OJTTEG-Chapter 33: Am I Cool?

"Wait a minute, did I just fail to judge an important probability?" Haunter feels Cain's hand withdraw from his chest cavity and quickly begins assessing other probabilities.

This skill could be a divine ability if it hits every time, but the frustrating part is how rarely it does.

"Judge the probability of a rock falling and killing Cain!"

18/3, failed.

"Judge the probability of Cain choking on his own saliva!"

50/4, failed. Yeah, such absurd probabilities are unlikely to succeed.

This won't do; if he can't manage to eliminate Cain within the two-minute window, his immortality will vanish, and he'll be truly done for.

How much time has passed? About twenty seconds, it seems.

"Where are you taking me?" Haunter tries to say.

Simultaneously...

Let's give it a shot.

"Judge the probability of Cain hearing this and stomping me into pieces."

20/30, success.

Right, it's normal for him to finish the job.

In that instant, Haunter sees a huge foot coming towards his chest cavity.

Sounds like bones cracking.

Quite crisp.

Then he loses consciousness, and upon waking up, finds himself once again in Cain's grasp.

So that's how it is.

The more likely something is to happen, the higher its probability. This ability isn't meant to be used to directly eliminate opponents; the chances are just too low for that.

The true purpose of this ability is for guidance. The idea is that if you keep judging towards a certain possibility, once the first step succeeds, the second and third steps will naturally follow.

What's that saying?

Discover the pattern, summarize the pattern, utilize the pattern.

In short, it's three words: "The Inevitable Trend."

Once that "trend" is in place, the subsequent events become inevitable, like water flowing downhill.

Now, there's about a minute and a half left.

Watch me turn the tables!

And if I can't turn the tables?

Simple.

That's the end of this fictions.

Haunter thinks, resigned to his fate.

……

"So decisive, huh?" Haunter chuckles, wiping the blood flowing from his nose. "But it seems you haven't finished me off. Want to give it another try?"

"Wham!"

Haunter is hurled to the ground, splattering mud everywhere. Cain, like a sprinter, doesn't even glance back as he madly dashes into the forest ahead.

"This is the end."

"What?"

The creature, in its frantic escape, suddenly steps into what appears to be an ordinary puddle. Half of its body sinks into it, and it continues to descend.

After all this rain, a mud pit forming isn't too surprising, right?

"Is this your doing?" the creature shouts, struggling desperately.

The surrounding mud seems incredibly fine, possessing strong adhesion once soaked. Cain tries to pull the submerged half of his body out, but the cost is that the other half sinks into the puddle.

"What did you do?"

"There's no way I could take you down alone," Haunter says, wiping his nose with his sleeve. "So I decided to enlist the help of Nature."

With that, Haunter casually picks up a seemingly ordinary stainless steel pipe from the ground and skillfully tosses it into the puddle.

"Where did you get a stainless steel pipe?"

"This is the wilderness. Finding random things isn't surprising. Maybe some construction site passed by and left it here."

"What are you trying to do?" the creature shouts. "Are you kidding me? Do you actually think lightning will strike me?"

"The odds of that are lower than winning the lottery!"

Yes, the probability is indeed very low.

But it's not impossible, right?

"Judge the gathering of rain clouds here."

20/50. Success.

It's only natural, considering it's already raining here.

"Judge the accumulation of positive and negative charges in the clouds, forming lightning."

5/20. Success.

Again, it's natural for lightning to form in rainy weather.

These words from Haunter's mouth all become reality, which is quite unusual.

"Why? Why can you control the weather?"

"Judge the generation of massive lightning, striking this area."

30/35. Success.

The butterfly effect, seeing the big picture from small events—when multiple coincidences occur simultaneously, the impossible becomes possible.

Coincidences happen by chance, but if one manipulates variables, when all conditions are met, this "coincidence" turns into inevitability.

……

"What are you trying to do, you bastard!"

For some reason, the creature can't seem to crawl out of the puddle. Whenever he grabs onto something, it breaks instantly, and he can't find any foothold.

He's left holding the stainless steel pipe Haunter threw, desperately trying to reach a stable point nearby. But each attempt falls just short, causing him to sink further into the mire.

He resorts to transforming back into a three-meter-tall giant. In that instant, his hand can suddenly reach the ground, but just as he feels a glimmer of hope, the ground collapses under his weight.

"The larger your size, the more force you need to escape the mud. Didn't your physics teacher ever tell you that?"

"Besides, stop struggling," Haunter says, expressionless. "Making sure everything slips through your fingers takes a lot of mental effort."

Faced with Haunter's taunts, the creature shrinks back down, still clutching the stainless steel pipe. Despite his speed and strength, he's trapped by a series of coincidences in this quagmire.

But countless coincidences lead to inevitability.

"Analyzing your every move has pushed my brain to its limits."

Haunter isn't in great shape either, half-closing his eyes, coughing up blood from his nose and mouth, like someone who's gone a week without sleep, his mental state at rock bottom.

"Stop now! I can give you anything you want. Money? People?"

The creature finally gives up struggling and begins to plead with Haunter.

"What do you want!! Please..."

"Am I cool or what?" Haunter asks.

"What?"

"I mean, you set me and An as your hunting targets. Now that the hunter and prey roles are reversed, am I not cool?"

"Ugh..."

Suddenly, blood gushes from Haunter's nose and mouth. It's clear that the intense mental effort from all those judgments has overwhelmed him.