A faint humming sound could be heard in the air.
[How interesting.] It said.
Although Jian Xie didn’t look to the side, he could still feel that the KFC sofa seat had sunk slightly, as if someone had sat on it without a care.
The arm that was resting on the back of the sofa and loosely wrapped around him had an inhumanly cold touch, which further confirmed his thoughts.
Beside him was the evil god.
It acted recklessly once again, regardless of the occasion, and appeared in a mimicry wrapped in a black mist.
But there were no screams, gasps, or shouts of disbelief in the air. It was quite the opposite. The two investigators in front of Jian Xie did not react to It showing up. Instead, it was as if a movie screen was paused, holding the scene from a few seconds ago.
It was as if time was frozen by a mysterious force and fell into the realm of absolute zero.
[Let me control your body.] It approached him, and It’s gentle breath fell on the side of Jian Xie’s face. [Hate him? I’ll help you solve it.]
Too close.
His ears were unconsciously turning red.
Jian Xie knew the hidden meaning behind It’s words, but It seemed very good at making an originally normal thing ambiguous.
Because he didn’t want to expose Itself too early, the huge black fog would not appear in front of everyone in its original form, rather It could temporarily control Jian Xie’s body and move in front of them using his identity.
Then Fu Huanyu, who only had a B-level prop, would instantly become like a jumping clown in front of him, making people scoff at him.
“……”
Although It’s tone was one of soliciting opinions, It did not seem to have considered the possibility that Jian Xie would refuse. There was a creaking sound from the sofa, and the figure wrapped in black mist stood up.
It lazily took the card box from Fu Huanyu’s hand, unpacked it, and slowly took out the playing cards and placed them on the table.
Jian Xie rubbed his ears expressionlessly and lowered his head to refuse, “That’s not really necessary.”
It was not that he was being polite to It.
Because It lacked the awe and fear towards destiny that normal people like Cheng Li have, and couldn’t be dominated by emotions that breed distracting thoughts, It pursued absolute neutral rationality more.
After all, it was just a B-level prop that affected luck.
If it was truly unbeatable, such a powerful prop would never have fallen into the hands of any investigator and instead would have been taken over by the Weapons Department itself.
It must have extremely obvious limitations that couldn’t be concealed.
From the information from the Supernatural Management Bureau that Cheng Li sent him, it could be seen that the bloody other world that has not yet been fully revealed to Jian Xie was full of all kinds of unknown horrors and mysteries.
It was like a forest that couldn’t be explained by common sense, hiding countless pairs of predator eyes lurking in the dark.
But even with such complex forms, there was a clear law that runs through the darkness.
——As long as one was at a high level, it meant an unreasonable, absolute justice, and invincible “crushing victory”.
The S-level whose existence was currently in question in the archives.
Special A-level, A-level, B-level, and C-level.
The levels of investigators, monsters, and props were the same. This was by no means a coincidence or an accident, but an arrangement based on the rules of the formula book.
B-level investigators couldn’t use props above B-level, and couldn’t kill monsters above B-level.
Even if using A-level props could temporarily make them jump to a higher level, the user would inevitably pay a heavy price. Even with such a sacrifice, it may not be possible to kill an A-level monster.
The same was true within each circle, B-level monsters would be eaten as food by A-level monsters, and the strength of B-level investigators was simply not enough to compete with A-level investigators.
This was the cruel hierarchy of a food chain.
Some were born to be food, while others were born to be predators.
Jian Xie had a premonition that since he was able to carry It’s huge body, his level would definitely not be lower than B.
Therefore, he really wanted to experiment how the so-called illusory “luck” or “fortune” would work in the face of a gap in level.
This was the so-called gambling.
Ever since his parents’ car accident, he rarely had drastic emotional fluctuations. Although he has not turned into an emotionless living dead, his perspective on things has changed. It was as if his emotions had been suppressed by a layer of foggy, invisible barrier.
Now that he was provoked right to the face by this man named Fu Huanyu, he thought a normal person would feel angry in such a situation, and since he was angry, he would definitely make the other party pay a terrible price.
In short, Fu Huanyu was finished.
Perhaps Jian Xie himself did not realize that there was a kind of madness and evil tendencies in his bones that he himself was not aware of.
The extremely high intellectual quality that every investigator who successfully made a name in the other world has was actually found in a teenager.
No one noticed that It curled the corners of It’s lips, stared at Jian Xie for a long time, then lazily raised It’s hand and motioned him to put his hand in It’s palm.
Pale hands as delicate as a work of art emerged from the mist, looking extremely strange as if they came from another world, yet containing a mystery that made people want to explore.
[You found out.] His tone was slightly regretful. It said lazily, [But I still need the appearance reward.]
It was as if he had asked It to appear, which was totally unreasonable and was indeed It’s usual style.
[This.] It hinted, hooking his finger.
Seeing this, Jian Xie paused, and an inexplicable subtle emotion flashed through his heart. His thoughts drifted to what It had said when It dealt with the Special A-level monster before.
Just wanna hold his hand…? What kind of reward is this? His expression turned strange.
……
After a while, It still showed no intention of retracting It’s hand. Jian Xie pondered for a moment, raised his eyes, and offered his hand to It.
Warm and cold fingers overlapped together.
The black mist quickly climbed up along the place where the two people’s skin touched, like a vine with vigorous vitality, tightly linking the two people together.
After the strange hand holding continued for half a minute, It seemed finally satisfied. It flipped his palm, and the mimicry that was originally two meters tall suddenly vaporized into a cloud of thin black smoke, and the gloomy atmosphere suddenly disappeared into the void.
It returned to his body.
At the same time, the stagnant air began to flow again. Jian Xie could hear the subtle sound of the hands of Cheng Li’s watch turning, and the noise of mosquitoes flying in the middle of the night became more obvious. The world reappeared in his eyes, and the time that had been forcibly stopped finally returned to normal.
However, no one knew what had just happened except Jian Xie.
“What’s going on…?”
Fu Huanyu lowered his head and was surprised to find that the card box in his hand had disappeared at some point and had appeared on the table.
After all, in his point of view, it was still in his hand just now.
But in the blink of an eye, it scattered in front of Jian Xie. Although he was unaware of what he had experienced in the process as if he became deaf and mute, he was keenly aware that the advantage between the two of them had suddenly reversed.
The aura of the high school student in front of him, who originally had a dull expression, was no longer restrained.
Instead, it turned quite oppressive.
Cheng Li, who was standing by, moved his lips, but still said nothing and just sat down silently.
He knew why he was a B-level investigator. He could never be as crazy as those A-level and above investigators. He was still a normal person at heart.
If it were him, he wouldn’t agree so rashly.
Cheng Li didn’t know how Jian Xie agreed to the bet without being sure about the effectiveness of the other party’s props. Anyone who has come into contact with the other side of the world could never give it up.
Fu Huanyu’s sinister request basically cut off his future possibilities.
“Let’s get started.” Under Fu Huanyu’s gaze, Jian Xie picked up the cards, his tone calm, “Since you have the prop, we don’t have to be fair.”
Hearing this, a mocking arc raised at the corner of Fu Huanyu’s mouth and he casually said, “I can let you shuffle the cards.”
Being able to say such things showed that he was obviously very confident in the prop in his hands.
Even if Jian Xie really has some tricks that he doesn’t know about, so what? His props were invincible.
After all, he was sure that Jian Xie could not do anything with the playing cards because he brought them with him and usually used them to play tricks on those cautious investigators.
Jian Xie glanced at him indifferently, then reached out and picked up the cards.
The cards flew between his slender fingers. The cards were dazzling and it was more like an artistic performance than a simple shuffling.
Even Cheng Li, who was in a state of deep worry, was very surprised. He came out of his daze and couldn’t help asking, “How did you—”
Jian Xie: “Don’t ask. If you ask, it’s because of poverty.”
It was not easy to find a part-time job that paid by the hour. If he had not mastered a variety of practical skills, he would have starved to death by now.
Cheng Li: “…”
“It’s just for show.” Fu Huanyu was very disdainful of this.
Unlike Cheng Li who watched Jian Xie shuffle the cards the whole time, he even lowered his head to play with his mobile phone and did not take Jian Xie seriously at all.
A minute later, the shuffling stopped. Jian Xie spread out a stack of playing cards and placed them neatly on the table.
“Draw a card.”
Fu Huanyu glanced at him sideways, then reached out and drew the card in the middle, as if he didn’t care at all which card Jian Xie would draw.
“Just draw three directly.” Jian Xie said succinctly, “I don’t want to shuffle three times to deal with you.”
Cheng Li’s lips trembled and he tried to hold back his laughter, purely because Fu Huanyu made a sour face in response.
Fu Huanyu glanced at him coldly and directly drew three cards from the table. After seeing him draw the cards, Jian Xie also drew three cards at random, without any sign of pressure on his face.
Seeing the covered cards in front of each of them, Cheng Li’s heart was pounding, and even Fu Huanyu, who was confident of winning, suddenly showed nervousness.
…Something felt wrong.
Because the high school student’s expression was so calm, it gave him a sense of fear that he was falling into an unknown trap.
Psychological tactics? But still……?
“Let me turn it over first,” Jian Xie said.
His fingers were placed on the cards, and Cheng Li held his breath, waiting for the first card to appear before his eyes.
6……?
Cheng Li was greatly disappointed.
Seeing this, Fu Huanyu smiled instantly and said suggestively, “It seems you’re not very lucky.”
Jian Xie did not react to his pride, but just turned over the second card.
Q.
Although it was better than the previous 6, it was not necessarily a very big card.
Now he only has one last card in his hand.
In an instant, all eyes were focused on the table.
If Jian Xie failed to draw a big card, he would lose the bet.
Cheng Li subconsciously clenched his fists.
Unless it’s a joker, then…
As if he was unaware of the different thoughts of the others present, Jian Xie’s quick and decisive movements did not pause at all. He turned over the third card without any pause.
……….
J.
J?
Even smaller than the Q card just now!
Fu Huanyu finally stopped hiding his gloating. He shot a slanted glance at Jian Xie, and said cheerfully, “Oh, that’s too bad. I hope you’ll accept the defeat.”
“Turn over your cards,” Jian Xie said.
As expected, students who have never left the campus and have a short-sighted vision would not shed tears until they see the coffin. It was a dying struggle at this point.
With a ridiculing look in his eyes, Fu Huanyu flipped over his cards nonchalantly and said mockingly, “You’d better just admit defeat—”
The moment he saw the cards clearly, his voice suddenly stopped.
His three cards were 5, J, and 10.
Every card was just one digit smaller than the ones Jian Xie drew!
