But I Wanna

Kenji took a deep breath as he put on a serious expression.

"Honestly, I still have no idea how you found out, but yes, I was worried that the three of you would turn on me and try to kill me or at least make me lose the game."

There was a bitter smile on his face.

"I didn't want to let you know because I was afraid that you would take this fear as weakness, and prey on me for it. Unfortunately, even if you say that I shouldn't bring past experiences to the present, I still find myself unable to completely trust all of you. Still, you are correct as the three of you have never harmed me before."

He paused for a few moments.

"The most important part of the game is that the person with the most cards has more control over when the game ends. I felt threatened considering one of your members has so many. I will not do anything like before and won't purposely try to get more cards, but I will still keep my guard up. This is as far as I can go."

Jack pouted slightly, but nodded in the end.

"Ok! Let's continue with the game!"

Both Mia and Jessica were pretty dumbfounded, and rightfully so. After all, they were right in saying that most of the time, people like Kenji wouldn't have been able to come to an agreement in a short time, if it was possible in the first place. Especially not after there was friction between them.

In the end, neither Mia nor Jessica could fully believe him and played the game cautiously. However, he really didn't do anything. The only person that could've said to have done something would actually be Jack.

Who played a 6 of hearts, and when his turn came around, he was at the 7th step, and played a 10 of clubs.

In other words, he was pushing himself down three steps into hell, where he had to fight a monster.

Jessica was the first to freak out, with horror in her voice.

"What are you doing Jack? Why would you purposely go to the punishment?"

While sliding down, Jack let out a nonchalant response.

"I only had that card left for going down and my other card would make me go too high!"

And when he finished his sentence, He had gone down past the floor, landing on the 3rd step of Hell. Although Jack himself didn't show any discomfort or pain, his body still instinctively began sweating rather profusely.

It was definitely not comfortable to be in a place like this.

Mia was also quite aggrieved by Jack's nonsensical actions.

"You could've just used a playing card! What's the point of being so stingy when it could save your life?"

Even Kenji gave him a strange look, unable to understand the purpose.

"If you had inconvenient cards, couldn't you have tried to work around them by asking us to push you indirectly?"

Jack crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Hmph! If I don't need to use my card, then why should I? This works as well, doesn't it?"

Before anybody else could say anything Jack had already disappeared in a flash of light. And while less conspicuous, Stanley had disappeared at some point earlier.

It was then a random spotlight further in the distance turned on, shining on a small platform high in the air. One which Stanley was standing on. He held out both hands as though he was a grand and magnanimous man.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Since one of our contestants has landed on the monster selection, they will need to fight a monster to the death. If they succeed, they will be brought back into the game, and if not, then they will die here instead."

He let out a small scratchy sigh and lowered his hands.

"Unfortunately, this show might not be as entertaining as it could've been had it been another person taking up this challenge, but alas beggars can't be choosers."

Stanley said that because he knew that Jack wasn't some sort of pushover. Although he wasn't masked with the Joker mask right now, it seemed like he didn't need that much to see through that much.

However, it was misunderstood by the rest.

Kenji muttered under his breath.

"That is quite ruthless... in the end, it appears the pure mind ends up being his downfall."

Jessica screamed out rather violently, shaking in her seat as she tried to stand up.

"You can't send an impossible to beat monster! He only went down three steps into hell instead of four, so it should be something he can deal with!"

Mia furrowed her brows rather intensely but recalled the previous feats that Jack accomplished.

"This... Jack should be able to take care of normal monsters. If he said that it wasn't entertaining... maybe that means he has a decent chance to win!"

Stanley ignored all their comments and raised one hand.

"Since there isn't much to look forward to in the first place, let's just skip over the introductions."

Some more spotlights turned on, seemingly coming out of nowhere. It revealed the ground where the audience was supposed to be, though it appeared the situation was reversed now.

On one side, there was Jack. He had a katana in one of his hands and was inspecting it curiously. From how he held it, his inexperience showed very clearly. In fact, a person that only had an elementary understanding of swords would hold it better, as Jack was kinda just waving it around like it was a floppy noodle.

Then, on the other side was naturally a monster. It wasn't that much larger than a human and even had a general humanoid shape. However, there were deformed hands with twisted fingers coming out of different parts of his body. A thin layer of skin was stretched out on top of those hands, almost like it was a hand trapped within a sheet of skin-colored tracing paper.

Though that wasn't the most disturbing of things. Where the face should've been was instead peeled back, revealing the skull, while the facial features were messily mashed together at the sides. On top of that, there were several strange round protrusions on its body that had a sickly yellow tone and looked like they could break as easily as bubble wrap. The texture was similar too.

Although the size of the creature wasn't all that intimidating, the grotesque figure raised concerns for possible poisonous attacks or contractable diseases. Though Jack seemed quite unfazed by it, all and all.

Kenji noticed Jack's lack of concern and believed he should've been informed of this much. He took a deep breath and spoke out in a calm and clear voice.

"You must be careful of the monster's blood, and especially those strange pulses. They could be deadly!"

Jessica began biting on her nails. She was still concerned for him, but also knew that Jack could at least defend himself to a certain degree. After all, while he was wearing the mask, he directly broke through a wall. Then there was the hand monster they also killed.

As grotesque as it was, the monster didn't seem too threatening. Most things here were rather creepy after all. But the possible toxicity was a cause for concern.

"He is right! Make sure to be careful!"

Mia raised up her fists encouragingly.

"You got this Jack! Win it!"

In response to all of their cries, Jack let out a laugh. He rubbed his finger against the flat part of the blade simply because he liked how it felt.

"If you guys are so excited, then I will make sure to win!"

With a smile, he pointed his sword at the monster. As though responding to his aggression, the monster rushed over to him. Or more accurately, hobbled over. Its speed was still as fast as the average person running, but it could've been much faster if it could get a proper stance.

Jack rushed over and thought about how the octopus guy, the one he got the katana from, used the sword. He would swing it like this?

Jack tested out the swing before even getting close and naturally missed. Kenji frowned slightly when he saw this, thinking that Jack was done for. When the monster got close, the many hands in his body surprisingly shrunk back.

All except for one, which suddenly burst through the thin layer of skin and reached out several meters. Jack panicked and waved the blade around, hitting the arm, but only making a thin cut.

"You can't tag me!"

He took a step back, just barely getting out of the hand's reach. Even after reaching the max range, the hand continued to grab and feel around, attempting to latch onto something.

It was at this point Jack let out a small gasp. Wasn't fighting this way just like the game that Anna made?

What if he just copied what they did?