Jack didn't notice the light, and neither did Mia or Jessica, as they were already deep in their sleep. As for Seedy, he wasn't sleeping this entire time, noticing it. He turned his attention to the foreign sight with confusion.
However, that confusion very quickly became anger as Seedy let out a low growl in that direction.
As it gradually came closer, the soft sounds of footsteps echoed along with the creaking of a lantern swinging back and forth. The lantern was more than enough to illuminate the person, and it seemed to be a young man. However, it only showed the torso, since the person in question held the lantern close to them, causing the head of the lantern to shadow the head of the man.
Once he was roughly one hundred meters away, he began speaking.
"So there is a party that dares camp out? I would say that they are foolish... but I would be pretty relaxed too if I had a guardian of this caliber."
His tone was both deep and smooth, akin to a professional voice actor. Despite the fact the light hardly touched Jack and the others, the young man seemed completely aware of their presence.
The growl coming from Seedy became deeper and also a bit louder. However, the man was completely unperturbed. Suddenly, cracks began forming in the ground near Seedy. A second later, the ground underneath the man rumbled.
Then vines shot out, clearly targeting the unknown man. But before any of them touched him, his body jerked out of the way rather irregularly, almost like it was a ragdoll being thrown around. With very little effort on his part, he dodged them all.
And the entire time, the lantern was still being held in the exact same position, right in front of his chest.
In the middle of it, he opened his black storage deck, and a gleaming katana appeared in his hand right after. Several flashes of light appeared, and blood spurted into the air. All the vines were slashed through, leaving them to squirm aimlessly around on the ground. Seedy let out a suppressed whine, trying not to cry out in pain.
But in the end, Jack woke up anyway.
"Hm? Seedy? What is it?"
Though he asked the question, he quickly found out by turning his head towards the light and noticing them. However, despite the small amount of light, Jack was still able to see his face fairly clearly.
It was an uncannily clean one, given where they were. A wide smirk was on his face, while his eyes were narrowed, just barely showing off his gleaming blue irises. It was paired with short black hair that blended in with the darkness.
He smiled and waved at him. Jack opened his mouth, about to scream his greeting, but let out a small gasp before covering his mouth and turning to look at the tent. After a bit of hesitation, he put a hand to the side of his mouth and whispered.
"Hello there! Do you want to be friends?"
The man let out a laugh and whispered back.
"I am flattered by your offer, but unfortunately I am more of a lone wolf."
His eyes widened ever so slightly.
"And as a lone wolf, to survive, I naturally need to fight to get my own prey."
Jack held up a finger to his mouth.
"Shush! You're being too loud, they're going to wake up."
The man raised an eyebrow.
"Is that so? Then why don't we go to a quieter area to continue?"
Jack gave a small nod. He hopped out of Seedy's clutches, despite the fact Seedy began whining, not wanting him to leave. However, Jack didn't pay any heed to it, instead opening his black deck and storing Seedy away, letting him lick his wounds.
The man began walking silently to the side. He was incredibly quiet, with the only real sound coming from the rocking lantern, letting out intermittent squeaks as he went. Jack walked alongside him without a single ounce of fear, even when the man was still carrying a bloodied katana.
Soon enough, the two of them were nearly a kilometer away. Although sounds would echo in the cave, it was pretty overkill. The man stopped and turned around to look at him.
"Is this far enough?"
Jack nodded with a smile.
"Yes, I think so! But about what you said earlier, do you really not want to be friends?"
The man took a deep breath and shrugged helplessly.
"Unfortunately, I'm not really compatible with other people."
Jack puffed up his cheeks. After a moment of thought, he suddenly stuck out his hand for a handshake.
"We can decide if you're incompatible or not after we get to know each other! My name is Jack, what is yours?"
The man raised an eyebrow, falling speechless for a little while. After a moment, he covered his mouth as he laughed, going as far as to even hunch over. After recovering, he put away the katana and did the handshake.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Karn. Though I must ask, why do you care so much about my social life?"
Jack let out a giggle.
"Because if you're really alone, it hurts so much. I wasn't alone all of the time, but even then, it was so scary. Er... maybe not scary, but it really didn't feel good. If you're alone, then that must mean you feel really bad too!"
Karn let out a long sigh.
"Thank you for your concern, but I'm fairly certain that we have opposite problems. I fully believe that you've been alone for too long. However, I've been around many... less than pleasant people in my life. Frankly, I've gotten sick of it."
Jack let out a gasp.
"Ah, you're talking about the bad people that my father talked about!"
Karn blinked a few times, a bit dumbfounded.
"I suppose so, yes. And I imagine that I've become one of those bad people."
Jack pouted and looked at him with beady eyes.
"No! I don't believe it! A real bad person wouldn't call themselves that! What's wrong is that you haven't been around good people! I know a lot that I can introduce you to."
Karn fell silent for a moment. Out of nowhere, he reached out to gently pat Jack's head.
"Haha... Once again, thank you for the offer. You really make me wonder, how different I would be if I met someone like you a decade... no, just a few years earlier. But now... now it's already far too late."
Karn's grip on Jack's head suddenly strengthened, as veins bulged out of his hands. Creaking sounds quite literally came from Jack's head, though he himself only looked up at Karn with an oblivious expression.
"Hm? What are you talking about?"
His pants pocket suddenly heated up tremendously. Suddenly, the latch on his playing deck broke open as the Joker card shot out, transforming into a mask that put itself on top of Jack.
In fact, his entire body heated up, making him feel uncomfortable. But while the heat made Jack uncomfortable...
"Gah!"
Karn suddenly retracted his hand among sizzling sounds. He took a look at the palm of his hand and saw that the surface had already been charred over. With a smile, he began laughing.
"Hahaha! I imagined that someone with multiple blood cards wouldn't go down so easily! So are these your true colors?"
Jack tilted his head to the side, rather confused.
"Huh? Oh, are you talking about playing a game? I really like doing that, I'm glad you want to be friends!"
While saying that, he suddenly slashed out with a knife, ripping straight through Karn's shirt and into his flesh. Blood flew into the air, and Karn backed off. However, despite taking what would be a pretty bad injury, he simply continued laughing.
"So this is a game to you huh? I suppose I might as well enjoy myself!"
Karn's voice distorted near the end, losing all of its previous elegance. He then held out his hands, while his wound expanded. And from that wound, countless small gray tentacles came out, each wriggling with a life of their own. On top of that, they began coming out from his mouth as well.
Karn violently threw the lantern, throwing part of his arm along with it. Instead of a wound that one might expect, there were instead gray tentacles coming out. The arm that he threw disassembled into tentacles before suddenly enveloping the lantern and mutating into what looked like a giant gray leech.
Jack put a finger onto his chin and let out a gasp.
"That reminds me, Seedy should have some fun too!"
He opened his black deck and summoned Seedy, who quickly locked onto the strange leech and used his vines to bind it. While the thing was restrained for now, Seedy seemed to be having a tough time holding it in place.
Karn let out a distorted and crazy laugh.
"Do you see what I've become?! A monstrosity like me can no longer even call themselves a human anymore! Every day, every moment, I can feel all of them wriggling inside me. The worms just won't leave me alone! Every day, again, again, again, and again. They won't let me sleep, just because this body doesn't need sleep anymore! This was supposed to be my body, but it's like I'm the guest!"
Jack simply let out a laugh.
"Wow! That sounds so cool! Why don't you show me more?"