Afterlife Games

"Game starting, campaign stage 1-5, randomly assigning characters...

Kenneth Spears as Ace of Diamonds, Shockwave as Two of Diamonds, Sean Anthony as Three of Diamonds, Frostbite as Four of Diamonds, Corpse as Five of Diamonds...

Main objective of players: Protect Jack of Diamonds from imminent assassination attempt."

I woke up yet again in the same place this all started, the room with my luggage, in the same mundane white collared shirt and black trousers. Checking the breast pocket, Three of Diamonds.

My back hurts...happens every time I enter a stage for some reason.

That's uncalled for, Shockwave is in this game, so is Corpse, the 10th player in the power levels leaderboards. Even with my uncle as bodyguard, I can't help but to feel threatened by their existence.

If I remember correctly, Corpse has passed this stage before, that's not an advantage or anything because as mentioned by my uncle, memories of stages will be erased.

But why would he enter this stage again? It's not like obtaining a second hp bar is possible, if it is, everyone would have been sweeping this stage repeatedly by now.

Another thing I remember from briefly checking the leaders' profiles, Corpse is from the alliance Living Cemetery.

There's three people that's on bad terms with that aliiance currently in this stage, me, my uncle and Shockwave.

I don't think that's an immediate disadvantage for Corpse however, my uncle and I won't attack him if it's not necessary, he just needs to avoid us and target Shockwave.

Best assumption I can make to justify his presence in a stage he has already passed before is for the players.

Me and my uncle barely did anything to his alliance and he's no match for my uncle, so I think it's reasonable to assume he's here for Shockwave.

This stage's task doesn't sound difficult, especially since my uncle is here, he can sweep this task solo indubitably.

What I want though, isn't just to pass this stage, I also want Shockwave in my alliance, that'd increase my chances of winning the tournament significantly with two Top 15 players in my team.

Enough thoughts, I got up, tidied my attire like last time and opened the door...

"You're slow." Before I even touched the doorknob, Four of Diamonds opened the door, and according to the earpiece, this would be my uncle.

He now has the messy appearance of Four of Diamonds but with the earpiece, which doesn't suit him at all.

I'm not complaining however, the body of Three of Diamonds is about an inch or so taller than Four.

Hehe finally, my uncle's shorter.

"What were you doing in here for so long?"

"Just thinking. So you don't remember anything from this stage despite already clearing it before?"

Four lets out a sigh, "Yeah, that's how the game works. It's not like it's any big deal, nothing in this stage could remotely hurt me anyways."

I was going to walk out of the room, but he stopped me midway.

"This stage can absolutely hurt you however, so stay close."

That's the third time you've said that.

"Yeah, yeah I will."

His eyes tells me he don't trust me as much as he did before.

He lets out an exasperated sigh before lowering his arm to allow me out the room.

"Guess we head to the centre for food then?"

"Guess so." He answers.

‎ ‎

"We've got dumb luck, Corpse and Shockwave is in this game. Chances are they're against eachother though, they shouldn't be aggressive towards us." Four explains while we're walking.

"That's good."

He has the same thoughts as me, neither of the top 15 players that joined are here for us.

Before we actually reach the 60 story tall building at the centre of Diamonds territory, we saw Ace, Ten and Nine walking not towards the centre, but towards the gate.

"Hey! where you're going?" Four asks loudly as they were quite the distance from us.

That raises suspicions uncle, you're not very careful with your words at all are you?

"They came! You guys should join us!" Ten screams back to us.

"They?" Four questions.

"Well they told us to go, let's go check it out." I suggested.

"Alright."

‎ ‎

When we arrived at the gate, Ten and Nine armed themselves with rifles along with some other soldiers of lower ranks.

Ace seems to have froze up, not doing anything in particular, just trembling and standing precariously.

He's also a player, Kenneth Spears, it seems he's forced to be in the frontlines.

"They're here, Ace, lead the way." Nine says.

"Oh um, ok..." Ace answered timidly, yet both Nine and Ten kept pushing him closer and closer to the gate.

Outside the gate, a group of men was approaching, with a massive wooden supply crate on wheels.

At the centre front of the group of people, a man approaches the gate with a condescending look on his face and an ostentatious attire.

By ostentatious I meant, in a post-apocalyptic world where resources are scarce, he was wearing gold chains, earrings and a watch, so unnecessary.

Accessories aside, it was a light coral red button up collared shirt with around three or four buttons undone from the top and gray cargo pants.

He's a handsome guy, if he didn't wear that arrogant and conceited smirk with his head tilted slightly upwards.

The other men behind him had austere clothings, but still of better quality than the average men in Diamonds community, omitting those with a poker card.

As he and the men behind him approaches closer, the facial expressions of Nine, Ten and especially Ace grows progressively more uneasy.

"Say something." Nine nudges Ace who's been pushed to the very front of our group of soldiers.

"You've came." Ace said to the approaching men, with forced confidence which anyone that's not deaf can tell it's feigned.

"As I've promised in the letter, did you not receive it?" The man in the red shirt said.

His voice is as irritating as I would think.

"We did." Ten says while raising his hand that's holding a folded paper in between the index and middle finger.

After the man in the red shirt halts his footsteps right in front of the gate, Ten lowers his hand back down, then raises the other, the other hand that's holding a pistol.

"Nice to meet you, Ace of Hearts, do you mind explaining your arrival now?"