[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-pain-immunity-worried-the-villains-aren-t-twiste":3,"chapter-pain-immunity-worried-the-villains-aren-t-twiste-pain-immunity-worried-the-villains-aren-t-twiste-chapter-143":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Pain Immunity: Worried the Villains Aren’t Twisted Enough",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},687927,922,"Chapter 143: Risk Hedging, an Almost Open-Handed Game","pain-immunity-worried-the-villains-aren-t-twiste-chapter-143",143,"\u003Cp>“My card here, is it scissors?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing that voice in her ear, Xie Antong didn’t hesitate at all—she immediately shut her eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The eyes are the windows to the soul. Always remember that. No micro-expression or behavioral analysis beats reading someone’s eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Eyes are the biggest source of leaks—and also the most deceptive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But she didn’t have the confidence to fool him with just her gaze. If anything, it might backfire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So her only option was to close her eyes, steady her breath and heartbeat, and clear her mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When facing a top player, don’t try to mislead them—just give them zero information. That’s the best tactic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So right now, to outsiders, Xie Antong looked like a meditating monk—or like she’d just fallen asleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Lu Ce didn’t really care about that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This third card—is it scissors?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“......”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fourth card—is it scissors?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“.......”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nine useless questions in a row—one after another—yet Xie Antong didn’t even twitch. Not even an eyelid moved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Lu Ce was like a spider, crouched in a web woven from emotions. If the prey moved even slightly, he’d feel it instantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Slime was rubbing its hands together in the corner of the room, quietly watching how things played out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright, I’ll go with this one.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only when Lu Ce spoke did Xie Antong finally open her eyes and look at the field in front of her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—But Lu Ce hadn’t played his card at all!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On instinct, she glanced at his cards. And in that split second, she realized—crap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She’d given something away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hahahaha! Just messing with you. And confirming my guess at the same time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Like you said, I’m still not fully used to the abilities of this mask.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Ce watched her eyes and expression shift in a flash, and burst out laughing. He waved his hand and picked a card from his set of nine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He placed it in front of the card Xie Antong had played earlier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Confirm?】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Slime couldn’t help but chime in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Confirm!】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Reveal the cards!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cards placed in the center were now fully visible to both players.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xie Antong had played “Paper,” and sure enough, Lu Ce had played “Scissors.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“One-zero. ~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Ce smiled at the card in front of him, his tone clearly teasing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the moment “Sin” started asking one card at a time, she already knew—it would be hard to keep anything from him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the very least, she was sure his Lust Mask’s power wasn’t something like mind-reading.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It must be linked to emotions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s the most troublesome. Everyone has emotions. The real kicker is you can’t tell whether your feelings are your own—or triggered by the opponent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And once you start thinking about that, you’re probably already caught in the trap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xie Antong didn’t waste time lamenting a lost round. She simply replied:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your turn to play first.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Ce saw that his emotional disruption didn’t have a strong impact, so he nodded and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In this game, whoever plays first is definitely at a disadvantage.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Once you play a card, you know what you played—you start anticipating things, you start forming thoughts. Your brain stops being fully under your control.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s see... this one.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He casually picked one from his remaining eight cards and tossed it forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The card landed in the center and flipped over—it was a “Rock.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xie Antong didn’t know her cards yet, but if she wanted to tie the score at 1:1, then her goal now was to find a “Paper.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And of course, she could find it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first time her fingers swept over the cards, she’d already picked up on the matching cards from Lu Ce’s pulse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At least, she had a rough idea where they were.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But she didn’t rush to play. Looking up, she saw that irritating smile on the Lust Mask again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She knew—he’d played that card on purpose...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If she wanted to win, she had to play Paper. But clearly, “Sin” knew she could identify which cards were Paper. This round was basically being handed to her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But everyone has three Rocks, three Papers, and three Scissors.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If she hurried to tie the score now, she’d be using two of her three Papers in just the first two rounds of a nine-round game!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That would be a huge disadvantage for the rest of the match.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So after a quick thought, she skipped the cards she’d already deduced were Papers and pointed to one she hadn’t figured out—could be Rock or Scissors.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let me ask.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What card is this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Slime: ?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Slime looked totally dumbfounded for a second—was she really just asking outright without even testing anything?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Lu Ce didn’t seem surprised. After glancing at it, he replied:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We both already kinda understand the base of each other’s abilities.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No need to drag this out. That card’s a Rock.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Ce knew that whether he answered or not, it would still be a kind of answer for Xie Antong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At most, he could muddy the waters a bit and stall for time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he didn’t care for that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright then, Rock it is.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xie Antong responded with equal “trust,” tossing out the card the moment Lu Ce finished speaking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rock vs. Rock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Round two: a tie.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the pattern reshuffled, Xie Antong now acted like she had x-ray vision. She directly pulled out a Scissors card and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My turn. Let’s finish the first full Rock-Paper-Scissors cycle.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She tossed the Scissors on the table—essentially throwing the problem she’d just faced right back at “Sin.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Lu Ce wanted to win, he’d have to play two “Rocks” in a row now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gotta play it balanced, huh? Then I’ll toss out Scissors too.” He said it super casually—yet he pulled out a Scissors card from his unseen hand with uncanny accuracy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Audience: ??\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wait, you two were at each other’s throats before—what the hell is going on now? Are we seriously playing with all cards revealed or something?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You think we’re stupid, don’t you?!\u003C\u002Fp>",1004,"2026-06-02T09:03:27.233Z",1,"novelbin.me","98be38a1d202e0c0c0d37b92cdafa4eb500ea2e9806881399f6f766f6bfa0522","pain-immunity-worried-the-villains-aren-t-twiste-chapter-144","pain-immunity-worried-the-villains-aren-t-twiste-chapter-142",867,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fpain-immunity-worried-the-villains-aren-t-twiste-cover.jpg"]