Chapter 129 – Cooperation

Things changed when players finished constructing their wonder. They entered the second and final stage of the game, where the goal was now to polish and decorate their buildings. Any player reaching that far needed to draw five mission cards and try their best to do as many of them as possible. It included things like buying art to decorate their wonder, painting the walls, polishing the surface, etc. However, this is where things got interesting. They didn't have the right to draw normal cards anymore and their money income also stopped at that point. This meant that they had to accomplish their missions with the resources they had left from the previous stage.

In addition to that, the fact that they couldn't draw any more normal cards implied that they couldn't attack, steal from, or hinder other players anymore. On the other hand, players still in the first phase of the game could still attack them if they wanted to. This was a balancing mechanism where it wasn't necessarily such a good thing to finish one's construction too fast. Players would get a bonus from finishing the first stage so quickly but would then probably have very few resources left due to rushing and would also become the targets of every other player. This was a common mistake people who played the game for the first time would make. This game was popular because it had a certain amount of strategizing and it wasn't just about rushing to accomplish one's objective.

However, in this particular game, the two forerunners didn't have to worry about any of this. Benjamin and Azariah were still only fighting each other and they were able to focus on their missions without any hindrance. Several turns later, the game ended when Waverly finished her missions. They started to count their scores based on how quickly they finished their construction, how many missions they accomplished, and how many resources they still had left. Waverly won by a small margin with Braelyn right behind her. Benjamin and Azariah's wonders were barely half done, most of their workers having disappeared in strange accidents and the bulk of their money drained from their long war. Azariah was still a little bit better off and ended up in third position, giving a smug smile to Benjamin, the absolute loser of the game.

He was a bit upset to have lost against her but still had a lot of fun. At the same time, he felt somewhat sorry to have focused only on opposing her.

"Sorry, I ruined the game by only antagonizing you."

However, the three girls shook their heads and Azariah answered.

"Not at all. There is no normal way to play these sorts of games. As long as you have fun then anything goes. It was a good fight and I enjoyed it."

Braelyn added some more reassurance.

"That's right. You might have had more fun than us who played the game normally."

And Waverly concluded.

"Do you want to try a different type of game? I propose a cooperation game. This time was free for all but with a cooperation game, we all have to work together toward a single objective."

"Sounds interesting."

With Benjamin's agreement, they cleaned up the game's setup and Waverly went to put it back in the storage room, coming back a few seconds later with a different game in hand.

"This is a game I played at my aunt's place. We are stranded on a volcanic island and we need to find a way to escape before the volcano erupts and kills us all."

She put the game on the table and they started setting it up and checking the rules just like before. The game itself was quite simple, every time they all had a turn, a day passed, and they had ten days to escape. They needed to build a big enough raft to accommodate everyone and collect enough food and water to last long enough and not die during the raft's trip. Everyone received three cards at the start, which allowed them to do various things including collecting more resources, getting some advantages in terms of resource consumption, or even killing another player. When it was their turn, they were only allowed to do one normal action plus any action coming from their cards.

The interesting part was that instead of working toward their goal, they could explore the island and find useful things - which was corresponding to drawing a card. That meant that someone could potentially play the psychopath, not help toward the goal at all and only focus on getting stronger. This is where the team had to make the choice of getting rid of troublesome elements before they became unstoppable and potentially kill everyone else. The fact was that getting rid of someone else meant that the rest of the survivors needed fewer resources to escape the island and survive. Since everyone's actions were visible, there was no way to hide anything from the other players except for their cards, which stayed private until they were played.

The game started and Benjamin had nothing interesting in hand. The three girls all had their best poker face on and the first few turns of the game were very normal, with everyone contributing toward the goal. One went hunting to get food, another one went to harvest coconuts to get both milk and food from them. A different one focused on cutting trees and the last one started making a raft out of the fallen trees. But then, after a few turns, the girls started to try exploring the island. Curious, Benjamin followed their example, drew a card, and read its description.

'Sharp rock. Both its size and weight are a perfect fit in your hand, as if it was meant to be. For some reason, you start having strange thoughts when holding this rock in hand. Action: allows you to kill another survivor during your turn.'

Oh...