Afterlife Games

Without a single word coming out of my mouth, the earpiece seems to have already noticed my confusion.

"Allow me to give you an introduction to the games. You are living in the dystopian future of year 2178, but instead of being greeted with astounding technological advances, you are met with the collapse of civilization."

I'm dead, and the afterlife is set in the future? That doesn't make any sense at all. Human civilization coming to an end early does make sense to me though.

"An unimaginable tragedy struck Earth, eradicating almost the entirety of the human species off the planet. The last remaining human survivors are divided into four seperate and conflicting communities, each with a different ideology for the fate of humanity. These four communities are Diamonds (You), Clubs, Hearts and Spades."

Named after poker cards? Afterlife is looking like it's designed by a 16 year old at best.

"The Diamonds, hopes to unite all survivors together and restart civilization. The Clubs, driven by greed, is a community that will use whatever means necessary to snatch resources from other communities to ensure their own survival. The Hearts, believes in restarting civilization similar to Diamonds, however demands absolute power and control over humanity with themselves as it's dictator. The Spades, believes in the extinction of the human species."

What kind of apocalypse that had caused this situation isn't explained, so it's hard to believe the actual survivors in a dystopian future will act in this manner.

"You are the Three of Diamonds, a ranked officer in the Diamonds community. Your duty is to distribute food and lead expeditions outside Diamonds territory. Right now, your main objective in this world is to find the spy from Clubs who have infiltrated Diamonds community."

Good to know I'm not a nobody in this world, but shouldering responsibility like that definitely isn't something someone like me would enjoy.

"Am I really dead? I don't feel dead." I asked seeing as the mysterious earpiece never once confirmed it.

"Yes, yes you are, and you do not have to communicate with me verbally, just thinking it will suffice."

That's cool.

"Well if I'm dead, why would I even do any of the things you told me to, my objectives and such, it's not like it benefits me or that I have something to lose."

I thought that in my head, and astonishingly enough, the earpiece can indeed hear my thoughts and it responded.

"If you can successfully complete the assigned task in seven days, you will be awarded a chance of winning a pass back into life."

Back into life? I've never heard of anyone that came back from the dead and tell about it.

Reading my mind, it responded, "Memories of the games will be permanently erased from all winners."

Well that's unbelievable, though considering how nothing's believable at the moment, I choose to not inquire further.

It's kind of ironic, both in my life and in my death, I'm still playing games. This should pose no difficulties for me, I've played enough of RPGs to know how the stories generally go.

The pass back into life is certainly attractive, even to someone like me who gave up struggling in my last moments. I prefer playing video games on a screen than one where I actually have to physically move by a large margin.

Perhaps I can find video games in this world and do that with my time instead, ignoring the task of finding the spy assigned to me.

"No, no you cannot."

Oh right, mysterious earpiece reads minds.

"After seven days, if you have not achieved your objective, you will be eliminated from the game."

"And what happens then?"

"Eternal darkness."

That's unsettling to hear, I wouldn't describe myself as being horrified though, it's not like I wasn't mentally prepared for eternal darkness, it was what I was expecting to happen during that fire.

I wanted to open the door and explore outside the room, but the luggage which stands out a lot for being one of two things remotely clean in the room really caught my attention. Hence, that was the first object in this world I approached.

There was no lock on it, I opened the luggage with ease but discovered nothing interesting, there was just clothes, and they were all the same white collared shirts and black trousers. I assumed this luggage is sort of my closet in this world. Looking at my current attire, it was also white collared shirt and black trousers, boring.

As I was checking my current attire, I noticed something in my breast pocket. It was a poker card, the three of diamonds, guess this is like my ID card.

I placed it back firmly into my breast pocket, if it was something I slept with, it must be of significant values. After sweeping off some dust on my shirt and adjusting the collars, I opened the door of the room confidently to explore what's outside.