Chapter 485: The Game

“Have you ever played turn-based combat games?” Evelyn asked out of nowhere, a sly smile on her face.

“Uhh… A few, I guess. I wasn’t much of a gamer,” Rael replied. “Are we going to take turns fighting?”

“Yes and no.” Evelyn shook her head. “What do you think beats paper?”

Rael raised a brow. “Scissors?”

“Well yes, but be more creative,” Evelyn urged. “Say, what could beat paper?”

He was pretty sure he knew where she was going with this, so he decided to match her energy.

“A nuclear bomb.”

“Um…” Evelyn froze, processing his words, then nodded. “It does beat it by a large margin, but then I choose an indestructible mecha suit. Boom, I survive the nuke, and now it’s your turn.”

She enthusiastically pointed her finger at him, waiting for his response.

Rael thought for a moment, then gave the most basic response he could come up with.

“How about a focused beam of sunlight directly at the pilot seat? You’d melt from the inside. Oh, and if you go for something along the lines of inner thermal control panels, then I will trigger an EMP to disable your mecha suit.”

Rael smirked. “No creation is perfect, and you would need to switch from a mecha suit to something else.”

However…

“My armor is powered by light. Or maybe, my armor reflects light. In the end, we would be at a stalemate unless I trick you, so you’re right, I would need to switch.” Evelyn glanced around the arena.

“But you seem to understand the game now, so let’s play it. However, it’ll be slightly different, as I mentioned.”

All of a sudden, a sheet of paper materialized out of thin air and fell to the ground. It didn’t take him long to realize where she was going with this.

“We will each have a limit of 10,000 Mental Integrity. The goal is to drain the other person’s Mental Integrity down to 0. Oh, and before you say it’s unfair, the only advantage I have over you is my experience, at least in this game,” Evelyn added, facing him again.

“But I won’t use my experience. I will limit myself to basic knowledge that most humans know to make it fair. That’s my handicap. And, as I promised, if you win, I will teach you how to set up Mental Barriers so your Mental Integrity doesn’t get drained as fast.”

“One question. I only have 3,429 Mental Integrity, so how am I—”

<Evelyn ??? has temporarily gifted you 10,000 Mental Integrity>

<Evelyn ??? has created a domain, limiting everyone’s Mental Integrity to 10,000>

He felt a soothing sensation wash over his mind, and soon enough, she spoke again.

“Is that enough?” Evelyn giggled and began to stretch, as if taunting him.

I’m really not that confident… Rael thought with a sigh. Even if she claims to not have many advantages… This is definitely not her first time playing this kind of game. And if I want to beat her, I must outsmart her.

And as she already made it clear earlier, the Supreme Monsters were not pushovers. They were nearly impossible to outsmart, at least not in Rael’s current case.

But as if understanding his troubles, Evelyn soon spoke up.

“You may not win, but in games like these, unpredictability is the key to victory. How you deal with it is up to you. Anyhow, are you ready to start?”

When she finished speaking, he spotted Gaia walking over to the side and forming a seat out of tree branches before sitting down alongside the Angel Egg.

She sent a smile his way, then gave him a thumbs up, encouraging him silently.

Seeing that, Rael heaved a tired breath and glanced back at Evelyn before finally nodding.

“Do you want to start first?” Evelyn asked with a cold glint in her eyes.

Hmm… If I go first, then I can dictate the momentum. But in turn, she would analyze me right off the bat, unless I start off slow…

But on the other hand, if he were to let her go first, he could react to everything, which would mean he’s constantly on the defensive, not dictating the pace.

In the end, the first move was everything, and if she went the slow route, then his advantage would be taken in an instant.

But as his thoughts continued to spin, Evelyn chuckled from the side.

“It doesn’t matter which one you pick, the beginning would all be the same. You can’t tilt the match in your favor just by going first or second. You can only reduce your Mental Integrity expenditure early on, which doesn’t matter much as the game will ramp up incredibly fast,” Evelyn commented.

“Fine. Then you go first,” Rael said, finally making up his mind. “And since I know you already have the whole game played out inside your mind, let’s add a time limit. We’ll each have 10 seconds per turn.”

“Oh? Do you think that would work in your favor?” Evelyn asked, amused. “I don’t mind, but I feel like you’re digging a hole for yourself before we even started.”

“No need to worry about me,” Rael said, shaking his head.

And after seeing his determination, Evelyn went ahead and started the game.

Smiling, Evelyn took a few steps back, and then, without hesitation, she summoned a single pebble right in front of him.

<Evelyn ???’s Mental Integrity: 10,000% → 9,999%>

She stared at him expectantly. However, Rael was now a little puzzled about the rules.

All he had to do was drain her Mental Integrity, and in order to do so, he needed to create something that would beat a pebble.

But the more he thought about it, the more his confusion grew.

That was until finally, he took a few slow steps forward, arriving in front of the pebble. This update is available on noⅴelfire.net

Then, while maintaining eye contact with Evelyn, he stomped down on the pebble, crushing it beneath his feet and flashing another smile at Evelyn.

“It’s your turn again.”

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.