"You're messing with me huh? Alright, I'll show you who ends up with a beautiful look on their face." Heeba repulsively replies.
"HAHAHA! I like that, give me your best shot."
She gathers all her cards in one line and starts aligning them randomly to change their order before Zephyr could draw his turn. He patiently awaits and tries to pick up on anything he notices.
Without saying a word, she puts the cards in front of her opponent.
He stretches his hand once again, in the exact same manner he did earlier, the same speed, and the same look in his eyes! He certainly looks like he has no apparent weakness, unlike her.
However, he notices something!
'…This time, her heartbeats are stable! Does she not feel nervous all of a sudden?
How come!
Maybe because it isn't her turn to pick the cards...'
His fingers finally lay down on a card, as he turns it in his way back. He is stunned to find out that it is the Joker card once again!!!
'What? How come!!" It is his eyes that are now wide open!
He quickly looks up towards her and she is not even smiling, nor has her heartbeat changed due to being happy or relieved!
Zephyr is perplexed and finds it difficult to understand the situation.
"…I don't know what trick you did, but I'll eventually figure it out." he addresses her.
"Good luck with that." Heeba confidently replies in a stone-cold manner.
Hanx keeps thinking to himself. '…No doubt in my mind she is using some sort of trick, there is no way she was faking the increase of her heartbeats, nor he facial expressions…
Unless! Unless she is one of us!!'
Zephyr takes a deeper look at his opponent, particularly her pupils. '…She does not have the same symptom as we do, but I am not totally sure that all Hybrid humans develop heterochromia. In fact, we encountered a case where someone had noticeably lower physical and mental enhanced abilities and yet did have the gene. Could she be like that?
Is she using the same trick I just used a moment ago? Very possible.'
Heeba's turn went by while Zephyr kept on discussing with himself, she picked a random card and consequently threw it away with its other pair in her hand.
'…Only 4 cards are left in her hand, this might end very soon if I don't do something about it. It still doesn't make sense how I have 6 of them in mine besides the joker card…. WAIT!'
He checks again, and finds out that he has two identical pairs all along!!?
'Impossible! Where did this one come from… I am more than certain this was another card I picked earlier!!' Zephyr cannot explain what is going on right now, while Heeba on the other hand is very calm and collected.
"Anti Minna?" asks Zephyr mysteriously!
Heeba raises her eyebrow in a sign of not understanding. "You said something?"
Zephyr stays silent for few moments.
"…Never mind."
'Assuming she didn't understand what I just said, she cannot be a hybrid. No one understands this gibberish I just spoke except me and Valvesteen! It is something we naturally developed as a second form of communication.' he tells himself.
'Actually, it doesn't matter if she is a hybrid or not, all I know is that she is using some sort of trick.'
Zephyr does not think it is by mere chance he drew the joker right after she did for one simple reason. The static electricity effect in his thumb has not faded away completely to the point where he cannot feel the slightest attraction to the joker card once he makes contact with it! He did not feel any while choosing the card.
'…There must be a correlation between the two events, I must get rid of these two identical cards or I might be violating the rules… But if so, the game settings would've ejected me already after my previous turn!
Right, the announcer did say the game won't call any cheating unless the players do.'
"How long are you going to make me wait?" Heeba abruptly asks, cutting off his stream thought.
Zephyr's look is slowly changing from his earlier cunning smirk to a pretty annoyed and edgy look, she is clearly getting on his nerves.
He prepares his cards for the next round. 'I must find out what type of trick is she using, I already have an idea but I must confirm it… Clearly, she did not find out about my earlier trick, let's try it once again…'
However, he does not actually use it to make her draw the joker card! But rather, he does it with the same card that he suspects has changed!!
Things go according to plan once again…
Few seconds later. 'There it is!! Her heartbeat has suddenly picked up again!
She is becoming nervous once again.
This may not tell me what trick she's using, but it confirms that the two events are corelated! Her reaction proves that things didn't go as she envisioned.'
Zephyr checks his deck immediately and is dumbfounded to find out the joker card has disappeared from his hand!!
'What?' He takes 2 seconds to think, and finally, the cunning smirk has returned, only that it is much larger this time.
"Now I get it!" He tells her.
Heeba. "Huh!? You get what?'
"Your trick, you're using illusion"
"…I don't know what you're talking about!" Her tone indicating frustration.
"There is no point in denying it, I already know about the illusive image skill, it has appeared on my challenges list.
It seems that you are ignorant of the fact that players of the same region undergo the same challenges" He explains.
"… So what? Who cares if you know about it, you still don't know how it works!"
"Only 30%"
"What?"
"Only about 30% of the mechanism that I have yet to figure out.
I already know that you need two things to happen in order to activate it, you masqueraded one card as another before you actually set up the illusion. Possibly, one must already put the other in a state of confusion so that the ability is actually activated."
Heeba is shocked to the point that she cannot hide it. "How?! How can you figure it out so quickly?
You must not be human!
Are you some sort of a cyborg!?"
Zephyr laughs a little. "… Cyborgs are nothing special, most humans now are actual cyborgs.
I am far superior to such thing, did you forget who Zephyr Hanx really is?"
Heeba suddenly feels heat taking over her body, her natural instincts have awakened in the presence of such charismatic and intelligent man! She was already a fan before this, but to be sitting in front of the genius himself is a whole other experience, even If it is in a virtual competitive context.
"So, shall we continue the game, or will you kindly give up and make it easier for daddy?" Zephyr ironically asks, with his face rested on the palm of his hand and some hair strains on his face.
Being a womanizer, Zephyr has learnt the art of mind control and manipulation through his physical and mental appeal. The crazy part is that he is not doing it consciously anymore, this is how he normally acts at this point!
She's already losing her focus; she subconsciously realizes that she cannot defeat him in these mind games. However, to save some face… "Let's just continue the game until the end, I might defeat you someway" she proposes.
"Hahahaha! You're a funny one, I like you!
Alright sure, let's keep on going, I have more tricks to test."
Heeba. "So you actually used a trick!?"
Zephyr. "Don't try, I am not telling you so you can expose it and take the win."
"Ugh! No, I was not planning to do that."
"Yeah, yeah sure! Anyways, it is my turn, isn't it?"
After few rounds, Zephyr managed to avoid the joker card each time because he understood the pattern that Heeba uses. The card that sets up the whole thing is always the one he drew in the prior round, therefore, it is enough to always make her draw it back everytime, to the point she started whinning about it.
"Damn it!! Why do I always draw the same card each time!!
You are the one using some kind of trick because no matter from where I choose it is the same one!!"
"Aha I am, now you must figure out what is it.
Actually, I tried two ways so far, and I have a third one in mind too." His tone keeps on getting more arrogant.
"But unfortunately, time has run out.
Now watch this."
Zephyr's final turn has come, as a final attempt to win, Heeba deactivates the illusion ability, which throws off the pattern that Zephyr has previously gotten used to.
'He's reaching out where the Joker card is!! Is he going to end up taking it at the very end!!' Heeba gets excited at the thought of winning in such fashion!
Simultaneously, Zephyr's eyes started to light up, signifying reaching the full potential of his senses.
His acute sense of hearing has now made the sound of Heeba's increasing heartbeat resemble that of drums being played.
Suddenly, he starts singing in his mind one of his favorite songs…
'…Just when you think you're in
Take a look again,
Illusions slowly fading.
It must be truly disturbing.
That against such specimen
How impossible it is to win…'
Zephyr ends up taking the Joker card at last!! He has lost!!!
Heeba could not hold in her happiness and let out a screaming victory!
Zephyr then goes to throw all his cards, none are left in his hand!
Something is not clicking… If he truly drew the joker card, then how did he finish already?
The Narrative Voice announces:
· The winner of this round is: Zephyr Hanx
Heeba cannot comprehend what has happened! She looks down to her card, it is the Joker card!!
"IMPOSSIBLE!! THIS IS CHEATING!!" She yells out furiously.
Zephyr calmly lays back and talks all mighty to his opponent. "Calm down! If you call this cheating, then you have been cheating all along.
That is because I have used the same exact trick as you do!"
"What!? Do you have the same ability??
B..but you said you haven't figured it out yet!!"
"I did say that, but why did you assume that it means I don't possess the same skill in my arsenal? Especially after I mentioned that it appeared on my challenge list.
Funny thing is I did not get it through the challenge, it just happened to be in one of my previous opponents' arsenals that I obtained after defeating them but had no opportunity to use or discover.
When I said that you might be using it, it was still a guess, but your reply confirmed it to me. Besides that, if you weren't using it, you would've simply called the fact that I was violating the rules when I refused to get rid of the two identical cards, resulting in my loss. Of course, you cannot do that if you are the one actually causing it to happen, It won't be considered cheating since it's part of the game itself.
In conclusion, I discovered the ability through you, and I used it on you at the very end.
This is the difference between a cyborg… and a human in his final forms of evolution."