The Duel Card could force players to participate in a gambling game.

Xing Ye was just teasing him. Seeing him blush, he naturally changed the subject: "Let's head to the hall and see how everyone else is playing."

Lu Mingze composed himself and continued with what he had observed: "Be careful, I just saw a match between two players. It was Shao Lin and another Green team player. That Green Team player was also a Green team player, but he lost 50 chips to Shao Lin."

50 chips? 50,000 points, which was already the threshold for the Advanced World, and yet he lost it all in a single match.

"Why would he risk such a large bet against Shao Lin?" Xing Ye asked, puzzled.

Typically, on the first day of the game, most players are just observing; no one would wager such a large amount unless the following Fate player had hundreds of thousands of points and was willing to risk 50,000 to test the waters. But a player with that many points wouldn't be so reckless in their first match.

"Shao Lin found the dealer wearing a black and white mask, and he got a card. I’m not sure what card it was, but when he showed it to the player named Liu Yi, Liu Yi couldn’t refuse his request and had to play against him one-on-one," Lu Mingze explained.

Xing Ye asked when the match between Shao Lin and Liu Yi took place and used a projector to project the details.

While they were sitting on the sofa earlier, there had been an accidental physical contact between him and Shao Lin, but that had been intentional on Xing Ye’s part. He had planned to observe Shao Lin discreetly, but it was ruined by Yan Hebi.

The projector displayed the match between Shao Lin and Liu Yi. They were playing a common game of Blackjack, with one card face down. Betting started after the second card, and players could only continue to draw cards if they matched the bet.

(NT: The Blackjack’s goal is to have a hand value as close to 21 as possible, without exceeding it.)

Shao Lin’s first bet was 2 chips, and Liu Yi sneered, following with a matching bet. The second bet was 8 chips. At this point, without considering the hidden card, Shao Lin had 17 points, which meant he shouldn’t draw any more cards. Liu Yi had 10 points, so he followed. The third bet, Shao Lin drew a 1, making his total 18 points, and he bet 40 chips. Liu Yi drew another 1, giving him 11 points, with a high chance of going over 21 on the next draw. Liu Yi was confident because both of them were following Fate players.

But unexpectedly, Shao Lin drew a 2, bringing his total to 20 points, while Liu Yi drew a 10, giving him 21 points—definitely exceeding 21 after considering the hidden card.

In the end, Shao Lin’s hidden card was an Ace, bringing his total to 21 points (NT: the Ace can be worth either 1 or 11, depending on which value is more beneficial for the player’s hand). Liu Yi also had an Ace, making his total 22 points, meaning he busted. Shao Lin won and earned 50 chips.

It was a rare occurrence for all four Aces to appear in a deck of only ten cards. When Liu Yi drew the last card, he would have avoided going over 21 if he had drawn any card with a value of 10 or below. But instead, he drew a 10.

"Are you sure he's a following Fate player?" Xing Ye asked, "That doesn't sound like the luck of a Fate defying player."

If Liu Yi were indeed a following Fate player, his last card should have been a 9, bringing his total to 21, and the two would have tied.

"He really is a following Fate player," Lu Mingze said. "I saw him gambling on the dice earlier and he won 10 chips."

"Then Shao Lin must have cheated," Xing Ye said, recalling Shao Lin’s expression in the projection, which had been flawless throughout the match. He had been eating pudding the whole time...

Pudding?

Xing Ye said, "Shao Lin didn’t eat the pudding when Liu Yi drew his last card. He held the spoon but didn’t take a bite. Only after Liu Yi had drawn his card did he continue eating. He must have used his initial skill at that moment."

“What type of initial skill is it?” Lu Mingze asked, puzzled. “It looks normal, there doesn’t seem to be any special change.”

Xing Ye replayed the events again, carefully observing the moments before and after Liu Yi drew his last card. He shook his head and said, “It’s not a time-stop type of skill. If Shao Lin had used a time-stop skill to swap the card at that moment, there would have been noticeable changes, no matter how much he tried to disguise the details. But now, there’s nothing like that. His initial skill is of a different type.”

“And right now, the most important thing is the card Shao Lin received from the dealer. This card can force other players to join the match. That’s the key point.”

They needed to figure out exactly what Shao Lin’s card was. Xing Ye used the projector several more times and discovered that after Shao Lin exchanged for 20 chips, he went to gamble. In each match, he tested something, and eventually, he stayed in the poker area, playing three times in total before stopping, winning 10 chips each time.

These were all chips he won from passengers, which were only worth one-tenth of the player’s chips. Over the course of an hour, Shao Lin won 50 passenger chips, which converted to just 5 player chips.

After three consecutive wins in the poker area, he went to find the dealer, the one wearing the black-and-white mask. The dealer said to him, “Congratulations on winning three consecutive matches in the same venue. Here’s a Duel Card. When used, other players cannot refuse your challenge.”

Immediately after, Shao Lin exchanged for 50 player chips and found Liu Yi, taking 50 player chips from him.

To figure out Shao Lin’s actions, Xing Ye spent 1000 points on the projector, but it was worth it.

Now, both he and Lu Mingze understood that there was such a thing as a Duel Card, they were not as relaxed as before, since at any moment they could be forcibly involved in a match.

Xing Ye had previously thought that if a player simply didn’t want to gamble and wanted to spend 70,000 points for a few days of rest, the system wouldn’t be able to force them to participate. Who would have known there was a Duel Card? A Duel Card that could not be refused.

Xing Ye immediately contacted Yan Hebi, who was out gathering information, and told him about the Duel Card. He warned him to avoid any players at all costs.

Earlier, the two had added each other on WeChat, and now, Yan Hebi messaged Xing Ye: "Boss, don’t worry. I’m staying as far away as possible from the gambling area. Right now, I’m in the accommodation area, helping a lady fix her computer. She’s so rich, the stakes in the games are in the thousands of chips, which is hundreds of player chips! They’re gambling hundreds of thousands of points per game! She just gave me a chip as a tip, haha…”

Xing Ye: “…”

He had the feeling that Yan Hebi had somehow been mistaken for someone providing special services, though it was probably just his imagination.

Xing Ye reminded Yan Hebi that if he was going to the gambling area, he should go with someone else for safety, and not go alone.

Yan Hebi replied that he had finished fixing the lady’s computer and that she was planning to take him to a private tea party, introducing some of her friends to him.

Xing Ye: “…”

Lu Mingze, looking at the messages on his phone, said, “Is it just me, or does it feel like Yan Hebi has entered an entirely different subplot from ours?”

“Let him be. As long as he’s not getting into trouble, it’s fine,” Xing Ye said coldly.

Since there was a Duel Card, avoiding a passive life of leisure was not an option. And since Yan Hebi was interacting with women at the casino, Xing Ye decided he would also try to make contact with some of the wealthy male passengers.

This meant he would have to participate in some small gambling games.

With a mirror in hand, Xing Ye walked into the casino. He immediately spotted Liu Yi at the front desk exchange area. The man was sweating profusely as he said to the exchange clerk, "How much are all my QR codes worth? It is strange, why am I so unlucky today!"

 

Translator : DarNan