Big Friend

Emma let out a sweet giggle after hearing Jack's invitation.

"I'm flattered, but it's probably best that I don't come."

Jack pouted and held up his fists.

"But I want you to come! Don't you want to come?"

Emma let out a small sigh.

"I'm sure it will be quite enjoyable, but sometimes doing what you want isn't always the best thing."

Jack tilted his head to the side. In the end, he ran over to Jessica and Mia, tugging on the hems of their shirts.

"Hey, hey, you don't mind if she comes along right? It will be really fun if she comes along!"

However, there wasn't a response. Jack looked up once more to see that both Jessica and Mia had rather disturbed expressions. As for their eyes, they were still locked on Emma, who was still smiling as brightly as she always was.

In this brief moment of silence, people began looking at each other. After a little while, someone ran frantically, not caring about the stakes they put down to gamble. They went straight out of the portal, taking them out of there. And when he did so, it only took a few seconds before countless others followed suit.

Although nobody said it, there was an unspoken rule among the people here. That you wouldn't attack others, so it would be a safe space. Of course, there was a protection barrier that was provided, but it only lasted for 10 hours each day.

Most people spent almost all their time just inside, so whether or not the protection was active when they were attacked was essentially a gamble. As to the time of the day. Emma knew of such unspoken rules. However, she simply didn't care about them at all.

In fact, it would be more accurate to say that she disdained how people acted like caged animals, gambling away. Even when the door to the cage was always open.

As for Jack, he didn't notice everything going on around him. He simply was wondering why the two wouldn't look back at him. In the end, it was Jessica that recovered first. She hurriedly hugged Jack and whispered to him.

"W-We can't take someone like that. She's too dangerous."

Jack puffed up his cheeks.

"But she said that it was an accident! She only wanted to help, so she's fine, right?"

Jessica sucked in a cold breath.

"W-Well, it's one thing if she wants to come along with us. But if she doesn't want to, then we should respect that."

Jack looked quite sad, casting one more look over to Emma, who waved amicably in response.

"But... but..."

Mia awkwardly cleared her throat.

"Sometimes people just... want to do their own thing. You can't always force people to do what you want them to."

Jack looked down with a sad expression. He walked over to Emma while tapping the tips of his fingers together.

"D-Do you not want to come with us?"

Emma walked over and put a hand on Jack's cheek.

"No, it's nothing like that. I would really like to come."

Jack's eyes lit up.

"Then-"

"But not right now. I'm really sorry to disappoint you, Jack. How about I make it up to you with a promise?"

Emma stuck out her pinky with a smile. As for Jack, he looked back with confusion.

"What do you mean?"

Emma let out a chuckle.

"We hold out our pinkies and wrap them around each other to make a promise that we won't break. I promise you that I'll go on a trip with you later even if it's a really, really long one, alright?"

Jack looked back with wide eyes and a slightly agape mouth.

"L-Like this?"

He held out his hand and wrapped his pinky around hers, though a bit awkwardly. While he was hesitating, Emma tightened hers to force it into the right position. She tilted her head to the side ever so slightly.

"And with that, you have yourself a promise. If I break it, then may the greatest misfortune fall upon me."

Jack blinked a few times before smiling brightly.

"Ah, alright! It's a promise!"

After holding on for a little longer, he ran over to Jessica and Mia, no longer feeling as sad as he once was.

"Let's go out on the trip and come back soon!"

A bitter smile formed on Mia's face, though she didn't voice any of her inner thoughts.

"Y-Yeah. Let's do that."

While the hub itself was still incredibly quiet, they made their way out of there slowly but surely. The moment they did get outside, a man waiting by the entrance let out a squeal upon seeing them and began running away. It seemed he was just waiting by the entrance and intended on going back in later.

It seemed that while they made it through the first floor, most people didn't have the endurance to continue on afterwards. Though that didn't have anything to do with them. Mia held up the lamp and illuminated the way forward, taking the lead.

Although quite a few people ended up leaving the hub, it didn't really change anything. That was simply due to the fact that the place was so damn big, that it was hard to notice there were even extra people.

And with that, they went on for quite a while, searching for a game to play that could possibly give them a 7. Like how it was for previous excursions, very little happened for a very long time.

Jack himself wasn't actually wearing the Thief's Garbs, offhandedly deciding to see if it would go into his storage deck, which it did. He thought about putting it back on, but decided to hold off a little since it was a bit less comfortable having it on.

Although the mechanism was explained to him, it didn't seem that Jack understood how potent it truly was.

Jessica and Mia felt a tad bit paranoid considering their last experience going out like this was rather bad, even if it did work out in the end. Still, they weren't scarred as badly as other people and trudged on.

For quite a while, they found themselves rather stressed for little reason, wasting their mental energy for no real reason. After three hours of pointless walking, they gradually began calming down.

Though as if wanting to contradict their feelings, they heard screams coming from the distance.

Jack let out a small gasp and pointed in that direction.

"Oh! It looks like someone is having fun? Let's go!"

Mia decided not to question Jack's definition of fun.

"Well, maybe we shouldn't disturb them."

As for Jessica, she thought it was completely natural.

"But we should go over to help them! That's the right thing to do."

Mia felt like they probably shouldn't do that, and opened her mouth. However, she remembered that Jack wasn't what he used to be. Or at least, what he appeared to be. Not only did he have a giant monster as a pet, but he himself was really strong from what she saw.

"...Alright. But Jack, you should bring out your pet as well, don't you think? If you can control the thing, that is."

Jack let out a small gasp.

"Ah, you're right! Come out, Seedy!"

He opened his storage deck and a mass of green vines shot out from it. It did not take long for the entire plant monster to emerge in all of its glory. The tongue hung out from the partially closed flower petals as it turned its head back and forth cluelessly.

Jack reached over to pet the flower's head.

"Hehe, good Seedy, good Seedy!"

The flower pushed into Jack's pet affectionately, clearly enjoying it. As Mia was going to speak up to refocus their attention, someone dragged their way into the light of the lantern.

"Please... please help me..."

It was the man they saw earlier. He was crawling toward the group with his hands. His face was incredibly pale, and it clearly showed the despair he felt. As the man continued further into the light, it revealed the rest of his body. Or more accurately, the lack of.

The man's legs were ripped off in a rather gruesome fashion, with the bone sticking out awkwardly as some torn muscles still hung onto it. He left behind a trail of blood as he went forward.

From how much blood was coming out of him, even ignoring the fact that he had no legs, the man definitely wasn't going to live for very long. As he continued crawling towards us, a rather loud thumping came from behind him.

With several stomps, a new monster showed its presence. It was a large monster that consisted of countless limbs. About seven or so legs were on the ground of varying sizes, but only two that were much bigger than the rest appeared to serve for actual walking.

It all seemed to come together into a form of a thick pole of flesh, almost like it was a tree. And above it, were countless arms reaching upwards, some larger than others, just like the branches of a tree. If only it had leaves, then it would really be close in appearance. Though the blood covering them worked pretty well for what it was worth.

The man looked over his shoulder and cried out in terror.

"No... NOOO! HELP M-"

One of the giant arms swooped down, grabbing his torso and bringing him up into the air as though he was just a toy. Some smaller arms grabbed onto the man's remaining two limbs before ripping them off like they were meant to be detachable.

Although the man's mouth wasn't restricted, the screams quickly began trailing off, as he fell silent.

Jack smiled rather brightly considering their situation.

"Wow! This is one of the biggest friends I've seen so far!"