"There's another true mastermind?"
Alice froze, then immediately shouted at Yusaku Kudo, "Who is it? Who exactly is that person? Who has nothing better to do than toy with us like this?"
Yusaku Kudo looked at Alice.
After a moment of staring, everyone else's gazes slowly gathered on Alice as well.
At that moment, Alice suddenly realized the situation she was facing and involuntarily took a step back.
She clutched her chest and said in a fluster, "Y-You... what do you mean? Don't tell me... don't tell me... you think... think it was me?"
"...The planner of this game must meet three conditions."
Yusaku Kudo spoke slowly, his gaze fixed on Alice's face without wavering for a moment.
"First, this player would not take the initiative to disrupt the balance. Because the player's objective was to watch us slaughter one another, not to turn us into his prey and hunt us down one by one. So, he should not attack proactively. Instead, he would wait silently in the background and watch events unfold."
"Second, if he never attacked, his identity might come under suspicion. Therefore, at the appropriate times, he would also need to gradually reduce the cards in his hand. But in order not to violate the first condition, he had to be careful not to upset the balance when reducing his cards through attacking or defending. So, the best way would be to quietly reduce his cards while teaming up with others for coordinated attacks."
"Third, the organizer arranged this game so that his two pieces—Barlow and the person he hated—would engage in a slaughter without knowing each other. Thus, preventing the game from ending too early, as well as preventing concentrated attacks caused by a shift in firepower, were also things he needed to watch out for.