Chapter 169: Chapter 168: Making Games
After some thought, Richard suddenly remembered something, flipped his hand, and took out the “Monroe Chapter” from the Space Iron Ring, placing it on the table and flipping through the pages quickly.
Moments later, with a triumphant “Found it,” Richard’s gaze fell upon a certain page of the “Monroe Chapter.”
This page recorded a rather special Transformational Construction Magic—Pearce’s Nerve Sensitivity Technique.
The effect of the spell was to increase reaction speed, but it was still uncertain whether it worked on the same principle as “Richard’s unknown potion,” or by some other means.
However, if the spell and the potion were combined, the effects could potentially be even stronger.
Thinking this, Richard drank all the potion, seriously feeling its effects, pondering how to maximize its use—perhaps an actual test and data collection might be better.
While thinking this, Richard sensed something and looked towards the bed to see Pandora, who must have been disturbed by the noises from the experiment, rubbing her eyes and sitting up.
After sitting up, Pandora didn’t say a word, just blankly stared at the corner of the wall, as though pondering whether to continue sleeping or, if so, how much longer would be appropriate.
Richard’s eyes twinkled, and he snapped his fingers to catch Pandora’s attention, and asked, “Would you be interested in playing a game with me?”
“Huh?” Pandora blinked, and asked, “Wha… what game?”
“A very interesting game, the name of the game is… uh, Slap Hand.”
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“That’s right.” Richard approached Pandora, extended a hand towards her, palm up, and then placed Pandora’s hand opposite, palm down.
“What you need to do,” Richard said, “is to flip your hand over and try to slap the back of my hand. I’ll give you… hm, five chances to see if you can hit it.”
Pandora glanced at Richard, unenthusiastically feeling the game quite dull, and voiced her feelings, “Bor… ing… Pfft!”
While saying it was boring, Pandora moved swiftly, her hand flipped over with a swift motion, escaping from beneath Richard’s palm and raised high—with enough force it might kill a wild boar.
The air surged violently, whooshing as Pandora’s hand came down swiftly.
Pandora hit empty air; Richard had timely withdrawn his hand.
“Huh?” Pandora blinked in surprise, looked at Richard, and tilted her head, “Did… didn’t hit?”
“Mhm,” replied Richard, “You didn’t hit. You still have four chances left.” Having said that, Richard once again extended his hand.
Pandora made like she was going to slap but Richard said, “Follow the rules, place your hand properly first.”
Pandora’s mouth puckered slightly, but under Richard’s watchful gaze, she obediently placed her hand under his. Her lips pursed as she stared into Richard’s eyes, then her hand whipped out, lifted, and slapped down.
Her speed was even faster this time, causing the air in the entire cabin to churn violently, but the result was the same—she did not hit.
Pandora frowned, visibly upset; she found the game boring but now she wanted to win.
Richard’s hand was in position and Pandora placed her hand obediently underneath again, took a deep breath, and struck once more.
Pandora was getting anxious, eyes wide open, all traces of sleepiness gone, her eyes conveyed an unwillingness to admit defeat as she looked at Richard.
Richard appeared not to notice and reminded her, “This is your last chance.”
“Huh!” Pandora voiced her displeasure, “This time I will definitely hit you!”
“Then we’ll talk about that after you’ve hit,” replied Richard as he extended his hand again.
Pandora extended her hand too, placing it under Richard’s.
Richard, not one to mince his words, said, “No cheating, keep your hand flat,” noticing that Pandora’s hand was tilted at at least a 30° angle to his palm—a position from which she could flip her hand more quickly and strike, but Richard had caught on.
After being called out, Pandora showed no sign of embarrassment, and instead stuck out her tongue defiantly at Richard before reluctantly flattening her palm.
“You can start now,” said Richard.
Pandora didn’t strike. For her, this was the last chance, the last opportunity to prove her strength and win the game; she didn’t want to squander it.
This time the waiting was long, Pandora finally prepared to strike, inhaled deeply, her body driving her arm, which in turn propelled her palm, whisking out and up, then swung down fiercely.
This time, Pandora used almost all her strength, enough to send an elephant flying.
The air inside the cabin furiously billowed, like a passing whirlwind, and it seemed almost an illusion when a sonic boom sounded, as Pandora’s hand descended like lightning.
Yet it missed again, Richard quickly withdrew his hand, and Pandora’s descending hand hit nothing but air. However, her motion didn’t stop there; due to the extreme force used, she couldn’t pull back, causing her entire body to topple forwards, falling from the bed onto the wooden floor, and finally her palm hit something solid.
The entire cabin trembled, a decorative wheel hanging in the room fell off the wall and shattered.
Richard shook his head looking at Pandora, who glanced back, feeling a loss of face, huffily said, “You… you cheated.”
“I… can’t hit you, so it’s cheating.”
“That’s because you used too much force,” Richard explained, “In reality, if you want to hit me, you should use less force. In the game we just played, for you to hit me, you’d need to perform three actions—pull hand, lift high, and strike down, while I only need to perform one action—withdraw hand.
According to the rules, I’m only supposed to move after you do, so the key to beating me is ensuring you slap my hand before I can react.
So, your speed must be fast, which means you can’t use much force. The more force you use, the more preparation you need, the longer it takes to move, making it impossible to even touch me.”
Pandora begrudgingly grasped some of what Richard explained but didn’t want to understand. In her view, the idea that using less force could hit was nonsense. In this world, how could there be anything that couldn’t be resolved with force? If anything, it must be because not enough force was used.
Pandora looked at Richard and grumbled, “You’re cheating.”
“I’m going to sleep,” Pandora declared, picking herself off the floor and climbing back into bed to sleep, leaving Richard with her angry back of the head.
Shaking his head, Richard walked towards the door of the cabin.