Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner
Chapter 374 - 274: Silent Needle

Chapter 374: Chapter 274: Silent Needle

The gamble continues.

Fushimi Roku has 29 chips left, and Fox Princess has 16 chips remaining.

The arbitrator is surprised by Fushimi Roku’s quick speed in decoding the rules. Everyone turns to look at Minamoto Tamako, who had just insisted that she "will win," which suggests she had also deciphered the specific rules—Minamoto Tamako explains, but Fujiwara Homare is left bewildered, only Yakou Shichi understands suddenly.

"If that’s the case, even after uncovering the rules, you’re still stuck in the hell of this game." Yakou Shichi sighs.

Indeed, the deeper you think, the more painful it is.

After recovering his clearheadedness, the bubbles around Fushimi Roku were frantic and dense, his hair standing on end and flying, his oxygen consumption further skyrocketing!

With the remaining six cards on the table and the unseen remaining 32 cards, assembling all the remaining combinations while considering the suits requires an incredibly terrifying amount of thought—deducing the rules is one thing, utilizing them is another.

On the other side, Fox Princess’s oxygen consumption is also soaring!

She too has deciphered the rules of the game!

Their oxygen consumption rises synchronously, both plunging into the hell of thinking and gambling, with the glass cabin appearing as though filled with fizzing tablets, bubbles continually mingling and bursting, the water surface rolling like boiling.

They simultaneously change air chips, this being the third for Fox Princess and the fourth for Fushimi Roku, leaving them with 12 and 25 chips respectively!

The most important thing now is to analyze which card is the largest. The biggest hand that Fox Princess can split with her 47 is a "Royal Flush," namely the Ace, 10, J, Q, and K of Diamonds!

The rank is clear, but are enough cards left?

Recalling the card types from the first two rounds, 20 cards have been used. In her expectation, the first round was a straight flush versus four of a kind, the second was a full house versus four of a kind, but that’s merely a guess; there are other possibilities...

The arbitrator is counting down, not much time left to think!

From another perspective, no cards above 10 have been played yet, and three Aces have been used, leaving one. A Royal Flush could be barely pieced together...

But if her second round was not a full house but three Aces, then there would be no Aces left in the deck to form a Royal Flush...

At this moment, Fox Princess reflexively lifts her head, looking across the wooden table. Unknowingly, Fushimi Roku has calmed. He has already played his hand, the metal card lying silently on the table.

Has he already made up his mind?

Then I must also...

Fox Princess raises her hand to place her card down, suddenly realizing something, her right hand freezing in mid-air.

Wait, wait, wait...

If I were him, what would I do?

In the next three rounds, he only needs to win one; he certainly won’t blindly bet now but use the "trump card" in his hand to assuredly win one round!

What I need to consider is to judge the timing of his trump card and then use my trump card to take him down!

In the later stages of the game, bigger cards are definitely stronger...

So, the card on the table, is it a trump card or a bluff?

The thirty-second limit swiftly passes, Fox Princess gently lays her card face down on the table. In this round, she actually used an air chip, having to open a new chip to replenish oxygen, consumption now matching her opponent!

Both reveal their cards at the same time, Fushimi Roku has a 45, while Fox Princess has a 47!

The complete rules have been uncovered. The onlookers can hardly wait to know the result, whose hand is actually bigger.

Yakou Shichi orders the staff to bring a screen to block the contestants’ view of the glass cabin. He dismantles a deck of cards, laying them on the ground, quickly analyzing the possible card combinations from the numbers.

Moriyama Yasurou and others too can’t care about past grudges, gathering around to watch, the camera focusing in. Yakou Shichi swiftly dismantles and arranges the cards, his actions fluid like an old hand in a movie, simulating all possibilities for the three rounds...

"Is this really something that can be figured out in thirty seconds?" Fujiwara Homare exclaims.

Moriyama Yasurou thinks simply, "45" being a multiple of 5, can form a sequence if suits remain, achieving a straight flush.

Dividing 45 by 5 gives an average of 9, so the largest hand involves adding 2 to the middle of the 5 cards, the smaller ones subtracting 2...

"No, that’s not right..."

Minamoto Tamako stares at the cards, she has already preemptively anticipated the simulation’s outcome. Yakou Shichi’s speed increases, finally discovering that both the 8 and 9 were used up in the first round, making the second biggest hand for 45 four of a kind J!

However, the largest hand for 47 is a Royal Flush!

Once Fox Princess dissected the rules, using a trump card immediately seemed an inevitable result. If she had used smaller cards first, it would deplete the card pool, making it impossible to form hands like a straight flush with the big cards later.

But Fushimi Roku deciphered the rules a step earlier. It seemed as if he could see all of the opponent’s cards, preemptively predicting their highest card value, using 45 to set a trap and lure out the opponent’s trump card "47" just to preserve his real trump card "25"!

Immediately following, without waiting for others to untangle the cards, Fox Princess has already called, and thirty seconds isn’t even enough for them to clearly comprehend the situation on the table!

Watching as two chips were pushed across the table, Fushimi Roku furrowed his brow.

Why didn’t she raise to the full three chips?

If just testing, wouldn’t one chip have sufficed?

Why exactly two?

Fushimi Roku suddenly realized something. He looked up, glanced at the screen outside the glass chamber, and simultaneously, Yakou Shichi finally deduced all possibilities of 45, causing everyone to exclaim in amazement. The arbitrator promptly reminded the contestants to place their bets within the time limit!

He looked at the Fox Princess, who met his gaze, and he suddenly understood; the Fox Princess was inviting him.

"Use five chips to verify the guess," "Even if you lose, there’s still room," and "You haven’t fully mastered the rules yet," he could even predict what the Fox Princess wanted to say.

Fushimi Roku pondered for a moment, chose to follow with two chips, and did not raise further!

Seconds later, the arbitrator announced "47" as the winner!

The next moment, a row of spotlights lit up on the Pure White Square, focusing on the glass chamber as a siren blared and a cold electronic voice echoed through the broadcast:

"The disaster stage has been activated!"

Before everyone could react, a skylight at the top of the glass chamber opened, and a figure dove into the water. The arbitrator stood between the Fox Princess and Fushimi Roku!

According to the gambling rules, once special conditions are triggered, Heavenly Punishment will retrieve the equivalent chips lost by the loser!

In front of everyone, the arbitrator emptied Fushimi Roku’s five chips one after another, meaning he lost ten chips at once!!

The camera focused on the two poker hands laid out by Yakou Shichi; whether it was the Fox Princess’s royal flush or Fushimi Roku’s four of a kind with Jacks, both needed Aces and Jacks!

In a deck, it’s impossible to have a fifth Ace and Jack, meaning the cards were reused!

This is what triggers the disaster!

——Damn it!

Fushimi Roku angrily pounded the table, nearly losing his mind, appearing agitated from every angle.

If he didn’t know the outcome of this round, he couldn’t be sure if the card of 25 had been used; also, now that the disaster was triggered, who would use the repeated cards?

Fushimi Roku validated his guess, but he didn’t foresee the disaster condition. The Fox Princess couldn’t set a trap using the disaster either, which means "luck" once again sided with the Fox Princess!

During his thoughts, Fushimi Roku depleted his oxygen again and had to switch air chips.

At this moment, the chip ratio was 19:17, and he fell behind once more.

Now they have deciphered the specific rules of the duel and clarified the trigger mechanism of Heavenly Punishment. The only remaining mystery in this gambling match is what happened during the ten seconds from when the bet was placed to when the arbitrator determined the result...

Why do they have to wait ten seconds every time the result is determined?

Who is the arbitrator listening to during this time?

What does this time delay signify?

Is the construction of the poker hands done by a computer?

Onlookers continued to ponder.

...

While the two were fiercely fighting in the arena, a brutal gambling match was happening at the bottom of the Pure White Square.

The arbitrator executing the disaster climbed out of the glass chamber, quickly walked downstairs, and pushed open an iron door, where a strong odor of blood assaulted the senses.

On the ceiling of the room hung shadowless lamps, and two bloodied men were respectively tied to operating tables, separated by a white curtain hanging in the center. A man dressed in sterile clothing stood by, slowly pulling long needles from the body of the bloody men.

He was the second-ranking designer, Ninomiya Jino.

Lying on the operating tables were Kazama Tatsuya and Sage Nokoku.

In the corner of the room was communication equipment, transmitting the voice of another arbitrator: "In the third round, the winner is Miss Fox Princess!"

Just now, Kazama Tatsuya formed a hand of four of a kind with Jacks using the cards of Spades J, Clubs J, Hearts J, Diamonds J, and Heart A; while Sage Nokoku formed a royal flush of hearts, thereby triggering the disaster!

Indeed, the complete gambling rules dictate that the underwater contestants select numbers, while those in the operating room need to form poker hands within 60 seconds!

This is Ninomiya Jino’s genius design!

Kazama Tatsuya and Sage Nokoku had no objections, which established the dual-layer gambling match!

The numbers of the cards Fushimi Roku played were only known to Kazama Tatsuya, similarly, the numbers of the cards played by the Fox Princess were only known to Sage Nokoku!

Both contestants could only use one deck of cards, the duel could only proceed for five rounds, requiring hands to be formed within 60 seconds. Exceeding the time limit, forming incorrect hands, or using already used cards would result in an immediate loss!

And if both players simultaneously violated the rules, it would trigger the disaster stage!

Because the top contestants revealed their cards before placing bets, this means that before determining the outcome, neither Kazama Tatsuya nor Sage Nokoku knew the numbers the other intended to assemble, hence it was highly possible for them to use the same card!

Top duelists were betting air chips, similarly, the loser at the bottom had to pay the failed "punishment."

Which was the penalty personally administered by Ninomiya Jino, a secret technique imported from China, a variant of acupuncture: using medicated silver needles to pierce specific acupoints, causing extremely intense pain, rendering the recipient mute due to unbearable torment, thus it’s also called the ’Silent Needle.’

In routine interrogation applications, just one needle is enough to make life worse than death.

More than three needles can lead to mental breakdowns in an ordinary person.

If five needles are continuously applied, it will cause organ damage, leading to death by intense pain.