Pinocchio's honest card game~

Tang Mo was startled.

In the white world, the remaining six people were still studying the iron plate in front of them, Tang Mo and the man in black were separated by a distance of ten meters, looking at each other silently.

The two men's eyes met in the air. Neither spoke, just watched.

Tang Mo's hand unconsciously stroked the tattoo of matches on his left wrist.

At that moment, a happy and joyful music sounded. It was the prelude to "Merry Christmas", Tang Mo immediately withdrew his eyes and looked towards the place where the sound was coming from with vigilance. The man in black also turned his eyes away, no longer looking at him.

The eight players looked towards the end of the white world in unison.

Just hear from far away, an off-key voice is humming over and over again, "......we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year!"

At the end of the white world, a small black dot attracts everyone's attention.

This black dot came closer and closer and closer. When his song had echoed throughout the white world, the crowd finally got a good look at him.

It's a skinny puppet, and he's wearing a little yellow bowler hat with a red feather tilted into the blue brim. He wore cowboy boots, puffed out his chest, and hummed loudly an out-of-tune "Merry Christmas" song. Around his waist was a battered old radio. It was from this radio that the music came.

Tang Mo vaguely thought that the puppet looked a bit familiar, but for a moment he couldn't recall where he had seen him before.

The high school girl standing on his side of the room was suddenly surprised, "Pinocchio!"

Tang Mo sniffs and looks at the puppet again.

The puppet stops humming, and turns to look at the high school girl. He crossed his arms proudly, and the old radio on his belt was still playing the soundtrack to the "Merry Christmas" song. He said, "That's right, I'm Pinocchio, the handsome and cute one that everyone loves!"

"biu--"

A very strange special effect sounded and the puppet's nose suddenly grew longer.

Pinocchio blushed and said, "Well, well, well, not everyone likes me."

"biu--"

Pinocchio's nose grows again, a long, pointed snout almost half a meter long.

"I'm just cute, not handsome!"

"biu--"

Pinocchio, like a deflated balloon, wilted: "Yes, I'm not cute, I'm not handsome, and not everyone likes me." His nose returned to normal at once.

Pinocchio angrily slaps the radio, which rattles and the music stops. He glared hard at the high school girl who had called out his name, who took a step back in fear. Pinocchio strides towards the large golden star in the center of the eight and stands next to it.

"Merry Christmas? Merry Christmas what! Damn Santa Claus, there's nothing merry about this Christmas!" Pinocchio kicked the golden star, wincing in pain. He covered his foot and bounced on one foot on the ground. After a while it didn't seem to hurt anymore before he turned around and looked the eight players present over.

The puppet villain grunted, "Are you the players Santa invited."

Tang Mo looked at the Pinocchio calmly, and none of the eight men said a word.

"Damn damn damn, don't human children nowadays know anything at all about honoring the old and the young. Let me ask you, are you the players who are going to participate in the Honest Card Game today!"

Pinocchio angrily rips the radio from his belt and throws it to the ground with a grumpy hand. The radio fell apart, sending shards everywhere. The pieces splattered at the high school girl's feet, and she ran backward in fear, thinking that Pinocchio was still angry about what had just happened. However, she only made it to the edge of her grid before she was blocked by an invisible wall that prevented her from moving forward.

Pinocchio narrowed his eyes at the sight and gloated, "The game hasn't even started yet, can you run away. "

Tang Mo reached out and touched this grid he was in. As expected, just like the female high school student, this grid he was in seemed like a prison cage, with four invisible walls blocking the air and preventing him from moving out. A few other people started to try as well, and the result was the same, they were all imprisoned in these grids.

"They say I, Pinocchio, am a dishonest little puppet, but I think you humans are the most dishonest of all! Let me smell it, the stench of this world full of stowaways is making me Pinocchio throw up. "

The moment they heard the word "stowaway", everyone's face changed. Tang Mo subconsciously looked at the man in black standing on the diagonal, but the latter didn't react too much, the moment Tang Mo looked at him, he also raised his eyes and looked at Tang Mo with a calm expression.

Pinocchio's next words were even more shocking: "Ah, the smell ...... seems to be more than one stowaway! The stench is as strong as a stink bug in a shithole, there are at least two stowaways! Two! Damn Santa Claus, why don't you let me eat these stowaways. What the hell kind of Christmas Eve surprise copy is this, what kind of game is it if people don't die!"

The young man standing next to Tang Mo immediately grasped the point as he tentatively asked, "Did you just say that this game doesn't kill people?"

Pinocchio bristles and turns his head, glaring at the man, "Yes, how can anyone die for a copy of a surprise Christmas benefit. Damn, you're so curious, are you a stowaway!"

The young man immediately denied it.

"No killing humans ......" Pinocchio recited softly, and the next moment as if he suddenly remembered something, he hemmed and hawed, "Ah, almost forgot Santa's advice. "

Pinocchio picks up the shattered radio from the floor and he violently slaps it hard on the radio.

"Crunch--"

The radio, shattered into four pieces, magically emits a distorted musical sound as Pinocchio grasps it in his right hand and holds it aloft in his left. He stands in the blank area between the eight men and spins around in a fast circle while shouting -

"Dear human friends, welcome to 'Pinocchio's Honest Card Game', I am your human best friend - Pinocchio!"

"biu--"

Pinocchio angrily changed his tune, "Fine, fine, I'm not your human friend, I'm Pinocchio!"

As his nose retracted, the large golden star around Pinocchio suddenly radiated a dazzling golden light, as if in response to Pinocchio. Pinocchio turned to face Tang Mo in this blinding golden light. He took off his yellow top hat and gave a stage curtain call. He then did the same, turning 180° to face the four players on the opposite side of the stage and giving a stage curtain call as well.

Tang Mo's eyes locked on Pinocchio as he mumbled the name of the game.

"Pinocchio's Honest Card Game."

Pinocchio finished his salute and threw away the broken radio. He folded his arms and in the blink of an eye he was in front of Tang Mo. Tang Mo's heart tightened and she almost pulled out a large match. Only to see Pinocchio winking and looking at him, "Son, do you like lying?"

All eyes turn to Tang Mo.

Tang Mo thought quickly about the implications of this question. Pinocchio had just lied and caused his nose to grow longer, and Tang Mo was not sure what he would get if he lied at this moment, so he quickly thought of several answers in his head. Only a second had passed when Tang Mo said expressionlessly, "I don't like it. But humans, always, have lied before."

Pinocchio looked at him with a low chuckle, and like a gust of wind, in a blink of an eye, ran again to the young man next to him.

"Son, do you like Christmas?"

The young man was caught off guard by the sudden question and he swallowed, "It's ...... okay."

Pinocchio runs to the next man again.

"Son, do you like Pinocchio?"

"Son, have you ever gotten a gift from Santa Claus?"

......

He asked seven people and seven questions in a row, and finally he ran up to the man in black.

Pinocchio smiled kindly: "My boy, have you heard of ...... the king's gold coin?"

Tang Mo's eyes widened and he immediately looked at Pinocchio.

The man in black stared at Pinocchio, his voice low, "Never heard of it."

Pinocchio claps his hands and tap dances in front of the man in black for a few seconds. The next moment, his figure appeared next to the big golden star, and he exclaimed, "None of you lied, you are all honest children. Only honest children are eligible to participate in ' Pinocchio's Honest Card Game'. Christmas is here, and last night Santa Claus specially found me and said he had a big surprise for good children all over the world."

Pinocchio turns to the big golden star beside him, crosses his arms, and dubs himself, "Bam, bam, bam! Yes, that's it, Santa's golden star!"

The middle-aged woman standing directly across from Tang Mo subconsciously read, "Santa's golden star ......"

"That's right!" In the blink of an eye, Pinocchio ran up to her, startling the woman so much that she almost fell to the ground.

Pinocchio stretched out his wooden hand and pulled the woman to her feet, saying "Did I scare you, my honest friend", but he could not hide the sinister smile on his face. He clapped his hands and went back to the golden star, "Santa Claus says that every good boy deserves a present from Santa on Christmas Eve. That's something I take offense to."

The little puppet crossed his arms, "I ask Santa, how do you know who is a good boy and who is a bad boy? What do you think makes a good kid?"

Pinocchio pointed a finger at the high school girl.

The high school girl blushed and thought for half a second, "...... gentle, kind and helpful, a good boy?"

Pinocchio disgruntled, "And?"

The high school girl racks her brain for a few more words, and Pinocchio's face grows harder and harder. The high school girl was on the verge of tears with fear when Tang Mo looked at her, "Honest people are the only ones who can be considered good."

The crowd looked toward him.

Pinocchio gave him a thumbs up, "That's right! Honest people are the good ones."

The high school girl whispers a grateful "thank you" to Tang Mo, and everyone else looks at Pinocchio again, except the man in black, who looks at Tang Mo for a few seconds longer. Tang Mo doesn't look at him this time, he looks at Pinocchio like everyone else, except that he keeps his right hand on the match tattoo.

The big golden star was suspended in mid-air and Pinocchio jumped up high and took the huge star into his arms. "I told Santa Claus that only honest children are entitled to this star, to this king's gold coin."

Tang Mo's eyes stared blankly, his heart almost skipped a beat as he stared at the star in disbelief.

The others didn't know what the "King's Gold Coin" meant, and they looked at Pinocchio cautiously and timidly. Pinocchio held the big star and raised his chin proudly: "So today, instead of Santa Claus, I'm going to play a game with you children. Whoever wins will get this king's gold coin. It's a surprise benefit that only comes once a year."

An old voice rang out, "What is the king's gold coin?" The one who spoke was the old man with white hair standing beside the man in black.

Pinocchio looked surprised: ''You don't even know about the king's gold coins? The King's Gold Coin, that's the highest grade and rarest gold coin of Underground Man Wang Guo! With this gold coin, you can freely enter and exit every city of Underground Man Wang Guo, and you can exchange it for one hundred silver coins ......"

There seemed to be quite a few players present who knew about the existence of the Underground Man Wang Guo, and their faces changed when they heard this.

But then Pinocchio said the most maddening thing of all: "A king's gold coin can forfeit a game of the Black Tower. You don't even know the king's gold coin?"

"Ah!" The three people directly exclaimed in shock.

Everyone's breathing became unconsciously heavy as they looked with blazing eyes at the golden star in Pinocchio's arms.

The black-clothed man's gaze also paused for a moment, but the next moment he looked at Tang Mo.

Tang Mo's face was also full of amazement, as if he knew the king's gold coins for the first time, and his eyes were hotly fixed on the golden stars.

The man in black slightly hooked his lips and withdrew his eyes.

After the crowd was shocked, the old man couldn't help but ask, "How do you play this game and how do you win it?"

Pinocchio : "Good question! Honest children, see this silver and iron deck before you?"

The crowd looked at the cards in front of them. In addition to their own decks, the four players on each side look at all three other decks on their side as well. Tang Mo's eyes gaze at the four cards on the opposite side of the room. Pinocchio notices Tang Mo's eyes, he smiles heatedly and claps his hands.

"Boom--"

The eight cards are turned 180° in unison, revealing the front of the deck to the opposite player.

The movement of the flipped cards caused a small earthquake in the white world. As the earthquake subsided, Tang Mo hurriedly looked at the four cards opposite him. His gaze traveled from the card directly across from him to the left in turn, and he noticed that each card overlapped with his side's until he saw the last one.

Tang Mo's eyes glazed over.

On the card in front of the man in black was a majestic man wearing a crown. He held a jeweled cane and looked forward with a majestic expression, his eyes gleaming.

As Tang Mo sees this card, the four men across the room also see it in front of him.

The middle-aged woman exclaimed, "How come his deck is different from ours!"

The high school girl on Tang Mo's side of the room chimed in, "That guy's is different too!"

On the card in front of Tang Mo was a long-haired woman wearing a crown on her head. She was holding a huge jewel in both hands, and her thick long hair was like seaweed, draped over her shoulders, emitting a gentle glow.

There were eight cards in total, two with ragged beggars, two with knights in armor, and two with middle-aged men with books in their hands. There is also the crowned woman in front of Tang Mo, and the crowned man in front of the man in black.

Tang Mo : "Slaves, Knights, Prophets ...... Kings and Queens."

Pinocchio looked at him in surprise, "You know the honest card game that Wang Guo, the Underground Man, is best known for?"

Tang Mo shook his head, "A deck like that looks pretty understandable."

Pinocchio : "Fair enough, you humans seem to play a similar game. But this time you're wrong, this card ......" he teleported to the card of the middle-aged man with the book in his hand and tapped the silver and iron deck hard, "This card is not a prophet. This card is the Minister. The king and queen command the ministers, the ministers manage the knights, the knights execute the slaves, and the slaves can revolt. That's right, this is the most popular honest card game in the land, Wang Guo."

Hearing Pinocchio's explanation, several other players also came to a realization.

This game sounds complicated, and in fact many countries had similar games before Earth went online.

This is a head to head strategy type card game. The king grants ministers, ministers grants knights, and knights grants slaves. The king can take the ministers and knights, but the weakest looking slaves can rise up and kill the king.

But what does this game have to do with honesty?

The high school girl said curiously, "Is our mission to kill the opposite king or queen in order to win?"

On Tang Mo's side, there was a slave, a knight, a minister and a queen, and on the opposite side, there were also slaves, knights, ministers and a king. Come to think of it normally, they should have split into two teams with the aim of killing the king and queen on the opposite side with slaves from their side.

However, Pinocchio's face instantly grimaced upon hearing this. He instantly moved in front of the high school girl in the blink of an eye, glaring at her grimly as he coldly said, "Looks like you're the bad boy."

The high school girl was so scared by him that she sat straight down on the floor, her lips trembling, not knowing what she had said wrong.

Pinocchio changed his playful face from just now as he swept over the eight people present with a cold gaze. After looking around, he returned to his original position and suddenly pulled back his lips and smiled brightly once again: ''How can anyone die on a surprise benefit on Christmas Eve? Honest children, this is a welfare game for you ah! Do you know why the Honest Card Game is different from other games, instead of two kings, there is one king and one queen?"

The crowd was startled by that sudden change in his face just now, and not a single person answered.

Pinocchio, on the other hand, asked himself: "That's right! Because it's an honest and peaceful game. Game second, friendship first. Eight cards, let's say you ......" Pinocchio points to Tang Mo's side of the table, "Let's say you put up a knight and they put up a slave. What would happen?"

Tang Mo looks coldly at Pinocchio.

Pinocchio asks himself again, "Yes, then they will be defeated by you. Their Slave cards disappear, leaving them with only the Knight, Minister, and King cards. And none of your four cards are missing. No matter how you count it, it will be hard for them to win again. Because their slaves are dead, no one can threaten your queen anymore, while your slaves can kill their king."

This is bullshit.

As the crowd dared not speak, a young woman standing opposite Tang Mo spoke up, "I don't get it, so what's the point of this game. If one side is a knight and one side is a slave. The knight card can kill the slave card ...... So what, what does it do to us?"

"Who told you this game was played this way?"

The young woman closes her mouth and stares at Pinocchio.

Pinocchio : "This is an honest card game! If one side's card overpowers the other, then the suppressed side's card is nullified and voided at the same time ......" Pinocchio heatedly laughed, his dark little eyes flicked around the eight people, "That means you're all dishonest kids! !"

Tang Mo suddenly realized something.

Pinocchio grunted, "In an honest card game, there is one sure way to win, and that is to play the same cards every time. When both teams have exactly the same cards, the cards are voided and both teams end the round peacefully. In Wang Guo, our underground people, there is a default rule of four games of chance to play cards, with both teams playing Slave cards in the first game, Knight cards together in the second game, followed by Minister cards. Why not two King cards, but one King card and one Queen card? Because by the time we get to the fourth game, when we play both the king card and the queen card, the king and queen will hold hands, and both sides will end the game peacefully. This is the favorite honest card game of the Undergrounders. There are no losers; we're all winners."

Tang Mo English raised his eyebrows at this remark. Of the eight people present, the high school girl and the middle-aged man on Tang Mo's side of the room, and the middle-aged woman and the gray-haired old man on the opposite side of the room, all had glowing eyes.

All winners, so that means everyone wins the game? All get the king's gold?

"But!" Pinocchio snapped, smiling brightly, "But the King only has one gold coin. I made a bet with Santa Claus, who said that you were all good boys and would work together to finish this honest game. I, on the other hand, think that you ......"

Pinocchio extends his finger and points it at Tang Mo: "You."

He points to the young man beside Tang Mo: "You."

And then the high school girl: "You."

"You, you, you, you ......"

"And you!" He finally pointed to the man in black standing at the other end of the diagonal.

"You are all dishonest humans! I made a bet with Santa that if you all honestly play your cards in order, it will be my loss. Then after this game, each of you can leave the copy and I will lose a king's gold coin to Santa."

The old man said, "Wait, what about our reward for winning the game?"

Pinocchio rightfully asked, "Huh? I didn't even eat you guys, so isn't that a bonus for you?"

High School Girl: "No, so the only thing we get out of participating in this game is you not eating us and safely escorting us out of our copies?"

"That's not enough?" Pinocchio rubbed his chin, "Of course, looking at it this way, it looks like you guys didn't get a Christmas present. So my bet with Santa isn't over yet. Santa and I also said that if you guys don't play your cards in order in this game and one side wins outright against the other ......"

Pinocchio clapped his hands and tap-danced a beat: "Bam-bam-bam! That means I win. Santa Claus will owe me a condition. And I will selflessly give three more of the King's gold coins to the four men who won. All four of them will each have one of the king's gold coins, and will still be able to leave the copy safely."

Tang Mo's eyes widened and his heart went cold. He quickly turned his head to look at the three "companions" beside him. Only to see that, except for the young man standing beside Tang Mo, the high school girl and the middle-aged man looked up at the four people across the street, and then at the golden star in Pinocchio's hand.

Both men's eyes were full of greedy blazing light.

Not only them, but three of the four people on the opposite side of the room also looked at the golden stars and swallowed their saliva. Only the man in black had a calm expression and didn't have any reaction. Realizing that Tang Mo was looking at him, he also looked at Tang Mo.

Tang Mo locked eyes with him.

Pinocchio : "Don't worry, kids. This is Santa's Christmas Eve surprise for you. As long as you follow the rules of the game, nothing will happen to anyone. Even if you don't follow the rules, nothing will happen."

High school girl: "What do you mean?"

Pinocchio is happy to say, "In an honest card game, neither I nor my opponents know what cards you've come up with. If both teams play the same card, both cards are nullified. If both teams come up with different cards, the 'Dueling Grounds' will be triggered. But don't worry, there won't be any cannibalistic monsters on Christmas Eve. The Dueling Ground is just a duel between the two teams representing the cards in question. The side that wins gets to stay on the field, and the side that loses ...... will leave the place and move on to the next fun game."

The high school girl thought to herself, "What you mean is that if both of us play different cards, then we will be recognized as dishonest at the same time. There will be a duel between two of our teams. The winner stays here and the loser goes to the next game? That doesn't sound like it's a punishment at all right ......"

Pinocchio winked those tiny eyes, "The next game won't have anything to do with Santa, there's no peaceful way to get through, yo."

The high school girl's face paled in realization.

In this honest card game, all eight of them can survive as long as they make a concerted effort to play the same cards, and after four games, all eight of those cards will be nullified, and all eight of them will leave the copy with nothing.

But if one of the players wins the game, killing the opponent's king-queen card with a slave card, and then killing the opposite slave card. Then all they have to do next is keep playing the King and Queen cards to kill all of the opposite side's cards and win the game.

End the game peacefully with no rewards for either side.

One side wins the game and all four get the king's gold.

King's Gold ......

That's the chance to forfeit a game of Black Tower.

Half a month ago, Tang Mo almost lost it when he was confronted with this gold coin.

Now ......

"I have a question." A low voice rang out.

Tang Mo looked towards the man in black who had spoken.

The man in black swept his gaze over the four Tang Mo's, finally lingering on Tang Mo for a moment before looking back to Pinocchio : "If one side wins, what happens to the losing side?"

Pinocchio: "As I said, there will be no killing in this game, and the loser will of course move on to the next game. As for whether or not they can survive in the next game ......" Pinocchio heatedly smiled, "How would the lovely and kind Pinocchio know?"

"biu--"

Pinocchio's nose lengthened at once, and he hastened to say, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, I am ugly and wicked, and not at all sweet and kind!"

Nose back to normal.

At that moment, a clear child's voice resounded in the minds of the eight players present -

"Ding Dong! The Christmas Eve surprise copy of 'Pinocchio's Honest Card Game' has officially begun. Rules of the game--"

"First, each team has four cards each, the Slave, Knight, Minister, and King and Queen cards."

"Second, the King and Queen card restrains the Minister and Knight cards, the Minister card restrains the Knight and Slave cards, the Knight card restrains the Slave card, and the Slave card restrains the King and Queen card."

"Third, the default order of play for Wang Guo, the Underground Man: Slave, Knight, Minister, King and Queen."

"Fourth, when both players' decks do not match, the restrained card is nullified on the spot, and the 'Dueling Ground' effect is triggered at the same time. A 1V1 duel is fought by the player representing that card on the field. The winner stays on the field, and the loser enters the Tower Attack game (Normal Mode)."

"Fifth, when playing a card, the back of the card is shown, and the opposing player may not see the contents of his side's card. Pinocchio does not know the contents of either player's deck."

"Sixth, before each game is played, the card represented by each player will change, in a randomized manner."

"Seventh, the team without a single card is considered to have failed."

"Eighth, the side with the Queen card triggers the 'Go Home and Kneel' effect and has the right to ask a question only once in the entire game. At any time of your choosing, you may ask a question to the side with the King card. The question must not be related to the content of the card, and the person being asked can only answer yes or no. Lying is considered a game loss, and the questioning side wins."

"Pinocchio hates honest human beings, and he'd rather give the king's gold to four damned crooks than let honest human beings leave the copy safely."

"So you all know the rules of the game now?" Pinocchio grinned sinisterly as he cradled his golden star. Upon realizing that everyone was looking at him, he immediately blinked and made an expression of pure innocence, clapping his hands happily, "Then let's get the game started!"

Pinocchio stomped his foot into the earth and a white wall rumbled down from the air.

It was the same wall that had separated the two groups a moment ago, and now it was slowly descending again.

Pinocchio: "Knowing that you're all going to be discussing the cards you're going to play next, as soon as this wall comes down, neither of you will be able to see the people on the other side of the room or hear their voices anymore. Only I can see you and hear what you say. Of course, I won't give any hints." At this point, Pinocchio suddenly pauses, he covers his mouth and says in surprise, "Huh, what was I saying, why do you guys need to discuss it, aren't all the cards you're going to play next slave cards?"

The white wall rumbled and came down completely.

Pinocchio sits on the wall, he turns his head to look at Tang Mo's side, then turns his head to look at the other side.

Pinocchio stretched out, hugged the golden star comfortably, and lay down on the wall. He said cheerfully, "Ah, these are eight good, honest, sweet children."