Laelynn found herself in an unusual setting once more, a carnival being hosted upon a planet soon to enter it's Fall season, casually strolling through the crowded paths under the night sky, the sounds of various rides, excited screams, and traditional festive carnival music playing in the background, all of it lit in a wondrous myriad of lights. . Yet, like most times when Laelynn was partaking in an activity such as this, there was usually an ulterior motive at play. This carnival in particular had a fairly interesting way they handled their prizes, instead of giving individual prizes for certain games, they instead awarded virtual tickets, which could be pooled from various games for bigger and better prizes, very similar to an arcade, and Laelynn planned to exploit that mechanic shamelessly.
Yet, it wasn't so cut and dry either, as carnival games usually fell under three categories, luck based games, skill based games, and near impossible games, rigged so that all the laws of physics conspired against the player, but she knew physics all too well. Today, she was going to scam the scammers running this joint, and she found her first target, the bucket toss. Slapping down some credits on the corner, she smiled innocently, tilting her head to the side in an ever so innocent fashion.
"Ten tries please.~" She stated, careful not to let her confidence leak into her voice, the rather lazy and overworked game keeper happily obliging. Given her first ball, she eyed the target across from her, the bucket toss was a simple enough game, toss a ball into the bucket, but the way it's angled ensures only very specific angles and spins even had a chance. Too bad for the carnival, measuring things like that were as simple as arithmetic.~ In no less than a few minutes, Laelynn scored all ten shots, leaving the game host staring in shock at her surprising talent.
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In truth, her athletic skills weren't much superior to the average person, and if she was forced to make her tosses rapidly, most would surely fail. But given she had time in peace to calculate the angle of each shot, well, science was her specialty after all. All the while, the wristband on her wrist, courtesy of the carnival, rapidly rose in it's amount of credits, showing a whopping 10k virtual tickets right off the bat.
"Another ten shots please.~" "Sorry Miss, ten wins in a month are actually the limit, house rules." "Awww..." Laelynn should have figured they'd have some bullcrap rule like that in place, but no matter, she had far many other targets to scam.~
After succinctly clearing out her maximum wins at the basketball toss right after, and then the dart tossing game, using the very same methodology, Laelynn calculated what her next target would be. The ping pong ball toss? Nah, too luck based, and even with a knowledge of physics, the way the ball was designed was made to violently repel itself from the glass it landed on. Nothing except absolute perfect execution, or a lot of luck could handle that, and the very same problem arose with the ring toss. That one game using pellet guns to shoot out a red star looked interesting, but considering the structural integrity of the paper diminished with every shot, and the guns inherently had their accuracy tampered with, she wrote that off as well, deciding to go back to another skill based game, the dunk tank.~
After going about the carnival for a few scant hours, Laelynn had cleared out pretty much all skill based games that physics could be applied to, chuckling as she looked at her virtual ticket count, now far past fifty thousand.
"Like taking candy from a baby.~" Yet, she still desired more, and the games she had left were running out. That is, until she found one with an absurdly high ticket reward, the ladder climb. An innocent looking enough game, clime a diagonal ladder, get to the top, ring a bell, you win. But for the science minded, it was a devious trap, as both the start and end were only attached by a single rope, instead of two. In layman's terms, this forced the rope to tip over and twist of the climbers center of mass shifted in even the slightest from the exact, dead, center. Surely, a near impossible task, even for the most experienced of climbers, but for a trained thief who's brain was more comparable to a biological computer? Well, that was a different story and with the ticket rewards, she'd have all she needed with just a single win.~
-Time Skip an hour later, back on Laelynn's ship.-
"And that, P.A.L, is the story of how I scammed those carnies and walked away with a one hundred thousand credit prize, just for the low cost of a few hundred credits.~" Laelynn sat in her captain's chair, triumphantly waving around a voucher in one hand, and a tuna sandwich with dill pickles on her computerized desk. Specifically, a one hundred thousand credit gift certificate for Kunigi Fried Chicken. Of course, the show runners never expected anyone to claim it, but she did, much to the bafflement of the ladder climb host.
"Interesting...Wouldn't it be more logical if they had implemented further win restrictions, or just rigged the games so there would be zero percent chance to win?" "Yeeaaah, yeah, it would be P.A.L, but want me to let you in on a little secret?~" "Oh, and that would be...?" Laelynn placed the ticket down on the counter, leaving the front of it exposed to the ship's cameras, retrieving her tuna sandwich and taking a huge bite, a crunch echoing through the ship from the pickles, and after swallowing, the most smug grin spread across Laelynn's face.
"The people who think themselves more clever than others are also the ones easiest to trick.~" As she stated this, one of the ship's cameras spiraled and extended, zooming in upon the gift certificate upon the desk, the hull silent except for that whirring of gears.
"What? No questions about human nature? No fascination? You should at least be praising me P.A.L..." Laelynn placed down her sandwich and folded her arms in a minor pout, only for P.A.L. to finally respond.
"I was scanning the gift certificate, Miss Morbane...You may not like to hear this, but the gift certificate has expired...by over two galactic standard years, in fact." "Wait, WHAT!?" Laelynn could only hope P.A.L. learned a sense of cruel humor as she frantically grabbed the ticket, staring at it with intense detail, reading the very small fine print.
"Gift Certificate expires on......" At first, silence, then, Laelynn inhaled deeply, taking a moment to register what she just read.
"SON OF A B-" Thankfully for the vacuum of space, none except P.A.L. could hear the string of expletives from Laelynn so intense, even a space sailor would faint in shock. In the end, she fell victim to her own hubris, ironically in the same trap she told her robotic assistant of. Far from the carnival, and tickets spent, their ship continued onwards to their next adventure, where ever that may be.~