Jessica massaged her temple. Her eyes were a little too wide to be considered normal. She took a deep breath.
"More importantly... we have to talk about these strange monsters. They could be a danger to us if we don't understand them properly."
Jack looked over curiously, tapping his chin a few times before smiling.
"I remember they said something about being attracted to blood. I think they might like the blood card that I got."
Mia looked between Jessica and Jack before letting out an awkward laugh.
"T-That seems like a good lead."
Jessica took a deep breath while holding onto her chin.
"But more importantly, we need to figure out if those are actually people or monsters pretending to be people."
Jack let out a long hum and plopped down.
"I don't really understand what the difference between a person and a monster is."
He pouted, feeling rather disappointed in himself. Jessica knelt down next to him and patted his head a few times with a small smile.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be able to do it soon. Just see the similarities between your father, me, Mia, and other people we consider human. That way, you'll be able to learn really quickly."
Jack looked up at her with his beady eyes and let out a gasp of awe.
"Ah, I get it!"
After confirming that Jessica was no longer breaking down, Mia let out a small sigh of relief. However, she quickly furrowed her brows after, thinking about the topic seriously.
"Wait... now that I think about it, one of the monsters that we killed had a red playing deck. Does that mean that thing was at one point a human going through the level just like us?"
Jessica slowly nodded while stroking Jack's head.
"I do think that is likely. However, we shouldn't feel bad about killing them. If anything, it is mercy for them."
Jack had his eyes closed, enjoying the head rubs. But after hearing that, his eyes opened with surprise.
"Ah, killing is sometimes a good thing? But Dad said that it was a really bad thing!"
Jessica smiled bitterly. She picked up Jack and put him on her lap. To top it off, she wrapped her free arm around him all the while still stroking his hair.
"It's complicated, unfortunately. Your Dad wasn't wrong in saying that killing is bad, as that is true most of the time. But sometimes even the wrong thing is the right thing to do."
Jack tilted his head up, trying to look back at her, but was unable to.
"Eeeh? That's really scary. How am I supposed to know if I am doing the right or wrong thing?"
Mia crouched down in front of him and smiled wryly.
"We don't always know. Sometimes, we just have to try our best and do what we can. But just know, that while it may not always be the right decision, choosing to save yourself or those you care for can't be something to be blamed for. You won't always have the time to figure out what the right decision is, so you can just choose that instead. Most people decide to do just that even if they know it's wrong."
Jack slowly nodded and closed his eyes halfway under Jessica's head pats.
"They even do it when they think it's wrong... It must be a pretty good thing then!"
Jessica didn't say anything, nor did her actions change. However, the air around her was a little different. Her smile got a little tense, but she calmed down soon enough.
"Yes... that is true."
Mia cleared her throat.
"A-Anyway, we should focus on how there are people transforming into monsters. If we aren't careful, then we might turn into monsters ourselves."
Jessica was silent for a little while.
"If what Jack was saying was correct, and they are attracted to the blood card that he got, then they probably have some sort of relation to it. Seedy is a monster and seems to enjoy it, so maybe it can enhance monsters, or transform people into one if they eat it."
Mia's eyes widened as she took a second look at Jessica.
"Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense. I guess we can avoid becoming monsters if we just don't eat them."
She paused a moment later as an intrusive thought came to her.
"But if we do eat them... won't we get powers that could save our life?"
Jessica sucked in a cold breath and gave her a cold look.
"You want to become a monster, Mia?"
Her eyelid twitched before she hurriedly waved her hands in front of her.
"No, it's nothing like that. I was just thinking if we could gain the abilities, but still retain our humanity."
Jessica closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh.
"And how are you so sure that you will be able to retain your humanity?"
"T-That boy seemed to be partially human, so maybe if we don't abuse-"
"Mia. Sure, he may have been human in a certain sense, but he became hungry for blood, was he not? For all we know, we'll become just the same, and perhaps even kill each other just for their blood."
Mia interlaced her hands together while biting her bottom lip.
"I just... thought it would give us a higher chance to live."
Jessica gave a soft smile and looked down.
"I would rather die as a human than live as a monster. Do you really think that it's worth it to sacrifice so much just so that you survive? That's no way to really live."
Mia slowly nodded a few times.
"Yes, you're right... sorry for trying to bring that up."
She turned to look at Jack.
"If they really are attracted to the blood cards, wouldn't it be best if we used them all?"
In response, Jack shook his head.
"It wouldn't really work. I saw before, they looked at me, but they also looked at Seedy the same way. I'm not going to give up on Seedy, so using them or not won't change anything."
Mia looked a tad bit aggrieved but didn't say anything in the end. She took a deep breath.
"In that case, we shouldn't linger. There will constantly be monsters attracted to us, so we should hurry on before too many reach us."
Jessica gave a small nod before lifting Jack up.
"Yes, we should hurry along."
Jack didn't really understand the severity of what they were talking about, but happily got up anyway and retracted Seedy. At this point, the Gameboy in Mia's pocket began vibrating.
She took it out with surprise, and a cheerful screen appeared in front of her.
"Ah, you're awake? I'll lead you over to my game so that we can play together!"
Mia's eyes widened in surprise.
"Ah, that's good timing, we were planning on doing that. Thank you. Please lead us quickly."
The Gameboy screen transformed into a compass, with an arrow on top.
"Just follow the arrow and I will take you to my game!"
"Ok!"
Mia held up the lantern with one hand and the Gameboy with the other, leading the way. Unlike normally, when they would spend hours without anything happening, they saw some neon lights in the distance just after thirty minutes.
Mia smiled rather happily and jogged a bit faster towards it, as did the other two.
"Wow, we're already here! Thank you for leading us, Anna."
The arrow on the Gameboy distorted before becoming a chibi confused face.
"What are you talking about? We still have a long way to go... Mia? Hello? Mia?"
Mia intended on responding but froze up in confusion as she looked at the strange sight in front of her.
"Wh... What is this?"
Jessica blinked a few times.
"Did something go wrong with their machinery?"
Jack looked between the two of them before taking a second look at the Neon signs in front of him.
"What's wrong?"
It was hard to tell from a distance, but as they got closer, it became clear that the neon sign wasn't displaying any intelligible words. However, they were shaped in the general form of letters, with spaces in between. Though the letters themselves were weird combinations of different parts of letters that were almost wobbly like they were written by a person with tremors.
In fact, it wasn't just the Neon sign where the title should've been.
The rewards and punishment text were where they were supposed to be, just with unintelligible words like always. As for the place to put in the playing deck, instead of being a clean-cut rectangle, it was more of an oval with frills.
Almost like it was an imitation.
Jack looked around and smiled.
"Wow, there are so many people! Do you think they want to be friends with us?"
Anna began freaking out a little.
"M-Mia, get out of there! Quickly!"
Mia and Jessica's head snapped to the side and they saw a rather disturbing image. Countless people, male, female, young, and old, stood around them in a circle, almost like they were performing a ritual.
Their eyes were directly removed, and their bodies all had some degree of decay on them, some appearing as flesh messily put on top of bones, and others with a few blue or purple blemishes.
But with all that considered, they all stood in a circle perfectly, like disciplined soldiers.
Then, they began to sing.