143 Hikigaya: I Am Not Exactly a Demon Either
Demon.
This guy must be a demon!
Miharutaki Sakura felt as if she had fallen into an ice cavern. Boundless malice from the depths of the human heart surged toward her, seemingly intent on devouring her whole.
Her pure and kind heart had never imagined that a person's mind could be so filthy.
She had never hesitated to show her goodwill, hoping to bridge the immense chasm that separated people. In her mind, no matter how vile someone was, they could be moved by her sincerity, resulting in a harmonious "everyone gets along" ending to the gamble.
But Hikigaya's actions completely shattered her expectations.
It even made her regret ever choosing to gamble with such an irredeemable piece of trash, regret trying to reform or save him, and regret proposing a bet that, if he lost, would have allowed him to stay at the school to continue his studies under the condition of giving up gambling...
"How about it, Miharutaki-senpai? Now that you know my wager, do you feel regret?"
Hikigaya Hachiman spoke calmly, his words striking Miharutaki's heart like a heavy hammer.
"In this situation, do you still dare to gamble with me? Still dare to uphold that laughable, naive sense of justice of yours?"
"Wow, Hachiman, you're seriously nasty," said Yomozuki Runa with a fearful look, hugging her knees on her chair and trembling.
Of course, she was only playing along with Hikigaya's performance.
This way, Sakura's internal struggle would be even greater. Yomozuki Runa loved seeing the beauty of the human heart struggling before falling into the abyss!
'Can I... really dare to?'
Miharutaki Sakura rarely fell into such confusion. She had only entered this gamble for Aoi's sake.
But with such stakes... if she lost, she would never be able to return to Aoi's side.
No... maybe she could, but she would have to fully cooperate with Hikigaya's "performance" to possibly fool Aoi.
Clenching her delicate fists, Miharutaki Sakura looked at Hikigaya Hachiman with pure eyes now filled with undisguised disgust:
"Then let's do it!"
She did not believe she would lose. But she deeply regretted not seeing Hikigaya Hachiman's filthy true face earlier—had she realized, she would have changed the wager to expel him from the school.
'There's no saving someone like him!'
'I misjudged, but there won't be a second time.'
'Hikigaya Hachiman, this will be your last gamble at Hyakkaou Academy.'
"Good, good, good! Senpai's decisiveness is truly impressive."
Hikigaya clapped his hands, looking at Miharutaki Sakura even more brazenly, as if she were already his private livestock.
Even though he meant every word he said and fully intended to carry out those actions, he still felt respect for Miharutaki Sakura deep inside.
'This woman… she's basically an upgraded version of Suzui Ryota.'
'Excellent gambling skills, but an almost foolish sense of justice… it's lucky she ran into me.'
Hikigaya's only target was Mibuomi Aoi.
Since it was a performance, he needed to act with full force. To keep the "actors" in character, Hikigaya had to play the role of a complete scumbag, thus making Miharutaki naturally disgusted with him.
Only by doing so would she later fulfill the terms of the bet naturally, causing Mibuomi Aoi to start doubting her.
As the saying goes, "An actress without a sense of shame is not a good actress."
Hikigaya intended to release Miharutaki Sakura after completing the three steps he previously mentioned.
In a way, he thought he was doing her a favor: making her betray Mibuomi Aoi.
It wasn't even particularly cruel in his eyes.
"Well then, let's have Chairwoman Yomozuki design the gambling game."
Both of them simultaneously turned to look at Yomozuki Runa.
The next move would be decided by this absolutely neutral dealer.
Yomozuki Runa stuffed another lollipop into her small cherry mouth and fished around in her pocket, pulling out two coins.
"Ara~ I didn't prepare any special props. How about we play a coin-toss gambling game!"
Coin toss gambling?
Miharutaki Sakura slightly furrowed her brow.
Was it going to be just guessing heads or tails?
That would be fair but completely devoid of skill—purely leaving one's fate up to a coin, which would be the dullest type of gambling.
As if reading Sakura's doubts,
Yomozuki Runa quickly explained:
"Of course not that boring heads-or-tails guessing!"
"We'll play a game called 'Extreme Dice'!"
Ta-da! Yomizuki raised a shiny die and loudly announced the game rules:
• A sight-blocking partition will be set up between the two players; neither can see the other's dice rolls.
• There will be a total of 10 rounds.
• If you roll 1 to 5, you gain +1 point per roll.
• But if you roll a 6, all your accumulated points are reset to zero, and you can no longer gain points. However, you must continue rolling until the game ends.
• At any point, if you believe that either you will roll a 6 on the next turn, or that your opponent already has, you can shout "STOP."
• Once you shout "STOP," your score freezes and you can no longer roll.
• The game ends when both players have shouted "STOP" or both have rolled a 6.
• The player with the higher score wins!
• Only one round will be played.
One round to determine the winner!
"How about it? Pretty thrilling, right!"
Yomozuki Runa grinned like a little devil.
It was a gambling format she had just thought up on the spot.
For two calculation-savvy gambling masters, mathematical skill would barely matter here.
Because anyone with basic math knowledge could easily figure out the probability of rolling a 6:
• 1 roll: 16.6% chance
• 2 rolls: 31.6% chance
• 3 rolls: 43.2% chance
• 4 rolls: 51.7% chance
• 5 rolls: 59.8% chance…
In other words, after the third roll, the chance of failure already exceeded 50%.
It was almost like flipping a coin:
• Rolling 1–5 is "heads,"
• Rolling a 6 is "tails."
Thus, the game would rely purely on luck and mind reading.
It was a fierce psychological battle under tremendous pressure: once a 6 was rolled, a player could only pray their opponent had also rolled a 6, or rely on acting to bluff them...
It was a complete tightrope walk of the mind!
This wasn't just gambling anymore—it was a test of endurance and courage!
And these two individuals specialized in the least interesting field: calculation.
"Since both of you are so confident you'll win, and you both have unavoidable reasons to win, this psychological showdown will definitely be fun to watch~"
Yomozuki Runa licked her lips in anticipation.
She couldn't wait to see who would be the first to crack under the enormous psychological pressure.