At 6:50 p.m., Yan Qili finally left the office and rushed to the subway station.
By 7:55 p.m., he stepped onto the subway right on time.
He couldn't wait to pull out his earphones, steady his phone, and log into the Qingyun Video app, waiting for the link to stream Episode 4 of 'Kaiji'.
When the time arrived, the screen on his phone lit up with 'Kaiji' Episode 4.
"So convenient! Watching dramas through mobile apps is way better than chasing them on TV," Yan Qili thought to himself.
But when he glanced around the subway car…
Roughly half the passengers were just like him—heads down, glued to their phones. Judging from his peripheral vision, quite a few were also watching 'Kaiji' Episode 4.
He suddenly felt a strange sense of pride. His favorite show was loved by so many others, too—that joy was hard to put into words.
The story picked up right where last weekend's episode ended. The man who'd tricked Kaiji before—Funai—now suggested that the remaining participants pool their cards for a reshuffle. Which, in practice, was just another trap aimed directly at Kaiji.
The pacing didn't drag. Kaiji, though emotionally frustrated, knew he had no choice—he had to join the shuffle group that Funai was organizing.
There were only around twenty people left who still had cards, and Funai had already rallied more than half of them. They even made a pact not to challenge anyone outside their group post-reshuffle, to avoid getting ambushed.
If Kaiji got isolated, there was no question—he wouldn't be able to collect the nine stars required to get off the ship.
Left with no other option, Kaiji joined the shuffle group.
The moment he pulled out his sixty-nine cards, the entire hall was stunned.
Except for Funai, no one had expected that, out of barely over a hundred cards remaining, someone had accumulated sixty-nine of them.
Then the reshuffling began, led by Funai.
Still holding a grudge from before, Funai deliberately threw Kaiji's freshly shuffled cards into the air.
"Hurry up and pick up your cards. If you're too slow, everyone else will be done with their matches. Hahaha!" Funai laughed arrogantly.
Yan Qili felt his blood pressure shoot up.
That Funai guy…
Across from him sat a short-tempered guy, watching the same scene on his phone. The soda bottle in his hand was already crushed out of shape.
In various Jing Yu fan groups:
"What kind of trash is this Funai guy?!"
"Holy crap, someone's about to duel Kaiji, and he goes around telling people Kaiji's hoarding cards and can read everyone's hand—so challenging him means certain defeat?!"
"How can someone be this vile?!"
"If I were Kaiji, I'd stay on the ship just to stab that bastard Funai."
"Seriously, no carbon-based lifeform can tolerate this kind of mind game."
"Gross. That guy deserves to die!"
"But with eight or nine stars on him, how is Kaiji supposed to win against him?"
"Ugh, all those stars were tricked out of others just like he conned Kaiji earlier."
The episode continued.
During a tense argument with Funai, Kaiji noticed something—an inconsistency in Funai's words that only he could have caught.
The hall's LCD showed thirty-four "paper" cards. But after the shuffle, all thirty-four ended up in Kaiji's hand.
That meant every other contestant had either rock or scissors in hand—no paper.
In other words…
As long as they didn't challenge Kaiji, they could play rock and never lose.
But Kaiji noticed something else—from the confidence Funai displayed when talking about a certain victory.
"Funai… you rigged the cards, didn't you? Why are you so certain you'll win? It's because you know your opponent is holding scissors, isn't it?"
"And how would you know that? Because you were the last one to handle the deck during the shuffle. You marked the scissors card, and then deliberately gave it to someone you planned to challenge."
Kaiji voiced this deduction in front of the entire betting hall.
Then—
"Damn! Kaiji is a genius! Just from Funai saying, 'Don't snatch my prey,' he figured all that out?!"
"Whoa… is that even possible?"
"Now that I think about it, Funai was the last one to handle the cards during the shuffle. And he handed them out randomly to mask the rigging. He marked the scissors card and passed it to some clueless idiot just to challenge them later."
"Why is everyone in this drama so slimy? Lies and deception everywhere. Is Kaiji the only one onboard with a moral compass?"
"I actually thought Funai was trying to help the group with that shuffle suggestion. Turns out he just used it to cheat—he's disgusting."
"But so satisfying when Kaiji flipped the tables. Funai said Kaiji had too many cards, so dueling him was suicidal. Now, Kaiji declares he holds all the paper cards, meaning whoever has scissors is doomed. No one's going to duel Funai now."
"What good are a bunch of stars if no one will challenge you? When time runs out and he's still holding a card, he won't meet the conditions to leave the ship anyway."
"But Kaiji's group only has five stars… what now? If no one duels them, how will they get to nine?"
"As for Funai, it'd be easy to get someone to use up his last card. Just offer two or three stars as a reward. Even if the opponent loses a star, they gain more than they lose."
"Wait—you can do that?"
"Oh crap, you're right!"
"So why hasn't Funai done that yet?"
"He's probably biding his time. If he rushes it now, people might extort him for a high price. He's trying to wait for the best deal—lowest cost to get rid of his last card."
In the fan group chats, people began analyzing the episode.
Back in the drama—amidst this stalemate—Kaiji, comparing his own cards and the total numbers displayed, realized something didn't add up between the counted cards and what was supposed to remain in the hall.
He made a chilling declaration:
"Someone in this room is hiding cards."
Coupled with an earlier incident that occurred in the betting hall…
Kaiji suddenly conceived a… surefire strategy.
Yan Qili blinked.
Another surefire plan?
Kaiji, how does your brain spin this fast in just a few hours? You came up with another strategy?!
In the next scene, Kaiji gathered all remaining gamblers in the betting hall.
He understood their fears: anyone still holding scissors would be doomed if they gambled, and anyone with rock—even if they played—would only get a draw. No gains, no added stars. No one could continue the restricted rock-paper-scissors game under these conditions.
And in that moment, Kaiji… became the key to breaking the stalemate.
He was the only one still holding all three card types. The only one who could do this.
He made a deal with the others: before each match, he'd lay down a rock, paper, and scissors card in front of him. Which card he would play would be up to his opponent.
A true game of chance.
This meant that no matter what card his opponent held, they'd always have a fair chance to win.
And so, the other gamblers took turns dueling Kaiji, slowly exhausting their cards.
As for Kaiji—because it was all random—his stars stayed the same: five. No gains, no losses.
At this point, Yan Qili still didn't understand the point of all this.
"Why go through all that?"
"Now Kaiji only has two possible opponents left: the hidden card holder and Funai. Is he trying to whittle down everyone else's cards just to go down with Funai?"
"How is this a 'surefire' strategy?!"
"Still… damn entertaining."
Funai also realized something was off.
Now, the only people with cards left were the mystery cardholder… and Kaiji, who had dozens.
Funai started to panic and shouted out, hoping the mystery person would appear:
"I'll give you two stars! Duel me in one match—win or lose, you'll still get two stars!"
"Hey, quit wasting time already."
Kaiji finally smiled.
His strategy had only one weakness: if Funai couldn't keep his cool and offered someone two or three stars early on—before Kaiji played with everyone else—then he could burn through his last "rock" card.
But Funai was greedy. He didn't want to get extorted, so he held back, hoping to find the cheapest way out.
In the end, everyone used up their cards dueling Kaiji.
Now, if Funai didn't act fast and the mystery cardholder used up their cards too, then he'd be left holding his final card—and would be forced to duel Kaiji, who could then blackmail him.
"You remember the incident at the start of the game in the betting hall?"
Incident?
Yan Qili paused. That had aired one or two weeks ago already.
But he quickly recalled…
The guy who had enough stars to leave, but flushed his remaining cards down the toilet, got caught and sent to the isolation room by the organizers.
Yan Qili's breath hitched.
He realized something—
And in the drama, Kaiji finally dropped the act. His eyes turned cold as he stared down Funai.
"There was never any mystery cardholder. The reason the card counts don't match the display is that those flushed cards were never registered in the system. Right now, there are only two people with cards left: me and you, Funai."
The biggest twist of the 'Kaiji' gambling arc was revealed in that moment.