"2~3!"
"4~"
"5~6!"
After two rounds, the goddess paused slightly and frowned.
"7~8?"
"9!"
"10..."
After the third round, the goddess opened her mouth to speak but then quickly corrected herself.
"Wait... 10~11..."
"12!"
"..."
By the fifth round, the goddess's silence had noticeably lengthened.
"...13..."
"14~15!"
Lorne continued to respond without hesitation, his expression growing more relaxed.
Now, he even had the leisure to glance around and admire the surroundings.
At this mont, the goddess, who had been calm and composed earlier, now wore a stiff expression and remained silent for a long ti.
After surveying the area, Lorne's gaze settled on the unnad goddess before him, and he urged her caulsually.
"Your turn. Haven't you decided yet?"
The goddess bit her rosy lips beneath her veil, her eyes filled with indignation.
"How cunning of you."
"I prefer to call it human wisdom."
Lorne spread his hands, his face showing an innocent expression.
"Pitting a human against a god is inherently an unfair ga. Isn't it only natural for the weaker side to use their wits to win?"
Then, he shifted his tone and spoke frankly.
"Besides, it seems like you were the one who willingly agreed to gamble with ."
"Wisdom? What a nostalgic word."
The goddess seed to recall sothing as she shook her head thoughtfully, giving Lorne a deep look, before tossed the dice in her hand and lightly clapped her palms with a smile.
"Fine, you win."
With the matter settled, the tension in Lorne's mind, which had been stretched to its limit, finally relaxed and a hint of relief flickered in the depths of his eyes.
She actually noticed sothing was wrong by the fifth round.
The sharpness of the goddess in front of him was self-evident.
Fortunately, this was a ga he was destined to win from the very beginning.
A faint smile curled at the corners of Lorne's lips as he savored the mory of the gamble.
This so-called fair ga was never fair to begin with.
As long as he let the other party start the count and ensured that if they called one number, he would call two, and if they called two, he would call one, then the final number, 30, would inevitably belong to him.
Therefore, the mont the goddess agreed to start the count, the outco was already decided.
In this ga, Lorne could not lose.
Of course, in a sense, the opportunity was equal for both sides.
If the other party had understood the rules beforehand and avoided starting the count first, victory would have belonged to them instead.
But this goddess clearly hadn't realized this in advance, so, she casually agreed to the conditions and walked straight into the trap, leading to her own defeat.
And the reason why she lost was not because of the so-called weakness and ignorance.
On the contrary, it was her arrogance, born of her imnse power, that hindered her.
However, to be fair, successfully leading the goddess into this trap wasn't entirely Lorne's doing.
At this mont, his face darkened with frustration, and he even began to grit his teeth.
'For that, I have to thank that old man who set up a stall at the intersection after school and cheated out of all my New Year's money.'
You old man, I want to thank your ancestors, all eight generations of them.'
That was his first lesson in the harsh realities of society, teaching him the hard truth that nothing good cos for free and that gambling is nine parts deceit.
However, it took him a few days to fully realize this.
And the lesson bought with blood and tears had been etched into his mory ever since.
"According to our agreent, congratulations on your rebirth, little one..."
The goddess's calm voice interrupted Lorne's thoughts.
With a graceful wave of her hand, the dark sky swirled into a vortex of shadowy clouds.
As Lorne looked up, he seed to glimpse shimring water through the chaos.
In the age of Greek gods, the Underworld lay beneath the earth and the deep sea.
The sea was shrouded in a thin mist, and the light of dawn filtered through the haze, reflecting off the water and revealing a small silhouette.
The path to life was right before him.
The unnad goddess, fulfilling her promise, began to fade from solid to ethereal, and the desolate world flickered like a candle fla.
Everything seed to be settled.
But was it really that simple?
Lorne thought of the thunder that had pierced the sky, of those cold, rciless eyes.
What did it matter if he had narrowly escaped death?
Whether it was the vast, endless sea before him or King of the gods, Zeus, who had suddenly turned hostile before, without any help, even if he managed to survive this ordeal, he wouldn't even be able to survive a few chapters.
Hell, he might not even make it out of the resurrection point.
'You don't want to live? Fine, then let's all go down together!'
In the darkness, the figure caught between reality and illusion grinned, like a demon sneering.
"I can give you my soul. Do you want it?"
The sudden temptation instantly stabilized the stage that was about to close.
The goddess turned her head, raising an eyebrow with interest.
"And what would the price be?"
"Gamble with one more ti!"
The sa dialogue, spoken by opposite parties, created a strange sense of temporal dislocation.
The goddess was stunned for a mont, then let out a playful chuckle.
"Not another counting trick, is it?"
"Of course not."
Lorne's eyes glead with a dark light, and his face imrsed in the darkness showed a crazy and strange smile.
"Whether it's rolling dice or counting numbers, it's all too boring. This ti, let's go big. How about we use the entire world as our gambling table?"
"Oh? Do tell."
Instantly, the goddess's eyes lit up with intense interest.
Lorne looked up at the light refracting into the deep sea from above, his face shifting between reality and illusion as a sinister smile spread across it.
He spoke slowly, word by word.
"Let's bet on whether I can overthrow Olympus!"
Originally, he had no such grand ambitions.
After all, he had already lived a hard life and so, this ti, he just wanted to live a simple life, to lie flat and take it easy.
But this damned fate wouldn't allow it.
'If that's the case, then don't bla for flipping the table.'
The goddess frowned slightly, a half-smile playing on her lips as she looked up.
"How would we place the bet? Are we betting on your failure?"
She neither refused nor agreed.
"Since we're pursuing excitent, let's go all the way. So of course, we'll choose the highest odds—high risk for high reward."
Lorne answered matter-of-factly, his low voice exuding an irresistible allure.
"I'll be the dice. All you need to do is give a gentle toss, and you might reap a thousandfold profit. Is there any ga more thrilling than this in the world?"
Instantly, the goddess's breathing noticeably quickened, and even her figure seed to waver slightly.
Clearly, she was tempted.
However, she quickly regained her composure, her eyes narrowing.
"You want to help you?"
"This is just a ga..."
Lorne smiled noncommittally, his eyes flickering faintly.
"Interesting..."
The goddess's eyes beca more playful, and her tone was aningful.
It was unclear whether she was comnting on the soul before her or the so-called ga.
But then, the goddess looked at him with a faint hum.
"Though, if we're keeping track, the soul you promised still hasn't reached my hands, has it?"
"Don't rush. If you want your reward, you'll have to wait until I die, right? It doesn't make sense to crush the dice before the ga even starts."
Lorne grinned with delight, his gaze filled with aning.
"Besides, as long as I'm alive, won't I be able to provide you with endless entertainnt?
There are only two outcos: I lose, and you get the soul.
I win, and you gain even more. Either way, you don't lose.
And for the ga itself, while the reveal of victory or defeat is certainly exciting, isn't the process of the struggle itself a form of enjoynt? Goddess..."
"I have to admit, you truly have a talent to bewitch people..."
The goddess gazed deeply at the soul before her, a slight smile curling her lips as her jade-white fingertip touched its ever-shifting chest.
"But it doesn't matter. I'm rely playing a ga. So, let this serve as the pact and the mark—let the entertainnt begin."
In an instant, a strange burning sensation spread through Lorne's soul.
In the next mont, a circular mark ford by black lines appeared on his chest.
From above, it looked like a circular maze surrounding a spiral, its endless paths exuding infinite mystery.
But to Lorne, the mark on his body seed more like a stamp of approval on a piece of pork.
And worse, it was the kind that had already been pre-ordered by the buyer...
There really was no room for loopholes.
Feeling the subtle connection that had been established with the goddess before him, Lorne sighed inwardly.
Fortunately, after the ring-shaped black mark fully ford, it quickly faded and disappeared, as if it had never existed.
He had successfully sold himself at the market for a good price, but the good news was that he didn't have to be delivered imdiately.
Given the circumstances, Lorne could only laugh bitterly and comfort himself in his heart.
"Then, let the ga begin!"
The goddess snapped her fingers with delight, and the swirling clouds in the sky reversed.
A strange pulling sensation enveloped Lorne.
As his ethereal body gradually faded, disappearing bit by bit from the dim world, Lorne's heart finally settled.
He had won this resurrection match.
"So, how should I address you, Your Highness?"
"You can call ..."
The goddess's eyes sparkled, her lips curving into a smile.
"...Persephone."
The Queen of the Underworld?
Lorne gave the goddess a deep look, inwardly scoffing.
Hah, the Queen of the Underworld wouldn't dare to snatch soone from Zeus's grasp...
And besides, she probably didn't have the ability to do so.
By the way, in so mythological accounts, it's said that Dionysus, the god of wine, was the son of the king of gods, Zeus and the queen of the underworld, Persephone in a previous life.
'So, by giving this na, are you sure you're not just trying to claim as your own?'
Lorne grumbled inwardly as the long-suppressed exhaustion and fatigue began to overwhelm him.
His eyelids grew heavy, and the world started to spin.
"Since you're my dice, roll a different number. Make this dull world more interesting!"
A murmur ca from nowhere as a twelve-sided dice carved from serpentinite fell from the goddess's hand.
On the desolate plain, the moist lips beneath the veil curved into a faint smile.
Dangerous yet beautiful.
"Don't die too soon, now..."
Boom!
In the real world, dark clouds gathered in the sky, lightning streaked across, and dozens of spiral wind columns rose from the sea, churning the waves into layers of turbulence.
A storm was brewing over the ocean.
In the dark waters, a simple wooden plank carrying a small body bobbed up and down, like a reed carrying an ant on the water's surface, in constant danger of capsizing.
But in the end, the surging waves, before the storm fully arrived, pushed it toward a dark, floating island.
The plank, carrying the infant, washed up onto the soft sand like a stranded fish.
As the sound of rustling footsteps approached, a tall figure erged from the trees.
Clothed... walking upright...
It seed to be a human...
Vaguely confirming the identity of the newcor and sensing no imdiate hostility, Lorne, pushed to his limits both ntally and physically, finally succumbed to unconsciousness.
At the sa ti, a light, cheerful female voice faintly reached his ears.
"Aha? Look what I found! A cute little piglet!"
On the fine sand, a girl with pointed ears, pink hair, and rainbow-like pupils, her wings folded behind her, looked at her discovery with excitent.
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