After this game ended, the atmosphere sank into an eerie silence. None of the three players spoke.
"We really won! How did Blank figure out the rules? Can you tell us?"
"Are you stupid? How could she tell us? That's a secret weapon—the gods still don't know about it!"
"Unbelievable! The number of chips has surpassed theirs now! That gamble was the right call!"
In contrast to the stands, which were so excited that some had begun cheering, Xie Antong, Joy, and the Arbiter were all strangely calm.
Xie Antong felt a wave of relief wash over her. It seemed the rules were exactly as she had thought. Two rounds of trial and error were not too troublesome.
Next, she just had to win as much as possible while the other side lacked information.
She had not felt it before, but now that the dust had settled, Xie Antong was truly terrified in hindsight.
She had not been particularly certain about either the rules or her odds of winning. Yet she had been so bold just now, leaving herself no room to retreat.
Thinking about it now, it was fortunate that she had done so. If she had fallen into her old habit of being overly suspicious and gotten trapped in Joy's way of speaking, things might really have gone wrong. It might even have thrown off her execution.
If her execution had gone wrong, that would have been disastrous.
"The match is over. The winning side, collect your chips."
There was no surprise in the Arbiter's tone at all. He simply placed the fifteen chips from each side, thirty in total, before Xie Antong.
Snap!
After a crisp sound, the hourglass shattered. The hourglass that had already been used up considerably was now completely depleted.
The hourglass in the