Chapter 194: Outsmarting a God, Seeing Through the Trap

However, confusion was merely confusion. This god still remained brimming with confidence.

Setting aside the mystical nature of Source Essence itself and returning to the game alone—

The activation conditions for this card were simply too harsh.

Not only did the opponent need to accurately determine whether his answer was truth or falsehood, they also had to predict in advance whether the card he had just returned to the deck possessed a higher or lower point value than the hidden card on the table.

Without sufficient supporting information, this was fundamentally impossible.

Lance stared tightly at the minute changes in the other party’s facial expressions while his brain operated at high speed.

As a hardcore player, he understood very clearly that victory in this game was impossible if approached through conventional thinking.

From the very moment he chose to enter this Sub-instance space, the System Panel had already given a hint:

Throughout history, the number of challengers capable of winning two rounds was zero.

This was the opponent’s greatest flaw!

If this were merely a probability game based on luck—

Then among all the geniuses who had accepted invitations throughout the endless river of history, was there truly not even one person lucky enough to happen to draw high-value cards?

Not even one card larger than the two cards the opponent drew?

Not a single person had ever defeated a god in a best-of-three match.

Statistically speaking, that was absolutely impossible.

A zero victory rate could only reveal one cruel truth—

The process and outcome of this game were entirely manipulated behind the scenes by the god.

And if the god wanted to completely eliminate luck as a variable interfering with victory, then he had to keep every uncertainty in his own hands.

That meant specifically drawing away the 【10】 and 【9】 cards that controlled the entire game.

As long as he kept the only card capable of defeating 9 points—the 10-point card—in his own hand before returning it to the deck, while simultaneously placing the 9-point card face-down as his hidden card, then Chaos would forever remain undefeated.

And the god had already stated that the cards transformed from Source Essence were the only weapons capable of stabbing toward a god.

The appearance of 【The Red Dragon’s Banner】 in his own hand further indirectly confirmed his deduction.

This was Lance’s analysis of the entire game!

If this bold hypothesis was wrong, then this truly was nothing more than a probability game, and he had merely overthought things. In that case, he would simply find another way to recover the next round.

Moreover—

He currently possessed a method that could completely confirm his hypothesis using only a single question.

Lance took a deep breath and slowly threw out the question word by word.

“God Chaos, among these two independent conditions—【The card you returned to the deck is higher than the hidden card on the table】 and 【The hidden card on your table is a card between 1 and 5 points】... is at least one of them true?”

The moment this logically airtight question was spoken—

The smile on Chaos’s face instantly stiffened.

Seeing the other party’s reaction, the smile on Lance’s face grew even wider.

Because this question only served to verify whether the dealer completely controlled the game.

Only under the condition where 【The Red Dragon’s Banner】 could achieve victory would the opponent answer “Yes”!

Under every other circumstance where the game was not fully manipulated, because of the forced inversion mechanism between truth and lies, Chaos would be compelled to answer “No”!

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Chaos lowered his head and glanced at 【The Red Dragon’s Banner】 that Lance had openly displayed on the table.

The other party dared to ask such a question while completely exposing his hidden card.

Had this mortal already guessed that the game was entirely under his control?

This time, the one who entered the Astral Realm was actually a true wise man.

“Yes.”

After a brief silence, Chaos still spoke the word according to the rules.

Victory!

A brilliant light burst forth within Lance’s eyes as he immediately reached out and tapped the card before him without hesitation.

“I choose to use 【The Red Dragon’s Banner】, and I declare your answer to be the truth.”

Without the slightest suspense, Lance forcefully claimed victory in the first round.

However, after this round ended, the innocent childlike smile that Chaos had worn completely disappeared.

The exposed 【9】 card on the table, along with the 【2】 Lance had discarded from his hand, were casually tossed aside.

The match reset, and the cards were drawn again.

Lance drew his second blind card from the deck.

Its point value was 【5】.

The card’s name was Thousand-Eyed Wings.

The card illustration depicted an enormous white feather. Upon every tiny strand of the feather grew a golden vertical eye that continuously bled outward, those densely packed eyeballs staring fixedly at whoever looked at the card.

5 points?

That truly was an extremely mediocre number.

Yet for Lance, this number was an exceptionally ideal support card.

It seemed that victory in this round would belong to him once again.

He quietly stared at the bleeding eyes on the card, vaguely feeling as though this bizarre illustration was foreshadowing something.

Meanwhile, across from Lance, the cards in Chaos’s hand this time were 【10】Caged Sun and 【8】Black Crown Eclipse.

Yes—

Even if the opponent had already sharply discovered the secret that he could manipulate the cards, so what?

To a god who possessed the privilege of controlling the rules, this was still an unwinnable hunting game.

Expressionless, Chaos returned the 【10】 card to the deck before coldly watching Lance place his hidden card face-down upon the wooden table.

Looking at the relaxed smile at the corner of Lance’s mouth, Chaos suddenly felt that something was wrong deep inside.

Nevertheless, he still granted permission for questioning.

“Lance, you may begin asking questions.”

Not even calling him “Big Brother” anymore?

It seemed this lofty god truly was a sore loser.

Lance silently mocked him inwardly.

However, that emotion vanished in an instant. Lance immediately calmed his mind and threw out his second question.

“Is the point value of your hidden card between 1 and 10?”

This was Lance’s second method for dismantling the trap of linguistic warfare—

Directly using a meaningless statement that would always be true.

Under this question, if the opponent’s hidden card was between 6 and 10, he would truthfully answer yes.

If the hidden card was between 1 and 5, then in order to obey the rule requiring lies, he could only answer no.

“Lance, you truly are very intelligent.”

Sitting atop the tree stump, Chaos generously acknowledged the wisdom of the human before him.

His voice carried divine authority as he answered:

“Yes.”

“However, even if you already completely know the answer—”

Chaos’s words abruptly stopped midway.

An astonished expression suddenly appeared on the child god’s face.

Because he saw Lance’s arm lightly shake beneath the grayish-blue cloak.

And then—

The mortal whom the god had determined could only win a single round actually slammed another completely new hidden card steadily onto the wooden table.

Lance actually possessed a Second Source Essence?