"You’re Deon Day?"

"That’s me."

For a second, no one said anything. The girl with the knife immediately opened her own panel, fingers tapping on it before her face changed.

"He’s lying."

The pipe in Aaron’s hand lifted again. Hana stiffened beside him, but Deon didn’t move.

The girl looked up, eyes narrowing. "He’s not rank two. He might just be claiming to be Deon Day."

[ClownWithWifi: Ain’t no way, he got fact checked!]

[LovesAGoodBargain: Unfortunate timing issue.]

[AuraMonster: Do not lower your head.]

Even so, all Deon did was smile softly, just enough to make it look like being caught didn’t bother him at all.

"I said I’m Deon Day," he replied. "Believe it or not, you decide."

Though as he said it, Deon’s hands moved to his back pocket, finding his wallet with his ID inside, just in case they needed proof.

Aaron’s grip tightened around the pipe. "You expect us to trust that?"

Deon simply shrugged. "If you want to waste time debating whether I’m the guy who was rank two five minutes ago, go ahead. But every second you stand here, another group of four might reach him first."

Deon knew he hated it, that much was obvious. But hatred and logic were two different things, and right now...Deon was trying to strike at his logos.

The injured man looked down at the folded Flag under his arm. His fingers tightened once, then slowly loosened.

"...Damn it."

He threw the collapsed pole toward Deon.

[Team 6 Flag Acquired.]

[ClownWithWifi: Let’s gooooo!]

Aaron glared at him. "If you’re lying—"

"The rewards outweigh the risk."

Aaron looked like he wanted to argue, but there was nothing left to argue with. He clicked his tongue before turning towards the direction of Shinso Bridge.

"Let’s hurry."

The girl with the knife helped the injured man adjust his arm over her shoulder. The fourth member gave Deon one last wary look before following.

They kept glancing back. Deon didn’t blame them. He wouldn’t trust himself either.

For a few seconds, Hana only watched them go. Then she slowly turned toward him. "You helped them out. Levi, too."

Deon immediately frowned. "I traded with them. That’s all."

Hana’s gaze dropped to the folded Flag now in his hand. "You took their Flag, but you also gave them somewhere safer to go."

"That’s because they didn’t realize the value of a Flag."

"What?"

Deon lifted the folded pole slightly, feeling the weight of it settle in his hand. "Four Chairs disappeared this round. That means four teams failed. But what happened to their Flags?"

Hana’s brows drew together.

"Maybe they disappeared with the teams," he continued. "Maybe they were left behind. Maybe someone picked them up. Maybe Mimi removes them when the team fails. I don’t know."

He glanced toward the distant archway of Mihan Park. "But that’s exactly the problem—"

"We don’t know." Hana finished his sentence, looking at the collapsed pole in his hand, then back at him.

"Right," Deon nodded. "We’re looking for a group of five. But what if the group of five we find doesn’t have a Flag anymore? What if they lost it? What if someone stole it? What if they survived the first round by merging into another team and got split off again?"

"Then..."

"Then they’re useless to us unless we have one," he nodded. "So it’s better if we rely on ourselves rather than others. Especially in something like this."

[LovesAGoodBargain: Excellent acquisition. Undervalued asset secured.]

[AuraMonster: Authority is taking what others fail to recognize! Haha!]

"And besides..." he muttered.

Hana looked up. "Besides?"

Deon’s eyes narrowed. "Something bothered me about the first round."

"What?"

"Jason."

Hana blinked. "Jason?"

"He had too many Points."

"He was fighting with Levi and Celine, wasn’t he?"

"Yeah, but think about it. Levi’s [Fireball] was wiping out packs from a distance. Celine was shooting from behind. Jason had [Shield]. Unless he was secretly smashing Hounds into paste with that thing, there’s no way he should’ve climbed that high from scraps alone."

"Didn’t he say he was finishing off Infantry that Levi left behind?" Hana questioned, tilting her head.

Deon answered immediately. "It’s a lie. Infantry need to be hit in their Core. Levi can burn them, sure, but his [Fireball] isn’t built to pierce through and destroy the Core cleanly. Celine’s arrows wouldn’t do much better unless she got lucky."

"So unless Levi has another Card, which could be possible," he continued. "Something else is going on."

He lifted the pole in his arm, staring at it. "And I surmise it’s because of this."

Hana stared at the Flag for a second longer before her eyes widened, realization settling across her face. "Jason was the one who planted the Flag into Shinso Bridge, doesn’t that mean—"

"Yeah," Deon cut her off. "He was technically the one who claimed it. Maybe he got some hidden bonus. Maybe ownership priority. Maybe extra contribution for initiating the Chair."

[RandomToastEnjoyer: Huh, I never thought about it that way?]

[ChairGoblin_22: damn, that deduction was pretty clear actually.]

His grip tightened around the folded pole.

There’s no way that actor wouldn’t know of something like this...

Deon sighed, "Once again, he has managed to outfox me."

A hand tapped on his back. He turned to see Hana with a soft grin on her face. "Pfftt. Don’t worry, you’ll get him next time!"

Deon clicked his tongue and turned toward Mihan Park again, lifting the metal pole over his shoulder. "This time, I’m planting the damn Flag."

The archway to Mihan Park waited at the end of the street.

Before the Miracle Royale, it probably would have looked almost peaceful. A wide stone entrance framed by trees, old festival lanterns hanging from rusted wires, and a cracked sign that still had the park’s name written across it in faded white letters.

Now, the trees were scorched black and the lanterns were swaying without light.

Still, Deon could see it immediately, past the entrance and beyond the line of trees—a faint glow pulsed from the park’s central plaza.

An unclaimed Chair...!

But beyond that, his eyes found others...another team.

Hana looked past him, eyes widening. "There’s already people."

"Yeah."

They were gathered near the center fountain, where the glowing outline of a translucent Chair hovered above the cracked stone. The fountain itself had long since stopped working, its basin filled with dust and dark rainwater.

Around it, a group of contestants stood in a loose formation, tense enough that none of them looked comfortable with each other.

Two men.

Two girls.

And a woman close to the glowing Chair.

The first man was tall and broad-shouldered, holding a fire axe with both hands, his expression suggesting that he had no intention of letting anyone else get close. The second looked younger, thin and nervous, clutching a Card so tightly his knuckles had gone white.

Of the two girls, one had short hair and a baseball bat resting against her shoulder. She kept glancing toward the surrounding trees, clearly expecting something to jump out.

The other wore a torn jacket and stood slightly behind the group, eyes darting between everyone as if deciding who she would run behind first if things went bad.

And the last one—

A woman sat on the fountain’s edge. Her long lavender hair spilled over her shoulders, loose and messy in a way that looked intentional. A black ribbon was tied near the side of her head, fluttering faintly whenever the wind passed through the park.

A dark jacket hung from her arms, and beneath it, her athletic white top was still squeaky clean despite everything that had happened.

But it wasn’t the hair or the ribbon that made Deon freeze up. It was her crimson-red eyes, familiar and half-lidded, that almost like she was bored with everything that had been happening.

[ClownWithWifi: wait why’d he stop]

[LovesAGoodBargain: Oh?]

[AuraMonster: Interesting.]

But before he could do anything, her red eyes had already found him through the ruined trees. The expression on her face changed immediately, as it could only be described with one word:

Amusement—like she had been waiting for him to show up and had only wondered how long it would take.

"Well...if it isn’t Little Day himself."