Kamishita Nagi noticed this, but he didn't think much of it and emphasized, "Although there's a hierarchy among the suits, it doesn't affect our hand. If both of our hands are the same value, it's considered a draw."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had no objection. "You're the one setting the rules, so it's up to you."
"Alright, next is our preparation phase. Both of us need to divide 13 cards into five groups, with each group containing only two to three cards. To prevent the number of cards in a Tetra from being seen, we need to add blank cards for both of us."
Kamishita Nagi looked at Mikura, who casually drew two cards of other suits from the deck and handed them to them, making their hands 15 cards.
"These cards don't count towards the score," she said indifferently.
Kamishita Nagi continued, "We have three minutes to prepare our hands. While we're preparing, I hope we can both organize our cards without interference, allowing us to prepare our Tetra in complete independence."
This request was reasonable. The Dealer Mikura looked at Meari and the others. "Except for Sachiko Juraku and the two people playing, everyone else please step out for a moment. I'll stay here to supervise."
"Why should we leave? This is clearly our territory!"
Kurume protested unhappily, but Hanatemari Kazura quickly tugged her sleeve. "Alright, don't say any more. This request is reasonable. We'll just go out."
"I'll go out with you all," Sachiko Juraku stood up and smiled at Mikura. "Mikura, you're the Dealer now, you should treat me equally."
"I understand, Sachiko Juraku!" Mikura's eyes lit up, and she looked at her with adoration, a stark contrast to her previous cold expression, leaving Kamishita Nagi stunned.
Seeing that Sachiko Juraku was willing to leave, Ibuki Jotaro, Saotome Meari, and the others no longer resisted and left the Cooking Room, heading to the Chemistry Preparation Room next door.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Kamishita Nagi each found a table and sat down back-to-back, with Mikura standing in the middle to supervise them and prevent them from peeking.
The gamble had already begun. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka opened the card pool and set it in motion—when Ayanokoji Kiyotaka gambled, the card pool would automatically draw cards. Every tenth draw would guarantee an item.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was also guaranteed to win this gamble—unless Ayanokoji Kiyotaka deliberately wanted to surrender.
At this moment, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had already set the card pool in motion again, but the system did not show any prompts.
This situation was also common.
Only when Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was about to make a choice that would affect the gambling odds would the system speak up to guide him. Under normal circumstances, it always remained silent.
Many times during "guaranteed draws," Ayanokoji Kiyotaka won the game without it ever speaking up.
It was like an "insurance," only speaking up at critical moments.
It wasn't speaking now, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was used to it, beginning to ponder how to combine the cards.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka spread out his 15 cards. Excluding the two interference cards, there were 13 playing cards in total. To form the maximum of 21 points, the highest cards were naturally A + K, which is Blackjack.
This group of cards had to be separated, and then the remaining ten cards had to be used to form 21 points as much as possible.
Thinking this way, there weren't many ways to split the cards.
If the best match was divided into five groups, it would be—
First group: A, K.
Second group: 5, 6, Q.
Third group: 4, 7, 10.
Fourth group: 2, 9, J.
Fifth group: 3, 8.
A total of five groups of cards: one Blackjack, three groups of 21 points, and 11 points.
This was the "best match" in the combination.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka believed that since Kamishita Nagi was so confident in this game, achieving the best match would certainly not be difficult for him. Their groupings should be the same.
In this game, achieving the best match was only the first step. This only allowed you to have the best hand. The subsequent ordering was the most important part.
If the order was too inferior, even with a good hand, it could be played terribly.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka couldn't help but think of "Tian Ji's Horse Racing." At this time, his hand could just be divided into superior, medium, and inferior horses.
Superior horse, which is "Blackjack," this is the largest card.
Medium horse, which are the three groups of 21 points.
Inferior horse, naturally 11 points, this is the smallest hand.
A total of five rounds of competition were to be held. To win, it was best for him to have his medium horse against the opponent's inferior horse, his superior horse against the opponent's medium horse, and his inferior horse against the opponent's superior horse.
But Ayanokoji knew that not only was he thinking this way, Kamishita Nagi must also be thinking this way. Both of them were "Tian Ji" at this moment.
Neither of them knew the other's order. To achieve "superior horse" against "medium horse," one must think from the opponent's perspective, considering how he would arrange the order, and then target that.
First, Blackjack, as the "trump card," would certainly not appear first, nor would the smallest 11 points.
In other words, the first group must be 21 points.
What if... he put "Blackjack" in the first group and then went all in directly?
According to the rules, when raising, one could choose to use a chip to directly fold their hand, skipping this round at the cost of one chip.
If he put Blackjack in the first group, needless to say, Kamishita Nagi would definitely choose to fold.
Even if he won this hand, he would only gain one chip, at the cost of losing his "superior horse."
So... he couldn't simply try to win with a trick. Kamishita Nagi was not a fool.
While Ayanokoji was pondering how to group the cards, Kamishita Nagi had already finished grouping his cards.
Although he hadn't played "best match" with others many times before, he had enough confidence that he would definitely win.
Kamishita Nagi was not a fan of kamen rider since childhood. Before, he even hated tokusatsu, believing it was only for children.
Until he accidentally heard from someone that he looked very much like an actor who played kamen rider.
He went to watch kamen rider Build, starring "Inukai Atsuhiro." He started watching out of curiosity, but the pacing of this tokusatsu was fast, and every episode felt like a finale. Unconsciously, he finished the entire series.
A genius physicist who knows all difficult formulas and invention principles, possessing an astonishing mind and physical ability—Kiryu Sento.
He felt that he was very similar to this Rider. Although he was outspoken and arrogant, he was a person who believed in love and peace and hated war.
He wanted to become this "hero."
He initially wanted to be like Kiryu Sento, to become a winner through fair means and win the gamble.
But after several crushing defeats, he realized one thing—his luck was simply too bad; the god of luck was not on his side.
Because of this, he strongly resisted gambling with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka using purely luck-based methods like rolling dice.
Since he couldn't win a direct "battle," he had to upgrade his tools... He got inspiration from Kiryu Sento and wanted to become an inventor who could build his own equipment.
In gambling, if one wanted to upgrade "equipment," then one could only "cheat."
Even though he got inspiration from a "hero," he arrived at the opposite answer.
The first time he won by cheating, he felt uneasy, thinking whether he was blaspheming the "hero" by doing so.
But as the number of victories increased, he gradually became at ease, even finding excuses for himself—a major characteristic of kamen rider is "enemy and ally from the same source"; what he was doing was not wrong.
He was "robbing the rich to help the poor," earning money from the hands of those rich people. What he was doing was an act of "justice."
Initially, this was just an excuse he found to ease his conscience, but as time passed, he himself came to believe it—he was a "hero" fighting for justice, he was Kiryu Sento's doppelganger.
"The law of victory has been decided."
Kamishita Nagi confidently made Kiryu Sento's victory pose.
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