Volume Four: Withering in the Mortal World, Chapter 324: The Gamble (Part 1)

Each person has three dice.

Each person rolls the dice, and the results are revealed together.

The sum of the numbers on the three dice

The one with the larger last digit wins.

Of all the various ways to play dice, this is almost the simplest.

It's not necessarily true that the bigger the number on each die, the better. The largest possible last digit for a two-digit number is eight, which is the case when all three dice are sixes. The largest possible last digit—nine—is only possible when the sum of the numbers is a single digit, such as three threes, two twos one five, two fours one one, one two one three one four, etc. The probability of rolling a nine is 25/216, approximately 0.116.

"... In other words, there's about a 10% chance each time the cup is opened that you 'will never lose'."

"You're so smart, your mental arithmetic is really fast! Oh right, I forgot to ask—you need the dice cup, right? It's embarrassing to keep fiddling around on the table like that."

"Isn't it just throwing dice in a hole without facing yourself and then shaking them in fancy ways? You can do something like that just by thinking about it."

"I'm... fine too."

"Very well, then --"

"Etc!!"

"What's wrong now, Qi Yuan...?"

The man stared speechlessly at Xiao Wu. Just how cautious was this woman?

"I've thought of another important question—" Xiao Wu shook her left arm, which had lost its left hand, "There's a major premise here, which is that 'shaking the dice cup requires the use of hands,' right?"

Of course.

"But... who knows what organ I'll lose next?"

"Are you worried about losing both hands and then not being able to roll the dice? Don't worry, the order of loss is 'straight line'. For example, if you lose your left hand first, then it will be in the order of left hand → left arm → organs on the left side until death. There won't be a situation where you suddenly lose organs in other directions."

"Well... alright. But I'll ask you one last question: were all your previous statements about the rules true?"

"Lying only diminishes the enjoyment of gambling, which is something I desperately want to avoid. But I must remind you, don't engage in any cheating; even if you can fool me, you can't fool the rules my ability upholds."

"... May you keep your promise."

"So, shall we really begin this time? Very well, let's start from this chip landing on the table!"

The man pulled out a gold-plated chip and tossed it upwards. Xiao Wu and Sin Annihilation immediately grabbed their dice cups and dice, their eyes glued to the golden arc of the die.

Whereabouts,

Xiao Wu gripped the dice tightly.

Whereabouts,

Sin Annihilation the dice between his fingertips.

Whereabouts,

The man casually played with the dice.

--Ding-dong.

"Start--!!!"

In that instant, the three of them simultaneously threw the dice into the dice cup and shook it rapidly! The rapidly shaking dice cup left afterimages on their retinas, and the clattering sounds of the dice hitting the inner wall intertwined, creating a unique melody characteristic of casinos.

Generally speaking, first-time players can only lift the dice cup off the table and shake it little by little, and some can only let the dice cup slide back and forth on the table. But Xiao Wu and Sin Annihilation, despite being first-time players, quickly mastered the knack, and it took them less than a second to go from unfamiliar to skilled at shaking the dice cup!

Xiao Wu glanced at Sin Annihilation out of the corner of her eye, secretly feeling a little surprised. Judging from her comprehension and the fluidity of her movements, this child was clearly a master of physical techniques, yet Xiao Wu, with her incredibly rich combat experience, hadn't noticed anything amiss. Could it be that she was very good at concealing her Physical Enhancement System?

No, this isn't the time to think about these things!

Xiao Wu immediately focused all her energy on shaking the dice cup. As a beginner, she had to go from novice to expert in the shortest amount of time, or she would surely lose! And not only did she have to become an expert, but she also had to figure out the tricks and techniques involved!

The time spent shaking the dice cup is brief, but the more urgent the situation, the more immersed Xiao Wu becomes. Her thinking and reaction speed are accelerated to the extreme, feeling each impact of the dice against the inner wall of the cup, familiarizing herself with the feel, exploring the rebound pattern after the dice hit the wall, and thinking about how to shake them into some fancy patterns like a human pyramid, just like in the movies...

Meanwhile, Sin Annihilation was also pondering. Despite being inexplicably dragged into this, she surprisingly felt no regret, and even felt a little excited about fighting alongside Xiao Wu.

Expect?

That's impossible, I'm looking forward to being with someone...

So that's it. The reason I was looking forward to it must be to collect Xiao Wu's combat data so I could better defend against this person—yes, that must be it!

That said, this dice cup...

Many times, Sin Annihilation almost couldn't resist using her superpower. If she could just separate a small piece of flesh and hide it in the dice cup to roll the dice for herself, she could get whatever number she wanted. However, risking exposure and violating the rules of the game for this was not worth it, so she had to give up.

"--stop!!!"

The moment the man shouted "Stop!", the three dice cups slammed heavily onto the table, the three impact sounds perfectly synchronized.

"..."

The three people observed each other.

The man still wore a calm smile, and Sin Annihilation remained expressionless.

Xiao Wu sighed inwardly. After this first experience, she understood a fact: the so-called gambling kings and sages in movies and TV shows who could get whatever they wanted were indeed fictional. Controlling invisible dice with skill alone, without special abilities, to get the desired number—that was simply impossible. At best, it was just stacking three dice into a desired shape. Although the six sides of the dice had different patterns, confirming the state of each face of the three dice at a given moment through the dice cup was far too difficult. It was like asking someone without X-ray vision to read a book through a thick cardboard box—even with Xiao Wu's exceptional physical skills, athletic ability, and intuition, she couldn't do it.

"Are you ready, Urushihara, and this gray-haired lady?"

"Stop talking nonsense."

"Alright..."

"Very good, now we've finally reached the most tense and exciting part! Everyone to your positions—Go!!!"

Suppressing her nervousness, Xiao Wu lifted the dice cup with astonishing force, revealing the dice underneath—

5,6,2

The sum is 13, and the last digit is 3.

In every sense, it was a very bad start.

"Damn it... what happened to the promised good start?"

The last three digits are only three.

Although stronger than 012, it is still at a significant disadvantage.

The other two—

"...2"

"Huh!?"

Sin Annihilation's score was even worse than Xiao Wu's: 4, 3, 5, with a last digit of only 2.

This is troublesome! If the man's last digit is greater than 3...

"Oh ho~ Looks like I lost the first round. Urushihara, you're really lucky~"

Not to mention Xiao Wu, even Sin Annihilation was dumbfounded.

Generally speaking, don't villains usually put on a show of bravado in the first round? This is different from what was expected!

"3, 3, 4, the sum is 10, and the last digit is 0, hahaha."

"Hey, you..."

"What's wrong? Didn't I tell you? I won't use any advanced techniques; it's purely a contest of luck. Looks like I'm not so lucky this time."

"... Hmph." Fine.

Anyway, it's good that we won; it's a good start!

"So—it's time to accept the consequences of your bet? According to the bet, each loss means losing an organ in the order from distal to proximal... Ah."

With a thud, something passed directly through the man's skin and fell out of his body. Although it came out through the skin, the skin itself was completely unharmed.

It was a bloody mess, about ten centimeters long.

"Oh dear, it seems I'm really unlucky right now, starting by losing internal organs."

That's his rectum.

"Hello, hello..."

"Haha, it seems the heavens are smiling on you, Qi Yuan! I haven't lost so badly right from the start in a long time. What a blunder!"

"You..."

"But that's the fun of gambling! It's so boring if you only win and never lose!"

"You... you must be joking!!!"

"What's wrong? Why are you so excited? You should be happy that you won!"

"How could I possibly calm down... You don't have any life-sustaining abilities, do you!"

"Yes."

"Then why are you still standing there perfectly fine after losing your rectum?!"

The rectum is a 15cm section of the large intestine extending upwards from the anal verge. This man, having lost his rectum, is essentially in a state where his internal intestines are severed; he should have been in the intensive care unit long ago!

But why does he still look so relaxed?

"Oh? You care about me? How nice!"

"Don't joke around! How could you—"

Xiao Wu couldn't contain herself any longer and rushed towards the man, placing one hand on his obese belly.

"--!!!"

The moment Mai touched his body and felt his internal organs, Xiao Wu understood.

"Oh dear, I've been found out. Oh well, there's nothing I can do about it. But a little modification to one's body beforehand doesn't really count as cheating."

She finally understood why the man's body was so obese.

She clearly doesn't have much fat on her face, and her stomach doesn't have much fat either.

What's "fat" is his body.

"What... is this? Two large intestines, two small intestines, two kidneys, two livers, two stomachs... what—even two spines!? The number of all organs is twice that of a normal person!!!"

It is precisely because men have an extra set of organs inside their torso that their bodies appear so large!

"Right? Precisely because everything has 'two,' losing one won't affect your life."

"But..."

"Don't worry about the technical difficulties. The organization is full of talented people. It's not impossible to find someone to help duplicate all the organs and insert them into the body without interfering with the original organs."

"But you're cheating! You're obviously a swindler!"

"How can this be considered cheating? This is the 'capital' for gambling," the man laughed and shook his head. "Unless someone is mentally unstable or extremely arrogant, no one would go to a casino with just a little money. That little capital wouldn't even be enough to make them a laughingstock! Gambling requires substantial capital as a backing, so that you can afford to lose, right?"

"And we're like those idiots who dare to go to the casino with only a pittance of capital..."

Xiao Wu's teeth were grinding together; she hadn't expected to fall for the man's trick in the end! They were on completely different footings from the start, so wouldn't she have to win twice as many rounds to finally defeat him?

"But shouldn't you be more concerned about your friends than me?"

"... Eh?"

It was only then that Xiao Wu noticed the situation with Sin Annihilation.

"... I'm sorry, Xiao Wu, I think I also..."

A round sphere appeared beneath her feet.

It was an eyeball with beautiful silver-white pupils.

When he looked up again, Sin Annihilation's left eye had become an empty hole.

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Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and I happen to have an extra chapter saved up... Hmm... If I reach 90 Monthly Votes today, I'll immediately add another chapter.