In the dim room, the "clatter" of tiles continued.
"By the way..." Luo Hong said with a smile while waiting for the shuffle. "The 'Transparent' rules we're playing now... the original penalty wasn't stripping."
"Isn't that obv—I mean, of course," Qingque grumbled. She was full of resentment but wasn't foolish enough to start a verbal fight. She just wanted to strip Luo Hong bare and end this long night.
"Heh." Luo Hong didn't mind her tone. He wanted her to resist; a struggling prey was much more fun. "According to the original rules, those with money paid with money. Those without..." He smirked playfully. "...paid with blood!"
"This was meant to be a game where you gambled your life."
"Uh..." Qingque couldn't hold back her thought. "And you turned it into this perverted mess?"
She immediately covered her mouth, looking at him nervously.
"Miss Qingque, don't be so tense," Bronya interjected. "This scoundrel loves watching his prey struggle. The more you fight, the more excited he gets. If you surrender too easily, he'll find it boring."
"So..."
"But even if he finds it boring, he'll still devour you anyway," Bronya added, as if she had predicted the question.
"Fine then." Qingque pouted, now seemingly reckless. If she was going to be devoured regardless, she might as well be bold. "So by bringing this up, you mean even if you lose all your clothes, you want to keep playing by paying with 'blood'?"
She was sharp and caught the implication immediately: losing your clothes wasn't the end of the game!
"Of course not," Luo Hong shook his head. "Playing with three beautiful ladies... seeing blood would be in bad taste."
Qingque frowned, a sense of foreboding washing over her. "You aren't planning to pay with... [Beep], are you?" She wore a look of pure disgust.
"Of course not." While the thought had crossed Luo Hong's mind for a split second, it was a bit too "low-brow" even for him. Besides, what would Qingque and the others do in that case? In this day and age, playing the old trope of "one drop of essence equals ten drops of blood" was just bad writing!
So—
"Theoretically, a person can be drawn for up to 2,000cc of blood," Luo Hong said with a playful smirk. "Let's set the limit at 2,000 then. Once a loser is fully stripped, we start increasing their 'sensitivity'."
"Heh... 2,000 times the sensitivity. Just thinking about it is exhilarating!" He licked his lips and then— "Win!"
He successfully called a win on Qingque, who had been distracted by his words.
"..." Qingque looked at his tiles and realized he had been specifically targeting her discards. She gritted her teeth in silence.
Fine. It was time to get serious! While she never wanted to be "competitive" in a game meant for slacking, she had no choice now. And surprisingly... playing for real was actually kind of fun?
"Finally getting serious?" Luo Hong smiled and glanced at Theresa and Bronya. "You two better step up too, or you're going to suffer."
Like every true gambler, Luo Hong "locked" his luck once he was backed into a corner. He rode a wave of absolute dominance, slaughtering Qingque and the others until he was the very last one to be stripped.
But as the game entered the second stage, his heaven-defying luck finally ran out, returning to normal—or even slightly worse than usual. However, in the second stage, the person who felt the least shame held the biggest advantage. And without a doubt, Luo Hong was the least shameful person in existence.
"Now that everyone is transparent, we don't need to worry about the 'Transparent Hand' rule anymore." Luo Hong sat boldly, looking at the three women who were huddled forward to cover themselves. "But by the way, this sensitivity doesn't just affect physical sensations; it affects the mental layer too—like the sense of shame."
"If you keep acting all timid, things might get... messy as your sensitivity rises." His grin grew more unrestrained.
"Bronya finds this rule unfair," Bronya interjected, raising her hand. "Miss Qingque and the Principal aren't close to you, so it's natural they'd feel shy. But for Bronya, it's different. This rule is too advantageous for me."
Actually, she meant it was too advantageous for Luo Hong, but saying that would only make the scoundrel happier.
"Then how does Bronya propose we change it?" Luo Hong asked, curious to see her move.
"Bronya thinks we should add a clause—" Seeing him open to her suggestion, she spoke directly. "Internal 'Desire' must be counted too."
"Oh?" Luo Hong looked surprised. "Bronya, are you serious?"
"Of course. But since we are playing tiles, if anyone actually acts on that desire, they are disqualified and lose immediately. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"
This was her true killing blow!
"Heh, of course not." Luo Hong agreed with a chuckle. Indeed... that made it fair! If he had an Achilles' heel, it was "lewdness." Increasing his own desire was a direct counter.
"But don't underestimate your own desire either," Luo Hong warned.
"Don't worry, Bronya knows what she's doing. At worst, I'll just lose." She was a "naked" person with nothing to fear; her body and soul already belonged to him. If she didn't think losing on purpose would just make Luo Hong pick someone else to play with, she wouldn't mind being the loser at all.
"Heh, you're quite open-minded." Luo Hong looked at Qingque and Theresa. "But you two shouldn't underestimate your own bodies. The human body is a miraculous thing!"
He hadn't "developed" Qingque much yet, but he had spent plenty of time on Theresa—second only to Bronya.