However, before he could say anything, William Carter sat down boldly on the opposite side of the table, grinning at him: "Hey, since no one else is playing this game with you, I'll take over."

Ethan Green felt the world had truly become absurd.

"You'll take over?"

"Yeah, the game isn't over yet, and Henry didn't explicitly admit defeat, so there's still more to play. Since that mastermind Kelly doesn't want to play, I'll play."

And before Ethan Green could respond, William Carter had already reached out to the control area of the board, then smiled at Ethan Green: "Four to two, huh? Don't tell me you're afraid to play."

"A-afraid...!?"

Ethan Green was so furious he laughed: "You lowlife, what nerve you have, talking to me like that!?"

"Enough with the nonsense, are you playing or not?" William Carter frowned, looking impatient. "If you think it's not exciting enough without a wager... how about this: if you win, that woman behind me is yours. How about it?"

Kelly roared, "Hey!"

William Carter didn't care at all, staring straight at Ethan Green: "So? Interested now?"

And Ethan Green didn't even question what right the other had to decide Kelly's fate, just gave a cold smile: "If you're looking for death, don't blame me for it."

"Hey! You two, stop making decisions on your own..."

Kelly's voice sounded so powerless at this moment... William Carter waved his hand without even turning his head: "Relax, I've got this." Ethan Green once again sized up William Carter, noticing that the latter really seemed to believe he had a chance to turn the tables, and couldn't help but smile.

"Ignorant lowlife."

Then he reached out to the control area of the board, starting to command his pieces for the final moves.

In his view, the outcome was already certain. The opponent only had two pieces left, and no late-game strength had developed. Did they really expect to fight his four... huh!?

As if witnessing something utterly impossible, Ethan Green froze for several seconds, then closed his eyes, opened them again, and stared hard at the board, counting silently: one, two, three, three, three... "What the hell! Where's my piece!?"

After counting several times, Ethan Green finally confirmed that, at some point, one of his four pieces had simply disappeared from the board!

It was like seeing a ghost. This tower-capturing chess was nothing like ordinary chess; the board and pieces were created with Dreamweaving, possessing incredible powers. Every move on the board was governed by its rules—how could a piece just be taken away at will, as if this were Othello?

But the impossible had happened right before his eyes: four pieces, now only three!

Ethan Green was sure he hadn't really taken his eyes off the board, and with so many spectators around, how could anyone just take his piece? Yet... he was both shocked and furious, but couldn't figure it out. And just then... "Now we're even~"

It turned out that while Ethan Green was distracted searching for his missing piece, William Carter had already launched a full assault, and with brilliant maneuvering, managed to defeat more with less, capturing one of Ethan Green's pieces, making it two versus two.

Just as William Carter said, it was now even. The turn of events was just like when Ethan Green had checkmated Henry!

"You..." The situation had taken a sharp turn, completely beyond Ethan Green's expectations. The chess skill William Carter had just displayed in that instant surpassed any opponent Ethan Green had ever faced. He hadn't expected that he had truly underestimated him before.

But even so, if it had been two versus four, William Carter would have had no chance to turn the tables. The root of it all was that missing piece.

How did four pieces suddenly become three?

"You cheated!" After thinking it over, Ethan Green came to this conclusion. He was furious, pointing at William Carter's nose. "You stole my piece!"

At this point, the students watching had recovered from their shock and were discussing the change in the game, focusing naturally on the suddenly missing piece.

Before William Carter took over, Ethan Green did indeed have four pieces left, and not long after, one mysteriously disappeared. It did make William Carter look very suspicious. But the thing was, no one had seen how he could have stolen the piece—right in front of everyone, the piece seemed to vanish on its own. And from another angle, this was Dreamweaver's tower-capturing chess—how could it be so easy to cheat? If you forcibly took an opponent's piece, not only would it trigger an alarm, it could even cause backlash... So what really happened?

Ethan Green slammed the table, his hair bristling with rage, while the onlookers buzzed with confusion. Only William Carter, the person involved, kept his gaze lowered, attention fully focused on the board.

Completely ignoring the awkward atmosphere, William Carter continued to command his two pieces to break through the opponent's center, capturing Ethan Green's base in one fell swoop.

"Alright, I win."

With that, William Carter looked up, wearing the smile of a victor: "According to the bet, your previous debt with Henry is now wiped clean~"

"Wiped clean?" Ethan Green repeated softly, then stared at him in disbelief. "Don't kid yourself. Relying on such despicable cheating, you people have already lost!"

William Carter blinked: "What cheating?"