Chapter 1197: Gambler’s Instinct
‘She must be doing sothing to absorb the liquid’
‘If this is really a normal cup, it should have overflowed by now. Is he pulling sothing weird with his tongue again?’
Unfortunately, Hynemtopep’s love of the ga had led him to add many restrictions that constricted both his opponents and himself. They were basically stuck in their current positions, save for so simple movents they were allowed to make for the purpose of playing the ga.
Thus, he could not get out of his seat to get another angle of Maliah playing, and the sa was true in reverse. Although cheating at the gas was basically the law of the land here, cheating through the restrictions was another story, and to ensure that the law was unbreakable, Hynemtopep had had to ensure that even he, the creator, was bound by them.
The two contestants had to either make the glass overflow or figure out the precise manner in which the other was rigging the ga. It was easier said than done, however.
It wasn’t as easy as making a guess and hoping it was correct. There was a sort of innate understanding of the rules in that regard, even for the contestants against the god. Neither of them could just randomly spout ideas until they got it right. If they did that, it would be akin to admitting defeat.
There was a requirent for certainty, and also a need to be capable of proving that cheating was actually occurring. That was what worried Hynemtopep here. Not everything was equally restrained–Or even restrained at all–Within his unleashed divine domain.
Certain traits about individuals were simply too deeply tied to their essence to be toned down without making the domain imbalance in favour of Hynemtopep. Balance was primordial for the gas he played to bring about any thrill at all. Even with these rules, however, he could count in the thousands the number of years it had been since he had gotten an exciting match.
The mad gods of his prison were often willing, but they did not actually take the ga seriously since inside the jail, no essence of consciousness could be plundered, and the truly smart ones that could give him a good fight would just refuse to play with him.
To get people to play with him, he needed to catch them in his full-powered domain before they could do anything against it. Once it was in effect, the ga was set… Naturally, this had quickly landed him in prison. Obviously, a gambler like himself was powerless when several of the most powerful gods ca crashing down upon him, ready to fight like unwashed barbarians.
In any case, innate abilities were also sothing that was most difficult to actually restrain. For the domain to work, Hynemtopep himself needed to use his innate ability at full power. As such, in the eyes of the unknown presence who judged what restrictions were right, and how valuable they were–Restricting innate abilities whilst technically using yours at maw strength the entire ti, it just did not seem to coincide with the concept of ‘fairness’ the god was trying to put in place.
‘Foolish deities. Always seeing with tunnel vision… They didn’t tell more than a few words about this girl. Does she have an innate ability? Does she have sothing else that’s special?’
Focused, Hynemtopep’s many eyes began to move, making a sound that was akin to sothing wet and slimy being dragged across the ground. They all coalesced into a single one, making him into a cyclopean figure, only that this singular eye was overflowing with pupils.
This was an ability he had always possessed, god or not. So it remained even throughout the domain, and using it, he paid close attention to Maliah’s every move.
Several more turns went by, neither of the two players uttering a single word. When it was the undead’s turn, the god wouldn’t blink at all, and when it was his, he wouldn’t blink either, instead moistening his eye using his abnormally long and dexterous tongue, rubbing the teeth-like spike covering its surface directly against his eye.
At so point, he actively began to lacerate and stab his own eye, letting it regenerate as though believing that he wasn’t seeing what he wanted to see because sothing was wrong with it. Sothing that required the eye to be hard and rebuilt to be fixed.
Eventually, he looked down at the cup on his turn, seemingly deep in thought. The amount of coins in this cup was getting ridiculous.
‘The water has severely decreased since the beginning… It is only looking the sa because of the weight of all the coins pushing the water upward… Neither she nor I have committed a single mistake yet… But we are definitely using a similar thod of cheating…’
They were clearly both siphoning water from the cup, and soon enough, there wouldn’t be any left. Draws were probably the worst outco in Hynemtopep’s eyes. There needed to be a victor, even if it wasn’t him. Soone needed to win. Soone needed to lose.
He looked at her pile of coins. There was nothing strange about it.
He looked at which coins she picked. There was no logic or patterns to it.
He looked at her hand in particular. There was nothing weird about the way she grabbed the coins. Everything was smooth…
“Wait”
Maliah didn’t actually wait and just placed her coin into the cup, seemingly ignoring him entirely.
“There is sothing weird with the coins you use”
Claid the god. Maliah just grinned at him.
“And I think there is sothing wrong with your fingers. Why do you feel the need to dip them in the water every single ti? That goes against how soone should be playing this ga”
They stared at one another.
“You can not prove anything. I can”
“Can you now? I’m all ears then. Mister All Eyes”
“What an unpleasant joke…”
Hynemtopep’s singular eye split back in many, and his maw curled up a slight bit as he pointed at Maliah.
“You are switching coins”
“Am I?”
“You most definitely are. The coin I watched you pick up, and the coin that went into the cup weren’t the sa”
Hynemtopep Knew he was right, but he knew thanks to his eye, and thus, it was only his word against Maliah’s. He needed to expose the inner chanisms of her ploy for the domain to actually grant him the win.
Considering that she wasn’t firing back at his accusations with her own, it could only an that she did not know how he was cheating, even if she had the good idea earlier.
“Simply show again how you do it”
“Sounds like you’re just trying to make play twice in a row”
“We both know the cup won’t overflow”
Maliah faked a sigh with her unbreathing lungs and went to pick a coin, changing her mind several tis on which to pick up. ssing with the deity.
“How about… This one?”
She grabbed it as she did with all of the previous ones, with the naked eye, it was nearly impossible to see, but having gotten a taste of the trick already…
“Innate ability. Storing and creation. You are storing the coin exactly as it exits my line of sight and bringing out another in the sa position that has the exact sa appearance. Only that these coins have the ability to suck up water without actually taking on any additional weight”
There was a long mont of silence.
“…How the fuck do you guess that–?”
Maliah collapsed just like Faraday did, and Hynemtopep had never looked so pumped up in his entire life.
“I was on thin ice here…” he comnted to himself.
“I’ve never seen him so happy…” Kaahaal muttered.
“Damn it. I’ll play with you n–” One was interrupted as a hand fell on her shoulder, making her grow silent in the blink of an eye.
Loimos sat down at the table, and once again, the god moved to face his next opponent.
“Ah. So here is the man of the hour. The other idiots who made a deal with told to be especially wary of you… Loimos, is it? Are you perhaps a bit mad that I just defeated your girlfriend? Great girl, by the way. I hope you are treating her well. Anyone who can make sweat like this is definitely a keeper”
Loimos did not respond to the obvious taunt, and the next ga manifested. Taking the god by surprise, as he did not recognise the ga at a glance.
“Eternal Darkjack. A staple of the Undead Kingdom. Perhaps, you require to be told the rules?”
“No need… I just needed a mont to learn”
Without ever being exposed to the ga, Hynemtopep was able to learn its rules by just staring at the deck placed between the two of them.
“You must be either a fool or very confident to play a card ga with , Loimos”
“I will give the honour of distributing the cards”
Loimos completely ignored the god and instead said sothing that instantly made Hynemtopep narrow his eyes, but it quickly vanished.
‘Of course, he wouldn’t mind letting distribute… This ga is built to be impossible to cheat in… He’s just trying to destabilise ’
The third ga began.
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