I'll be honest, my gut reaction was fear. Mr. Beast has basically become YouTube's own mad scientist. He can snap his fingers and shape reality at this point. Despite part of me thinking I should just stay in the comfort of my own home, I felt really honored to be invited and kind of just wanted to show up, say hi, and then realistically go home within the first round of eliminations. I accepted the ominous invitation and before I knew it was flying to North Carolina being handed a custom uniform, all before even knowing what I actually just signed up for. I didn't even know if there was a prize for the winner at this point. Walking into the green room,

I was expecting to not know anyone, but to my relief, I saw a lot of familiar faces. I even used this time to ask MatPat what it was like to meet Scott Cawthorn and he told me FNAF secrets.

So already, this trip was more than worth it. Eventually, we were herded down a long mysterious hallway until we saw it. The Mr. Beast cube. After everyone was filed inside, we were told the last person to leave the cube would be deemed the winner and also win a million dollars for their subscribers.

This is for a million dollars?! The challenge began. Immediately, people started jumping in the giant pile of real money that was inside, throwing handfuls of bills in the air, laughing, mingling. To pass the time, James and I drew our cartoon characters out of dollar bills on the floor. The staff came in and ended up giving everyone their own personal vlog camera to document their POV of the challenge, and I think I genuinely was the only person who didn't record a single second of footage on that thing. I just thought, I'm not gonna use this footage because

I'm not gonna make a video out of it and they're gonna have plenty of other people's footage to use.

In hindsight, maybe it would have been a good idea to record something just in case. I don't know, maybe the Mr. Beast team would end up actually wanting to use some of my footage. Who's to say?

After maybe an hour or two, Jimmy came out for the first bonus challenge. A single free throw.

Miss and you're eliminated, but make it and not only do you get to come back into the cube, you also win a cyber truck for one of your subscribers. They had 50 people's subscribers just in a room waiting for something to happen. I'll be honest, when Jimmy explained the extra credit challenge, I was like, hell no, I'm not going up to miss a free throw and leave immediately after nothing's happened yet. If my subscriber back there knew what was going on, they 100% would have understood they weren't getting called up for nothing. If I remember correctly, maybe two people ended up making their baskets and three people were eliminated.

I could be wrong, I don't remember because I didn't vlog it. While chatting with friends,

Ludwig walked up and asked if I wanted to do a dice bet. With nothing else to do, I agreed.

And to no one's surprise, I lost. And an evil expression washed over Ludwig's face.

All right, since you lost, I want you to walk up to Kai Sanat and introduce yourself with,

Hi Kai, I'm Jaiden. So which of my videos have you seen?

Maybe I should have just missed a free throw. Hey Kai, there's someone I want you to meet.

Hey man, I'm Jaiden. Nice to meet you. So which of my videos have you seen?

Excuse me? Holy shit, I'm gonna kill myself. Oh, um, so which of my videos have you seen?

Oh, I'm sorry, I haven't seen any, I don't think. Ha, that's okay. Nice meeting you, bye. Kai was super chill and nice about it, but oh my god, I wanted to rip my skin off. I'm stuck in this cube with him until further notice, and it's all Ludwig's fault with his stupid dice.

I hate it in here, let me out! Oh, hi Jimmy. We were told to gather up in groups of five, designating one as a team captain who will have immunity for the next challenge. I was with James,

Schlatt, Ludwig, and Charlie Moist Critical, using the dice to choose the captain. This time,

I actually rolled highest, but reassigned it to Ludwig because I couldn't cope with the idea of possibly being responsible for a teammate's elimination. And then it was revealed captains would just have to assign their teammates a shape for the Squid Game Honeycomb Challenge.

Okay, well, I definitely overthought that one. I had Triangle, James got Circle, Charlie was Star, and Schlatt, unfortunately, got Umbrella. The 10-minute timer began, and everyone started deploying various different strategies to get their cookie shape out. Charlie used a new technique called puck as much spit as you can into the tin to dissolve it all. It was really gross. He ended up filling the tin almost to the top with spit. By the end, two people with stars were eliminated, and not a single Umbrella made it through. Bye, Schlatt. It was very funny seeing Mr. Beast lift the lid off Charlie's tin and immediately reel back in disgust, though. A total of 14 out of 50 people have now been eliminated, leaving 36 people. Honestly, that was good enough for me.

Losing at any point going forward was already further than I was anticipating. We were fed our little thing of rations and left to wait again. It probably doesn't seem like long in Mr. Beast's video, but it was like 9pm by the time we began the second real challenge. After being directed to choose a partner, James and I shook hands, ready to take on the next game as a team, and froze as it was revealed we had just chosen our own opponent. Another squid game tactic. I probably should have seen it coming, I just didn't expect the double up. The Beast staff revealed the next challenge as they rolled in a giant Jenga tower. Winner stays, loser walks. Unfortunately, the very first game of giant Jenga between KSI and AJ ended up taking literally two hours. Doing the math in our heads, we all kinda figured we probably didn't have the time to play Jenga for the next 30 hours. But just as AJ won, KSI hoisted him over his shoulders and ran out of the cube.

HUGE DRAMA. Everyone is freaking out, AJ was stunned, no one knew what to do. Was that legal?

Can you just carry people out of the cube? Jimmy had everyone take a vote, and pretty much everyone opted to bring AJ back in. Yes, out of the kindness of our hearts, but also out of fear of being manhandled. So since giant Jenga was a bust, production ended up scrambling to try and find like 12 sets of normal Jenga at midnight in North Carolina. A feat that seems impossible, but I feel like Jimmy could just call up the president of Jenga and have it all delivered via helicopter within 30 minutes. It took a bit, but the slightly larger than normal, yet still reasonably sized

Jenga towers were all set up. As our game was going on, James and I ended up making a pact that whoever was eliminated would relay to the outside world that the other was okay. Because we didn't have our phones, by the way. Our friends only knew we were in the Mr. Beast cube and haven't responded for 14 hours. Our game of Jenga was pretty intense. Eventually it got to the point where as I was watching James pull out a final piece, I realized there wasn't any left for me to safely remove. I'm about to be eliminated. And a flash of bliss washed over me. Sure, I'll be gone, but that's okay. I'll be set free into the outside world again. The cube is harsh, unforgiving. It's taken so many of my friends from me. The glass floor is hurting my butt. I'm ready to go now.

And deeper into the trenches I went. James being eliminated meant I was moving on to cube day two.

What a miracle. Watching the rest of the Jenga games was like watching an active war zone. People were focusing, cheering, sweating, praying. Towers were falling one after the other at the feet of now eliminated players. It was brutal. And also still taking way too damn long, man. Can I go to bed? The last game left to finish was between James and I. We were both in the middle of a finish. The last game left to finish was between Quackity and a popular Brazilian creator Ennaldino.

Apparently when it was revealed the challenge was Jenga, Ennaldino turned to Quackity and admitted he was a Jenga pro. Quackity had never played. Not the situation you want to be in. Quackity half-jokingly asked Ennaldino if he wanted to play rock, paper, scissors instead, to which he replied no. Which, you know, fair. But three hours into this single game, the two of them were neck and neck. Genuinely the most cracked round of Jenga possibly ever. Everyone in the cube was gathered around watching Quackity slowly pulling out the very last piece in this skeleton of a Jenga tower.

Just as he was about to make it, Ennaldino asked, rock, paper, scissors? Quackity looked up at him.

It was over. Ennaldino tried to hang in there, but in the end he fell. 18 people were now eliminated.

All right, it's 3am, let's go to bed. I genuinely thought they would let us go back to our hotel rooms for the night, but... man. Now this is just great. I won myself a ticket to a night in the

Mr. Beast cube, sleeping next to a bunch of people I barely know, and I was probably just gonna get eliminated first thing in the morning anyway. As I was getting ready for bed, Kai walked by.

Hey, I gotta check out your videos sometime. Oh, I'm sorry man, I lost a bet to Ludwig and he made me say that. Oh, shit. Okay, damn. Oh, well that makes falling asleep a bit easier. Thank god he only thought I had a huge ego for 19 hours straight. Crisis averted. In the morning, production had to prep for filming again, which meant they turned on every single light in the building, flash banging all of us. They were turned off and then these loud ass BRRRRR sounds from construction started blasting. They turned the lights on again a few minutes later, but this time in a crazy strobe light effect for some reason. After breakfast rations, Jimmy returned, pointed to the entrance hallway and in walks Eyeshow Speed with too much energy for a group of people that just had the weirdest sleep of their lives. Alright, you guys have the chance to vote Speed into the cube to join you in challenges. The kind thing to do was to let him in, but we all just survived trenches no one could even understand. We were trauma bonded together and also it wouldn't be fair.

The majority of us moved to the voting side of no. Admittedly, me too. Mainly because I was a bit scared of him. Speed looked at Kai. At least shake my hand, man. You're gonna pull me out. As the two of them argued about a friendly handshake, Ludwig stepped up. I'll shake your hand, Speed.

His hand now extended to Ludwig. The moment their hands touched, Speed started yanking Ludwig towards the outside world. We all started screaming and panicking. We couldn't lose one of our cube brothers like this. Ludwig was holding onto the support beam for dear life. Some of the guys managed to pull him back in and as Speed walked out, unable to take any souls with him, he exclaimed, this ain't the last time you're gonna see me and I remember all y'all's faces.

Alright, let's get started. Challenge three was steal or no steal. Basically a modified version of deal or no deal. Some cases have the word safe in them, others say eliminated. One person looks inside a selected case and the other decides whether they want to steal it or no steal it.

And also Howie Mandel was there. Hi Howie, big fan. People started getting eliminated one by one, others securing safety. Eventually, Ludwig was up at the podium asking if anyone wanted to volunteer to go up. At this point, the ratio of safe cases was very high. 60% in favor of safe.

Figuring the odds would just get messier from there, I volunteered. Ludwig looked inside his chosen case, looked up, and told me it was safe. I knew mathematically I should steal the case, but I've been burned by math before. As I started hesitantly saying I was gonna steal, Mr. Beast suddenly burst out saying Ludwig's heart rate was spiking. By the way, he was wearing a heart rate monitor. Which made me scared it was actually an elimination case and he was excited at the idea of avoiding going home. So last minute, I decided to let him keep the case. It was the safest play.

If it said eliminated, then good. I dodged a bullet. If it was safe, then at least I'm not actually eliminated yet. I just have to play again. Shit. It was now my turn to bring someone up.

Even though I didn't want to pick a friend out of fear of getting them eliminated. More than that,

I didn't want to be up there with someone I didn't know. I picked Quackity. He came up to the podium,

I grabbed case number two. It says safe. My plan was to tell the truth, but in the most unconfident and nervous way possible. I was deploying every bit of body language knowledge

I could think of, making myself look as guilty as possible as he asked me various questions.

We went back and forth for a bit until your eyes looked down as you said the case was safe, which indicates guilt. So I think you're lying. I'm not gonna steal it. Without a word, I shifted the case onto its back, unlatched it. Safe. It was worth sleeping in the cube. Oh my god, the relief.

You have no idea. After everything finished, a bunch of people walked out and unfortunately,

Quackity ended up being one of them. Ten people left. I know it's a dog-eat-dog world inside the cube, but when you're left to sit with your fellow contestants for hours on end between challenges, waiting for Jimmy Beast to send you all through another round of cube stress, you really start bonding with the survivors. It was pretty sad watching them go. Hours passed until the Jimmy death bell struck again, and we were told to partner up once more. Alex and I had really gotten to chat and hang out together as the only girls left at this point, so we paired up. Everyone was blindfolded and told to sit tight until they were ready, which is ominous. The two of us were strategizing and figuring out each other's strengths and weaknesses for whatever was coming our way, only to be unblindfolded and see the entire cube transformed into a kitchen. It was a cooking battle. We're actually f***ed. What? Alex started panicking, saying she can't cook for her life. We were freaking out. Then Mr. Beast brought out the judges. Professional competitive eater Joey

Chestnut, Miranda Cosgrove, hi big fan, and Speed. Bottom two teams are eliminated. Time starts now.

We ended up committing to mac and cheese with a slice of chocolate cake under the fancier title of American Comfort Food, aka the only two women left in the challenge can't cook and they're trying their f***ing best. The judges walked around to check in on everyone, and eventually Speed was at our station. So when you all were voting to let me in, which side were you on? Well, originally we were on the side of no because we were a bit intimidated, but we ended up switching to a yes at the last minute. Right, Jaden? Yeah, I switched. Alright, cool. Because you know I don't forget, right?

Yep. Later on during the challenge, Mac and Nolan from the Beast team came up to ask what we were making. At the time I was grading up Feastables to sprinkle onto our cake for decoration, and I thought, oh it would be funny to have them ask what we're making and it's just their own brand of chocolate. So I was like, close your eyes and open your mouth, and gave Mac a piece of chocolate, and immediately without chewing he was like, is this Feastables? And I was like, yeah. And he kind of stood there for a second with his mouth still open, and Nolan was like, oh he's allergic. And they both had to leave. Oh my god guys, I felt so bad. I apologized so much when he came back. Mac said it was fine and it's a good sport about it, but I still have so much guilt about being such an idiot. Ludwig and Amixem presented first with their fried chicken and asparagus dish. The judges all really enjoyed it, giving them a total of 26 points, which is really unfortunate because I definitely thought Speed was going to hold a bigger grudge against Ludwig and tank their score.

We were up next and thankfully they really liked our food too. Joey was the first to score us and ended up giving us a 10 out of 10. And in the moment as a joke I wanted to turn around and flip off Ludwig as a like friendly fake gloat, but I accidentally turned around and flipped off Amixem and I felt so bad again. He was not the intended target and now I was just being rude and this challenge was going horribly. Not because of the cooking part, I've just been non-stop fumbling socially. We also got a total of 26, putting us at a tie with the French boys. But now Logan Paul and Nick DiGiovanni were presenting and I haven't mentioned it yet, but Nick is actually a goddamn chef. They even gave us all his own cookbooks as a helpful tip for the challenge, which is just a knife twist in my opinion. So yeah, they knocked it out of the park, got a 29. The judges were licking their plates. After them was Kai and AJ who had a great presentation, but their food, not so much. They got a 16. After eating, Speed got up and started smashing the plates on the ground and Logan Paul saw this and got really excited because he wanted to smash plates too. Without thinking, he ran out to join Speed and we all shouted at him in panic. Confused at the sudden change in the air, Logan looked back at us before realizing he left the cube. To this day, none of us are truly sure if he did it for like the content or it was a genuine accident. In his defense, the set was so cosmetically different that it really did feel like we weren't in the cube anymore.

Either way, he content cratered too close to the sun and even though he had a guaranteed spot in the finals, he was eliminated. The last team of Rubius and Sprite Dare went up with their Spanish tortilla, but turns out Sprite Dare is a huge fan of Speed, so he made a special Thai dessert just for him that the other judges weren't allowed to eat, which is honestly hilarious. We all held our breath as the judges flipped through their scores. 22. Alex and I made it to the finals. I never in my life thought I was gonna be getting this far and suddenly realized I need to actually think about what I would do if I won. I went into this thing not even knowing if there was a prize at all and was now facing the reality that I could win the whole thing. Hours passed as the five of us sat together in the cube until Mr. Beast emerged for the final time. Someone was about to win 1 million dollars for their subscribers and it all came down to this last challenge. Honestly, among the group, there wasn't a single person I thought didn't deserve to win. Everyone left were good people who all wanted to do something really positive with the money. It was great getting to know them all over the course of two cube days and I was really proud to be standing next to them in the finals. Five briefcases were piled in the center, one for each finalist. We were to each take one, peek inside our chosen case, and within the next 10 minutes discuss who to vote out. If you're voted out and your briefcase is empty, you're eliminated. But if you're voted out and your case has the million dollars inside, you win instantly. It was basically like reverse among us.

The first round started, we all grabbed a case, peeked inside. Holy shit, I grabbed the million dollar case round one. I started shaking. I didn't know what strategy to use. I didn't know how to make myself look like I should be voted out. And during the discussion time, it definitely showed because I was really quiet and nervous the whole time. The 10 minute discussion wrapped up, we all unanimously wrote our votes down, and it fell into a tie between voting out Ludwig and somehow me.