"Turtle draw. It's a simple game. No problem, right?"
Naoki turned to Kaguro. "You lost five hundred thousand playing turtle draw just now?"
Kaguro nodded sheepishly. "Guess my luck was terrible. I kept drawing the turtle. I remembered it as a kids' game I used to play, so I thought I'd give it a shot."
The moment Naoki heard that, she knew Aipuxin was up to her old tricks. Unless someone had exceptional observational skills, turtle draw was a game of chance. Losing over and over? Clearly fishy.
Aipuxin wasn't particularly skilled at gambling either. Was she marking cards? Or using some other method?
Either way, she wouldn't know for sure until she played.
"Alright then, what are the rules?"
Aipuxin had a table brought in, pushing together desks to form a makeshift gaming table. She pulled out a deck of cards and began selecting them.
"Twenty pairs from 2 to Ace. Ten cards each. Plus one Joker as the turtle. Just like the standard game: whoever ends up holding the turtle loses. Simple enough, right?"
Aipuxin flashed a sugary smile. "If you want to win the money back, you'll need to wager five hundred thousand."
Naoki hadn't yet figured out how Aipuxin was cheating and tried to lower the stakes. "Let's play for a hundred thousand."
"Nope," Aipuxin replied sweetly. "I only agreed to this because you said you'd help Hanatemari win back her losses."
Naoki wanted to end the game quickly—which made her all the more certain Aipuxin was using a trick. After all, the more you use a gimmick, the easier it is to get caught.
"Fine. Let's go with five hundred thousand." Naoki had no real choice.
If she bailed now and Hanatemari's favorability dropped, that would be a serious setback.
Ultimately, her mission wasn't to win—it was to win over the girls.
Most students at the academy only gambled in ten- or twenty-thousand increments. A five-hundred-thousand wager was significant even by student standards.
The class quickly gathered around to watch the match.
Naoki picked up the cards laid on the table by Aipuxin and examined them. Nothing seemed off, but she couldn't shake her doubts.
Aipuxin had a history. Who knew what she was hiding this time?
"The cards are fine, you know. But if you're worried, you can use your own," Aipuxin offered sweetly.
Naoki didn't stand on ceremony. She had Kaguro fetch a new deck from the neighboring class.
"We'll use dice to decide who gets the turtle card and who goes first. No objections?"
Naoki nodded.
The dice roll showed Naoki would start with the Joker.
In two-player turtle draw, each player gets ten single cards numbered 1 to 10. You take turns drawing from each other's hands, forming pairs and discarding them. Victory depends entirely on avoiding the turtle.
Naoki shuffled her hand and held it up. Aipuxin would draw first.
With eleven cards in her hand, the odds of drawing the Joker were low.
Aipuxin didn't hesitate long. She pulled the third card—a 7—and paired it with her own, discarding them.
Now Naoki had ten cards; Aipuxin had nine.
Naoki's turn. Any draw would make a pair. She pulled one card, matched it, and reduced her hand.
And so it went, round after round.
Eventually, Naoki was down to just three cards. The Joker was still with her—it had never been drawn.
Aipuxin's turn again. If she didn't pull the Joker this round, and Naoki managed to draw Aipuxin's final single card, she'd be left with only the Joker—and lose.
Naoki stared hard at the Joker. No marks. Nothing unusual.
In fact, Aipuxin hadn't even touched the card from the start. No chance to mark it.
Which meant—only one explanation remained: surveillance.
With the Joker's location known, Aipuxin could easily avoid it.
The likeliest scenario? Someone among the bystanders was signaling the card's position. A human camera.
But unless Naoki could catch the cheater in the act, it was meaningless. That was the rule of this academy—accusations needed evidence. And whoever it was, they were likely hidden just out of her line of sight.
"Aipuxin, your luck is insane. If this keeps up, I'm going to lose," Naoki muttered.
Realizing the situation, Naoki moved her remaining three cards under the desk and gave them a blind shuffle, then laid them face-down on the table.
Even she no longer knew which was the Joker.
Now there was no way to read her expression, no way to cheat. It was pure luck.
Aipuxin's smile faltered. "Naoki, what are you doing?"
"Whether the cards are upright or face-down doesn't matter to you, right?"
Aipuxin hesitated, then picked the card on the left.
It was a 5.
No Joker.
She lost.
Naoki's face went blank, as if her soul had been sucked out.
Was her gambling luck really this bad?
Aipuxin burst out laughing and slapped her matching pair down on the table. "Well, Naoki? Looks like I won."
"That means you now owe me another five hundred thousand."
"There's no way you can pay that off. By the end of the month, both you and Hanatemari will be livestock."
The more she spoke, the more theatrical her expression became. "But Naoki, considering our past, I'll make you an offer: become my personal livestock. That way, at least others won't bully you."
Laughter erupted around the classroom. The other students' gazes turned contemptuous.
Losers without the ability to pay back their debt weren't seen as fellow students anymore.
System: Congratulations. You completed the gamble "Turtle Draw" against Aipuxin. Although you lost, you detected the likelihood of cheating and took steps to counter it. Gained 2 EXP.
Tears welled in Hanatemari's eyes and rolled down her pale cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Naoki. You only lost this much because of me…"
System: Due to your loss and the risk of becoming livestock, Hanatemari feels deeply guilty. Her favorability has increased by 5.
Naoki: ...
Honestly, if she'd won, the favorability might not have gone up this much.
For someone as pure and kind as Hanatemari, suffering seemed to generate more affection than success.
Naoki's foul mood eased slightly thanks to the rising affection meter.
She sighed and spent 2 EXP points to draw cards.
System: Congratulations. You've drawn the special ability card "Devil's Hand." When used, your fingers will become as dexterous as tentacles during your next gamble, enabling high-level feats such as card stealing or switching.
System: Congratulations. You've drawn the special ability card "Try Again." If dissatisfied with the outcome of a gamble, you may use this card before system resolution to replay it. (Note: This can also be used on gambles you're not participating in.)
Finally! After a streak of eleven seduction cards, she pulled two powerful gambling skills. Though for turtle draw, x-ray vision would've been the strongest.
Still, the Devil's Hand... just might do the trick.
"Aipuxin, let's go one more round." Naoki reached under the desk—or rather, into the system space—and pulled out a stack of crisp bills totaling one million yen.
This was an emergency. She had to tap into her reserves. If she couldn't max out a character's affection, she wouldn't be able to leave. In that case, the money was meaningless.
She slapped the thick wad onto the table. "I've got one million yen right here. Unless you take all of it, you can't turn me into livestock."
Aipuxin stared, stunned. "How do you have that kind of money?"
Naoki was a scholarship student. She'd been broke at the end of yesterday's game. How did she suddenly have a million?
Naoki shrugged. "A big sister gave it to me." If anyone dug into it, she'd just blame Yumeko Jabami.
A woman gave Naoki money?
Aipuxin's face twisted. So Naoki had already been snatched up by someone else—and she was rich, too?
Unforgivable.
Just imagining Naoki getting pampered by another woman made Aipuxin lose her mind with jealousy.
She had to make Naoki her personal livestock. Things would only spiral otherwise.
Drunk on jealousy, Aipuxin agreed to the match without thinking.
"Fine. Let's wager a million."
…
The dice roll gave Naoki the Joker again—but that didn't matter now.
Aipuxin assumed Naoki had only shuffled under the desk last round because she suspected cheating. But this time, Naoki held her cards upright again for Aipuxin to pick.
Aipuxin didn't hesitate. She quickly caught a hand signal from her informant—sixth card was the Joker.
She picked anything else.
The game played out almost identically to the previous round. Joker still with Naoki.
This time, Naoki went first. As they neared the endgame, Naoki was down to two cards: the Joker and one single. Aipuxin had one single left.
If Aipuxin picked the non-Joker, she'd win.
She looked at Naoki—lip tightly pressed, body trembling slightly. Clearly panicked.
Seeing that fear solidified Aipuxin's confidence.
Her spy signaled: Joker was on the far left.
Aipuxin reached confidently toward the right-hand card.
Soon, Naoki would be hers. And that pathetic, weepy Hanatemari—once livestock, she could toy with her however she liked.
The thought of Naoki gambling so much for someone so weak made Aipuxin burn with envy.
She didn't even process the card she pulled—her mind was busy fantasizing about what came next.
Until she saw the Joker in her hand.
Impossible.
Aipuxin's gaze snapped toward her spy—cold, accusatory, full of disbelief.
Only one explanation: betrayal. The person she controlled with debt had betrayed her.
But now wasn't the time to explode.
Naoki's smile widened. "What's wrong, Aipuxin? Feeling unlucky now that you've drawn the Joker?"
Just before Aipuxin's draw, Naoki had activated the Devil's Hand, switching the two cards in 0.03 seconds—far faster than human eyes could perceive.
In that brief instant, her fingers truly felt like tentacles. Inhumanly agile.
"The game isn't over," Aipuxin said coldly.
True. Naoki still had to draw Aipuxin's card.
But as long as the Devil's Hand buff remained, Naoki could ensure Aipuxin always drew the Joker—and she never would.
All that was left was how long the game dragged on.
Naoki didn't hesitate. She reached into Aipuxin's hand and flipped the card.
A single.
She'd won.
System: Congratulations. You've successfully completed the gamble "Turtle Draw" against Aipuxin by using a special skill at a critical moment. Gained 1 EXP.
Aipuxin slumped across the table. She couldn't understand. How did she lose even while cheating? Oh, right—that spy betrayed her!
"One million should cancel out my and Hanatemari's debts, yeah?" Naoki rose from her seat.
She'd managed things perfectly—not actually winning Aipuxin's money. That way, Aipuxin's favorability hadn't dropped.
Some targets didn't care about money—you could win freely. Others? Very petty.
Naoki was sure Aipuxin was the petty kind.
Hanatemari rushed up, eyes sparkling. "Naoki, you won!"
"And you even paid off my debt—I don't know how to repay you."
System: Because you won and cleared her debt, Hanatemari is deeply grateful. Favorability increased by 5!
System: Hanatemari Kaguro's favorability has reached 22. Orange mystery box awarded.
"I just transferred here… Kaguro, could we be friends?"
"Of course! Actually… I should've asked that first…"
Before entering this academy, Kaguro had always been popular for her kind heart and beauty.
But here, academic and artistic talent meant nothing. Without gambling skills, no one cared. Naturally, she had no friends.
Seeing her like this, Naoki knew—this girl already saw her as someone important.
From here on, building favorability would be a slow and steady journey.