth I've learned, the truth I've learned far too late, is that my thinking was flawed. Really, you always have control of your life. You make decisions every minute of every day. That is control, what else would you call it? Waiting for a good time to stop and make a conscious decision of how to direct your life is a luxury we don't get to have.

Because there's one time when we don't have control. When we're dead.

...Man, I could write a really good article with that as the thesis now. People love that self-help crap. ...I really hope this note never gets read. But it currently is, isn't it?

The other thing I want to do now is apologize for my actions. I wasn't ready to accept my death. It's as simple as that. Initially, I wasn't sure what to do. I might've just done nothing until it was too late. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that wasn't right. If I just finished first, I could keep on moving forwards. Who cares about what happened before that? The chaos and darkness of this race will erase what happens here. The truth will be written by the survivors. For all the cops care, Brian decided to execute you all for any number of reasons. It was that flawed reasoning that infected my brain, that drove me to this point. Only after being trapped in this room do I realize just how horrible I've become. But in this note, I have a final request. You're probably just going to crumple it up, but I'll give it a shot.

...Don't tell anyone what I did here. ...Just say I also gave myself up, that I also let myself be killed. Give me an honorable death. I don't want my legacy to be a failed coward dying alone in a room by her own failed escape attempt. I had a pathetic enough life. I just want a better death. ...Ah, but that's too big an ask, isn't it? Oh well.

Once again, I'm sorry. I really, really, really am sorry.

[BGM: Silence]


After that, there was a brief P.S. which caught my eye, but other than that, not much else. I stood there, unsure of what exactly to do. What I should do. What I even could do. This was the last testament of Pig, a person just like any one of us. She had written this right before trying something stupid. Something that ended up getting her killed. And now?

[BGM: Rat's Awakening]


This is a choice that doesn't impact the ending we get, but we do get extra scenes if we show the group the note, so we'll be doing that.

...I guess we should bring this to the group.

Bunny, who read the note over my shoulder, nodded his head.

I agree.

And like that, I returned to the cafeteria and gathered everyone. Then, I read out what Pig had written to everybody. Well, everything minus the postscript. After I finished speaking, nobody knew what to say. ...Is what I thought would happen, but one person made their opinion abundantly clear right away.



Fuck that noise! That bitch tries to fucking kill us all, and the moment that fails, she kowtows like a little bitch? Like hell I'm gonna cover for her!

Dragon found an unexpected ally in the form of Tiger, who nodded her head.

It sounds like another desperate plea from Pig. Very like her. Well, I don't tend to do favors to those who try to kill me and my allies!

In addition, she would be asking us to lie to the police about a fairly serious incident. I see no benefit in that.

But shouldn't we... Couldn't we at least omit some of the stuff Pig did? She was probably just scared for her life.

No one ended up dying so, uh, no harm no foul?

Just because nobody died, your actions should be forgiven?

I think the world would be better if there was a bit more forgiveness around.



It is an interesting quandary. If we were to lay the facts out as is, Pig would likely be painted as a villain by the media, perhaps just as much of one as Brian. I mean, the story's just too good. Not to mention she's a semi-relevant online presence. People'd eat it up.

I, for one, see no sin in a careful omission of facts, if it is to protect one's dignity. Honestly, I harbor no ill-will towards Pig. She was dealt an unfortunate hand, played the game the best she could, and knew when to concede with grace.

I couldn't just stay silent anymore.



Similarly, this one is also not ending tied at all – it's entirely up to you how Pig is, theoretically, going to be received after this route concludes. (We obviously won't be seeing it, since the routes end when any collection of people make it out.) Personally, I chose to protect her reputation, which is the choice I'm also making for the LP, because it doesn't hurt anyone at this point considering she's already dead- nobody will be worse off for having her true self be buried like this.

I think we owe Pig at least this much. She was a victim of Brian, when you think about it. For her actions under these circumstances to define her... I don't think that's right. I don't think that's fair.

Thinking about it rationally, simply not telling everything that happened really shouldn't matter too much.

I'm inclined to agree. Pig's actions are hardly relevant to the case. I believe not much would be lost by skimping on those details.

As a police officer, I can get behind that. It sounds like we're going to hide the truth, then?

I guess.

Tch. Y'all are a bunch of pussies. But whatever, if that's what the group says, guess that's what we're doing.

[BGM: Silence]


And so our course of action was decided. We'd fulfill Pig's last request, and hide the full truth. Just as soon as the conversation had begun, it ended. Time passed. We stuck to the plan. No need to deviate. No traitors or complications. Just following simple rules. Eventually, it was near the end of the final round.

[BGM: Dance of the Snakes]


I stood in the corner of the cafeteria, thoughts bouncing in my head. There was a lot to think about. Eventually, Dragon walked over to me.

Hey, I know this might seem weird coming from me, but are you okay?

Are any of us?

True enough. This really fucked me up, I can tell you that much. But you look different, you look like you're, uh, you're thinking again.

I'm always thinking. Most people are.

Now that's a lie if I've ever goddamn heard one. You don't hang out with the right people.

Sounds like I hang out with exactly the right people.

Oh, the dumb ones are more fun.



Anyways, what's this you're thinking 'bout?

The note Pig left us... It had a postscript.

Oh?

Thank God I found it, or else I fear the note might not have seen the light of day.

At the end of the note, there was a P.S.



P.S. – I leave this last section as an apology to Brian.

I don't know what to do with this information, but if there really was something at work about the trial, I figure I should say it. Before my motives changed, when I really was looking into the case, I did my best to follow the money. There's a saying in journalism – follow the money, and you see the full story.

Now, there's a limit to what I could figure out, from my position. What I'm about to say isn't based in hard evidence. In fact, I bet at this point, it'd be impossible to even find what I'm talking about. But I believe this information is solid. This trial confirms it for me.

The victim, Amadeus Bowen, made a lot of hidden transactions. And a lot of them are connected to the people here. With the prosecutor's department that Ox works in. With the police precinct that Bunny works in. With the bar Dog works at. He employed Sheep. He commissioned Snake for art. He was making a business deal with Tiger. There's evidence he gave money to a 'construction worker', and took money from 'parents of an aspiring actor'. This was all happening well up until the October where he was killed.

The only people who I can't remember having any connection to Amadeus Bowen are Mouse, Dragon, and Monkey. I don't know what this means, but... I don't know. I feel I should write it down as well.



So?

So? Sounds to me like everyone here's fucking dirty.

I admit, it doesn't sound great. But dirty of what?

Dirty of something.

I think it might be a mistake to connect everyone here together just based on this, though. I mean, for one, this is based on very shaky evidence. Pig's memories of her unproven investigation.

And more to the point, look at everyone's personalities. Their backgrounds. Do you really think they could all be in on anything?



But it's like Pig said in the note, the fact that all of us are gathered here's gotta be proof of something.

Is it?

Whadya mean?

I've been thinking this for a bit, but... How did Brian get his hands on this information? He definitely wasn't old enough to do this sort of investigation when the incident happened.

And even now, a high schooler shouldn't be able to get their hands on all this information. Especially if it's being buried, like Pig claimed.

Yeah, well, a high schooler also can't usually set up a fuckin' death game. We're clearly not dealing with your average kid.



The people Pig talked about are all here. That can't mean nothing.

Alright then, in that case, why are you here?

Huh?

If we really were all brought here for good reasons, then what's your connection to any of this?

I'm telling ya, I don't have any!

Really?

Really. The only person that even looks somewhat familiar to me is Dog, but I can't place him. Beyond that, I've got nothing.

Hmm.

There wasn't much more to say after that. Thinking didn't pause time. The round ended, and the race board updated. To be honest, I couldn't even bear to look at that accursed thing. From the start, it's been more trouble than it's worth. All that mattered was the announcement that came next.

[BGM: Silence]


The finish line has been crossed. The winners are RAT, OX, TIGER, BUNNY, DRAGON, SNAKE, HORSE, SHEEP, ROOSTER, and DOG. Congratulations!

Anyone who has not won has lost. Prepare for execution.

Those last words were a non-threat. After all, the only people who hadn't won were already dead. Just then, the collar came undone. We were... we were free. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

[BGM: Queen of the Jungle]


However, right before I could fully celebrate, a voice came on that stopped my heart.

Congratulations, contestants. You've achieved a 'peaceful' ending. I didn't have to execute anyone. You lucked out – the affected personalities were the two suicidal idiots willing to take one for the team.

Brian...

I don't know what game you were watching, jackass, but I wouldn't call Pig suicidal.

She ended up killing herself, did she not? Ah, but I suppose that is aside from the point.

I can't say I am overly pleased with this outcome. Two of the lighter criminals are dead. Don't get me wrong, they both deserved it. One perverted justice, the other refused to see the truth. But still, I can't help but feel the larger criminals got away.



If you wished to kill us, you could have done so.

Yeah, not satisfied you didn't get to appease your murder boner, you little shit? Talking a lot of shit because things didn't work out how you planned?

Do not misunderstand me – this is an intended outcome of the race. Everyone was given the chance to face justice for their sins. Sometimes, you roll extremely lucky.

We weren't lucky, I don't think. We just beat your game.

You all seem awfully cocky for a group who lost two of their members.

We had to lose at least two people! It was your dumb rules!

Heh heh heh heh heh... Blind men truly are jesters to those who can see.

Now then. Until we meet again.

[BGM: Silence]


Just like that, the voice went away. The bent of superiority in Brian's voice as he left us pissed me off to no end, but I couldn't dwell on that now. Like it or not, we won. I may have lost Monkey, but... ten of us didn't die. That might have been as good as I could hope when thrust into such a shitty situation.

In the end, Ox, Tiger, Bunny, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Rooster, and Dog escaped alive. This was a good ending.



[Ending – King of Spades]

If nothing is found in the first three rounds but Sheep's Clothing, Pig will be assigned a role that forces her to act.

She's a coward, and if pushed towards it, will try and escape by herself. She doesn't have it in herself to kill, and will instead resort to letting the game mechanics do the work for her.

In all likelihood, this plot will be thwarted, and a majority of the cast will be spared. This scenario makes fulfilling the objective particularly challenging. And cleaning up after the fact will be... difficult.

No, this may be a good enough ending for Mouse, but it won't do for me.