Player Reload

Chapter 735 - 629: Casino

"Why hasn’t Zak arrived yet? It’s been half an hour."

In the bustling and luxurious casino, Wanli Sealed Blade, once again using disguise tools to change his appearance, sat in front of the pinball machine, muttering quietly,

holding a titanium alloy thermal mug with the style of a retired old cadre, sipping the fragrant tea along the rim.

"Uncle, what kind of tea are you drinking? It smells so good, can you pour me a cup?"

Yawei leaned in and asked curiously. The group had shared experiences of ups and downs in the previous gunfight game, discovering that the "hacker" wasn’t like the outlaw they had imagined, but rather quite amiable.

"Kids can’t drink this."

Wanli Sealed Blade glanced at her. One major advantage of being a veteran was having extravagant equipment. This thermal mug was a perfect quality item, capable of automatically producing plain water containing spiritual power,

and he had deliberately added some Enlightenment Tea, Moonlight, and Ten Thousand Years Spirit Milk to it. He occasionally gets overheated drinking it himself, let alone Yawei, with an ordinary constitution; one sip, and she might suffer a severe nosebleed.

Unconvinced, Yawei argued, "How do you know I’m a kid just through the internet?"

"Hehe."

Wanli Sealed Blade rolled his eyes, "Adults wouldn’t make rules like you did, insisting on not stepping on tile joints while walking and jump around instead."

White Horse Tombstone, who was playing hopscotch behind them, scratched his head and quietly rubbed out the chalk marks on the ground with his foot.

This was the Avani Casino, offering roulette, blackjack, baccarat, and assorted other games, alongside some with virtual reality effects,

like the Russian Roulette, where you gamble by shooting at yourself.

At that moment, Card Emperor was dominating at the gambling tables. Originally from the professional gambling world and frequently exchanging experiences with top gamblers from across the globe,

sometimes he didn’t need gold as the universal currency to complete script tasks; a visit to the local casino would yield cash.

In his leisure time, the Card Emperor even took orders on second-hand platforms, fulfilling customer requests to recharge "Happy Beans" in Happy Landlord’s game. After logging in, he’d personally play, earning tens of millions of beans in a mere afternoon.

Money wasn’t his goal—pure addiction was.

"This feeling, it’s just like going home."

The Card Emperor sincerely reflected, weaving his trolley among the gambling tables, his brain performing like a supercomputer executing quantitative trades, gathering and analyzing information.

Factors like dice quality, the friction coefficient of table felt, roulette diameter relative to ball volume, card combinations...

Players’ subtle facial expressions, involuntary hand gestures, voice tonal changes during speech...

Every possibility of each game at each table swiftly calculated in his mind, akin to a perfect symphony.

"Back when Chen Daozi could use 20 bucks to win 37 million, me, the Card Emperor, using 20,000 to win 5 million is no problem."

The Card Emperor murmured to himself, the collection of various chips in his trolley growing larger as it filled up, completing the Easter egg task, automatically awarding him golden coins.

Thud, thud, thud.

Footsteps sounded from the staircase, Zak waved distantly and ran over.

He followed Wanli Sealed Blade’s advice, changing into a suit and hat, temporarily bandaging the wounds on his forehead and palms, panting as he said, "Sorry, it took a bit longer to shake off the security guards chasing me. The golden coin is in my pocket."

"Good to hear you’re okay."

Wanli Sealed Blade patted his shoulder, pointed out the Card Emperor who was winning furiously, "Pifu and crew have secured one coin, we’ve got ours, including yours, that’s three. Card Emperor is grabbing the fourth."

The coins represented both passes to the finals and the ultimate reward. The more in hand meant more slots for the team to send members into the finals.

It’s naturally best to gather as many as possible—wait too long to get them, and they would have to snatch them from other teams.

"I have a healing ointment here, let me apply some for you."

White Horse Tombstone took out a bottle of ointment, approached Zak to apply the medicine, then suddenly stiffened her expression, her index finger shot rapidly in a manner unseen, directly towards Zak’s chest.

"Zak," or rather an RLG Team member disguised as Zak, staggered back several steps under the pressure of her finger, leaning against the wall.

The dull sound of the back of his head hitting the wall drew the attention of passersby. However, upon seeing White Horse Tombstone lowering her head in a gesture feigning intimate embrace, they mistakenly believed the two were a couple and turned their heads away, no longer paying attention.

"Who are you? Why are you pretending to be Zak?"

White Horse Tombstone coldly asked, her index finger positioned between the opponent’s third and fourth ribs, perfectly avoiding the heart, major blood vessels, and lungs, with no blood spilt.

Wanli Sealed Blade supplemented with an isolation barrier, gripping his blade’s handle, frowning slightly as he watched the individual’s face change, transforming into a blond, blue-eyed appearance.

"Oh my, Brother Shrimp of RLG!"

Yawei’s eyes widened, recognizing the player, exclaimed excitedly, "Total career KPR (Kill Efficiency) 0.78, total KAST (Contribution Rate) 71%, average rating (Contribution Value) 1.7, eighteen major championship titles, ten MVP awards, selected as a top 20 player ten times in his career, consecutively entering the super grand tournament for 14 years with zero championship trophies."

"...That last sentence really wasn’t necessary."

The player known as Brother Shrimp twitched his eyelids slightly, and stopped pretending, completely removing his disguise. "Your teammate is in our hands. He’s in a very safe place.

If you wish to see him, let me go."

The Home project bound each account to a brain-computer interface, and even top hackers would be dumbfounded if the account gets terminated.

As he spoke, two more individuals ascended the staircase, obviously teammates from the RLG Team.

They nodded from afar, arms folded in front of them, ready to act at any moment.

The data strength of these two individuals, under the Battlefield System, reached Level 30, but RLG hadn’t secured a super grand tournament championship in many years, indicating some issues among its players.

The one on the left, Lamborgini, was renowned for his robust capability and top-notch skills, yet faltered when situations became adverse, or when teammates applied too much pressure, leading his face to turn red, entering a heated state.

The one on the right, sea cucumber, was similarly considered a star of tomorrow, with staggering transfer fees, yet when critical moments arose, he lost all his momentum, performing so mediocrely that audiences forget he was even on stage, commonly referred to as hiding beautifully.

"You kidnapped Zak, yet as a professional team, you didn’t immediately hand over the hacker to the referees, choosing instead to impersonate Zak and confront us."

Wanli Sealed Blade remained unfazed, thoughtfully analyzing, "Several possibilities: one, you wish to singlehandedly resolve the hacker crisis, making a grand display before global players—this possibility is too low, professional teams don’t allow such reckless actions.

Two, you’ve coordinated with the referees to capture here—unlikely, or else there would be hundreds of security NPCs ascending.

Three, you’ve distinctly acquired some fragmented, absurd information from Zak, which neither forms a complete report for the referees nor reassures or terrifies you, thus you came to probe."

In full focus, Brother Blade demonstrated his well-honed analytical skills as a veteran.

Brother Shrimp’s eyes flickered, neither admitting nor denying, speaking solemnly, "Since you’ve already guessed, I won’t conceal it anymore. Given we’re at the Avani Casino, why don’t we gamble?

Let’s bet on the golden coin, and Zak’s life."