Alice in Borderland: The Cycle Continues

44) Ten of Clubs [2] ✮

Time left: 1 hour and 45 min.
Players left: 69/82
Water level: Floor 1

===Rafferty Bucke===

"You k-know, I haven't seen Erina after sh-she'd been chased off. Wh-Where did she end up?"

"No idea." Judumai said through his teeth, as we ascended the stairs. "Something is real off about this game. Such a high difficulty, yet so simple."

"Definitely something we're missing." Niko said. "The Treasure must be something we value to the teeth."

Benkei arrived on the top floor first, kicking open the wooden doors. "If it's the cards, do you think we have to destroy all of them?"

"M-Most likely, yeah. Obviously, I d-don't know for s-sure!"

As we moved through the hall, there was no movement other than us. I peeked into doors which were left ajar, no signs of life.

I stopped walking. Judumai, upon noticing, paused, and the other two stopped in their tracks too.

"What's wrong?" Niko asked.

"It's so q-quiet." I muttered, as if trying to preserve the stillness. "H-How come w-we're the only ones w-who thought to come up here?"

From the other end of the hall, through some of the suites, noise emerged—crashing, banging, and shattering.

"Guess we're not alone anymore." Benkei said. "I suppose we were the first to think of checking the top floor."

"Then let's get going to Erina's room." Judumai said, breaking into a bristling walk. "The Treasure—what would you guys guess it to be? Shoot out theories, we need to utilize all the time we can."

"Say you're the gamemaker," Niko began, "and you're observing the players at the Beach, getting to know them pretty well. What do they care about? What are they reluctant to give up? What's hard for them to destroy?"

I glanced up, before putting my head back down towards the ground. "I w-would probably f-force then to give up their most precious things, things that th-they can't live w-without." He paused. "Y-Yeah, if I w-were the gamemaker, that's w-what I w-would do..."

"The most precious things?" Benkei asked. "Guys... What if the Treasure is a person?"

My stomach lurched. "S-Sadly, that may be the c-case."

"Think about it!" He continued. "A human life is more valuable than anything else!"

"Me, it's the Beach." Niko answered. "Everything about it. The kitchen, the pool, getting to hang out with you guys. If we didn't have this, I'd have probably shot myself weeks ago."

"A s-sacrifice game, perhaps?" I suggested. "That w-would certainly be p-precarious."

"But still, there's no evidence that the Treasure is necessarily the thing we value most." Benkei said. "What if it's some random object?"

"It can't be." Niko said. "If it's some random piece of furniture or a random plate, the chances of it getting randomly destroyed are too high."

"It's m-must be something symbolic, something that w-would go under our noses."

"Well, those are some good ideas for now." Judumai said. "We're here; let's see if we can find or destroy anything in her room."

Benkei reached for the doorknob, twisting, but it didn't budge. "Of course." He hissed.

"S-Stand back." I said, pulling out a pistol from my coat. I put it against the knob, gritting my teeth and squeezing my eyes shut, before pulling the trigger. It pierced through the metal, loosening the fixture. Niko stepped forward, taking the loose doorknob and breaking it apart with a few tugs.