Chapter 903: The Grand Prize

A few days later, I returned to Bai Yang's game field.

That day, I was delayed by a game and didn't arrive at Jile Qianzhuang until nearly evening.

I bumped into a bespectacled, refined young man coming toward me. Before I could get a good look at his face, he softly said,

"Sorry,"

and hurried away.

I'm not one for small talk, so I didn't stop and pushed open the revolving door. But as soon as I entered, I noticed the place was unusually noisy.

Normally, by this time, the daily grand prize draw would have already happened, and Jile Qianzhuang would be winding down for the day. Yet, the bank hall was packed with fifty or sixty people.

They were gathered in small groups, loudly discussing something.

Some looked excited, others anxious, and the whole hall was in chaos, almost like the bank was going bankrupt.

I tried to avoid everyone's gaze and headed straight to Bai Yang's office.

"Ge Yang..."

I closed the door behind me, a bit puzzled and tense, and asked,

"What's going on?"

I knew that with Bai Yang's capabilities and the games he designed, nothing major could go wrong here. Still, the crowd outside was still chattering away with no sign of leaving, though no one had come to question Bai Yang yet.

"It's nothing," Bai Yang said, picking up his water cup for a sip before adding,

"Someone won the grand prize."

"Won... the grand prize...?"

I paused for a moment, then cracked the door open to peek outside. Sure enough, the people there were pointing at the display screen, and some were frowning over their Cai Quan tickets.

Their behavior was intriguing, as if they were analyzing the winner's strategy.

They believed that if they could figure out how the previous winner thought, they too would eventually win.

Others kept pointing to the "red" and "green" on the screen, explaining why the winner made those choices. But this was all about probability, and studying past data wouldn't help at all.

Especially since... this was Bai Yang's version of probability.

So, did someone actually win the grand prize here...?

Had that person cracked Bai Yang's game?

"How much did they win?" I asked.

"Two thousand nine hundred Dao," Bai Yang replied.

"Two thousand nine hundred Dao!" I exclaimed. "That much?!"

"Yes, the prize pool had been building up for a while, so nearly three thousand Dao isn't surprising," Bai Yang said casually, as if it had nothing to do with him.

Yes... thinking about it, having three thousand Dao in the prize pool wasn't odd at all...

This didn't mean three thousand people had bought Cai Quan tickets, because of the tickets' unique nature—if you wanted to win, you had to buy a new one every day. That could lead one person to keep adding to the prize pool.

This rule also made people mistakenly see buying Cai Quan as an investment.

Since I wasn't involved in the game, I hadn't paid attention to how many Dao were in the prize pool. I never realized it had grown so large...

Exchanging one Dao for two thousand nine hundred Dao.

What did that mean?

Wouldn't this seriously affect Jile Qianzhuang's earnings?

"Who won the grand prize?" I asked again.

"A rather interesting person," Bai Yang said. "He's well-suited to win."

I furrowed my brow slightly—the word "suited" was too loaded.

Clearly, Bai Yang had deliberately let this person win.

"But why..." I voiced my doubt. "Ge Yang, if someone wins the grand prize, will others still buy Cai Quan tickets...?"

"It doesn't matter," Bai Yang said. "Jile Qianzhuang's wealth is beyond caring about a single Dao's business."

Oh, right... I almost forgot about that.

I suddenly understood Bai Yang's approach.

Since the system resets when three thousand six hundred Dao are collected, Bai Yang had to avoid handing out that exact amount at once. Otherwise, I'd be reset, the Extreme Dao would be reset, and even Jile Qianzhuang's reputation would vanish.

So, he needed to act when the Dao accumulated to a certain level, but he had to choose the right winner.

That winner had to meet many conditions... They needed to be wise enough, able to protect such a large quantity of Dao, and agree not to trigger a reset.

Or perhaps... the winner was another pawn, someone who would destroy all those Dao and start everything over.

Tian Long had his own resets, and Bai Yang had his.

The ones most affected now weren't Bai Yang or the winner, but those participants outside holding their Cai Quan tickets.

Bai Yang baited the fish, then pulled the bait right out of their stomachs.

From the start, he was playing with empty hands, using the participants' stakes to lure more participants, only to take the stakes away in the end.

"But how did he take away all those Dao?" I suddenly thought to ask. "Two thousand nine hundred Dao—that's like two or three big sacks!"

"He brought along an impressive young man," Bai Yang said. "That young man could make the Dao disappear in an instant, right in front of everyone. That way, it avoided any robbery and showed off their strength."

I nodded, thinking the other party must be quite shrewd.

People who hoped to get something for nothing through Cai Quan weren't likely to be formidable. Just a little display of power in front of them would ensure a safe exit.

After witnessing the winner's power, the rest would only regret their own inadequacy and complain about bad luck, without daring to think of anything improper.

Otherwise, they'd end up losing everything, and the cost would be too high.

Luckily, Bai Yang still had the Qianzhuang business. As long as it didn't collapse, he'd remain the most powerful figure here.

"So, Ge Yang... will you keep selling Cai Quan tickets?" I asked.

"Hard to say," Bai Yang said, narrowing his eyes slightly. "It's not just Cai Quan—maybe even the Qianzhuang business will have to stop."

"Ah...?!"

That feeling...

That sensation I get every time I think I've figured out what Bai Yang is thinking, only for him to flip it on its head in an instant...

I've experienced it far too many times!

"Wh-why?"

As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt my voice distort.

Because I realized that from the beginning, I had never once guessed Bai Yang's next move correctly.

Yet, every day, I thought I was the one who understood him best in the entire "End of All Things."

Now that I think about it, what do I really know about him?

"Because Jile Qianzhuang is too famous," Bai Yang said. "It could interfere with my future actions. Unless something unexpected happens, I'll make its reputation drop quickly in the coming days."

This...

After hearing that, a flood of questions popped into my head, but I had no idea where to start.