What’s the price?
There wasn’t the slightest trace of emotion on the Purple Mask—it still wore that sa devil-may-care expression. Even having so many personal thoughts laid bare didn’t seem to affect him one bit.
With one hand supporting his chin, he watched the girl across from him with a look of playful interest.
Xie Antong had been smiling too, but the corners of her mouth twitched a bit unnaturally—though she quickly returned to normal.
Thinking back to that sinking feeling every ti her brainwaves got amplified, she felt like she’d just had a social death.
It was like posting a late-night emo story on your feed, then seeing it the next morning...
“Ah... can’t help it, good tis are always short-lived.”
Xie Antong quickly adjusted her mindset. Of course, she wasn’t the kind to get ntally wrecked by just a few words from Lu Ce.
Like it was nothing, she casually asked:
“By the way, have we t before?”
“Of course. What, did you lose so mories after unlocking your brain?” Lu Ce’s expression didn’t change at all. “Weren’t we just teammates in the last ga?”
Xie Antong stayed silent. That sentence felt... off.
Why would he say “we were just teammates in the last ga”?
Isn’t that a little too specific?
Whenever soone gets too specific with their words, it always feels like they’re trying to shift your attention. And this line was clearly trying to say that the last ga was the first ti they t.
Why emphasize that?
Tch...
But judging by his micro-expressions and movents, Lu Ce gave absolutely nothing away. Xie Antong couldn’t figure out anything.
She suddenly felt like she might be draining too much ntal energy on this. What if that was exactly his trap—to exhaust her? Hard to say...
【Uh, excuse , you two?】
On the other side, the Sli was sweating nervously at the heavy atmosphere between the two. It carefully chid in.
【How about we play while we talk? Can we start the ga now?】
It was speaking to Lu Ce, but the corner of its eye kept darting toward Xie Antong.
Tch... sothing’s off. Why does this girl feel like a completely different person now? She’s nothing like earlier.
“Sure.”
Lu Ce and Xie Antong said in unison.
Then, the nine demonstration cards in front of each of them disappeared. The Sli shuffled the deck again and started dealing.
The rules had already been explained. Nine cards per person. Each player could see the other’s cards but not their own.
In other words, you knew what your opponent played, but not what you yourself would play.
As the cards were being dealt, Xie Antong suddenly looked up at the Sli like sothing had clicked.
“By the way, you seem really familiar with him.”
Then her gaze turned to Lu Ce.
“And you, also seem familiar with it.”
“Have you two t before?”
Xie Antong found it odd. After all, she’d watched every single ga of “Sin,” and had never seen this Sli before.
Lu Ce showed no reaction, but the Sli’s gelatinous green body visibly shuddered. It hurriedly responded.
【t? Haha, haven’t we been together for hours in this ga already? I’ve been watching him the whole ti, haha.】
Xie Antong: ......
Lu Ce: ......
Could you at least try to hide your guilt better?
Both of them shot the Sli a look of contempt at the sa ti.
And Xie Antong was feeling more and more that sothing was seriously off.
That line from the Sli... really reminded her of what “Sin” had just said—“Weren’t we teammates in the last ga?” The tone was suspiciously similar.
Hiss~......
Why did it feel like after expanding her brain, there were even more things she couldn’t see clearly?
【Alright, cards have been dealt.】
【You may begin. There’s no countdown in this ga—play at your leisure.】
With that, the Sli went duang, duang and hopped off to the side, staying out of it.
Lu Ce’s finger kept tapping rhythmically on the table. The sound wasn’t loud—more like the tick of a grandfather clock.
According to the ga rules, it was Xie Antong’s turn to play first.
Before she could move, Lu Ce spoke up first:
“This finger of mine is ant to ss with your mood. Hope you keep an eye on it.”
A completely open tactic. From this mont on, whether she paid attention to it or not, her emotions would inevitably be disrupted.
Imdiately after, the Lust Mask displayed a wicked smile and said mischievously:
“Also, this state of yours has a ti limit, right?”
“Our ga doesn’t have a ti limit, though. So tell —if I just drag this out until your ti runs out, what kind of view do you think I’ll get to see?”
Through the Lust Mask’s senses, he could clearly detect a change in Xie Antong’s heart rate!
But she adjusted quickly, smiling as she replied:
“If that’s what you want, go ahead. You’d only be winning against , after all.”
“It’s just that you’ll probably find it boring. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have tried to make pop a pill.”
As she spoke, Xie Antong pointed at her first card.
Then, her finger slid across the surface of each card—without even looking at them. She kept her eyes locked on Lu Ce instead.
Even though she couldn’t see his eyes, his heartbeat, pulse, and the shimring light on his mask were enough for her to read.
The nine cards in front of her were three rocks, three scissors, and three papers—she didn’t know which were which.
But judging from “Sin’s” reactions, she could more or less guess which three were the sa.
After scanning through them once, Xie Antong casually picked a card and tossed it.
Paper!
Once played, the card flipped over and beca visible to both players.
Seeing it was paper, Xie Antong knew where she stood. But her eyes didn’t linger anywhere—she calmly looked at “Sin.”
“Heh.”
Lu Ce chuckled. His turn.
He only needed to play scissors to win this round. The only problem: nobody could see their own nine cards, or which one was scissors.
“You know who you’re dealing with?”
Suddenly, he looked up at Xie Antong.
“You’re facing the strongest player—the one who’s never lost. So you’d better keep every eye you have on . Focus up.”
Xie Antong’s expression didn’t change. She knew that from this mont, his psychological gas had already begun.
Lu Ce reached out and pointed to his first card. The Purple Mask was full of smiles as he stared at Xie Antong’s eyes.
“Tell —this card of mine, is it scissors?”
Xie Antong: ......
No answer needed. Then Lu Ce moved his finger to the second card.
“This one—scissors?”
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