"'Becoming free' is being free of the godly cycle. There, your fate is unbounded."
Anyasu could immediately discern which one sounded more appealing and aligned more with his own values. Even though he didn't know entirely what it specifically entailed, he'd obviously try to become free.
The creature then shifted its hands over to a deck of cards. The cards were rather long lengthwise and short widthwise, and they were sleeved in black. They seemed to resemble something less… divine and more modern and sleeker.
"Are those… really the cards we're using?"
"There are 19 cards in the deck. 15 of them are elemental cards. They are coloured accordingly. There are 4 game cards and 4 player cards."
"Game cards can be played during a player's turn, right? And I'm guessing player cards are specific to the player."
"Yes indeed. However, game cards differ in that they are random each round.
"The player cards are specific to what resides in your heart. So do be careful; it may contradict what you've said aloud."
"I don't have to worry about that," Anyasu smirked. From his understanding, the game seemed quite simple. However, where did ranking up and freedom tie into all of this?
Then, as if answering his thoughts–
"To 'Rank-up' or 'Become Free', you need to attain 2 copies of either 'Rank-up' or 'Freedom' cards. You can get a rank-up card by having 5 copies of the same element in your hand. You can also get a Freedom card by having 1 of each type of card in your hand, or through special conditions."
Special conditions? Another bit of information repressed. Anyasu guessed that it would be extremely important later on in the game.
"We'll take out the player cards from the deck. Since they are true to the player, they will be blank until the respective player wields them."
Taking the top 4 cards from the deck, he spread them out on the table. These cards were the player cards.
Anyasu took them and then stared at them for a while. Sure enough, an image began appearing on the card. Instead of the blank white picture surrounded by the black border of the player cards, there was now an image.
In one of them, there was a picture of a man with a bag of presumably cash running away. He was clearly a burglar. The other was a card with a sun on the front. The sun was drawn with a grotesque-looking smile reminiscent of the moon from a certain mask game. Below it were grey figures that seemed to resemble humans bowing towards it and burning something.
What does this say about me then? Anyasu thought. He wanted to get time to understand the message behind the cards and to learn how to play them, but the creature had already restarted explaining the rules.
"Here are two dice and a coin. We will use the coin to determine who will be first to roll the die. With the die we will roll them and then draw the number of cards from the deck as the amount rolled. There are 19 cards in the deck now that the player cards have been allocated."
"So, it's possible to start by drawing 12 cards? What about your opponent?"
If one could draw 12 cards, then immediately they had the upper hand. The chances of drawing only elemental cards were rather high. In that case, he'd need to employ a strategy that guaranteed high rolls or at least prevented him from getting low rolls.
"Your opponent will draw the rest of the cards. Both players will activate game cards starting with the player who rolled, then they will present their cards. If both players are evenly matched, then the round restarts."
A game like this was kind of brutal. It seemed that it liked to torture its players with repeat rounds, sort of like a back-and-forth fight where both sides got slugged down.
"That makes sense. There are only 2 ways to win after all."
"Finally, you can choose only one player card per round. Once used, they cannot be reused. So use them wisely–"
"–I know! I know! Now get on with the game!"
"Now that you know all of this, let's start the game," It said robotically. Now, Anyasu was beginning to wonder why Ayana displayed such an aura of cold indifference.
"Right, may the best player win… Ayana."
At that moment, Ayana flipped the coin.
"Heads," Anyasu said.
"Tails," Ayana said.
The coin remained suspended in the air. With it came both players' suspension of belief. The first round really determined the flow of the game from there. Whoever won it would be given a winning hand.
"You're really good at flipping coins, far as you know that," Anyasu said. His breath hitched. In this state, he couldn't help but run his mouth, "But I will win this! And I hope there's a decent reward."
"Mmh" The creature replied unresponsively.
Clank. Clank. Clank…
The coin had finally landed. With it came jubilation and much relief for Anyasu– it was heads.
"Alright! Yeah! My roll!"
Anyasu rolled the die. However, he did this by dropping the first die out of his hand closer to the table. This, even if it seemed to be only superstition, would mean that the dice only spun when they hit the table and not in his hands. That was why he let the upwards face be the number 6.
When he dropped the dice, the result soon became apparent to both. It was a 5.
He rolled the next dice.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
A 6.
"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Anyasu shouted. Next, he drew 11 cards. He then waited for Ayana to draw the rest of the remaining cards in the deck. He drew 8.
He scanned his hand, formulating a strategy. His eyes flickered from one card to the next. A snarky grin stretched across his contours; he had a particularly great hand this time.
4 elemental cards of the colour 'red', 4 elemental cards of the colour 'yellow', 1 game card and 2 elemental cards that were brown in colour. He then added one of his player cards to the mix– the one with a robber. He decided to dub it: 'Exploit.'
It was his move. The game card that he had in his hand bore the picture of an ascending spirit with numerous small figures below it lifting their arms up. However, behind the spirit, nestled in the background, was a skull. The skull seemed to have a rather strange object attached to the centre. It was a sword. It seemed to depict a 'seal' of some sort. Who knew what this was supposed to imply.
Sure, he had a winning position able to achieve the 'Freedom' ending immediately. But wouldn't it be more insightful to first understand the game more? He wasn't in a rush to get out of here after all.
With that reasoning, he decided to place the card down.
"I play this card!"
"Ah. So you're playing the 'Sealing' card. That card forces both players to discard 3 cards."
Then, he placed 3 of his cards in the discard pile.
Anyasu was dumbfounded.
I have to read these images a lot more carefully! Or else I'll end up losing! He thought.
Anyasu then picked 3 of the cards he needed the least. He wanted to make sure he had one of each to achieve the 'Freedom' outcome. Therefore, he discarded 1 red card, 1 yellow card and 1 brown card.
On the cards seemed to be depictions of natural elements. On the red cards, there seemed to be a depiction of fire. On the yellow cards, there appeared to be a depiction of a blinding bright blue light, and on the brown cards there was a canyon with infinite striations and crevices.
Could these cards mean anything? He asked. However, with how liberal Ayana was being when it came to information, it seemed like he was told the full scope of the game. Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that there were no tricks behind this aside from Ayana's knowledge of this world and its customs.
"I end my turn," Anyasu said.
"Excellent. Then I shall begin my own. You fool," It said, mocking him. "I use the game card in my hand."
He laid out the game card from within his hand. It was a card depicting an archaeologist digging out a grave.
"This card is known as: Beckoned by the King's Grave. It allows me to select 3 cards from the discard pile and add them to my hand."
"What! Then that means-"
"Even your cards that were sent there are valid." He then picked up the discard pile and scanned the cards within it. Without missing a beat, he selected 3 and added them to his hand.
"With that, I end my turn." Then, he placed all his cards face down on the table. He then stared at Anyasu knowingly.
"Now, we'll compare who was closer to achieving either a Rank-Up or Freedom path. However, if we are evenly matched, then the round restarts."
"Alright, well I'll present my hand first."
Flipping up his cards, he revealed 2 red cards, 2 yellow cards, 2 brown cards and his player card. He had a winning position before he activated that card like a fool. He was being overly trigger-happy, and he knew it. Next time he wouldn't make such a mistake.
"Interesting. You had the winning position but discarded it in favour of information, yes? How foolish. In a game of gambles like this, sometimes luck matters more than the information at your fingertips."
"But don't you think information would increase your future odds of success?"
"Doubtful. Those who bet on everything immediately and trusted in their luck and in their future seem to be the most well off."
"What are you talking about? That's never happened."
"Those billionaires didn't accrue an insatiable number of ducats through just intelligence and foresight."
"…"
"There is a reason why the market is deemed unpredictable. We can try to predict the behaviour of people by polarising them and separating them from others like-minded. It'd make them more likely to act in sync. Yet should a time come when polarisation fails, then everything will become volatile."
"Your point?"
"Before becoming a brand large enough to polarise groups… they must've relied on something else to achieve significant wealth," Ayana said. "Investment is at best an educated guess."
You have me, but you don't have me… Anyasu thought, deadpanning.
"With that, here is my hand," He concluded, flipping up every card sprawled out on the table: 2 red, 2 yellows, 2 browns, 1 game card and 1 player card. He had won– and he did it by achieving Anyasu's desired ending. How shameful.
"Now I claim my victory card. It's a shame. It's the one you wanted as well," Ayana said, smirking condescendingly. The smirk served to piss Anyasu off. Anyasu returned the smirk with a glare of his own; however, Ayana ignored him.
He shifted his hand over to the hole at the centre of the table. There, his hand hovered over it. Then, a white light engulfed the area. So blindingly, brilliantly bright that Anyasu shrieked. It was a sight out of a scripture.
As the Spirit rescinded his hand from the crevice, he pulled out a dark card. There seemed to be a mysterious aura oozing out. The card had a black background with red streaks across the back.
With its introduction into the space, the brightness of the room seemed to drop two tones.
Anyasu shuddered; even though it seemed on paper to be the better one, it looked to be the worse-looking option. Maybe it was similar to that allegory where things that look beautiful are dangerous, and things that emanate danger are beautiful.
"Alright, alright, let's just restart the round already. Don't get ahead of yourself. I'll defeat you!" Anyasu declared, "So roll your dice!"
"Very well, Ol Shantarre," It said.
The round then restarted. The discard pile reset. However, the divinity option seemed easier than the Freedom cycle option. That option was starting to become a lot more appealing to Anyasu. However, achieving victory by giving up his free will was contradictory to everything in his life up until this point. Subsequently, he resolved to make sure he'd lose before he gave up his free will.
Finally, both players put all the cards in their hands back into the deck.
Ayana then cupped both the dice in his hands and rolled them.
Clank. Clank. Clank. Clank.
6 and 6.
He'd be picking up 12 cards this round.
That meant that he'd get 12 of the 19 left in the deck. That really wasn't good. The chance that he had drawn all 4 of the elemental cards required was so high it made Anyasu's stomach churn in desperation.
Drawing 7 cards himself, Anyasu had the pleasure of seeing an extremely disappointing hand. 5 yellow cards, 1 game card and 1 brown card.
Staring at the pile of cards where he'd receive his player cards, he had a realisation. He still had 2 player cards left. But he wanted to save them for other rounds because he had an inkling that they'd be necessary in the later rounds.
"Do your worst spirit!" He shouted defiantly. But, to the astute, hollow eye of the spirit, the subtle waver of his eyebrows and constrained expression spelt it out.
"You don't know how far I'm willing to go," It said.
With that, the air around it grew heavy, and Anyasu could sense the encroaching darkness surrounding the two belligerents festering. If the room before wasn't chilly and alienating before, Anyasu couldn't help but feel the nauseating feeling of despair trickle its way to the core of his being.
He would not yield. He would not lose. But soon, it felt like 'would' would become 'could'.