"Ha!"
Qingque took her seat at the table while Fu Xuan stood nearby to observe and lend the little diviner some support.
Diviner Fu Xuan had no particular expertise in gambling. She simply wanted to witness the extraordinary techniques employed in these unrestricted matches and provide Qingque with a safety net.
After all, Qingque losing her panties every single time would hardly reflect well on the reputation of the Xianzhou or the Divination Commission.
"The rules follow the Battle to the Bloody End format. When one player completes a winning hand, the match doesn't end. The remaining players continue until three players have won or the round ends in a draw."
"Once the round concludes, the stakes are settled according to the number of fan each player has accumulated."
An Angeloid explained the rules to the newcomers.
The general rules were only slightly different from Celestial Jade, so they would be easy to pick up.
"We can keep playing until the very end? That's exciting! Doesn't that mean whoever finishes last is incredibly unlucky?"
Qingque wasn't entirely confident she could be the first to complete a winning hand, but with the Battle to the Bloody End format... there was considerably more room for maneuvering.
As long as she assembled a sufficiently valuable hand, she could still earn plenty even if she finished second or third.
Mio took out two dazzling golden holy swords and placed them beside her. Pandora also produced several spellbooks and a few bottles of mysterious-looking potions.
She rarely participated in expeditions, but as a witch, she was quite accomplished in alchemy.
"Whoa..."
Qingque's eyes practically popped out of her head.
As expected of the high-level tables, the stakes were considerably greater than those in the casual games played by little girls and shipgirls.
"Lady Diviner, if we win just one round, we'll achieve financial freedom the moment we return to the Xianzhou!"
"We can split the winnings seventy-thirty! We'll even be able to purchase some new equipment for the Divination Commission!"
Qingque continued painting a rosy picture for Fu Xuan.
"I only get seventy percent?"
The Master Diviner raised an eyebrow.
"I get seventy percent! I'm the one actually playing!!!"
"Although, if Lady Diviner is willing to offer me a little assistance, I suppose giving you seventy percent wouldn't be out of the question..."
"Hmph."
Fu Xuan neither agreed nor refused.
"Well then, Miss Qingque, shall we begin?"
Mio asked with a smile.
"Mm!"
Qingque clenched her fists to encourage herself.
"Bring it on!"
Clatter, clatter—
She could tell that none of her three opponents played mahjong particularly often. Their movements were rather clumsy.
Haruhi Suzumiya was especially inexperienced. She had joined purely out of curiosity and couldn't even arrange her tiles properly.
Rattle—
After rolling the dice, Qingque quickly organized her hand.
She closed her eyes and began calculating with her fingers.
"Qian above, Qian below. The third nine is employed. The third nine's commentary states: The noble person strives diligently throughout the day and remains vigilant at night, as though facing danger..."
"Hmm. Theoretically speaking, the simplest winning combination I can assemble is... To maximize my returns, I should first..."
Normally, when she played with her friends on the Xianzhou, it was purely for entertainment. This time, however, she was pulling out all the stops.
Divination was fundamentally the art of identifying a definite future among countless possibilities.
By applying her predictive techniques to her own hand, she could deduce the likely hands of the other three players and the possible progression of the game.
In theory, she could calculate everything down to precisely which tile each opponent would discard next and which tiles they would subsequently draw.
Rumble—
A surge of Imaginary energy spread outward from Qingque. Her brows furrowed as she recited divination formulas while rapidly recording something on her holographic interface.
"If only you were this serious about your actual work."
Fu Xuan sighed.
After two minutes of calculations, Qingque believed she had successfully deduced every possible development within the next thirty turns.
Whatever tile her opponents played, she had a corresponding strategy to counter it and guide herself toward victory.
"Come on!"
"Oh."
Mio took a leisurely sip of her drink.
[Ain Soph]
In an instant, the entire world turned black and white, and spacetime came to a standstill.
The tiles in her hand transformed and rearranged themselves in the blink of an eye.
When everything returned to normal, she pushed her tiles forward.
"Heavenly Hand. Sorry, looks like I've won the first round."
"???"
"You're that lucky?"
Qingque couldn't understand what had happened.
She turned toward Haruhi Suzumiya and Pandora.
"Then let's continue. We're playing Battle to the Bloody End, after all."
Just as she prepared to cast another divination and calculate the remaining two opponents,
Pandora reached out and swept her hand across her tiles.
The previously disorganized collection of suits instantly arranged itself into a perfectly ordered hand, transforming into precisely the combination she desired.
"Mahjong."
Pandora tilted her head.
"You've got to be kidding me! Two people started with Heavenly Hands?!"
Qingque was dumbfounded.
She stared at Haruhi Suzumiya.
"So it's just the two of us left?"
"Wait a second. Um, could you explain the rules to me again? I didn't remember them earlier..."
Haruhi asked cautiously.
"You don't even know how to play?!"
Qingque couldn't understand how this girl had managed to sneak into a high-level match. Nevertheless, she patiently explained the rules again with the Angeloid's assistance.
"Three consecutive numbered tiles form a sequence. Two identical tiles form a pair, and three identical tiles form a triplet... To complete a winning hand, you need to assemble..."
After explaining for quite some time, Qingque's mouth had gone dry. She drank a glass of water.
"Understand now?"
"Got it."
Haruhi nodded and pushed the tiles in front of her forward.
"Then I've won too. Let's settle the scores."
"???"
"Huh?!"
"What?! Are you insane?!"
Qingque slammed her hands onto the table and shot to her feet.
She could accept Mio getting lucky and starting with a Heavenly Hand. She could even grudgingly accept Pandora doing the same.
But what the hell was wrong with this little girl who couldn't even remember the rules and had somehow conjured up a perfect winning hand out of nowhere?!
Worse still, Haruhi Suzumiya's hand was absolutely textbook-perfect, matching the example Qingque had given during her explanation down to the very last tile.
It was almost as though... whatever she wanted simply appeared.
How was that even possible?!
"Lady Diviner, did you notice anything?"
Qingque turned around, looking utterly miserable.
"No. I think... perhaps they were simply lucky?"
Fu Xuan frowned.
"I also performed a few preliminary calculations just now. My results were largely consistent with yours, yet those three completely overturned our conclusions."
"Could there have been an error in our calculations?"
She began calculating with her fingers as well, only to discover that what had happened couldn't be explained through luck or computational power.
Yukikaze's specialty was drawing excellent tiles every single round while simultaneously draining the luck of everyone else at the table.
Shiro and Schwi simply possessed extraordinary computational abilities. They could analyze their own hands and the tiles played by everyone else to calculate the optimal strategy, which was somewhat similar to divination.
But the techniques employed by these three... were strange.
"Let's play a couple more rounds."
Qingque refused to believe it.
Clatter, clatter—
Fu Xuan performed a serious divination, calculating Qingque's fortune and that of her opponents from the very beginning.
"Heavenly Hand."
This time, Haruhi Suzumiya struck first.
Having mastered the rules, she could now draw precisely the tiles she wanted in the very first round.
"???"
"How did you do that?!"
Qingque stared at her, dumbfounded.
"Uh... nothing special. I just wanted these tiles, so I drew them."
Little Haruhi shrugged.
"This game is way too easy! It's actually getting kind of boring. What's with all those fancy things you're doing? Are you solving math problems or something?"
"Huh?"
Diviner Fu Xuan, who was still performing calculations, somehow found herself caught in the crossfire.
[Ain Soph]
"Oh, what a coincidence. I've won again too."
Mio and Pandora spread their hands and smiled at Qingque.
"Looks like this round is over again. It seems Miss Qingque isn't having much luck today."
"Don't worry. Keep trying. Your luck is bound to turn around eventually."
"HUH?!"
Qingque and Fu Xuan stared at each other.
One round every minute. Each match began at lightning speed and ended just as quickly.
All three opponents were harvesting her winnings together.
Something was wrong.
Something was definitely wrong!
These high-level games were unrestricted matches, where any nonviolent method of cheating was permitted.
Yet neither Qingque nor Fu Xuan could figure out how their opponents were doing it.
Was this really luck?! Even Yukikaze's luck wasn't this absurd!
Qingque suspected she was playing mahjong against three copies of Goddess Eris.
"L-Let's play again..."
Gritting her teeth, she reluctantly handed over every trophy she had won earlier.
She could only console herself with the thought that winning just one round, even a single round, would be enough to guarantee her a luxurious, carefree life.
"Lady Diviner, you've got to help me out here!!!"
"I... I'll do my best."
Fu Xuan desperately performed her calculations while recalling everything she knew about the other players.
"Ah, right. Mio might possess the ability to alter reality. Don't try to compete with her. Focus on developing your own hand and dealing with the other two instead."
"O-Okay..."
Clatter—
Another round began.
Qingque had only just finished drawing her tiles when she glanced at her hand and was instantly overwhelmed with delight.
She slammed her tiles forward and threw her head back in triumphant laughter.
"Heavenly Hand!!"
"It's finally my turn!!! Ahahaha! I knew Lady Luck hadn't abandoned me!"
"See?! Nobody loses every single day! Hehehe..."
All the frustration from her previous losses vanished in an instant.
No matter how terrible someone's luck was, occasionally experiencing an incredible stroke of fortune was only natural.
"I want those holy swords I lost to you earlier, and..."
She began considering which prizes would be the most profitable to demand.
"..."
"Oh."
Pandora tilted her head and stared at her for a moment.
Then she extended her hand and swept it forward.
"No. You saw it wrong."
"Huh?"
Qingque's vision blurred.
When she looked down again,
the magnificent winning hand she had possessed just moments earlier had transformed into a completely worthless collection of Plum, Orchid, Bamboo, and Chrysanthemum tiles.
"Wtf?!"
"Where are my tiles?! Where's my Pure-Suit Heavenly Hand?! Huh?!"
"Th-This isn't right! M-My tiles weren't like this!!!"
Qingque was utterly dumbstruck, stammering incoherently for quite some time.
"False declaration of mahjong. Triple penalty."
Little Haruhi held out her hand.
"???"
"No! This is wrong!! I-I clearly won already!! If you don't believe me, check the surveillance footage!!!"
Horrified, Qingque desperately tried to argue her case.
"Oh."
Pandora extended her hand toward the surveillance equipment and gave it another casual sweep.
"No problem. Look all you want."
"???"
Qingque completely fell apart.
The Angeloid responsible for calculating the winnings finished tallying everything and opened a holographic interface.
"Miss Qingque, accounting for Miss Mio's, Miss Pandora's, and Miss Haruhi Suzumiya's Pure-Suit Heavenly Hands at thirty-two fan each, together with the triple penalty for falsely declaring mahjong, all your assets have now been exhausted."
"The remaining eighty-two percent of your debt has temporarily been placed on your account. If you'd like to continue playing, perhaps you could offer something else as collateral?"
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