“Whether this ‘lottery ticket’ can win the prize is basically entirely at Baiyang’s whim,” Jiang Ruoxue said, lowering her head.

“Yes…” I replied. “You use logic to control the lights, and he uses logic to control your logic.”

“That damned Baiyang… He had me apply ‘causality’ on top of the game’s logic, while his own logic is layered on top of my ‘causality’,” Jiang Ruoxue sighed deeply. “After several iterations of logic and ‘causality’ stacking upon each other, this game has become nearly perfect… It can steadily kill people while also obtaining massive amounts of ‘Dao’… I thought my dizziness was from not sleeping well… Turns out it’s because Baiyang has been sleeping too well.”

“Uh… Baiyang doesn’t sleep…”

Jiang Ruoxue completely ignored what I said. After she finished speaking, she seemed to think of something else and turned to ask me, “Then wouldn’t that mean Baiyang will never let anyone win? Won’t people become suspicious?”

“Hard to say,” I shook my head. “Just as Baiyang himself said, ‘All things are difficult at the beginning.’ In the early stages, he will very likely deliberately let ‘participants’ win, especially when the prize is only a few dozen or a hundred ‘Dao.’ For him, this is the best way to build his reputation. Moreover…”

“Moreover what…?” Jiang Ruoxue blinked.

“This place doesn’t allow ‘killing to seize Dao,’ but what if what’s being seized are ‘lottery tickets’?” I bit my lip. “If he wants to run this kind of game, Baiyang will definitely give the other party physical ‘lottery tickets’ as proof. All of these things can be robbed.”

“You’re right… But how will Baiyang prevent lottery ticket robberies from happening?” Jiang Ruoxue asked.

“He doesn’t need to prevent them at all,” I said. “Deaths caused by lottery ticket robberies will definitely also count as part of the ‘Blissful Bank’ proceedings. Baiyang will tacitly allow such things to happen.”

As I finished speaking, an unsettling image gradually formed in my mind.

Above the heads of all the “Zodiacs” in this area, there seemed to appear an enormous white sheep. He was hovering in the sky, looking down upon the “Zodiacs” like chess pieces.

Those grayish-white, enormous pupils hung in midair, coldly gazing downward. Whether these twelve “Zodiacs” lost, won, or died, everything would bring profit to Baiyang.

They were fixed in place by invisible shackles. Baiyang didn’t even need to seek these people’s consent before he could make them part of his game.

“But even if someone wins… Won’t clever people see through this game?” Jiang Ruoxue asked again. “Will they discover that the ‘lottery tickets’ actually can’t win…?”

“Based on what white sheep said, the people here basically only retain short-term memories,” I replied. “Their minds are constantly being ‘formatted.'”

“That’s right…” Jiang Ruoxue nodded after hearing this. “Indeed… Under normal circumstances, being able to preserve one or two years of memories already makes one a rare talent…”

“To completely crack Baiyang’s ‘lottery ticket’ game requires simultaneously meeting many harsh conditions,” I said. “First is preserving memories long-term, second is being sufficiently intelligent, third is knowing of ‘causality’s’ existence, fourth is correctly guessing all the other ‘Zodiacs” lights, and fifth is having a team of at least three people, with each member of the team meeting all the above conditions.”

“That’s way too difficult…” Jiang Ruoxue said. “Thinking about it this way… I suppose no one would gamble their lives with him, right?”

“To be honest… If I haven’t guessed wrong, within this game, the ‘lottery ticket’ is the only element that allows one to ‘gamble lives’ with Baiyang.”

“Only the ‘lottery ticket’?”

“That’s right,” I nodded and said. “If it truly involves ‘gambling lives,’ Baiyang’s ‘betting’ definitely won’t work… Because he has abundant financial resources and could even simultaneously bet on all three possibilities of ‘win,’ ‘lose,’ and ‘draw’ in every round. That way, there would be no situation where he ‘loses’… And the ‘bank’ has even less room for ‘gambling lives,’ because the ‘bank’ can’t even determine victory or defeat.”

“I see… Only the ‘lottery ticket’ can be used to gamble lives, but thinking carefully, one can know… No one here will make a move against Baiyang.”

Jiang Ruoxue was right. Baiyang’s brilliance lies in the fact that people will make other “Zodiacs” lose, win, or die for the sake of Baiyang’s game, but they absolutely will not let Baiyang die.

First of all, Baiyang “draws the lottery” every day. Once Baiyang dies, the game won’t stand, and the “lottery drawing” will fall through. For those “participants” who don’t know the truth, they won’t allow such a thing to happen.

Even if someone truly declares publicly that they want to gamble their life with Baiyang, they might be beaten to death by other “participants.”

After all, mutual slaughter between participants is completely outside the upper echelon’s jurisdiction. When the “gambling opponent” dies, Baiyang can win without fighting.

And in the later stages, when Baiyang holds massive amounts of “wealth” in his hands, those “wealthy people” won’t allow anyone to gamble lives with Baiyang in order to protect their own assets. And these “wealthy people” are usually desperados, veteran “Echoers,” or medium-sized organizations. They are more than capable of dealing with ordinary “participants” and will become Baiyang’s most loyal bodyguards.

Just as Zhang Qiang and I discovered back in the day, if the “Dao” here is hidden away, it will be stolen by certain “thieves.” When clever people discover this situation over time, they will naturally bring their “Dao” to Baiyang. This is what’s called in marketing—seizing the customer’s “pain point.”

For those who want to store “Dao,” even if there’s a ten percent chance of loss, it’s still more cost-effective than losing everything.

What’s more… If one has a keen eye, there’s also a ten percent chance of appreciation.

Just as I was lost in thought about Baiyang’s game, Jiang Ruoxue called out to me from the side.

“Zhichun…”

“What…?” I asked.

“I suddenly thought of something… When you were interacting with Baiyang before, did you tell him that I’m ‘causality’?”

“No,” I answered. “I never mentioned anything about you, because he seemed to have no interest in anyone else.”

“Then you really must not have any more contact with him…” Jiang Ruoxue said with a grave expression. “This person is too terrifying…”

“Is that so…”

“This proves that this game was truly thought up ‘on the spot’ after hearing about ‘causality’… What kind of concept is that?” Jiang Ruoxue said. “This game was full of loopholes when it didn’t have ‘causality,’ but now… It’s even more terrifying than many games that ‘Earth-level Zodiacs’ have considered for several years… Baiyang only needs to sit in his room every day, and people will actively deliver ‘Dao’ to him, actively deliver their ‘lives’ to him. Everyone happily dies for him, busies themselves for him…”

Jiang Ruoxue turned her head to look at me, then asked in a hoarse voice, “What’s the difference between him and ‘Heavenly-Dragon’?”

Yes… Jiang Ruoxue had probably forgotten that Baiyang’s ultimate goal is to replace “Heavenly-Dragon,” so in my view, this is completely reasonable.

After Jiang Ruoxue finished speaking, she took several deep breaths, then continued, “What’s even more worrying is… He can even quickly identify the strong through his own game venue… For example, which ‘Zodiacs’ frequently win, or which ‘participants’ always bet correctly…”