Although he was at a disadvantage, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was not anxious.
Aside from Ayanokoji's continuous dealing into others' hands in the first few rounds, with the buff from the Memory Bread, Ayanokoji quickly understood various hand types and Mahjong strategies through practical experience.
Although he also dealt into others' hands many times in practice, Ayanokoji believed that his current self was definitely much stronger than the pure novice he was at the beginning.
In fact, he had also gradually gained some experience.
In Japanese Mahjong, the most important thing is not to win, but to avoid "dealing into others' hands."
The danger level of each tile in Mahjong is different; after someone declares Riichi, by observing their discards and operations like "Chi," "Pon," and "Kan," one can discern which tiles are more dangerous and likely to result in "dealing into others' hands."
For example, if no one has discarded a Manzu tile on the table.
If someone Ponned the 6 Man, and the Riichi player subsequently discarded the 2 Man, due to the Furiten rule, the opponent cannot be waiting on 2-5 Man, and also because there are few 6 Man left, the opponent cannot be waiting on 5-8 Man.
In such a case, discarding the 5 Man would be relatively safe.
Although he was flustered by the Furiten and Riichi rules at first, after understanding them, he found that these rules were actually very useful for the player discarding tiles.
One can make a rough judgment of the opponent's hand size and waiting range based on the discarded tiles, thereby seeing more safe tiles.
In this way, one can gradually replace tiles without dealing into others' hands, allowing oneself to also enter a waiting state.
This technique sounds simple, but in theoretical practice, it is not so easy to apply.
For example, Hanatemari Kazura, she is quite familiar with Mahjong and probably plays it often, but she still frequently deals into others' hands.
Before playing Mahjong, Ayanokoji didn't expect Hanatemari to be inferior to him not only in luck but even in Mahjong skill.
She dealt into others' hands several times in a row; even after taking off a stocking and exchanging it for ten chips, she still ranked last.
Even if Saotome Meari won the final victory, if Hanatemari was in last place, then even if Saotome won, it would be as if she hadn't won.
She had to maintain her first place while ensuring Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was in last place.
Hanatemari seemed to know she was dragging Saotome down; she was very cautious every time she discarded a tile.
She had been hesitating for a while, holding this tile, and hadn't discarded it. She looked at Ayanokoji and Kurume, who had already declared Riichi. After a moment of hesitation, she changed her mind, took a tile from her hand, and discarded it.
"...5 Pin."
This tile had already been discarded before. Hanatemari thought it was a safe tile, but...
Good, this is exactly the tile I wanted!
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's eyes lit up, and he immediately pushed open his tiles.
"Tsumo, Ippeko, Menzen Riichi," Ayanokoji Kiyotaka said confidently.
Ayanokoji had already been in Tenpai earlier, and now he was waiting on this single tile. He didn't expect Hanatemari to actually deliver it to him.
Although the win was small, only two Han, as long as it could suppress Hanatemari, it was a good hand.
After winning, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka even provocatively glanced at Saotome.
Did you see? No matter how well you play, you still can't achieve your goal.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had originally intended to "go easy" in Mahjong, letting Saotome Meari win naturally.
But Saotome Meari had tricked him, which instead ignited Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's competitive spirit.
You want to achieve your goal? Fine, then rely on your true strength. However, I will do my best to hinder you!
Saotome Meari looked at Ayanokoji's hand. Although anxious, she still honestly stated, "Two Han, 40 Fu, 2600 points."
When calculating scores in Japanese Mahjong, one must not only calculate "Han" but also "Fu," which is used to determine the winning and losing points after forming a hand.
Fu increases linearly; the more triplets (Kotsu) in the hand, the greater the Fu.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka understood the Han in Mahjong, but the calculation of "Fu" was still difficult for him. However, Saotome could calculate it quickly and accurately with just a glance.
Thus, the calculation of scores for everyone was entrusted to Saotome.
Even if she made a mistake, Kurume, who was nearby, would correct her.
In a flash, Hanatemari lost another two thousand six hundred points.
Originally, Saotome held chips worth one hundred dollars each. If a score like a few hundred points appeared, they would be exchanged for an equivalent of ten ten-dollar chips.
"Hanatemari, your points aren't much now. Do you want to be 'blown away' in the next round, or would you like to take off another item?" Kurume asked with a smile.
Although they were playing strip Mahjong, and clothes could be converted into points, the "exchange function" was not always available.
It could only be used when points were below ten thousand, when one felt unable to bear the next failure, and when points were about to become negative.
To use a more direct analogy, it's like the happy beans given by Boss Ma.
You can only drink poison to quench your thirst when you're losing so badly that you can barely play the game. When you have tens of thousands of points in your hand, you cannot choose to strip for points.
Of course, if you find it too shameful, or if you've stripped as much as you can, you can also choose to end the game and proceed to the settlement phase.
In that case, you would be in last place.
Currently, Hanatemari Kazura still had her jacket, shirt, short skirt, and one short sock on, far from the end.
"...I'll take off another piece of clothing!"
Hanatemari Kazura bit her lip lightly, placed her right foot on the stool, slowly pulled down her black stocking, and threw the still-warm stocking into a nearby box.
She glared at Ayanokoji in shame, then walked barefoot to a nearby bookshelf, counted out ten chips, hugged them, and scurried back.
"Another stocking, how boring..." Kurume clicked her tongue, her eyes darting as she smiled and said, "We've been playing Mahjong for so long, don't you feel hot? You're still wearing your jacket? Why don't you take it off? Of course, this doesn't count for points."
"I don't want to!"
Hanatemari snorted. Not only was she not hot now, but even if she were, every layer of clothing on her body was like her "resurrection armor," so she certainly wouldn't take it off just because of a few words.
If this weren't Ayanokoji's room, she wouldn't have found any other clothes to wear. Otherwise, she would definitely have worn three layers inside and three layers outside, wrapping herself up tightly.
"Meari, I'm sorry, I'm holding you back..." Hanatemari said to Meari beside her, her face full of guilt.
Meari had suddenly decided to play strip Mahjong for her, but now she was being implicated.
"It's okay, Hanatemari, you've tried very hard," Saotome Meari comforted her, her brows tightly furrowed.
She saw it with her eyes and felt it in her heart.
Mahjong is a game of luck; there are even cases where someone plays terribly but still wins in the end.
But Saotome Meari didn't think that way.
She played "Scientific Mahjong." She didn't believe Mahjong was a game that could be won simply by luck. She was a complete pragmatist who played based on theory and data.
She didn't believe she could get a big hand like "Kokushi Musou," so she always won with small hands like "Tanyao" or "Rinshan Kaihou," and then increased her Han value using Three Yuan Piles and Ji-pai (self-wind tiles).
Saotome understood all of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's insights into Mahjong, and even more profoundly.
In her view, every Mahjong player is like a card in Yu-Gi-Oh, possessing two abilities—offense and defense.
Offensive power is the ability to gain points from other players, which is the ability to win a hand.
Defensive power is the ability to know the danger level of each tile in hand, which is the ability to avoid dealing into others' hands.
To win overall, both offensive and defensive power must be strong.
Even with strong offensive power, if defensive power is too weak, points will be difficult to accumulate.
If defensive power is strong but offensive power is insufficient, one can at most maintain the current ranking.
To win, one must constantly make correct offensive and defensive judgments, quickly switching between offense and defense.
Correct offensive and defensive judgment, simply put, is "constantly making advantageous draws."
For example, buying a lottery ticket that costs 100 yen, one only draws tickets with an expected value of 150 yen or 200 yen, and does not draw tickets with an expected value of 30 yen or 50 yen.
Of course, achieving this is not easy.
Mahjong is a game of asymmetric information; the dead wall and opponents' hands are invisible.
However, this is completely different from rock-paper-scissors. In Mahjong, various advantageous or disadvantageous hints can be found on the table. Then, by organizing and collecting these hints and avoiding "30-50 yen lottery tickets," it is achievable.
This means that one must carefully calculate gains and losses with data, think about probabilities from a mathematical perspective, rather than playing by feel.
On the surface, in Mahjong, everyone wins and loses.
But from the perspective of "buying lottery tickets," people like Saotome, who play based on data, will only buy high-expected-value tickets and avoid low-expected-value ones.
However, people like Hanatemari, who play by feel, will even buy low-expected-value tickets.
Therefore, from the results, Saotome can win consistently, while Hanatemari, despite playing very hard, is just relying on luck and simply cannot achieve victory.
Mahjong is such a game; it seems like there is no information on the tiles and it's all about luck, but in reality, skill accounts for the vast majority.
To win, one must make good offensive and defensive judgments. Even with a bad hand, if the offensive and defensive judgments are correct, one can still be the winner.
In Saotome's opinion, there are four factors that determine offensive and defensive judgment.
"Hand size," "waiting tile count," "Shanten count," and... "current rank and points."
Hand size goes without saying; the difference between a Chinitsu and a Tanyao is obvious.
Waiting tile count refers to the number of single tiles in hand that have not formed a meld or a pair. If there are too many loose tiles in hand, then in this game, you should lean more towards defense.
And Shanten count is the number of times you need to change your hand into the required tiles to reach Tenpai as quickly as possible.
When you are in Tenpai, you are 0 Shanten, and in Japanese Mahjong, the maximum Shanten count is 6 Shanten.
Because Japanese Mahjong has the Chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs) Yaku, no matter how bad a hand is, it can form a Chiitoitsu Tenpai by replacing 6 tiles.
The current rank and points, this point also needs no further explanation.
Points are like your "health"; the more points you have, the more freely you can attack.
Offensive and defensive judgment is mainly determined by the above four points.
Saotome Meari, based on her mathematical talent and Mahjong proficiency, was already able to lead the entire game. If she wanted to win, it wouldn't be difficult.
But that alone wasn't enough; she also had to make sure Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was in last place.
No choice, she had to "feed" Hanatemari now.
Fortunately, Saotome had thought of this early on when she took her seat, specifically sitting to Hanatemari's left.
Saotome's analysis of the game was very accurate. Since she could avoid "dealing into others' hands," she could also intentionally "deal into others' hands."
Especially with Hanatemari Kazura, her discarded tiles clearly showed what she wanted, which made it easy for Saotome to feed her tiles.
"Pon."
"Chi."
"Kan."
Saotome Meari continuously fed tiles to Hanatemari, allowing Hanatemari Kazura to also score continuously, gradually increasing her points to the two-tens-thousand mark.
Hanatemari was happy, but Kurume was very displeased.
Saotome Meari's action was like four different countries originally developing their economies and productivity peacefully and slowly.
But Saotome transferred all her country's productivity to Hanatemari's country, allowing her economy to develop rapidly, achieving accelerated growth, entering the industrial revolution early, and starting a "war."
Although Kurume was trying her best to avoid dealing into others' hands, encountering such an enemy with accelerated development, even if she tried her best to avoid "dealing into others' hands," she still let Hanatemari win several times in a row.
Several times when she was trying to gather a Chinitsu or Honitsu hand, still several tiles away from Tenpai, Hanatemari would directly win the hand.
This made her very unhappy.
This is why team matching is not allowed in online Mahjong games; two people playing against one is simply unplayable!
"Ayanokoji, can you tolerate this?" Kurume couldn't help but speak, "Saotome is clearly cheating!"
"How am I cheating?" Saotome looked "innocent," "I didn't exchange secret signals with Hanatemari, nor did I whisper to her. It's just that my luck was bad, and I was Kan-ed several times. I haven't won a hand in a long time either."
When you are a superpower, you intentionally fund a small country to contain two other countries and hinder their economic development...
This is just a simple analogy, definitely not reflecting anything.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka also couldn't stand it. Saotome indeed wasn't cheating, but her way of playing was truly shameless.
"Alright, we'll team up," Ayanokoji readily agreed to Kurume.
Thus, the original four-way standoff evolved into a civil war.
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