Earth’s Redemption: Chapter 21.2

21.2. Question and Answer Amusement Park (9)

By now, more than half of the trapped contestants had been freed and were charging ahead to tackle the next three challenges.  

When Mo Xiaoyou was finally released, he was already late to the game.  

“I knew you could do it, Ning Buwen!” Mo Xiaoyou exclaimed excitedly. “Tell me—how did you manage to win? I’m dying to know! Don’t worry, I’ll use an item card so he can’t hear us.”  

Ning Buwen glanced at him and smiled. “It’s actually quite simple. Look at Black Cloak. He has a mouth, but no eyes or ears, right?”  

“Right.”  

“So, all his emotions unconsciously show on his mouth,” Ning Buwen explained with a faint smile. “When the joker is on the left, the corners of his mouth droop. When it’s on the right, they lift. I just need to observe a little to figure it out.”  

“So that’s how it is!”  

“So that’s how it is!”  

Mo Xiaoyou and Black Cloak’s voices overlapped.  

The “Mo Xiaoyou” standing in front of Ning Buwen vanished instantly, and the real Mo Xiaoyou was released moments later.  

“You tricked me?” Ning Buwen glared at Black Cloak.  

“All’s fair in war,” Black Cloak chuckled. “I promised to release your teammates, sure. But I never said I wouldn’t deceive you. You’re too greedy—wanting to save everyone. Greed never ends well.”  

“Wha—what’s going on?” The real Mo Xiaoyou, still confused, looked around.  

“Nothing. You should leave,” Ning Buwen said, waving him off with a touch of dejection. “I might be out soon myself.”  

“Okay…” Mo Xiaoyou, sensing the tension, wisely chose not to linger.  

“Ready to give up this round?” Black Cloak’s voice brimmed with satisfaction. “Unlike that clown and those stupid rabbits before me, this amusement park is my domain. I wouldn’t have come out so soon if those useless fools hadn’t only managed to eliminate one of you. Cleaning up their mess became my job.”  

So the difficulty had been ramped up due to their high success rate? That made sense.  

“What, do you NPCs also have performance evaluations? Are you required to eliminate a certain number of players?” Ning Buwen sneered.  

“Of course. While there’s no strict quota, the more players we eliminate, the higher-level instances we can access, and the stronger we become. Don’t you players always aim to kill or defeat us too?” Black Cloak said nonchalantly. “Blame your bad luck for running into me.”  

“That’s not decided yet.”  

“I won’t let you see any more of my little expressions,” Black Cloak said with a toothy grin. “And I might deliberately mislead you this time.”  

“I’m not giving up. Stop gloating,” Ning Buwen said firmly, his face etched with stubborn determination. “Let’s continue.”  

“You humans are always like this, clinging to pointless persistence,” Black Cloak mused, clearly in high spirits and entirely unbothered by Ning Buwen’s hostile glare.  

“If you’re so set on dying, suit yourself,” Black Cloak continued after a pause, then offered a suggestion. “How about this: if you win this round, I’ll release all your companions at once. Otherwise, at this pace, you won’t be able to save everyone before dawn. The night’s already late.”  

“You—are you serious?” Ning Buwen hesitated. “I could win them back one by one.”  

“But you’re running out of time,” Black Cloak said softly. “If you win all at once, your rating in Pandora will skyrocket. Don’t you want better gear and rewards?”  

Ning Buwen appeared tempted, and Black Cloak’s grin widened with satisfaction.  

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch. What do I have to pay if I lose?” Ning Buwen asked, not agreeing outright.  

“You’re a rare breed of player,” Black Cloak replied. “If you lose, you’ll give me half your brain. Don’t worry—it won’t affect your intelligence or physical health. I just want to use it to create a little puppet for this amusement park.”  

“You want to use my brain to torment future players?” Ning Buwen quickly grasped his idea, his expression turning hesitant. 

“No, no, no. There are only seven of us working in this amusement park,” Black Cloak shook his head. “I rarely lose to the same person so many times, so I just want to win back some pride.”  

Ning Buwen hesitated.  

“If you don’t agree, we can continue playing one round at a time. But at this pace, you’ll only be able to save five more companions at most,” Black Cloak said, using both threats and enticements without wasting this excellent opportunity.  

Ning Buwen fell into deep thought.  

“Take your time to think, but don’t think too long. For every minute you delay, one of your companions will die.”  

“Alright, I agree.” Ning Buwen eventually nodded.  

“Smart players like you always know the best choice,” Black Cloak said, unsurprised by Ning Buwen’s decision.  

Human players were all the same.  

“Let’s begin the final round,” Black Cloak said, reshuffling the cards.  

This time, he would address his shortcomings. Ning Buwen wouldn’t guess correctly again.  

Black Cloak placed the joker in the middle but intentionally let the corners of his mouth droop.  

How would Ning Buwen choose?  

Would it be the left, the right, or the middle?  

He must be wracking his brain by now.  

When he finally picked the wrong card, he would surely feel despair.  

“Go ahead, choose.”  

Once you’ve chosen, half your brain will be mine.  

Ning Buwen seemed troubled, uncertain of which card to pick.  

Black Cloak even showed his mouth openly, letting Ning Buwen observe as much as he wanted.  

“Alright, I choose this one,” Ning Buwen said, placing his hand on the left card.  

The corners of Black Cloak’s mouth lifted ever so slightly.  

“I know you’re trying to trick me, so it must be the right one,” Ning Buwen said, moving his hand to the right card. “This is it.”  

“You chose wrong!”  

Black Cloak burst into laughter. “Half of your brain is mine!”  

“Not so fast.” Ning Buwen revealed the card in his hand. “Take a closer look. I did pick the joker. What incredible luck I have, huh?”  

“Impossible! Just now, you clearly—”  

“Clearly picked the right one, right?” Ning Buwen extended his other hand. “Did you forget I have two hands? Even though I pointed at the right card with one hand, I picked up the card with my left hand.”  

“Now, can you release them already? Judging by the time, they should’ve cleared the challenges and be waiting for me outside. I don’t want to waste any more effort,” Ning Buwen said, urging him.  

“How could you choose correctly? This is impossible! I deliberately misled you!”  

“Misled me?” Ning Buwen repeated the word, smiling calmly. He even leaned back in his chair, casually crossing one leg over the other. “No, when I said your mouth corners shifted when placing the cards, I was lying to you. You don’t actually have that habit. I was just exploiting the fact that you don’t have eyes to realize I was bluffing.”  

Bluffing?  

“When you started paying attention to your mouth movements, it proved that your mind was already unsettled. That was my opportunity. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been so quick to agree to the wager without any suspicion,” Ning Buwen added. “When you shuffled the cards earlier, you were so focused on keeping your mouth still that your attempts to conceal the joker gave you away.”

Whether it’s a person or an NPC, as long as they have thoughts, they’ll instinctively try to correct themselves after being told their weaknesses.  

Black Cloak was no exception.  

Who said only NPCs could deceive people? Why couldn’t players lie too?  

“Then what about your companion…?”  

“My companion may be a bit dumb, but I don’t think he’s dumb enough to directly ask me for tips to clear this level here. Besides, his special ability should have already helped him figure out how to solve this stage,” Ning Buwen said confidently. “So the moment the fake Mo Xiaoyou came up to ask me, I knew it wasn’t him. After all, even the haunted house earlier was fake—what’s a fake person compared to that?”  

“Achoo!” Mo Xiaoyou sneezed violently. “Weird, is my Ge talking about me behind my back?”  

Black Cloak was trembling with rage.  

“You deliberately lured me into this?”  

“I played along with your move,” Ning Buwen shrugged. “Honestly, I was worrying earlier about what to do if I couldn’t save everyone, but then you brought it up yourself. I almost laughed out loud. Good thing I held it in.”  

“But earlier… you clearly guessed where the joker was every single time.” Black Cloak was incredulous. “You must’ve mastered some special trick to guess correctly each time. Otherwise, it’s impossible because my joker—”  

“Because your joker moves. I understand,” Ning Buwen didn’t mind enlightening him. “Your joker is alive. The suits alternate, but the card itself has no real awareness. It only tries to flee the moment I make my choice.”  

“Then how did you pick it?”  

“Because I’m faster than it when it moves,” Ning Buwen replied matter-of-factly. “I’ve been playing with cards since I was a kid. I know exactly what playing cards should look like—even with my eyes closed.”  

When the suits shifted, the card would tremble slightly.  

To notice such subtle movements under these lighting conditions wasn’t easy.  

But for Ning Buwen, it was nothing.  

A skilled gambler could memorize every card just by observing tiny differences at their edges. They could even tell the specific value of a dice rolling in a cup by hearing alone.  

Compared to that, picking the joker was child’s play.  

“I placed a strand of my hair on the table,” Ning Buwen said, propping his chin with one hand. “When my hair moved, I knew the suit of the card had changed.”  

“So that’s how it was, but… but…”  

“Do you know? Any game with a gambling element isn’t about luck. It’s about psychology.”  

“Psychology?”  

“You thought you were guaranteed to win, so you didn’t take me seriously. You figured if you hid the joker on the far right this round, I’d avoid the far right next time. Then if you put it in the middle, I’d avoid the middle. Sorry, but your thought process is so predictable. Once I figured out your pattern, I didn’t even need to check my hair anymore to know where you hid the joker.”  

“Impossible…” Black Cloak couldn’t accept it.  

“Of course, if it were someone else, you’d really be tough to beat. They might have to abandon some companions or rely purely on luck to find the joker, letting you eliminate enough people. But unfortunately, you met me.” Ning Buwen smiled brightly.  

“The moment I sat at this table, your defeat was sealed.” Ning Buwen’s rare display of arrogance was overwhelming.  

“At the gambling table, I’m invincible.”

The author has something to say:

Ning Buwen: My gambling king character design will never collapse!

PS. If you still don’t understand this instance after reading it 3 times, don’t worry, just know that Ning Buwen has been suppressing Black Cloak in IQ from beginning to end.

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