Copyright Notice: This story is an original work by Muntasib_Ihshan789. All rights reserved. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.
In an unknown place on the seas, the cruise ship continued to sail, cutting through calm ocean waves while the atmosphere inside grew heavier. The card game had just begun, yet tension already crawled across Delta's table. Alpha stood frozen, staring at the truth card Zeta gave him.
"Tell the truth. Did you cheat or not?" Zeta repeated, his voice firm.
Alpha's throat went dry. His hands trembled slightly as he stood. He opened his mouth, and after a pause said, "L-Lie… it's all a lie. I didn't cheat…"
The lie sounded weak, even to himself. Years of training had made them sharp at reading each other—voice tremors, nervous eyes, subtle body language.
Among them, Omega was a master of reading other's body language. Looking at Alpha, it took him not much to figure out Alpha was lying. Omega caught it instantly like a lie detector.
"Admit it!" Omega leaned forward, his finger pointed straight at Alpha, "It's written all over your face—you cheated."
The mentor supervising their table didn't seem surprised. He simply crossed his arms and spoke flatly, "Alright then. We'll check the surveillance footage after this round."
The teacher said, standing back to Pi's chair looking at Alpha. After that, he wrote some messages in his tab and kept looking at other tables.
Alpha's knees nearly buckled, but he sat back down quietly. The others turned to their own thoughts, the room filled with murmurs from other tables. Some kids were crying, one table a kid was standing on the table on one foot, maybe a dare. The last one seemed normal. Chaos still hasn't taken place on that table. Delta and the others were too deep in their thoughts to notice the outside world.
A few minutes later, as Alpha reached for his card, the mentor's voice rang out.
"Alpha, the footage confirms it. You cheated—and Pi helped you. Five points deducted."
Alpha's face turned pale. His hand hovered above the red deck, shaking. Pi, who had been quiet till now, swallowed hard. Her expression stiffened, realizing her name had been dragged into this mess.
Alpha's shaky hand shifted from the red deck to the black one. He picked a card and blinked in surprise. A swap card.
"Teacher," Alpha asked cautiously, "What does… swap do?"
Hearing that Alpha got a swap card made Pi's throat dry.
The mentor gave a sly smile, "With swap, you can force any two players to swap their cards or point totals."
Pi was frightened because she had the most points which was 2 and Alpha had the least points. Alpha could make her position the worst. Alpha was not a very good student among them, he could not figure out who had the most points. Unlike Omega who had a laser sharp observation power, he lacked it.
"So who should I swap with? I don't know how many Points Pi has. Delta and Omega senpai still haven't owned any. That leaves Zeta. He told the truth. Heh…time for some payback." Alpha thought.
He gritted his teeth, looking at Zeta. "You accused me first…"
He slapped the card on the table. "I swap points with Zeta."
Zeta's jaw tightened. "You little rat…" he muttered under his breath.
The mentor noted the moves on his tab. Alpha now held +1 point. Zeta fell straight to –5.
Omega leaned back, crossing his arms with a sly grin. "Just as planned. Now Zeta owes me. He'll need me to climb back up," he mused.
The first round ended. Pi remained on top with +2 points, earning herself the +3 bonus. Alpha blinked in confusion when the mentor declared, "Top scorer Pi, +3 points."
He glanced around, stunned. "Wait… Pi accepted Delta's dare? Then… she has five points?"
Round Two began.
Delta reached for the black deck and pulled out a reverse card. She held back, passing her turn silently.
"I pass." she said.
Pi's turn. She grabbed from the red deck and drew a truth card. Without hesitation, she slammed her silence card onto the table, targeting Omega. Blocking someone was worth an extra point, pushing her total to 6.
Omega couldn't draw a card this round.
Zeta went next, still simmering. His fingers brushed the black deck and picked… the Wild Card. His eyes lit up. After taking it, he instantly started running his brain on how to use it in the most efficient way.
"Finally, something useful…now I have minus 5 points. The lowest. If I need to recover, I need to team up with Omega senpai. In that case…"
He scribbled something on the card quickly, passed it to Alpha, who blinked in confusion.
"Special Card: Double Dare Plus," Alpha read. Below it, a message: "Give this card to Omega. Don't decode the code below."
Alpha frowned at the strange symbols underneath, but followed instructions, handing it to Omega.
Looking at the scene made Delta shocked. "How can card giving go anti clockwise? It can only mean…" Delta thought.
Pi thought at the same time, "Wild card."
Omega flipped the card, analyzing the hidden code.
"Morse? No… it's numbers. A cipher within a cipher," Omega thought, squinting. His eyes widened slightly as he cracked the code.
"…let's team up and bring Alpha down."
Omega's grin returned. "Smart move, Zeta. As expected from you."
He stood up, directing a question to the mentor. "Sir, what does the Freedom Card do?"
The mentor tilted his head, tapping his chin before addressing the group clearly.
"You didn't understand? Fine then. Listen up—one more breakdown of the rules so no confusion remains."
The mentor listed them clearly. Each successful dare gives you 2 points. Each truthful answer gives you 1 point. Using a black card wisely shall be rewarded with 1 point. The top scorer when a round ends will get 3 bonus points. refusing to do a dare will result in -2 points Failing Dare means –3 points. Refusing to answer a truth costs 1 point. Lying in Truth will cost 5 points. Finally if anyone gets violent or rude, 2 points will be subtracted.
Some words echoed in Delta's head.
As the mentor continued, Delta's mind worked like clockwork.
"There's a loophole…" she thought, fingers tapping the edge of the table.
Her lips pressed into a thin smile.
Dead Logic © 2025 by Muntasib_Ihshan789 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International