"Well then… greetings Fredrick… it seems that I have underestimated you."
I smirked.
"Yeah, and that arrogance is exactly what led me here."
Aion turned around to face me fully. He was taller than I, fair skinned and looked beautiful for a man. I can only assume it was because of some curse put upon him by some strong magic user. He wore nothing but an oversized toga that showed off his muscles.
"Tell me, how did you figure it out?"
"It was really simple, honestly. In the first 8, all doors had some kind of light that I could see if I looked really hard, except for the serpent door. There were always noises coming from only that door. It was obvious it was that one. I figured based on my observations that there was a correct door for every round. I thought I'd have to try to deduce the correct option from the 8, but once I saw the 4 doors, I knew exactly how it would go from there. I figured the clock symbolized time, which would obviously be the last room in this context. However, I was still a little unsure. To confirm my theory, I decided to try to enter your room. Just like I thought, you didn't let me, not until I had done the 2nd room. You want a challenge, someone with 7 seconds to play whatever this game is wouldn't be fun, even though I'm sure I could win. So, obviously the sun would be next, and then we'd exit from the moon, completing the day night cycle. The only other doors were the serpent which I just did and the sun which I couldn't enter before. I decided the two minutes I had left would be plenty, even though I'm confident I could've done any number of the other 8 doors to get more time. How's that?"
Aion sat stunned for a second before collecting himself.
"Well thought, Fredrick." He took another step towards me. "Clearly, you are far smarter than your adversaries. However, your cockiness may lead to your downfall. It's now time for you to face me. The game we will play, you will find yourself wishing you had more time."
As he said that, he gestured to the table behind him.
On the tablet lay about 40 small, rectangular stones. They were divided in 2 groups on either side of the table, which also was rectangular. Just then, right in the middle of the table, a giant stone wall appeared, blocking both sides from seeing the other.
"The game is simple," Aion began. He walked towards the table and started twirling a stone between his fingers. "We both get 20 of these stones, however, these stones aren't normal stones. They are "soul chips". When we sit down in these chairs, our life will be attached to these tiny stones. Here's the game. We each will get one minute to choose how many chips we want to bet. Then we will play a game of rock, paper, and scissors to find out who'll go first for the first round. Then, we alternate who goes first beyond that. The person who won will have to guess how many chips the opponent bet. Let's set up an example. Say I bet 5 and you bet 3. If I guess your 3 correctly, I will get all five. My total will go from 20 to 23. Meaning, if you guess correctly, you get the other person's chips. So, your total would go down from 20 to 17. However, say I guess incorrectly. What if I guess 5 as opposed to your three? It's simple really. 5 is 2 away from three, so you will gain 2 chips, making your total 22, and I'll lose those 2, making my total 18. You get it, Fredrick?"
"Yeah, I understand it. Only one question, how will the time you've allotted me be used?"
Aion set down the stone and chuckled.
"Excellent question, Freddy! Can I call you Freddy?"
"Absolutely fucking not."
"Very well, Freddy! After we bet and before we guess, we'll get to interrogate the other and try to figure out their bet using whatever tactics we please. However, the time spent here is also important. Let's go back to our example from earlier. Let's say that I will go first, just for demonstration's sake. I have 10 minutes to do whatever I want to try to figure out your bet. For this example, we'll pretend I spent 20 seconds and figured it out. If I guess correctly, I'll gain those 20 seconds back. Taking my total back up to 10:00 from the 9:40 it would've been. However if I guess incorrectly, those 20 seconds will go to you. Taking you from 2:36 to 2:56. That all make sense?"
I walked towards the table, taking my time looking all around the room to try and see if I could find anything that was of note at all. Sadly, nothing stuck out immediately, but I saved a mental image of the room for later.
"Yeah, everything makes sense."
"Good, I'll go ahead and head to the other side."
"Actually, one thing."
Aion crossed his arms and started tapping his left foot.
"What now, Freddy?"
"Shouldn't we get some kind of mediator? To ensure neither of us have any chance of cheating?"
"There will be no need, the game uses magic. Don't you know? Magic can't lie."
"Oh, perfect."
Something about what he said was interesting, but that wouldn't be important for now.
"Alright, is that everything, Freddy?"
I could tell he was starting to get impatient, and I was too.
"Yes, let's begin."
"Perfect!" Aion said and clapped his hands.
Suddenly, I was sitting in the chair I just saw, and heard Aion starting to talk behind the stone wall that separated us.
"Alright, we each get a minute free to choose how many stones we want to bet. The time you have allotted will only start draining once we begin the interrogation."
"Got it."
Now, what to do? The game favors being defensive. If I put in something like 2, and Aion guesses one trying to predict me taking the easy way out, then I'll gain one. But what if he sees through that? If he guesses 2, and I put 2, then I'll lose two. Betting one is the safest bet, but it's also the most boring. Now what if I bet the max amount I can, 10? Thinking about it, it made no sense. Which is exactly why I want to. It's the most dangerous bet, so no sane person would do that. I doubt Aion would ever get close to seeing through that. In case he did, I'm going to bet 8 to minimize risk as much as I can.
I scooped up 8 of the twenty tiles in front of me. Looking around on where to put them, I saw a box to the left where I could put the stones to bet. I dumped all 8 of them in there and sealed it up. Looking around, I saw that the clock for my allocated time was to my right, and I saw 23 seconds left. Not bad, but it didn't really matter since it won't add to my total. The clock continued clicking down, slowly, until the entire minute was up.
"Alright, Freddy! Let's get it." Aion roared. I stood up and walked to the giant open area that was to the left of the table.
Aion stomped his way over. I looked him up and down to see if I could try to discern his emotions. Unfortunately, his expression was unreadable. This would be interesting, Aion may finally be a worthy opponent for me.
"Alright, Freddy. It's rock, paper, scissors time."
"I'm ready, first things first."
"What's up?"
"I'm going to choose rock."
"What?"
"In the game we're about to play, I'm going to be choosing rock."
"Alright, thanks for the intel!"
How interesting. Now he's also playing a mind game with me. He's basically saying that he believes the bluff by saying that. Now I have to choose if he means what he said, believing the bluff, or if I play a different option, calling his bluff. Nonetheless, I'm not trying to win here, so I'll just play rock. Whatever the outcome is will give me valuable information, and hopefully will give me my win condition.
"Ready?"
"Yup."
"Alright."
"Rock, paper, scissors…"
We both raised our fists up and shot them forward. My fingers stayed clenched in the rock formation.
"Shoot!"
Paper.
He picked paper.
"Like I said, thanks for telling me, Freddy!" Aion said while laughing. "You're so easy to see through, I almost feel sad! Only 3 people have ever got this far, I was hoping you'd fare better than them. At this rate, I'll snuff you faster than I did them!"
Wait, 3 people? I thought no one survived the second trial. Before I had time to finish processing all these thoughts, Aion roared.
"I don't even need time! Fredrick, you put 8 stones in that box, didn't you?"
"How..?"
What the fuck? How did he know that, is this man seriously some kind of psychological genius? And again, how the fuck have 2 other people gone this far if I'm the first one to pass the 2nd trial? So many questions, but not enough time to wonder.
"Haha! I told you, Fredrick, I can see right through you! You're so easy to read. I'm sorry, Freddy. But this is where you'll die. I'll bury you just like the rest! Now, make your guess!"
Looking to my left, I saw my 2:36 on a giant stone slab. Slowly ticking down.
"Alright, Aion, how many stones did you put?"
"Oh wow, alright, Freddy! Going straight for the hard hitters I see!" Aion said, then began to laugh heavily.
"Never mind, you put 5 stones in that box."
When I said that, I felt a giant pull in the center of my heart and fell onto my side, the extreme pain burning my entire body. All of my limbs felt like they were trying to shoot off my body at once, my skin melting off of my skin. After about twenty seconds of this, the pain faded off.
"What… the fuck… was that..?" I struggled out between staggered breaths. Looking at my hands and the rest of my body, it didn't look like anything changed, but I felt so much weaker.
"Look to your left, Freddy."
When I looked to my left, I saw that the stone slab said something different.
Aion +12
Fredrick -12
I was four off.
"What you felt was your life leaving your body, your soul escaping. Do not worry, Fredrick, I will end this next round."
The realization hit me. I only had 8 stones left. That was nothing, and now also gave Aion a huge advantage over me. I could only bet up to 8, he still could bet up to 10. How the fuck did it go this bad so fast? I was suffocating, my brain racing for an escape that didn't exist. He saw through my bluff. He guessed my exact number. I was watching my life drain out of me, and the worst part?
I had nothing. He saw through my bluff perfectly in the rock, paper, scissors game. Then, he guesses my exact number of stones. How am I supposed to win this?
Luckily, I have nothing to fear. I am going to win it all back next round, I have a guaranteed win strategy that Aion had no counter for. In fact, all of this has gone exactly the way that I predicted.
Everything that just happened has been planned out perfectly…
By me.