The now nicknamed by Ray Mikes brothers were staring at each
other after being hit by a contagious amount of shame, the real Mike was about
the same height as his brother, if Paul looked like he was 35 then his brother
was probably around 28 years old. Mike had a way more casual, and it would be
fair to define it a more normal look if compared to his brother's one. Both had
straight and spiked air, meaning that their hair literally pointed upwards but
fortunately they weren't too long so they both could still get a decent
appearance. It looked like they both cared a lot about their own look but in a
weird way, since they were very neat people in a pleasant way but anyway, they
could surely get a different haircut and probably even a random one would make
a better job than the one that they have now. Mike was less muscular than his
brother, his face was better looking since its features were more harmonious
but also more ordinary. It also looked like he didn't like the fact that his
brother does things out of plans that he thinks to be wrong. But anyway, he
respects his brother that it's visibly stronger than him and probably Paul has
also other qualities that he recognizes.
Paul now after getting back in a decent state after he felt
a bit humiliated he says "I'm sorry for
the inconveniences… about… the challenge, well, we'd like to know about it" Ray
with very friendly manners says "There's
no need to worry, after all everybody knows that we're after the same thing, I
don't know how much useful would turn to be lying about such an obvious thing
to each other. Anyway, I wanted to propose you a fun challenge but first of all
I'd like to explain to you somethings about the game board, that'll
beee…." 'Ptuh ptuh ptuh ptuh' Ray
started hitting Bara's back simulating a drum roll… and he continued 'ptuh ptuh
ptuh ptuh' until Bara says "stop acting like a
moron and speak up" in a very tired tone, 'ptuh ptuh ptuh ptuh' "it'll
be this whole planet! Or at least its circumference" Bara as Ray was explaining
the rules was analyzing what the Mikes
brother had in mind and he thinks "this plan of theirs, I don't know what's the
probability of it being true, surely it would make sense to reveal it if they
actually thought about it, since it would be weird if one of them accidentally
answered to a name that wasn't theirs, but anyway, it doesn't matter too much
if it actually happened or not. But rather, I think that they have something else
going on in their mind. They probably think that what is happening it's just
going to their advantage since they're still convinced of their superiority in
strength but anyway, they acknowledged a little bit our strength. It's also
true that doing such a diplomatic thing like this one would give benefit to
them also if they would actually be stronger than us, because loosing strength
fighting us would draw enemies on them so making a peaceful exchange would be better for them, that's probably what
caused the change of plans."
While talking a lot of creatures were around them and this bothered them a
little bit. They had long arms, with spikes on them to climb to their homes,
their lower limbs instead were very large and strong, since they, to be faster
at getting down, instead of slowly climbing back, they would drop themselves
down those enormous structures. They had a small mouth compared to their big
head and they were very green. One of them falls on Ray's shoulder and he
throws it very far "Those greeners are so annoying, I was wondering if they'd
be edible or something. Uhhh, but… wait, I was thinking something: if they'd be
red, we could call them redder, if they were yellow, we could call them
yellower" then Bara stops him saying "I suggest you to not continue with this
joke" and Ray says "you're right, you're right." The greeners had weird bodies,
it's true that creatures in general must adapt to their own needs but this
thing in them got on a whole different level. Like… for example, a beaver has a
couple of really weird-shaped teeth, they are very long and very durable,
because their role is to destroy wood, that they use to create dams in the
rivers. But usually, a living being has a lot of roles, so there's no single
need that will shape its entire body, just like beavers that are not a couple
of giant teeth, but their body has also a lot of other parts since beavers have
also other needs, like breathing or also defending themselves, so they have
claws and also lungs. Greeners do not obey to this kind of rule and neither do
the rest of the other types of creatures in this world, the ones that have the
role of carrying things look almost like a spoon, if instead the creature's
role it's to cut it will almost look like a pair of scissors and so on. That
doesn't mean that they're stupid, in the contrary they have also a very complex
language and thinking capability that go far over the average human's
intelligence, and they also share the planet's thoughts, so their intelligence
can reach an unimaginable level. Their thoughts are directly connected to the
planet, that has also other ways of perceiving what's over its own land.
Meaning? It knows everything, quite literally.
Ray after telling his joke continues his speech explaining
the rules of the game "So… Paul asked me
to have a death match, but I'd like to make it something more soft and
interesting, in particular we'll choice an obligation that will somehow be of
some kind of advantage to the winner, this obligation can also be different if
a different person wins, the important things is that everybody agrees to
everything in the part in which we set the obligations. About the game… well…
what we'll do it's a race, but not a normal one, but there'll be a lot of rules
that will influence the game itself. The game is about going from two points of
this huge planet a lot of times. But before that I'd like to explain somethings
about this planet. I'll use some arbitrary reference points to let you
understand what do I mean. This planet rotates around itself by its own choice
since he's near a star right now and it doesn't want to burn from one side. The
rotation of the planet is about 53 hours, at least that's the speed that it is
currently rotating at. If you consider the rotation axis, we can consider the
two points in which it touches the surface as its poles. I'll refer to the one
that's nearer to the dark burst that comes from the underground as the north
pole since it's the one with the most similar inclination to Earth's north pole
and naturally the other is the south pole. Then if we consider an imaginary
line that goes from the north to the south pole going through the dark burst and the continues going also
through the other side, we can divide the whole planet in an East and west zone
and this will make my explanation much easier" after hearing this Bara asks
"which are the place that we should reach, which is the path to take in this race?" Ray promptly
answers "It's not exactly about a place to reach or a path to take but rather a
task to do. So, to give you some reference points, the reunion is on the
Northeast zone, we are currently in the southwest zone, and the places that are
related to the game are in the southeast and the north west zone. In the south
east zone there's a place in which there are multiple dark and iridescent clumps of planet's
residues with rainbow shades that come from the
'liver', under there in fact there's the organ that purifies some
substances that are useful to the whole organism, that's the place in which the
race will begin, then there'll be a turning point that it's in the north west zone. In that place there's
a thing that can literally be considered a tumor but it's not a life threatening
one, it probably just causes to this planet a lot of pain" Mike thinks that the
rules are over and asks him "So we'll have to go to one place and come back…
but for how many times should we do it?" After hearing his word Ray
disappointed turns to Mike "Did you really think that this could be it? We
surely can do better than this, in fact what I wanted to ask you it's way more
fun and the additional rules I'll
propose will also have an important role, I'll assure to you that
they'll be very useful" his listeners started to get a little confused but
anyway they kept quiet "We'll have to do a couple of tasks… the first of which
will probably the hardest, they are both very easy but the first one will
probably take from us the most amount of time, and in a race as you may
understand time is precious. So, the game will begin in the southeast zone but…
the players won't begin their race at the same time, but one of them will start
an instant before the other. We'll make multiple 1 vshaveraces, one of two
non-participant will hold both of the players hand and will let go and with an instant I mean that the player
that goes first shouldn't arrive at the 10% of the path to reach the other
location that I told you about, it's also prohibited for the chosen referee to
make his companion arrive at a distance that is very close to the 10% to make
it difficult to understand if the rules has been broken or not, naturally if
the referee cheats his companion automatically loses the match. All of this is
to avoid somebody going first since this would make us lose time and it'd make
since we'd have to restart the challenge, so it'll be impossible to break the
rule since the rule doesn't exist to begin with". Paul, after listening
carefully to Ray's explanation is wondering something "That's something very
smart, I like the idea, but what about the turning points? How can we be sure
that nobody cheats in that regard, for example turning too early?"
Ray
continues talking like if Paul didn't just stop him, because Paul asked him what Ray was about to say too,
so He didn't change subject, so Ray with a single breath kept going, with his
eyes wide open looking at the ground like if he was thinking about something
totally different while talking to them "When the participant will arrive at
the first turning point in the north west zone he'll have to go to the place in
which the planet developed a tumor, he has to eradicate one of the tentacles
that has gone crazy and he has to bring him back with him at the starting
point, but it's not over, the player will have to use that tentacle to destroy
one of the spherical clumps of residues that are in at the starting point. and
when I say destroy, I mean literally, it has to be at least cut in half, the
match will end in four repetitions, and each repetition will be counted on the
starting points after the player eradicates the tentacle and destroys one of
the giant clumps. And that's about it."
Paul then a little bit deluded says "didn't you say that it'd be
something more physical?" and Ray raising his face, looks at him straight in
the eyes and says, "who said that violence is forbidden?"