The Survival Game Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A Strange Flight

The first time I took a plane was when I was about to graduate and start an interns.h.i.+p at a company three thousand kilometers away from school. I wasn’t able to buy a train ticket, but considering that I had never taken a plane despite my age, I used a phone app and purchased an on-sale plane ticket that was cheaper than a train ticket.

If I knew that something like this would happen, I would never have taken the plane!

I remember, it was a very sunny day. Because the plane was at 7am, I arrived at the airport at 5am. It only took me two hours to get my boarding pa.s.s, security check, check in my luggage, all these unimportant things, and finally I boarded the plane before it was even 7am.

But as soon as I got on the plane, something felt off. Even though it was my first time on a plane, the me who has a habit of “baidu”ing1 everything knew that the oxygen mask above our seats wouldn’t pop out unless there was a loss of air pressure in the plane’s cabin.

But we’re still boarding here. What was the situation of all these oxygen masks popping out? Was this how they treated people with cheap tickets?

The pretty flight attendant explained to us and said it was okay, and that these were from the overhaul from before. They didn’t have time to put them back because they were afraid that the plane would be delayed. All we had to do was put the oxygen masks back up.

Since the ticket I bought was on sale, and it was my first time on a plane, I was dispirited and didn’t have the courage to ask too much. The pa.s.sengers in the economy cla.s.s seats were probably just like me. I saw someone asked a couple questions, but the flight attendant didn’t give a straight answer.

There was nothing that could be done about it. Recently, someone beat up a flight attendant and it was all over the news. No one dared to question the flight attendants and risk seeming ill-mannered.

Just like that, I struggled to get on the plane, all the pa.s.sengers got on the plane, and all the oxygen masks were put back to where they belonged by the flight attendants. But for some reason, the way the flight attendants were looking at the pa.s.sengers was making me uncomfortable.

The plane started to move down the runway, the plane’s cabin started shaking, the engines were roaring, and just as the plane was lifting off from the ground, I felt a sudden drowsiness. My eyelids felt heavy, and I pa.s.sed out.

I didn’t know how much time had pa.s.sed, but when I woke up, it was all dark outside the window.

Wait a second!

How long did I sleep?

I quickly rubbed my eyes and looked outside the window again.

Pure blackness. You wouldn’t be able to even see your fingers in this darkness.

That’s impossible. My flight was a morning flight at 7am, total flight time was only 5 hours. Even if I arrived, it would’ve only been 12pm at noon. How is it possible that the sky is all dark?

Is it possible that I slept past my stop? Or does the sky just look so s.h.i.+tty here?

After all, this was my first time on a plane, and I didn’t know what was happening, so my thoughts ran wild.

But at this moment, I realized something even more shocking!

The plane that was originally full was now almost empty with about 10 people left.

What is going on?

I suddenly realized that I was in huge trouble.

Other people were also starting to wake up one after another. None of them seemed to know what was going on. Some were shocked, some were confused; there was even a girl who burst into tears immediately.

I didn’t know what to do either. I pressed the flight attendant call b.u.t.ton, but no one responded.

It seems like the flight attendants disappeared mysteriously just like the other pa.s.sengers!

What the f.u.c.k is going on?

Just when I was starting to panic, a husky voice sounded the flight announcement.

“Welcome aboard the Wailing Flight. There are 15 people on board, only a few will live to get off the plane!

If you want to live, please listen to the rules carefully!

1. Everyone onboard is a pa.s.senger, but there are three “Howlers” hidden amongst you. At 1300 hours, voting will commence. Every five hours, you will all vote out a person who you think is a Howler, and you will need to kill that person.

You are free to choose any method to kill the person, but if you don’t, the plane will crash automatically, and everyone will die!

2. Three hours after each voting, everyone will fall asleep for an hour, and the Howlers will wake up 30 minutes before everyone. Howlers will acknowledge their accomplices, and they must choose one pa.s.senger to kill.

You are free to choose any method to kill the person, but if you don’t, the plane will crash automatically, and everyone will die!

3. Among the pa.s.sengers, there are one captain, one security guard, and two flight attendants.

After each voting, the captain is allowed to check one person’s ident.i.ty as a Howler or a pa.s.senger, but cannot check other special roles.

Before the security guard falls asleep, he can choose to protect one person so that person wouldn’t be attacked by the Howlers, however he cannot protect himself.

The flight attendants know who each other are.

4. Your role card is in your pockets. Looking at other people’s role card is not allowed. You may not destroy or leave the plane cabin. You may not skip the rules and kill other people, or else you will suffer a horrible death.

5. If all the pa.s.sengers die, the Howlers win. If all the Howlers die, the pa.s.sengers win. The winning side gets to live and get off this plane, in addition you get to share a 50 million U.S. dollar prize!

So, please, scream! Tremble! Try your best to survive!”

After hearing the announcement, I felt completely baffled.

Is this a hoax or a joke? Can it be some rich sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d, capturing random people to play Mafia2?

How am I so unlucky!

Everyone in the plane cabin started to gather at the cabin door. Suddenly, a tall, good looking guy wearing black thick frames and a black casual suit spoke with an indifferent manner:

“Everyone basically understands what the situation is. If you don’t want to die, we need to start discussing. Let’s start with a self introduction.”

The handsome fellow in the suit had just finished speaking, I didn’t even get a chance to speak when a pretty girl wearing a floral dress, sunhat and sungla.s.ses immediately cut me off.

“You’re not really believing this announcement, asking us to kill each other?”

When the pretty girl brought up the phrase “kill each other”, the crowd couldn’t keep silent anymore. Everyone started talking over each other.

“Who are you? Where is this place? Why are you keeping me captive?”

“If this is a kidnapping, how much money do you want? Can you let me go first?”

“Gelaozi3! I’m district chief of Beipei, don’t y’all dare f.u.c.king mess with me! I’ll f.u.c.k y’all up!”

Good thing there were only a few morons who couldn’t accept the situation. Most people were being quiet just like me.

The handsome fellow in the suit was the first to introduce himself.

“My name is Shang Zhiyuan, I’m in finance. Today I was on the flight KN5245 to Beijing, but I pa.s.sed out as soon as the plane took off. When I woke up, here I was.”

Flight KN5245! To Beijing!

I was shocked by what Shang Zhiyuan said, because the plane I was on was flight ST6385 to ShenZhen!

That means we weren’t originally on the same plane!

What the h.e.l.l is going on?

Besides me, other people seemed to recognize this problem. Even those morons who were yelling stopped.

After all, the person who kidnapped us had the ability to move over ten people from different planes onto this one. With that kind of power, they must be no joke.

I thought for a second, and I started introducing myself right after Shang Zhiyuan.

“My name is Liu Nian, student, flight ST6385.”

Seeing that I’ve introduced myself, other people also started following my lead.

First, it was the pretty girl in the floral dress from before.

“I’m Pin ChuanXia, just call me Summer. I am a tourist heading to Haibei. Flight JF5467.”

After Pin ChuanXia was a young boy. From the expensive brands that he wore, he was definitely a Fuerdai4.

“I’m Qian Duoduo5, 50 million US dollars doesn’t mean anything to me. If anyone can get me out of here, I’ll give you 100 million US dollars. Oh yeah, the flight that I was on was a first-cla.s.s flight to Dubai!”

I didn’t have a good impression of these kinds of Fuerdai. I quickly switched my attention to the next person.

A middle-aged man with a beer belly and a half bald hairline, wearing an Armani s.h.i.+rt and suit pants, with a mouthful of dialect, as if he was afraid of people not knowing he was from Sichuan6.

“Gelaozi! I’m district chief of Beipei, Chongqing, ye see. I reckon I was supposed to be at the Wudang Mountains by now. When I woke up, I found myself here. I don’t really git what mischievous stuff y’all are up to, but tell your leader to git over here and talk to me.”

I was speechless. These kinds of middle-aged, corrupted officials are too stubborn. They’re even worse than the younger generation who reads online novels. He doesn’t even understand the situation yet.

The last person who introduced herself was a little girl who looked only about ten years old. She was the girl who bursted into tears in the beginning.

“My… my name is Guan Ling, student, and I’m going to Nanking to look for my mom.”

After the little girl finished speaking, no one else introduced themselves. The rest of the people didn’t speak.

Among the pa.s.sengers, there are men, women, middle-aged, youngsters, elders. It seems some of them are even parents, couples, and siblings, these complicated relations.h.i.+ps.

I don’t know why, but maybe most of the people at this time would choose to not attract any attention.

Shang Zhiyuan suddenly took out a black card from his upper s.h.i.+rt pocket.

“Good news everyone, I’m a pa.s.senger!”

Everyone saw the card Shang Zhiyuan covered with his hand, showing only a corner of the black card. We all started searching in our pockets. I, too, searched in my jacket pocket.

I found a card.

I was shocked when I looked at the card, but then I quickly hid my emotions, because I couldn’t believe that I was…