Alice in Borderland: The Cycle Continues

72) King of Hearts [3]

"I'll do whatever it takes to save as many of them as possible. The lives of over a hundred people, including a dozen dear friends, are worth more than solely my life."

Players left: 113/116
Round: 1

===Niko Chenay===

Rafferty was standing on the other side, waiting for me.

"I've cleared my trial." I said.

"Indeed you have." He said, hands in his pockets. "To be honest, I expected you to. The other two... They were not as fortunate."

On the screens above the doors of their respective trial rooms, one showed nothing but flashing flames, while the other hovered over the corpse of the woman, bleeding out from several bullet holes through her stomach and chest.

"So I get to add a new rule, right?"

"Correct." He said, parting the way for the door. "Well, after you."

I nodded. "Th... Thank you, Rafferty." Shaking my head, I walked to the door that led back into the lobby, and opened it.

===Zakū Raisunei===

My vision was focused on the ground, the endless masses of rectangular and square tiles.

A body laid near the stage, torn apart by bullets. A man had attempted to reach for the bowl of names, but a wave of shots blitzed through him before he could retrieve anything. We had surrounded the perimeter of the bowl with chairs, just to be safe. Flies buzzed, collecting on the carnage.

"What if Rafferty's being truthful, and needs a way to let us know?" Benkei asked. "That's why he just left it out! To discreetly signal to us that he's on our side! If he was truly evil, why would he possibly leave that file out?"

"To make us think that he's a good guy, and as a result, put down our guards whilst expecting he has a way to save all of us." Aoyama said "To have us fixated on the idea that there's some secret clever hidden solution when there isn't."

"And the fact he went through all that effort to destroy Kazetani's final pages of untranslated messages only to leave them out just like that." I said.

"It was because the last sentence had his name!" Benkei said.

As we debated, Tori had their eyes glued to Niko's progress bar, which had creeped past 80%. Gabura remained silent, keeping her eyes on Akagi, apparent that her mind was drifting in the past.

"Since when did Rafferty need to do that in order to manipulate us, though?" Aulia asked. "If he wanted to have this game be hard, it's already hard enough. Having us distracted would make no difference."

"I see Aulia's point." Maeda said, her arms crossed. "Why does Rafferty need to plant this file specifically to trick us? If he wanted to fuck with our brains, he is capable of doing so with words alone. And... These words... I honestly don't think these words can be faked. Especially the end. You... You can't fake this level of empathy."

Kai snorted, "Yeah, right. Watch him."

"Either way, we must take anything from this file with a grain of salt." I said.

"What do you guys all think?" Kai asked the crowd; he had read it aloud for everyone.

A lot of people shrugged, but most voiced disagreements on trusting the file.

"I don't blame them." Ashikaga said. "What do you expect? None of them even know Rafferty. Are you all just expecting them all to trust him? All they've ever known him as is the King of Hearts."