Chapter 1198: DarkJack
Eternal Darkjack was a card ga created within the Undead Empire. It ca under several forms, each with its own set of rules, but the basic variant remained the most popular by far. As the na not so subtly implied, it was heavily inspired by Blackjack.
The rules were very similar, only that in Eternal Darkjack, there was no concept of a dealer. It was a ga typically played by only two people who opposed one another. Everyone received a card that was distributed face down. Only the person it was given to knew what it was, and then, they would receive a second card, this ti face up.
The goal was the sa as in regular Blackjack: Get as close to twenty-one by adding the value of each owned card without going over this limit. One by one, each player could act. The most common thing to do would be to ‘Rest’, or ask for another card to add to the ones they already possess.
Resting ant that they were deciding to no longer make any choice for the current round, and once the opponent also decided to rest, the cards would be revealed, and the winner would be known.
As such, there was a certain level of luck required if one sought to win all of their gas… Due to certain specificities, however, luck was actually not that prevalent.
The quirks of Eternal Darkjack were simple.
The ‘Eternal’ in the na did not actually refer to the length of a ga–Although two undeads would definitely make it work that way–It was about the deck… The deck was infinite and generated cards according to ever-changing odds and probability. The odds themselves were very specific.
What this ant was that one could receive cards of the sa value. Counting cards was nigh impossible because of this. Any card you decided to take would only gain its value the mont you picked it up.
That was not all, however. To add spice and a layer of strategy to the ga, there were special cards as well. This could allow you to interfere with the other player or to better control your deck without having to rely on chance.
With all of these together, Eternal Darkjack could easily get very unpredictable, especially when the amount of information you add on what your adversary had in their arsenal was limited only to what was directly shown on the table.
Taking all of this information in, Hynemtopep grinned. This was an interesting ga, and one far different from the more simplistic bets the two previous undeads had decided to go with.
Faraday had rely picked sothing in the environnt that he was confident he would be able to get right, and Maliah had picked a ga she knew she could easily cheat in.
Loimos, though? He picked a ga where the odds were uncertain and where bad luck could easily bring about one’s ruin.
The deity distributed the cards. He found no way to actually rig this part, so Loimos had truly let him do that purely as a ntal tactic…
Hynemtopep had heard quite a lot about Loimos. An undead who had apparently defeated a greater deity like Thor in a one-on-one duel under the divinity’s own terms. An undead who had slaughtered countless gods like cattle in the blink of an eye. Apparently, the gods capable of divination who retrieved all that information and so more suffered from blindness and loss of other senses as a result of trying to spy on him too much.
‘This is my domain. Let’s see how good you truly are… If these fools riled up for nothing, I’ll raise hell on them’
Hynemtopep had received a seven as his hidden card and an eleven as his shown card.
The cards rely featured the numbers themselves alongside so simple depictions of things that he did not understand due to them being very tailored toward undeads.
Eighteen was a very good score, and being so high, it would be risky to ask for another card… But he could always ask for a card and hope to get one of these special ones. How bizarre…
“We have not yet agreed on the number of rounds we are going to go through” said the deity.
That was sothing else about Eternal Darkjack. The number of rounds was determined by the players, and since the player base was eternal and often blind to the passage of ti, the average ga was actually painfully long, not that the usual players noticed.
“Fifty, that is the standard amount”
“Let’s go with this, then”
‘Fifty?! Ludicrously high, but it makes sense… So, should I ask for cards even if it will backfire for this round, to possibly earn special cards that I will be able to secure wins later on? With so many rounds, it feels like it is a genuinely viable strategy…’
Loimos remained silent in the anti. It was unclear if he was even looking at the god or not.
‘Let’s not be too daring on the first round’
Hynemtopep glanced at Loimos’s shown card. It was a nine that gave him several possible combinations that could lead to victory… Here was the problem, however. Hynemtopep had no special card to use, so he could only ask for a card or rest. On any given turn, one could ask for up to three cards, but after asking for one, they could end their turn without resting, giving themselves another turn to act if necessary.
But asking for a card seed too risky. Only three cards would put him in a better spot. The rest would make him lose the round for certain.
“I rest” he said.
Loimos raised his right hand slightly, and a card ca from the deck face down. He looked at it for a brief mont before placing it with the rest. It was a regular card, and it was another nine.
There is no zero card, so Loimos had, at the very least, nineteen at the mont. The number of combinations that did not put him above twenty-one was few, but the skeleton was utterly unreadable.
The domain was unable to change his intrinsic characteristics. He was just as emotionless as usual. Hynemtopep could only try to guess using the odds…
“I rest again”
Loimos tapped the table, a sign that he was resting as well.
The hidden cards flipped themselves over.
“Oh… Seems like I win this round”
Hynemtopep’s eyes blinked.
Loimos’s hidden card was an eleven.
Who in their right mind would ask for a card when you had a combined value of twenty?
The god stared into the dark abyss of the undead’s helm.
‘Is he… ssing with ? Is there sothing I don’t get about this ga?’
The second round began, and this ti, Loimos was in charge of distributing the initial cards.
Hynemtopep’s pair was far less advantageous this ti around. He got a five as his hidden card and a three as his shown card for a combined value of eight. Definitely suboptimal, but it gave him a good reason to ask for cards at least.
Since things switched around every turn, it was Loimos’s turn right now. His shown card was a one. So whatever he had hidden, he could only have had a twelve at most, which was also a rather low value.
He raised his right hand and received a card. It wasn’t shaped like the rest. Rather than rectangular, it was octagonal. Loimos rely placed it face down to the side for later usage.
‘Great, he has sothing up his sleeve now…’
Loimos asked for another card imdiately after, receiving another one. He asked for a third card and received a two.
‘Even if his hidden card is an eleven, he’ll only have fifteen at most…’
Loimos could ask for more cards once it was his turn again, but for now, it was ti for the god to ask for a card.
He received a nine, bringing him up to seventeen…
After a mont of hesitation, he asked for another card. Willing to bet his currently modest advance for a chance at getting a special card–He received an eleven instead.
He was way over twenty-one now.
‘In this case…’
He asked for a third card and received a four. No special cards for him, it seed.
Loimos imdiately tapped the table, signalling that he was resting, and thus, Hynemtopep went ahead and asked for three more cards, but none turned out to be special. Since the skeleton had already rested for this round, the god was forced to rest as well.
Loimos naturally won this round since Hynemtopep had gone over the limit, and the third round began imdiately afterwards. Each of them had won once so far, but considering the number of rounds they had to go through, it didn’t an much yet.
Nonetheless, the deity grimaced as he distributed the cards. His guts were telling him that sothing was wrong about all of this.
He didn’t know what, but sothing was definitely not as it should be.
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