Xu Wanyue let out a yawn.
The chips in the box she cradled had already piled up to fifteen million, while many of the gamblers at the table had lost their shirts. Their eyes were bloodshot as they glared at her with unmistakable hostility. Of course, she was perfectly safe inside the casino. If anything went wrong here, it would tarnish East City’s reputation beyond repair.
Xu Wanyue gazed at the fifteen million in chips and did some quick math. She had won a total of twenty million so far. Litchi had made it clear: any winnings were hers to keep. Her earlier victory over Litchi in North City had only been an Alliance assignment, but these twenty million were the real deal.
The clock on the wall now read eleven o’clock sharp. Xu Wanyue decided to pocket another five million and call it a night. She preferred to keep a low profile, but the bulging chip case made that all but impossible.
Eleven-thirty.
Two men in suits approached her table, their expressions stern and impassive.
“Our boss… invites you upstairs for a seat,” one said. “There’s a bigger game waiting—one we believe Miss Xu will find most interesting.”
Xu Wanyue knew she had no real choice in the matter. She gave a slight nod and followed the suited men to the upper floor.
Seated across from Xu Wanyue was a girl who looked about fourteen or fifteen years old—clearly not 【Hongshao】. According to Alliance records, Hongshao was twenty-one.
The girl’s dark, slightly wavy hair spilled over her shoulders. She wore a black landmine-style dress paired with garter stockings and little leather shoes. Her expression was icy, and her skin was so pale it bordered on ghostly, especially in the dead of night.
The room felt a touch chilly. Xu Wanyue took her seat opposite the girl, who spoke first in a slow, measured tone.
“We’ll have one bet.”
“What do you want to play?” Xu Wanyue asked, striving to keep her face calm and composed.
For the past decade and change, she had been nothing more than an unlucky college student. It was only in the two years since joining the Alliance that she had received basic mental conditioning and some rudimentary training in gambling techniques.
“You decide,” the girl replied evenly. At her signal, the suited man behind her opened a chip case, revealing a staggering fifty million inside.
If it was up to Xu Wanyue, she would have chosen dice-rolling—ideally with her doing the shaking. The rules from Lin Cheng’s game had tilted heavily in her favor, which was why she had jumped at them. In hindsight, she suspected he had been digging a pit for her to fall into from the start.
And so, Xu Wanyue proposed the same rules she had used with Lin Cheng, testing the girl’s limits. The girl glanced at her, and to Xu Wanyue’s unease, nodded without hesitation.
“One game for ten million. We’ll play ten games total.”
Xu Wanyue blinked in surprise, then glanced at her own thirty million in chips. “I only have… thirty million here.”
“If you lose it all, you’ll have two hours to scrape together the rest. Do you accept? Or refuse?”
“And if I refuse?”
The girl across from her suddenly cracked a grin.
“Garden pays the Alliance more than enough dividends every year, and we’ve got clearance from the top brass. Your visit here is personal business, outside Alliance oversight. Casinos have their own rules. No one walks away with thirty million over two nights through honest play. Letting you leave like that would break those rules. So, you have no right to refuse.”
Of course it would be like this. If you’re not going to let me say no, why even ask? Xu Wanyue grumbled to herself.
With a helpless sigh, she asked, “And if I win?”
“If you win, the money is all yours.” The girl’s voice carried a sickly, chilling edge. She resembled a life-sized porcelain doll, and for some reason, meeting her eyes stirred a thread of unease in Xu Wanyue’s heart.
Xu Wanyue quickly steadied herself. Showing any sign of weakness during a gamble was a grave mistake—especially when her Luck remained such an enigma. All she knew for sure was that the more desperately she wished for it, the more generously it rewarded her.
The rules would be the same as they had been with Lin Cheng. Xu Wanyue picked up the dice shaker and gave it a rattle. As fellow Ability Users, they were all acutely sensitive to Energy. If the dice were tampered with by Energy after settling, everyone at the table would sense it.
This made cheating impossible.
A torrential downpour raged outside, and the window hung open, letting in a damp chill. Fortunately, Xu Wanyue was dressed warmly that day—a white pullover hoodie and sky-blue jeans that covered her from head to toe. Grape’s warning had lingered in her mind, those eyes flashing with a cold, murderous glint that sent shivers down her spine for no reason she could name.
She had encountered similar looks in the Alliance, but only from those who truly had blood on their hands. Yet among everyone she had met there, no one matched Grape’s chilling gaze and aura.
Xu Wanyue had always trusted her odd intuitions. Her handler had urged her to wear something that accentuated her feminine charms for the casino visit, but so far, Lin Cheng was the only man in the entire organization.
A sudden thunderclap boomed outside, followed by a flash of lightning. Xu Wanyue reached for the dice cup and shook the two dice one after the other. Moments later, however, her eyes flew wide, and cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
Her Luck… had vanished.
Luck was an ethereal, almost mystical intuition—one she could sense its presence through. But after that thunderclap, she abruptly lost all connection to it. This was nothing like the previous Psychological Suggestion. This time, she was utterly convinced her Luck had always been right there by her side—until, from one moment to the next, it simply… disappeared without a trace.
Just as Lin Cheng had warned: without Luck, all that remained was misfortune.
With no path of retreat, she had no choice but to go all in.
Guided by pure instinct, Xu Wanyue selected the dice. She opened the cup to reveal five dice totaling five points.
The opponent’s dice came to twelve. The girl had won.
Her lips parted slightly—pale as the rest of her—and she showed no hint of a smile. “I win. The game continues.”
Xu Wanyue slid her ten million in chips forward. After a moment of silence, the second game began. This time, all she could do was pray silently for her inexplicably vanished Luck to return. She lost quickly.
By the third game, her chips were gone. She looked at the girl across from her and mustered a tentative smile. “How about… I go raise the money and come back next time?”
The girl’s eyes lifted, meeting hers with calm indifference. “You can leave when the games are over. Seven more to go.”
Xu Wanyue gritted her teeth.
Though the Alliance rated her Luck as A-Rank, her actual combat prowess was average at best. There was no way she could fight her way out of here. She glanced at the girl again. It felt humiliating to ask, but she lowered her voice anyway. “Isn’t there… any room for negotiation?”
“None,” the girl replied coolly, her gaze fixed on Xu Wanyue’s cheek. “I like your eyes.”
Xu Wanyue froze, ready to laugh it off and strike up a conversation—but the girl continued without pause. “If you can’t pay up later, I’ll take your two eyes for ten million.”
Xu Wanyue’s pupils dilated in shock.
