Chapter 107

“Knowing you, I assume you’ve already got all that down,” Chaos said, taking out two electronic devices. Each had a screen displaying the words Ragnarök League: The Final Battle Between Humans and Gods. They were evidently Chaos’s prototypes, but the display was clean and legible. “We play using the app on these devices,” Chaos said. “Tap a card on the screen to select it, then tap on a coin to select those.” “Got it.” The game master and its creator—Chaos. Versus a total beginner—Fay. He couldn’t discount that knowledge gap, but as long as both players properly understood the effects of the cards, it was psychological warfare that would tip the scales in favor of one or the other. Chaos wants a straight showdown—and I think this game is going to value mind games more than knowledge or patterns of play. That meant Fay could make up the difference in their knowledge and skill. There was just one catch… The Gods deck and the Humans deck. At first glance, anyone would think that the Gods deck was obviously more powerful. “All right,” Chaos said, holding out one of the devices and keeping the other for himself. “I’ll take the Gods deck.” “Wh-whoa, hold on!” cried Pearl, who had been studying the cards from over Fay’s shoulder, before Fay could even open his mouth. But it was too late. On his device’s screen, Fay could already see that the Gods deck was assigned to Chaos, leaving him with the Humans deck. “That’s not fair! Not when the Gods deck is obviously so much more powerful!” said Pearl. “What makes you say that?” “Huh? Well, it’s… I mean… Isn’t it, Nel?!” “Mm-hmm. It looks that way.” Nel nodded somberly. “Especially the Angel and Divine Dragon cards. They clearly break the balance of this game.” [Gods] Angel. Power: 11. When you win a round using this card, return it to your hand instead of discarding it. [Gods] Divine Dragon. Power: 9 (more powerful than any human card). When you win a round using this card, you win the game. This card is not affected by Creation effects. The Angel, in addition to being the most powerful card in either deck, could be used repeatedly. Meanwhile, the Divine Dragon could single-handedly end the game. They were clearly overpowered. But it’s not like the Humans deck has no way to counter that. The Hero could beat either of those cards, and the Mage could fight them to a draw. Still, it put Fay at a disadvantage in the psychological game. The Divine Dragon was particularly fearsome. If Chaos played that, Fay would have to make sure he played the Hero or the Mage on the same turn. Otherwise, the game was lost. Somewhere in these five turns, the Divine Dragon is going to show up. The question is, which turn? I have the Hero and the Mage, but that means I have only a two-fifths chance of matching them up against the Divine Dragon. In other words, three-fifths of the time, he would lose. The Humans deck couldn’t hope for a victory rate better than 40 percent. At least, that was how it appeared. “You’ve got the right idea. The Gods deck has the psychological advantage in the opening game,” said Chaos, bathed in the blue glow from the monitor as he looked down at his screen. “But Fay, there’s a reason I’m having you use the Humans deck.” “Because Mind Over Matter is a god-team, and we’re the humans?” Fay asked. “You’re a quick one.” For once, the corners of Chaos’s lips turned up in a smile. “You’re pitting yourself against the gods themselves. Can’t have you afraid to go up against a mere deck of them.” After a second, Fay said, “And is it your job to make sure I’m ready?” “I’m just a gofer. Now, to get back to the rules for a second, this game requires a third-party referee. In our case, the program will do it automatically.” This game was played without the cards ever being turned face up. For example, suppose that in the first round, Fay played the Sage (attack power six). Chaos would play a card, but Fay wouldn’t know what he’d played because it would be face down. If Fay won, he would know that Chaos must have played Meep, Holy Spirit, or Guardian Beast (all of which had less than six power). If he lost, Chaos could have played only the Demon or Angel. (If Fay lost to the Divine Dragon, the game would be over.) It’s a game of incomplete information. The question is how precisely we can guess what’s in our opponent’s hand based on the referee’s judgments. They each had just six cards, but the fact that the players never saw them made things much more complicated. “At the start of the game, each of us loses one card at random from our decks. The program will do that, too, nice and neutral.” Randomized Removal: One card each from the Gods and Humans decks will be discarded. On his screen, Fay saw the six cards of his deck shuffle themselves face down, then watched one of them fly away so that it sat outside the field of play. The remaining five cards would become his hand. Trapper, Sage, and Traveler would all be good cards to drop. I could work with losing the Healer, too. But if that drop cost me the Hero or Mage, I’m in trouble. The cards stopped shuffling themselves, and Fay saw what he was left with. “………” He understood. Fay had to suppress a wry smile at his own hard luck. “Now we get five minutes to plan our strategies. Think about what card we want to play in round one,” Chaos said. “Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Miranda—” Here he tossed her a keycard. “There’s a monitor room next door, set up so that you can observe the game Fay and I are playing on a nice, big screen. It’ll be a lot easier than trying to look over our shoulders at our devices in here.” “Well, look who’s prepared.” Miranda turned, twirling the key card between her fingers and beckoning to Pearl, Nel, and Leshea with her other hand. “Looks like we’re moving out.” The girls followed her from the room, leaving only the two young men—Chaos, who a year ago had been the leader of Awaken, and Fay, who a year ago had been his newest rookie. Both were silent. They stared at the five cards in their hands so hard they could have bored holes through them, imagining hypothetical rounds in their minds. Which card would they each play, and in which round? These five minutes aren’t just for thinking about your first move. I have to figure out my entire strategy with this deck. Time passed all too quickly, and in what felt like the blink of an eye, the five minutes were over. “Five minutes ain’t as long as it sounds, huh?” Chaos said, looking up at the clock on the wall. His relaxed manner suggested that he had already run through his simulations of all the upcoming rounds. “This is your first time even seeing this game. If you need it, I could give you another five minutes to plan.” “It’s all right,” Fay said, looking at the cards on his screen and nodding. “Let’s play, Chaos.” Meanwhile… Miranda and the three young ladies piled into the monitor room next door. “Chief Secretary! Quick, turn on the monitor!” “Patience, Nel, patience. Now, let’s see. It looks like this button should do it…” The monitor hanging from the ceiling lit up. Miranda sat in the coach’s chair, while Nel, Pearl, and Leshea stood behind her and looked up at the screen. “Oh! I see them!” Pearl pointed up at the screen, which now showed a black-haired young man, Fay, and an expressionless Chaos with his long blue locks. Then the display switched to show the screen of Player 1 (Chaos). It must have been the same screen he was seeing on his device. They could see his five Gods deck cards, but those of his opponent Fay were all hidden.