Back in the five islands of the Shadow's Grasp base, Jin flashed into existence with the blond man and girl holding onto him.
He had taken the blood-soaked cloak of the masked man to cover his body - it was short enough to act as a loose jacket.
"Where is he? Where does that bastard spend most of his time!?" Jin barked at the two who flinched.
"I-I-I…" the short girl stammered with tense shoulders and teary eyes.
"He… He's wherever Dealer is, and if not... then he's probably in his room relaxing," the blond man gulped and shrugged.
"Alright. Take me there, right now," Jin spoke with disdain.
***
In the half-graceful and half-morbid room where Walter tortured Jin, the old combatant poured the contents of a large and mostly empty bottle into a wine glass.
Dealer sat there on a simple steel stool, relaxed as he lounged against the ornate counter with a joyful grin. He picked up the glass casually and raised it towards a blond woman in a bulletproof vest over her black combat uniform.
"See this? This entire bottle was five years worth of life, and it's gone just like that… You? It doesn't matter how many years you have in you, once your 'bottle' cracks it'll all disappear in a blink… and that's a damned shame," Dealer swirled the drink.
"You have many years left… They're worth a lot more than you think, but sometimes you just need one good year to make your entire life worth it all. Is that why you requested this?"
The woman inhaled deeply and nodded.
"Yes, sir… I've had enough. I can't live like this for much longer… I know you said becoming a Number will change it all, that I could just manage recreational facilities and other safer utilities like Mister Seven and Miss Six… But pretending I can reach their level is… irrational…" the woman gripped her arm and looked at the ground with a sullen look.
"So yes, sir. I'm standing by my request… Send me back to that world you showed me, give me some time to live there... at least four years to enjoy my life one last time," she looked up at Dealer with a desperate look.
"I-I don't mind if it's less than four, just tell me how many years I'd have! Then you can have my core after it! One last chance to curb my regrets, sir! Please!" the woman's pleading eyes began to tear up.
Dealer sighed then gulped the drink down in one go.
"Ahh… So good… You have ten years left, right? Heh… You know what? Sure. I'm feeling generous, if you don't tell anyone about this you can have your four years since you seem so sincere."
The woman's eyes lit up and she exhaled with relief.
"Ahh... Thank you! Thank you so much, sir!"
"But where will you go now? Oh, I bet you're so excited, right? Hahaha! Then maybe a tropical vacation or something deep on your bucket list?"
Dealer chuckled and raised his hand to snap but then the door to the room slammed open, with Jin sliding inside angrily.
Walter quickly pulled out his revolver with a twirl, gripping it from the barrel like a hammer.
"You!" Jin shouted hatefully and whipped his arm up, instantly unloading a series of bullets at Walter.
Walter masterfully struck the bullets away using the butt of his gun with regal poise.
The woman quickly ducked down and pulled her pistol out.
"Ah, you don't have to do that. This is Walter's problem, so let him to take care of it and just enjoy the show, hahaha!" Dealer laughed and clapped.
"Huh? But sir…" she cocked a brow.
Walter expertly twirled his gun around and adjusted his aim towards Jin's head.
Jin's burning eyes glanced at the revolver then locked in sharply. Not at the barrel to predict its motion or see the gunshot, but his eyes were focused on Walter's hand instead.
While he never had to dodge bullets in his years of training, many of the monsters he fought lunged at him with a specific flow that were consistent in all of them. Their bodies always cued him of their intentions moments before they attacked.
A subtle flex of Walter's fingers made Jin instantly careen his head to the side, avoiding the revolver's speeding bullet.
"He dodged it!" Dealer laughed and clapped boisterously, appearing to enjoy their fight while the blonde woman tried to duck even lower with fear in her eyes.
Walter shot a few more times, a pointless assault against Jin who moved away and retaliated with his own bullets. But just like Jin, the old combatant avoided them as easily.
It was a fruitless stalemate leading to both of their guns clicking loudly in unison, as if trying to join Dealer in his applause.
Jin and Walter quickly pulled out another firearm to resume the gunfight.
"They both had spares! Ahahahah! Why didn't they use them from the staaart!?" Dealer's voice became high-pitched from his breathless excitement.
Jin glanced at Walter's gun and focused on his physical cue, but then his eyes narrowed.
'Wait… why is he aiming away from me?'
The loud sound of the revolver echoed through the room, followed by a couple of resonating tings as the bullet ricocheted from wall to wall, bouncing like a rubber ball all over the place.
Jin gritted his teeth and kept shooting Walter who easily avoided the bullets while shooting five more bullets in random directions without any discernible pattern.
Dealer cackled like a mad man as a bullet shot through his fedora, tipping it away from his head and revealing his slicked back dark hair that ended in a ponytail.
"Hahaha! Oooh! This is wild! I looove it!"
"I don't, sir!" the woman looked fearfully at Dealer.
Walter had a disadvantage since he was standing in a tighter spot, surrounded by the counter and the display case, yet he still managed to easily evade both Jin's bullets and his own rebounding ones with smaller movements.
A stray bullet suddenly pierced Jin's hand, loosening his grip around his pistol, then another hit his shoulder, shaking his arm and dropping his weapon.
'Dammit, I need to use plan B!'
Jin tried to reach into his pocket but then, almost instantly, two more riddled his chest followed by a third penetrating his head.
"Ah! Those last three shots, that's the failure drill! You crafty devil, Walter! Hahahaha!" Dealer laughed until the last ricocheting bullet pierced the blond woman's head, splattering her blood under her as her head fell with a soft thud.
Dealer's face remained frozen in its joy as he slowly turned towards her like a statue.
"Walter…" Dealer's smile faded when he looked back at Walter.
"Why did you do that? That wasn't necessary. Earnest people like her deserve a little vacation before we axe her, Walter," Dealer took off his scarlet round glasses and glared at Walter with his golden-hued eyes, a black diagonal cross segmenting his bright iris into four parts.
Walter kept his gaze on Jin and stood stoically without uttering a single word.
Dealer scowled but then sighed and calmed himself down.
"Whatever… That ruined the mood… But hey, your experiment was actually a success, huh? You think the other three he trained under are dead?" Dealer put the glasses back on and gestured at Jin.
Walter crouched next to Jin and slipped his hand inside of his pockets, pulling out three glowing orbs of gold and a cylindrical device with a switch on its side.
A white light suddenly devoured Jin completely, transporting him away and leaving nothing behind.
"It seems so," Walter turned towards Dealer with the items.
"Hey… Now that's impressive. Those guys killed our Numbers without breaking a sweat. Heh. Should we make him a Number?"
"He might've used underhanded tactics. He's not fit to be a Number, not yet… Should I break him to speed up the process?" Walter's gaze grew colder.
"I'll hit ya with a 'Not yet' as well. We don't need a replacement… I think I'll try my hand at persuading him since he improved this much so quickly… Ahh… What a nice hobby to have! Recruiting people and managing all of this is fun!" Dealer laughed and picked his ruined hat up.
***
Jin opened his eyes to the same room he died in, his arms bound behind him on the foldable chair he sat on.
"And he's awake! Hello there, Prodigy. Heh, you kids grow up so fast… I didn't expect you to become this destructive in just a few years," Dealer sat across Jin on a similar steel chair, wearing the same stylish brimmed hat adorned with a bullet hole.
"Dammit… I had one chance…" Jin bared his teeth angrily but kept his gaze low.
"Yep. You had one opportunity and you blew it. Couldn't destroy everything, huh?" Dealer shook his head and pulled out the cylindrical detonator, moving it closer to Jin almost tauntingly.
Jin's eyes widened when he saw it.
'The second bomb I put inside of myself… It didn't explode during the fight… Do they know?'
"Cute, right? A little detonator… The lightbulb under it is dim too, so it's unused… but then where's the bomb? Heh, I'm surprised you didn't use it on us, it would've killed me and Walter pretty quickly. Did the heat of battle distract you?" Dealer casually juggled the device with one hand.
Jin silently glared daggers at him.
"I like that face! It looks so different than when you first came in! Must be because death doesn't feel real to you anymore, huh? Someone should change that…" Dealer picked up a black machete from the ground.
Jin's eyes instantly softened but then burned once more.
"You bastard! Why!? You snatched me and put me in this crazy place then forced me through all that pain! Did you expect me to just go along with it while all of your freaks hurt me whenever they wanted!?"
"Ouch… Now that's just ungrateful… You're looking at it the wrong way, Prodigy. We're not your enemy, the world is. Everyone here is like you, they've all been hurt by the misfortunes of our lives, robbed from their rights and futures… so they lash out at whoever they can, usually at those under them," Dealer juggled the knife and the detonator together.
Jin glowered hatefully.
"That's still bullying? It's unfair? Well... I can put an end to it, pretend to be some noble king and unify everyone to live in a utopia with no violence and strife, but that won't help anyone… People don't need a king, they need someone above the king, someone who picks the cards and controls them… the dealer," Dealer nudged the placard on his chest, turning it around from King of Hearts to a sleek ebony sheet with a golden D masterfully engraved in a floral pattern.
"We need motivators, things to keep us pushing ourselves, things to aim for, to guide us so we don't drop dead and give up on this last thread of hope in our fractured world… We need…"
Dealer held the detonator higher.
"...the sweet bliss of heaven, or…"
Then he held up the black knife to an equal level.
"...the horrifying agony of hell… The pain you feel and hate? It's my brand. It isn't your eternally written fate, nor your enemy, it's a wake up call that you should listen to. And look at you, you're a good example of that! The pain Walter forced you through made you train seriously, with his face burned in your head as your final goal, right?"
Jin glared at the ground, refusing to admit how his hatred for the trio and Walter actually fueled him through the torture.
"You were so scared of death when you arrived, but you shut that side of your brain off once the pain became too much to bear. As long as he died, as long as you reached your goal, the rest wasn't worth thinking of, hm?," Dealer leaned closer with a tilt.
"You're wrong… I thought about the aftermath of the Second's death… If I killed him then you I'd have a chance of convincing the rest to break free from it all or at least let me go. I didn't start the fight giving it all up for a small victory," Jin kept his glare unfaltering.
"That's funny! Sure you did! And then what? You'd live the remaining years of your life feeling lost, trying to return to a world that forsake you, counting down the short days until you expire? It's useless! No one is going to accept that existence, they won't forgive you for killing me because I'm the system that's keeping everyone 'alive', I'm the closest thing you all have to a feasible future! My words have that power!" Dealer shouted and stood up, hurling his machete at a wall.
"There's nothing wrong with turning those walking corpses to fuel for the ones who actually want to live. Isn't that logical? I gave you all a choice to pick your roles, I never held anyone here against their will," Dealer snapped his fingers, summoning a cerulean door next to Jin.
Jin's eyes widened when he looked at its elegant frame, associating it with the freedom and nostalgia of his previous life.
"I didn't threaten you, I gave you honesty! Walk out of that door and you'll be the fertilizer to my farm since you're dying anyway to that cruel timer! Letting you go to waste will doom the rest of us who still have hope, but if you stay you'll be one of the farmers eating from my ripe fruit and living based on your contribution..." Dealer deeply to calm himself then smiled.
"It's agonizing work at the start, but it's still a job. If you don't like your position, just get promoted to a Number and I promise you no one can hurt you without being punished. Every Number has its own benefits, with the higher ones getting the most out of this deal. I'll give you time to think about it," Dealer twirled the detonator carelessly around his fingers.
Jin stared at the door thoughtfully, his mind drifting to when he first arrived.
Initially he couldn't wrap his head around his situation and stuck to what seemed like the better chance of survival, but being kicked around by several people and pushed to do someone else's whims ended up rattling his mind heavily.
'I should've chosen the door, at least out there I would've gone back to a nameless street without all the pain. Could've tried to survive without a house… Shelter's not an issue, I just need money for food… so I need to find work again… and then…'
Jin's shoulders relaxed and his face softened painfully.
'I'd live my last years struggling to fit in, struggling to work from the bottom again without even the promise of a manageable future… He wasn't kidding when he said those who go out are corpses… I won't even have time to enjoy my remaining time, to build my dream life...'
Jin's eyes grew heavier with sorrow.
'This is my only choice, huh… Even if I killed them and tried to run away, there is nowhere to go without struggling and burning through my timer pointlessly… Tsk… Being kicked around by higher ups, pushed to do someone else's whims, fighting for a promotion… Nothing changed… That's exactly what I did before I died, so I just moved branches to a crazier one.'
A loud click resounded from behind Jin as his cuffs fell to the ground.
"Hm?" Jin glanced back at his arms then moved his hands in front of him.
"I can tell you're thinking it over, Prodigy. Your face says a lot. Heh, I promise you if you pay attention and fight to survive, you'll get a better life unlike any you've had or even dreamed of. Just listen to me and power through the small hiccups," Dealer grinned happily, a skillfully crafted smile.
"Oh! Here's a thought. If you get past Walter's rank then you can kill him without any retributions, but only then," Dealer chuckled then put the detonator on Jin's lap and walked away.
"I'll be waiting outside when you're ready, I'll give you the rundown of your future benefits," Dealer closed the door behind him.
Jin sighed then turned around to look at Dealer leaving but then his eyes widened when he saw Walter tied up to a steel chair behind his own.
"Huh?!" Jin's mouth gaped.
Walter stared at him calmly.
Jin quickly looked down at the detonator then back at Walter. For whatever reason, Dealer had tied Walter up behind him.
With a wild grin, Jin effectively tackled his own chair to move closer to Walter, crawling to him as fast as he could while pulling the detonator up.
"I don't care what I have to suffer through, but I'm killing you one way or another!" Jin squeezed the switch while holding it up to Walter.
A loud rumbling reverberated through the ground, the soft tremor going through Jin's body as he sat down intact while glaring hatefully at Walter.
"Huh?" Jin looked down at the detonator then back at Walter.
The old combatant shook his head and casually stood up, moving his untied hands to his sides to give Jin one last disappointed look before he walked out the door.
"He tricked me…? They already took the bomb out of me… Was this a test?" Jin clicked his tongue in irritation then made his way outside.
He saw Dealer and Walter standing next to each other talking, and to Jin's side was a group of people in green uniforms rushing to a smoldering crater with black plastic bags.
Meaty burnt chunks were scattered across the ground, torn limbs dressed in green l littered the place as a single charred roll of duct tape spun helplessly to the wind.
Jin's eyes widened, the weight of realization hitting him like a low gut punch.
Dealer approached Jin with jaunty steps.
"Hahah! Tragic, isn't it? Those two smuggled our hard-earned bombs from the storage, so I told them to hold it tightly and only return it after I leave, just so I can make sure they don't steal it on the way... But I didn't expect you to detonate it so carelessly, you really need to work on that hatred of yours. I think it's blinding you to so many opportunities," Dealer clicked his tongue three times in feigned disappointment while shaking his head.
Jin slowly turned towards Dealer whose playful smile instantly disappeared.
"If you didn't understand me… No one crosses the dealer, Prodigy. You can only kill when I tell you to. Only when you earn it. Whether you're comfortable or in pain relies on me, so choose your steps carefully next time."
Jin grimaced and looked away.