Kurabe watched as the girl's left hand was burned, and after a few seconds in the flames, there was no indication that she was the witch. As a result, the people who had forced her to put her hand in the fire left her alone.
"Let her receive medical treatment; she'll survive a second-degree burn," someone outside frowned upon realizing that she wasn't the witch.
Kurabe, who had another objective in addition to this, looked at those outside and headed back down the hallway. Seeing an opportunity, he veered away from the place and swiftly ran towards Aguni's office.
"The cards must be around here..." Kurabe was breaking into a cold sweat; if he were caught, he would almost certainly die. However, since Jacob had trusted him, he couldn't let him down.
It was quite curious how things had unfolded, in fact, Kurabe found out after having a conversation with his friend Arisu. He never thought that Jacob's plan had started from the moment they entered the Beach; he didn't approach things as if they were a simulation.
From what he had come to understand, Jacob had taken a stance beneficial to the purpose of the Beach and had chosen to follow Aguni, essentially becoming his right-hand man. All of this was fine, but the most important aspect was the group conversations they had.
In those conversations, Jacob had emphasized numerous times that the Beach was a perfect place to survive, that as long as they found the cards, everyone would have a chance to go back home.
However, at that time, Kurabe never imagined that the people from The Hatter were listening. Regardless of the time, there was always someone with their ears tuned in to them.
Thinking about that, he felt that Jacob was an incredibly intelligent and calculating man. From the start, he never trusted anyone; it would be wise to think that he didn't even fully trust himself or his friend Arisu.
It didn't bother him; all of this was perfect as he now had control over this game and the possibilities of entering the final phase of the games, just as it had been planned.
It's true that Jacob doesn't need the cards, but the players do need them, and they might hold some kind of significance when all the games are completed.
For this reason, Kurabe trusted Jacob when he approached him, telling him the entire plan in confidence. Jacob emphasized that this task needed to be entrusted to a strong and determined companion, which is why Kurabe was the only one contacted.
"Only I can be that person..." Kurabe held a gun he had taken from a potted plant, then took a few more steps and knew where the cards were located.
"This is our game..."
...
"Ahhhhh!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Things tend to happen in a domino effect; fear in these games is the main factor of distrust when it comes to players. Especially in games like Hearts, which are designed to deceive the mind.
Jacob is grateful that he has his intelligent assistant; otherwise, he could have died in some absurd way.
"You are my eyes; nothing will be lacking for me..." Jacob looked at everyone with a calm smile, as if none of this was affecting him in any way.
"Don't you think we're wasting a lot of time?" One of the executives approached Jacob and questioned him in a tone.
"Do you fear death? Then why don't we continue with you? Would you be willing to burn your hand?" Jacob didn't hold back in his words, as no one in this place except his group deserved his attention.
"People are panicking, sooner or later chaos will erupt."
"That's not important; if they descend into chaos, they'll be mowed down by Aguni's men, plain and simple." Jacob played with a bullet in his hands and said, "How do you think we got to this place?"
"How?" The bespectacled man, who was surprisingly quiet for a member of The Hatter cult's executive team, became intrigued by Jacob's words.
"I can't say; it would break the rules." Jacob smiled and walked away to where Usagi was.
The executive's eyes narrowed; Jacob's words had left him very uneasy. "He knows something..."
...
"If we continue at this rate, we'll die in forty minutes!"
"What the hell are we waiting for?"
"We need to form a damn line and burn our hands! If anyone refuses, they die and get burned." A young man proposed something they all agreed with.
"If we do that, we'd just put ourselves at a brutal disadvantage." Jacob's words snapped everyone out of their concerns.
"What do you mean?"
"It's very simple: the games to come will be much more intense, and we're all a team. We always have been. We're here to go through all the games one after another, following those who have died and will surely die."
Jacob understood this world much better because he knew more than the others. The games of the kings and queens yet to come were the bloodiest, which is why he was on one of his missions to complete.
"I know you might not believe me, but Usagi and I are the only survivors in the Nine of Spades game, where a hundred-player team was mercilessly killed." Jacob lifted his shirt and said, "I was hit by several shots that fortunately didn't seriously harm me, but the man who hunted us is still out there..."
"Someone killed them in a game?"
"Wouldn't it be another player?" Everyone began to forget they were in a life-or-death game.
"He had a highly sophisticated setup for a player. He had headphones that notified him of each player's location, so he slowly hunted us down as we tried to defend ourselves."
Jacob smiled when he saw Ann running toward Kurabe and said, "So, we must finish this game together and get rid of those who doubt."
Everyone, absolutely everyone, looked at those whose arms were burned; they were the ones who almost exposed them all and started killing each other. If Jacob's words were true, they were all a team here to support each other and progress through all the games.
"We will overcome the system!"