Jing Xiansheng quickly slunk away, also swiping a pen and a piece of paper… it seemed the tall man's advice had been effective.

"Judge, how is the minimum bet I can call calculated now?" As soon as the other man left, Feng Bujue turned to the man in the suit and sunglasses and asked.

"It's rounded to the nearest tenth after the decimal point," the judge replied. "For example… if your current holdings are 102112, then 1% of that is 1021.12. The part after the decimal point can be dropped, so your minimum bet for 'betting on rounds' is 1021 dollars."

"Okay, I'll bet that amount," Feng Bujue replied immediately.

"Oh?" The tall man, hearing this, immediately retorted in a provocative tone, "Hey, hey… Mr. 'Raven,' I only declared eighteen rounds, is it really necessary to be so conservative?"

Jue Ge didn't respond to him but instead asked, "I haven't had the pleasure of asking, what is your name?"

"Heh… that's easy to say." The tall man pointed to his golden crying face mask, "You can call me 'Golden Mask of Sorrow.'"

"Golden Mask of Sorrow." In the next second, Feng Bujue continued, "With your abilities, you should have known the攻略 (gōnglüè, strategy/walkthrough) to this game when Jing Xiansheng and I had our first match; at that time, you could have just challenged anyone, and after two rounds, you could have won at least ten or twenty thousand in funds…" He paused for half a second, "But… why did you insist on challenging me?"

"Hmph…" Golden Mask of Sorrow sneered, "It's simple…" As he said this, he looked up towards the location of the organizers on the second floor, "Tonight's banquet, there are only eight final victors; indeed, I am very confident that I can enter the top sixty-four in this first game, but… there will obviously be other games after this, so I have to consider the things that will happen later…"

"Heh…" Feng Bujue smiled after hearing this, "In other words… you are extremely confident in this first game, so… you want to get rid of those 'potential strong enemies' 'before this game ends,' is that it?"

"Ah… that's how it is." Golden Mask of Sorrow didn't hide it, he also knew that hiding it from this "Raven" was futile, "It's not that I think I will lose in the subsequent new games, but after all, the content of the new games is still unknown… Isn't it a waste not to make good use of your absolute advantage?"

"Hmph… seeking your own death, that's exactly what people like you are." Feng Bujue smiled, still that unsettling smile.

"Heh…" Golden Mask of Sorrow was also smiling, "You haven't answered my initial question yet, Mr. Raven…" He brought the topic back, "You and I both know… the proctor's 'escape rounds' are in the nineteenth and twentieth rounds; and in order to win, I didn't hesitate to bet my round declaration on the number eighteen, in the face of my 'sincerity,' are you really only going to bet 1021 dollars?"

"Yes, your sincerity is only worth that much." Feng Bujue remained unmoved and replied calmly, "Time is precious, you should hurry up and start guessing…" He glanced at the timer, "Don't forget, the time we're spending talking now… is part of your 'forty-five minutes' of decryption time."

"Alright~ alright~ then I'll start…" Golden Mask of Sorrow put on a very disappointed look, and then began to guess…

…………

Their movements were very fast, whether it was betting, calling, guessing numbers, feedback… it was all basically without thinking.

In just four minutes, the first nine rounds were completed.

In these initial nine rounds, Golden Mask of Sorrow's method of guessing was the same as Feng Bujue's previous one.

So, by the tenth round, he had already figured out six numbers that Jue Ge had written, namely—2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9.

And the money he lost had reached 9000 US dollars.

"Hmm… so he really used six 'non-repeating' numbers?" Golden Mask of Sorrow muttered as he called his bet for the tenth round, "Just as I expected…" He looked up at Jue Ge, "You have already thoroughly understood the guessing method of this game—you know very well how to increase the guessing steps of your opponent, and relatively… you also know the 'most efficient' guessing method."

Speaking of this, Golden Mask of Sorrow tilted his head: "Hmph… When you were playing against Jing Xiansheng just now, you deliberately didn't use the best solution, but instead used another tangential way of eliminating ideas to solve the puzzle. This was to give your opponent the illusion… that you were still a certain distance from the answer." He spread his hands, and continued in a helpless tone, "As a result… that 'third-rate' who knew nothing really fell for it, and until the twentieth round, he still thought that you, who had at most guessed '2A,' were at least five or six steps away from the answer; as a result… he missed the 'escape round.'"

"Are you done rambling?" Feng Bujue said, "The betting time is almost up."

"Heh… this round, I'll still bet a thousand dollars." Golden Mask of Sorrow intentionally waited until the timer reached the last second before reporting the chips and pressing the switch.

"Very good." The moment the other party called out the chips, Jue Ge continued, "I surrender."

"Huh?" This time, Golden Mask of Sorrow was obviously stunned.

"Judge, settle the accounts." A second later, Feng Bujue called out to the judge, who was also a little stunned.

"Uh… ah." The judge had been hosting this kind of gambling game for more than a day or two, and he calculated the accounts very quickly, "Um… the proctor declared surrender in the tenth round, the fine is 11,000 US dollars; plus 1021 for 'betting on the round,' minus the 9000 ante lost by the guessing party in the previous nine rounds, the final amount is… 3021, proctor, please pay."

Before he finished speaking, Jue Ge had already started taking out money very quickly.

"This guy…" And Golden Mask of Sorrow, as the recipient of the money, actually seemed a little annoyed at this time, "You really don't leave any loopholes…"

"Hmph…" Feng Bujue shrugged coldly, "If Jing Xiansheng is 'third-rate,' then you are 'second-rate'?"

"You…" Golden Mask of Sorrow stopped talking, and after a pause of two seconds, he said with a fierce tone, "You want to provoke me… I won't fall for it."

"The characteristic of being second-rate… is being too clever for your own good." Feng Bujue ignored his words, and continued, "For example, just now… you specifically chose to blah, blah, blah before the tenth round, and you insisted on waiting until the last second to press the timer… Did you think this was shooting a buzzer beater in basketball?" He mocked, "On the surface, you tried your best to put on a 'I'm not in a hurry' look, while using words to distract your opponent's attention, trying to make the other side anxious." He also imitated the other party's posture, spread out his hands, "Although your tone and body language are all quite adequate, the more you perform like this… the easier it is to expose your true intentions."

"Stop criticizing me so condescendingly." Golden Mask of Sorrow responded unhappily, "As long as you calculate it, you will know… the tenth round is a 'second-best escape round,' although compared with the nineteenth and twentieth rounds… surrendering here will lose a little more money; but before entering the 11-20 round range, if you already feel that the situation is not good, this is the last chance to escape." While he was speaking, he raised his voice, "In my opinion… you are just afraid that I will guess the answer in a dozen or so rounds and suddenly raise the bet, so you thought about escaping in the tenth round at the beginning of this game!"

While the two were talking, the judge had already calculated the money, destroyed Jue Ge's answer sheet, and cleaned the table.

In this way, the preparations for the second match were already in place, and at the beginning of this round, the comparison of funds between the two sides was—

Feng Bujue: 99091 US dollars.

Golden Mask of Sorrow: 103021 US dollars.

"You can think that way too." Feng Bujue continued, "In short… set the question."

"Hmph…" Golden Mask of Sorrow snorted depressedly, wrote six numbers on a piece of paper, and handed it to the judge.

"Is six okay?" The judge still had to confirm with him as usual.

"Okay." Golden Mask of Sorrow replied.

"Okay." The judge looked at Jue Ge again, "Then… the guessing party for the second round, please make a round declaration now."

"One million." Feng Bujue didn't even think about it, and blurted out an extremely exaggerated number.

Hearing this number of rounds… the corners of the judge's mouth twitched twice, but he didn't say anything. Anyway, there were only 45 minutes of guessing time, and no matter how many rounds the guessing party had progressed to when the time was up, they would be completely defeated.

"Tch… I'll bet 1000 US dollars." Seeing this number of rounds, Golden Mask of Sorrow naturally didn't have to consider anything, and gave the minimum bet…

…………

Golden Mask of Sorrow was a very excellent person in mathematics, that is, the "fish that slipped through the net" mentioned in the previous text; shortly after reading the rules, he had already calculated the "optimal solution" of this game in his mind. And according to this optimal solution, as long as his luck wasn't too bad, there was a 90% chance that he could get the answer within eighteen rounds.

This… the organizers, as the game designers, were naturally very clear about this as well.

The formula for calculating fines, and the ante for betting on rounds, etc., were all designed on this basis.

Golden Mask of Sorrow saw through all of this… and thought that he had completely grasped the strategy of the entire "guess the number duel," which is why he challenged Jue Ge.

However… he still underestimated Feng Bujue, he didn't expect that the other party would decisively choose to surrender in the tenth round.

Jue Ge's choice was equivalent to declaring that he didn't intend to win money in this duel.

However, even if he lost money, he had to choose this way. This was a rational concession—minimizing losses, surviving, and then… counterattacking.

…………

The following development was basically the same as the first game.

Feng Bujue used nine rounds to find out the six numbers written by the other party.

And Golden Mask of Sorrow also chose to surrender in the tenth round, because he also understood… the opponent's chance of guessing the answer before the nineteenth round was very high, and dragging it to the 11-20 round range was very unfavorable.

As a result, the settlement amount for this round was… Golden Mask of Sorrow returned another 2981 US dollars to Jue Ge.

Back and forth, Golden Mask of Sorrow found that he had only won 40 US dollars after working for a long time… and also helped Feng Bujue consume the "second duel."

From this moment on, Feng Bujue had the right not to accept other people's "challenges."

"Tch—" After the second round, Golden Mask of Sorrow said to Jue Ge with a contemptuous tone, "What a boring man, but… it can be regarded as a good experiment." He pretentiously said, "At least it proves that if two people with comparable calculation abilities, who have both thoroughly understood the rules of the game, as long as the total amount of funds is not much different, this is roughly the result after the duel…"

After saying that, he waved his hand and turned around smartly: "That's it… Mr. Raven, it seems that we will have to wait until the next game to determine who is better…"

"Don't go." Unexpectedly, at this moment, Feng Bujue actually interrupted him, "Let's have another round."

These words made Golden Mask of Sorrow freeze in place.

"Heh…" In the next second, Feng Bujue's unsettling laughter sounded again, "I have already gone through two duels, but you have only experienced one, right?" He paused, "So, I'm challenging you now, and you can only accept the challenge."

Golden Mask of Sorrow swallowed, slowly turned around, and continued to pretend to be calm: "Hmph… Then I really have to thank you, are you here specifically to help me consume that 'second duel,' so that I can also avoid being challenged next?"

"No, I'm here to win your money." Feng Bujue replied calmly.

"Ha!" Golden Mask of Sorrow laughed drily, "Absurd!" He suddenly shouted, "Is there any difference between this round and the previous one?"

"There is…" Feng Bujue replied in a deep voice, "Just now, I played with you in the 'field of calculation' and learned about your second-rate nature… hehe…" He laughed strangely twice, "But now… it's time to invite you to play in the 'field of gambling.'"