Innocent or Guilty

"So, boss. If I'm understanding it correctly, you are trying to make him into a good person, right?"

"Yes, it is as you say."

"Then are you trying to make him an enemy of us? I don't believe that we are exactly the most amicable bunch."

"No, he will be our ally."

"...As I thought, I still don't understand."

"Bah, can you two shut up? We'll just see what it's like if and when he gets here, no?"

"I suppose."

...

Jack waited around in the room with the others, as there seemed to be a need for one more person to start.

Though he tried to stand, Jack found himself rooted to the seat. After puffing up his cheeks, he kicked his legs back and forth. Just a few seconds later, he began smiling once more.

"So what games do you guys like to play?"

Caden pressed his hands to his ears a little tighter and kept his head down, clearly not wanting to bother with the conversation. Lily put her palms together and held them up, tilting both her head and hands to the side.

"I do quite enjoy playing chess outside with a gentle breeze. Though I suppose given the circumstances, that setting would be a bit difficult to accomplish."

Jack's eyes widened slightly.

"I've never played that game before."

Lily let out a small laugh, putting the tips of her fingers up to her mouth.

"If that's the case, then perhaps I can teach you sometime in the future."

The bird on her shoulder looked at its owner for a moment before its head cocked to the side, looking at Jack. Soon after, it lost interest, using its beak to ruffle through the underside of its wing.

Jack put a finger to his lip as his beady eyes watched Lily's expression for a few moments. Eventually, he broke out into a smile.

"Ok! I really like playing tag, or riding! Those are both really fun."

Elena let out a snicker, leaning forward and slapping the table.

"And the game that I like the most is the one where you crush each other's skulls."

Jack let out an interested hum.

"I never tried that before! Dad would never play those kinds of games with me, but I did do a similar one where I crushed my fingers instead. Crushing heads sounds like a lot of fun too!"

Most of them briefly looked at him after he said that, though nobody had a direct response. Lily simply giggled before putting her hand down.

After a few moments of awkward silence, a man with a bandaged arm appeared with a flash of light. Or perhaps to be more accurate, a stump where his arm used to be. It was a grizzled middle-aged man with a small beard. Despite the missing limb, his eyes were sharp and his back was straight, clearly quite the proud person.

The countdown rapidly decreased, becoming ten seconds in a flash.

While the last few seconds of the lobby were ticking, Jack excitedly sprung up, lifting his hand in the air.

"My name is Jack! What about you?"

The man seemed somewhat confused, silently looking back at him for a few seconds.

"...Rowan."

With that, all of them disappeared into a flash of light, suddenly finding themselves standing in the middle of a forest. A set of trees circled around them and had dense foliage piled up in between, forming a pseudo set of walls.

There was plenty of space within, enough for them to comfortably play a sport like soccer.

A distant, but deep growl came from the distance. Whatever it came from, must've at least been as big as a bear. Though thinking that it might've just been a bear was wishful thinking for a place such as this.

While everyone was getting settled in, a system prompt appeared in front of them.

[Welcome to, Hunting the Trapper and Trapping the Hunters!

The six of you have all come on a trip together to hunt some of the most dangerous wild animals! However, it was discovered that a delayed lure had already been placed within the camp. One of you has a different objective compared to the rest, to kill every other person in the group by using your secret tools to control all of the beasts!

In four days, all of the preparations will be complete, and there will be nothing the rest of the hunters can do but try to survive the onslaught.

On each of those days, the hunters have a chance to vote among themselves. If the trapper is the one voted out, then all the ones who voted will now have access to those secret tools!

However, if a fellow hunter is voted out instead, the number of days available will decrease by one, and that hunter will be cast out into the wild to fend off beasts, unable to help discover the trapper.

All players have one chance to use a playing card to increase the weight of their voting power by the count of their card. By default, all votes have a power of one.

Every night, the hunters may investigate another to see if they are the trapper. However, each hunter takes on a unique characteristic unbeknownst to them.

The Naive will see everyone as innocent regardless of the person they choose to investigate.

The Paranoid will see everyone as guilty regardless of the person they choose to investigate.

The Unbiased will see fellow hunters as innocent and the trapper as guilty.

The Fool will see fellow hunters as guilty, and the trapper as innocent.

The Crazy will randomly see anybody as either innocent or guilty regardless of the person they choose to investigate.

Rounds will begin at night, giving everybody a chance to investigate.

Have fun!]

While everyone was reading the system prompt, various cards appeared above all of them, clearly on display for everyone to see.

A 2 of clubs appeared above Elena.

A 3 of diamonds appeared above Lily.

A 4 of spades appeared above Caden.

A 5 of hearts appeared above Malik.

A 6 of diamonds appeared above Jack.

A 7 of clubs appeared above Rowan.

After a few minutes, the lights suddenly went out, making everything pitch black. A red glow gradually formed coming from a few cards on top of a table. The 6 of diamonds representing Jack was the closest to him, with a label at the bottom stating, 'Hunter'.

All of the other cards representing the others were a slight bit further up. They hovered slightly, as though trying to tell Jack to flip them over.

He didn't immediately reach out to flip one of them. Instead, he thought to himself for a rather long while. Eventually, a small smile formed on his face as he reached for the 3 of diamonds, the one representing Lily.

Upon flipping it over, a bright red bear trap appeared, along with the bold words, 'Trapper' underneath. The other previously hovering cards fell down. Out of curiosity, Jack tried to pick one up, but it was as though they had been super glued down on the table.

A few moments later, everything suddenly became bright once more, bringing back all the trees and walls of foliage.

As though it were a rooster signaling the start of the day, two growls came from the distance, sounding a bit closer than last time. The cards indicating each person's identity were still above them clearly.

Jack put both hands on the sides of his face, quite excited.

"The glowing colors looked really pretty!"

Lily smiled rather brightly, matching his tune.

"Haha, they really were."

Caden let out a small sigh, raising his hand into the air to bring attention to himself.

"Basically, this is just a logic puzzle where we try to figure out which ones are innocent and which are guilty. For starters, we should all say who we investigated and what the result was. I'll go first since I suggested it."

One after another, they all took turns to say who they investigated and what result came out of it.

"The muscle girl showed up as a hunter."

Caden investigated Elena, finding her innocent.

"The last one to join showed up as innocent."

Malik investigated Rowan, finding him innocent.

"Lily showed up as a bad guy for me!"

Jack investigated Lily, finding her guilty.

"Uh, the 4 of spades was a trapper."

Rowan investigated Caden, finding him guilty.

"Mr. Blindfold was bad for me."

Elena investigated Malik, finding him guilty.

"Jack, you were innocent for me!"

Lily investigated Jack, finding him innocent.

Caden let out a hum after hearing all of the answers.

"So three innocent and three guilty verdicts. With how the characteristics are, on average that is the expected result."

Elena leaned against a nearby rock and crossed her arms.

"If this is supposed to be some logic puzzle, then how the hell are we supposed to figure out who the trapper is supposed to be? Sorry, but I have no plans of playing house with a bunch of Twinkies. I think the best way is to make them cough it up!"