Sami let only a few seconds pass before he composed himself and forced his mind to focus.
Although there were so many questions running through his mind, he couldn’t afford to dwell in his panic. After all, his timer had already begun and he had just one minute to pick a card, or he would die according to the rules of the game.
’The card chosen will define everything about a player, including their talent. From the way things are phrased, that leads me to believe that a high rank card will give a player a high rank reward. Although I’m not fully sure of what is happening, what I do know is that this is the beginning of an apocalypse, which means it’s only right for me to believe that if I settle for a low rank card, there is a chance that I might regret it later. But then, picking a high rank card means I’ll have to pay a sacrifice. I have no idea what I might be asked to pay.’
Sami was sweating, and after a few more seconds, he began to bite his nails and tap his feet on the ground.
When his eyes darted to the timer, he felt his urgency increase.
His eyes darted back to the cards. Although some of the numbered cards didn’t require any cost, he didn’t bother looking at them, and just stared at the Face cards.
’But at the end of the day, it might be worth it, right? A high card equals a high reward.’
Sami swallowed and his eyes moved down to the Jokers, which were the highest cards in the deck.
’The red color joker is often called the Big Joker, while the black and white joker is called the Little Joker.’
Sami exhaled.
Despite his wildly beating heart and sweaty, shaky palms, he made up his mind.
His hand shot out and grabbed the full-colored Joker.
Whatever will be, will be.
At that moment, the words on his screen changed.
[Player no. 100346 has chosen a card]
[Card chosen: Joker]
[...]
For a long moment after, nothing else happened. The more time passed, the more tense Sami felt. Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait too long before new words appeared on the screen.
[Power comes at a cost]
[Turn your card over to find out your cost]
Sami swallowed, then slowly, he flipped his card over.
Just then, he gasped and his heart sank when he saw what he had to sacrifice. He was suddenly filled with enough horror that he nearly threw his card away.
"What the..."
[Take out your eyes as a sacrifice]
"Wait, wait... what?! I’m supposed to take out my eyes?!"
Sami’s brain buffered for a few seconds and he lost his ability to think.
Who wouldn’t?
Being asked to take out not one but two of your eyes was like a sick nightmare made real. For someone like Sami, for whom complete darkness, blindness, and helplessness had been his worst fears right from when he was young, this was the worst-case scenario.
And as if this was not enough, a new timer on the screen appeared, drawing his attention.
[Time Left: 00:02:29]
At this point, Sami did not know whether to laugh or cry. He couldn’t blame anyone for this because he had brought this upon himself.
’The message was right when it said that greed kills!’
If he did not take out both his eyes within the time limit, he would really die!
Of course, he had no way of knowing if the strange phenomenon was telling the truth, or if he would really die if he refused to do what was asked. But seriously, this was a gambling situation where his life was on the line.
No matter how you looked at it, the situation had become terrible!
’And I cannot return the card and pick another.’
Sami sighed and squatted down. Then, he grabbed the sides of his head and began to pull at his hair. He even began hitting his head, groaning as the seconds went by.
"Aish, Aish, Aish, Aish, Aish."
What a dilemma.
Looking back to the timer, he could see that he had less than two minutes left and it kept ticking down relentlessly.
’How does one even take out their eyes?’
After a few more seconds of hesitation, he finally summoned up his courage and clenched his fists.
"I have to do this. If I don’t, I might as well be dead."
Without further ado, he stood up and quickly headed toward the kitchen drawers to grab a sharp knife.
Then, he hurried over to the kitchen counter to grab a bottle of high-proof whiskey. Without wasting much time, he opened it and began chugging it down. Due to the sudden burn, he coughed and sputtered, but managed to force the liquor down his throat, after which he resumed drinking until the liquid hit his empty stomach like liquid fire.
Once he felt that he had enough to dull the coming agony, he went to his laundry hamper, picked up a thick hand towel to jam into his mouth, and finally went back to the spot where the cards were floating.
Then, he knelt down on his knees, put the cloth in his mouth, and bit down as hard as he could. He raised the knife toward his face, his hand trembling violently while he took deep breaths and counted from one to ten.
’You can do this, you can do this...’
After a few more labored breaths, he closed his left eye, lined the tip of the blade with the edge of his right eye socket, and jammed it deep into the inner corner near his nose.
A muffled, agonized scream exploded into the towel. Fresh, hot blood gushed instantly down his cheek, blinding his right vision in a flash of red and white heat. Gritting his teeth through the blinding agony, he angled the blade around the curvature of the eyeball, severing the tight muscle tissue holding it in place. With a slick, sickening pop, the eye slid forward out of the socket, hanging loose by the tough optic nerve. Sami reached up with blood-slicked fingers, gripped the warm organ, and sliced cleanly through the nerve to free it.
Without letting his brain process the sheer horror, he drove the blade straight into his remaining eye.
The world plunged into absolute, pitch-black dark. He sliced wildly through the pain, feeling the wet tear of tissue until the second eye came free from his skull. Panting heavily, covered in his own blood and tears, he dropped the knife and let the towel fall from his mouth, collapsing onto the floor with two bloody offerings held tight in his hands.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"
It felt like hell!
The alcohol did jack shit to dull the pain, and it was a miracle he hadn’t passed out yet.
While he was still reeling from the blinding agony, he suddenly heard a notification ring directly in his ears.
[Player no. 100346 has paid the cost as demanded.]
[Two Human Eyes.]
[Congratulations on completing the first game: Game of Cards.]
For a moment after, the world was as silent as it was dark. The only sound in the apartment was Sami weeping on the bloody hardwood floor.
Or perhaps weeping wasn’t the right word for it.
He had gone mad from the pain, and the sounds leaking from his throat were closer to the frantic, wet gasps of an animal choking on its own breath.
He dug his fingernails into the grooves of the floorboards, trying to anchor himself against the vertigo dragging him down.
Eventually, the sound of the notification Chimed again.
[Calculating achievements and distributing rewards...]
[The Player has chosen to be a wild card, and has paid the price to hold the card of the rule breaker: Joker]
[Grade of the Joker: ???]
[Commencing reward integration: Your physical vessel shall now evolve to match the structural baseline of a ???-Grade creature of the First Tier.]
Suddenly, Sami felt some kind of hot energy blast through his spine. It was the same kind of feeling one would have after carelessly touching an exposed wire.
It took a lot from him to not just let go and faint on the floor.
Just as his head felt ready to explode from the overload, Sami suddenly realized that his senses had become heightened. He could hear things better and he could feel things around him in ways that he couldn’t quite explain.
More than that, his greatest boon at the moment was the fact that the pain in his eyes had finally begun to fade, bringing him some relief.
Panting, Sami pushed himself up and tried to sit straight. After a few agonizing seconds, the electrical surge, which had been slowly ebbing away, finally burned out, leaving him soaked in sweat and blood.
"...?"
He opened and closed his trembling hands. He didn’t feel stronger at all. In fact, he felt weaker than he was before the awakening, which sort of confused him.
Just then, he heard the notification ring out in his ears again, louder this time.
[Congratulations, Player no. 100346. You have awakened the ??? Grade Talent: Charlatan]