At this moment, Wang Tao began writing the numbers 1 to 10 on ten separate sticky notes.

After finishing, Wang Tao handed them over to the clown for inspection.

Once the clown finished checking, Wang Tao crumpled the notes into balls right in front of him and tossed them into an opaque rectangular liquor box he had found.

After throwing in the ten numbered paper balls, Wang Tao and the clown each grabbed fifty more sticky notes, crumpled them into balls, and threw them into the rectangular liquor box.

While crumpling the paper balls, Wang Tao quietly observed the clown in front of him.

He realized this clown was very different from the clown performers he had seen before.

The clowns he had seen on stage would perform as clowns, and after the show, even if their clown makeup was still on their faces and they wore silly clown costumes, once offstage, they would immediately return to looking like normal people.

After all, those people were just professional clowns. Their profession was one thing, and their life another. They kept them well separated.

But this clown before him...

Whether it was the performance at the welcome party or now during everyday moments, he gave off the vibe of a genuinely ridiculous clown.

“He’s just a clown, after all,” Wang Tao thought with disdain.

Right now, Wang Tao had an extremely strong desire to live.

He liked his current life. This was the most relaxed and comfortable stage of his life, so under no circumstances would he die.

He absolutely would not allow himself to die here, not at the hands of a clown.

Therefore, in this so-called life-or-death game, a gamble on luck, he had long prepared his cheating method.

Previously, he had secretly written three sticky notes in his room.

These three notes bore the numbers 8, 9, and 10.

They were on his person right now, always ready to be used for cheating.

Of course, this was only one of his cheating tactics.

Because earlier, when he proposed this game method—writing numbers 1 to 10 on ten paper balls—the clown suggested adding 100 more sticky notes with no numbers.

This dramatically increased the difficulty of cheating.

So, he thought the clown was pretty smart.

Thus, the pre-written 8, 9, and 10 notes were just backup plans.

He was afraid that while he wrote the numbers 1 to 10 in front of the clown, the clown, being clever, might leave a mark and write again on those 1 to 10 numbered notes.

If that happened, his previously written 8, 9, and 10 cheat notes would become useless because they wouldn’t bear the clown’s handwriting.

But the facts proved he had overestimated the clown.

The clown didn’t think of that at all.

That meant Wang Tao didn’t need to consider other cheating methods. This one alone was almost guaranteed to work.

The preparations before the life-or-death gamble were all ready.

Now, the opaque rectangular liquor box sat on the living room coffee table, exactly between the two of them.

Wang Tao said, “Do you want to draw first, or should I go first?”

“After drawing, do we open them immediately, or open them together?”

The clown said, “Whatever, I don’t care. Since it’s a life gamble, I believe in my life and my luck.”

Wang Tao replied, “Since I thought up this game, I’ll draw first. As for opening the paper balls, we open them together.”

The clown nodded in agreement.

His face wore an exaggerated smile that never faded.

Wang Tao went first.

Because the rule was best of three, but with 100 extra blank sticky notes representing zero, the probability of a tie was very high.

Therefore, the best-of-three rule was changed to winning two rounds.

For his first draw, Wang Tao didn’t use his cheating method. He wanted to see how his luck was.

So, he drew a paper ball from the box and placed it on the table.

After he drew, it was the clown’s turn.

The clown took less than three seconds before drawing a paper ball.

“Let’s open them at the same time!”

With a relaxed smile, Wang Tao opened his paper ball.

He was surprised to find his luck was quite good!

He had drawn a numbered note—the number 3.

Although 3 was relatively low among numbers 1 to 10, don’t forget there were 100 zero-value notes in the box.

So, in this setting, 3 was actually an absurdly high number.

Wang Tao felt his luck was incredible and that he might win the first round even without cheating.

At this moment, the clown also opened his paper ball.

Upon seeing the number on the clown’s note, Wang Tao’s whole body trembled.

His pupils dilated, and he muttered, “How is this possible? You actually drew a 4?”

That’s right, the clown drew the note with the number 4!

Excluding the number 3, there were still 109 paper balls left in the box.

Among those 109, there were only seven numbered balls: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

The chance of drawing one of those seven was 7 out of 109!!!

This luck was simply unbelievable!

“Looks like my luck is better than yours.”

The clown laughed loudly.

Wang Tao took the clown’s drawn paper ball and examined it carefully in his hand.

He suspected the clown had cheated.

Otherwise, how could his luck be so good, drawing a number bigger than his own?

And it was exactly one digit higher. Was fate really that coincidental?

But after looking it over, the number 4 was written in his own handwriting, which was very unique and hard to fake.

Therefore, this note was indeed written by him.

“I’m just insanely lucky,” Wang Tao thought, then his right hand touched the paper ball with the number 10 in his pocket, pressed between the pad of his thumb and flesh.

Then, his left hand threw the previously drawn 3 and 4 back into the paper box, and he let the clown shake the box to mix things up.

Originally, Wang Tao hadn’t planned to cheat so early, but the clown’s ridiculous luck had already won once. If the clown won again, he would lose.

If he lost, was he really going to hand over his life?

Wang Tao began his second draw, but this so-called second draw was just for show.

“I’ve drawn. Your turn.”

Wang Tao said to the clown.

The clown’s second draw was just as fast, and within seconds he pulled out a paper ball.

Wang Tao sneered internally and opened his own paper ball. There, glaring at him, was the number 10.

He stared at the clown’s painted face and thought, after winning this round, he would immediately use number 9 to end this boring game in the next round.

As for whether he would kill the clown after winning?

Heh.

He was already responsible for over a dozen deaths. One more wouldn’t matter.

Who told the clown to come looking for him at this late hour to play a life-or-death game?

Then let the clown leave his life here!

The clown also opened his second drawn paper ball.

Upon seeing the number 10 on the note, Wang Tao was stunned, frozen for more than ten seconds.

Then, he got so excited his face flushed red, he stood up, slammed the table so it thudded loudly, and shouted, “Impossible! Absolutely impossible!”

Wang Tao refused to believe anyone could be that lucky.

Out of 110 paper balls, he had drawn the only number 10?

What kind of god-defying luck was this?