Chapter 90: I Must Win
"Wow..."
Amelia whispered the word, her eyes spinning in absolute bewilderment as she analyzed the storm consuming the table before her. It had been deeply suspicious and thrilling from the very microsecond Scott raised his voice to deliberately announce the names of the cards while pretending to collapse in defeat.
Now, Amelia had completely deconstructed the game and understood exactly what had transpired. To call Scott’s tactical intellect brilliant here was an understatement!
The true trap that Albert had blundered into—proving he was still just an easily manipulated child rather than the strategic monster he fancied himself to be—was that when he heard Scott shout the names of the two cards, he hadn’t just attacked Scott’s character or motives... he had attacked the cards themselves! Albert knew with absolute certainty that because Scott chose those specific cards, they were the ones that would grant his opponents the win, forcing him into a tight corner. Instead of reinforcing Hayne’s suspicion regarding Scott’s selfishness, Albert made Hayne suspicious of those two cards specifically.
By executing such a clumsy maneuver, Hayne instantly realized that Albert wasn’t merely attempting to bring Scott down, but was desperately struggling to prevent those two exact cards from hitting the table. In doing so, Albert had completely exposed his hand, making his grand plan as clear as day.
’If he had only said: "I don’t know if those two cards are correct or not, but think for yourself and don’t let Scott decide on your behalf"... he would have utterly crushed him!’ Amelia thought in profound admiration.
Yet, the silver lining amidst this wreckage was that the round was far from over! One final play remained for each player before this confrontation—which was leaning heavily toward Scott’s sheer cunning—could be decided.
Meanwhile, Albert was spiraling into a violent state of shocked denial. He had recently constructed an ironclad ego within himself, convincing his subconscious that he was a genius capable of commanding the gaming table and winning without ever needing to rely on his hidden, secret power. He had truly believed he was trapping Scott in a corner of perpetual defense while raining down relentless psychological blows to finish him off.
Instead, he had been utterly crushed in his very first real clash of minds.
Panic gripped Albert. ’Am I going to lose? No, I must never lose! How will Miss Amelia look at me now if we are defeated because of me?’
His small mind began frantically scrambling for justifications to salvage his pride; after all, Scott commanded an entire army of four people, while he was playing alongside the young Miss alone... the game had been unfair from the very beginning! If it were fair, Scott would have had the same numbers. Because the game had now transcended the boundaries of mere cards, Albert realized he could no longer rely on words and abstract psychological maneuvers—and he absolutely could not afford to lose his very first and only friend whom he had worked so hard to build a bond with.
It was Albert’s turn to play. Under the suffocating threat of defeat, he abandoned his principles and summoned his terrifying power. He manifested his hidden magical pupils, which he had mastered concealing and revealing at will... [The Dragon’s Eyes]! Those legendary, terrifying eyes were the primary reason people had always shunned him, branding him a mysterious and frightening child, for they possessed the absolute capability to pierce through any veil, augmented by thermal vision.
He had used them once at the beginning against Cathy to force her to alter her card, and now the time had come for their grandest deployment.
Albert gazed with [The Dragon’s Eyes], completely penetrating the entire hand of the opposing team... and his vision caught the rift! He discovered the golden opportunity and the absolute, inevitable path to victory. ’I must win no matter what!’ he thought with absolute desperation.
Snap!
Albert slammed down the two sevens in his hand. With a lightning-fast, sweeping motion, he flicked his final card—the [6 of Spades]—entirely off the table, removing it from play completely. By executing this sacrifice, he granted a far greater power to his remaining card resting on the wood. He then leaned his small frame toward Amelia, whispering precise, specific instructions into her ear regarding which cards she needed to drop right now. Without a shred of doubt, Amelia trusted him completely and discarded the three cards remaining in her possession.
When Scott’s eyes fell upon the new combination of cards Amelia had laid down, his confidence shattered. A cold shiver of intense discomfort coursed through his body, and he ground his teeth in secret, sensing that something critical had shifted within the flow of energy and the game.
Scott let out a bitter sigh, looking toward his companions: "Hayne... Brandon... you are completely out of the game now. Your cards have become utterly useless against this formation."
The two boys nodded in stunned shock, laying their cards down in total surrender upon the table.
Scott now found himself in an incredibly precarious, unenviable position. The mathematical calculations had grown severely complex; if he pushed forward with all his remaining cards, and Cathy pushed forward with hers, they would inevitably lose the round due to Albert’s new distribution. There was only one narrow, incredibly tight path to victory: Scott had to remain in the game and retain his final card until the bitter end, while Cathy had to be eliminated and removed from the round entirely, leaving him to win as the last man standing on the table holding a valid hand to finish the game!
Scott did not realize how incredibly dangerous this selfish decision would appear in the eyes of his team, but he no longer possessed any other alternative to salvage the situation. Scott played two cards, keeping one single card back.
Now, it was Cathy’s turn. The glaringly obvious and default option before her according to the team’s calculations was: ’Throw all your cards down right now, and we will guarantee absolute victory.’
But before Cathy could extend her trembling hand toward the table, Albert intervened with a voice like a venomous hiss: "How spectacular... in the end, he deceived you all with his cold demeanor, choosing himself to be the true and sole victor at the end of the day!"
Albert knew with absolute certainty that Cathy was a weak-willed girl, her resolve fragile and easily led because she was, after all, an innocent child just like him. He decided to exploit this fatal weakness to repay Scott tenfold:
"Do you know, Cathy, why he didn’t play all his cards instead of you to grant you the opportunity to taste the flavor of final victory? He threw the entire weight and burden onto you so that you would walk away empty-handed, leaving him to monopolize all the glory and the win in the end!"
Scott chuckled loudly, attempting to mask his escalating tension: "Have you returned to those useless psychological games once more? Haven’t you taken enough of a beating just a moment ago, or are you still greedy for more humiliation?"
Albert turned to Cathy, ignoring Scott entirely as he continued his meticulous brainwashing: "Scott possessed the full option to make you the final victor of this round. Aren’t you supposed to win as a team anyway, as he constantly brags? Why then does he prefer himself and protect his own card instead of protecting you?"
Scott countered rapidly, fiercely defending his strategy: "No! The calculations and circumstances altered at the very last microsecond, and the entire victory now depends strictly on my card! If I had thrown all my cards at this exact moment, we would have lost the round instantly because of Albert’s move!"
Albert shouted in a tone of absolute accusation: "I am telling you that you wouldn’t have lost! He is a selfish... and contradictory person, altering his words and arguments with the speed of lightning while the truth stands as clear as day right before your eyes!"
Scott snapped in deep frustration: "Why would I do that if I were selfish?! This is merely a friendly game among companions, not a wager involving money or anything of true value!"
Albert shot back with a malicious smirk that struck the bullseye: "You are doing this because you have swallowed the bitterness of defeat from Miss Amelia for more than twenty consecutive times! Your wounded pride couldn’t bear it, so you want to avenge yourself and restore your prestige by using these children as mere objects to elevate your own ego!"
Scott shouted, attempting to shatter the logic: "According to your own words, wouldn’t we have won anyway if Cathy had been the last one to play? In that case, the young Miss would be a loser and you would be a loser too, which is why this probability pains you and drives you to sabotage our minds!"
"You are the one masterfully twisting facts because you are just a resentful person filled with malice!" Scott screamed in response. "Furthermore, tell me... do you truly care about Cathy’s victory or defeat? Why does her matter concern you when you are our opponent in this game and wish to destroy us?!"
Albert replied coldly, "That is simply because... I despise scum who wear the masks of innocent angels while overflowing with selfishness and greed from within!"
Scott snapped completely, sparks practically flying from his eyes: "You are the one wearing a mask the entire time! You try to play the role of a social reformer looking out for us, while you are fundamentally the enemy who wishes to destroy us!"
Albert flashed a cold, tranquil smile that caused the very atmosphere to freeze: "An enemy is not an enemy when he opens the eyes of others and advises them for the sake of the ultimate truth... The real enemy is that fake friend who sits right beside you, hiding selfish intentions to exploit you behind his smile."
Scott’s fury reached its absolute peak, his mind igniting with a raw desire to blindly curse and insult Albert; navigating a war of words with this terrifying boy was completely impossible, for he possessed a demonic capability to warp facts and turn the scales in a manner that struck terror into souls. Deep down, Scott wished he possessed a magical button he could press to silence Albert’s tongue forever and find relief from this suffocating pressure.
Suddenly, under the crushing weight of losing the round, Brandon and Hayne began siding with Scott, pressing down ruthlessly on the highly stressed Cathy: "Don’t listen to the words of this scoundrel, Cathy! We are your friends and we know what’s best for you... we are telling you to listen to Scott immediately and execute what he said because his plan is the correct one!" Hayne added sharply, "Yes! Do it quickly and eliminate them!"
But Albert did not relent. Instead, he poured fuel onto the fire with venomous words that pierced Cathy’s final defenses: "Truly, Cathy? Do you wish to listen to their words and remain a mere follower living in his shadow the entire time? He is the victor, the planner, the genius, and the tactician in everyone’s eyes... while you, in the end, are just ’Cathy’; a weak girl without an opinion or a voice! Where is your independent personality? Where is your dignity?"
Amidst this horrific pressure and the violent psychological conflict that completely overwhelmed the capacity of her small, childlike mind, Cathy could no longer endure. Tears welled up in her wide eyes, and with a desperate, broken motion, she flung her entire hand onto the table in a chaotic scatter. She rose violently from her chair and burst into a bitter, loud sob, running straight out of the room toward her bed chambers, leaving everyone in absolute shock and bewilderment!
Scott and Albert froze in their tracks, shock binding their tongues as neither of them could fathom what the situation had devolved into.
Had they lost in this highly dramatic fashion?
Had this intellectual war and hellish, epic round concluded in a scoreless tie, with both factions utterly failing to secure the ultimate win?..