Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 196 Spades·Immortality Fragment
When fate leads you to the only path to survival
Do you still dare to question whether the key in your hand is real or fake?

Or perhaps you've already forgotten.
You are the key yourself.

The hall was silent.

The moment the S-rank challenge notification sounded, it was as if the entire gray and white world froze.

Even though the "Bull Hammer" challenge that Vera's team had just overcome was still terrifying, it was a challenge with rules to follow and protection to rely on.

This time, it was one person—

Facing the ultimate judgment of the "system" alone.

Challenger: Si Ming

[Difficulty Level: S]

Project Code Name: Spade - Immortal Fragment

The air seemed to be instantly bound together by invisible chains, cold as ice and heavy as iron. No one spoke; even breathing seemed to have vanished.

Wang Yichen frowned deeply, staring intently at the array projection rising in the challenge area, his voice almost cracking: "He's challenging an S-rank all by himself? Are you kidding me?"

Eileen suddenly covered her mouth, almost unable to breathe: "He...he's going to die, isn't he?"

Mu Sisi stared blankly at the slowly opening star of fate in the center of the card table, and murmured softly, "This is... the gambler's final stage?"

Vera remained calm, her gaze as still and undisturbed as a lake.

Zhuang Yege stood to one side, his eyes lowered, as if he were silently weighing some unknown balance.

And Celian smiled.

She stood gracefully with her arms crossed, a smile playing on her lips, her long, fiery golden-red hair cascading over her shoulders. She said softly, "Master, it's finally your turn to perform."

The tone was as if an audience who had waited an entire century had finally witnessed their own one-act play.

Si Ming walked out slowly.

His movements were not fast, but they possessed an almost divine composure.

He remained calm, his hands in his pockets, his cloak fluttering gently, as if he were not facing a life-or-death situation, but rather walking towards a familiar gambling table.

His gaze swept lightly over Wang Yichen's corner, his eyes carrying no hostility, yet making it impossible for Wang Yichen to look back.

He stood still.

The system notification sounded, cold and ruthless, like fate reading out an execution order.

In the center of the card table, twelve blurry human faces are carved, their features distorted, their mouths agape in silent wails;
In the center is a huge single-eyed relief, twitching slightly on the edge of closing and opening—as if "fate itself" is watching the only gambler on the stage.

Then, she appeared.

Naga serpent monster.

She didn't appear from some institution, but rather—she rose up.

Like an ancient god who has been sleeping in the abyss for thousands of years slowly awakening, her body is covered in scales as dark as night, and her serpentine body coils around the entire gambling table like a mountain.

Six pale, corpse-like arms gently spread open the gambling table, each finger bone as sharp as a blade.

Her face was hidden by long hair and a metallic veil, revealing only a pair of eerie green eyes that held mockery, longing, and something unspeakable—appetite.

She spoke, her voice low and husky yet alluring, like velvet tearing through the night:
"A gambler with a thousand faces... truly a rare find."

"Welcome to my hand territory."

The system will then update the rules accordingly:

【Spades - Undying Fragment - Rules as follows】

—This challenge consists of five rounds;

—In each round, the Naga will shuffle the cards and reveal several decks of cards;

—There is only one Ace of Spades in the entire game;

—You choose one card each round; choosing the Ace of Spades means you are safe.
—If you make the wrong choice in any of the five rounds, you will be eliminated.

——每轮牌数依次增加为：52张、104张、156张、208张、260张。

At this moment, the observation area fell completely silent.

Rudolf's face was ashen, and he muttered, "From a mathematical point of view... this is an impossible task. The probability... even gambling wouldn't dare to gamble like this."

Wang Yichen gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead. He didn't know if he was angry, envious, or fearful. But he knew very well:

—If it were him standing there, he would probably have collapsed by now.

Mu Sisi's lips parted slightly, her eyes filled with shock and reverence: "This is not a challenge, this is a judgment of humanity by the gods..."

The audience seats finally fell into complete silence.

Because everyone has come to understand a cruel truth:

This trial offers no protection, no skills, and no way out.

The God of Fate must win all five rounds—

Only then can one walk off the gambling table alive.

At that moment, all eyes were on him.

He simply raised his hand quietly, touched the corner of the playing card on his sleeve, and seemed to chuckle softly:
"Finally, it's my turn to reveal this cheat's hand."

"Round 1."

"start."

The hall fell silent once more, with only the countdown ticking silently in the air, as if fate were drawing its bow.

Si Ming simply chuckled.

He slowly extended one hand and tapped the edge of the table twice with his fingertips. The sound was not loud, but it was like the tolling of a bell to signal the start of a gambling game, echoing in everyone's hearts.

"Poker?" he said lazily, like a gambler who had just woken up. "Too easy."

Naga tilted her head slightly, her snake tail coiling and wriggling on the ground. Her six arms moved subtly, seemingly intrigued by this utterly disrespectful attitude.

Si Ming glanced at the system casually, a nonchalant smile playing on his lips.

"So simple...it's making me a little sleepy."

Before he finished speaking, he pulled a black eye mask from his pocket and lightly put it on his eyes.

The movements were graceful and without hesitation, as if it were some kind of pre-planned ritual.

There was an uproar.

"He's crazy……"

"Blind selection? Are you kidding me?"

"Blindfolded selection of the Ace of Spades? Does he think this is a script?"

Si Ming seemed not to hear the sounds around him, and didn't even look at anyone directly.

He simply chuckled softly, looked up, his blindfolded face turned forward, and his tone carried a chilling composure:

"Do not misunderstand."

"I just want to remind you of something."

He slowly extended his right hand, fingers spread, palm facing upward, as if summoning the breath of the wind:
"In the Mysterious Garden, in Angel's Tears, in any of the top casinos in the Sea of ​​Dreams—no one dares to call themselves the 'best gambler'."

He paused, then changed the subject, his smile deepening.

"Because I haven't left the poker table yet."

Everyone was speechless. He added softly:
“If I can’t even draw the Ace of Spades in a deck of cards, then I don’t deserve to be called ‘Master of Fate’.”

The air suddenly turned frigid, as if some invisible law of the game had been awakened.

He slowly raised his left hand and placed it on the gambling table, while his right index finger gently traced lines in the air, as if sensing the flow of air or playing a silent melody.

"Come on, Miss Naga."

"You are the 'hand' at the poker table."

"And I am—the thumb of fate."

The snake woman chuckled softly, her laughter carrying a sticky, dangerous undertone.

With six arms moving in unison, the deck of cards swirled and flipped like a vortex, and countless playing cards flew, rearranged, and rolled in the air like a snowstorm of paper pages.

On the table, 52 cards are like an array engraved with fate, with distorted patterns, blurred numbers, and flickering double images, dazzling the eyes.

A murmur emanated from the depths of the card spread:

"Did you hear them talking?"

The God of Fate did not answer.

Beneath his lowered eyelids, a very faint smile played at the corners of his lips.

He heard it.

It wasn't the sound of the cards.

It is fate that is breathing.

He stretched out his hand.

That hand was like an anchor piercing through the fog, landing precisely amidst countless possibilities.

Without the slightest hesitation or doubt.

His fingertips tapped steadily and lightly on a card.

"Round 1."

"ended."

He uttered those four words softly, like the night breeze passing through the card table.

He slowly ran his finger across the card, his movements deliberate, like a lover gently stroking his cheek upon waking.

Then, without hesitation, I lifted it.

The card flips over, the ink leaps up, and white light emanates.

Spades – Ace.

Everyone in the audience stopped breathing.

That indifferent card cut through reality like a sharp blade, as if fate itself were raising a toast to the gambler.

"He...he really chose him?"

"Blindfolded... in the first round... he won the Ace of Spades in the blind pick?"

"Isn't this cheating? How could this be?"

"He really did it... He succeeded in the blind selection!!!"

Mu Sisi screamed in shock.

The Naga remained silent for a moment, its eerie green pupils contracting slightly.

Then, she raised her hand and clapped softly. The sound was elegant and slow, like the sincere tribute of an ancient nobleman to a magnificent performance.

"He can discern the shuffling pattern by sound alone and pinpoint the position of the Ace of Spades... The 'Thousand-Faced Gambler' truly lives up to his name."

Rudolf finally realized what was happening. He raised his head, and for the first time, his voice carried genuine respect:
"Indeed... there is a type of gambler who specializes in 'the art of waiting for the right hand'. They train their hearing, memorize the shuffling rhythm of each set of cards, and use touch, breeze, or even air movement to judge the cutting point and landing point of the cards."

"It sounds like a myth... but just now, he did it."

“He’s not lying—he’s listening.”

"Listen to the rhythm of fate."

—First round, a complete victory.

Si Ming slowly removed his blindfold, smiled, and raised an eyebrow at the system in the air.

"what's next?"

"I haven't warmed up yet."

Naga chuckled, flicked her finger, and the first deck of cards slid into the void like falling snow, without a sound.

Immediately, the second deck of cards spun out, and under the control of her six hands, it seemed to transform into an overwhelming storm of playing cards.

Two decks of cards intertwine and merge in the air, each shuffle carrying a speed and displacement that is difficult to detect with the naked eye, the trajectory of each card intertwined like an illusion, leaving no trace.

She placed the combined deck of cards on the table, her snake-like tail slightly curled, leaned forward, and whispered in a hoarse voice:

This is the second round.

She deliberately pulled the Ace of Spades from the deck, her long, pale fingernails slowly tracing its surface, like a lover's fingertips brushing against an old wound, and then—with a snap—stuffed it into the mixed deck.

"Are you still planning to keep your eyes closed?" She raised an eyebrow, her voice filled with undisguised provocation.

In the observation area, Rudolf subconsciously gripped his pen and calmly said, "A deck of cards, you can still catch the trajectory by listening."
But with two... the variables double, and the superimposed images multiply, the error rate of auditory recognition increases exponentially. If he still wears the blindfold, that's not confidence, that's... suicide.

Wang Yichen sneered, his tone full of sarcasm: "I thought he was going to keep playing tricks, but it turns out he's nothing special."

Meanwhile, Si Ming was leisurely removing his blindfold, shaking it, and slinging it back over his shoulder, replying in a nonchalant tone:
"I'm not that stupid."

He stared expressionlessly at the deck of cards being shuffled, but a strange sharpness gradually crept into his eyes.

The Naga's six arms were like the eye of a storm; the trajectory of the cards flying through the air had become blurred into lines, and these lines transformed in her hands into an unfathomable totem.

The deck of cards fell.

A total of 104 playing cards were laid out on the table like snowflakes in a disordered array.

The God of Fate did not act immediately.

His gaze swept across the card array, as if he were "listening" with his eyes—listening to the lingering airflow between the cards, to the trajectory of each fold, and the soft sound brought out by each friction.

Suddenly, he smiled.

The smile was understated, yet extremely dazzling, like a ray of moonlight piercing a nightmare in the midnight sea.

"But as for the shuffling skills..." he sighed softly, his fingertips tracing the table, "they don't even rank among the best in the casinos I've been to."

Before he finished speaking, he made his move.

His gaze was like a sharp blade, and his fingertips were like eagle claws.

In the sea of ​​cards, his fingers darted out with lightning speed, precisely flipping over one of them—

Ace of Spades.

silence.

Extremely short-lived.

Then, the observation area exploded completely.

"...Oh my god."

"How can this be?"

"Is it a coincidence? No, this is no longer a matter of probability..."

Is he human?

Mu Sisi's eyes widened; even Zhuang Yege raised an eyebrow for the first time, gazing at the flipped-over card.

Rudolf stared blankly at Si Ming, muttering to himself, "This is... the pinnacle of extreme eyesight and nerve reflexes."

He caught every subtle misalignment in the deck… This wasn't human gambling skill, but… the precise calculation of fate.

Wang Yichen was now speechless. His lips twitched, trying to laugh, but he found his muscles were frozen. He finally realized—

This person isn't faking it.

He could actually identify a card using his "hearing." Now, it's about using "eyes" to kill off probability.

Si Ming shrugged, as if he had just finished a trivial game of cards.

“104 images,” he said casually. “They’re still barely legible.”

Naga slowly sat up straight, her snake tail swaying slightly. She finally stopped smiling, and for the first time, a certain...respect appeared in her eerie green eyes.

“The third round,” she whispered.

This time, her voice was less mocking and more solemn.

Round three.

Naga slowly pushed the third deck of cards towards Siming, her six arms tracing strange arcs in the air like tentacles.
Like some mysterious creature with a multidimensional structure, it is manipulating a cosmic ritual that mortals cannot comprehend.

The playing cards swirled like a whirlwind, their aerial trajectories no longer following regular parabolas, but rather resembling an ancient totem repeatedly twisting and rearranging in three-dimensional space.

The sound of each shuffling of the cards seemed to strike the very edge of everyone's hearts.

Even Rudolf, in the observation seat, no longer attempted rational analysis.

He frowned, his slightly trembling hand gripping the notebook, only to find that even the courage to record had been eroded by fear.

Mu Sisi opened her eyes wide, her lips slightly parted, and she didn't even dare to make a sound.

Even Naga's smile gradually faded, and her movements became increasingly swift and complex, yet also increasingly calm.

She began to take the game seriously, no longer seeing the hunter looking at the plaything, but the player examining the player.

And the God of Fate—

He stood before the card table, motionless like a statue.

Sweat beaded on his forehead, but his eyes remained fixed. He didn't speak, but simply lowered his head slightly, his index finger tapping slowly on the table, the rhythm perfectly synchronized with the frequency of the Naga's shuffling.

At that moment, his body seemed to have become a sophisticated auditory and neural computing machine.

His muscles, reflexes, and intuition all sank into the deepest concentration. He even held his breath, ensuring his heartbeat didn't interfere with his subtle perception of the air currents.

He wasn't looking—he was "listening".

"Thud—" The last card landed on the table, the sound soft yet clear, like a pebble falling into a stagnant pool.

[Done. Please flip a card.]

The system's voice sounded again, cold and ruthless.

But Si Ming did not act immediately.

He closed his eyes, quickly recalling the torrent of information in his mind: five jump washes, seven switching, one left-handed offset, and finally right-handed oblique compression and superposition...

His eyelids slowly opened, his gaze swept across the card table, his brows furrowed slightly, and his fingertips moved inch by inch along the edge of the table.

"...the error is within four sheets," he said in a low voice, giving his assessment.

A commotion broke out in the observation deck.

“That is—gambling with your life.” Rudolf muttered through gritted teeth.

"He really dares to gamble?" Mu Sisi's voice trembled.

The God of Fate remained calm.

He stared intently at the spread-out deck of cards, his gaze deep, as if trying to see the flow of fate behind the printed patterns.

“Originally… I wanted to accomplish this through technology.” He murmured, his tone devoid of any impatience, yet concealing a heavy weariness and resentment.

"but……"

He slightly raised the corner of his mouth, adding a half-smile:
"A 25% mortality rate... isn't too bad."

After he finished speaking, he reached out his hand—

His fingertips swiftly and decisively tapped one of the cards, without any hesitation.

He flipped the card.

—Ace of Spades.

The silence, the almost frozen air, seemed to be torn apart.

The next second, the observation deck erupted in gasps and exclamations!
"...I really found it."

"Still won in the third round?"

"Is he crazy?!"

"He dares to bet on a 25% probability?!"

Si Ming simply exhaled slowly, raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, and remained calm: "Good luck."

There was no surprise, no pride; it was as if this was the natural thing in the world.

He lowered his head, his gaze drifting to the system cards floating outside the card array.
A hint of helplessness appeared in his eyes—the exhaustion of being forced to "roll the dice" even after extreme concentration.

"I can't use the Secret Technique yet," he silently reminded himself.

"Two more rounds."

He straightened up and took a deep breath.

The next hand of cards has already quietly unfolded between Naga's fingers.

As the starlight flows, the prelude to the fourth cycle of destiny slowly rises.

Round 4.

Naga no longer smiles.

Those eyes, which once held amusement and playfulness, were now like frozen abysses, reflecting no emotion whatsoever.

With all six arms outstretched, she rapidly stacked four decks of cards together in an almost ritualistic shuffling rhythm. Each card, flying through the air like a collapsing glacier, had edges sharpened by light, crisscrossing and cutting through the air.

That wasn't a reshuffling; it was a power calculation.

Six arms outstretched simultaneously, like stars orbiting around her, while playing cards spun around her in a maze-like array.
Arcs of light ripped through space, like the gears of time turning back at high speed.

The air seemed to be torn into layers by these playing cards, and even the observation deck felt a suppressed ringing in its ears.

But the God of Fate did not wait.

He no longer stood and waited for the shuffling to end as he had in the previous three rounds, and he no longer pondered and calculated.

—He moved.

The moment the fourth deck of cards was brought together and piled on the table, Si Ming swiftly reached out and, with his fingertips landing precisely on one of the cards.

His movements were swift yet incredibly steady.

It happened so fast, as if the outcome was already known.

Zhuang Yege's pupils narrowed slightly, and her gaze instantly focused on Si Ming's left wrist.

His destiny chart is quietly changing.

One—

It burst into flames like a star falling to earth.

Fate-type High-level Bound Mystery - Initiating.

"A stroke of luck," Si Ming murmured softly, as if responding to a whisper that belonged only to him.

Sparks rose from his life line, pierced through his fingertips, and flowed upwards, like the Milky Way passing through his body.

The reflection of the stars in his eyes, and the card under his finger seemed to have long obeyed his will, waiting for the moment it would be revealed.

He smiled slightly, as if he had just tapped on a business card that required no thought.

"I bet it's the Ace of Spades."

The moment the cards were flipped over, even the air seemed to stop moving.

Spades, Ace.

Those scarlet and elegant letters struck everyone like a thunderbolt.

Naga finally showed her first genuine moment of distraction.

“You…” she whispered, her snake-like eyes trembling slightly, her voice revealing an almost unbelievable fear, “You used… the Secret Trick.”

Si Ming spread his hands, shrugged, and smiled nonchalantly.

"This is an S-level challenge. I wouldn't dare to participate without putting in some serious financial resources."

The observation area fell silent for a moment.

Wang Yichen's face turned pale instantly, his mouth slightly open, but he couldn't utter a single word.

His lips moved a few times, but in the end he could only manage a hoarse whisper:

"He...he just got lucky."

"The fourth round was just a lucky break... He can't possibly win five straight, it's impossible."

Zhuang Yege slowly turned around, a mocking smile playing on her lips.

Do you even know what 'luck' means?

“That can’t be explained by probability,” he said softly. “That’s his mystery.”

"That's his fate."

The Naga slowly unfolded its six arms, its snake tail twisted, its body lowered slightly, and its scales shone with a faint glow.

That's not anger.

That was the sacrificial offering being made to the gods.

They are witnesses, clearing the altar for the final judgment.

"The fifth round."

The Naga whispered, her voice carrying an almost frenzied coolness—not the calm of a presiding judge, but the savoring of a referee's impending bloody trial.

She slowly drew five decks of cards, her white knuckles contrasting with her dark gray scales.

The movements were elegant yet cruel, like a priest spreading out sacrificial blades before an altar.

The cards tumbled in the air, each one shimmering with eerie blue magic patterns, as if sealed by a seal that imprisoned the very rules themselves, shattering at the slightest touch, and perishing the moment it broke.

Without any attempt to conceal it, she picked up the Ace of Spades—as if it were a symbol of some kind of ultimatum—and gently stroked it in front of everyone before quietly inserting it into the shuffle sequence.

But only Si Ming noticed that the momentary inward rotation of her left arm was too nimble and too "professional".

He had seen this kind of action before.

In the dirtiest games of the game, professional players have used this move to subtly shift the balance of their fates.

That's not shuffling the deck, that's hiding the deck.

She hid the Ace of Spades in her sleeve.

This cheating, which should have been fatal, was used by her as if it were perfectly natural, as if she were the true rule-maker of this gambling table.

"Please choose your cards." Naga's tone was gentle, carrying an arrogant air of "you are doomed to lose."

Si Ming slowly stepped forward, his fingers lightly gliding over the 260 cards spread across the gambling table, as if casually brushing against the ripples of a wave.

He did not rush to make a move, but his left sleeve moved slightly—unnoticed by anyone, a faint light hidden beneath the star chart of destiny flashed quietly.

At that moment, the Ace of Spades, the card he held between his left fingers, had been silently swapped with a card on the table.

He smiled and placed his finger on a card that was no longer "that card".

"Not bad shuffling." He said casually, as if he were merely commenting on a bartending technique.
"Unfortunately—your skill in hiding cards is still lacking."

Naga's face twitched slightly, her voice low and cold: "Are you sure you've chosen this?"

"I've already suppressed it, I can't go back on my word, can I?" Si Ming spread his hands, smiling gently.

He turned over the card.

The Ace of Spades is prominently featured.

The entire space seemed to be instantly emptied, and time froze at that moment.

Naga froze for a moment, then erupted in fury, yanking out the real Ace of Spades from her sleeve and holding it up in front of everyone, roaring, "This card is in my hand! You can't get it out!"

Si Ming remained unmoved, slowly raising his eyes to glance at the card, his tone as indifferent as water: "You admit you hid the card?"

Her pupils contracted sharply, her snake tail tightened, and her six arms trembled slightly; she was speechless.

The observation deck erupted in an uproar.

"How did he do that?"

Is that cheating?

"Or...did he have already calculated all the variables?"

Mu Sisi's eyes widened, and she murmured, "He's not a gambler... he's a magician."

Siming raised the card in his hand, slowly lifting it to the light of the system, his voice calm and clear:
"You definitely didn't shuffle this card in."

"I brought it."

Naga stared intently at him, as if she wanted to tear him apart: "You...admit to cheating?"

Si Ming slowly countered, "Are there any rules in the game that prohibit players from bringing their own Ace of Spades to participate?"

His eyes were sharp as he looked up and stared directly at the card projected onto the system screen.

"You set the conditions for winning or losing, but you didn't specify the source of the cards."

"What I did was simply to make up for the fate you owed me."

The system remains silent for a few seconds.

[Analysis in progress]

The license plate selection path is normal.

The deck used did not exceed the carrying limits.

[Challenge - Passed.]

At that moment, an unbelievable silence erupted from the observation deck.

Naga trembled and took a step back, her snake tail twisting, her expression collapsing between rage and humiliation.

Si Ming casually put the Ace of Spades into his pocket, closed it with his elegy deck, and slid it back into his sleeve.

As he turned around, he sighed and said softly:
"If you're into gambling, you have to be prepared to lose."

"You lost... Stop fooling around."

The six-armed serpent crumbled into ashes, and the system's floating cards began to tremble—

[Note: Beginner stage ended.]

The official game is about to begin.

Space shattered like glass, the ground tore apart, and a black hole-like vortex suddenly opened, swallowing everyone along with the life-or-death stage.

"Master, what a brilliant cheat!"

Si Ming laughed: "That Ace of Spades once saved my life."

The black hole swallowed the light.

"You think the game is over, but little do you know the game has just begun."

"Beginner" is never the starting point of the game.
It was just the first rehearsal for a madman turning the audience into pawns.

(End of this chapter)