It's not like it's outside expectations that Hearts will be setting up camp and staying in Diamonds territory, it's why they brought tents in the first place.
Discussions on terms of a peace treaty ought to take more than just a day, they've came prepared and I'm fairly certain most of us Diamonds ranked officer knows that too.
Nonetheless, none of us were particularly fond with the idea of potentially hostile foreigners staying overnight in our own territory, where our people lives.
There was silence, until Ten eventually come forward after yet another loud 'tsk'.
"We decide where you set up your camp. You are not permitted to leave your designated site unless we, the ranked officers, tells you you can.
There will be no communication between our men and yours. There will be no food or water provided from us. There will be no services or any form of hospitality that we will offer.
You wait, until we inform Jack of Diamonds of your arrival."
"You're bold to command us."
"You're the side that's requesting a peace treaty, I don't think you're willing to risk war and your own life over something as trivial as our rules for visitors."
Ten has clearly had enough of Ace of Hearts' outrageous behaviour, to the point where he's willing to threaten war against the superior military force.
Ace of Hearts' derogatory smirk disappeared for a fraction of a second, then he scoffs.
"Very well. Please, lead the way."
Ten turns back to Nine and Ace of Diamonds.
"Ace, how about at the road in front of your building?" Ten whispers in Ace's ear.
"Y-yeah sure."
"Are you sure you're okay with this job? You don't look like you can handle it." Nine expresses his concerns.
"Jack's command, if they show up, Ace is the diplomat, and he is the one to monitor them with his men." Ten said.
"I'm fine, I'll do it." I wouldn't say Ace of Diamonds has managed to find composure, but he definitely managed to calm himself down just enough to communicate properly.
Ace of Diamonds psychs himself up by light slaps to the face, then stands forward with a deep breath.
"Follow me." He said while still not able to maintain eye contact with the Hearts men, instead he just stared down on the ground, not a good look for us Diamonds.
Like usual, all of us ranked officers took a box of food from the trolley and headed back to our respective buildings.
Except this time, theres about 5 armed soldiers and 10 Hearts visitors behind Ace of Diamonds as he returns.
Five's hyperfixated stare on Ace eventually stopped as they had to part ways, but when his eyes left Ace, it was directed straight at me.
Oops, busted, I've been observing him silently for too long without trying to hide it.
Not a word was exchanged between us, probably because I didn't know what he wants, nor do I think he knew what I want.
I think what he was trying to tell me with that rage filled glare was for me to not intervene in his business.
Four noticed us and stepped forward. The second Five was aware of Four staring at him beside me, he turned his back.
"You should stop staring at him." Four advises.
"I just find him interesting."
I did find him interesting, I'm not a psychologist nor do I have any credible qualifications to say this, but I think those intense gazes on Ace coveted vengeance.
"It's creepy, and it invites trouble, we don't want trouble with Corpse."
"You can take him down."
"Well I don't want to, that'll piss Living Cemetery off."
The leader of Living Cemetery was The Reaper, fourth strongest player in the game by physical strength AKA power levels at 5861, wouldn't want to mess with that.
On our way back to our buildings, we passed by the laboratory.
The laboratory was an outlier of a place, everywhere else was filthy, but the laboratory looks like a regular store in the modern era.
It has clear windows and even a functioning door, one that can be locked.
Inside are desks and a bunch of equipments which a highschool dropout like me wouldn't be able to name.
They were all clean to a respectable degree, unlike everywhere else including buildings with actual inhabitants.
I could pretty much see the entire laboratory through the huge glass windows, the ground floor of it at least.
There's a door to a stairwell in the lab, it's polished and locked, which leads me to believe there's definitely upper floors to this building.
Looking up, the first floor's windows were intact, but considerably covered in dust to the point where it's opaque, so is the second floor.
Piques my curiousity, albeit I don't see any ways I'm getting in with three scientists operating in the lab right now.
"Who's leading today's expedition?" I asked.
"Not sure, we'll just get to the gate at noon."
"How are we distributing these food, we don't know who contributed more after all."
I don't want to make the same speech again just so I can split it evenly.
"Starts conflicts regardless of how you do it based on my experience, just gotta keep your guards up from your own men.
Hadn't you already played four stages? You ought to know your own men can be enemies already."
Well...they never revolted every single time, because I made the same speech every single time, I guess I found the unprecedented solution to stopping our own men from protesting the distribution of food.
I didn't bother discussing about it with Four though, felt it was unnecessary, it's not like his own men can do anything that can hurt him anyways considering his ridiculously high power level.
"I just thought maybe there's a better way." I responded.
"I'll go to your building as soon as I'm done distributing food in mine." Four said before we part ways.
The speech gets easier now that it's my fifth time presenting it to the same exact audience.
I finished it quickly, but before I'm even halfway through dividing the bread into equal parts, he's already here.
"You're slow as hell." Four says jokingly, seems my uncle is starting to return to his usual cheerful self and not the gloomy version of him that's mad at me for betraying his trust, not saying he's no longer mad now though.
"You're fast as hell."
"I've done it a million times. I'll help you out."
And indeed he was fast, never thought I'd be impressed by one's skills at dividing bread into equal portions.
After distributing the food, we went to take a peek at the current state of our visitors.
They've set up multiple tents of various sizes, all on the filthy asphalt road in front of Ace of Diamonds' building.
Around the tents were Diamonds soldiers, presumably Ace's subordinates, armed with machine guns, surveiling our visitors closely and monitoring their every movement.
It's near Ace's territory, yet he's nowhere to be seen. Instead, Five is here, again.
He was just standing with his back against the wall of Ace's building, hands in pockets, observing not the Hearts visitors in front of him, but the people inside the building, Ace's subordinates.
He's not trying to hide it, he's not here for Ace of Hearts, but for Ace of Diamonds.
Another player has disappeared it seems. Speaking of which, where has Two been this whole time?