The clown giggled in a high-pitched voice that clearly belonged to a man, yet perfectly matched people's expectations of a clown's comical tone. "I want to play a game with you."

Wang Tao frowned. "A game? What kind of game do you want to play in the middle of the night? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

The clown continued laughing in that exaggerated voice. "We'll sleep after playing. The game is... a deadly gamble."

When the words "deadly gamble" were spoken, Wang Tao's calm expression flickered slightly. He studied the clown before him and asked, "What do you mean by deadly gamble?"

The clown explained, "We bet with our lives. The loser dies, the winner lives."

Wang Tao thought for a moment. "What if it's a tie?"

The clown replied, "There can't be a tie. But if by chance it is, we both get to live."

Suddenly encountering a clown who wanted to play this kind of deadly game felt like something straight out of a horror movie. Most people would probably think they were dealing with a psychopath—someone who'd watched too many movies—and immediately slam the door shut.

But Wang Tao wasn't most people.

First, he took out his phone. "Wait a second, let me check something." He typed "clown murders" into his browser, which immediately brought up reports of clown-related killings and assaults from around the world. Finding what he needed, he held up his phone for the clown to see. "Is this you?"

The clown nodded.

Wang Tao smiled and put away his phone. "Oh, so you're just like me—another transparent person caged here. Looks like if I don't play your game tonight, I won't be getting any sleep anyway. Fine then, let's do it."

With a wave, Wang Tao led the clown into his living room and closed the door behind them—a bold move indeed.

The two now sat facing each other across the glass coffee table in the living room. Wang Tao spoke first: "Why choose me for this game?"

The clown grinned. "Because you're one of the people who paid the least tonight."

Wang Tao blinked. "One of? So there are others?"

"Two more," the clown said.

"Have you already approached them? Or am I first?"

"You're the first."

"My luck's that bad, huh?" Wang Tao mused. "How exactly did you pick me as first? Because I seem easy to bully?"

The clown laughed. "I rolled dice to choose you."

"Ridiculous." Wang Tao shook his head. "Completely ridiculous. Though this is actually my first time meeting a serial killer in real life. When I got caught before, none of my prison buddies dared come near me."

After a pause, Wang Tao asked, "So how does this deadly gamble work?"

The clown suggested, "How about cards? Fifty-four cards, each draws one. Best two out of three, higher number wins."

Wang Tao immediately rejected this. "No cards. You're a clown—I saw your performance tonight. Your hands are way too fast. Any card game would be too easy for you to cheat at."

The clown seemed taken aback—probably the first time someone had refused his game. Most of his previous victims either panicked or tried to fight back immediately upon realizing the situation. Few remained calm enough to even sit down, let alone reject the proposed game as unfair.

Rather than getting angry, the clown burst into exaggerated laughter, clutching his stomach. Then with a dramatic clap of his hands, a cascade of cards appeared between his palms like magic before vanishing just as suddenly.

"If not cards," the clown proposed, "then dice? Roll for highest number, best two out of three?"

Wang Tao shook his head again. "Same problem as cards—too easy to cheat. Not fair to me."

Still unperturbed, the clown's painted smile stretched even wider. "Then you suggest a game."

After some thought, Wang Tao said, "Here's what we'll do: I'll take ten sticky notes, number them one through ten, crumple each into a ball, and put them in a box. We'll each draw one and compare numbers—best two out of three. Pure luck. That's what I call gambling with your life."

The clown considered this, then countered, "I accept, with one addition: include one hundred blank sticky notes crumpled up with the numbered ones. Blanks count as zero. If we both draw zeros, it's a tie. First to win two rounds takes all. Agreed?"

Wang Tao nodded after a moment's consideration and went to his bedroom to retrieve a pen and square sticky notes.

Meanwhile, in the live stream room:

Ultimate Rich Kid: [Thank goodness I spent the week after round 26 catching up on sleep and recovering, otherwise I'd be running on coffee right now.]

[The clown's finally making his move, though not exactly how I imagined. I thought he'd just kill outright, but instead he's playing games with Wang Tao.]

[Where's the martial arts expert? Did the clown follow this same routine with his last two victims?]

When Ultimate Rich Kid asked I am the Hero, there was no response.

Domineering Female CEO: [Your friend's probably asleep.]

[I'll tell you—the first lab rat didn't even play the game. Went completely hysterical and tried to fight back. Didn't help—still got killed.]

[The second one had better nerves and played cards with the clown. Lost and got drilled to death with a power drill.]

Ultimate Rich Kid: [I see... Hey, CEO, do you think the clown cheated during that card game with the lab rat?]

Domineering Female CEO: [No way to know for sure. Magicians' hands are too fast—you'd need an expert to spot it. But I suspect he did cheat—otherwise there's no way he could've won all three rounds in that best-two-out-of-three.]

Ultimate Rich Kid: [In that case, I'm finding fellow psycho Wang Tao much more interesting! He immediately ruled out cards and dice to avoid cheating, going straight for the blind draw.]

Domineering Female CEO: [True, but the paper ball blind draw isn't completely fair either—it can still be rigged. With just the ten numbered balls Wang Tao proposed, cheating wouldn't be too hard. Adding the clown's hundred blank zeros makes it more difficult though.]

Ultimate Rich Kid: [Wait, you can cheat at drawing paper balls? How? Even with just ten, I don't see how that's possible!]

Domineering Female CEO: [You're too naive. If they were identical hard plastic balls with numbers, sure—but crumpled paper balls have unique shapes. Someone could remember how they folded a particular number beforehand and identify it by touch.]

[Though with a hundred blanks added in, like I said, the difficulty increases significantly.]

[Of course, that's just one possible method—the actual cheating technique depends on the specific game situation.]