Once upon a time a 3000 year old vampire decided to take a walk in the moonlight. It was Halloween and she was tired of having to tell children she was NOT going to give them candy. She saw a child dressed up as a vampire and sighed. Last time she checked, she didn't drink blood directly out of the neck (out of glasses only) and she did NOT wear something as HORRIBLY UNFASHIONABLE as a cape! She went house to house trick-or-treating (after all, she has to look at the positives of being eternally 10) and by midnight, she had 5 bags of candy. She walks home and drops off her bags of candy. Then she remembered, she hadn't checked her mail! She ran to her mailbox and saw a red envelope. Along with the envelope, there was a box with a huge red notice saying 'Do not open unless you want to'. Well that's obvious. she thought while taking in her mail and package. She decided to open the letter later and opened the package. In the package was a lot of money. There was also a DVD. She put the DVD in her player and waited for it to load.
"I assume that since you opened this package, you're willing to accept this challenge. As the letter said, you've been chosen and now that you've opened this, there's no going back. Your opponents are probably just opening their packages right now. There is a sensor so you can't decline. You noticed that there's a lot of money, right? It's a LOAN of 5 000 000. To decline you have to return that much money by the end of the month. To make sure this doesn't happen, we've bought your land and we've raised the prices to 5 000 000."
Letter? she thought, that red envelope? She immediately grabbed the red envelope and practically tore it apart. It says all right there (actually it says there's a present in the box and by opening it, it means she accepts). If she just opened her letters first, she wouldn't be in debt of 5 000 000. She could run away but the letter said that it would be impossible. That, and a 10 year old won't find a job that easily and even if she did, the airport won't exactly sell tickets to a girl who would look like she's running away from home. She ran to the meeting place as fast as she can (which by the way is very slow so thank goodness the meeting place is near). When she got to the meeting place, she tried to open the door but it was locked. She saw a letter that looked exactly the same as the envelope she received. She opened it.
Glad you came. This next question is the key to your getting in. You have 5 minutes left to answer this next question.
She knew this one! She learned it when she was posing to be an elementary student. It was about a number line or something... She solved it and entered the answer into the answer pad.
The door opens but before she could go in, she falls through a trap door.
"Nice of you to drop in," a person said from across the room.
"Am I going to be greeted by horrible puns whenever I solve a challenge?" she asked coldy still recovering from her drop.
"No, but now you must-- Are they really that horrible?" the person asked.
"Yes, now go on," she replied.
"Now you have to participate in our little challenge!" the person yelled out.
A whole bunch of spotlights light up and it shows 5 halls each with at least 10 doors. In front of each, was the girl and 4 other people. 3 looked scared and the last looked determined.
"The rules are simple," the person said, "All you have to do is answer a whole bunch of integer questions. I call this game, THE INTEGER GAME."
"I don't want to participate in such an idiotic game," the girl declared, "I'll just move out of my house after all."
"Sadly, you can't. Since you accepted and came here, if you don't complete all the challenges, we're going to keep you as our worker until you die," the person said, "Introduce yourselves!"
The 4 others introduced themselves but when it came to the girl she refused. The game went on and they ran into their halls opening each door, looking for something significant. After searching at least 20 times each. Their time limit was reduced to 10 minutes left (they had an hour). While the others went through their halls, the girl thought about the challenge. There are 10 doors, each with a number on them... Addition... The numbers on the doors are insignificant, being consecutive and all. What about what's inside them? In the first was a chair then a table then a whole bunch of furniture... Ding! The 5th (the determined one) contestant passed. 7 minutes left. Darn it! I can't think... Why is there furniture? If the furniture was meant to taunt me, then what is going on?! Think. We weren't given instructions, meaning we just assumed the halls in front of us was the answer. There weren't much rules meaning anything is possible. Ding! The 3rd contestant passed. 6 minutes. Dang. How did THEY figure it out? The 5th was determined and the 3rd had a happy attitude. What do they have in common? ...I got it! The girl looked around her hall and searched for a secret button or something. She found something. One of the doorknobs fell off when opened the opposite way. There was a note. Nice. Let's see if you can find the rest of the challenge in this room. What is this? Reverse psychology? She ran inside the room after kicking down the broken door and the TV was still in there... She turned on the TV knowing no one would watch it at this complicated time. She had 4 minutes left and luckily, the TV turned on and an integer question showed up in the weirdest way. They were talking about money! They're doing this to make me mad! She listened in and heard them say something like, this person has just won +149 dollars! Too bad, he played the integer game and ended up having to get -298 dollars! What's that supposed to mean? She found a notebook and wrote down what she found out from the program. The question came out like this:
She solved it.
That answer... Maybe it's a code... From the number line, left was negative and right was positive. If that is the answer then that means the numbers on the doors and the reason the knobs can be turned both ways are connected... I have 1 minute left. I'll take my chances. She ran outside into the hall and looked for the first digit of the answer on a door. She turned it all the way until it clicked and the light above the door lit up. She searched for the next door opened it they'd probably set it up so that turning it all the way reset the question and answer. She opened it and the light lit up. She did the same for the last and the light lit up too. Inside the room, it was now dark and the only light was coming from a red button. She quickly ran up to it and pressed it. Ding! She passed. She ran out of the hall and looked up to The person (who never really introduced who him/herself was). The person looked down at all of them. They all passed (2 and 4 barely made it). The person smiled. How despicable, the girl thought.
"Thanks for passing the trial run! Round 1 will start in a few minutes..." The person said with a smile, "The former contestants, now workers, will show you to where you wait."
The 5 were shown to a lobby where there were 5 TVs. It showed them opening the boxes all the way to when they solved the questions. The way the lobby was set up, you'd think they were waiting for a party to start! None of them talked and none of them even had eye contact.
"What's an elementary student doing here?" number 2 asked harshly breaking the silence.
"That's a stupid question," the girl answered calmly, "Why don't you rest and think for yourself?"
There was a long silence until they were called to Round 1. They all walked out to a new place. This place was outside in what looks like a battle field.
"For this next round, you all have to go on a scavenger hunt!" The person said happily, "Only 4 of you will make it through Round 1A!"
The game started and 2 of the contestants started searching frantically. The girl, 2 and 5 were reading their lists, thinking of a way to solve it. The girl read her list and found that they asked for the impossible as if it was natural to have on in your pocket everyday.
Soldier's Bed
Chopsticks
Manger
Diamonds
They're crazy. These are impossible. At least impossible at the moment She tore up her list after inspecting for anything that looks even just a bit off and looked at the scene in front of her. Why is it a battlefield and why is it outside? It's natural for scavenger hunts to be outside and the battlefield just probably represents the fact that we're opponents... But in battlefields, there are wars. In wars, there are 2 teams. The reason that there's 5 of us is because we need to vote off 1 person... I just need 1 person to cooperate with me and we can get out of this. Why 2 people? What is it 2 people can do that 1 person can't? The girl ran off and stopped 5. She talked about her plan but 5 wouldn't cooperate. "I know the way out and unless you do this, I'll take my plan and use it against you," she bluffed. 5 cooperated and they both thought about the game. After some time, they realized what the answer was. Cat's cradle. The game. It's just like that person to use a child's game to give us the question. They looked for something they could use for the game and ran over to The person. They played cat's cradle until diamonds.
"You noticed," The person said with a sarcastic pout, "Very well. Finish the game and I'll give you your prize."
The girl and 5 finished the game and ended with the clock.
"Do you know what that last formation means?" The person asked, "That will lead to the question that gets you out."
The girl and 5 looked back at the remaining contestants. They too, noticed and were fighting about who should be disqualified. The girl and 5 knew that by clock, he meant their remaining time but what did he mean by it will LEAD to their question? They thought and thought until 5 came up with something.
"The clock IS the question!" 5 exclaimed, "Look for a clock!"
They both searched and the girl found a pocket watch. They looked at it to see if there's anything wrong or right with it. The girl saw the clue. The pocket watch was broken. Or, not on time. He said to solve the questions with addition. The hands pointed to 11:50 and the hands were moving rather fast. The girl thought of a solution and decided to press the button at the exact millisecond it pointed to 12. 3... 2... 1... The girl pressed the button and the watch broke in half. Inside, was a piece of paper. Tell me. What is the question? What is the answer?
I just had to get involved in a psycho's game. How can I give that person the answer? Knowing it isn't enough. She had to think of how The person would WANT the answer given. Why did the game ask to be ended through the diamonds when The person was just going to make us end it normally? ... I see. So that's what that person wants.
"Hey, look for a rock that doesn't look like a rock," she said to 5, "Don't question. Just do so."
So they looked for a rock that didn't look like a rock (it'll be clear in a minute).
"Hey is this it?" 5 asked holding a diamond shaped rock.
"Probably," she answered, "Give it."
She looked at the rock and realized that it was as hard AS a diamond. That's what it meant. Luckily for her, she was a vampire and it didn't matter if it was the strongest thing in the world. She can break it. The girl crushed it to pieces and a screen was inside. They needed to write the answer in that. They tried but it didn't work. The girl thought about The person's qualities and then it hit her. The person was just like a MATH teacher. She tried again but this time showed her work.
Ding! They passed. The girl and 5 were ushered into the lobby and their screens showed the recent challenge. The other 3 shows 3 and 4 working together while 2 is inside in a different room. 2 was disqualified. 3 and 4 joined the girl and 5 several minutes after and The person showed up on their screens."You made it!" The person laughed, "Here I was hoping the results would be more interesting." "You're a psycho!" 4 screamed at The person."
"Round 1B, starts now."
A passageway suddenly opens and the 4 contestants were told to go in. They were put into a room. It was a horribly lit room. There were shadows everywhere and The person was the only thing they could see. The person was on a spotlight.
"I'll give you each a question and you have to answer it within 10 seconds!" The person declared, "The winner gets 1 000 000 off their debt AND a little surprise!"
A screen behind The person lit up. Their questions were harder than one would think.
However, the girl was not distracted. She didn't want to stay in a game forever. She quickly solved it in her head and pressed the button.
"-1097!" she yelled.
"Correct! Congratulations! You're the winner of THIS round!" The person said.
Shortly after, the others' answers came out. Number 3 being the last.
"Don't fret, Ms. Last Place, you have a chance to get 500 000 off your debt!" The person said loudly, "You just have to enter our compensation round! Against Ms. First Place and Mr. Disqualified! Everyone else, you have your land back but you owe us 10 000 000 now! 5 000 000 since it's obvious you'll use the 5 000 000 we gave you to pay it. You can keep playing and cut your debts, give up and work off your debt at 1$ per hour OR you can try as hard as possible to pay it back within the month. Your choice!"
The 4 remaining contestants didn't know how to react. They had to take the offers since they needed to pay off an enormous debt.
"As for you," The person said pointing at the girl, "You do realize that if you don't win the compensation round, either Ms. Last Place gets 500 000 of the money you earned and you get 4 500 000 left to pay or Mr. Disqualified takes your place at 4 000 000 and you are out with 5 000 000."
~To Be Continued in the Compensation Round~
Author's note: I did want the person to not have a name and I DID want the 't' on 'the' to be capitalized. Since he/she didn't have a name yet, I wanted to make sure that it was clear which one he/she was. I also wanted the 5 contestants' names unrevealed at the moment so there could be an argument in part 2 and it's also on purpose that the girl does not have a name yet. It's going to be revealed at the end of the story.
~Compensation Round~
The girl sighed and waited in the lobby. 2 and 3 were sitting around and decided to play chess. Soon enough, they were called into a new place. It was a... safe? The girl looked inside and there were a whole bunch of balloons in it. The walls of the safe are just a bunch of drawers with numbers.
"In this round, you have to pick a balloon and the answer will take you to a certain drawer and that drawer will have a key in it," The person said, "That key will lead you to a door."
The person pointed to a long hall that leads to a whole bunch of OTHER halls full of mirrors and doors.
"But you know," The person said, "Everything's not what it seems."
He said go and they went off to the balloons. The girl took a balloon and popped it calmly. The others were... going on a balloon massacre. There was an integer question in the balloon on a piece of paper. This time it was with subtraction instead of addition.
Oh. It was unexpectedly easy. The girl used to have to repeat elementary and if she could act like it, middle school over and over for the last 3000 years. She just recently took a break. She knew that there was no such thing as subtraction (she had doubts but oh well...) and when you subtract, you're actually ADDING the opposite. She threatened (yeah...) a worker to get a pencil and paper and set off to work.
She stared at the answer for a bit then looked up at the walls. She used her vampire sight to look for it and found the right drawer instantly. She sighed at the fact it was at least 30 feet higher than she was. She opened a drawer in front of her and stood on it. She opened another one and jumped up to it. She went on and on until she came to the drawer. The key in it said 'Room 1473'. She sighed. There are that many rooms? she thought. She looked through the halls over and over but she didn't even see a single door with an odd number. Angered, she kicked down a mirror and the mirror broke. Inside the mirror was a room. She looked at the doors next to it. 1544 and 1546. She found 1472 and 1474 and kicked down the mirror in between. As expected, a room. She entered and found that she was in a room facing east. She can see the sunrise. She looked out and estimated she was maybe on the 5th or 6th floor. She turned on the lights and looked around. There was another door. She opened it and found a classroom. It seemed as if there were students in it and they all just stood then left without coming back. There were books open, backpacks, a lesson on the board etc. The books were accurate. The girl looked through one and there it was. A math notebook complete with dates of the day they learned it on. Sept 5 1979 Interesting, she thought. It's been going on for at least 2 decades. She looked up at the board and saw an unfinished subtraction question.
She came up and took some chalk. She solved it just as she'd been taught since who knows how long.
She looked carefully around the room. Another door. Great. This one is obsessed with doors. She went through and found herself in a school hallway. It seems all the doors and mirrors that lead to rooms, led to classrooms that lead to here. She walked down the hall. It seemed to never end. She started opening every single door only to find classrooms like the one she came out of and doors that were locked. At the end of the hall, there were stairs. She climbed up until she reached an elevator. As soon as she came in, it immediately closed and went up at a speed that's too ridiculous. When she got out, she was on the roof. The person was there."Congratulations," The person said, "You win."
To be continued on Round 2.
Author's Note: If you're confused about the picture at the end of Round 1.. which I'm sure all the people who read this ARE, it's there because I wanted it to be there. It was supposedly a picture of "Ms. Last Place" (3 [which is her name at the moment]) and "Mr. Disqualified" (2, I think). If you read the picture carefully, it said that. The reason it's there is because I based this story off of a Japanese drama and I looked for pictures to see if I can use them on this story because I was bored and I'm crazy. Don't think too much on it. The simple explanation: I'm not normal and I'm WEIRD. Also, I changed her from remembering the education from 3000 years ago to remembering because she poses as an elementary/middle school student constantly.
3 Responses to "Aleiah's Integer Story"
Post a Comment