A gambling den always had odds stacked against its players.
The persistent existence of a house edge on all gas ant that every player was mathematically likely to lose their money in every ga that they played against the house.
But to be frank, playing at the casino was one of Calvin's favorite past tis.
He was always soone that often like to reverse-engineer things and find out how exactly a certain object or a concept worked.
Back then, he was a fledgling player that had no idea how casinos operated.
He had to pay a huge price before he understood that in order to succeed in the casino, he must work on maximizing his winnings while cutting his losses as soon as possible.
Of course, he learned not to cut his winnings short while he had the montum.
But despite his best efforts in finding out the best strategies in winning against the house in the casino, Calvin had committed the blunder whom he still considered to be his most shaful mistake of all ti.
It was because after using at least six months of his life researching on how he could beat the house, Calvin had been negligent and forgot the existence of sothing so crucial, yet was everywhere in Las Felipinas.
Mana!
Fortunately, Calvin had always cut his losses whenever it crossed the threshold of his personal risk tolerance.
As a result, he didn't lose that badly.
Then, after he knew that he could use Mana to influence the outco of the gas.
He was now basically using the sa technique as the house, albeit he was working against them.
A year passed and Calvin had basically mastered the techniques necessary for him to win a hundred percent of the ti.
Of course, he was sensible enough not to actually win a hundred percent of the ti.
With his prudence, Calvin walked awaya hundred thousand Joselian pesos richer after about a year and a half in the casino.
No one had any suspicions against him due to his enormous winnings, after all... most of them saw how he struggled for such a long ti before he got a lucky break.
In fact, even the Manager of the casino itself even congratulated him for his winnings and jokingly told him to never co back.
Calvin knew that it wasn't a joke, the Manager actually wanted him to return and spend all of his winnings in the casino.
But Calvin understood that he had to leave sooner or later.
Thus, he left.
A hundred thousand Joselian pesos richer and with a treasure trove of knowledge concerning popular gas in the casino.
Calvin revealed a smile. But recalling his role in the Rags to Riches Casino, his smile quickly turned complacent and arrogant.
Aurelia had finally led them to their destination.
It was a round table in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the casino. Needless to say, their arrival attracted the attention of the boorish people in the casino.
Albeit, most of them had their eyes on Christine instead of on Aurelia or Calvin.
Aurelia walked behind the counter.
She donned a long-sleeved suit jacket that seed to be tailored for her and similar to the outfits worn by the other dealers in the casino.
Calvin was surprised by her outfit.
It was because she was actually wearing three layers of clothinga white long-sleeved tunic, a waistcoat, and a vest that seed to be solid enough to protect her from the sudden attacks of enraged boorish losers. Calvin suddenly recalled the na of that 'young man'.
'Sum Jing-Woo.'
'A Korean na.'
'It seems that he really is an Earthling. There is no doubt about that.'
A stern look appeared on Calvin's face.
Earthlings would soon co into the picture sooner or later.
But he didn't expect that they actually had their hands in the inner workings of Joselian earlier than what Calvin had once thought.
'Damned it...'
'Did the tiline change after all?'
Calvin's expression went cold.
No matter what, even if the tiline changed, his goals hadn't changed at all.
"Calvin?"
Christine suddenly spoke up. "What's wrong? You have such a scary look on your face..."
"Ah." Calvin let out a surprised yelp. Then, he woke up from his trance and saw both Christine and Aurelia staring at him in confusion.
"My apologies, I was revising my strategy." Calvin casually waved his hand in dismissal and made a random excuse.
Aurelia's lips twitched.
Strategy?
The word "Strategy" was all too familiar for Aurelia.
This was a word that most of their custors often used as their excuse whenever they talked to their families about them losing everything that they had.
'I have a strategy that I can use to recoup my losses! Don't worry, I'll take back everything that they took from us! Just give this chance!'
'Please, just give this chance!'
Then, that was the last ti that they would ever see their families.
So of them ended up as one of the beggars near Yang Bridge, while so of them died under the guilt of their own sins.
These people might not have a lot in common, but they had a word that they always used.
"Strategy."
Christine looked at Calvin in astonishnt.
He was never the type of person to joke around when it mattered, so she was full of curiosity hearing his words.
"Yup."
"What kind of strategy is it? Does it work all the ti?"
"Well, I won't say that it works all the ti." Calvin awkwardly scratched his head. "I've always been lucky since I was a child. I guess if we play a ga that relies heavily on luck. We should be able to win most of the ti!"
He then turned to look at Aurelia who was staring at him as if he was an idiot deep within her eyes.
"Manager, which ga is the most dependent on luck?" Calvin looked around the casino with this curious look in his eyes.
A single glance was all it took for everyone to judge him as a greenhorn to casinos.
So people were already judging him as a retard that ca here to 'donate' his money to the casino.
If not for the fact that he was being backed by the gorgeous young miss of the Allana Martial familyChristine Allanathese people would've probably already spat harshly onto the floor with disdain.
Especially, when they heard that he had a 'strategy' that he was planning on using against the house.
Sure, the word 'strategy' intrigued them.
But after hearing that his so-called 'strategy' was his 'luck' since he was a child.
These boorish n weren't so stupid as to actually believe him.
They imdiately called his bullshit deep inside their hearts.
"The ga that's the most reliant on luck in our establishnt is the Dance of Dices!" Aurelia replied with a smile.
But inside, she was already imagining herself laughing all the way to the bank.
While the Dance of the Dices mostly relied on the surface, she was actually skilled enough to manipulate the outco by virtue of special rocks inside the dices. The rocks embedded deep in the dices were so small, yet their effect was subtle and impactful.
Those strange rocks were attracted to tal, so Aurelia simply had to manipulate the contraption made out of tal beneath the table and the dices would briefly 'dance' before sticking into the numbers where she wanted it to land.
With these thoughts in mind, Aurelia looked at Calvin and observed the minute changes in her expression.
To be frank, she was still unconvinced that the young lady of the Allana Martial family would bring in a prodigal young master to waste their money.
After all, the Allana Martial family was a strict family with tight rules and strict culture. This was why Aurelia still couldn't believe that this young man beside her was truly a good-for-nothing.
No matter what, this person must have so tricks under his sleeves!
Aurelia thought to herself.
However, there was nary a change in Calvin's expression.
In fact, he even looked sowhat confused as he asked. "What's Dance of Dices?"
Aurelia was rendered speechless.
'Could it be that this guy is truly a dumbass?'
'Then, why was the young lady of the Allana Martial family with him?'
'Wait, what if she ca here to have fun without caring for the money?'
'After all, those mbers of the Allana Martial family are rumored to be so uptight and strict that they seldom entertained themselves.'
'What if this was the young lady's way of entertaining herself?'
'But entertaining herself by losing money? That doesn't make sense!'
'However, it also doesn't make sense why would she bring in here a dumbass good-for-nothing man that obviously only ca here to spend her family's money like water?'
Aurelia wracked her brains hard to think of the answer why Christine brought with her such a brainless man in a place where one's brain was a necessity for survival.
In the end, without ever reaching an answer...
Aurelia returned to her senses and swiftly assud a professional tone of voice and posture before she replied, "The house will hurl two dices up into the air. On the table will be eighteen slots with numbers. You just have to guess which among the eighteen numbers would the two dices land..."
"What?" Calvin revealed shock and delight. "Two dices? Only eighteen numbers? Isn't that too easy?"
'Shit, this guy really is a dumbass...' Aurelia thought to herself.
Christine also had her doubts as she stared at Calvin.
Letting out a sigh, Christine could only hope that Calvin wouldn't lose so badly against the house as to affect her family's reputation.
Else, the repercussions would be sothing that she would have to pay a huge price to endure.
"How about the payout?" A sowhat greedy look appeared on Calvin's face.
Aurelia hid her disdain and explained. "There are two modes in the Dance of Dices. Classic and High-risk."
"In Classic, there would be two dices. To win, you only have to correctly guess one landing number for the dices."
"As for High-Risk. The payout ratio is 1:10. But to win, you have to correctly guess both landing numbers for the two dices. The payout ratio for the Classic mode is 1:2. Which mode do you want to play, young noble?" Aurelia revealed a sweet smile.
Christine looked at Calvin, waiting for his decision.
The crowd also focused their attention on Calvin at this mont.
This was the mont where they would find outonce and for allwhether Calvin was truly a dumbass or not.
And Calvin truly did deliver according to their expectations.
"High-Risk! Go big or go ho has always been my motto!"
"I rather bet my entire life to win it big, than to be a coward in the face of opportunity!"
His words sent the crowd into an uproar. It has been years since soone was actually stupid enough to play High-Risk Dance of Dices. But what angered the crowd the most wasn't actually Calvin's decision. It was his words.
'Than to be a coward in the face of opportunity.'
These words of his were basically the sa as slapping the faces of those that chose to play the Classic Mode in the past.
It was tantamount to calling them cowards!
In an instant, so people stood up and headed in Calvin's direction.
Fortunately, the security of the casino seed to have beco tighter with Christine's arrival.
A cordon was soon made around Calvin, Christine, and Aurelia as the latter lightly chuckled and praised.
"Young noble sure is a daring and bold person. All right, let's start the ga. Please place your bets." In her mind, Aurelia was already thinking of a plan that she could use to keep Calvin for as long as he could inside the casino.
It would be better if he walked out of here in debt.
After all, he had always hated n that only knew how to brag but had no evidence whatsoever to support their claims.
She wanted to teach him a lesson.
Calvin took one glance at her and said, "Don't bother about letting win the first few rounds. I know that you are planning on doing that so I don't get scared of the casino. But don't worry, I ca here to go big, so I definitely won't be coming ho without winning sothing big!"
In the very next mont, Calvin placed Christine's family dallion and declared.
"With this dallion as the backing, I bet a thousand Joselian pesos at once! Let's roll!"
The expressions of everyone in the casino imdiately changed upon hearing his declaration.
Christine almost had a heart attack hearing him bet a thousand Joselian pesos in a single round.
Has he gone senile?!
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