𝐒𝐔𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 // 𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫ō 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐲𝐚 𝐱 𝐟𝐞𝐦!𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

37

In a world like this, you must sacrifice everything you have in exchange for what you desire. It's quite silly — this world is full of greed, lust and envy. Life itself is a sin. It seems so unfair, but everyone has the same luck in a game of randomness— you could roll a dice and get 1 or 6, the odds remain the same. But in the end, life picks it's own favorites. The rich become the true faces of society, whilst the poor become total outcasts.

It's the dealer's turn again. He clicked his tongue before looking at the deck of cards. You scanned him, looking at where he was staring, and you noticed that he was staring at his ring with some sort of smirk that had a malicious intent behind it. A dark smile spread across your face, realizing what he was trying to do.

FLASHBACK

"Next, we have a technique of cheating called peeking." Suguru said, taking a deck of cards in his hands and adjusting his glasses.

You let out a hum. "The name is pretty self-explanatory, huh?"

"Yes." He chuckled. "But I'll demonstrate anyway!"

"Alright," you said, sitting back, "I'm listening."

He grinned. "There's a lot of ways to do this technique. But basically, the dealer looks at the topmost card on the deck while making sure that nobody notices. People mostly do it with reflective surfaces so that it would be less suspicious. In those cases, the reflective surfaces are called 'the Shiners'."

You hummed. "That sounds pretty basic and easy to read."

"Yes." He replied. "It is common, but most people still don't seem to notice it when the dealer performs it."

END OF FLASHBACK

"He's using a ring to stare at the reflection of the card through it." You smirked. "The Shiner, huh? Did he really think I wouldn't notice?"

In a single quick swipe, he took the second card, making it look like he took the first one— but in truth, he didn't.

You scoffed internally. "Quick, but not quick enough." You thought to yourself, resting your chin on your palm, still smiling.

FLASHBACK

"We also have a technique called second-dealing". Suguru said, taking the deck of cards again.

"Second-dealing?" You hummed to yourself, listening attentively.

"Yeah!" He smiled. "I don't think I can do it well yet, but I know what it should look like."

"It's a basic method of cheating, however. The dealer pretends to deal as usual, but deals with the second card instead of the first one. It's pretty hard to detect if he did it quickly. Only the people with the best eyes would see right through the trick." He explained before trying to perform a second-dealing.

Surprisingly, he did it in one go, and the speed was relatively quick, but not quick enough for you.

He gasped, his eyes lighting up. "I did it! N/N, did you see that?!"

You let out a chuckle. "Yeah. You're good. You'd be on a massive winning streak. Maybe you'd even be one of the best players."

You smiled and hummed before speaking again. "But promise me you'll never gamble. It's not a fun 'hobby' to do, judging from what I've seen. It just leads everyone to their downfall."

He laughed before humming. "Okay, okay. I'll never gamble. Only for you, though."

END OF FLASHBACK

The unhinged man glared at you before smiling wickedly. Even though he was not talking, you could accurately guess what he was saying to himself in his mind. It was written all over his face— mostly his eyes.

"He's completely underestimating me, isn't he.." you scoffed internally, staring back at him with a small, smug smile. You noticed his grin getting wider, though his eyes showed anger and annoyance. It amused you to see someone get so mad this quickly— but who could blame him? After all, anyone would be going insane at this point, right?

You let out a small, quiet sigh. "I mean.. I'm not too surprised. I guess I anticipated that I'd be seeing this from these types of people. It's almost as if they're handpicked for these game venues."

You scanned everyone that were seated on the table. "Each and every one of them are just performing in the shallow antics in a gathering of monkeys. It's quite pitiful." You scoffed internally. "Their actions and their thoughts are the same. But they're just not formatted like one another."

"But still." You thought, still smiling with a hint of anger behind it. "That doesn't mean that things aren't going to get annoying. I'd have to get up another level. What a burden."

You sighed before turning your gaze towards the unhinged man. "Hey." You spoke out. "Old geezer."

"..Huh?!" He said, his word coming out in a semi yell due to his anger.

You held up your hand and smiled mockingly, pointing at your ring finger. "The ring. It's quite.. troublesome, to watch you deal with it. How about you take it off?"

Everyone's gaze flickered, realizing that he was secretly cheating.

His eyes widened for a second, looking around him, and his grin faded. He clicked his tongue, speaking with gritted teeth, "how annoying can you be?!" He took his ring off and threw it across the room.

He went back to dealing after giving you a nasty glare. "Oh! A bust? I'll take all the chips, then!" He laughed.

You noticed him flicking in-between the cards from the deck. You clicked your tongue, staring at him with a stern look, but with a mocking smile.

In a few moments, you had only a few chips left. You had better the majority of them— but it was not because you were truly gambling, and it was also not because of how much you wanted someone dead. You were simply following your plan.. though you had only 12 chips left.

You slid one chip towards the dealer, indicating that you're betting only one.

He laughed. "Why so little? Luck's finally on my side now! 'Wish you'd get a little more.. or have you learned your position?"

You tilted your head, smiling mockingly at him.

"Soon, I'll have you begging on your knees...! And I'll wipe that sneer off of your face too!" He said insanely.

"So, he's going insane." You smiled. "I'm not surprised."

"Betting a little more.. huh?" The Jack said.