Chapter 34: After the Shipwreck (5)

The White-Haired Man replaced his revealed card.

The Six of Hearts became the Five of Clubs.

He folded his hands beneath his chin and watched Chi Wei.

Chi Wei chose to replace her hidden card.

The Ace of Diamonds dropped into the hollow beneath the table. With a Click., a new card sprang out.

The Ten of Spades.

At last, the clouds seemed to be clearing.

No—not seemed.

The moment she saw the new card, Chi Wei knew.

She had won.

The game had finally begun to turn in her favor.

An invisible giant hand seemed to appear behind Chi Wei, slowly closing around the threads of the game.

Now it was time to return to her memory palace—

From her first match with Master Appraiser onward, Chi Wei had seemed half-distracted, as if she were only playing one game. In reality, she had been playing three at once.

Her match with Master Appraiser. Ink in Water’s match with the buzz-cut man. The Blonde Woman’s match with the White-Haired Man. In those three games, the cards belonging to Ink in Water and the Blonde Woman, who sat in the same row as Chi Wei, had become part of Chi Wei’s own game.

In other words, from the very beginning, Chi Wei had watched three different matches through three pairs of eyes.

The corridors of memory crossed and recrossed. The past games sat locked inside separate rooms. In that imagined space, Chi Wei was a tiny figure walking from one door to the next, opening each room she needed to revisit—

In the Blonde Woman and White-Haired Man’s first round, Chi Wei’s perspective had merged with the Blonde Woman’s.

Since they sat in the same row, she could naturally see the Blonde Woman’s cards.

In the first round, the Blonde Woman had drawn a Nine and a Five, and shown the Five.

From the Blonde Woman’s perspective, the White-Haired Man’s revealed card had been an Eight.

The Blonde Woman had won that round.

The conclusion was simple: the White-Haired Man’s hidden card had been worth less than six.

So the White-Haired Man’s next move would be the first thing Chi Wei learned about him.

In her memory, the White-Haired Man had decisively chosen to replace his hidden card.

The Blonde Woman had replaced her revealed Five and, thanks to an exceptionally lucky draw, received a Ten.

The result of the second match had also been a victory for the Blonde Woman, who won twenty seconds of oxygen from the White-Haired Man.

When Chi Wei opened the third door in her memory, the White-Haired Man chose to replace his revealed card.

After glancing between her two cards, the Blonde Woman also replaced her revealed card.

The card she showed dropped from a Ten to a new Two.

The White-Haired Man still hadn’t raised in their third round. Neither had the Blonde Woman. This time, the White-Haired Man won and took forty seconds of oxygen.

By the time Chi Wei had reviewed it all, she knew.

Each fragment that flashed through her memory had helped piece together the truth of their cards—

The White-Haired Man’s hidden card was now worth somewhere between eight and ten.

Add his new revealed Five of Clubs, and his total was between thirteen and fifteen.

That was why, with a revealed Six in her own hand, Chi Wei had known the instant the Ten appeared that she had a chance to win.

The reason was simple.

The essence of the game wasn’t a contest between two people. It was a contest between one person and five.

As the conveyor belt carried them around, every player had a chance to see the cards held by everyone else at the table.

The belt wasn’t only there to rotate opponents. It also gave each player the same perspective in turn, so that in theory, everyone could see the cards of the two players sitting in the same row.

With enough observations, every player’s cards would eventually pass before the eyes of anyone paying attention.

Once she had “experienced” three matches, all that remained was to piece them together, review them, and draw conclusions.

Not just conclusions about the cards. Conclusions about the people, too.

In dangerous situations, people revealed their true nature. The trick was to recognize it in their ordinary choices. While her five opponents were giving away information about themselves, Chi Wei had quietly hidden herself.

The White-Haired Man, for instance, was a typical average player.

Average in thought, average in courage, with no change in his approach. Everything about him was ordinary.

His choices between replacing his revealed card and his hidden one were simple and predictable. If his revealed card was weaker, he replaced it. If his hidden one was weaker, he replaced that. He kept trying to raise his total, as though that alone would ensure he beat his opponent.

But that was the most unimaginative way to read the game.

After the White-Haired Man’s first round with the Blonde Woman, he had an Eight showing and a hidden card worth less than six. He chose to replace the hidden card.

After the second round, his hidden card had probably caught up to his revealed one. So in the third round, he replaced the revealed card.

Now, in his first round against Chi Wei, he had a hidden card worth more than eight and a revealed Six. Without a moment’s hesitation, he had chosen to replace the revealed card again. There could be no doubt: he was trying to keep drawing stronger and stronger combinations so he could beat his opponent.

That looked cautious, but in truth, it exposed his greatest weakness.

The White-Haired Man never hid the logic behind his choices. Without realizing it, he had given himself away completely.

Chi Wei emerged from her deductions and saw the game she was certain to win.

She had locked every scene and every round away in her mind, remembering every detail without exception. The longer the game went on, the more accurately she would be able to deduce each opponent’s cards.

The numbers were bricks, the wins and losses were steps. The game was a pyramid, growing higher and higher until it reached its peak. Everyone’s fate led toward an unknown value waiting to be revealed.

All Chi Wei had done was build each person’s pyramid a little earlier.

And she only needed that one step.

One tiny difference could grow into a thousand-mile divide. By the time the others understood what the game really was, it would be too late. They had lost the information from the beginning—and with it, their head start. There was no way to make up that difference.

The total value of Chi Wei’s cards was now sixteen.

Just as she’d guessed, the White-Haired Man’s hidden card was the lowest possibility between eight and ten: an Eight.

With his revealed Five, his total was thirteen.

No matter how she looked at it, Chi Wei knew she had the higher hand this round.

Now came the betting.

The prompt appeared right on time—

“Both players, make your first choice.”

“Countdown: 60 seconds.”

The choices locked.

“Results of this round—”

“Sam: Raise

“Resurrection Plant: Raise”

“Total oxygen wagered: 15 seconds”

Her opponent’s choice came as no surprise. Chi Wei almost felt sorry for him. He was so ordinary.

Nothing about his thinking had been unexpected. Even his decision to raise again, bringing the bet to twenty seconds, had been exactly what she’d predicted.

Her prediction had been right in every detail.

“Both players, make your second choice.”

“Countdown: 60 seconds”

…

“Results of this round—”

“Sam: Raise

“Resurrection Plant: Raise”

“Total oxygen wagered: 20 seconds”

The White-Haired Man was still grinning with delight. Chi Wei had actually dared to raise against him! If he won this time, he would take all her oxygen…

What an exciting gamble! The thought kept stoking his adrenaline. His face flushed, and his eyes gleamed as he watched the cards.

There was no reason for it beyond human nature. Gambling brought out a particular kind of excitement.

Chi Wei watched him calmly: an ordinary gambler following a path she had already seen laid out.

The reason the White-Haired Man kept raising was simple.

If Chi Wei lost twenty seconds of oxygen, she would lose everything—her life. If he lost twenty seconds, he would only lose “some of his stake” from the one minute and forty seconds in his tank.

Under that kind of pressure, he always believed he had the advantage.

When a gambler forced an opponent to stake their life, the thought of it was exhilarating.

He had even guessed that Chi Wei might fold as soon as he raised the first time.

Too bad he was wrong.

But that was all right.

Was Chi Wei planning to fight him to the death? The White-Haired Man had a comfortable cushion to fall back on, and he felt not the slightest anxiety. Instead, he was unusually excited.

That was normal when he believed he had the upper hand.

It was also dangerous.

Chi Wei could see that he wasn’t prepared to have that excitement crushed.

The less prepared he was, the more devastating the blow would be when his shooting star fell.

In the White-Haired Man, Chi Wei saw only the beginning of a defeat.

She had already admitted to herself that for an ordinary gambler, being matched against her in this game was the greatest unfairness of all.

Her lashes flickered slightly as she calmly watched the display.

Since Chi Wei’s oxygen reserve was no longer enough to raise again, the system announced that the betting would stop here.

There wouldn’t be a third choice. The machine would automatically make it Showdown.

The White-Haired Man stared at the display, eyes shining as he waited for the answer that kept him on tenterhooks—though in Chi Wei’s eyes, there was no suspense left.

He was still telling himself that he couldn’t be blamed for being ruthless with Resurrection Plant. This was no longer a contest between teams. It was a fight between individuals.

That was what gambling was: danger, excitement, and a risk no one could predict…

Maybe luck would be on his side. He still yearned for that beautiful thing called “probability.”

The White-Haired Man waited for good fortune to arrive, like someone waiting for a shooting star to fall from the sky and shine for him.