Chapter 193: The Red Dragon’s Banner

Hearing this—

Lance finally understood the malicious sense of humor possessed by the god before him.

However, even if he held hidden cards transformed from Source Essence in his hands, without any additional supporting information, this kind of point battle game was still fundamentally a blind clash of luck between two hidden cards.

Purely competing to see whose luck was better absolutely could not be the kind of duel Chaos truly wished to witness.

Just as Lance’s mind was rapidly spinning—

Chaos raised his hand once more.

“But Big Brother, if it’s completely just a contest of luck, then you also wouldn’t have any way to accurately choose the timing for using your hidden cards. That would make the game a little boring.”

A crafty light flickered within Chaos’s bright eyes.

“So... for the sake of fairness, this game will also include one final rule.”

“That is, before every round begins, Big Brother has the right to ask me one question related to the card I drew.”

“It’s just that each round, you can’t ask questions with completely identical logic.”

“This mechanism is very interesting, right?”

Chaos leaned forward with a smile, moving closer to Lance as he added:

“But Big Brother has to listen carefully.”

“If the hidden card I chose on the field has a point value between 6 and 10, then I will tell the truth when answering your question.”

“But if the point value of my hidden card is between 1 and 5, then I will lie without hesitation.”

“That’s all the rules now. Big Brother, do you understand?”

This was Chaos’s true game!

A trap of linguistic warfare.

The addition of this truth-and-lie rule instantly elevated this originally luck-based point battle game into a psychological war filled with strategic depth.

Lance quickly simulated the mechanism within his mind.

Under these rules, if he asked Chaos: “Is your point value above 5?”

If Chaos held an 8-point card—

Since 8 belonged to the truth-telling range, Chaos would answer: “Yes.”

However—

If Chaos held a useless 3-point card—

Since 3 belonged to the lying range, when faced with the same question, Chaos would still answer: “Yes” in order to lie.

Whether it was a high card or a low card, the answer obtained would be exactly the same!

This meant ordinary questions were fundamentally incapable of determining the true value of the opponent’s hidden card.

The corners of Lance’s lips slightly lifted.

Now this game had become interesting.

This was a game that truly belonged to the wise.

Peeling away layers of deception within answers where truth and lies were indistinguishable, determining the true range of the opponent’s hidden card—

And finally choosing the correct timing to decisively thrust forward the blade transformed from his Source Essence toward a god.

Everything about this was perfectly to his liking.

“Very interesting.”

Lance directly sat cross-legged opposite the tree stump, his gaze meeting the child god’s eyes without retreating in the slightest.

“Then let’s begin now.”

As a battle-hardened hardcore veteran gamer, what he loved most was cracking games like this.

And besides, am I being called a Transgressor?

Then don’t blame me for bullying a child.

Within the vast wheat fields of the Astral Realm, this game between god and mortal officially began.

Chaos stretched out his tender little hands and thoroughly shuffled the deck before lightly distributing cards to both sides.

Lance picked up the hidden card before him and lowered his gaze toward its surface.

The point value was 【2】, and the card’s name was Blind Balance.

At the center of the card was an image of a rusted metal scale. One side held gold coins, while the other supported a dried skeleton.

Beneath the base of the scale were two venomous snakes entwined together, each biting the other’s tail.

Lance still didn’t understand what metaphor these strange card illustrations represented, but he silently memorized all the details.

Meanwhile, the two cards currently in Chaos’s hands were 【10】Caged Sun and 【9】Gate of Truth.

This was the most unreasonable hidden rule of this point battle game.

As the dealer, Chaos could ignore luck entirely and directly select whatever point combination he wanted from the deck at any moment.

Looking at the two high-value cards in his hands, the child god hesitated slightly.

Under this game’s rules, although 10 points was outwardly the highest card, it carried the fatal risk of being counter-killed by the lowest 1-point card.

Meanwhile, 9 points perfectly avoided that mechanism, effectively making it the truly invincible highest point value in this game.

After weighing the pros and cons, Chaos returned the 【10】 card to the deck and secretly placed the 【9】 card face-down before himself.

After completing all this, Chaos raised his head, revealing an innocent and delighted smile like that of a child.

This execution game was finally about to begin.

“Big Brother, now you can start asking questions.”

Regarding 【The Transgressor’s Point Battle】, Chaos had already played this game with mortals countless times throughout the endless years, yet not a single challenger had ever defeated the dealer.

The reason was extremely simple.

This was a best-of-three game.

Those mortals fortunate enough to step into the Astral Realm would at most only possess one hidden card transformed from their Source Essence.

Even if these mortals could discover loopholes in the rules through extraordinary intelligence, they could only barely win a single round within this game established by a god.

As for the remaining two point battles—

Chaos, who possessed cheating privileges, would never lose regardless of the circumstances.

After all, for a lofty god—

Losing to mortals required paying a price.

In Chaos’s eyes, from beginning to end, this had merely been an entertainment game where mortals struggled desperately to amuse a god.

Lance quietly sat opposite the tree stump.

Looking at Chaos’s innocent and pure smile, the corners of his own lips gradually curved upward into a dangerous grin.

He did not rush to ask a question.

Instead, he leisurely withdrew the hidden card transformed from his Source Essence from the sleeve of his grayish-blue cloak and directly pushed it into Chaos’s field of vision.

Chaos lowered his head and clearly saw the full effect of the card.

“I will decide whether or not to use this card after asking my question.”

Lance’s voice echoed throughout the quiet wheat field.

The name of that card was 【The Red Dragon’s Banner】.

【Effect: After playing this card, you may directly discard your own hidden card and forcibly take the card your opponent just discarded as your battle card. When playing this card, you must loudly declare whether the opponent’s answer was truthful or false. If your judgment is incorrect, the dealer is immediately declared the winner of the entire game.】

Looking at the powerful effect generated by the Source Essence, a trace of confusion flashed through Chaos’s eyes.

The other party was actually considering using his only hidden card in the very first round?

Shouldn’t he first use the opening round to probe the dealer’s playstyle and patterns?

And among all the participants Chaos had seen before, this Source Essence incarnation card wasn’t even considered particularly good.

Because this card could only achieve victory under one extremely harsh condition—

That was if the god cheated!

Otherwise, who would willingly return the larger card?

Red Dragon...

An evil dragon daring to launch a counterattack against a god...

Was even his Source Essence hinting at it?