Super Righteous Player
Chapter 835 - 374: The Track of the Sky Chariot

Chapter 835: Chapter 374: The Track of the Sky Chariot

"...Huh?"

Salvatore paused for a second.

"Is it really that simple? I understood how to play after hearing it once."

He looked somewhat regretful, "Then isn’t it hard to lose?"

"...Face-up or face-down, it’s your choice."

Fushi tried his best to ignore Salvatore’s words.

For some reason, although Salvatore looked foolish, his words were more infuriating than Annan’s.

"If I have a choice, I naturally choose the face-down side."

Salvatore said without hesitation.

"Is it for the right to settle?"

Fushi sneered, "That’s also a strategy."

"It’s not that."

Salvatore honestly replied, "It’s just because if I am on the face-down side, I can observe your cards."

"But don’t forget, you can see my cards but can’t see your own cards."

Fushi reminded, "And I have the last card, which you can’t see."

"That does not matter."

Salvatore answered without hesitation.

Fushi scoffed.

He looked at Annan and warned, "If you offer any advice to ’Bella,’ it will be considered cheating and you will lose."

"You do what you want."

Annan said nonchalantly, arms crossed.

In truth, he had to restrain himself from laughing when Fushi stated the rules.

But he did not explain or even watch the game; instead, he stood far aside.

Meanwhile, "Dmitry" chose to stand behind "Bella."

Without hesitation, the game immediately began.

At this point, it was unclear whether they were following Annan’s words or if the combat space prepared by Fushi was utterly ruined.

They did not enter that special space.

Instead, they sat down at a card table in the basement, engaging in the card duel.

Annan sat far away, looking at Fushi with interest.

There was a mocking look in his eyes that Fushi couldn’t understand.

But the game had already started, and Fushi dealt first.

He placed his first card face-down on the table.

As the face-down side, Salvatore’s first card was the "Prince of Cups," which was the Jack of Cups.

When Fushi saw Salvatore draw the Jack, his expression suddenly froze.

He faintly recalled something forgotten... but the memory quickly faded.

At that moment, Salvatore suddenly asked, "Can I settle now?"

"Well, you can," Fushi chuckled, "but do you really trust that I don’t have a higher number than yours?

"Do you dare to bet?"

"The odds of you drawing a Queen or King at this point are very low, and if you draw a Jack, that counts as my win."

Salvatore said somewhat regrettably, "But I still want to play a bit longer."

He said this, then looked at Annan expectantly.

"——May I?"

"You can’t answer him."

Fushi immediately warned, "That would be considered an external hint!"

"May I?"

"Dmitry" suddenly spoke.

Fushi hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "You can."

"Then let’s continue playing."

Kafney from behind patted Salvatore, disguised as "Werewolf Bella," on the shoulder, "Just follow your own thoughts."

She didn’t know Salvatore well enough, but she had a better understanding of Annan. As Annan and Fushi dueled, Kafney had already figured out what mistake she had made.

Although she didn’t know why Annan was behaving this way, Kafney chose to trust him.

However, Fushi still didn’t understand why he felt so irritable...

He continued to draw cards and placed them on the table.

The second card was Cups 4.

The third card was Wands Queen.

The fourth card was Wands 2.

The fifth card was Coins 3.

The sixth card was Wands King.

"...Regretting it now?"

Fushi looked at Salvatore with a smile that was not quite a smile.

The panic he felt during his game with Annan had completely dissipated.

He finally felt a rare thrill.

——This was the rhythm he was familiar with!

At this point, Fushi’s table had five face-up cards.

Two of them were Wand cards — the Queen and the King, ready to run. Just drawing the Wand Jack would let him settle... and score at least seven points.

However, there was still only a lonely Jack on Salvatore’s table.

"Just drawing one more card, I can immediately settle, scoring at least seven points and at most ten points at this moment. And you only have one point visible on six cards."

Fushi said with a smile that was not quite a smile, "And for you to win, you need to gain at least ten more points. How high do you think those chances are?

"——Your life is like a candle in the wind."

If one were to judge by common sense,

at this time, Salvatore’s psychological pressure should be enormous.

No matter which side he was on, it would be the same.

If he was playing with face-up cards, he would be anxious because he couldn’t see what cards the opponent had; if he was playing with face-down cards, he would panic because he didn’t know what cards he himself had.

This was exactly the strategy that Saul preferred most.

—It wasn’t about defeating the opponent in the game itself, but rather, disrupting the opponent’s state outside the game.

As long as the opponent experienced fear, anxiety, recklessness, or self-doubt,

the scent of spices emanating from Saul would amplify these emotions, leading to the opponent’s disarray.

What Saul most enjoyed was watching an opponent go from being confident in their win to gradually becoming mentally disoriented and ultimately completely collapsing.

"You going to continue?"

But Salvatore showed no signs of anxiety.

He simply urged Saul, "Draw your card, how can I draw if you don’t?"

A smirk lifted the corners of Saul’s mouth.

He calmly drew another card, playing a Sword 7, and his trash talk continued, "Regretting it now, aren’t you?

"If you had chosen to settle during the first round... Back then, your chances of defeating me would have been much greater.

"Why didn’t you settle at that time? Was it because you hadn’t had enough fun yet? Or because... you were harboring fear and hesitated?"

"You draw."

Salvatore responded with a frown.

While playing a Sword 10, Saul continued, "I’ve had no points for two consecutive rounds. Are you feeling a bit better now?

"Indeed, settling with six cards or eight cards, the probabilities of winning are completely different..."

"—Settle."

Salvatore had finished drawing his cards and, without even looking at the cards laid on the table, he immediately said.

He looked curiously at Saul, "As I said, I don’t care about winning or losing. Sir Saul, what exactly are you talking about?"

He said this as he divided the eight cards in front of him into three piles.

Three cards, one card, four cards.

"March 14th, that’s Annan’s birthday."

Salvatore said with some regret, "And it’s almost the day Annan ascended to the throne... Annan’s father gave him a very powerful birthday gift, but I could only give him a Philosopher’s Stone. I’ve always wondered how I could make it up.

"If I can win this, it will be like giving Annan a second gift."

He flipped over the seven cards in front of him.

Apart from the Cup J, he also revealed the Cup Q, Cup K, Sword K, Sword Q.

Out of eight cards, there were five face cards — totaling twelve points, and he even almost reached fourteen points.

There was no need to flip over Saul’s bottom card.

Whatever that card was, it couldn’t be bigger than Salvatore’s.

...What kind of technique is this?

Saul was instantly stunned.

He had thought about losing... but he had not expected to lose in such a bizarre way.

He questioned "Bella" without hesitation, "What did you do?

"How could you flip the card at this moment? Out of eight cards, flipping five face cards, is this reasonable?"

It completely defied probability!

Whether it was the strategy of settling on the eighth card or the bizarre occurrence of five face cards.

"I don’t have any other ability, it’s just good luck. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to restore the technique of the Philosopher’s Stone by coincidence... nor would I have such powerful Curse Binding, and I wouldn’t have met Annan, a good brother, at the most critical moment."

Salvatore said with regret, "I told you, I hoped to play a while longer. If I weren’t confident in myself, how could I make such a capricious request..."

"...Just pure luck?"

Saul found it hard to believe, "How is that possible!"

"After cheating became a habit, did you forget the original definition of gambling?"

Annan scoffed from afar, answering leisurely, "You speak of believing in probabilities, saying ’no one can keep winning forever’, yet you choose a gamble driven by luck.

"But when you truly witness good luck, you don’t believe in its existence... Oh, right."

Annan’s smile was full of malice, "If I remember correctly, when you first gambled with your master and lost your crown jewels—it was while playing this game, wasn’t it?

"You most likely lost the memory related to this game. You subconsciously brought out this game at this moment... because, you instinctively feel like you would lose at this game, right? Unfortunately, you can’t lose the second ’fundamental part’ anymore. Indeed, your wish has been fulfilled."

In the gradually collapsing nightmare, the faces of passersby blurred into nothingness, becoming faceless people.

Meanwhile, the ground, walls, and sky continually crumbled, revealing the threads hung outside—those were the powers Saul used when he invaded this nightmare.

Saul sat at the table.

His face did not blur into nothingness, but it was devoid of any expression.

—So that’s why.

He realized why he suddenly felt anxious.

The lost memory from the previous game... was exactly so crucial.

Before Annan left this nightmare, he left one last cutting remark:

"I remember this game, in the kingdom of King Gupta, is called ’The Number of Courage’. And back then, you chose the face-down side; your initial card was also a J—right?

"—But why didn’t you have the courage to reveal your card?"

Annan’s voice completely disappeared from the nightmare.

Saul lifted his head, looking bewilderedly at the collapsing ceiling.

He raised his hand, subconsciously reaching towards the space above.

—But he grasped nothing.

"...Ah."

He murmured meaninglessly, his mind in chaos.

Is this fate? Is this retribution?

Did he lose? Or did he win?

And...

Why didn’t his original self have the courage to reveal the card?

His body was engulfed by the gradually collapsing nightmare.

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