Ch.51Earning, So Enjoying: NPC. (3)

I, who had argued with Ragni about the dangers of gambling, had a history of hitting the pity ceiling in gacha games in my previous life. Having once survived a month on nothing but ramen, I genuinely had no intention of gambling.

“…Let’s bet on 3 through 6.”

“3 through 6.”

“Ohhh…!!!”

-The white marble begins to roll.

The white marble starts rolling across the game board like our lives, and beads of cold sweat form on the dealer’s forehead.

People watching us from around the table let out small gasps and clench their fists, looking much like fans watching their favorite soccer team take a penalty kick.

And then.

-Roll, roll, roll… click.

“…It’s 6.”

“WOOOOAH!!!”

“KYAAAAH!!”

“WOOOW!!!”

As the marble stops and the dealer announces the result with wide eyes and a bewildered voice, I lift Ragni in a hug and shout, causing everyone around us to cheer. Holy shit!! What the hell is going on?!

“How many wins is that for them?! Are they planning to clean out the entire casino?!”

“This is insane!! Is that woman beside him some goddess of victory?! This is no joke!!”

“C-can I join in next time?! Is there a seat available?!”

Everyone is showing immense interest in our winning streak. Some are trying to place the same bets we do, while others are calling Ragni the goddess of victory.

“Ragni!! What the hell?! Did you get possessed by a gambling spirit today or something?!”

“Ahahaha!! I don’t know!! I just felt like betting there would win!”

“Is that so?! Well, great job!!! Well done!! Amazing!!”

“Ahahaha! Praise me more!! Worship me!!!”

And thanks to this goddess of victory, I have no idea how much we’ve actually won.

Clearly, after arguing with Ragni about not gambling, I lost to her gaslighting and we settled on spending just 500,000 cans.

What’s more, she made me sit down and play instead of doing it herself, so I thought we’d lose everything within an hour and have to make a shameful retreat home.

But what’s this? Like in the movie “21,” Ragni calculated probabilities in blackjack and poker, and now we’re even winning at marble rolling. How much have we won?!

“Ahem, excuse me. Jack. Ragni. Here…”

“Ah! Thanks, Rey.”

“That’s thoughtful. Thank you.”

Rey, who had lost everything and left his seat earlier, brings us wine, and we toast to our victory.

As we down our wine in one shot, the cheers from the crowd grow even louder.

“Well then. We’re done with this table.”

“Good luck to everyone~”

“Aww…!!”

When Ragni and I scoop up our tokens and stand, disappointed sighs ripple through the crowd, but what can we do? We’ve already won three times here.

Look at the dealer’s face—he looks like he’s about to die. When we first won and tried to leave, he looked annoyed that we were winning and running, but now he’s practically begging us to disappear.

He’s just doing his job, so we shouldn’t torment him any further, right?

“You two look like you’re having a lot of fun.”

“What? Isn’t Rey having fun?”

“I lost everything after two rounds, so I didn’t have time to enjoy myself.”

“Huh? Didn’t the master give you more earlier?”

“…800 cans isn’t enough to even buy a drink here.”

Oh, how unfortunate. But I’m not a pervert who invests in doomed stocks, so… sorry?

“Well, you should at least have a drink.”

“Ugh. Thank you.”

“Hehe. Ah, this is so stress-relieving! I’m glad we came here!!”

“I don’t know about stress relief, but winning is definitely fun.”

How much have we won? I can’t even calculate it just by looking at the pile of tokens.

“Roughly 5 million, I’d say. The last one had over a 10x payout.”

“What?!! 10 times?!!”

“Wha?!! F-five million?!!”

We weren’t even going all-in like crazy gamblers. But it’s already increased tenfold? How many hours have we been playing? I guess this is why people get addicted to gambling.

“Hehe. Why, feeling less stressed now?”

“Yes. I failed to recognize the wise Ragni’s foresight. My stress has completely vanished.”

“J-Jack!! C-could you please give me a little more money?! I want to try that thing that goes ding-ding-ding!!”

Why is Rey increasingly acting like a child trying to mooch off me? You should be like Ragni and earn something before asking. This will spoil you.

“Hiiing! It only costs 3,000 cans per try! I’ll catch a troll later and pay you back!!”

“…Is that so. The ‘only’ part sounds a bit strange, but alright. Here.”

If she were someone who didn’t understand the nobility of labor, I’d have more to say, but if she’s willing to risk her life to earn money for games, who am I to argue?

“Wow!! Let’s go! Hurry!!”

“Hehe. I’m glad you look happy, but what about you, Jack?”

“Hm? Ah, well, we’ve won enough and had fun. I should probably stop now. I’ll just have a drink.”

“Hmm? You drink quite a bit, don’t you? That’s your sixth glass already.”

“Oh? Is it?”

I’ve never had much experience with wine in either of my lives, so I’ve just been drinking it casually.

But isn’t this just slightly bitter juice? Compared to soju or beer, it’s just sweet and barely gets you drunk.

I accepted my seventh glass and followed Rey, who was jumping up and down urging us to hurry.

And then.

-Ding-ding-ding!! Bang-bang-bang-bang! Ding!!

-Clatter-clatter-clatter!!!

“Jackpot!! Slot machine jackpot!!!”

“Huh?! Those people from earlier!!”

“What?! Is it really them again?! This is insane?!!”

“…J-Jack. I’ll pay back that 30,000 cans I borrowed right away.”

“Y-yeah. Congratulations, Rey.”

“Pfft!! Why do you two look like that?”

No, this is too much. We’re winning everywhere we go?

Except for Rey’s initial 200,000 can loss, have we lost anything here? How much are those coins piled in front of Rey worth when exchanged?

It looks like well over 200,000. Our luck is so good it’s actually making me nervous.

Rey, after briefly celebrating the jackpot, seems to share my unease about winning so much money, looking at me with a dubious expression.

Beginner’s luck? This is way beyond that. We’ve hit too many jackpots. At this rate, the happiness quota might activate…

“Excuse me. I’m the casino manager. Could we have a word?”

“…Somehow I knew this would happen.”

“Why? We have nothing to hide. We didn’t cheat.”

“Yes! I just pulled the long stick thing!!”

Rey, what are you saying? That sounds weird.

Probably because we’ve been winning too much, a stern-looking man in a black suit appeared with several burly guys, and I sighed as I followed their instructions.

We haven’t cheated, but from their perspective, this must be a bizarre situation. Honestly, I do feel a bit guilty about Ragni calculating probabilities while gambling, but those were genuinely games of chance. We did lose a few times too.

But if they try to use force to dispute our winnings, I’m prepared to respond in kind.

With these thoughts, I followed them.

“I’m telling you this to avoid misunderstandings, but our casino doesn’t think you’ve been cheating. We’ve been watching since you played blackjack and know you’ve been playing purely with luck and probability.”

The man in the black suit, whom I expected to demand we return all our winnings and leave, candidly admitted they had been monitoring us. Huh? Since blackjack? That was near the beginning.

“It happens occasionally. People who are so smart they ‘memorize’ all the cards. We watch such people to ensure they leave our establishment ‘peacefully.’ I apologize if our surveillance made you uncomfortable.”

“No, you’re just doing your job, so I’ll let that slide. But where are you taking us?”

As we followed him up the stairs to the higher floors of the building, he gave various explanations before smirking at my question.

Ugh, don’t smile. They say you shouldn’t spit in a smiling face, but I’m afraid you might throw a punch.

“We noticed you’ve won a significant amount and seemed to be getting bored, likely planning to leave soon, so we approached you.”

“…Just to be clear, even with our winnings, we don’t have that much money. If you’re suggesting we play at higher stakes…”

“Higher stakes? Ah, you must have heard that somewhere. No, those games require proper ‘screening’ before inviting players. This is simply us trying to do ‘business’ with you.”

“Business?”

“Ah! I might have heard of this.”

Ragni clapped her hands as if she understood, while Rey and I tilted our heads in confusion. The man maintained his smile as he led us to the upper floors.

Eventually, we arrived at a rather large door.

“Normally, this area is reserved for VIP guests who specifically request it, but please consider this our small attempt to recoup some of your winnings today and enjoy yourselves.”

He’s being remarkably straightforward, which suggests we really did win a lot.

The man stood in front of the door, bowed respectfully as if welcoming new guests, and announced:

“Welcome to the VIP Room [Game Room] of [Golden Castle].”

A space completely different from where we played Eight was revealed as the man opened the door.

And what appeared before my eyes was:

-Clang!!

-Bang!!

-Crack!!

-Click!

-Bang-bang-bang! Bang-bang!!

“…Wow. What is all this?”

“It’s much quieter than downstairs, but people seem to be having more fun.”

Ragni and Rey entered with sparkling eyes, fascinated, while I stared blankly at my surroundings.

Wait. Is this right? Why is this here?

“Master? Aren’t you coming in?”

“Jack? Is something wrong?”

As I stood there completely dumbfounded, the two of them asked with confused expressions, but I couldn’t answer.

No matter how I looked at it, this was just too…

“Why is there an arcade here?”

I could only mutter to myself as I beheld the massive arcade filled with games and facilities modeled after all kinds of sports.