Lian was already inside the casino, sitting in front of a roulette machine.
He spun the machine and watched the result.
"Eight, red."
He repeated the result through his earpiece as Lin Ling entered it into the program.
A few spins later, Lian gave him another result.
"Thirty-five, black."
They repeated the process several more times, feeding each result into the program.
After the fifth spin, Lin Ling finally spoke.
"The next spin has an eighty percent chance of being red. There's also a sixty percent chance of it being even."
Lian placed his bets accordingly.
The machine spun.
Red.
He won one bet, but the number was odd, so he lost the other.
"Try red again," Lin Ling said. "And put some on the first twelve."
Lian placed the bets and spun again.
This time, both bets won.
A small pile of chips began building up in front of him.
They repeated the process several more times until Lian had made a decent amount.
He looked down at the pile of chips.
"So we just take these to the cashier and exchange them for cash?"
"Pretty much," Nox replied.
Sunny suddenly glanced across the casino. "Guys, check her out. She's hot."
Lian looked over. "Smash."
Nox nodded. "Yeah, bro. I'd smash too."
Lin Ling's voice came through the earpiece. "I can't believe I'm missing out on this. Next time, take me with you guys."
Lian laughed. "Alright, dude. I didn't think you were into this stuff. You're always so focused on studying like a nerd."
Sunny quietly grabbed a few chips. "I'm gonna try a few games for fun. See you guys later."
By the time Lian noticed, Sunny was already gone.
"Where'd that guy go?"
"He said he wanted to try some games for fun," Nox replied. "But I'm pretty sure we both know the real reason."
Lian frowned. "Dude, if you see a hot girl in a place like this, there's a hundred percent chance it's a trap. She's probably working for the casino and trying to get you to empty your wallet."
"I mean, he didn't take that many chips," Nox said. "He should be fine."
"This is Sunny we're talking about. What if he tries to impress her by bragging about how we found a way to beat the machines?"
Nox's expression changed.
"Aw, shit. You're right. We need to find him before he screws everything up."
The two of them quickly started looking around the casino, moving through the crowd and checking each section.
Sunny was nowhere to be found.
They eventually headed downstairs, toward the restricted area beneath the main casino floor where the private rooms were located.
Lian looked around.
"Where the hell did he go?"
Nox spotted Sunny and pointed toward the table. "Look, he's over there."
Lian turned and saw Sunny playing roulette with the woman. His expression wasn't looking too good.
Nox sighed. "Judging by his face, I'm guessing things aren't going too well."
They walked over to the table.
"How's it going over here?" Lian asked.
Sunny looked at them. "Uh... guys, I think I may have messed up a little."
Before Lian could ask what happened, six or seven large men in black suits stepped over and surrounded the table.
Lian looked at Sunny.
"You let your little wiener do the walking, and now we're all cooked."
A fat man in a yellow-and-white striped suit stepped forward, gold rings covering nearly every finger and several thick chains hanging around his neck.
"Look, kids. I know what you did. You think you can cheat at one of our games and just walk away with the money?"
He smiled.
"You're very much mistaken."
He leaned closer.
"Do you know what happens when we catch someone cheating? We beat them up and lock them in the basement."
Sunny swallowed.
"You wouldn't want that, would you?"
"No," Sunny said quietly.
Lian and Nox exchanged a glance.
The man straightened his suit.
"But you're kids. Kids make mistakes. So I'll let you walk out of here if you return all the chips and pay a small fine for cheating."
Lian looked at him.
"And how much is that, exactly?"
"It's 100,000 Clads."
Nox stared at him. "Dude, you do know we don't have that much, right?"
The boss laughed and looked at his men. "Did you hear that? These kids are saying they don't have any money."
The men around him started laughing.
Lian's expression turned serious.
"Alright. Then how about we gamble with everything on the line? I'll wager all the chips I won. If you win, we will pay the amount you asked for. If I win, we will take everything."
The boss frowned. "Kid, that's not how things work around here."
"So what? You're scared you'll lose to a bunch of kids and end up on the street?" Lian said. "Man up and play."
Nox gave Lian a doubtful look, while Sunny stared at him nervously.
The boss's smile disappeared.
"That's enough. I'm warning you, kid. I've never lost a game in this casino. You'll regret those words."
Lian didn't flinch.
"Empty threats don't work on me. Why don't you prove it with your actions?"
The boss said, "Alright, you asked for it. We'll play roulette."
Lian nodded calmly. "Fine by me. But before that, I need to use the toilet."
Sunny stared at him. "Dude, what?"
Nox casually added, "Yeah, he's definitely not planning on leaving us here and running away."
The boss narrowed his eyes.
"Go with him. Don't let him out of your sight."
One of the men followed Lian to the restroom and waited outside.
Lian stepped inside, activated his invisibility rune, and walked straight past the man.
The goon didn't notice a thing.
Lian walked into the security room, grabbed a mop handle from the corner, came up behind the guard sitting in front of the CCTV monitors, and shoved it against his neck, choking him until he passed out.
He then opened one of the computers, pulled out the hard drive, and disabled the security system. The red lights on the cameras went off, now they were no longer recording.
After some time, the boss saw Lian return to the VIP room.
When Lian came back, the boss looked at him.
"I thought you ran away. What took you so long? What were you doing all this time?"
Lian awkwardly replied, "Aaah, I was aah..." He glanced toward the corner of the room, trying to come up with something.
"yeah... fucking your... mom."
Nox and Sunny immediately burst out laughing. Even one of the goons couldn't hold it in and started laughing.
The boss slowly turned toward him.
"Why are you laughing?"
The goon quickly straightened up. "Sorry, boss. The joke was too funny."
The boss glared at him.
"I'm gonna break your bones so badly, you'll be walking funny for the rest of your life."
The words had barely left the boss's mouth when Lian moved.
Before the goons could react, a wind blade shot toward the boss. One of them stepped in front of it and blocked most of the attack, but the blade still left a shallow cut on their arms, which started bleeding.
The boss's expression darkened.
"You got the nerve to attack us with runes in broad daylight?"
Lian didn't answer. He suddenly closed the distance and punched one of the goons in the face.
The man stumbled back, clutching his face. He then looked at Lian's hand and noticed the black knuckle guard wrapped around it.
The remaining goons rushed him.
Lian tried to hold his ground, but the numbers quickly became a problem. He blocked one attack only to get hit by another, forcing him back.
Nox jumped into the fight.
"Damn, I knew you were gonna do something like this."
The woman immediately ran away as soon as the fight broke out.
Nox took on three of the goons at once, somehow managing to hold his own without using any runes.
Lian was struggling against the other two.
"Are you just gonna sit there and watch?" he yelled at Sunny.
Sunny finally stepped in. "Dude, you are one insane guy."
The goons started using their runes as well, but their abilities were nowhere near as strong as Lian and his friends'.
One of them formed a rock gauntlet around his fist and rushed toward Lian. He threw a heavy punch, and Lian raised his arms to block it, but the force sent him stumbling back, leaving his arms bleeding.
Another goon fired rocks at high speed toward Nox. Nox managed to dodge every one while fighting the other two.
Lian steadied himself and fired a lightning arrow at the rock-gauntlet user.
The boss reached for his phone and tried to make a call, but Lian had already placed signal jammers around the room.
Another wave of wind blades shot toward the remaining goons, forcing them to back away and scramble for cover.
Sunny and Lian managed to knock out two of the goons, while Nox took down the other three.
The boss looked around at his beaten men and immediately turned to run.
Lian raised his hand and fired a lightning arrow at him.
The boss froze for a few seconds before collapsing to the floor, breathing heavily.
"Hey, kid! Are you insane?" the boss shouted. "You're using runes against ordinary people! You're not getting away with this. The cameras recorded everything."
Lian glanced at the goons lying around the room.
"Yeah, I'm not the only one here using runes."
The boss pointed at him. "I'll report you to the police. I'll make sure you go to jail."
"You sure about that?" Lian replied calmly.
The boss looked up at the cameras.
The red LEDs were off, indicating they weren't recording.
Lian gave him a calm look.
"Didn't you guys have a saying here? What happens in the casino stays in the casino. You take people's money, threaten them with runes, and assume they can't do anything about it."
He pulled out the hard drive.
"I got this from your security room. I'm guessing it has plenty of footage of you rigging games, extorting people, and threatening anyone who gets in your way."
One of the goons looked worried. "Boss... he has the evidence. What do we do?"
The boss glared at him.
"No, you dumbass. He might as well be bluffing for all we know. You just confirmed his suspicions."
Lian smiled and held up the hard drive.
"Here's what we're going to do. I keep this, and you forget this whole thing ever happened. We take our chips and walk out, and you don't come after us or try anything funny."
"We pretend we never met. You keep running your casino, and we go back to our lives."
The boss clenched his jaw before finally nodding.
"Okay, okay. You're right."
Lian took all the chips available at the table.
He turned around and left with Nox and Sunny.
Sunny looked back at the men lying on the ground.
"Dude, that's really messed up. You're literally a psychopath. If someone had died, you could've ended up in jail for using runes on normal people."
Nox added, "Maybe not jail, but you'd definitely get suspended if the academy found out you were abusing your runes."
Lian replied sarcastically.
"Yeah, man. Have fun paying that 100k debt and resolving this peacefully. Who knows? He might've taken your kidneys once he found out you didn't have the money."
Nox casually nodded. "Yeah, that's exactly what I'm trying to say. Besides, they do this kind of shit to people all the time. I don't think they deserve much sympathy."
Lian replied. "I mean, that's how the world works. The weak ones always get preyed on."
Sunny looked at Nox. "Yeah, but how did you manage to fight three guys at the same time without using runes? I struggled to take down one, and Lian was struggling against one even with runes."
Nox casually replied, "I became Sequence 2 last week. Fights like that are a cakewalk."
Lian and Sunny stared at him.
"No way, dude. How did you even manage that?"
Nox shrugged. "I guess it just happened. I mean, I'm the main character, so it's only natural."
Lian suddenly frowned. "I feel like I'm forgetting something."
Nox thought for a moment. "Yeah. We need to exchange the chips for cash."
"Right. Let's go get our money."
Meanwhile, the boss and the goons headed toward the washroom to clean themselves up.
As they turned the corner, they found the goon still standing there with his arms folded.
He looked at them. "Hey, boss. What happened? You guys look terrible."
The boss stared at him.
"You idiot. What are you still doing here?"
"I was keeping watch on that kid. He's been in there for quite a while. I think he's taking a really big shit."
The boss and the other goons exchanged a look.
A few seconds later, they all jumped him.