[Restart Volume] Chapter 238: You Actually?!!!

"Hey, buddy! Care for a drink?"

Mo Xing noticed a skinny, heavily bearded man beckoning to him. The fellow looked vaguely familiar, while the bald, fat man beside him seemed to be sizing him up.

"No, thank you." Mo Xing forced a cold smile. "May I ask what the two of you want with me?"

"Come sit down and play a few rounds with us, buddy," the skinny man continued.

"Oh? What are we playing?" Mo Xing asked in return. His reply sounded perfunctory, but in truth, he really did not know.

"Red and Black," the skinny man explained. "The standard rules. Each player draws ten cards at the start. Every time you play a red card, you may draw another card. The first person to collect ten black cards..."

"I don't play that kind of game..." Mo Xing paused. "I mean, I don't want to. It sounds boring."

His heart was pounding. He had almost said, "I don't know how to play," and had barely managed to cover it up once again.

"It's interesting." The fat man beside him suddenly laughed.

Mo Xing frowned. Only then did he realize that the fat man before him was the sky pirate wanted on the posters, Gulaga Slyuxiang, while the skinny man beside him was another sky pirate, Marcus Yeming.

Had his identity been exposed?

Of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, the best was to run—

"So you are that legendary big shot?" the fat man, Gulaga Slyuxiang, said suddenly, clapping his hands.

"Hm?" Mo Xing asked, puzzled.

A big shot?

What big shot?

A legendary big shot, no less?

When had he become some kind of divine figure? Had the school news somehow spread outside? The school's wildly popular Mo Xing had come in person to an underground casino?

"I have always heard about a man who looks utterly ordinary, yet frequently appears in formal attire at all sorts of casinos. No matter what game he plays, he handles it with ease and has never suffered a defeat. He remains completely unruffled no matter what cards he sees." The fat man grinned. "People call him... the Immortal Gambler."

Fire elemental energy flared in the fat man's hand. He used it to light a cigarette and took a drag.

"And what does that have to do with me?" Mo Xing asked, bewildered by the description, though he continued to maintain his composure.

"That man is you, isn't he?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Mo Xing gave an exasperated smile.

The fat man chuckled and pushed the card box across the table toward Mo Xing.

"Come on. Play a round with me!"

Mo Xing looked at the cards on the table and smiled bitterly.

"I think you've misunderstood. I'm really not the Immortal Gambler."

"I don't give a damn about all that. I just want to have a match with you." Gulaga Slyuxiang grinned.

"Buddy," Marcus Yeming said, "you came to a casino. You should at least gamble a couple of rounds, shouldn't you? Otherwise, you're nothing but a tourist."

Mo Xing hesitated for a moment, then smiled.

"What are we betting? How does it work?"

"The usual. Red and Black, standard rules." The fat man held up a finger. "Five hundred gold coins a round."

"What? Five hundred gold coins?" Mo Xing frowned, thinking, What the hell? They bet that much on a single round?

"Ah, I play ordinary games so often that I automatically said five hundred gold coins." The fat man covered his forehead. "That obviously doesn't suit your status. In that case, let's play a double-stakes game! Three thousand gold coins a round!"

What the hell?

Three thousand gold coins?

Had the man lost his mind?

Was this really just double stakes?

This was a super-doubling game!

"Fine. Three thousand gold coins." Mo Xing forced down his anguish. "But only one round."

He had just received a ten-thousand-gold-coin scholarship, and in the blink of an eye, he was about to spend thirty percent of it.

"All right. One round." As he spoke, the fat man pressed the green button beside him. Two mechanical arms rose from the side of the table and began shuffling all the cards on its surface.

"Pretty advanced."

Mo Xing thought it, of course, but could not say it aloud. Otherwise, he would certainly give himself away. How could an Immortal Gambler who had roamed countless casinos never have seen a dealer shuffle and deal?

Unfortunately, he really had never seen it.

And he was not some Immortal Gambler, either.

He was a student!

But there was nothing he could do. If they believed he was the Immortal Gambler, then the Immortal Gambler he would be. He had to carry the act all the way through.

Still, the thought of losing three thousand gold coins so casually made his heart ache.

"Shuffling complete..."

A gentle female voice suddenly rose from beneath the table, sounding just like those advertisements that promised an online dealer and live card dealing.

"Pfft."

Mo Xing could not help laughing.

"What are you laughing at?" Gulaga Slyuxiang asked, confused.

"I... I just remembered something funny. It's been a long time since I played cards." Mo Xing forced a smile. He had nearly exposed himself again.

"Then let's begin. You draw first." The fat man pointed toward the five stacks of shuffled cards on the table.

"The standard rules, right?" Mo Xing asked. He genuinely had no idea how cards were played in this world.

"Yes, sir. The current game is a standard round of Red and Black, with a wager of three thousand gold coins." The system's voice sounded from beneath the table once more. "The system at Table Twenty-Six of Uncle Rat's Prestige Underground Casino is now at your service."

Artificial intelligence from another world?

And it came with built-in explanations?

Interesting!

"Ahem. I've been playing rather too many different card games lately, so I've forgotten how the standard rules work." Mo Xing deliberately coughed and put on a troubled expression.

"Buddy, you've got to be kidding. You can forget a game this popular?" Marcus Yeming asked, bewildered.

"Never mind. Important people have a lot on their minds. System, explain the rules to this gentleman, the Immortal Gambler," Gulaga Slyuxiang said.

"Understood, Mr. Gulaga Slyuxiang." The dealer system replied. "Under the standard rules of Red and Black, each player draws ten cards of their choice from the five card pools at the beginning of the game, then chooses one player to take the first turn."

"During each round, every player may play only one card, then draw one card of their choice from the five card pools and add it to their hand. Play then passes to the next player. This continues until one player has collected ten black cards. That player wins, and the game ends."

"All right. I remember now."

Mo Xing nodded. So all he had to do was collect black cards. Wasn't this ridiculously simple? It was pure luck, with not a trace of skill involved.

Come to think of it, he rather missed Hearthstone and Three Kingdoms Kill from his old world.

"You draw first," Gulaga Slyuxiang said courteously.

"All right." Mo Xing nodded and reached into the card pool.

A red card!

A red card marked with a heart!

The fat man opposite him drew a card as well, a smile appearing on his oily face.

Mo Xing guessed that he had drawn a black card. He drew another card.

Another red card!

He already had two red hearts in his hand!

The fat man extended his right hand and drew another card. This time, his expression was calm, so he had probably drawn a black heart.

Mo Xing continued drawing. He and Gulaga took turns drawing ten times in all.

The final result of Mo Xing's hand was extremely "promising":

Ten red cards!

Ten whole red cards!

What kind of opening was this?

It was practically a "red-hot start"!

He would need to draw at least ten more times to collect ten black cards!

Why not just declare me eliminated by red cards?

"Oh, buddy! Now that's a nice hand." Marcus Yeming laughed beside Mo Xing. "How are you going to play that?"

"With my head." Mo Xing smiled bitterly.

"Let's begin. You play first," Gulaga Slyuxiang said.

Mo Xing casually took out a red card and tossed it onto the table, then drew a card from the leftmost pool.

A black card!

He finally had a black card!

Gulaga Slyuxiang played a red card, then drew from the second card pool. His expression grew somewhat serious.

It was probably a red card.

Mo Xing smiled, played another red card, and drew from the fourth card pool.

A black card!

After twenty turns, Mo Xing had been lucky enough to draw five black cards. His hand now held five red cards and five black cards, while Gulaga Slyuxiang, seated opposite him, alternated between smiling and wearing a grim expression.

Mo Xing had already grown bored of the game. You either drew a red card or a black card, and in the end, whoever collected ten black cards first won. Frankly, it was terribly dull. The gamblers, however, seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.

A server brought over a tray of liquor. Gulaga poured himself a glass, gulped it down, and belched.

"Finally, it's my turn!"

The fat man wiped his mouth, then played a card. The design on its face was neither a red heart nor a black heart. Instead, it depicted two fish spiraling around each other.

"Special card: Exchange!" the system crackled.

"The player who played this card must choose one card from their hand and exchange it with a designated card from their opponent's hand."

"Huh?" Mo Xing frowned. What the hell? There were special cards too?

The player who used it would obviously choose a red card to exchange with him.

Sure enough, Gulaga Slyuxiang pulled out a red card and handed it to the mechanical arm.

"I want your sixth card. Yes, count six cards from left to right!" The fat man pointed at Mo Xing.

"This one?"

Mo Xing pulled out the sixth card in his hand. It was a red heart. Of course, Gulaga had no way of knowing that, since in this card game the face of each card was turned toward its owner and the back toward everyone else.

"Not that one. Farther to the right!"

Gulaga rejected it immediately, shaking ash from his cigarette.

"This one?" Mo Xing asked again. It was another red heart.

"Not that one. Keep going right." Gulaga shook his head.

"This one?"

"Not that one either. Farther over."

"This one, then?"

"No, no."

"There's nowhere left to go on the right. This has to be a card, doesn't it?" Mo Xing said helplessly.

"Yes, yes, that's the one I want." Gulaga nodded.

Mo Xing handed over the black heart at the far right. The mechanical arm exchanged the two cards.

"Couldn't you have just said you wanted the card on the far right?"

"How was I supposed to know? I was confirming it with him." Gulaga counted the cards in his hand.

"With him? Confirming it with him?"

Mo Xing suddenly understood. He turned around sharply and saw Marcus Yeming standing behind him, a sly grin spread across his face.

"You... you two are cheating?"

It all came clear to Mo Xing. He had nearly forgotten about that man. The two of them had been working together, tricking him into revealing the black card in his hand.

"Buddy, what are you talking about?" Marcus shook his head and sneered. "I have no idea what you mean."

"Hey! System! They're cheating! Aren't you going to do something?" Mo Xing shouted angrily.

"Greetings, sir." The dealer system replied. "No repeated drawing, card switching, card snatching, or other such incidents have occurred at the card table. Therefore, the system has determined that none of the players present is cheating."

"Hey! Where's the fairness in that? What kind of dealer are you? You actually determined that nobody here is cheating?"

"That is precisely how a dealer is supposed to operate." The system's reply sounded highly sarcastic.

"You..."

Mo Xing was rendered speechless.

It was simply too despicable!