After Twenty finished explaining the rules, he also sat down on a wooden barrel.

"If there are no questions, then we shall begin."

Naturally, no one objected.

Soon, one face-up card and one face-down card were dealt to each person.

The face-up card Lin Yu received was a Jack, and then he glanced at the hole card in his hand, which was a 9.

"That's pretty high..."

Lin Yu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

It seemed he wouldn't need to take a hit this round.

So he looked at the face-up cards on the others' tables.

Fern had a 7, Algae had a 3, and Moss had a King.

All three of them were also checking their hole cards.

Algae, after looking at his card, kept rubbing it in his hand;Fern lifted a corner to peek before immediately slapping it back down.

Moss picked his up and took a glance.

For now, their reactions gave no clue as to what cards they might have.

As the dealer, Twenty, just like Lin Yu's hole card, had received a 9.

"Moss didn't announce Black Jack, meaning his hole card isn't an Ace..."

Lin Yu pondered, and then Twenty began asking the player to his left, Lin Yu.

"Do you want a hit?"

"I do not."

Lin Yu shook his head and said.

While the game of Blackjack doesn't have a guaranteed winning method, there is a strategy that can increase your odds of winning.

This method is arguably the most well-known among various card games—because it's so legendary!

The story of Ma Kaiwen, a Chinese student from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the pinnacle of human academia across the ocean, who swept through Las Vegas casinos with his classmates, using card counting to rake in millions of dollars.

This story was even adapted into a film called *21*.

Lin Yu had watched that movie repeatedly—after all, one of its lead actors, Kevin Spacey, is an Oscar winner. For Lin Yu, who is passionate about acting, he couldn't miss a drama film starring an actor with such masterful skills.

Therefore, Lin Yu was also familiar with that card counting system.

To put it bluntly, it's a real-time calculation strategy based on statistics and probability—keeping track of all the cards that have already appeared on the table and assigning them point values.

Although Twenty's choice to let everyone hold one hole card reduced the amount of information each participant could grasp about the table, he was, after all, using a "single deck" and there were five players.

This provided room for real-time strategic calculation.

Of course, for Lin Yu... starting this hand with two cards totaling 19, even a player completely ignorant of optimal hit/stand strategy would know not to take a card this round.

"If the goal is purely to win the game, at most I'd only need to calculate one more probability for the 'card exchange'... And besides, even if I lose and get asked a question this time, it doesn't matter. In fact, I'm quite looking forward to Twenty asking more questions."

After all, the one answering likely wouldn't be himself again... Even if he did answer, it could still mislead Twenty.

Twenty still isn't certain whether the four people at the table are actually Lin Yu or not.

In Lin Yu's view, the ideal scenario would be to make Twenty believe all four are Lin Yu's "personalities," and then use the performances of the other three to mislead him.

But this also means that in this game, Lin Yu has a task more important than "winning."

"I have to make that guy Twenty believe that I'm in cahoots with the other three, and I also have to make him understand, without alerting them, why I wasn't a split personality last time but suddenly am now."

Hmm... It must be said, the task is arduous and the road is long.

But Lin Yu felt it wasn't impossible.

Twenty now looked towards Fern, who was sitting next to Lin Yu.

"Do you choose to take a hit?"

Fern had a 7 in hand. Given the current table situation, Lin Yu felt that as long as her hole card wasn't one of the highest values, she could afford to try for a hit.

After all, even if she busts, she can still stubbornly push for another card—this rule essentially lowers the "cost" of taking a hit, encouraging players to take the risk and draw another card even when there's a chance of busting.

Even if Fern's hole card is a 10-point card, what's called a "Ten" card in Blackjack, she'd only be stuck exactly at 17, that special dangerous point.

Fern is smart. Lin Yu felt that even if she wasn't familiar with Blackjack strategy, she could rely on intuition to make a relatively optimal choice right now—based on this, Lin Yu could completely deduce what Fern's hole card was.

But Fern's reply took Lin Yu by surprise.

"I won't take a card."

She calmly passed.

Lin Yu was somewhat taken aback.

"Could her hole card be an Ace or a Ten..."

He pondered expressionlessly, his face showing no fluctuation.

Twenty, however, didn't hide his surprise that Fern didn't want a hit.

Though the expression of Twenty, wrapped in his cloak, couldn't be seen, it didn't stop him from letting out a soft click of his tongue.

"You're not taking a card either, alright," Twenty turned to Algae, "What about you?"

"I'll take another card."

Algae only had a 3 showing;of course he would take a hit.

Only after Twenty turned towards him did Algae finally put the hole card he had been rubbing back on the table.

Twenty dealt another card to Algae;this card was a "5".

"That's pretty small."

Algae muttered, then seemed to fall into thought.

Watching Algae think, Lin Yu couldn't help but speculate again.

"Right now, 'Algae's' visible total is 8, but he's still hesitating... In other words, his hole card might be a middling number?"

"Could be 6, 7, 8, or 9... If we consider that Algae isn't as adept at puzzling these things out as Fern is, being closer to the Enforcer role among the personalities, maybe the range is even larger, because he might not have your excellent numerical intuition and precise probability calculation skills."

The scene was extremely quiet, with only the sound of their breathing and some faint noises from deep within the mine tunnel audible.

After a moment, Algae, as if having made up his mind, spoke up.

"I want another card."

A new face-up card was placed in front of Algae.

This time, Algae received a new 6.

Seeing this, Fern couldn't resist teasing, "Ha, if this were Showdown Poker, that'd be great. If your hole card is decent, you could even go for a straight flush."

Only after Fern said it did Lin Yu notice that Algae's three cards—3, 5, 6—were all coincidentally Hearts.

Unfortunately, suits don't hold much meaning in Blackjack.

Watching as Algae's visible total had already reached 14, yet after another brief silence, Algae spoke up once more.

"I want to continue taking a card."

This made Lin Yu feel even more puzzled.

"Visible total of 14 and still hitting? Just how small is your hole card?"

If Algae's hole card was high, then he shouldn't be taking a card now.

But if Algae's hole card was low... what was he hesitating about earlier?

Thinking this far, Lin Yu suddenly remembered the conversation that happened earlier, right before Twenty arrived, when Algae and Fern had just gotten here.

"Unless..."

"Those two are cheating again!"