As soon as I was given the chance I sat upright, looking around the steel room I found myself in. Directly in front of me was some manner of reptile, with 4 arms. The creature had no legs, raising itself on a long thick tail, covered in thick maroon scales, gradually becoming lighter further up its body. Small horns were evident along the ridges of its brow. 4 cameras hovered around them, pointed at me. If the creature was bothered by my appraisal it didn't say anything, launching directly into its speech. "Congratulations on your success in your first game Mr. Landry. We will let you peruse your results in a moment, but first, the audience wants to know; why were you so willing to trust the others? Multiple times throughout the game you were put into situations where you chose to instantly trust instead of attempting to fight back or even trying to figure out the motivations of the group. Not to say that it didn't bring you success at times, as with Mrs. Preston and Mr. Sheldon becoming a key part of your group in the final hours, but the audience was mostly curious about your decision to leave your companions with an unknown element such as Mr. Logray, that you had initially determined as possibly unhinged. A decision which in fact almost led to the death of your companion, with only the safe zone protection preventing their passing. Do you feel responsible for putting her in that dangerous situation? Was it a tactical move to get a possibly dangerous individual to reveal themselves through sacrificing your companions?"

I didn't immediately answer the question, instead continuing to survey my surroundings. The snake grew more and more agitated as I ignored him. Other pods were evenly spaced around the room, all closed. Other participants in other games I assumed. The scope of the kidnapping that had occurred for these "games" was beyond comprehension. A few other figures were dotted around the room, monitoring vitals for the pods. Most were of the same species as the person in front of me but that wasn't the rule. A variety of different sizes and shapes could be seen, including one that appeared to be the spitting image of Bigfoot. To my right and left were two armed guards. I returned my gaze to the interviewer.

"Why the guards?" I asked.

"A necessary precaution. Some have not been the most... civil during their initial release." He waved his hand, pulling up a view screen and showing it to me. On it was a video of a huge shark man breaking out of the pod. The video showed it attacking one of techs working on the other pods, tearing savagely into them with its teeth. The shark man continued to rampage until it was finally put down by a squad of six naga. "But anyway, your audience is dying to know the answer to its questions Mr. Landry."

I didn't really give a rat's ass what the audience wanted, but if this was a show, it might be better to be well-liked by the audience. Unless they planned on treating this like Game of Thrones, well-liked characters typically lasted. But that didn't mean I had to respect the fluffed-up self important dick in front of me. "I left them behind because I knew they would be able to handle themselves and we were running out of time to get the parts we needed. If I'm being entirely honest, it never occurred to me that a man who was in need of medical attention could have been one of the traitors. Maybe you wouldn't have rescued him, you do seem like the type, but for most people, an injured person is an injured person."

The snake's eyes narrowed, but they stayed on script. "What about your original assessment of him? It seemed when you two initially met that you judged him to be unsound of mind and dangerous. Post the UI update it seemed to us viewers that you disregarded those original judgments and thus gave him the opportunity to not only strike at Mrs. Preston, who was saved through the timely intervention of Mr. Sheldon, but then also your own group. Comments?" A barely hidden smirk came over the interviewer's face; he was enjoying grilling me.

"All I can say Mr... Snakie? Sir Pent?" I knew I'd probably pay for it at some point, but I wasn't about to lose this verbal sparring match we had going on.

"You likely wouldn't be able to pronounce my name if I gave it to you, so you may call me Xix. I've heard your species can struggle with words longer than 3 syllables, so I wouldn't wish you to strain yourself."

Ooh, that had gotten to him a bit. "Xixy then, all I can say is in stressful situations people can make stupid decisions, and I happened to make one. I wouldn't willingly sacrifice one of my team to gain an edge." I took my slight bit of pleasure at needling one of the people responsible for my situation. I had one more arrow in my quiver as well, a friend of mine who owned a snake had talked about some of their common diseases with me.

"Xix please, Mr. Landry. Very interesting viewpoint. I'll be eagerly watching to see how it changes over the course of the games. One final question, and then my associates here will escort you to your living area to join the rest of your competitors. Are you confident in your ability to succeed in these games?

I didn't know how to answer that question, because I wasn't confident. But that wasn't what the audience was looking for. Right? "We will both have to find out together Xixy. I could give you any number of answers, but until I find myself in the thick of things, feet to the fire, I can't guarantee the veracity of anything I will say now. But I'm ready to find out. By the way, I'm not entirely sure but my friend, who was an expert on snakes had one that had a diseased mouth that looked remarkably close to yours, I think he said it was called mouth rot? Might explain the smell, apparently, it's due to stress. You might want to get that checked out."

His smile became wooden and his words belayed a tension he was trying to hold in, attempting to keep up appearances as the peppy upbeat host. "I assure you, I'm in perfect health, but thank you. We will be watching you closely Noah. You two, escort him to the living quarters, will you? I think we are finished here." They walked away, 4 cameras following behind, moving towards another pod, presumably to get more footage. As an afterthought, they turned back "And get him some clothes."

After getting a robe made of some sort of silky material. The two guards brought me through winding corridors, passing by more pod areas as we walked. After what felt like hours, we arrived at a large door made of what looked to be a composite material of ceramic and metal, bronze in color. The guard indicated I should open it.

I pushed open the door, finding myself in a barracks. Other humans were around, some playing cards, others reading and relaxing. All of them had small black wristbands on. I began walking through when the guard stopped me.

"I need your wrist." They said holding out the same wristband everyone else was wearing. "This will display the time your next game will occur. When that time arrives, be at this door and guards will bring you to your pod. If you are not, points will be deducted from your total and the guards will come to collect you. Should you not have enough points to deduct, lives will be exchanged for points and then deducted" The guard had sounded bored up to this point but grew more excited at this portion. "We have been instructed to use whatever means we deem necessary to convince you to cooperate. For your sake, I'd be here on time. Lastly, your UI should now have a store option, accessible whenever you are outside of a game. When you get to your berth, review your scoring from the previous game and feel free to check out the various options available. Good luck contestant, you'll need it." The guard proceeded to close the door. The sound of a locking mechanism engaging was audible as I considered my first steps.

First and foremost should be exploring the store and reviewing my previous game. If I understood correctly it seemed that you earned points based on performance, which could then be spent in the store. I also wanted to try to find anyone from my group, although they may not be released from their pods yet. I should keep an eye on the door, just in case.

I wandered around the area until my wristband buzzed in front of an empty bunk. Not having anything to really store at the moment, I took note of the number above it, and settled down to browse the new menu I had been given. First I needed to check the results.

Results:

Discovered Traitor Identity x2: 100

Killed Traitor x0: 0

Objective 1 completion: 100

Objective 2 completion: 100

Innocent Escape x5: 500

Survival Bonus: 200

Total Points Gained: 1000

It looked like it was possible to gain points for doing the objectives as well as figuring out who the traitors were. I wondered how the results tab would have changed if the game didn't allow killing. Would there have been some other mechanic that would have been scored?

Next was the store tab. There were a bunch of options listed, most out of my current price range. Luckily I had the ability to set a filter for the results. After filtering out the options that were out of my price range, the list looked like this.

*Note: Points are the participant equivalent to money. Everything outside of the games will be purchased with points.

Store:

Reroll token: This token will allow a participant to, in an advanced game, reroll their assigned role. *Note: this will not change a players allegiance. The new role will be one allowed within the terms of the game. May be purchased multiple times. Tradeable with other participants. 200 points

Guarantor Allegiance: By purchasing this single use item, you may guarantee whether you will be on the traitor, neutral(if applicable) or innocent team. May be purchased multiple times. 500 points.

Unlocked Starting Gear options:

Medkit: Provides 1 Medkit at the beginning of any combat type game. The Medkit can treat a multitude of different types of wounds up to and including limb severance if applied quickly enough. Our proprietary mixture of serum and nanites rapidly replaces dead tissue without loss of nutrients from the body and only mild discomfort. Only good for one major wound before another application is necessary. 800 points

SICKL: The legally distinct SICKL is a vibrating metal alloy array used for cutting and slicing plant life. Due to safety concerns, the SICKL will stop functioning if it detects the presence of any living non-plant life near the blade. 400 points

Ammo: Provides 1 free projectile bullet at the beginning of any combat type game. May be purchased multiple times, with increasing cost each time. 100 points

-Deduction type options will be unlocked post first completion of a deduction type game.

Extra Life: Protect yourself by adding another buffer from permanent death. 1000 points

As good as having another life would be, I knew that sort of thinking was a trap. I would much rather have options to prevent my death such as more starting equipment, than purchase an extra life that was temporary, especially given that I currently still had 2 extra. As for the two tokens I had access to, while guaranteeing my allegiance as innocent would be nice, assuming my point gain was comparable between multiple games, I would be spending half of my income each time I did so. That left me with the starting equipment options. The SICKL sounded useful, but unless I knew what type of terrain I'd be in next, I would be gambling on its usefulness. The Medkit had proven itself time and time again, and in a combat type game, which was apparently what I participated in, ammo was always useful. I spent 900 of my points on the Medkit and Ammo, leaving me with 100 points I could spend on necessities until the next game. The list had been default sorted by cheapest options to most expensive, with the note about points being money appearing no matter what filter or sort was applied. On a whim, I sorted by most expensive to least to see what the most expensive option was.

Earth's Probationary Period: Buy out the probationary period for Earth, allowing the public to join the Galactic Conglomerate and allowing the species the option to join and leave the game at will. 100 Trillion Points.

Earth might just be in a rougher spot than I thought.