Episode 2 of *Alice in Borderland* Season 3 kicks off with Arisu stepping into the shrine, poised on the brink of embarking on a new round of deadly games. The other players around him are equally bewildered, their minds swirling with confusion, but time is a luxury they cannot afford—the game awaits.
This particular challenge is dubbed "Sacred Fortunes." The premise is straightforward yet treacherous: each participant must draw ten fortune slips, testing the very fabric of their luck. Success hinges on accurately interpreting these sacred missives and surviving the ordeal. However, the clock is unforgiving, allowing only one minute per draw, and each slip can be drawn but once.
A man named Tetsu, visibly under the influence of some substance, draws "great fortunes," hinting at a reprieve from immediate danger. Meanwhile, others are confronted with mathematical conundrums, spanning multiple-choice puzzles to percentage calculations and beyond. Every incorrect response triggers a lethal downpour of fire arrows from above, the quantity determined by the numerical gap between the right answer and the one given. Cooperation—or at the very least, attempts at precision—becomes a matter of life and death.
Caught in the eye of this storm, Arisu finds himself thrust back into the maelstrom of memories. The horror, trauma, and fear he once endured resurface in relentless waves, each round escalating in brutality. In one harrowing sequence, 448 arrows descend from the heavens, claiming countless lives in an instant.
As the tenth and final draw looms, the onus falls squarely on Arisu's shoulders to deliver the correct answer. He draws an "extreme bad luck" card and is tasked with estimating the global population, with a staggering margin of error set at 100 million. The stakes could not be higher, for 100 million fire arrows stand poised to unleash their fury.
In a moment of epiphany, Arisu recognizes that each slip drawn so far has concealed a vital clue, a compass guiding them through the labyrinth of the game. Every unlucky draw indicates the direction from which the arrows originate. With this revelation, Arisu hypothesizes that by moving in a specific direction, they can evade the worst of the onslaught. Northwest remains uncharted territory, untouched by any draw, and so, with a desperate urgency, they all scramble in that direction, seeking refuge from the impending storm.
Arisu stumbles upon a clandestine underground tunnel concealed amidst the rocky terrain. With a sky now tainted a sickly, ominous shade of orange by the omnipresent arrows, the players hastily scramble beneath the earth's surface into the labyrinthine tunnels. Not everyone manages to make it through the chaos, but those who do emerge find not only a way out but, more crucially, the end of this harrowing game.
Yet, there's no true escape from the relentless grasp of Borderlands. Without visas to grant them respite, they're simply thrust from one game to the next, with barely a moment's peace in between. It seems that each of these individuals shares a similar tale of recruitment, with Banda bestowing upon them each a Joker card. Curiously, it appears that they've all danced with these deadly games before.
For the survivors, a gradual resurgence of memories begins to unfold. However, this journey down the corridor of recollection is fleeting, for it's time to face the next ordeal.
This time around, they're thrust into a round of Zombie Hunt. Each participant is dealt seven playing cards. They must employ these cards in one-on-one duels at tables scattered throughout the sprawling facility.
In these clashes, players are compelled to play cards from the same suit as those dealt to them. The one who amasses the highest cumulative total emerges victorious. The winner then claims a card from the loser's hand.
But there are three special cards lurking in the deck to add a twist to the proceedings. The first is the Zombie Card, a trump card that reigns supreme over all others and guarantees an instantaneous victory if drawn. The unfortunate loser then becomes "infected" by the zombie, and a Zombie card is added to their already precarious hand.
The Shotgun card, another special addition, serves as a bulwark against the zombie's proliferation. It can be used to obliterate the zombies dead in their tracks. Each player from every team is guaranteed to receive a Shotgun card, but wielding it comes with a perilous price: if they draw a Zombie while using it, they too will meet their demise.
This Shotgun card can be deployed even when there are no Zombie Cards visible on the table, but it can only be fired once before vanishing into oblivion. Another Special Card offers a more pacifist approach: the Vaccine card. Distributed randomly among group members, this card neutralizes the Zombie card's effects—though it cannot be used on oneself.
The game unfolds over 20 rounds, and by the end, the victors are those who have amassed the largest contingents on either the Zombie or Human side. The team with the fewest members on either faction faces elimination when the rounds conclude.
There are four distinct player groups scattered throughout the facility, and initially, only four Zombie cards are in play—one per team. Arisu swiftly realizes that identifying the random players who have received a Vaccine card is crucial to winning and halting the Zombie proliferation. There's a high probability that these cardholders hail from rival teams.
Arisu is also determined to locate Usagi, but that's easier said than done. It seems the games are being cycled through like a tournament, raising the possibility that Arisu and Usagi could end up squaring off against each other in one of these contests.
Much like Chishiya's face games in Season 2, Arisu has honed his ability to read people. He spots a woman avoiding eye contact with him during play and deduces she's a zombie who has already infected another.
While some on the team advocate for outright elimination, Arisu seeks a safer approach—locating the Vaccine cards. The plan is to identify those infected by Zombie cards and inform the group of their infector. Essentially, they'd be forming an alliance with their adversaries by offering themselves as hostages. Of course, if this pact is broken, people can resort to their Shotgun cards and eliminate them, but ideally, it shouldn't come to that... right?
One individual who sacrifices herself for this information is the blue-haired, bubbly Rei. She devises a trust barricade strategy, banking on the idea that zombies will be too fearful to risk exposing themselves. This would enable the humans to triumph with the promise of turning players using just enough Vaccine cards. However, this strategy rests heavily on hope, as they have no clue how many Vaccine cards are in circulation.
Their plan is solid, incorporating the distribution of number cards to ensure no one is left at a disadvantage. Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to abide by these rules. Some, like the impatient and rash Ikeno, favor a more aggressive approach, wanting to use their Shotgun cards to eradicate the zombies outright.
One individual willing to "go the extra mile" for them is Mr. Kazuya, a former Yakuza. After dispatching a player wielding a Zombie card, he returns to the group where a rebellion is simmering.
This compels the Zombies to emerge from hiding and launch an offensive, converting more players outside the Trust Barricade into zombies. Rei, however, is actually thrilled by the games becoming "more interesting," much to Arisu's astonishment.
