Suddenly Hummin waved his hand and all the people felt their surroundings become unclear and they became somewhat dizzy.

  Once they could properly think again they assessed their surroundings. They were now in a completely new environment.

  They were in a large room whose walls, ceiling and floor were made out of black stone. There were many lanterns connected to the ceiling by chains and that was the only source of light in the room.

  There was a small pedestal on one side of the room. On it were many small pieces of paper, small enough to fit into a person's palm.

  Hummin stood in front of the pedestal. He addressed the entire group.

  "The first game will be very short and very simple. You will each have 1 completely random opponent each. You will ask that opponent a yes or no question and they must answer it. It doesn't have to be the truth. It just has to be a yes or a no. Before the game begins you will all write your prediction of your opponents answer, keep in mind that you won't know who your opponent will be when you write your prediction."

  "If your prediction was wrong you lose. If it was correct you win. Simple isn't it?"

  Then a person asked a question.

  "How will we decide who asks the question between us and the opponent?"

  Hummin smiled with excitement.

  "Great question. Before the question is asked the person who asks it will be decided by a game of rock, paper, scissors. It will be played till one player wins. If it's a tie you play again till one of you wins.. Does everybody understand?"

  All of them nodded in unison.

  Hummin had a satisfied look on his face.

  "You will all be called out and write your prediction on the paper. You will then fold this paper and carry it with you."

  Julius was satisfied with how the game was designed. It was the right combination of luck, foresight and misdirection. Perfect for him. But he soon realized that Henry would also find this game extremely easy.

  "The chances of us being opponents in the very first round is very small so we will both most likely win and move onto the next round so I need to focus on more important stuff. Since everyone will have 1 opponent that means that half of the people here will lose and die. This makes it a high-stakes round. People will not make dumb mistakes here. Everyone will try to pull clever tricks." Julius took in his situation.

  Then Hummin started calling out different names. Whenever a name was called a person would walk forward and write their prediction on the paper.

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  Finally Julius's name was called out and he walked to the pedestal, picked up the small ink quill on the pedestal and wrote on the piece of paper.

  "Predicted answer: No"

  He then folded this piece of paper and took it with him. He walked back into the crowd. Other people's names were called out. Among them was Henry Grimmer who wrote his prediction on the piece of paper.

  "Predicted answer: Yes"

  Finally once all the people wrote their predictions they all stood still while Hummin was standing at the pedestal. He opened his mouth and spoke.

  "Now that all of you have written your prediction the first round can truly begin. Good luck."

  He then raised his hand and everyone once again felt disoriented.

  When Julius gained his awareness back he realized he was now in a small room with a wooden table in the middle. Above it was a lantern which illuminated the room. There was another person on the other side of the room. Julius's opponent. He was a burly bald man

  They both looked at each other with intensity before sitting down on the chairs on each side of the table.

  They looked at each other once again.

  "Shall we begin?" Julius asked.

  "Alright brat let's do it." the burly man said.

  Then they spoke at the same time.

  "Rock"

  "Paper"

  "Scissors"

  "Shoot"

  then they both extended their right hand.

  The burly man had his entire fist clenched. Rock!

  Julius had all his fingers extended. Paper!

  Julius's face now had an evil smile while the burly man's face was filled with fear.

  The burly man tried to calm himself down by reassuring himself.

  "You can do this. You haven't lost yet. As long as his prediction is wrong you will be able to win and move on to the next round. You have to win. Don't fall for any tricks."

  The burly man looked at Julius whose smile was growing wider and wider with every passing second.

  Julius remained silent for a few seconds in order to make the burly man more nervous and then he opened his mouth and asked the question.

  "Are you a man?"

  The burly man's mind was now fully active.

  "I am a man but I can't answer the question with honesty. I should say no. Wait what if he predicted I would say no? Then in that case I should say yes. But for some reason it still feels like that answer was predicted by him. He seems really confident. Even now he has a smile on his face. Did he predict my thoughts till now. That means he now believes my answer will be yes."

  The burly man was beginning to contemplate Julius's capabilities and how he should answer the question. Meanwhile Julius had the same wide smile on his face.

  Finally the burly man made up his mind and opened his mouth to answer.

  "No. My answer is no."

  Julius's smile then grew even wider before his smile turned into a chuckle and then into a full-blown laugh.

  He took out the folded piece of paper and unfolded it before showing it to the burly man across from him.

  "Predicted answer: No"

  The burly man's face froze. His breathing started becoming faster and faster. He tired to form a sentence but all that could be heard was mumbling. After a few seconds a single word was heard coming from his mouth in a weak voice.

  "Help"

  Suddenly the burly man started convulsing wildly and he then fell out of the chair and onto the floor.

  Julius had won.

  ...

  Meanwhile in another room.

  Henry Grimmer was playing against a young women.

  "Yes. My answer is yes." He said. He lost at rock, paper, scissors and now had to answer the women's question.

  The women's face froze with fear and she took out the folded paper and unfolded it to look at what was written on it.

  "Predicted answer: No"

  She was wrong about her prediction.

  She started crying before her body suddenly started convulsing and she fell off the chair and onto the ground motionless.

  Henry watched this scene with a smile on his face.