“I’ll answer your questions, but only after you each answer one of my own.” I heard a bunch of murmurs and groans before all of the audio cut out. Since Keiko’s boss had been referring to me as a fan favourite, I figured that the audience would be begging to hear from me.

  Keiko stared at the cameras before she turned and looked at me.

  Before she could say anything, the same voice returned.

  “They’ve allowed your condition! What’s your question, Akira?”

  I don’t know how many questions I’d be allowed to ask, so I have to make sure I get as much information as possible.

  “A simple yes or no won’t be enough. If your answer doesn’t have the amount of information I’d like, then I’ll answer your question in a similarly vague manner.” I knew I wasn’t in a position to demand too much, so I tried to mask my demand as a request for fairness.

  “That’s fine by me.” She laughed, and I started wondering if she was amused by my actions.

  “What’s your question?”

  My first question is a strategic one.

  “Are the audience members allowed to influence any of the players in the show in any way?”

  There was silence for a few seconds.

  I assumed that Keiko’s boss was deciding how much information I was allowed to find out.

  A few minutes passed and nothing happened. I looked at Keiko, and she just shrugged her shoulders. I started thinking that the audience could be messing with me, just waiting to see how long I’d be willing to sit here. As I contemplated leaving, the woman’s voice returned.

  “I guess we’re talking to you now, so we can influence the players like this, but you’re just an exception. Normally we’d never be allowed to talk to the players, or take any control over any of the game’s rules.” I quickly thought to myself before she asked her question.

  I wasn’t thrilled with the detail in this answer, but it wasn’t bad either. If this was true, it meant that I wouldn’t have to care about the audience’s perception of me. It wouldn’t matter if they hated me since they couldn’t do anything about it.

  There’s just one thing bugging me.

  “Whoever the traitor is, they’re really good at hiding it. Everyone’s done stuff that makes them suspicious, but I can say with near certainty that I know one person who’s innocent.” I made sure to phrase my answer very carefully.

  I piqued their interest since I knew they’d be desperate to find out who I was talking about. Now, I can leverage that to get the clarity I wanted.

  “You said I was an exception. Why is that?” I smiled confidently as I looked at the cameras yet again. “If you tell me that, I’ll tell you the person that I know is innocent.” The audio got cut off again and I patiently waited for her voice to come back.

  “You’re an exception because you’re that much of a fan favourite. If you want to hear more, you should stop stalling and start answering my questions.” I quietly thought to myself as she chuckled.

  I started by analysing this from a logical viewpoint, and I decided to take a calculated gamble. If I’m wrong, then the audience members might lose interest in me.

  But if I’m right, their curiosity in me would sky rocket and I’d get even more control over my current situation.

  “It’s obvious what you mean. Maybe it’s because I’ve boosted the ratings so much, or maybe it’s because the audience has paid extra money for this opportunity.” I looked away from the cameras, acting as if I was in deep thought. I knew it’d be even more entertaining if it looked like I was solving this problem in real time.

  “I must be an exception because I’m an asset to the show.

  An asset that’s captivated the audience.” I looked back at the cameras with a smile.

  “That’s too obvious. If you want to hear how I figured out someone was innocent, I’ll need a different piece of information.”

  I instantly wiped the smile off my face.

  “Tell me, does the audience already know who the traitor is?”

  Keiko and I sat in silence for a few minutes again.

  Gradually, those few minutes increased to five, and even ten. When we finally heard a voice, it was Keiko’s boss who spoke.

  “That’ll conclude our Akira Q & A session! Keiko, please take Akira back to his room.” Keiko watched the cameras for a few seconds before getting out of her chair and opening the door.

  She didn’t say anything, so I guessed that she didn’t want to continue our previous conversation. I decided to respect that and I started thinking about how I’d over played my hand.

  I got so swept up in the moment that I forgot it doesn’t matter how good of a player I am. At the end of the day, I’m still just a player in a game.

  I can’t control the game developer, and I can’t control the audience either.

  Because of my mistake, I’d missed out on an opportunity to find out more about why the show exists, though I wasn’t too sad since that was just a question I was curious about. It wouldn’t change my approach to identifying the traitor. Even if I’d asked for information about the upcoming games, they probably wouldn’t be allowed to tell me. It’s possible that they wouldn’t even know about the next games.

  But there was one good thing that came out of this.

  I clearly surpassed the boss’s expectations.

  If he knew I was going to ask a question as pointed as that, then he’d never allow me to ask questions in the first place. The fact that he ended the Q & A after a ten minute silence told me something else on top of that. If he’d ended the game straight away, then it’d be as simple as hiding important information from me.

  However, the audience must have been fighting against him, urging him to allow them to answer my question. That meant that I’d essentially beaten the boss in such a way that the audience won’t be thrilled with his decision to end the Q & A. His lectures about how I need to throw away my empathy to become like him couldn’t rattle me for the time being, since I just defeated him.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  It’s obvious that the audience did in fact know who the traitor was. Otherwise, they would’ve been allowed to answer.

  Keiko’s boss knows that I would be able to deduce that, so why end the game and hide the answer?

  He must have been scared that the audience would leak details on who the traitor was when they answered my subsequent questions.

  This means the audience aren’t as cold and calculating as he is since they’re capable of making such mistakes.

  If that’s the case, then can I turn the audience into my ally?

  I initially thought their perception of me wouldn’t matter since they couldn’t make any decisions that would impact me.

  But what if it's the opposite?

  What if I made myself into something too irresistible?

  I’d be able to make them force the boss into giving me some sort of opportunity like this again. I knew that this was just something to think about on the side. It came nowhere close to my main goals of exposing the traitor and protecting my friends.

  “Good luck in tomorrow’s game. You’ll need it.” Keiko turned around as we reached my room, and she started walking away.

  “What? Why?”

  She kept walking away, refusing to turn around and elaborate.

  What made this game so dangerous that Keiko wished me luck? I started thinking about things from her perspective - she wants me to protect my friendships.

  Does that mean this next game is more destructive than ‘Democracy’?

  We’d barely gotten through that, and I couldn’t help but picture Nobu alone. I remembered the message I sent him earlier and checked if he replied. He apparently already had his dinner, so I didn’t have to worry about that.

  As I checked my phone, I saw an alert come up.

  It was a message from the game officials.

  They asked me to be ready to leave my room by 9:50, and that I eat my breakfast at the canteen beforehand. I set an alarm as I tucked myself into bed and thought about tomorrow’s game.

  Tactical ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors!’ was a well designed game that focused on psychological reads and resource management with the bidding process. It also tested your ability to plan for the future, since the attacker needed 1.5 points to win and there were several different ways for that to happen,

  ‘Democracy’ was equally well designed. This game focused on introducing tension in the friend group by forcing us to discuss who should lose points, and who should be silenced. They also wanted someone to accuse another person of lying. That’s why the fourth round was so devastating, and Nobu had to deal with the brunt of it.

  I focused on trying to predict the themes the next game would focus on. Keiko’s seen my strategising and logical thinking, so if this was a logic game similar to Tactical ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors!’, then I don’t think she would have wished me luck.

  That meant this had to be another game that focussed on breaking our friendships.

  What about this would be so difficult?

  Maybe it’s because she knows Yaeko and Osamu are both against me now? In that case, could this game be another game about voting, but designed in a way where it’s harder for me to manipulate the votes?

  Or maybe it’s a game where each player can carry out an action, and she’s worried that I might get teamed up on?

  I slowly smiled as I felt a sense of relief. Keiko’s concern made sense, but I realised that she was missing something.

  I had two allies to help me through the games in Yori and Mei.

  I also had Choko acting as a wildcard. If she isn’t the traitor and she makes good on her alliance, she’ll be operating to try and protect my control over the group.

  I ended up waking up at eight since I wanted to give myself time to freshen up and to continue planning for the game.

  I sent a message to Choko, warning her about what this game would be about. I explicitly told her that I’d be relying on her to defend me if Osamu and Yaeko made a move against me that undermined the trust that the group should have in me.

  While I hated relying on people, it was nice being able to rely on someone I viewed as an equal. I didn’t have to worry about protecting her since I realised she’d be able to hold her own. Even in the worst case scenario, I’d be protecting her as I initially planned to anyway.

  I also sent a message to Yori and Mei, telling them that this game might focus on teamwork and alliances, so I told them to lay low unless we needed to protect each other. Since I already knew that I’d be drawing fire from Osamu and Yaeko, there wasn’t any need to drag them into it unless they needed to help me out.

  I realised I’d missed their messages last night and quickly checked it out. They were reacting to the news about my fight with Osamu. It turns out Osamu must have revealed it after keeping it a secret, since they both told me not to feel bad about sitting by myself at dinner last night but that they understood why. It felt nice, and I smiled at their support before sending another message to Nobu.

  I wanted to talk to him and see how he was doing after our conversation yesterday.

  When I left him, he was trying to understand the root cause for his need for validation. I was curious about how much progress he made in getting over it, but I was more concerned with how he was doing. I asked him if he wanted to get breakfast with me, but it reached nine and I still didn’t have a response, so I decided to head to the canteen by myself.

  When I reached the canteen, I saw Osamu and Yaeko sitting by themselves. I laughed at my bad luck before getting my breakfast and sitting by myself. I made sure to speed eat before anyone else saw us and had to decide who they should sit next to. Beyond that, I just patiently waited in my room until 9:50 as the alert requested.

  Just like yesterday, as soon as the clock reached the designated meeting time, I heard a knock on my door. I opened it to once again see Keiko who led me towards the next game.

  We walked without saying a word, but I didn’t mind. The atmosphere felt a bit tense, but I respected her decision to walk in silence.

  It only took us another minute before we reached our destination, and Keiko glanced at the camera ahead of us before finally turning around to face me.

  “Please follow me through the door.” She looked back at the camera then turned to face me again, and she silently mouthed the words “good luck”, making sure the camera couldn’t see her face.

  I silently smiled and nodded my head.

  Whatever awaited me was going to be difficult.

  I patiently took a deep breath before walking through the door.