Kakegurui: Ten Consecutive Guaranteed Hits

Volume 1 Chapter 18: Being Caught Cheating Could Cost Him His Hand

Kiyohei recalled seeing a similar question on Quera before he crossed over to this word: "If a person in a League of Legends match consistently wins their first game of the day, what achievements could they unlock in the game's history?"

Before Kiyohei's restart, that question had already garnered over 600 replies, with users enthusiastically discussing the benefits and achievements one could obtain from this mechanism.

Their consensus was unanimous: this was an extremely buggy ability. Even if someone had only a beginner's understanding of the game, they could become the greatest player in League of Legends history.

Now, Kiyohei possessed a similar ability.

Whenever he reached his tenth gambling round, he was guaranteed to obtain an item through the safety net—provided he won that round.

This is a cycle of causality, meaning that as long as Kiyohei accumulates enough safety net rounds, he will undoubtedly win in this gambling game.

After understanding this mechanism, Kiyohei felt like shouting for joy.

Although it was a flawed and half-baked system, it possessed such an incredible ability. It was amazing!

This discovery could easily rival SSR items like the Doraemon "Anywhere Door"!

As long as Kiyohei accumulated enough safety net rounds, he could go to any casino and easily become the world's richest person through gambling, without any risks.

Of course, there were still risks. If he were to win all the money in the entire casino, the other party might panic and resort to shooting him on the spot.

Kiyohei only considered this as a thought. He had no intention of actually doing something like that. He hadn't lived enough yet, and he didn't want to risk his life for a small amount of money.

Returning to the current gambling session.

After losing the previous round, Kuroki seemed somewhat unwilling and continued gambling with Kiyohei.

Similar to the previous dozen rounds, Kuroki still seemed like a prophet, folding whenever Kiyohei had a good hand, only losing the basic 10,000 yen bet.

In gambling, if both parties have no issues with their intelligence, only two factors affect the outcome: luck and cheating.

Kiyohei wasn't a fool, and he didn't believe that Kuroki was blessed with extraordinary luck, receiving good hands in every game.

That left only one possibility—Kuroki himself was cheating.

Although Kiyohei didn't mind winning or losing, if it were a fair game, he would accept the outcome. But... anyone who regarded him as an easy target to be taken advantage of would be mistaken.

While the two of them gambled, Kiyohei kept his attention on Kuroki's actions.

Every time Kuroki received a card, he was extremely cautious, his expression serious. He only relaxed after examining his own cards.

From his movements, it was evident that he didn't seem to know what cards he held and relied on luck in every gambling round.

Kiyohei also carefully inspected his own deck, but there were no markings or signs on the playing cards. Kuroki couldn't have known the identity of the cards by looking at the backs.

Then, how was he maintaining such a high winning rate?

If Kuroki wasn't the one cheating, there was another possibility.

Kiyohei glanced at the dealer, Kumagai, standing expressionlessly between the two of them, dealing the cards. He seemed perfectly normal.

However, after secretly observing him for a while, Kiyohei discovered that Kumagai had a peculiar way of shuffling the cards.

He intentionally acted as if he had poor card shuffling skills, lazily shuffling the cards. In reality, he was secretly memorizing the cards from an angle that Kiyohei couldn't see.

He even wore a pair of blurry glasses, making it impossible for Kiyohei to notice where his gaze was focused.

Since Kiyohei's attention had been solely on his own cards and Kuroki, he hadn't noticed this before.

Meanwhile, Kuroki intentionally engaged Kiyohei in conversations about topics that interested him, diverting Kiyohei's attention and causing him to overlook Kumagai's presence.

Kuroki and Kumagai have been collaborating all along.

Kuroki is responsible for diverting Kiyohei's attention, while Kumagai memorizes the upcoming cards and uses an unknown signal to indicate to Kuroki who has the advantage in the game.

This is the misconception that Kiyohei has fallen into.

He initially believed that the game was fair and that the dealer wouldn't favor anyone.

However, in reality, the two of them might have already formed a cooperative relationship to profit from Kiyohei, the unsuspecting victim.

The "conflicts' ' between them, and Kuroki's intentional disdain for the "cattle,' ' were all part of the act they put on for Kiyohei.

So that's why... no wonder he was losing more and winning less.

Kiyohei chuckled self-deprecatingly. He hadn't expected to be taken for a fool...

Upon discovering their cheating, Kiyohei didn't directly point it out.

After all, their methods were quite subtle, and if Kuroki denied it, Kiyohei didn't have a solid way to expose them. He might even end up being blamed instead.

What he needed to do was to exploit their cheating to secure his own victory.

Upon learning of Kuroki's cheating, Kiyohei refrained from raising bets when looking at his cards.

Regardless of the quality of his own hand, as soon as Kuroki increased the bet, Kiyohei promptly folded, losing only the basic 10,000 yen chips.

Kiyohei's cautious gambling style was completely different from before. Seeing that he could only win 10,000 yen each time, Kuroki began to feel a sense of frustration, gradually growing restless.

He started frequently showing weakness, even when his own hand was poor, refusing to draw more cards, deliberately using a weak hand to entice Kiyohei to raise the bet.

Kiyohei didn't fall for the trap and instead utilized Kuroki's impatience to earn back tens of thousands of yen.

Now, it was the twentieth game.

Another chance for a safety net had arrived.

Kiyohei sensed that the timing was right. He suddenly stretched and put on a weary posture, saying, "Kuroki, we've been playing for a long time. Let's end it here."

"Wait, let's play one more round!"

Kuroki had already won 400,000 yen from Kiyohei, but he wasn't satisfied. He didn't want Kiyohei, the easy target, to leave and hastily tried to stop him. "It's okay. It's still far from lunch break, and we don't have classes. It's fine if we continue playing!"

That's how gamblers are. When they know they have a high chance of winning, they don't want to end the game no matter what. Especially after deliberately losing a few rounds, they desperately want to win it all back.

Kiyohei had long anticipated that Kuroki would speak up to keep him playing. He deliberately wore a hesitant expression and nodded after a moment of hesitation. "Alright... but..."

Kiyohei pointed to the 400,000 yen he had won from Kuroki in front of him. "Let's raise the stakes for this round. How about 400,000 yen per game? If I lose, I'll give you another 400,000 yen."

Many gamblers, at the last moment, want to win back their "capital." It wasn't surprising to Kuroki that Kiyohei made this request.

He instinctively glanced at Kumagai and noticed Kumagai silently shaking his head, seemingly unwilling to let him continue gambling.

However, the intense greed for victory had already triumphed over his rationality. As long as he won this round, he could directly gain 400,000 yen!

In the end, he agreed without hesitation. "Alright, I'll bet with you!"