(Geoffrey POV - Heaven's Key, House in the suburbs)

[https://i.imgur.com/dT3qN5m.png]

"It took me 50 years to reach my limit, but I've been able to expand the persistent range of my soul gradually to about a foot."

"I can't do it at all. During training I've seen people progress much faster than me. Louis is pretty good at it. His persistent range is low, but he is good at temporary extensions of it. If it is just for a second even I can manifest myself over a long distance. But the Epistemes..." Walter thought wistfully. "They can cover the whole table in a persistent domain."

(Heaven's Key, Shadow realm, Resolution duel with Louis)

[https://i.imgur.com/ieJDVfe.png]

I feel now that I've overcome this hurdle, doing what I want will be simpler. I repeat one of my imaginings from before. I imagine an oversized ghost hand and gently rake it across the felt. The soft, green threads part like grass as I do so, as if something invisible was being dragged across it. I smile and turn my attention to the opponent.

Let's get rid of the first problem. I lock my eyes with my opponent's and snap my fingers. As soon as that happens, the down facing cards on his end flip over, revealing themselves.

Ks 3s. Definitely better than average. I'd be 60% ahead with my A5 against this one.

My opponent loses his composure and hurriedly moves to cover them up. Just what use would doing that now be? Realizing he is being ridiculous, he shrugs and shows them to me.

"As you can see, it is king three. Are you going to call?" He challenges me.

Rather than replying to him, I did another experiment. I imagine a swarm of large eyes in the air around me and manifest them facing forward. Having to process 30 new visual sensory streams puts a heavy burden on my mind, but it is for this reason that I've expanded it during the Street challenge. From 30 different angles, I get the satisfying look of my opponent shivering, but it only lasts a few moments before he grasps his bearings again. I demanifest the eyes.

"Oh, I'll call you, but not right now." I finally respond, deciding to use one of my trump cards. "Fold."

As the cards are taken away by the system, I see to it that the lure is set. As my two cards are taken into another dimension thin, long lines can be seen reflecting off the light. Before folding, I wrapped the cards in flexible fibers. Their other ends are securely grasped in my hands.

Experiment Success.

The lines were spider silk, and had they snapped, I'd be at a loss. If the deck really was in some other dimension I couldn't access, then there would be no choice. I'd stop the game here and try something else in the meanwhile. But since it is a game, I guess it makes sense that there is a limit to how much it would try to bust me. At first I thought it was awkward, but the game is trying to teach me something. In this case, it would be how to distribute myself thinly across a particular space. This will be necessary when I start work on getting the true powers of the Inspired. It is a little sneak peak into what I will be capable of in the real world after large amounts of effort into programming not just my core, but the world around me.

I look at where the silken lines are leading, and I see them disappearing into thin air at some point. But if I give a tug, I can feel the fibers stretching past the slot. I try moving the fiber left and right and for the first time, I become aware that there is a tiny rift in space. I play around with the thread, moving it left, right, up and down and get a sense for the dimensions of the rift. It is rather narrow in one dimension, but wide in the other. It is like a card slot in an ATM. That is exactly it!

As I look, the rift moves around the table, and spits out new hands for both my opponent and me. It is rather low. Looking at it from above, I can't see anything. I put my head on the table and try to check it out from as low as I can see, but I can't tell anything.

On a mental trigger, I manifest an eye directly below the first and for the first time, actually see what is inside, which is admittedly a lot of darkness.

My plan is coming together. I manifest some tiny fireflies, not actual beings, but points of light made of my luminescent cells and with skillful maneuvering, send them into the slot. And there I see 'it'.

(Geoffrey POV - Heaven's Key, House in the suburbs)

[https://i.imgur.com/7Wb0Jdp.png]

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Even if an Aleator runs into trouble against a newcomer and starts shoving to terminate the duel, it might be possible for an Episteme to counter that by breaking the deck." He imagined. "Louis in particular is old enough to realize that the deck being in a different dimension is a joke we play on introspects."

"Deck breaking is like a dream. It is the ultimate victory to know which cards will come out on the flop, turn and river." I drink my tea. This is a usual pastime in the city. People below would think this effeminate, but God knows I imbibe enough alcohol and drugs just for the sake of training. The last thing I want is to be inebriated while relaxing. "But it is difficult to do even for Epistemes. It takes a lot of control. It is easier to just manifest a gun and fire away in order to suppress the opponent."

"Or throw lava. Or freeze the opponent in a block of ice. I had it all happen to me at the table. Why focus on the deck, when you can focus on the opponent directly?" Walter asked rhetorically. "I wish I could play poker normally."

"I think Louis should be fine. Even if a newcomer is an Episteme he should have enough will to disrupt him."

(Heaven's Key, Shadow realm, Resolution duel with Louis)

[https://i.imgur.com/AbFuRaY.png]

As soon as my opponent sees what is happening, he becomes visibly agitated. He does something, I lose my connection to the personal cloud around and inside his body. Then he pushes outward and I feel my cells vanishing...it lasts for a few moments and then he starts panting. Sweat drops down his face.

Is that it? He looks like an overweight man after a strenuous 3 minute jog. He'd be better off having a hamburger than trying to run. It is okay pal, take a break.

As soon as the pushback faded, my cloud reclaimed the area automatically. Once a personal identity is established, I do not need to keep reaffirming it. It seems the NEET guy can only do it for a little bit at a time unlike me. Deep down he still sees himself as a human. I wonder how he managed to do it even for that little while? To be honest, I am not sure how I'd handle this if I were a human. Without the ability to edit my mind, it seems hopeless to try to attempt this. The more firm one's grip on sanity is, the harder this would be to do.

My firefly cells enter the rift. With my expanded domain, right there I feel the deck! I manifest my eyes around it.

Inside the pitch black space that reflects no light, the only solitary object there is the deck. I see the lines I wrapped around the two cards leading into it. From below, I see the Qs as the last card. The rest of them are buried in the deck and unknown to me.

> It is time for the final push. I'll try to increase the density of my personal cloud and have the cells slip in through the gaps between the cards. After that I'll try to feel out what the cards are based on their texture. Cover me.

I message the controller.

> All right.

My imagination feels powerful, really powerful now. Like an animal caught in a trap, the NEET guy has started struggling again, but I ignore him and focus on my own work. It is hard to direct my cells to enter the microscoping distances between the cards. I push inwards from all directions and part them just a little to make what I want happen. When I tried to move the deck normally, I found that it was firmly stuck in place, but I can make it budge a hundredth of a millimeter.

At first it was hard, but I got used to it quickly...and slipped through the gaps.

I got it! The secrets of the deck reveal themselves to me!

Inside my mind, the deck unfurls itself to me.

The top 5 cards are...

Ks 4c 6c Jd 7c.

They should come out in that order on the flop, turn and river.

My opponent's cards are...I shift my focus and peer underneath his...6s Qh.

And my own are...I don't bother looking directly. Instead I use my personal cloud to do it. 7c Ac.

In other words, I'll win with a flush on the river. It is time to make a move.

I was thinking at high speed, so even though a lot of activity occurred in my mind, on the table less than a minute passed.

"Check." I check and as expected...

"All in." The villain goes all in, trying to suppress me with his bulk. But this sort of thing only works if I don't know what will come out next.

I mentally review before I decide to make the call. Am I certain to win here? I should be...unless the cards get drawn from the deck in random order. That would be extremely anti-climactic. To lock in my victory, I decided to just save the game here. And then, I ready myself and take the plunge.

"Call." I bet my entire life, 410 chips in total, on this hand.

My opponent takes a psychological blow at this. Our hands get revealed.

I have 7c Ac.

He has 6s Qh.

"You are only 60% sure to win! Why did you call?"

I keep quiet and watch as the rest of the cards come out. In the deck space, I can see the cards flowing out.

Ks 4c 6c.

Seeing that he has a pair now, my opponent breathes a sigh of relief, but even so with the flush draw and 6 outs for a pair, I'd have about a 50% chance to win if I were all in here without knowing the rest of the streets.

Jd. Now my opponent would usually be 75% to win. I look at his face, and see him being focused intently. A glimmer of hope is in his eyes. How naive. What was that struggle from before? Did he just decide to hope that I wouldn't be able to see the deck?

On the river, the seven of clubs comes out and I complete my flush, winning the hand.

I double my stack and my opponent grinds his teeth in consternation. While he is doing that, the new hands get dealt, but I do not care about that. Looking at his face and thinking what he is thinking is quite fun. In a time like this, I can understand how normies feel about social activities.

After some time, he realizes that the new round has started and he is the first to go.

"All in." He does it again. On the surface, it feels like being on the play money tables with donks going all in for no reason. But he is very serious. "Why won't you accept? Aren't you afraid for your own life."

For a moment, I feel like flipping him my own cards and telling him a prediction of what is going to come out. This kind of boasting could only hurt me here though. If he starts to clam up and time out every card, it will take me a couple of hours until he folds out his entire stack. That he is putting it at risk in an express manner like this suits me just fine. No need to rock the boat.

So I keep quiet, and once again call.

The cards flow out, and I win the showdown again, doubling my stack to 1640 chips. One more time and I'll have more than him.