The two gamblers took their seats at the table.
On one side sat a birdman who bore a striking resemblance to a common tern. On the other was a massive, upright crocodile with the head of a young girl clamped between its jaws.
Fabi Bird’s eyes gleamed with cunning. He opened his metallic, crimson beak and spoke in a strange, high-pitched squawk.
“I noticed a few things when you arrived. You seemed quite unfamiliar with the layout. Is this your first time at the inn?”
“Yes,” Wang Yue answered bluntly.
Fabi Bird suppressed a sneer. His opponent’s intelligence seemed primitive at best. He had seen their carriage from the window earlier—it screamed “nouveau riche,” as stupid as it was gaudy.
“Gah-gah! Since you’re a newcomer, we’ll avoid the board games and cards. Their rules are far too complex for a novice. Why don’t we play something simple… Have you ever heard of ‘Finger Biter’?”
“I’m all ears.” Wang Yue leaned forward slightly, her curiosity seemingly piqued.
Fabi Bird reached into a pile of nearby props and pulled out a modified human skull.
“The rules are simple. There are four settings on the tongue-shaped lever inside the skull. We take turns pressing it down. Once it hits the trigger setting, the mechanism snaps shut. If you get bitten, you lose.”
“Sounds fair enough.”
Wang Yue picked up the skull. It was heavy, packed with mechanical components. The teeth were made of a jagged alloy, sharp as razors. She forced the skull’s jaws open, the internal ratchet clicking loudly and rhythmically—clack, clack, clack.
The tension was immense, similar to prying open a bear trap. Combined with the razor-sharp teeth, the spring-loaded force was clearly enough to snap a finger clean off.
It was essentially a localized version of Russian Roulette. Instead of their lives, the losers merely sacrificed a finger.
“Let’s do it. This is much more exciting than cards,” Wang Yue agreed readily.
Lilith’s eyebrows shot up, her eyes dancing with excitement. She completely forgot the most important part of her “dead girl” disguise: the poker face.
While she cheered for Wang Yue out loud, she was secretly dying to see her lose. She wanted to enjoy the cinematic experience of Wang Yue flying into a rage as blood splattered across the inn. If that actually happened, the joke would be enough to keep her laughing for a year.
The surrounding monsters suppressed their snickers. They knew this foolish newcomer was in for a world of hurt. The trigger mechanism on the skull had a hidden toggle—it wasn’t a fair gambling tool; it was a magician’s prop designed for cheating.
Furthermore, the crocodile monster didn’t look particularly bright. It seemed entirely driven by instinct, its head tilted as it stared hungrily at the tiny person inside the snow globe. Drool even leaked from the corner of the girl-head’s mouth.
The onlookers began to whisper.
“I bet it goes berserk once it loses. Then we’ll get to beat it down together.”
“Exactly. A chance to help maintain the inn’s security is too good to pass up.”
“Let’s start a pool…”
The monsters began piling their bets onto the side of the table.
The snow globe sat nearby, offering its tiny inhabitant a perfect view of the table. For the girl with the bun-head hairstyle, it was a cruel vantage point. She was like a prisoner in the dock, waiting for a sentence of either execution or a stay of grace.
Her current situation was even worse than mere imprisonment. If the crocodile monster won, she couldn’t imagine how she would be eaten. It would surely be a slow, agonizing process.
The game of Finger Biter began.
Fabi Bird extended a sharp claw, prying the skull’s mouth to its widest point and resetting the tongue. He surreptitiously preset the trigger to the third click.
Setting it to the third click was a psychological gambit. With only four settings, it was obvious that the person who went first had a much better chance of winning. Fabi Bird assumed the arrogant, stupid crocodile would insist on going first to take the advantage. He would “graciously” let the beast have its way, making it think it had the upper hand when, in reality, its loss was already guaranteed.
“You go first,” Wang Yue said, sliding the skull toward him.
“Eh?” Fabi Bird was caught off guard.
Did… did it see through me?
No, he looked at the stupid crocodile again. Drool was practically dripping off its chin; its mind was clearly focused entirely on food. How could it possibly know?
“I insist, you should go first,” Fabi Bird countered smoothly. “The first time is a precious experience. If someone else uses it before you, the thrill just isn’t the same.”
“Fair point. I’ll go first then.” Wang Yue picked up the skull.
Fabi Bird let out a long breath. His heart hammered against his ribs, and the veins in his forehead throbbed like earthworms as his pupils constricted. For a monster, this kind of thrill was rare, which was exactly why they loved gambling.
Wang Yue gripped the skull with interest and slid her finger into the lethal mouth. She pressed down gently.
Click.
“Ah—!”
Suddenly, she let out a piercing, ear-splitting shriek. Her entire body tensed up, wriggling like a worm as she wailed in agony. “My finger! My finger’s been bitten off!”
Fabi Bird’s beak hung open in confusion.
What? I set it to the third click! Why did it trigger on the first?
“Just kidding.”
Wang Yue’s voice returned to a calm, steady tone. She nonchalantly pulled her finger out and pushed the skull toward the birdman.
Fabi Bird took it, forced a strained smile, and said, “You certainly love your jokes. What a… remarkable sense of humor…”
As he spoke, he stuck his finger into the skull’s mouth.
Snap!
A loud crack echoed through the room.
Accompanied by the birdman’s scream, he and his chair flipped backward. Blood sprayed across the floor from his severed finger.
The surrounding monsters stood frozen in shock.
Fabi Bird scrambled up from the floor, his feathers standing on end. “You cheated! You clicked it twice while you were screaming!”
“Oh? How would you know that unless you knew it was supposed to trigger on the third click?” Wang Yue looked at him with a knowing smirk.
Fabi Bird’s words caught in his throat. He was speechless.
It was blindingly obvious now—the crocodile knew the trigger was set to three. He realized the scream had been a ruse to mask the sound of the second click.
He had been utterly played. He thought the crocodile was playing checkers while it was actually playing grandmaster-level chess.
“Hmph. To think you’d use your status as a veteran player to lie to and ambush a newcomer like me.” Wang Yue snatched up the snow globe and sneered. “I suggest you behave yourself. Go back and reflect on your actions. Don’t try these petty tricks again.”
Wang Yue didn’t have time to waste on the birdman. She had caught a glimpse of the girl inside the snow globe. The bun-head girl had tied two stockings together and looped them over a branch in the garden, preparing to hang herself.
Seeing the birdman lose, she must have assumed she was about to be swallowed whole and slowly digested by the crocodile monster. Her spirit had broken; in her despair, she had chosen suicide.
Wang Yue strode back to her room and slammed the door. She reached into the globe and pulled out the girl just as she began to kick and struggle on the makeshift noose.
The girl fell to the floor, covered in a dusting of snow. She gasped for air, followed by a fit of violent coughing.
She collapsed into a Duck Sit, her long, pale legs spread across the floor. Her thighs were shapely, her calves slender and straight, tapering down to delicate ankles and soft, snow-white feet. It was a striking sight. Fabi Bird had mentioned she was a dancer, and she certainly possessed the lithe, athletic grace of one.
But the suicide had failed.
The girl’s heart was filled with absolute despair. Her pupils trembled as if they were broken; sheer terror gripped her soul. In her vision, the horrific giant crocodile stepped toward her, a girl’s head still wedged between its teeth. It was an omen of her own fate. She expected the monster to spit out that head and sink its fangs into her next.
“Mama…”
She cried out, raising her little hands to cover her eyes. She curled into a ball on the floor, shivering violently, trying to deceive herself into believing this was all just a nightmare.
Then, she heard the sound of a zipper. A refreshing, delicate fragrance drifted past her nose.
She flinched when a hand touched her shoulder, but before she could react, she was pulled into a warm, soft embrace. She realized instantly—this was not the embrace of a monster.
The bun-head girl opened her eyes. To her utter shock, she saw the crocodile suit had been peeled halfway down, and from within it emerged a beautiful, black-haired girl.
