"The Singing Mandrake?"
Anna appeared to pout on the Gameboy screen.
"It's one of the naturally occurring monsters in the cave, albeit quite rare. They are a parasite that latches onto a host after hypnotizing them with their singing. After getting their first victim, they use them in order to get even more of them. They are known to use a variety of tactics depending on the number of people they have under them, the fake game station being one of them."
Anna let out a small sigh, which came with a cartoon puff of air.
"Unfortunately, while the health of the host still matters to the parasite, there hasn't been a case where the parasite allows their host to eat or drink. Instead, they continue following its bidding until they eventually die. Though what's strange is that people continue following the bidding even after they are only a corpse. A proper explanation hasn't been found for that or how it's possible."
Jack tapped his chin a few times. He suddenly let out a gasp while holding a finger up high.
"So it's a person that wants to make friends but does it in a bad way? Aw... but it's still wrong to kill people like that, as much as they want to have friends."
Mia smiled bitterly after hearing his strange understanding of the subject.
"I-I'm not so sure that they are looking for friends. After all, that's a relationship of give and take, not absolute obedience to one side."
Jack turned to her with starry eyes.
"Oh! That's what friends are? Ah, then I should've stopped him so that he couldn't kill any more people!"
Jessica patted his head with a smile.
"You did plenty enough. We were saved by you, and those that were under control were finally allowed to rest."
Anna artificially blinked and looked around.
"To be honest, I am very surprised that you were able to make it out alive. From my records, very few people have survived an attack from this kind of monster as rare as they are. And most of those survivors were ones that preemptively attacked the monster as opposed to being ambushed by one of its traps. How were you even able to survive?"
Jack scratched his cheek.
"The only thing I did was sing along with them."
The corner of Mia's lip twitched.
"Well, it may have been a little different to theirs, and probably threw them off course."
Anna puffed up her cheek with a chibi face.
"That's ridiculous! In the first place, the main hypnotizing and damaging part of the singing mandrake is actually an extremely low frequency sound, easily bypassing most things. That means even if you did have earplugs, or covered your ears, it would have a negligible effect. Only people whose eardrums genuinely don't work would be mostly immune. And even then, they are still slightly affected. Unless you were able to produce a counter low frequency tone, then you would not have been able to disrupt it."
Jack let out a frustrated hum. He lowered his head.
"I... I don't know what that means."
Anna let out a small sigh.
"In simplified terms, it just means that singing within the normal vocal range wouldn't do anything, regardless of how it was done. Theoretically speaking the only situation where a Singing Mandrake would actually retreat is if they underestimated their enemy, or if they somehow felt fear. I'm not entirely sure what happened in your case, but I've determined it's most likely they lost their resolve out of fear."
Jessica narrowed her eyes. She put one hand on the Gameboy herself, not hiding her skepticism.
"Fear? Why would they be afraid? The reason for their retreat might've been something entirely new. Doesn't that make the most sense?"
Anna stared at Jessica for a little while, not responding immediately.
"I... have my reasons for believing that the reason was related to fear. But regardless of the reason or cause, they aren't important. It's fortunate that the two of you were able to come alive out of that."
Jessica cleared her throat.
"Three of us."
Anna let out a small laugh.
"I suppose so, yes. The three of you. Anyway, I'll continue bringing you over to participate in my game. It will still take a few hours of walking from this point, so don't be fooled by anything along the way!"
Mia agreed with that and there were no objections from the others. After taking a moment to get over the shock and pain, she got up and the three of them began walking further into the darkness.
The adrenaline from the previous events gradually died off, as there were only soft sounds of footsteps. After ten or so minutes passed, Mia let out an exhausted hum.
"Should we be more careful with some more precautions? It seems like there are so many things out there that could potentially kill us. Especially with how things have been going so far."
Jessica put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.
"But what can we really even do as precautions? Other than Jack, we both have katanas in our hands in case of an emergency and there isn't exactly much we can do except try to listen for a sound in the distance. However, doing that will just wear us out mentally, which will backfire when things really do matter."
Mia pursed her lips before slowly nodding.
"I guess that makes sense."
Jack lifted up both of his hands.
"Together we can fight off any bad guy! There's nothing to be afraid of."
Mia softly smiled and cast a gaze in his direction.
"Yeah, maybe I was just overthinking things a little too much. We will get to those things when it comes to it."
In the end, their journey was pretty uneventful for an entire hour or so. However, they did come across some neon signs in the distance once more. Slightly traumatized by previous events, Mia anxiously spoke with Anna.
"Is the thing in front of us another trap?"
The arrow briefly disappeared to reveal Anna's chibi face.
"Umm... I'm fairly certain that it isn't a trap. However, this wasn't my game that I was referring you to. It's owned by one of the other gamemasters. I wouldn't recommend you go to them and take the risk when you could instead just come to mine!"
"I'm so excited! What is this one?"
Jack ran towards the neon signs with excitement. It was fairly clear that the last event weighed very little on his mind. Jessica freaked out a little seeing him rush up like that.
"Wait, don't go on your own, Jack!"
Although Mia felt apprehensive, she ended up following the two. When Jack made it next to the neon sign, he looked intently at the description.
'Ten Steps Between Heaven and Hell
Rewards: Three Cards, 5 guaranteed.
Punishment: 5'
There were four different slots to put different card packs in. When Jessica and Mia had caught up, Jack pointed to the title with a wide smile.
"Let's play this game!"
The corner of Mia's lip twitched.
"E-Er, Anna said that playing this game might not be as safe as playing one from her directly."
Jack pouted. He was still pointing at the title and began shaking his arm around.
"But I wanna play this game!"
Jessica patted his head lovingly and looked at Mia with a smile.
"It won't be that big of a deal to play this game, right? After all, no matter where we are, there's always going to be something dangerous around. We might as well take a calculated risk that could end up rewarding."
Mia turned to the Gameboy, and Anna responded, albeit with a shred of disappointment.
"T-That isn't wrong... I just would've preferred that you played more games with me. Some of the games take really long."
With a smile, Mia reassured Anna.
"I'll make sure to play a lot with you, alright? I promise I'll be back. To be honest, you might get sick of seeing my face asking you to play so many times."
Anna made a chibi of her puffing up her cheeks.
"Ok... but if you die, I'm going to be really really mad!"
Mia let out a laugh and nodded a few times. Jack had already taken out his red playing deck and inserted it. Jessica and Mia proceeded to follow suit, doing the same. With a flash of light, they disappeared one by one.
And then, they were all brought into a room. Or more accurately, what looked like a concert. It was one that was awfully familiar.
Their surroundings all seemed to be made out of concrete, and the three of them were all sitting on chairs. However, that didn't mean they were part of the audience. Instead, they were on the stage. Many different glaring spotlights were shining on them
Where the audience was supposed to be instead had one singular chair in the middle of the vast emptiness.
Although it looked slightly different, this was the same place they were forced to play little games in order to live. The place where they met Stanley and Naya, the strange host and doll.
Or in other words, the place where they had to run for their lives.