Both Donald and Brian looked at Jack. It appeared the both of them were quite curious as to how he was going to take it. Though, Jack was smiling the entire time, even when he brought over the overly large fingernail remover. He put his pinky into the remover. Seeing this, Brian decided to speak up.
"Although it may seem like it's less painful to do only the pinky, they are more fragile than the other fingers. I'd say only the thumb would be more painful. In my opinion, the best option would be the ring finger first."
Donald clicked his tongue.
"Just let the kid fuck up. It's not like he's going to live long anyways."
Jack tilted his head to the side.
"What are you guys talking about? If you're going to do it, then you should do the pinky, because you can launch it the farthest!"
While the other two were still trying to understand what he was talking about, Jack raised his other hand all the way into the air, before violently slamming down with a bang.
And as promised, Jack's bloody fingernail shot up high into the air, before landing on the table. He puffed up his cheeks after seeing that.
"Aw... I messed it up. It could've gone so much higher!"
For a while, both Brian and Donald looked at Jack silently. The two of them were rather put off by the situation. Eventually, Donald mumbled under his breath.
"So he can't feel any pain, huh? That makes things more complicated."
As for Brian, he gave a small nod before taking back the fingernail remover along with the fingernail that landed.
"Very well. I will now hand out the rewards to the winner."
He took out a separate machine that almost looked like a miniature printer, but with a large funnel at the top. After tossing the fingernail inside, a two of hearts was printed out from the other side. Brian tossed it to Donald, who took it swiftly.
As for Jack, he was bleeding pretty badly. Because of how violently he took off the fingernail, a large amount of skin across his pinky had been ripped off as well. But it was almost like he couldn't even see it, since he didn't do anything about it.
Brian cleared his throat before pointing towards Donald.
"Now you will go first."
Jack put down two 3's.
As for Donald, he pondered for a while before setting down another 2.
The both of them were dealt an initial hand, Donald getting a 2 of clubs, while Jack got a 7 of diamonds.
Donald nodded.
"Hit me."
He got a Jack of hearts, making Donald's total 12.
Then there was a 7 of hearts, making Jack's total 14.
Matched against a 3 of clubs, Donald's total became 15.
Jack scratched the side of his head, not immediately voicing out his decision.
"Hm... I guess I have to take another card!"
Brian smiled and let out a small chuckle.
"That's a rather brave move, when you may go over again."
As he did so, he took the top card before brushing it against the deck a few times before tossing it.
Jack was dealt a third 7, making his total 21.
Jack raised his hands in the air with excitement.
"Yay! I got so lucky!"
Donald's eyes widened considerably as he cursed under his breath. He stared at his cards for a while. He was pondering over whether or not it was worth it to use his own cards to boost up his number.
While he was trying to count cards, it didn't really matter when only a few cards from the deck had been dealt. There was a safe play to just use his own cards to artificially increase his number to 21, but he didn't want to do that just yet.
Donald grit his teeth and decided to try his luck.
"Hit me."
Brian didn't try to draw things out to make it dramatic, simply tossing the card face up. Unfortunately for Donald, it was a King.
His total reached 25, meaning he lost.
This prompted him to click his tongue, but that was it. A gamble was a gamble after all. His 2 was lost, while he also handed over two 3's.
Jack took them happily, and Brian pointed to him.
"Now it's your turn to go first."
This time, Jack put down one 3 as his bet. Donald put down his own using two 2's as a bet.
The initial hand was dealt, with the two of them both getting 9's. Jack hit, getting an Ace, bringing his total to either 10, or 20.
From there, Donald hit, getting himself a 10, prompting him to smile.
"Hah, what will you do about that? If I just one 2 on the next turn, then I'll get a twenty-one."
Jack scratched the side of his head, rather unfazed.
"Um... I'll hit again."
Brian didn't wait, just tossing the card.
Which turned out to be another Ace, miraculously. If one counted as 11, and the other counted as 1, it brought his score up to 21. A smile formed on Jack's face.
"Wow! I got so lucky."
Donald's eyelid twitched. He clicked his tongue in frustration.
"Whatever."
He took out a two from his own playing deck, letting it land on top of the pile, matching Jack's 21. With that, it was a tie and the both of them got their bets back.
Brian smiled.
"Now the turns have switched."
Donald waited, tapping his chin a few times. As for Jack, he set down a 2 and a 3. Seeing this, Donald decided to put down his own 2.
From there, the initial hands were dealt.
Jack got a King of clubs, while Donald got a Jack of spades. Their totals matched again, becoming 10 each.
After that, Donald got a 7 of spades, making his total 17.
Jack got a Queen of hearts, making his total 20. Normally, this would be a really good thing for him. However, this wasn't a normal game of Blackjack.
Donald smirked when he saw the card, and pulled out a 2 from his playing deck, putting it on top, making his total 19.
Jack scratched the side of his head.
"I guess I have to stand."
Donald then used another 2, making his total 21. Naturally, he won. Unfortunately, since you were able to essentially cheat your total, getting a 20 was a guaranteed loss assuming the other person had enough cards to bring their total to 21. After all, the only cards that most people see on the first floor go between 2 and 5, meaning it was incredibly unlikely for someone to have an Ace.
Brian turned to Jack once more before bringing out the still-bloody nail remover.
"You will have to provide compensation again within five minutes."
Jack gave a nod.
"Ok!"
Donald didn't make any taunts this time, instead narrowing his eyes as he looked at his opponent. In response, Jack simply positioned the fingernail remover into his other pinky before declaring proudly.
"This time I'll be able to make it go really high!"
Once again, he brought his other hand up, before flinging it down, leaving behind a trail of blood.
A daunting bang resounded throughout the room, while Jack's fingernail shot upwards rapidly, hitting the ceiling before landing back down. Brian raised an eyebrow and opened his narrowed eyes a little wider.
"It did go quite high."
Jack let out a proud laugh.
"I told you!"
He gave the fingernail remover back. Surprisingly enough, his other pinky wasn't in that bad of a condition considering how hard he hit it. However, while it was relatively intact, it was still bleeding.
Once again, Brian took the nail and printed another two, tossing it to Donald. Although he was the one that won the last round, he still didn't look too happy. His eyes remained glued on Jack as though a hunter was eyeing its prey.
His initial goal was to try and take advantage of the fact Jack had no twos, forcing him to remove his fingernails. From there, being a child and all, Jack would find it too hard to endure the pain and end up losing by being unable to provide compensation.
After all, he was a literal child. There had to be a limit to his pain tolerance, right?
Unfortunately, he was proven brazenly wrong by how unnecessarily violent Jack was being when needing to provide compensation. He quickly came to the conclusion that he was a person with hypoesthesia or maybe congenital insensitivity to pain, a medical condition where they literally cannot feel hurt.
As for Brian, he was also silently analyzing things. At first, he came to the same conclusion as Donald. However, he very quickly discarded it after. If it was a situation where Jack couldn't feel anything at all, then he would either be dropping his cards very often or need to overly strain his fingers to make sure that he was holding onto them.
That clearly wasn't the case, but there were still people out there that could feel normal touch, but just not pain. Out of instinct, Brian watched how people held their cards. And one thing he noticed was when Jack's pinky touched the cards, it automatically flinched away. Right after, it went back normally and remained there still, but Brian caught onto that small detail.
Even though there was no reaction on Jack's face, that instinctual reaction was something that the people who couldn't feel pain didn't have. In other words, Jack definitely could feel the pain. In fact, by having that jumpy of a reaction meant he felt a lot of it.
But for whatever reason, he was unfazed by it.