“I’m not looking to get stuff. I just don’t want to get involved in tiresome things.”
His expression changed.
“You know, Akira, I care a lot when people decline my offers. Do you know why? Because no one does, not because I force them to, but because they’re too good to pass up.”
I noticed that the concentration of girls around my seat was greater than usual. They were all whispering to each other, but I could tell that most of their attention was on one specific boy—the one sitting next to me.
Kai turned back and stuck his hand out to the girl behind him.
“Tina, grab me a snack.”
“U-um… I’ve only got mints on me.”
“That’ll do.”
Flustered, the girl smiled and grabbed out a tin of mints from her handbag. The rattling sound was clearly disturbing the people around us (granted our constant chatter wasn’t much better) and tipped some into her hand.
Happily, she softly held onto Kai’s hand and dropped some onto his palm.
“Thanks, Tina.”
“Y-you’re welcome, Kai~”
He turned back to me.
“You want some?”
“No thanks.”
He sighed before chucking them all into his mouth. Three mints at once? That was crazy behaviour, it wasn’t like he was about to go in for a kiss, so his mouth would just be freezing and stinging.
Or maybe not, he simply chewed on them.
“Anyways Akira, let’s get back to business.”
Uh.
He got up from his seat.
“Come with me, I’ll show you to my private room in the executive lounge.”
“I just want to listen to this lesson.”
“Akira, I’ll make it worth your while. I won’t do anything to you, I just want to have a game of poker, isn’t that alright?”
Sigh.
If passing time was my main goal, I guess that wasn’t a bad idea.
“Sure.”
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Aha, I’m glad.”
As we got up, a whole crowd of girls followed behind.
*
For the first time, I was on the 1000th floor of the academy. It was a long awkward elevator ride. I was silently standing in the corner as Kai happily chatted with all the girls that were walking with him.
The entire story was an entirely different colour.
There was a slight golden tint on the usually-white walls. The carpet on the ground was bright red instead of dull purple and several posters hung on the walls.
—Genius is only one story above madness.
Kai gestured for me to walk beside him.
“Lucy and Fiona always walk at the back. There’s no need for you to join them, Akira.”
I guess there was a clear hierarchy in his posse.
Surprise Question
Let n be a positive integer. Find the number of permutations a₁, a₂, ..., aₙ of the sequence 1, 2, ..., n satisfying a₁ ≤ 2a₂ ≤ 3a₃ ≤ ... ≤ naₙ.
Write your answer here: _________________
After a short moment, Kai typed something into his phone.
He looked over at me.
“Aren’t you going to answer that, Akira?”
“It’s too hard.”
He laughed a little.
“Don’t lie to me. There’s no need for you to pretend around me.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
“Really…? I don’t believe it. But suit yourself.”
After that, we continued to walk.
Eventually, we made it to his private room.
Opening the grand doors to a dimly-lit room, Kai lifted his arms and showed me his executive lounge. It looked like the inside of a president’s office, decorated with antique items, books and couches. There was a big TV by the side of the room, surrounded by various movies and other accessories.
However, the main attraction of the room was the large poker table in the middle.
He pulled out a seat for me. We sat opposite each other.
“Tina, get the cards and chips. Stella, Josephine, jump on the table with us.”
Stella—she seemed to be the one closest to Kai, always walking beside him. Despite not talking much, it was pretty obvious that he respected her more than the other girls.
He looked over at me.
“Akira, I’ll give you a hundred thousand on the house, how does that sound?”
“I’m down.”
“Haha, that’s the way. Girls, keep your chips from last time.”
Tina walked back over after taking the cards and chips out of her suitcase. She shuffled the cards with practised ease, the cards fluttering like birds in flight. In a few swift movements, she dealt them out to each of us.
I guess they weren’t new to this.
…
It had been quite a long time since the last time I played poker. However, unlike a more complex game such as chess, it was very easy to calculate the odds related to poker and simply make the optimal decisions. However, betting patterns and psychological tactics also did matter.
Kai probably had a goal in mind for inviting me here.
Hidden behind the entrance to the room, I saw one of his [Scanners] subtly tucked underneath the cupboard. One of the conditions of his ability was that it must not be in an enclosed area, otherwise, there was no reason for him to keep it in such obvious places every time.
It was pretty clear that he was planning on using it to cheat. Whilst I don’t know the full extent of the ability, if it was placed in this room, he could probably ‘see’ everyone’s cards.
That would definitely make things harder for me.
Well, not that I was going to try that hard anyway. Taking home a few Points was good enough.
I looked at my cards.
—king of hearts and ten of spades.
I guess that was alright.
Kai was the small blind and Stella was the big blind.
“Call.”
I pushed some chips in.
“Fold.”
Everyone’s moves were swift and sharp, there was no wasted time in between the soft movements or extra words. I guess they were really into this stuff.
The atmosphere felt uncomfortably tense, but Kai simply smiled and looked into the distance. Stella was the other person still in the round, scratching her arm a little as she waited for me.
The flop was revealed.
—Queen of Hearts, a Jack of Hearts, and a Four of Clubs.