Chapter 266.1 |
We gathered the basic information needed to rake in over 1,000 coins at the Casino of Corporeity.
With all preparations complete, it was time to make the attempt.
“……Huu.”
While low-quality jazz music echoed through the underground casino.
A guest of the Casino of Corporeity steadied their breathing and started walking.
[It’s begun.]
That’s right.
“Hello, Mr. Dealer!”
First, the guest sat down at a table in the dealer room.
From afar, Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae’s gaze could be felt, but it had to be ignored.
“Hello, dear guest. Shall we begin betting?”
The guest looked at the unfamiliar dealer and smiled politely.
“Yes. Let’s bet. Will we be using the card game I was introduced to at the very beginning? The one where you guess what card it is.”
“Of course. We will proceed with the ‘clairvoyance game’.”
After speaking kindly to the guest seated at the table, the dealer deftly shuffled a deck of playing cards and held it out.
“Oh, I’ll go with this.”
And the person seated chose a single card from the splayed deck.
A simple game of guessing what suit it is, or what number it is.
“I’ll bet three coins on hearts.”
“Yes. Confirmed.”
But the guest’s attempt failed.
The card was the seven of spades.
Three coins were lost.
“So close. One more game!”
“Yes. Bet confirmed.”
And so the game repeated.
The guest bet the minimum amount, winning a bit and losing a bit.
And then, once in a while.
“This time I’ll bet thirty coins. I’ve got a good feeling.”
The guest bet big.
And.
“You have lost the bet.”
“Argh!”
And lost big.
But once every three or four rounds, they succeeded and won money.
“Nice!”
In that way, the amount of coins was adjusted with care.
For a long time, the guest’s win rate and bet size rose and fell, reaching highs and lows in a messy, irregular pattern.
More than a hundred coins were piled up on the table, yet the guest’s ‘war funds’ had somehow been cut in half from the starting amount.
Then…
At some point, after more than an hour had passed.
[Now.]
“Would you like to bet?”
“Hm…”
The guest, as if completely absorbed, reached out…
And pushed all the coins on the table forward.
Clink clink clink…
Tak.
Coins glinted under the light of the old bulbs.
The dealer within the ghost story, who even kindly caught the coins that rolled, asked with shining eyes.
“Will you bet a total of 113 coins?”
[Oho.]
“Yes, all in.”
“Then please choose a card.”
Once again, the guest casually reached out and pointed to one of the cards laid out on the table.
“This one.”
“Confirmed.”
The dealer picked up the card the guest chose.
The guest’s eyes flashed strangely while watching, then momentum slipped away.
And then.
“…I will bet on the number seven.”
“……!”
The dealer’s expression did not change, but started subtly moving slower.
“Confirmed.”
The dealer flipped the card…
“Seven of spades.”
Jackpot.
“…You have won the bet.”
“…!!”
“Here is your payout.”
An enormous quantity of coins came out from under the table and returned to the victor.
“904 coins.”
Under the table, the guest briefly clenched and unclenched their fist.
In a single shot, they had earned an amount close to 999 coins.
[Oh, congratulations, Friend. Success!]
Right.
And of course, this was not a coincidence.
‘I chose it knowingly.’
Seven of spades.
Because I already knew what number and suit were printed on the front of that card.
Of course, it wasn’t as if I’d gained some kind of clairvoyance. We used no trickery at all, and we played within the conditions the casino provided.
Just.
‘There’s a loophole in those conditions.’
And that was…
Thanks to one element that could be used the moment you entered this casino.
Its run-down facilities!
‘It’s seriously old.’
The walls, the bulbs, the slot machines, and even the tables in the dealer room were already worn down and frayed. It was in such disrepair it almost looked like an abandoned casino.
That did add to the creepiness as a ghost story, but more importantly, it created a ‘condition’ that differed from an ordinary casino.
Namely… the things used in the games were old too.
For example.
‘The playing cards.’
Normally, the backs of playing cards are all identical, mass-produced goods, so you cannot distinguish them from one another.
But once time leaves its mark, it changes.
‘You get distinguishing marks.’
Tiny stains, scratches, wrinkles.
The traces of wear that are revealed ever so faintly when they reflect light create elements by which each card can be distinguished.
So we decided.
– For the first game, choose a card whose back shows the most visible ‘marks’.
This time, that card was the seven of spades.
I must have confirmed that a faint, forked scratch on the back shimmered very slightly under the light.
After that, I confirmed the information on the front, the seven of spades, and waited.
And then.
– Once enough time has passed to avoid suspicion, find that card again and place a bet.
Triggering the jackpot.
Of course, the scratch marks are extremely fine, and in truth are extraordinarily difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, so it would be hard for an ordinary person.
However, astonishingly, there was a perfect candidate among this group.
“Hahaha, jackpot again!”
Agent Choi.
He possesses observation and memory sharp enough to distinguish human bodies by veins and skeletal structure alone.
On top of that, he already has the habit of memorizing details, so there was nothing more to ask for.
– Ah~ Normally a virtuous civil servant shouldn’t gamble, but… it can’t be helped. Okay. Leave it to me.
And he truly sat at the table with composure, maintaining his calm and acting nonchalant, and gambled up to this point.
Like that.
“Ah~ that felt good.”
It succeeded.
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