You are at a dinner party, sitting down to eat, when you glimpse someone sneaking a suspicious substance into your food. 

This wasn’t too much of a surprise for you. After all, you had just done the same to another guest sitting nearby. It would surprise you if any of the plates on the table did not contain some kind of suspicious substance. The trick would be to pretend this wasn’t the case and stay polite and within the rules of this get-together. 

You came here fully aware of the risks, but the potential reward was too good to pass on.

When you got the invite to this party, you first thought it to be a joke. They invited to a dinner party. You were to come dressed appropriately and follow courtesy rules. Whoever does not do that will be thrown out. The ones that manage to stay until the end will get an offer for a job and the prize money of 10 million dollars in gold will be split among the winners.

You need that money. But more importantly, you want that job.

But, as an expert assassin and person who does jobs others wouldn’t, you being targeted by this invite means that only others like you would be guests. And with the goal being ideally the last one left at the end, you knew that most who participated would not come out alive. Despite this when the evening came you put on clothing fitting the occasion but also allowing for good movement and hidden weapons. You didn’t consciously decide to go, but something inside of you needed to, so you did.

Now you are sitting there, poisoned food in front of you, waiting for the host of the evening to give a speech and maybe some explanation of what this whole thing is about.

When finally everyone settled down into a chair you could see that every seat was taken, except for one. The one on the short side of the table is still vacant. Everyone sitting also allows you to be able to count how many people are in the room, and how many of them are guests. You had guessed about 25 in the crowd, but with everyone sorted you could see that including you there are 29 guests. 28 people who wanted to see you thrown out or dead. 

A bell ringing pulls your attention away from your fellow guests and towards a door that is opening. At first, you are blinded by the bright lights that start flooding through the door, the person stepping out of it only a shadow in the light. Then your eyes start to adjust and you can see the man more clearly.

Out of the light steps an elegantly clothed, unusually tall, slim man of a maximum of 30 years old. The suit he is wearing is a perfect fit, black with red lining, and a white shirt with red accents of the same tone. His brown hair was cut in a standard short men’s haircut and he has the kind of face most people forget immediately after seeing it. 

The man steps to the empty seat, and one of the serving staff pulls out the chair for him. They didn’t do that for any of you guests. 

Standing between the chair and the table the man looks around, making eye contact with all the the guests, including you, and then starts to speak: „Thank you all for coming. I know, most of you came here for business reasons and everyone is probably curious about the details. But I personally dislike doing business on an empty stomach, so please, let’s eat first. Enjoy the food and I wish everyone a pleasant evening.“ He raises his glass, expecting everyone to do the same. 

„This is bullshit!“ someone yells and hits the table, making the plates and cutlery cling. A muscular bulky man with a buzzcut, his suit not at all fitting, probably borrowed, had shouted those words.

Your host doesn’t show any reaction, but the servers around the man don’t waste a second. When everyone turned to him he already has a syringe stuck in his neck and his body immediately goes limp, falling head first on his plate. The servers start moving him out of the room and cleaning up and soon it was as if nothing had happened, except that now there was one less person you need to worry about.

Everyone around you did their best to stay quiet, only a few people didn’t manage to hide their reaction fully. 

It dawns on you that being thrown out did not mean surviving.

The host is still standing there waiting for everyone to raise their glasses and the guests, including you, do so immediately. The host smiles. „To a great night!“ he says and then takes a sip of his drink.

Everyone around you murmurs something incomprehensible and then pretends to take a sip. The host's glass was freshly brought out by the servants as he was standing there, yours was probably poisoned. 

Then the host sits and begins to eat.

You do your best to blend in and pretend to eat. Of course, you would not eat this poisoned food, nor drink your poisoned drink. You start to get the feeling that coming was a mistake and surviving would be the main goal of the evening.