The brave's game, namely, Quick Knife Finger Stab.
In this game, the only tools needed are one hand and one knife.
The challenger needs to open their right hand flat on the table and use the knife tip to stab the gaps between each finger. The faster the speed, the more skilled one is, and the process is simple and cruel.
In the American West of the last century, you could see tattooed men in cowboy clothes Surround ing people who were stabbing their fingers in any local bar or country club, howling unreservedly and cheering for the challengers.
And the gangster boss in a leather vest with a cigar in his mouth would set up a gambling table on the side.
In the last century's West, where human lives were cheap, Quick Knife Finger Stab and Russian Roulette were the most suitable games for cowboys to show their bravery and win the hearts of blonde women.
The essence of this game lies in seeing who can hold out longer.
Even those who are skilled in using knives will experience visual fatigue under long periods of nervous tension, which can easily lead to misjudgment.
In a Quick Knife Finger Stab endurance race, you don't know if your finger will be cut off in the next second, and the task of the warriors is to endlessly maintain maximum force when bringing the knife down on their palm until the end of the game.
Whoever's hand lasts the longest without injury is the unrivaled hero of the night.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was not unfamiliar with this game. It was replicated as a mini-game in the masterpiece "Red Dead Redemption 2."
In the game, you could control the protagonist, Arthur Morgan, to challenge NPCs to Quick Knife Finger Stab and win dollars from them.
Before playing, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had thought that if he made a mistake, Arthur Morgan's finger would be severed, so he was always cautious, preferring to be slow rather than make a mistake.
Only after playing did he realize that even if he made an operational error, he would only cut his hand, and the injury would miraculously heal in the next round.
In his previous life, while playing this game, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had experienced this brave's game, where Western cowboys gambled their fingers, several times.
This game becomes more difficult as it progresses, severely testing one's reaction speed.
In the game, your operation is nothing more than repeatedly pressing a few buttons on the controller. The operating mode is more like a rhythm game. Once you make a mistake, it's just the vibration feedback from the controller and the loss of some in-game currency.
But in reality, once you make a mistake, what you lose is a finger.
This game is truly "dancing" on the edge of a knife. Even "Genius Player M" wouldn't be foolish enough to try something like this.
If something went wrong, and he lost his entire finger, he hadn't reached the point of risking his palm for excitement. He had no interest in trying either Quick Knife Finger Stab or Russian Roulette.
...Another type of "Russian Roulette" is a different matter for now.
"Ikishima Midari, are you joking?" Ayanokoji Kiyotaka looked up, frowning slightly: "Do you think I'm stupid? How could I play this kind of game with you?"
"You're a boy, can't you even try? This game is actually very simple."
Ikishima Midari provoked Ayanokoji Kiyotaka with a smile. She seemed excited, her face flushed.
"Do you want me, a girl, to give you a demonstration?"
As she spoke, as if to show Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, she voluntarily opened her hand.
Her fingers were long and delicate, a pair of hands very suitable for playing the piano.
But her hands were not soft and smooth like those of ordinary girls; they had many shocking red scars, and some places had just scabbed over, their color not yet faded, indicating recent injury.
It was clear that Ikishima Midari must have played the "Quick Knife Finger Stab" game frequently. She had already demonstrated the consequences of making a mistake.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka felt absurd and spoke with a frown.
"Ikishima Midari, if you like to seek thrills, go find them yourself, don't drag me into it. Whether it's poker or dice... I'll play along, but please spare me from these life-threatening games."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka hadn't lived enough yet.
Ikishima Midari climbed onto the table like a nimble cat, her tone very gentle, as if she were acting spoiled towards Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, handing him the knife: "Come on, this game is very simple, just try it..."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka glanced at her, not taking it at all.
Ikishima Midari maintained this awkward posture for more than ten seconds. She put down the knife and spoke as if suddenly enlightened: "Oh, I see, you're afraid of cutting your hand, aren't you... Then how about this!"
She clapped her hands with a smile, and soon, one of her subordinates took two small knives from under the bookshelf.
"Don't worry, these two knives aren't sharpened. Even if they stab your finger, at most they'll only make a small wound; they definitely won't break it... Now you dare to gamble with me, right?"
"This woman is a lunatic..."
Mikura suddenly popped out half her head from behind the sofa, whispering behind Ayanokoji Kiyotaka: "Don't gamble with her, ignore her, just wait here for Miharu Taki Sakura to arrive."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka thought the same way; he still had no intention of responding to Ikishima Midari.
Mikura's self-isolation state was lifted. Now, squatting back down felt somewhat off, so she simply walked out from behind the sofa and sat next to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.
"Then what about you? Little dog, do you want to try?" Ikishima Midari's face showed a pleading expression, wanting to hand the knife to Mikura.
"Forget it, my life belongs to Lady Juraku, and I won't waste it on gambling with you!" Mikura refused very directly.
Seeing that both of them refused, Ikishima Midari put down the knife with great disappointment.
"How boring... Oh, by the way, do you feel the stakes aren't high enough?"
As if Ikishima Midari had thought of something, her smile became richer.
"Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, what do you want with that person from the Beautification Committee? If you ask me, it might be useful too."
Ask her?
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka looked up, narrowing his eyes: "I want to check the surveillance cameras at the entrance of the Teaching Building. Can you let me see them?"
"Indeed, surveillance footage falls under the Student Council's management..."
Ikishima Midari nodded thoughtfully and continued to ask with interest: "What do you want to see the surveillance cameras for? It's fine to tell me, I won't tell anyone. My information channels might be more extensive than you imagine."
This was not something that needed to be kept secret, so Ayanokoji Kiyotaka thought for a moment and told Ikishima Midari about the incident where a razor blade was placed inside Hanatemari Kazura's shoe.
To Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's surprise, after he finished speaking, Ikishima Midari immediately denied it.
"Impossible. Besides me, no one else in this school would have the guts to put razor blades in someone else's shoes. If there were such a person, I would have challenged her long ago."
"Then you mean this incident is fake? No one put a razor blade in her shoe at all?" Ayanokoji Kiyotaka frowned.
Although Saotome Meari could lie and joke, she would never joke about such an important matter.
Her eyes were serious; she had definitely witnessed this incident herself.
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