Chapter 73: Chapter 69- The House of Fortune (3)

 

My heart jumped in fright. Who was it? Who has just touched my shoulder? Was I going to be kicked out?

I panicked but quickly calmed down as I recalled that the healers stood not far from my seat. If that person wanted to harm me, they would not have let him approach me.

I glanced at the person, a Blood Wing wearing a clean suit matching the uniform of the dealer. “Yes?”

“Hello Sir. Will you be interested in a drink? It is on the house to thank you for your patronage.”

The Blood Wing was polite, but I understood the underlying meaning. These free drinks were different from the cheap ale available at the bar; these cocktails were generally only given to those who have played a large number of hands or lost a significant amount of points.

However, not even an hour has passed since I arrived. It confirmed my suspicions that the House of Fortune had their eyes on me. This free drink was a warning that it was time to stop taking their points.

“Sure.” I smiled happily and got up to grab one of the glasses on the platter he was holding. I chose a random glass that was topped up with cherries and smoothly asked the dealer for my fortune card. “Since you are still going to shuffle the decks for a while, I think I’ll check out the higher floors. There may be more interesting games there.”

Once I received my fortune card, I headed to the second floor without further ado. The healers who had dispersed earlier all regrouped and followed me upstairs.

The floor did not look very different from the other but here, a minimum of 100 points was required to enter a table and the minimum bets were set at 10 points.

I walked past the tables of Hilo and Vanlak. Since the House of Fortune was already aware of my winning streak, I could not ignore their warning. The game I chose this time was poker; one of the most popular casino games on Earth and in the tower.

I sat down at a table of five and instantly attracted the gazes of the gamblers.

“Ha! The little protégé of the Healing Temple wants to play a little bit?”

“Almost two hundred points. It looks like the Healing Temple is treating you really well, human. Too bad you are going to lose it all in a moment.”

The taunts and trash talks were all part of the game. The gamblers were already half drunk and excited by the dopamine rushing through their bodies.

“We’ll see.” I replied calmly.

Now that I was seated and with my fortune card in the dealer’s hand, the cards were dealt, and the round started.

I peeked at my cards: 6♣ and 10♣.

The hand was not ideal, but it had some potential. The rules of the game were very similar to Earth’s Texas Hold ‘em poker. The main difference was that there was no order. Anyone could choose to Raise at any time and if no one did any actions after fifteen seconds, then it would be understood that all players still in the game have chosen to Check. More time was given when after the fourth card, the Turn and fifth card, the River were revealed but the same rules applied.

“I’ll raise 10 points.” One of the gamblers quickly announced. He was a Lycan, wearing a heavy cloak despite the warm environment.

The rest of the gamblers stayed silent. It was not unusual for them to wait for the very last second to take action. I also pondered on the right move to make. ‘My hand is not great, but I should trust my luck, right? It’s just ten points.’

“I’ll call.” I said in a low tone as the four other gamblers all pushed their cards toward the dealer to fold. Only I and the Lycan remained. The dealer swiftly stamped my fortune card and revealed the flop: 6♦, A♠ and 8♣.

This time, we both remained silent. Twenty second passed before the dealer placed his hand on top of the flop, indicating that this round was over. He burnt a card and revealed the Turn: Q♣.

“I’ll raise by 10 points.” The Lycan said probing my reaction. I was a new player and he had no idea on how I played.

I called almost immediately and the final card was revealed: 6♥. I smiled to myself. This hand was not so bad after all.

“20 Points.” I took the initiative to raise this time. The Lycan frowned lightly as he rubbed his chin.

“You have a six?” He asked.

I remained silent but avoided his strong gaze. He was clearly at a higher circle than me and I would never dare to match his gaze outside of the House of Fortune. Inside, violence or even just the use of spells was absolutely forbidden. Several enchantments were set up in the building to instantly reveal the users of any spells. Furthermore, these enchantments could even detect if a Time element user had used any spells recently.

The Lycan grunted but eventually chose to call. His fortune card displayed 638(50); he had enough points to afford a loss.

His hand turned out to be a pair of kings. As I revealed my cards, his expression twisted itself in annoyance. The other gamblers laughed while I happily watched the number on my fortune card go up to 285. In just one hand, I collected 100 points.

However, before long, I fell back to 225 points. I played a few hands, trusting my luck but my win rate was much lower than I expected. I only won 20% of the games I played which was much lower than for the other games but this time, I was facing five other opponents. Considering that there were six players, this win rate was not so bad. Furthermore, while I trusted my luck, I also did not make any unreasonable decisions which may have affected my win rate. For example, I did not hesitate to fold a hand with 2♠ and 8♥ when the flop turned out to be Q♠,A♣ and 10♦. No one in their right mind would play this hand and I was no exception. There was still a small chance to win but I was not be willing to risk my points. Another scenario where I folded was when the gamblers would go all in. My luck was not omnipotent and if I were to lose, all my efforts would be in vain.

Nevertheless, as I continued to play, my managed to raise my points to 455 after winning a big hand against a Snow Elf. The latter tried to bluff me by going all in since she noticed that I never followed them. However, at that time, I already knew I had the best possible hand and easily cleaned her up.

As time went by, the gamblers left the table and others joined. It was not unusual for gamblers to switch tables to try their luck against other gamblers. I also moved to other tables to face gamblers with more points; I needed bigger fishes to increase my points before I ran out of luck.

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I faced an orc with a broken tusk; His large hands could barely hold the cards without tearing them.

“Raise 50 Points.” He declared confidently. The cards on the tables were 2♦,4♦,8♣, A♥ and 6♦.

I pretended to peak at my cards while internally smiling. There were currently 240 points in the pot; one of the largest I played for. “I’ll raise another 50 Points.” I said with a faint smile.

The dealer promptly stamped my fortune card while the orc’s expression darkened. “What do you have? There is only one hand that can beat me…”

“…” I remained silent as I glanced at the orc’s fortune card: 832(90).

‘Should I have raised more? I never know how much I should raise it by.’

The orc gritted his teeth but eventually made the call. He flipped his cards, revealing A♦ and K♦. He had the strongest flush possible.

However, his expression soon crumbled as I showed the 3♦ and the 5♦. I had a straight flush; the only hand that could beat him.

“D*mn!” The orc stomped the table. “How can you be so lucky? You won so many hands and you are always saved by the River.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Today is just a good day.”

The orc angrily stomped the ground and left the table after snatching his fortune card from the dealer. He came to the table with 1252 points and ended up losing more than a third of his points.

As the orc left, the two other gamblers at the table also bade farewell and got up from their seat. With the orc gone, they were now worried that their own points would disappear.

I had only been playing for an hour and a half and yet, there were already gossips taking place behind my back. The gamblers were all amazed at how I turned 40 points into the 935 points I currently had. Since I was the only human here, I quickly became the centre of attention and this led to many gamblers wondering whether I had some unknown means to cheat. Increasing one’s starting points twenty fold was simply too much to go unnoticed.

I became worried as the gamblers were now reluctant to play against me. The House of Fortune was tolerating my presence since I was not taking points from it anymore, but I was stuck if no one joined my table. Furthermore, I also had to pay the table fee which was 5% of the points I won on the table. The table fee was deducted when the gambler would choose to leave the table and only the winners needed to pay it.

‘What should I do? I just need a little bit more. It should be alright to play one or two big hands against the house…’

As I was pondering on the step to make, a silhouette walked up to my table and sat on the seat opposite mine. He wordlessly handed over his fortune card to the dealer and smiled at me. Through his glasses, his eyes glimmered with interest.

‘An employee of the House of Fortune?’

I frowned lightly. It turned out to be an Everyoung who looked like a six-year old child. Because of the restrictions in place in the House of Fortune, he could not use his psychic abilities to move his body and could only move clumsily.

He was wearing a slightly different outfit from the dealers, but I could tell that he was an employee of the House of Fortune from his cufflinks and tie.

“Is it alright for an employee to join a customer at the poker table?”

“We aim at providing the best service possible to our customers. Since no one is willing to play with you, I volunteered to provide you some entertainment.” The Everyoung replied with his childish immature voice. However, his expression remained serious.

“Shall we start?” He asked.

I sighed and nodded at the dealer. ‘Looks like the House of Fortune is trying to test me. I never once heard of the employees of the house playing against the customers… It must be that they are curious about me as a human and the fact that I earned so many points.’

‘But it also looks like they did not send a random employee…’ I had no means of confirming my suspicions and could only play along.

There has always been many gossips and rumours around the House of Fortune. Many were centred around individuals who became rich overnight but there were also other types of rumours that surfaced a few years after the humans entered the tower and the mathematicians tried to find the perfect formula to beat the games.

The rumours mentioned an undefeatable gambler who just happened to be an Everyoung. That gambler never lost and would always fold when his opponent had a better hand than his. Furthermore, his bluffs always worked, and all his opponents would end their gambling session with an empty fortune card. That gambler was eventually recruited by the House of Fortune to clean up all the big winners who were about to take a lot of points from the house.

A 100% win rate was simply unrealistic; even with my increased luck, I lost a few hands here and there. And yet, that person had done it. There were many theories that tried to explain that gambler’s luck and one of them involved the possible use of spells.

However, the use of spells was strictly forbidden inside the House of Fortune and would be instantly revealed. Even the employees could not evade the enchantments. But there was one exception that was later discovered; the enchantments could only detect the spells cast that belonged to the regular twenty elements. As for the Taboo elements’ spells, they could go completely undetected.

 

 

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