Free Web NovelChapter 140: Chapter 140: Forgoing Respectability_1
"Revealing your hand without even looking at your cards? Have you given up?" Melifilia raised an eyebrow, "Don’t forget, I can still redraw once."
The person who chooses to reveal their hand first has one less chance to redraw than someone who reveals later. To decide to reveal right from the start is to place all your hopes on luck—a strategy that significantly lowers the odds of winning.
"Stop talking and just reveal," Aiden insisted.
Melifilia was silent for a moment, then she redrew two cards and revealed her hand.
Two pair against a random hand, Aiden lost again.
Aiden placed his foot on the table expressionlessly and began to unlatch his shoelaces.
"Oh? Replacing pants with shoes?" Melifilia laughed, "But I guess they won’t last long either."
Aiden shot her a glance, then pulled the shoelaces completely out of the boots and dropped them to the ground.
"Shoelaces?" Melifilia’s eyes widened slightly.
"Shoelaces can be pulled out, so they count as separate from the boots. I see no problem with that," Aiden said, spreading his hands.
"Have you stooped to such undignified sophistry? Are you being coy with me?" Melifilia teased Aiden.
"I’m simply acknowledging the gap between you and me. Although I’m not sure how you manage to keep winning, the fact is I’ve lost many rounds already, and that alone proves there’s a significant gap between us. I would guess my chances of winning this game are so low it’s ridiculous. All I can do is try to prolong the game," Aiden spoke calmly, "A mortal challenging a god must be prepared to sacrifice dignity to win. Earlier I was too concerned with preserving my dignity. To be honest, I should’ve taken off every button of my shirt one by one."
"Interesting. Let’s see if luck will side with you," Melifilia indicated to continue.
Both drew five cards each, and Aiden immediately raised his hand, "Reveal!"
"Hm?" Melifilia narrowed her eyes, "The same trick again?"
This time Melifilia redrew three cards and after the reveal, Aiden lost again.
Silently, Aiden pulled out... the insoles from his boots.
"...I think you’re not taking me seriously," Melifilia commented.
"I’ve always been irreverent, you’ve known me since day one," Aiden said nonchalantly, "Continue!"
Seeing that the deck was running low, he gathered all the cards to reshuffle, then cut the deck.
But at that moment, Melifilia said, "Enough, you win."
"Tired?" Aiden stopped reaching for the deck of cards with his right hand.
"No, because I already know that I will lose."
"You’ve calculated the cards for the next game?"
"I can still win the next game, but I can only hold on until the game where this deck is about to be finished." Melifilia said indifferently, "At that time, my loss is certain."
"You know the arrangement of this deck?" Aiden was taken aback, Melifilia’s statement sounded almost like predicting the future.
"I have an absolute memory, I remember where each card used has been placed. When we first finished the deck, I was completely clear about the position in the discard pile of all the cards I’ve handled and the cards you have revealed. Shuffling and cutting must be completed where I can see them, in fact, I also clearly recorded and analyzed in my mind every moment of your shuffling and cutting. After you shuffled, I could calculate the arrangement of most of the cards, and the more cards I remembered as we went on." Melifilia said calmly, "The highest probability of your winning was actually in the first few games, it’s a pity you didn’t win then; afterwards, your probability of winning plummeted."
Aiden had also vaguely sensed that Melifilia seemed to have a grasp on the distribution of the poker cards within the deck, the more the number of card exchanges increased, the more likely she could see and manipulate the situation. It’s not that Aiden had no chance of victory, it’s just that the probability was very small.
That’s why Aiden later chose to reveal his hand directly—although the probability of winning was still very low, it was better than continuing to exchange cards.
"You actually remember the order of the cards, and here I thought you preferred games with randomness," Aiden frowned slightly.
"So-called randomness is ultimately just the part that the observer cannot grasp. A stack of brand-new cards, for me, once I remember the arrangement of the deck, what the next card drawn will be is one hundred percent certain. You don’t know, so the next card is random, and to you, the probability of any one card appearing is one in fifty-four. For the observer, it’s the unknown events that exist with so-called probabilities." Melifilia said, her lips curving into a smile, "As long as you control the complete information, you can dominate the matter. The difference between a dominator and a mortal is that the dominator just knows more secrets of the world than mortals do."
"If you put it that way, then there’s hardly anything that’s truly random to you, right?" Aiden suddenly realized something, "Don’t tell me you can even determine the outcome of a dice roll?"
If one could fully analyze factors such as the angle of a dice throw and the number of bounces, controlling for a specific number was indeed possible. freёwebnovel.com
"Well... I can control it a bit, although the brain can make perfect analysis, controlling the force precisely to hit the mark every time isn’t possible." Melifilia smiled.
No wonder this guy always seemed to roll a six in Ludo... Aiden had previously thought it was just some lucky trait that the dominator possessed.
"I really do not want to play this game a second time." Aiden threw the cards down on the table, exhaling deeply.
"Oh? Are you insinuating that the game I asked for is vulgar?"
"No, I’m complaining that only men have been stripping in this game." Aiden got up to gather his clothes and put them back on, "For me, there’s absolutely no pleasure in this game, you understand that, right?"
"Don’t say that, you don’t find the game more thrilling with a wager on the line?" Melifilia spoke while using telekinesis to reorder the cards.
"But you didn’t actually wager anything. Last time you suggested I pursue the path of becoming a dominator, not to question your motives, but you were initially planning to tell me the complete method of becoming a dominator, right?" Aiden resettled into the chair.
"Hmm, it seems like you’re still suspicious of me. But even if I have other intentions, you still came because you indeed need the power to protect yourself, don’t you?" Melifilia grinned, "At least for now, our goals are aligned. At least one of the most important things you already learned— to challenge the authority of gods in the body of a mortal, you have to be willing to discard meaningless dignity. So, rely on and use the strong around you as much as possible. You can also act coy with me; I’ll make you into the best pawn!"
