Kai looked straight at Ji-yeong.
"Ji-yeong, do you trust me?"
Ji-yeong frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"
"If you trust me," Kai said firmly, "give me your marble bag — all ten marbles included. I promise, both you and I will survive this round."
Ji-yeong raised an eyebrow but, after a brief pause, handed her bag to him without another word.
The Guard in red immediately reached for his gun, preparing to shoot her. But before he could act, Kai stepped forward and handed his own bag — with all ten of his marbles — to Ji-yeong.
The Guard froze mid-motion, completely confused.
"...???"
Kai turned to him calmly. "According to the rules, victory is achieved by winning ten marbles from your opponent. It never said anything about needing to keep twenty marbles total, right?"
"Now, I've won ten marbles from Player 240, and Player 240 has won ten from me. We've both won ten from each other. By the rules, we both pass."
Ji-yeong stared at him in disbelief. For a moment, she forgot how to speak.
Then her lips curved into a small smile. "Kai… you're a damn genius."
The Guard, still stunned, raised his radio and reported the situation.
"Captain, uh… about this…"
From the other end of the line, the Black Mask Captain chuckled.
"Excellent. Absolutely excellent. Player 250… how is his brain wired like that? Someone like him shouldn't be just a player. Let them pass. And once all teams finish, bring Player 250 to me. I'd like to have a little chat."
"Understood," the Guard replied. He turned back to them. "You two have passed. Return to the dormitory."
On the way back, Ji-yeong glanced at Kai, her eyes softer than before.
"Should we… tell the others about this method?" she asked quietly.
Kai shook his head. His tone carried a hint of cold pragmatism.
"Ji-yeong, do I look like a saint to you? Why should I care if they live or die? Half the people here are going to be eliminated anyway. Saving you was already an exception."
He continued, voice calm but sharp.
"The fewer players that survive, the more prize money there'll be for us. And besides, even if they wanted to copy us, it's too late. The rules only say that you win if you take ten marbles from your opponent. If their marbles get mixed, they can't even prove who owns which. So no — we keep this to ourselves."
Ji-yeong nodded slightly. "Okay… I'll listen to you from now on."
Back in the dormitory, Kai stopped in his tracks.
"What the hell… Big Sis? You weren't eliminated?"
Player 212 — Han Mi-nyeo — was lying comfortably on her bunk, alive and well.
Han Mi-nyeo sat up, just as surprised.
"I heard from the Guards that this round was a one-on-one elimination game. How are both of you alive? Don't tell me you cheated or something?"
Kai folded his arms. "I should be asking you that. How are you not dead?"
Han Mi-nyeo grinned. "Apparently, I was an odd one out. Couldn't be paired. They said I got a bye and escorted me back to the dormitory."
Ji-yeong looked at her in disbelief. "We were risking our lives out there, and you got a direct pass?"
Kai almost felt his blood pressure spike.
You've got to be kidding me.
"I thought being alone meant instant elimination," he muttered. "Never considered a goddamn bye round. If I'd known…"
He let out a long sigh. "Unbelievable."
Han Mi-nyeo continued cheerfully, "They said it's part of a beautiful rule children followed back then — not abandoning the weak ones left behind."
Kai's eye twitched. Unbelievable. I nearly fried my brain finding a loophole, and she gets to pass by sheer dumb luck.
Han Mi-nyeo leaned forward. "So? How did you two survive?"
Ji-yeong answered before Kai could speak.
"Because my partner is someone who's really good at finding loopholes."
Kai smirked. "If I'm right, we're probably the only pair where both players survived. That means at least thirteen people died this round. Which means for the fifth game, there'll be, at most, sixteen of us left."
Han Mi-nyeo's eyes gleamed. "That means no more than ten people will survive all six rounds… Each of us could get around four billion won."
Kai murmured thoughtfully, "Now I get it. The fourth game wasn't about strength or skill — it was about humanity. But not the evil of it. The good. Whether you dare to trust your partner… whether you can hand over your marbles."
Ji-yeong shook her head. "That's your version of it, Kai. For someone like you, it's about goodness. But for most others… it's about betrayal. About testing how far people are willing to go to survive. For them, it's not goodness being tested — it's the darkest parts of human nature."
Kai looked at her and smiled faintly. "Ji-yeong, let's keep working together in the next round. I said I'd help you survive, and I meant it."
Ji-yeong's eyes softened slightly. "What if the next round isn't cooperative?"
"Then we still help each other," he said firmly.
Ji-yeong nodded. "Alright. But for now… I still hope Kang Sae-byeok and Player 456 make it through too."
Kai shrugged. "Let fate decide. But honestly, I'm more worried that once the others see both of us survived, they'll start seeing me as a threat — and try to eliminate me before the fifth game starts."
Ji-yeong's tone was calm but brutally honest. "To be fair, when you killed that old woman in the Dalgona round, everyone — including me — already started being wary of you. You've just been lucky to survive since then."
Kai's jaw tightened. "Don't mention that old woman again."
While the three of them chatted in uneasy calm, the atmosphere outside was drenched in despair.
In the game arena, the sound of weeping and gunfire echoed through the maze.
Unlike Kai, the other players didn't have the intelligence — or audacity — to find a loophole.
They followed the rules blindly, believing that the only way to survive was to win all their partner's marbles.
And so, one by one, they turned against the people they trusted most — proving, once again, that the real game wasn't just about marbles.
It was about humanity.