I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

The following situations will be considered a game failure.

"1. The cards were successfully cleared at the end, but there were not enough stars (less than three)."

"Second, you have three stars at the end, but the cards are not cleared."

"Third, the cards were not cleared at the end, and there were not enough stars (less than three)."

"Violence is prohibited here. Anyone who attacks other players will be eliminated."

"Cards and stars can be transferred or traded on a voluntary basis between the two parties."

"Of course, if three stars are quickly lost, the player will be eliminated early, and the eliminated player's card will be returned to the recycling slot."

The old man explained the rules of the game in a relaxed tone, as if it were a game to enhance friendship. However, most of the people present understood that they absolutely could not lose this game. They had lost everything before coming here. Their lives had been ruined by gambling, and they had no way out. This was their only chance to turn things around.

They can only accept victory and a comeback, not defeat. Even without punishment, just getting nothing is enough to drag them into hell.

They couldn't stop; their minds, already damaged by the thrill of gambling, refused to give up.

However, besides the hopeless gamblers, there were clearly also newcomers and players from another world who were out of the loop.

A thin man raised his hand and asked:

What happens if you get eliminated?

"Imagine it as you see fit." The old man glanced at him, a contemptuous smile on his face, and shrugged. "I can only offer a friendly reminder... whether you are ordinary people or heroic professionals, the consequences of being eliminated are probably not good."

This statement caused a huge uproar among the crowd.

The old man ignored the players' uproar, turned and left the hall, leaving only a few dozen staff members behind. At the same time, the clock above the hall began to tick. Below the clock were three symbols: rock, paper, scissors, and below each symbol was a number formed by magic, all currently displayed as "812".

This is the number of the three remaining cards in the game.

So, there were a total of 203 participants present?

Duke wasn't in a hurry to start the competition. Before trying to clear this witch game, he had to find Cecil and the man who had run away. If it were a normal witch game, he wouldn't be too worried about the Radiant Witch, since that idiot was easy to fool, but at least she was strong enough.

Cecil's individual combat ability is outstanding. If she were in the previous Candy Castle witch game, she could take on Hansen and the witch together by herself. With such combat ability, she would be hard to die no matter where she is.

However, in this witch game, her most proficient violent methods are forbidden, forcing her to compete in wits with various seasoned veterans, shrewd old foxes, and con artists. And most importantly, even with her formidable strength, being eliminated from this game could put her life in danger...

All these unfavorable conditions were practically tailor-made for Cecil!

Duke had a bad feeling.

"We have to find that idiot before she gets swindled out of all her stars, no matter what!"

Chapter 45 The Gambling Table Game in the Extraordinary World

Although the rules are the simple rock-paper-scissors, this game actually has many hidden variations, not to mention that it comes from a magical world.

In this world of swords and magic, cheating techniques have been popularized by highly skilled professionals to the point of being diverse and competitive. Duke's predecessor clearly knew some cheating techniques—he had a skill called "Quick Hands" in his skill bar. Although in most cases this skill was used to "steal," "cheating" also fell within the scope of "Quick Hands."

If Duke could go back to his past life, he would be more than qualified to be a poker magician.

But in this world, such cheating techniques belong to the lowest level of the social hierarchy. Even if you practice them to the point of being smooth and skillful, you will eventually encounter a bottleneck... But magic and miracles do not.

Mind reading, divination, altering your hand with transformation spells, using time-based spells to travel back in time, manipulating outcomes with causality skills...

Faced with such exaggerated and extraordinary abilities, what is Kuaishou (a short video platform)?

The variety and complexity of cheating techniques make them difficult to guard against.

And that old man never said anything about not being able to cheat!

In Duke's eyes, this seemingly simple "rock-paper-scissors tournament" was not just a simple game of luck or a psychological battle; it was clearly a "superpower cheating exchange tournament"!

But Cecil clearly couldn't understand this.

This naive and easily fooled little fool was like an innocent lamb that had fallen into a wolf's den, and was just short of being devoured alive.

These aren't the friendly scammers from the floating city; they won't keep their promise to "scam Cecil only once a week"!

Duke quickly set out to find Cecil. He was lucky, and Cecil's striking appearance made her stand out. He soon found her next to a competition table.

In a short time, she had lost two stars at lightning speed. Looking at the ten cards she had left in her hand, she seemed unable to believe that her luck could be so bad.

Good grief, we didn't win a single game!

Duke sighed, strode over, removed his mask, and patted Cecil on the shoulder: "Forget it."

"Duke?!" Cecil was startled by Duke, jumping up and down. Then, with a mixture of surprise and wariness, he asked, "Why are you here?"

“I followed you in.”

Duke waved his hand, not intending to explain to Cecil—not only would explaining everything be too troublesome, but he also felt that even if he did explain, the girl might not believe him and would instead think he was a stalker. Therefore, Duke skipped that part and directly asked:

Who was the person who just beat you twice?

"he."

Cecil cautiously pointed to the people who hadn't left yet.

Her tone towards Duke was unusually submissive. After all, losing two stars so quickly was bad enough, but being caught red-handed by Duke was even more embarrassing. Even the Radiant Witch, who was used to being tricked, would feel ashamed.

Duke gave an "oh," then looked at the person she was pointing to. It was a burly orc who, at first glance, didn't seem like an honest person who would cheat, but he knew that you couldn't judge a book by its cover at the gambling table.

He pulled out his stack of twelve cards, smiled, and asked, "Want to play a game?"

The orc, who had just won two stars, immediately and cheerfully accepted the challenge: "Come on!"

Duke casually pulled out a card and placed it on the table in front of him.

At the same time, he took out the lucky dagger and suddenly stabbed it into the wooden table!

"Ready."

The two referees ignored it, but the orc who had been staring at Duke was startled by his action. The card he was holding slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground, revealing its face – a pair of scissors.

The orc's expression changed slightly. He quickly picked up the scissors, hesitated for a long time, and then chose a different card, placing it on the table in front of him.

"Ready."

The referee turned over two cards.

Duke is rock, and the orc is scissors.

"Tch." The orc snorted, roughly tossing out a star before slamming his hand on the table. "Again!"

“Okay.” Duke smiled at him, then casually pulled out a card and placed it on the table. “I’m ready.”

The orc slammed his fist on the table in anger, throwing another card down: "Ready!"

The referee turned over two more cards.

Duke is cloth, orcs are stone.

"Grass!"

The orc threw down the stars and turned away angrily, while Duke picked up the two stars he had thrown and tossed them back to Cecil beside him.

"???"

Cecil took the star, looking completely bewildered, and fell into a state of existential doubt. Fortunately, she had the good habit of "asking questions when she didn't understand," and directly expressed her confusion:

"How did you do that?!"

"Nothing special, just a lucky strike plus some psychological warfare."

Duke casually explained:

"My dagger is enchanted with 'Lucky Strike,' and with the causal law skill of absolute luck, I cannot lose the first match. Moreover, I will steer the events in the direction I desire—specifically, my victory in the first battle and the unexpected dropping of his card."

"The card that fell out revealed scissors, and the card he lost the first round was also scissors. It seems like this incident didn't affect his strategy, but that's not the case. It affected the second round. Cecil, I know you. You probably used two different cards in the first two rounds, right?"

Cecil nodded subconsciously.

"When the number of rock-paper-scissors is limited, people tend to have a certain mindset: they consume all three cards at a relatively equal rate, rather than recklessly using up one type of card first. Given your personality, you most likely use this balanced approach. The orc who won two games against you also fell into this mindset because of your card-playing strategy, playing two different cards."

"The fact that the scissors accidentally fell out and I saw it, and that he lost the first match by using the scissors, would create a misconception in him. Subconsciously, he might feel that he used the scissors twice. Humans and humanoids are unlikely to be absolutely rational beings, and I don't think he would use the scissors in the second match."

"If his moves are limited to stone and paper, then I won't lose as long as I use paper... I was lucky, I won."

Cecil's eyes narrowed as she tried desperately to understand, and surprisingly, she managed to ask a rather insightful question: "What if he didn't choose scissors in the first round?"

“Then we won’t have a second round. We’ll just win one star and run away. What’s wrong with that?” Duke gave her a strange look. “Anyway, I’m sure I’ll win the first round.”

Cecil: "..."

Cecil: I didn't understand, but I was deeply moved.

Chapter 46 "Cecil, I'm sorry."

"If you can't understand it, there's no need to try to understand it. It's not good to waste too many brain cells."

Cecil was furious, but she couldn't refute Duke's sarcastic remarks. All she could do was glare at Duke, trying to kill the scumbag who was spouting nonsense with her eyes.

But the reason why this scumbag is recognized as a scumbag is that his skin is much thicker than that of ordinary people. Under Cecil's gaze, she did not blush or skip a beat, and could even analyze the situation with utmost calmness: "Now we can pass the level smoothly. You have ten cards and I have ten cards. If we tie each other, we can leave safely."

Cecil panicked: "But that man..."

"Don't worry, I've already seen him. The real question now is... should we earn more stars before leaving?" Duke narrowed his eyes and began to observe all the players in the hall. "Although the old man didn't say what the stars were for, the more we earn, the more rewards we can get after clearing the level. The only problem is the risk that comes with it."

He wasn't in a hurry to make a decision, nor did he engage in a contest. Instead, he led Cecil to a corner of the hall and began to observe the overall situation of the game, quietly waiting for a good opportunity to make his move.

In Duke's eyes, the hall was a veritable carnival of cheaters, filled with magical fluctuations, as if everyone possessed the "Quick Hands" skill. The dazzling array of cheating methods thoroughly entertained Duke.

The players in the lobby were mostly seasoned veterans, not first-timers; newbies were a minority, trembling with fear among the experienced players. In just over ten minutes, dozens were eliminated, but only a dozen or so actually chose to leave the lobby, while the majority of veterans chose to stay and earn more stars.

After a few newbies were quickly eliminated, the lobby became a chaotic mess, with cheaters battling it out.

Good grief, they've gathered all the cheaters together and created a separate server for them, a veritable war of gods, right?

Duke was amazed.

Cecil was lucky; at least the orc she found wasn't some cheater. After Duke took back two stars, he was targeted by a cheater and quickly controlled by hypnosis. He lost three rounds in three minutes and was eliminated early, then taken away by several burly staff members.

Yet, even this seemingly rough and tough orc could lose two stars in the blink of an eye... Well, it's hard to say whether she was lucky or unlucky, but one thing is certain—she's really bad.

"He's so pitiful. I suggest everyone stop persecuting Guangbao."

A certain Radiant Witch: "?"

You've persecuted the most, Duke, you're the most heinous criminal!