It seemed like everyone had been gathered at the real base, with every last one of the WATERs caught. A perfect victory for the ICE team.
Toping grinned, boasting, "Admit it, my plan was brilliant. You were all fooled. We won without the WATERs ever being able to rescue a single teammate."
Sam raised his hands in defeat, nodding. "Indeed, the plan was perfect, and won.
Toping smirked, clearly pleased with himself.
"But not your team," Sam added, lowering his hands to tap with the others. Shon did the same, and together, they declared, "We win!"
The clock hit exactly 5:00 PM.
Toping's expression faltered. "What are you talking about? We caught all of you. This is our perfect victory! You can't just tap someone already frozen and say you've won."
Tsunami added with confidence, "We've already caught and frozen all 21 of you."
Shon, however, wasn't convinced. "Are you sure you caught everyone?"
Toping replied, "Yeah...We're positive. Tsunami and I caught Asing, Sung, and two others from my class(NPC) at the beginning of the game."
Tsunami chimed in, "Then, I caught Oppa, Liabilities, and Chingla—five in total."
Toping continued, "Later, I caught Ori, Flower, Bori, and Sam—six in total."
July Boy, still unsure, hesitated. "I caught Roslin, Pre-Guy, Shon, and five from my old class(NPC) —eight in total."
Hori spoke up, "I only caught Jangla."
Shon paused, then said, "Let's count them all again."
Toping quickly counted the numbers. "That makes... twenty."
The four members of ICE were stunned. They exchanged confused looks, realizing something was wrong. There was one person unaccounted for.
"No one caught ON NO," Sam said, his voice full of confidence.
Toping's eyes widened in disbelief. "But she was here from the beginning... How did she…"
Sam began to explain, flashing back to when he had revealed his secret plan to Shon and OH NO.
---
Flashback to Sam's Plan:
Sam had pulled Shon back just as she was about to tell everyone about their strategy. "Wait," he said, "What do you think of this plan?"
Shon nodded enthusiastically. "It's perfect. We can win with this."
Sam smiled, but it wasn't a smile of triumph. "Exactly. It's almost perfect. But that's exactly what our opponents want us to think."
Shon frowned. "What do you mean?"
Sam continued, "This plan is what the ICE expect us to do, we'll do it like they want, and I'm sure the other WATERs will do it too, but our main trump card will be... ON NO."
Sam turned to OH NO, who was listening intently. "So, ON NO, will you go around telling this plan, or will you stay here?"
OH NO and Sung usually don't have script, but for the plot let's give OH NO the center of attraction this time and give her some screen time.
OH NO sighed. "I… I let Sung get captured right in front of me. She and I were always together, but I couldn't do anything to help her. All I did was run... I ran without even looking back."
Sam's voice softened. "If you get depressed about leaving Sung behind, then how will you ever live up to her expectations of her waiting for you to unfreeze her."
He continued, his words hitting home. "Maybe she wanted you to leave so you could survive and come back to help her later. If you both had been caught, who would have been able to help her?"
ON NO's expression changed as she processed his words. She realized then that Sung had wanted her to survive so that she could eventually help them both.
Sam looked at her, his tone reassuring. "I know exactly how you can not only help her but also everyone else. Stay here at CAMP1. The ICE team will bring Sung and all the frozen players here instead of to that big boulder.
Shon and ON NO exchanged a confused glance. "But why would they do that? It'll be obvious. If they bring everyone here, we'll see them."
Sam smiled, his eyes focused. "You'll understand later. Just trust me, and don't try to run, no matter what. Stay here."
---
The plan was in motion. Now, it was all about waiting and seeing how their opponent's overconfidence would play into their downfall.