The common ailment of humanity is to develop an involuntary fear of any domain they have fully touched.
Even though I had been restraining myself with all my might, I still could not escape one fact.
That was: I had never rolled ten sixes! Not even once!!!
Unconsciously, a fine, dense layer of cold sweat had already seeped onto my forehead.
To avoid any disturbance, I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes, and began to make subtle adjustments according to the specific incantation for shaking dice, continuously altering my finger strength and wrist power.
*Crackle, crackle, crackle...*
In the dice cup, with every crisp clatter the dice made, I would listen intently to the subtle changes and differences within.
[PS: The principle of listening to the sounds has been explained earlier. Those who don't understand can flip back. It will not be elaborated here.]
To the ears of outsiders, the changes in the dice points seemed untraceable.
But to a professional cheat, there was profound knowledge.
Calming my mind and discarding all distracting thoughts, I began to change the force, rhythm, and frequency of shaking the dice according to the size of the points I heard.
After about half a minute.
Through my repeated micro-adjustments, the sound of the dice hitting the inner wall of the cup gradually changed from chaotic to orderly.
Noticing this change, I was greatly encouraged and was about to press my advantage when...
"Time's up, contestants, please place your dice!"
As Hu Dinggui's voice echoed in my ears, I knew the time for shaking dice in this round had arrived.
Whether good or bad, I could no longer continue shaking.
Although I was a thousand times unwilling, I had to stop and place the dice.
The finals had clear regulations: contestants could not disobey the time instructions issued by the dealer to pause or start. Violators would be treated as a breach of conduct and eliminated.
*Bang!*
The moment I placed the dice cup back on the gambling table, I slowly opened my eyes.
Releasing my right hand from above the dice cup, I felt it still trembling slightly.
At this moment, it was extremely unrealistic to think about winning by 3 points. The key was whether it was possible to tie with either Yu Shuang or He Chenguang.
With this thought, I turned my head to look at Yu Shuang and He Chenguang on my left and right sides respectively.
Queen Bee remained as calm and composed as ever. As for He Chenguang, sweat was on his forehead, and his expression was somewhat tense.
It seemed he hadn't rolled well either.
Taking in the expressions and demeanor of both of them, I couldn't help but secretly heave a sigh of relief.
At this moment, all eyes in the venue were focused on Hu Dinggui, who was acting as the dealer. Everyone seemed eager for him to announce the opening of the cups to see how many points each of us three had rolled.
After about four or five seconds.
"Contestants, listen to my command. I will count down three, two, one, and you will all open your cups simultaneously!"
"Come, three, two, one!!!"
The moment Hu Dinggui finished speaking, the three of us simultaneously opened the dice cups in front of us.
"Holy crap!!!"
The moment the dice were revealed, the crowd below couldn't help but exclaim in a string of expletives.
Seeing that the majority of the audience below had unusual expressions, driven by curiosity, I lowered my head to look...
It was nothing to look at, but when I did, I was truly shocked!
On my left, Yu Shuang's dice were fine.
Ten dice, rolling a total of 55 points, was already quite impressive.
As for myself, although one die stood upright, the first die on top was not a six, but a five.
When the bunny girl next to me, in front of the cameras and all the spectators, took out each die one by one...
I discovered that two dice had been misrolled.
One was a four and the other a three, along with the other eight dice uniformly showing sixes, totaling 55 points.
Although I made a mistake, fortunately, after giving my all, I managed to barely tie with Queen Bee.
I accepted this result willingly.
But when I shifted my gaze to He Chenguang on my right and saw an extra die in his cup, eleven dice totaling 56 points, just one point more than me and Yu Shuang...
I immediately lodged a protest with Hu Dinggui, angrily declaring, "He Chenguang cheated!"
Unexpectedly, Hu Dinggui not only ignored me but also looked at me with a half-smile and said, "Do you remember what I said when the competition first began?"
Hearing this, I was immediately stunned.
When I came to my senses, I argued logically, "You said cheating. Cheating is winning with skill-based assistance. This is blatant cheating with props!!!"
Before Hu Dinggui could speak, He Chenguang on the side disdainfully retorted with a cold laugh, "Young man, being able to take it and let it go is the right way. Getting stuck on word games has no future!"
"Cheating is cheating, and deception is deception. They cannot be confused!"
Upon hearing this, He Chenguang quickly said, "Kid, I find you truly can't accept defeat! Nowadays, many cheating techniques can be replaced by props, such as 'Sleeve of the Universe' or 'Palm Thunder'..."
"Before opening the cups, I secretly added an extra die right under your noses, and you didn't notice. Doesn't that prove something?"
Before I could speak, He Chenguang continued, "Also! Let me ask you, did this round of the competition explicitly state that we could only compare the points of ten dice, hmm?"
My face turned ashen, and I stopped arguing.
Indeed, I remembered that Hu Dinggui had not specified how many dice must be used to compare points when introducing the Sic Bo game earlier.
Taking a deep breath, I blinked and said through gritted teeth, "Fine! You win! I admit defeat!"
Seeing that I had conceded, while Yu Shuang remained silent without uttering a single word, Hu Dinggui decisively announced the end of the first round of the competition.
He Chenguang won the victory, accumulating 3 points.
As for Yu Shuang and I, we both accumulated 1 point.
Originally, He Chenguang should have drawn lots for the second round of the competition, but Yu Shuang suddenly requested a brief pause to use the restroom.
According to the rules described by Hu Dinggui, each contestant had one opportunity to pause the competition during the three rounds of the finals.
If used, it would be effective immediately; if not used, it would be forfeited.
After Hu Dinggui nodded in agreement and paused the competition, Yu Shuang immediately turned and headed towards the restroom.
I noticed that the moment she turned to leave, Queen Bee seemed to give me a subtle glance.
Judging by her demeanor, she seemed to have something to say to me.
With this thought, after Yu Shuang's figure disappeared into the hall, I immediately turned and walked slowly towards the direction of the restroom.
The moment I entered the restroom, my phone suddenly vibrated.
Taking it out to look, it was a message from Yu Shuang...