Pain Immunity: Worried the Villains Aren’t Twisted Enough

Chapter 142: Emotion Perception vs. Mind Perception

What’s the price?

There wasn’t the slightest trace of emotion on the Purple Mask—it still wore that same devil-may-care expression. Even having so many personal thoughts laid bare didn’t seem to affect him one bit.

With one hand supporting his chin, he watched the girl across from him with a look of playful interest.

Xie Antong had been smiling too, but the corners of her mouth twitched a bit unnaturally—though she quickly returned to normal.

Thinking back to that sinking feeling every time her brainwaves got amplified, she felt like she’d just had a social death.

It was like posting a late-night emo story on your feed, then seeing it the next morning...

“Ah... can’t help it, good times are always short-lived.”

Xie Antong quickly adjusted her mindset. Of course, she wasn’t the kind to get mentally wrecked by just a few words from Lu Ce.

Like it was nothing, she casually asked:

“By the way, have we met before?”“Of course. What, did you lose some memories after unlocking your brain?” Lu Ce’s expression didn’t change at all. “Weren’t we just teammates in the last game?”

Xie Antong stayed silent. That sentence felt... off.

Why would he say “we were just teammates in the last game”?

Isn’t that a little too specific?

Whenever someone gets too specific with their words, it always feels like they’re trying to shift your attention. And this line was clearly trying to say that the last game was the first time they met.

Why emphasize that?

Tch...

But judging by his micro-expressions and movements, Lu Ce gave absolutely nothing away. Xie Antong couldn’t figure out anything.

She suddenly felt like she might be draining too much mental energy on this. What if that was exactly his trap—to exhaust her? Hard to say...

【Uh, excuse me, you two?】

On the other side, the Slime was sweating nervously at the heavy atmosphere between the two. It carefully chimed in.

【How about we play while we talk? Can we start the game now?】

It was speaking to Lu Ce, but the corner of its eye kept darting toward Xie Antong.

Tch... something’s off. Why does this girl feel like a completely different person now? She’s nothing like earlier.

“Sure.”

Lu Ce and Xie Antong said in unison.

Then, the nine demonstration cards in front of each of them disappeared. The Slime shuffled the deck again and started dealing.

The rules had already been explained. Nine cards per person. Each player could see the other’s cards but not their own.

In other words, you knew what your opponent played, but not what you yourself would play.

As the cards were being dealt, Xie Antong suddenly looked up at the Slime like something had clicked.

“By the way, you seem really familiar with him.”

Then her gaze turned to Lu Ce.

“And you, also seem familiar with it.”

“Have you two met before?”

Xie Antong found it odd. After all, she’d watched every single game of “Sin,” and had never seen this Slime before.

Lu Ce showed no reaction, but the Slime’s gelatinous green body visibly shuddered. It hurriedly responded.

【Met? Haha, haven’t we been together for hours in this game already? I’ve been watching him the whole time, haha.】

Xie Antong: ......

Lu Ce: ......

Could you at least try to hide your guilt better?

Both of them shot the Slime a look of contempt at the same time.

And Xie Antong was feeling more and more that something was seriously off.

That line from the Slime... really reminded her of what “Sin” had just said—“Weren’t we teammates in the last game?” The tone was suspiciously similar.

Hiss~......

Why did it feel like after expanding her brain, there were even more things she couldn’t see clearly?

【Alright, cards have been dealt.】

【You may begin. There’s no countdown in this game—play at your leisure.】

With that, the Slime went duang, duang and hopped off to the side, staying out of it.

Lu Ce’s finger kept tapping rhythmically on the table. The sound wasn’t loud—more like the tick of a grandfather clock.

According to the game rules, it was Xie Antong’s turn to play first.

Before she could move, Lu Ce spoke up first:

“This finger of mine is meant to mess with your mood. Hope you keep an eye on it.”

A completely open tactic. From this moment on, whether she paid attention to it or not, her emotions would inevitably be disrupted.

Immediately after, the Lust Mask displayed a wicked smile and said mischievously:

“Also, this state of yours has a time limit, right?”

“Our game doesn’t have a time limit, though. So tell me—if I just drag this out until your time runs out, what kind of view do you think I’ll get to see?”

Through the Lust Mask’s senses, he could clearly detect a change in Xie Antong’s heart rate!

But she adjusted quickly, smiling as she replied:

“If that’s what you want, go ahead. You’d only be winning against me, after all.”

“It’s just that you’ll probably find it boring. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have tried to make me pop a pill.”

As she spoke, Xie Antong pointed at her first card.

Then, her finger slid across the surface of each card—without even looking at them. She kept her eyes locked on Lu Ce instead.

Even though she couldn’t see his eyes, his heartbeat, pulse, and the shimmering light on his mask were enough for her to read.

The nine cards in front of her were three rocks, three scissors, and three papers—she didn’t know which were which.

But judging from “Sin’s” reactions, she could more or less guess which three were the same.

After scanning through them once, Xie Antong casually picked a card and tossed it.

Paper!

Once played, the card flipped over and became visible to both players.

Seeing it was paper, Xie Antong knew where she stood. But her eyes didn’t linger anywhere—she calmly looked at “Sin.”

“Heh.”

Lu Ce chuckled. His turn.

He only needed to play scissors to win this round. The only problem: nobody could see their own nine cards, or which one was scissors.

“You know who you’re dealing with?”

Suddenly, he looked up at Xie Antong.

“You’re facing the strongest player—the one who’s never lost. So you’d better keep every eye you have on me. Focus up.”

Xie Antong’s expression didn’t change. She knew that from this moment, his psychological games had already begun.

Lu Ce reached out and pointed to his first card. The Purple Mask was full of smiles as he stared at Xie Antong’s eyes.

“Tell me—this card of mine, is it scissors?”

Xie Antong: ......

No answer needed. Then Lu Ce moved his finger to the second card.

“This one—scissors?”