Yi Luo laughed. “You might as well just lay your tiles out in the open and play. Since everyone’s using their own tricks, we can all see each other’s hands anyway.”
Spider Woman Du Niang tilted her head slightly. “I don’t believe you.”
“You just happened to escape by luck. Who knows? Maybe you’re lying to us. We—”
He Wuning lifted his eyes and looked at the silent Snake Woman. “‘East’—we won’t discard it.”
Ant Woman Li Niang’s face changed drastically. “Meng Niang! Th-they really do know!”
She flew into a rage, glaring viciously at the players and slamming both hands down on the table. If not for the game’s restraints, she probably would have flipped the table and attacked them outright. “You’re cheating!”
“Returning the favor.” Yi Luo shrugged without the slightest guilt. “You started it.”
Snake Woman Meng Niang let out a soft laugh.
“Not discarding it?”
She glanced lightly at the players. “Fine. Then don’t discard it ever.”
“Perhaps you still haven’t figured out how this game works. Not losing isn’t the same as winning. The three of us won’t attack each other.” She no longer bothered to disguise her intentions, baring the fangs beneath her alluring exterior. “They won’t deal into each other’s hands. Even if someone self-draws and the damage spreads, with our HP, we won’t die.”
“But players? That’s another story.”
She smiled. Her thick serpent tail coiled upward, lifting her upper body as she leaned toward the milk tea car, golden vertical pupils sizing up every player inside. “When that time comes, who should die first?”
“You’d better be careful. One fan is 500 HP. If you’re not careful, a single hand could take a life.”
Yi Luo glanced at He Wu Ning, frowning slightly. “How about you head back first? I think you’re the most at risk here.”
He Wuning raised his eyelids lazily. “Then we just won’t lose.”
“Bro,” Ji Ou gave a wry smile. “Brother He, I know you have confidence in me, but that’s a lot of pressure.”
“It’s fine.” Yi Luo patted his shoulder. “Just play normally. If you don’t like a tile, throw it out. We trust you.”
Ji Ou: “…”
Li Liangzi looked thoughtful. “Let’s try two rounds first. Ji Ou, you take it.”
Ji Ou took a deep breath. The monsters no longer hid their malice and methodically drew their tiles. Soon it was his turn again.
He drew a White Dragon. Under everyone’s gaze, he hesitated, then in a burst of reckless abandon pointed at an already completed 1-2-3 sequence. “I think… discard the 2. I know it’s outrageous, but that’s what I feel…”
He scratched his head uncertainly. “Maybe it’s because I saw Qi Ming’s diagram and got scared, so I’m playing in a way that doesn’t even aim to win.”
Qi Ming held a stack of paper mock-tiles, clearly laying out the monsters’ hands on the table inside the car. Using his ability, he updated the sheets in real time as their hands changed.
Li Liangzi didn’t look up. “Play it.”
Yi Luo rubbed his nose. “If I didn’t know how absurd his luck is, I wouldn’t believe him either.”
Ji Ou’s plays grew even more absurd. He dismantled a 1-2-3 Wan sequence, then broke apart a 2-3-4 Bamboo. Meanwhile, he kept drawing wind tiles—East, South, West, North, Red, Green—one of each. His hand looked utterly impossible to win with.
Then he drew another White.
Yi Luo inhaled sharply and put his forehead on He Wuning’s shoulders. “I need artificial respiration.”
“East, South, West, North, Red, Green, White — the whole set is there. With a hand like that, even someone like me who doesn’t know how to play would have to ask, ‘Do you even know how to play cards?’”
Ji Ou touched his nose innocently. “I… was just doing what you said — playing according to my own intuition…”
However, because of his bizarre way of playing, the ant-woman Li Niang sitting to his lower seat couldn’t claim any tiles at all. She was so angry her teeth clenched, but she could only swallow it and endure.
“It's fine, go on,” Yi Luo quickly waved his hand. “I’ll keep complaining on my side, but you stick to your own way. Against enemies like this, maybe you can only win by taking an unconventional path.”
He glanced at the tiles they currently had: one each of East, South, West, North, Red, Green, and White; 1-4-7 of characters; and 2-5-7-8 of bamboo.
The only thing that barely connected was the 7 and 8 of bamboo. Ji Ou hesitated for a moment, but in the end he gritted his teeth and discarded the 7 of bamboo.
Yi Luo closed his eyes. “No, I can’t watch this.”
Ant Woman Li Niang, who had just broken up her own Bamboo sequence, nearly hurled her tiles at the truck roof in rage. She glared, grinding her teeth.
“Honestly, just seeing her that mad makes the discard worth it,” Yi Luo mused. “Maybe Ji Ou’s luck manifests as emotional damage. That works too.”
Qi Ming glanced at the tiles in his hand. “It’s not impossible to win.”
Yi Luo let out a laugh. “Aren’t you putting a bit too much faith in our lucky guy?”
He Wuning glanced sideways slightly. “I think so too.”
Yi Luo nodded. “Then we probably won’t lose.”
Qi Ming: “…”
Li Liangzi smiled faintly. “Based on the rules I’ve studied, this hand could actually—”
“Ah!” Ji Ou suddenly shouted. He drew a Nine Dots. A massive golden “Hu” flashed before his eyes. He stared at his hand in confusion. “This Nine Dots… doesn’t connect to anything. How is this a win? Did I trigger a bug?”
Li Liangzi froze. “This is Seven Stars Not Connected. You… played it without knowing the pattern?”
“Ah…” Ji Ou blinked. “I thought mahjong was just three sequences and a pair to win. Th-this is a thing too?”
The mechanical voice rang out: “Settlement in progress. Seven Stars Not Connected 24 fan, Self-Draw 1 fan, 2 Flower Tiles 2 fan, total 29 fan. Ant Woman Li Niang, Spider Woman Du Niang, Snake Woman Meng Niang each lose 14,500 HP. Players may distribute HP shields.”
The monsters’ faces changed drastically. Their HP bars visibly shrank—most from Du Niang, least from Meng Niang. It was clear who was hardest to deal with.
“HP shields?” Ji Ou blinked. “Oh, I get it! If we win, we gain chips instead of losing HP!”
He relaxed. “How do we split it?”
He looked to Li Liangzi. She glanced at the monsters’ grim expressions and nodded thoughtfully. “Evenly. 2,900 each.”
“Two more rounds. I want to confirm something.”
Yi Luo hooked an arm around Ji Ou’s shoulders. “Last time, one of them got Big Three Dragons—88 fan. That’s 44,000 HP. Don’t get complacent.”
Ji Ou: “…I just relaxed, and now I’m stressed again!”
“You’re stronger under pressure,” Yi Luo encouraged. “Good luck.”
The monsters grew cautious.
They exchanged longer glances. From observation, it seemed they could see the remaining wall tiles too.
Li Niang narrowed her eyes, spotting the Three Bamboo she wanted next. A cruel smile crept onto her face as she reached—“Wait.”
Li Liangzi pushed up her glasses. “Concealed kong.”
Ji Ou obediently laid down four East tiles. Li Niang instinctively looked toward the replacement draw—and her expression changed instantly.
Ji Ou flipped over a Nine Wan. The glowing golden “Hu” appeared again.
Ji Ou took a deep breath and pressde it again.
“Settlement in progress. Kong on Draw 8 fan, Concealed Hand 4 fan, Concealed Kong 2 fan, Pure Double Sequence 1 fan, Terminal Triplet 1 fan, total 16 fan. Each monster loses 8,000 HP.”
With a bang, Li Niang slammed the table. “Impossible! You must be cheating!”
“You deliberately saved it to kong before my self-draw—”
“Yep, we did,” Yi Luo said frankly. “But your rules never said cheating wasn’t allowed.”
The monsters’ killing intent flared. Snake Woman Meng Niang’s tail suddenly shot out and wrapped around the entire milk tea truck.
He Wuning gripped his blade, lifting his chin fearlessly. “What? Want to fight?”
“Hmph, don’t worry. Until one person is eliminated, we can’t directly make a move to kill you,” the snake-woman Meng Niang suddenly smiled. “I’m just worried that you’re feeling so pleased with yourselves now—what if you see things going wrong later and try to run away?”
“That won’t do. We’ve never had the option of running away, and neither should you.”
She narrowed her vertical pupils and glanced back. “Continue.”
The spider-woman Du Niang slowly let the smile fade from her face. She looked as if she had made up her mind about something.
“Calculating results: Fully Concealed Hand 2 fan, Straight (1–6 sequence) 1 fan, No Honor Tiles 1 fan, Closed Wait 1 fan, 3 Flower Tiles 3 fan — total 8 fan. Spider-woman Du Niang loses 4000 HP. Players may distribute the HP shield themselves.”
“Calculating results: Half Flush 6 fan, Dragon Pung 2 fan, Single Wait 1 fan, 1 Flower Tile 1 fan — total 10 fan. Spider-woman Du Niang loses 5000 HP. Players may distribute the HP shield themselves.”
……
From the moment the milk tea car was wrapped by Snake-woman Meng Niang’s tail, Spider-woman Du Niang seemed to go mad, repeatedly dealing into their winning hands. Her HP dropped rapidly along with it, already falling past the halfway mark.
Ji Ou drew a tile. Normally, he could declare ready now, but Li Liangzi suddenly tapped him on the shoulder. “Alright, leave the rest to me.”
“Huh?” Ji Ou froze for a moment, not quite understanding what she meant.
Li Liangzi pushed up the glasses on her face. “Based on the known conditions, the match only ends after one contestant is eliminated. If my guess is correct, the HP they have left now will be the HP they carry into the final battle.”
“Judging from the spider-woman’s behavior, she intends to be the sacrifice—to stop you from continuing to chip away at her companions’ HP.”
She raised her hand and discarded the tile that would have put her in ready, a glint flashing across her lenses. “Once everyone’s hands are revealed, the play becomes nothing more than a game of data and probability. Right now, we need to keep that spider-woman alive while simultaneously reducing the other two’s HP.”
She politely nodded toward the three monsters. “Simply put—score control.”
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Li Liangzi: Time to show real skill. Tactical glasses push.jpg
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