bookbashuk Chapter 171 The Battle of Black
Chapter 171 The Battle of Black
Chapter 181 A Showdown Between Black and Black
Inside the magnificent, theater-like gambling hall, all the gamblers spontaneously rose from their seats to cheer for the wise man's great victory.
The applause and shouts erupted like a boiling cauldron, seemingly capable of shaking the huge crystal chandelier on the ceiling, and the crazed faces became even more distorted under the light.
The inherent conflict of interest between gamblers and casinos was now fully exposed, and everyone celebrated with great excitement for the old man Vio's feat of defeating the casino, as if they themselves had won money.
In stark contrast to the gamblers' reactions were those of the casino staff—
The waiters, bartenders, dealers, and the dealer who had suffered a crushing defeat in the betting all looked more grim than the withered, gray bark of a deadwood tree. They naturally understood what Vio's victory meant—no casino in the world could accept a loss of billions of dollars in one night, and after this crazy night, the Royal Union was doomed.
The casino manager looked to Lingju, who sat motionless in the audience, as if seeking his opinion, asking with his eyes whether he should pay the bets for this robber-like old man.
The latter, however, maintained his passive attitude ever since Team Plasma boarded the ship. Like Wobbuffet, who only knows how to take hits but never attacks, Cranberry sat quietly in the frenzied crowd, neither flustered nor angry, and still did not take any action—as if he was waiting for some opportunity.
Noticing the manager's gaze, the evil king simply nodded calmly—meaning payment would proceed as usual.
When the manager received the signal from Yueju, instead of feeling relieved, he became even more nervous.
A moment later, a waitress dressed in a bunny girl uniform brought over a huge plate containing all the chips Vio had won in this round of cards.
Those were over five hundred master-level chips, shimmering with a dazzling amethyst luster. Although their size was smaller than the various chips Vio had presented on the gambling table, their value was equal. If the casino's mandatory commission was disregarded, these chips could be exchanged for over five billion yuan in cash.
The bunny girl carefully placed the chips on the gambling table in front of Vio. At this moment, the total value of the chips in Vio's hands had reached tens of billions—almost equal to all the wealth carried on the Royal Union!
The old man's cost was merely the single white chip he borrowed from the gambler on the first floor.
.
"It's really infuriating to watch. This isn't a fair and square gambling game; it's clearly cheating by taking advantage of loopholes in the game."
Next to Lingju, Naza rested her chin on her hand, looking rather uninterested, as if she was regretting wasting the whole evening.
She wasn't a gambler wallowing in despair. She wasn't interested in the so-called card-counting formulas, nor could she empathize with the arrogant old man in the casino center. In the eyes of this gym leader, Vio's duel with the casino was less interesting than a battle between two beginner trainers.
This seemingly straightforward betting game continued all night long. Vio, that old guy, was extremely cautious with his bets, placing them entirely according to the probability calculations. Only when he was absolutely certain of victory did he finally put all his bets down at once. This resulted in a long and boring blackjack game. If it weren't for Cranberry keeping her company and chatting idly, the actress would have long since gone to the deck to use her superpowers to play with other people's Pokémon.
"There are some misconceptions in your thinking."
"Ivy said calmly, watching Vio bask in the gamblers' revelry," said Lingju.
“Cheating and deception are actually the most interesting parts of a casino. If you use force to completely eliminate these two things, the casino will become a field where the sickle harvests vegetables, the dealer will become a merchant, and the customers will become slaves. The thrill of the dance between winning and losing will be gone forever—that’s how all the casinos on land in the Union are. That’s the real reason I created the Royal Union.”
"So, the casino was created to enjoy the thrill of gambling duels? That sounds a bit like the Pokémon Gyms," Sabrina asked, yawning.
“The outcome of a casino match is not as obvious as that of an elf battle, but the two do have one thing in common.”
Cranberry turned her gaze to the old man in the center of the casino and said meaningfully—
"That is, the duel can only be considered over when the last contestant is unable to fight—before that, any ups and downs in the competition are just fodder for the audience to talk about."
.
On stage, Vio did not continue playing blackjack—a clear act of magnanimity he prided himself on as a casino legend.
At this moment, according to casino custom, the old man who had won a standing ovation was to set aside a portion of his chips to order a round of the finest champagne for all the guests present. As a sage of the Plasma Group, Vio naturally wouldn't let such an opportunity to win people's hearts slip by.
"When the people are at peace, the people will benefit, and the common people will cherish it."
The old man spoke in such a profound and enigmatic manner, and generously set aside a small portion of his chips to cover all the other guests' expenses, except for gambling, until they disembarked—most of those who could board the Royal Union were celebrities and wealthy people like Nancy, so doing such a favor was naturally very worthwhile.
After all, Vio's first chip when he joined the casino was borrowed from a complete stranger, so it could be considered a return of kindness.
The jubilation at the scene after the elderly man announced his gifts was predictable. However, the revelry naturally couldn't last forever.
After replenishing his fluids with bubbly golden champagne, Vio didn't rush to exchange his chips for cash. Instead, he went straight to Lingju, who was sitting quietly in the audience with a smile on his face.
"Blueberry, I think you know why I came here today, right?"
The old man, who had previously ignored the existence of the clam, finally acknowledged the existence of the casino owner and spoke to the Alliance traitor who had defected to Team Plasma for the first time.
"To be specific, you boarded the cruise ship yesterday, and it's been several hours past midnight now." Facing a sage of higher status within Team Plasma, Yueju's flippant tone held no respect.
“You know why I’m here, right?” Vio asked again, his tone becoming more forceful.
“It’s punishment,” Yueju said dismissively, toying with her pen. “This casino has hosted many guests from the cult, including some who ended up bankrupt. You came here to stand up for them, so you’ll have to teach me a lesson.”
“You make it sound so easy.” The old man’s eyebrows twitched. “As a high-ranking member in charge of the Plasma Group’s finances, I have no doubt that more than 70% of the 10 billion chips we just won came from this gambling ship’s embezzlement of the cult’s funds.”
“We are simply receiving our guests as normal. As for where they obtained the money to exchange for chips, we don’t care at all; that’s the guests’ privacy.”
“There are some guests you shouldn’t be hosting,” Vio said, clearly annoyed.
“You should restrict the Plasma Team members from entering and leaving casinos. This is a unanimous decision within the Order—we cannot stand by and watch the Order’s noble ideals be corrupted by money and desire. Now that you have joined the Plasma Team, you should understand this principle.”
“I understand. During the last round of reorganization, the Royal United Federation revoked the Plasma Group members’ privilege of freely entering and leaving the gambling ship. Since then, until Mr. Vio and your subordinates boarded the ship, we have not received any guests from within the Order.” Yueju shrugged, looking at the other party with a puzzled expression.
"You're lying through your teeth!" Vio couldn't help but retort sharply, a sudden urge welling up inside him to play a few more rounds of blackjack with a hundred billion yuan in his pocket.
"That cadre in charge of the rectification has long since become your accomplice because of gambling debts! Thanks to him, the invitation tickets for this gambling ship are still circulating throughout the cult. Those cult members who have been seduced by the casino can freely enter and leave the casino again as long as they change into civilian clothes. The internal funds of the Plasma Group are still flowing into this ship continuously—and you want to continue to play dumb?"
“We are unaware of this matter. Casino reception tickets follow the principle of anonymity, and as long as the verification is valid, we cannot prevent any guest from boarding.”
“You can use those surveillance cameras at the entrance to prevent cult members from coming and going,” Vio immediately pointed out.
"The surveillance cameras are only for identifying whether a distinguished person like you has entered the casino, and they do not record guests' personal information. Our casino's principle is customer first, and we must protect our guests' privacy rights from any form of infringement."
Lingju maintained a poker face, shamelessly evading questions like those bureaucrats within the league who held positions without doing their jobs.
Seeing this, the old man didn't press the matter further, but instead patted a pocket on his robe. Then, a geometric snowflake made entirely of ice appeared in the air, accompanied by the red light emitted from the Poké Ball.
Without its master's command, the Pokémon made of ice crystals began to move on its own, and five light walls appeared out of thin air around the two of them and above their heads.
"King of Blueberries, can we now have an open and honest talk?"
Within the psychedelic wall of light, Vio changed his name for Blueberry, which seemed to be the reason he chose to use Pokémon to create a soundproof space—
"The reasons why you joined the Plasma Group are highly suspicious. At the beginning, more than half of the Seven Sages believed that you were an Alliance spy who had infiltrated the Order, and I was one of the suspects."
"However, since you started running the Royal United Federation, the sages' suspicions about you have lessened considerably, which is quite ironic—your methods of accumulating wealth are so dirty, and your acts of deceiving the cadres are so despicable, yet they can explain why you joined the Plasma Group. Until now, those sages who were originally convinced that you were an undercover agent of the Alliance have all changed their attitudes and have begun to think that you are a centrist who would waver in his stance for the sake of astronomical wealth. They have begun to think that you, who are busy reaping money from the organization's cadres in the casino, have already achieved your predetermined goal, and are therefore unlikely to be an undercover agent revealing the secret information of the Order to the United Federation."
"As expected of the wise men gathered by Mr. Quixote, their judgment of people is truly accurate." Yueju responded with a smile.
“But I don’t think so,” Vio replied seriously. “In my opinion, you are a complete Alliance spy. Your target has never been money, but the destruction of the Order!”
Before Yueju could even begin to argue, he continued—
“You know that the Plasma Group would never share secret information with an outsider like you, so you decided to uncover the cult’s hidden secrets in another way. People may lie, and evidence may be forged, but the flow of wealth is undeniable. Just as I can deduce the outcome of a bet by examining the cards already drawn, you can use casinos as a place to gather economic intelligence and predict the Plasma Group’s next move—this method of gathering secrets is much more efficient than painstakingly infiltrating the upper echelons by pretending to be a defector.”
"You overestimate me..."
“Don’t rush to deny it, King Linguine.” The old man interrupted Linguine again. “Old men like me have a common flaw: incurable stubbornness. My experience in casinos when I was young only made this trait more pronounced. Now that I’ve identified you and your casino’s true nature, there’s only one thing I need to do next.”
"Want to sleep it off and forget all those unfounded speculations?" the casino owner asked, feigning humor.
"To utterly defeat you and your ship."
The casino legend from thirty years ago said this, his rarely open eyes revealing a stern and authoritative glint.
"During the cocktail party just now, the casino changed the rules for the blackjack tables. The casino's odds will be reduced by two points until the player's base win rate is below 50%. In addition, after every two rounds, the dealer will manually shuffle the cards and keep an eye on the guests standing at the table keeping track of the cards. The casino manager will invite them to the bar and politely offer them a cheap cocktail. By the time they return to the table, the cards they have kept track of are meaningless."
Blueberry explained the new rules of blackjack on the Royal Union to the elderly man, and the same words were also introduced to the guests at countless gambling tables on the ship.
“Mr. Vio, you have indeed made a considerable amount of money from the casino, but such a figure is not enough to shake the operation of this ship—your legendary victory may instead attract more fools who want to get rich overnight to flock to the ship.”
"You only lowered the odds by two percentage points? You don't actually think that will stop me, do you?" Vio chuckled smugly. "Or are you planning to use those little tricks of the human dealer to keep me out of the game?"
"I think we're all tired of games with no risk."
Suddenly, Yueju raised her voice and spoke to the purple-robed elder in front of her—
"Ultimately, blackjack is too petty. If someone ignores your presence and arrogantly tries to outsmart you, turning the gentlemanly sport of poker into an ugly calculation, it's hard not to develop a prejudice against them. Isn't it time to try some games for adults?"
"What do you mean?" Vio hadn't been treated like a child in decades. His narrowed eyes grew even deeper, as if trying to see the secret hidden behind Yueju's deliberate provocation.
"The tenth-floor casino, Double Dragon Poker," Yueju said lightly, pointing to the sky. "This entire ship, bet all your chips."