Loser

The crowd instantly erupted into a frenzy, with cheers and heckling rising and falling in waves.

In this entertainment city, no one ever advised anyone to back down. What everyone loved to see most was this kind of "going for broke" spectacle, where everything was staked on a single throw.

The Battle-Damaged Guy looked down at the chips he had pushed forward. His face remained expressionless, and without the slightest hesitation, he gave a small nod and uttered only two words: "I accept."

The waiter quickly organized the dice and the cup, then signaled with a blank expression: "Begin."

Beside Ren Yi, Dr. Lin leaned in excitedly once more, placing another bet without hesitation.

This guy... didn't he just say he was only going to play one round?

At the table, the scruffy middle-aged man and the Battle-Damaged Guy had already begun calling out numbers.

This time, both spoke with exceptional speed, their tones carrying an undisguised sense of pressure. It was as if they both wanted to use their speaking pace to suppress the other and disrupt their rhythm.

The game started off steadily enough, opening with the most conventional "3 threes" that Dr. Lin had mentioned. Nothing seemed unusual.

"3 fours," the Battle-Damaged Guy followed up immediately, his pace never faltering.

"4 fours," the scruffy man blurted out almost the instant the Battle-Damaged Guy finished speaking.

The calls between the two were as fast as a race. Before Ren Yi could even calculate the possible totals in his head, he heard the scruffy man call "5 sixes."

Ren Yi couldn't help but look up, his tone laced with confusion. "Each person can only roll a maximum of six 6s, right? And they're already at 5 sixes?"

"That's right," Dr. Lin nodded with a smile, his tone taking on an informative quality. "Once you call 5 sixes, according to the rules, a Five-of-a-kind counts as six 6s. So the maximum anyone can have is six."

"You're a fast learner."

Ren Yi ignored Dr. Lin's teasing.

The onlookers were now buzzing with discussion. Some felt the man was too impulsive to go all-in, while others thought he might actually have a solid hand.

For a moment, the noise drowned out the other sounds of the casino, making the atmosphere exceptionally lively.

Just then, the consistently expressionless Battle-Damaged Guy slightly lifted his eyelids. His gaze swept indifferently over the scruffy man. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke slowly: "7 sixes."

"He's definitely cheating... or using a hack," Ren Yi muttered to himself, frowning. He felt more and more that he simply didn't understand this game.

He tried to activate his perception, only to find that the dice cup seemed to have an invisible barrier that firmly blocked him. He couldn't detect the specific numbers on the dice inside at all.

What confused him even more was that, up until this moment, he hadn't sensed any unusual movement from the Battle-Damaged Guy.

The man had maintained almost the exact same posture from start to finish, sitting upright with his hands on the edge of the table. Even his fingertips hadn't twitched once.

"That's not necessarily true," Dr. Lin said, looking at him with a playful smile. "Why else do you think Liar's Dice is also called 'Bluffing Dice'?"

"At its core, this is a game of guts and psychology. Sometimes, even if you know you're bound to lose, you have to grit your teeth and follow the bet. You might just scare the other person off."

As soon as he finished speaking, the situation at the table reversed. It was now the scruffy man's turn to be trapped in a dilemma.

Based on his previous actions, he likely had several 6s, but the current call had exceeded what a single dice cup could control.

The scruffy man's expression froze. His eyes were filled with hesitation and struggle as he stared intently at the Battle-Damaged Guy's face, as if trying to read something from that expressionless mask.

A few seconds later, as if making a final decision, he gritted his teeth and spoke: "Open!"

"Challenge valid. Open the cups," the waiter announced at the appropriate time, still maintaining that blank expression.

The scruffy man lifted his cup. His numbers were 1, 5, 6, 6, 6. According to the "Wild" rule, the 1 counted as a 6, making a total of four 6s.

Everyone's gaze shifted to the other cup. The Battle-Damaged Guy slowly reached out and lifted it. The dice inside were 1, 2, 3, 6, 6.

This meant the Battle-Damaged Guy had two natural 6s, plus the 1 acting as a 6, for a total of three 6s.

The waiter stepped forward, counted the points, and announced clearly: "Total points on the table: 7 sixes. Called: 7 sixes. Challenger loses."

Not one more, not one less. Or rather, it was exactly right again.

This precise number seemed to mock the loser.

Dr. Lin happily went up to collect his winnings, leaving Ren Yi alone to observe with a frown.

He still hadn't seen anything unusual, but because of that, he was almost certain that the Battle-Damaged Guy wasn't cheating through simple sleight of hand.

Then what was it?

Did he have psychokinetic powers to move objects out of thin air? Could he silently turn the dice through the cup without being noticed by those nearby?

No, the dice cup could block perception; there was no reason it could be penetrated by psychokinesis.

It couldn't be another case of 【Luck】, could it?

At the gambling table, the scruffy man stood frozen in place, his eyes fixed on the Battle-Damaged Guy's dice.

The man was eerily quiet. Only the corners of his mouth, which had been turned up in a weirdly confident smirk, slowly drooped down, becoming stiff bit by bit.

It was as if a smiling face was transforming into a weeping one.

At that moment, Ren Yi suddenly felt a strong "sense of discomfort" being transmitted to him from the seed he had planted inside the scruffy man.

It was like a carefully nurtured plant whose soil had been tainted with sewage. Toxic substances were spreading wildly, and while the seed absorbed nutrients, it was inevitably being corroded and weakened.

Soon, he once again felt that overflowing negative emotion.

Something inside the scruffy man had quietly shattered.

In the next second, the scruffy man suddenly cupped his hands together. A ball of orange-red fire abruptly erupted from his palms, the flames flickering and dancing, casting shifting shadows over his haggard, defeated face.

The moment the fireball rose, Ren Yi saw distorted, intersecting patterns emerge on his palms, layered like a magic circle.

He was actually a mage?

Was he going to attack? But the casino clearly had a rule against mutual harm.

Ren Yi instinctively looked around, but he found that the nearby waiters remained expressionless, with no intention of stepping in to stop him.

The surrounding gamblers cried out and retreated. Everyone instinctively assumed the scruffy man would hurl the fireball at the Battle-Damaged Guy, venting all his malice and resentment onto the person who had utterly defeated him.

But in the next heartbeat, he slammed the burning fireball in his palms directly into his own face.