BATTLE FOR STARS

“Right here.” Little Chubby flipped over one of the neighboring cards.

Belina looked down immediately.

It was indeed the marked card from before—but now the bent corner had somehow been flattened completely. She had no idea when he had done it.

“How did that happen?”

Little Chubby ignored the question and simply grinned.

“That’ll be one hundred and fifty Latir total.”

“Fine.”

Belina pulled out her wristband from her bag and held it out in front of him without hesitation.

Little Chubby’s expression changed slightly.

He hadn’t expected these people to actually be VIP guests.

This station sat at the boundary between Underground Level One’s work district and slave residential area. Almost no interstellar visitors ever came here to ride the train, much less VIP-level guests.

Normally, people like them traveled everywhere by hovercar directly from the surface to their destination. Most never even entered Underground Level One. And even if they did, they still used private transport instead of public trains meant for slaves and civilians.

Still, Little Chubby wasn’t too worried.

At the end of the day, he was just some nobody street kid. His little game didn’t technically count as fraud. He simply took advantage of visual blind spots and habitual assumptions to make people misjudge the cards.

No one could really accuse him of stealing.

Little Chubby tapped his own wristband and waved it near Belina’s, transferring the one hundred and fifty Latir into his account.

It was the largest amount he had ever won from this game.

“Another round?” he asked casually.

Truthfully, he assumed Belina wouldn’t continue after losing that much already. He was only asking out of habit.

“Sure.”

Little Chubby nearly choked in surprise.

“But our train’s here,” Belina added while glancing toward the arriving train. Lina was already calling for them to board.

“Come with us. We’ll play on the train.”

“Uh...” Little Chubby hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Alright.”

He figured VIP guests probably wouldn’t bother messing with someone like him.

And if he managed to win one more big round, it would equal nearly half a year of income for him.

After only a brief hesitation, Little Chubby quickly packed up his table and chair and followed Belina into the train.

Ding Yufei glanced around after boarding.

The train looked surprisingly similar to a subway on Earth. The only major difference was that it consisted of a single enormous carriage nearly fifty or sixty meters long.

Since it traveled through vacuum tunnels at supersonic speeds, there were no windows. Instead, holographic projections appeared every dozen meters along the ceiling, displaying government announcements and public information from Planet Boman.

The moment they found seats, the train started moving.

It accelerated quickly before entering a smooth, steady cruise.

Lina had brought them onto a long-distance route crossing several Domes, so it would still be a while before the next stop.

“Honored guests, should we play here?”

The carriage wasn’t crowded, so Little Chubby found a quieter corner and set up his table again.

He had no idea where they were headed or how long the ride would last, so he wanted to earn the money as quickly as possible.

“I’m not gambling with you anymore,” Belina said casually. “I can’t beat you anyway.”

“Huh?” Little Chubby’s face instantly collapsed. “You... that’s not very fair.”

He didn’t dare speak too harshly to VIP guests, so he could only complain weakly.

“You run this game to make money, right?” Belina said with a smile. “Just because I’m not gambling doesn’t mean you can’t still earn some.”

“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?” Little Chubby asked curiously.

“I’ll give you two thousand Latir if you explain how you beat me earlier.”

Little Chubby immediately looked conflicted.

“Th-That’s my livelihood... my professional skill.”

“What’s the problem?” Belina laughed. “It’s not like I’m stealing your business. I just want to know how the trick works.”

Seeing him hesitate awkwardly, she waved a hand impatiently.

“Fine. Three thousand Latir. Take it or leave it.”

“Deal!” Little Chubby agreed instantly. “But you pay first.”

His hesitation had only been bargaining tactics anyway. He already understood Belina’s point perfectly well.

Still, money in hand always felt safer.

“Fine. But you don’t just explain it—you teach me properly too.”

Belina naturally added her own condition.

After all, her family was “in business.” Negotiation was practically in her blood.

“That’s easy.”

The two of them brought out their wristbands, and Belina transferred three thousand Latir directly into his account.

For Little Chubby, it was practically a fortune.

Looking at the balance displayed on his wristband, he grinned so hard his mouth nearly split open.

“The principle’s actually pretty simple,” he said happily. “I’ll show you slowly.”

Little Chubby performed the trick again on the train table.

This time, his movements were several times slower than before.

And yet, somehow, none of the three could spot the trick.

Ding Yufei had recorded the entire process using the recording function in his glasses this time, but even replaying it afterward didn’t help much.

Without frame-by-frame computer analysis, the flaw was almost impossible to catch.

“Quit dragging it out already,” Ding Yufei said directly. “Just tell us the trick.”

“Watch carefully. The key is right here.”

While moving the cards around, Little Chubby occasionally stacked two cards together before throwing them out one after another.

“Look closely,” he explained while demonstrating. “Right now I’m overlapping these two cards. In a second, I’m going to throw one onto the table.”

Whoosh.

A card flew out.

“Which card do you think I threw?”

“The bottom one, obviously,” Belina answered naturally.

If two cards were stacked together, then the card underneath should logically be the one thrown out first.

That was just common sense.

“That’s what everybody thinks,” Little Chubby said smugly. “But actually, I threw the top card.”

As he spoke, he demonstrated it again.

“All you have to do is hold the bottom card back slightly with your fingers. Then the card flying out becomes the top one instead.”

“Ohhh...” Ding Yufei finally understood.

“You used people’s instinctive assumptions. We all naturally believe the bottom card must stay the bottom card when it’s thrown.”

“But with one tiny movement, you secretly swap them.”

“Exactly.” Little Chubby looked very satisfied with himself.

“That’s seriously impressive,” Belina admitted honestly.

If Little Chubby hadn’t carefully explained it step by step, nobody would ever notice that the flying card had already changed.

After repeating the trick several times, no one could possibly track where the turtle card ended up anymore—except Little Chubby himself.

“But how did you switch the marked card?” Lina asked.

“Once the card had a bent corner, you couldn’t exactly rely on visual confusion anymore.”