Chapter 143: Chapter 143: Risk Hedging, an Almost Open-Handed Game

“My card here, is it scissors?”

Hearing that voice in her ear, Xie Antong didn’t hesitate at all—she immediately shut her eyes.

The eyes are the windows to the soul. Always remember that. No micro-expression or behavioral analysis beats reading someone’s eyes.

Eyes are the biggest source of leaks—and also the most deceptive.

But she didn’t have the confidence to fool him with just her gaze. If anything, it might backfire.

So her only option was to close her eyes, steady her breath and heartbeat, and clear her mind.

When facing a top player, don’t try to mislead them—just give them zero information. That’s the best tactic.

So right now, to outsiders, Xie Antong looked like a meditating monk—or like she’d just fallen asleep.

But Lu Ce didn’t really care about that.

“This third card—is it scissors?”

“......”

“Fourth card—is it scissors?”

“.......”

Nine useless questions in a row—one after another—yet Xie Antong didn’t even twitch. Not even an eyelid moved.

But Lu Ce was like a spider, crouched in a web woven from emotions. If the prey moved even slightly, he’d feel it instantly.

The Slime was rubbing its hands together in the corner of the room, quietly watching how things played out.

“Alright, I’ll go with this one.”

Only when Lu Ce spoke did Xie Antong finally open her eyes and look at the field in front of her.

—But Lu Ce hadn’t played his card at all!

On instinct, she glanced at his cards. And in that split second, she realized—crap.

She’d given something away.

“Hahahaha! Just messing with you. And confirming my guess at the same time.”

“Like you said, I’m still not fully used to the abilities of this mask.”

Lu Ce watched her eyes and expression shift in a flash, and burst out laughing. He waved his hand and picked a card from his set of nine.

He placed it in front of the card Xie Antong had played earlier.

【Confirm?】

The Slime couldn’t help but chime in.

【Confirm!】

Reveal the cards!

The cards placed in the center were now fully visible to both players.

Xie Antong had played “Paper,” and sure enough, Lu Ce had played “Scissors.”

“One-zero. ~”

Lu Ce smiled at the card in front of him, his tone clearly teasing.

From the moment “Sin” started asking one card at a time, she already knew—it would be hard to keep anything from him.

At the very least, she was sure his Lust Mask’s power wasn’t something like mind-reading.

It must be linked to emotions.

That’s the most troublesome. Everyone has emotions. The real kicker is you can’t tell whether your feelings are your own—or triggered by the opponent.

And once you start thinking about that, you’re probably already caught in the trap.

Xie Antong didn’t waste time lamenting a lost round. She simply replied:

“Your turn to play first.”

Lu Ce saw that his emotional disruption didn’t have a strong impact, so he nodded and said:

“In this game, whoever plays first is definitely at a disadvantage.”

“Once you play a card, you know what you played—you start anticipating things, you start forming thoughts. Your brain stops being fully under your control.”

“Let’s see... this one.”

He casually picked one from his remaining eight cards and tossed it forward.

The card landed in the center and flipped over—it was a “Rock.”

Xie Antong didn’t know her cards yet, but if she wanted to tie the score at 1:1, then her goal now was to find a “Paper.”

And of course, she could find it.

The first time her fingers swept over the cards, she’d already picked up on the matching cards from Lu Ce’s pulse.

At least, she had a rough idea where they were.

But she didn’t rush to play. Looking up, she saw that irritating smile on the Lust Mask again.

She knew—he’d played that card on purpose...

If she wanted to win, she had to play Paper. But clearly, “Sin” knew she could identify which cards were Paper. This round was basically being handed to her.

But everyone has three Rocks, three Papers, and three Scissors.

If she hurried to tie the score now, she’d be using two of her three Papers in just the first two rounds of a nine-round game!

That would be a huge disadvantage for the rest of the match.

So after a quick thought, she skipped the cards she’d already deduced were Papers and pointed to one she hadn’t figured out—could be Rock or Scissors.

“Let me ask.”

“What card is this?”

Slime: ?

The Slime looked totally dumbfounded for a second—was she really just asking outright without even testing anything?

But Lu Ce didn’t seem surprised. After glancing at it, he replied:

“We both already kinda understand the base of each other’s abilities.”

“No need to drag this out. That card’s a Rock.”

Lu Ce knew that whether he answered or not, it would still be a kind of answer for Xie Antong.

At most, he could muddy the waters a bit and stall for time.

But he didn’t care for that.

“Alright then, Rock it is.”

Xie Antong responded with equal “trust,” tossing out the card the moment Lu Ce finished speaking.

Rock vs. Rock.

Round two: a tie.

With the pattern reshuffled, Xie Antong now acted like she had x-ray vision. She directly pulled out a Scissors card and said:

“My turn. Let’s finish the first full Rock-Paper-Scissors cycle.”

She tossed the Scissors on the table—essentially throwing the problem she’d just faced right back at “Sin.”

If Lu Ce wanted to win, he’d have to play two “Rocks” in a row now.

“Gotta play it balanced, huh? Then I’ll toss out Scissors too.” He said it super casually—yet he pulled out a Scissors card from his unseen hand with uncanny accuracy.

Audience: ??

Wait, you two were at each other’s throats before—what the hell is going on now? Are we seriously playing with all cards revealed or something?

You think we’re stupid, don’t you?!