The player chip counts don't match.

 

After saying this, Shao Lin left. Despite the Red Team temporarily falling behind, his expression at that moment made him seem like a winner.

"What's going on?" Yan Hebi asked nervously.

Liu Yi had gambled with Shao Lin yesterday. As long as he gambled two more times with his teammates, he wouldn't have had to pay the 10,000 points this morning. Even if he didn't trust the other two players, as a following Fate player, even if he had lost all his player chips earlier, he should still have had passenger chips. Why was he eliminated? It didn't make sense.

"Don't panic yet," Xing Ye said, calming Yan Hebi. "Let's finish eating and discuss this back in the room."

After settling Yan Hebi, Xing Ye glanced at his phone. Yesterday, he had won a total of 3,048 passenger chips. He had lent 48 of them to Liu Yi and used 100 to pay the ship's fee. According to the math, he should have had 2,900 chips left, but now he had 2,948.

He took out the IOU he had with Liu Yi and scanned the QR code on it with his phone. The screen displayed: Player Liu Yi has repaid your chips.

After reading this message, the QR code on the IOU disappeared, and it turned back into a blank sheet of paper.

The fact that Liu Yi could repay the chips even after being eliminated meant that his elimination wasn't due to running out of points but rather for some other reason.

Xing Ye quickly figured out the reason. He finished his meal and returned to the room with Yan Hebi. He tried to confirm his suspicions by using the projector's QR code, but the system notified him that the target was no longer in the game, so the "projector" couldn't be used.

"Why is this happening?" Yan Hebi asked.

Xing Ye explained, "If he wasn't eliminated due to running out of points, then there's only one answer: he was caught cheating by the casino."

"Cheating?" Yan Hebi exclaimed. "Did Liu Yi try to win back his player chips from Shao Lin by cheating?"

Xing Ye shook his head. "No, that's impossible. Earlier, Liu Yi had already lost all the chips he exchanged for points to Shao Lin. When I met him, he had used all his QR codes to exchange for 20 chips. The passenger chips he won couldn't be converted into player chips until 8 a.m. on the seventh day. In other words, all he had left were his initial skill and chips. He had already exchanged his QR codes, and without points, he couldn't use his initial skill. So how could he have cheated?"

"What about items? What if he had a one-time use item?" Yan Hebi suggested.

"Even if he did, Shao Lin wouldn't have agreed to a duel. Shao Lin had already completed his three gambling sessions. If Liu Yi had come prepared, would someone as shrewd as Shao Lin have agreed?" Xing Ye countered. "Besides, Liu Yi still owed me 48 passenger chips. He also knew that Shao Lin had a skill or item that could alter luck. No matter how you look at it, Liu Yi was at a disadvantage. Would he have rashly challenged Shao Lin?"

Unless Liu Yi was a fool or had his mind controlled by a QR code, there was no way he would have done such a thing.

"Then what really happened?" Yan Hebi asked, still confused.

Xing Ye had a guess, but he couldn't be sure without confirmation from the dealer.

He took Yan Hebi to the dealer's office to inquire about why Liu Yi had been eliminated. As a teammate on the Green Team, Xing Ye had the right to ask about his teammate's situation.

However, the dealer said, "Player Liu Yi violated the casino's rules and was therefore eliminated. The specific details involve casino confidentiality and cannot be disclosed."

After returning to the room, Xing Ye said, "If it were due to violence or unpaid ship fees, the casino wouldn't hide it. The incident with Dong San proves that. So the only thing we can confirm is that he cheated. This is the situation I least wanted to see."

"What situation?" Yan Hebi asked.

Xing Ye took out his phone and said, "Look at the chips here. It shows that yesterday, the Green Team lost 37 player chips, while the Red Team gained 20 player chips. In terms of player chips alone, we lost to the Red Team. However, since we had more passenger chips, they offset the loss of player chips, so overall, we're temporarily in the lead. Being in the lead is good, but unfortunately, the numbers for the player chips don't add up."

"Yesterday, the known flow of chips between the two teams was: Shao Lin won 50 chips from Liu Yi, I won 10 chips from Lin Si, and Liu Yi lost some chips in the casino due to bad luck. We don't know exactly how many chips Liu Yi lost or whether the other two Green Team players lost any in the casino. But looking at the Red Team's chips, something's off. They should have won 40 chips, so why did the final settlement only show 20?"

Yan Hebi did some calculations and shook his head. "Since we don't know if the other two following Fate players gambled with the Red Team, it's hard to say."

"They didn't gamble," Xing Ye said firmly. "Not only did they not gamble with the Red Team members, but they also didn't dare to gamble in the casino at all. They just wandered around the casino. Before my duel with Lin Si, they hadn't lost a single chip."

This information came from the Little Mirror, who had been observing the other two Green Team players through the many mirrors in the casino, confirming that they hadn't gambled.

Song Er and Mu Ba Fate-defying players who knew their luck was terrible, so they never dared to gamble. Instead, they stuck together and observed the others. They had their own plan: to find following Fate player on their team and follow that player's bets.

Later, after seeing Xing Ye defeat Lin Si, they realized that continuing like this wouldn't work, so they decided to cooperate and gamble with each other to get through their three required gambling sessions.

What happened after that, Little Mirror didn't know.

Even if you add the 10 player chips Xing Ye won, the chips Liu Yi lost would definitely exceed 37. So why did the Green Team only lose 37 chips in the end? Where did the extra chips come from?

"I suspect Song Er and Mu Ba collaborated with Shao Lin," Xing Ye said seriously. "Only this can explain the strange player chip numbers and why Liu Yi was eliminated."

"How could they collaborate with Shao Lin?" Yan Hebi found it hard to believe. "Shao Lin is our enemy. He ruined Dong San. Wouldn't Song Er and Mu Ba be making a deal with the devil by doing this?"

"That's why I said, once points can be converted into money, human nature becomes hard to predict," Xing Ye replied. "Suppose someone told you, 'Let's work together to trick Liu Yi. After it's done, I'll give you two million.' Would you agree?"

Yan Hebi fell silent. Two million could do a lot of things.

Xing Ye took out a binding contract and said, "Let's say we agree that I'll intentionally lose 20 player chips to you in a gamble, and in return, you'll help me eliminate a Green Team player who has a grudge against me. Would you agree?"

"I probably wouldn't," Yan Hebi said, "but I can't guarantee others wouldn't. After all, it's 20,000 points—essentially free money that can be converted into two million. And it's not like they're being asked to kill or set fire. They're just eliminating a player, and even if that player is eliminated, they won't die. Someone with lower moral standards might agree to this proposal."

"That's why I said the situation I least wanted to see has happened," Xing Ye mentioned. "Our team already has a traitor because of interests. I hope what I've said is just speculation, and there might be another explanation for the strange player chip numbers. But no matter what, we should keep our distance from the other two players for now. At the very least, don't agree to gamble with them."

Yan Hebi was silent for a moment, then said, "Then I'll continue playing cards with the noblewomen today. Boss, you should be careful too."

 

Translator : DarNan