Kakegurui: Ten Consecutive Guaranteed Hits

Volume 1 Chapter 27: Cheating for a Few People Only

"What?!" Mary blinked her eyes, seemingly not comprehending the situation. After a moment, she covered her head, astonished, and shouted, "Impossible! How could you still have an Ace? If you had a card, why didn't you play it earlier!?"

"You mind your own business. Are you going to play a card now?" Kokoro smiled lightly. "Oh, right, I almost forgot. Your biggest card is King, so you definitely can't beat me now." Saying that, Kokoro calmly played her remaining three cards: a King, a Jack, and then a 10. It was as if she wasn't worried at all about Mary playing a card. She leisurely played her last card.

At this moment, Mary still had her final card in hand. She was stunned and muttered, "Why is it like this..."

Her hand consisted of 【K, K, K, 8, 3】, while Kokoro's hand was 【K, A, Q, 10, 6】.

Everyone understood what happened. If Mary had played the 8 first, she would have already won the game. However, she made an experiential mistake, subconsciously assuming that Kokoro's biggest card was only a King. She believed she could play any card without any problem and left the 8 for last.

Tsuzura was anxiously stomping her feet on the side. "Mayari, what's going on? You actually lost..."

Kiyohei furrowed his brow.

While playing poker, Kiyohei also had a habit of playing his smaller cards last. However, that was when neither side knew each other's cards, and playing the biggest card first was certainly the best strategy.

But now, Mary should have known that Kokoro was cheating, and Kokoro might have seen all her cards as if they were all face-up. Why did she intentionally do this, pretending that she didn't have a card higher than a King?

"Mary, I thought you were more formidable, but is this all you've got?" Kokoro laughed heartily. "Are you thinking that as long as you have repeating high cards, you can win against me? Sorry, fool, I gave you a chance, but you couldn't seize it! If you had played the 8 first, you would have won already!"

"All those impatient actions were just an act..." Mary seemed to realize this only now, and she suddenly slammed the table angrily. "You must be cheating! You definitely know what cards I have, so you intentionally left the Ace for last!"

"Hey hey... Don't slander me. I just saw you looking so confident, so I kept a little trick up my sleeve." Kokoro deliberately covered her mouth and sighed. "Are you getting anxious? It's just losing two hundred thousand, why are you so impatient? That's why they say poor people..."

"No, this is too strange! Did you mark the cards or something, constantly keeping track of my cards and deliberately showing a fake angry expression, suggesting that you didn't have a card higher than a King?"

As if going crazy, Mary scattered all the poker cards on the table, her face wild. She started looking at the backs of the cards one by one, just like a desperate gambler.

"Ah, I said I didn't cheat. It's just that my luck is slightly better. If you suspect me, then go ahead and carefully inspect the cards." Kokoro pretended to sigh, crossed her arms, and leaned back in the chair, showing great generosity as she allowed Mary to check the backs of the cards.

While Mary was inspecting the poker cards, Kiyohei noticed that except for the "livestock," the entire crowd in the gambling hall had their eyes fixed on Mary. Their eyes emitted a faint green light, like evil wolves eyeing their prey.

This description wasn't a figure of speech but a depiction of the reality—Kokoro and the people surrounding the table, all of them had green pupils.

Green pupils? Why... all the people in this class have green pupils?

As mentioned earlier, people in this world seemed to be particularly fond of dyeing their hair and wearing colored contact lenses. Even Kiyohei's elder brother, Kiyohei, dyed his hair after entering high school.

Kiyohei himself didn't dye his hair, but he was used to being surrounded by people with various colorful hairstyles and irises, as if he were living in a world realized from a 2D anime.

When he entered this gambling hall, he didn't pay much attention to the people around him, focusing on Mary instead. Now he realized that the vast majority of people in this class had a faint green tint to their colored contact lenses.

Kiyohei swept his gaze around; among the people in this class, only the "livestock" had normal pupils or wore different colored lenses, while the group gathered around the gambling table all had uniform green pupils.

Suddenly, Kiyohei remembered the time when he used special glasses to cheat during the entrance exam.

On the exam paper distributed in school, the answers were printed using special ink on a rolled-up strip of paper.

After the exam, Kiyohei didn't return the glasses. He kept them as a memento at home and didn't bring them to school. However, during his leisure time, he had observed that there was a thin layer of green fluorescent coating on the lenses.

Could it be...?

Kiyohei turned to Tsuzura, who was anxiously looking for any markings on the back of the poker cards to find out if there were any signs on Mary's cards.

Her pupils were normal black.

"Tsuzura, let me ask you," Kiyohei suddenly inquired, "do you know how people cheat during the school entrance exams here?"

Tsuzura shook her head. "I know many people get in through connections, but I'm not really aware of any cheating methods."

"How did you get into this school?"

"When I entered junior high, there was no need for an entrance exam. I only needed to pass a family examination, and as long as there was sufficient financial capability in the family, I could enroll."

"How long have you been with these classmates?"

"We've been together for three years, starting from the first year of junior high. We were in the same class all along."

"How is your relationship with the others in the class?"

"Before the student council president introduced the 'livestock system' and the 'tribute system,' I got along with most of the classmates. But later, due to the required tributes, we all started gambling, and our relationships gradually drifted apart."

Although Tsuzura didn't understand why Kiyohei was asking these questions, she earnestly answered them.

"One last question, do you know when they started wearing colored contact lenses?"

"About half a year ago, I think. They suddenly all started wearing them for some reason..." Tsuzura blinked her eyes.

"Wasn't there anyone who told you the reason?"

"No, by that time, I had already become a 'livestock.'"

After answering Kiyohei's questions, Tsuzura still looked puzzled, completely missing the implications in Kiyohei's words.

Kiyohei sighed softly.

No wonder she had always been considered a "livestock," she wasn't even aware of when she had become isolated...

Kiyohei now had a clear idea.

Kokoro, or rather everyone in the class except the "livestock," had a simple way of cheating. They used poker cards just like the special ink on the exam paper Kiyohei used during the entrance exam.

A layer of invisible ink was applied to the back of the poker cards to mark them, distinguishing the cards' values. These markings could only be seen with special lenses. They miniaturized the lenses used during the entrance exam and turned them into the size of contact lenses, which they distributed to people they trusted.