WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
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◈ A Gacha Addict's Life in Fusionpunk ◈
Chapter 75: The Unbearable Lightness of Regression (4)
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1.
The Golden Lotus Casino, a luxurious C Sector gambling hall run by Gold Carp Family Red Pole[1] Li Cheng.
In the native pronunciation, it was Jinlian Duchang.
It was not smallpox, so mind your pronunciation.
Anyway.
Night Blossom Garden had mahjong parlors and small gambling dens, but the Gold Carp Family handled casino operations for Overnus Pharmaceuticals.
This place was on a different level.
You saw them checking the dress code outside, right?
Its main customers were regular employees of Twilight Resource Development, influential Overnus Pharmaceuticals members, high-ranked fixers, and unlicensed doctors.
Basically, people who looked like they smelled of money.
You could not even play for five minutes here with pocket change.
That was why the interior looked so lavish, like something from a Hong Kong movie.
Why C Sector’s finest prostitutes prowled around, eyes peeled for suckers.
Why the hazy smoke came from premium cigars instead of cheap cigarettes.
Standing amid such refined decadence and corruption...
Old memories came flooding back.
When I was making a killing off crypto and futures trading, I did not have a home.
I spent my days doing whatever I wanted, hopping from hotel to hotel across the world.
I spent the most time in casinos in Las Vegas, Macau, Monaco, Manila, and the like.
When I had either made a fortune or lost one, and my brain was burning hot.
They were beautiful memories, places where I could kill time without a thought.
The decor and games might have been different.
But every casino had much the same atmosphere.
Air thick and sticky with simmering desire.
And above all...
Clink, clink.
The most frivolous and beautiful sound in the world, chips rubbing together.
“Mmm... Mamma mia...!”
What should I do?
I already wanted to go all in.
“Focus!!!”
I pulled myself together.
It really was the home my heart had longed for.
But I was not here to play today.
Sure, there was a tiny bit of personal desire mixed in.
But my goal was to turn 25 million Bios into 125 million Bios, a fivefold increase.
If things went well, I needed to win 150 million Bios so I could repay Brother Yiming.
First, I leisurely walked around the casino to get a feel for the place.
There were six floors in total.
The sixth floor was for guest rooms, while the fifth held private tables exclusively for VIPs, so they were off limits.
The fourth floor was effectively the highest level of tables I could play at.
As I looked around, I found all sorts of games I had never even seen at the Aden casino.
Sic Bo, where you rolled three dice and bet on the result.
Fish Prawn Crab, a betting game played with picture dice that I had only occasionally seen in Macau or Hong Kong underground gambling houses.
Fan-Tan, where the dealer grabbed a handful of buttons, removed them four at a time, and players guessed how many remained.
Fortunately, there were familiar card games like Hold’em and blackjack too.
I had finished scouting the place, more or less. Now came the time to choose a game.
“Let’s see.”
Everything looked fun, but the game I needed to choose was already decided.
First, not a game against the dealer.
Every game leaned ever so slightly in the casino’s favor.
In technical terms, the house edge, or shit.
It might not look like much of a bias, but if you played enough hands, that shit would kill you eventually.
In other words, I needed a PvP game where the casino only collected a fee.
A game where mind games mattered more than probability.
That meant... naturally, Hold’em.
“Ha... Fuck, I’ve barely played Hold’em.”
It was also the kind of game I hated most.
Why use my brain when I came here to have fun?
I just wanted to entrust myself to chance and enjoy the thrill.
Still, what choice did I have?
“Whatever. I’ll give it a shot.”
After looking around the fourth-floor tables, I slipped into an open seat at a Hold’em table.
“Excuse me!”
Five players were already seated.
A fixer in a leather coat.
A gorgeous lady in a cheongsam.
An elderly player with dull eyes.
An irritable-looking suited player.
And a middle-aged man wearing loads of gold rings.
“Well then, let’s get this done quickly. Please change this into chips.”
When I set a bag of gold coins on the table, the dealer exchanged them for chips.
Even though I had exchanged 25 million Bios, nobody batted an eye.
Then again, this was a high-roller table with blinds of 50,000/100,000.
The most expensive table in the establishment.
Everyone had an enormous pile of chips in front of them.
Their probing gazes swept over me.
The elderly player was the first to speak.
“Never seen your face before.”
“That’s right. It’s my first time playing in waters this deep.”
The moment they heard it was my first time, the atmosphere softened.
Everyone looked like they wanted to coddle me.
“Know the rules?”
“I can read the hand rankings.”
“Oh my, what a cute young master. It’s not complicated, so take your time.”
“Yes! I’ll enjoy myself politely, miss!”
It had been a while since I had received such a warm welcome.
Newbies were always welcome in this world.
Their flesh was tender, with plenty to tear off and eat.
After neatly arranging the chips I had received from the dealer, I said, “Vodka martini. Shaken, not stirred.”
I lit a cigarette and ordered from a passing waitress.
“I’ll have the same.”
When I looked at her in surprise, the woman gave me a light wink.
A red cheongsam clung tightly to her body, with a dragon tattoo peeking out below her collarbone.
I had thought she looked a little intense, but she was not some successful courtesan. She was a Red Dragon Family member.
Trying to fleece a sucker with some pathetic flirting.
Fat chance!
“Put the lady’s drink on my tab.”
“Oh, thank you.”
“My pleasure, lady.”
Still, she was pretty.
2.
“Call.”
“Check.”
The rules of Hold’em? Nothing complicated.
Five community cards on the table and two hole cards in my hand.
You combined them to make the better hand. That was all.
There were four betting rounds.
Once when you received your hole cards, the pre-flop.
Once when three community cards came out, the flop.
Once when the next card came out, the turn.
And once when the final card was revealed, the river.
Each time, you decided whether to put in more money or tuck your tail and run.
“Fold.”
I took a quick look at my cards and threw them away without hesitation.
“Young man, did you come here just to fold?”
“I’m scared.”
“Hoho, you’ve still got plenty of money. What are you so afraid of? How many times have you folded already?”
“What’s wrong with that? He’s cute.”
You could ignore an old-timer’s words.
You were going to die soon anyway, so it was fine for you. But if I lost this money, my bright fucking future was screwed!!!
My bankroll was limited.
At the start, it was important to feel things out and read the flow.
Each player’s tendencies, their betting patterns.
And most importantly, I needed to size up the pots at this table.
“Raise, 300,000.”
“Coming in strong, huh? I’ll fold.”
“Ah, fuck. Trash hand.”
“I’m folding too.”
“I fold.”
That hand ended after only a few chips clattered around.
“Much appreciated.”
The fixer took the million Bios in the pot.
That was a small pot.
Perhaps everyone was cautious, because seventy percent of the games ended this way.
Next...
“Raise.”
“I’ll call.”
“My hand isn’t bad either.”
“Fold.”
Because it was no-limit Hold’em, a little back-and-forth betting made the pot balloon in an instant.
“Oh dear, I’m so sorry.”
This time, the suited player paid the dealer’s fee, then happily raked in the chips.
The total was 4.5 million Bios.
That was a middle pot.
These bastards were insane.
While people in E Sector were eating cockroach cubes, these guys were doing this here?
The scale really was different.
But it was about time for me to get involved.
I had just been sitting here, yet 500,000 Bios had already melted away.
It was a waste to lose money, but more than that, I was getting too restless to bear it.
I received my cards and checked them.
Clatter.
“Raise, 500,000.”
I pushed chips over the betting line.
“Oh, young master. Were you getting bored just sitting there?”
“After watching such a fine match, my heart started burning.”
“Good thinking. Gambling means betting money and losing money.”
The middle-aged man with the gold rings grinned.
“Since the newcomer raised, I’ll take it easy on you. Call.”
“I’ll call too.”
“I fold.”
Even without anyone aggressively raising the stakes, the pot reached 3 million.
The dealer turned over the cards.
Another betting round.
“Raise, 500,000.”
“Come on, how good could the cowardly young master’s hand be? Still, I’ll call. It’s your initiation.”
Those meant to die folded, and those meant to live remained.
It became a three-way match between me, the fat man with the gold rings, and the suited player.
“Think that’s enough to scratch the itch? One million more.”
The man with the gold rings grinned and raised the stakes as if he had been waiting for it.
“You said you’d take it easy. You’re going to kill someone.”
The suited player gave a bitter smile and folded.
“...Hmm.”
I looked at the cards on the table, then at the bastard’s fishy grin.
That pig had been throwing his money around to crush people all game, hadn’t he?
This showdown was worth taking.
“Call.”
The pot was 5 million.
In the quiet stillness, the sound of my heart pounded in my ears.
The dealer laid out the fourth card.
It did not affect the state of the game.
The fat man tilted his head, then tapped the table.
“Check.”
“Check.”
The fifth and final card came out. It did not seem to change anything either.
Time to reveal our hole cards.
“Check. Let’s see your cock, young master.”
The fat man showed his hand first.
K♦, K♠
Pocket kings. A completed hand regardless of the community cards.
“...”
Q♥, Q♣
Meanwhile, I had pocket queens.
I was fucked.
“Then I’ll gladly take these?”
The fat man spread both arms and swept all the chips from the middle of the table toward himself.
Rattle, rattle.
The sound of my chips getting sucked into someone else’s territory.
Bye-bye, my 2 million Bios.
I lit a fresh cigarette and put it in my mouth.
“Oh, what a shame. You finally worked up the courage to join in. Hahahaha!!!”
“...”
My insides boiled.
It was a feeling I had forgotten for a very long time.
The rage that made me want to get up and smash a chair into his face.
The lingering regret that things might have been different if my hand had just been one notch higher.
The emptiness of watching someone else swallow my hard-earned money whole.
Right.
This was what the world of competition was like.
Fucking awful, fucking irritating, infuriating, gut-wrenching, and full of FOMO.
I had returned.
To the battlefield I had forgotten for so long.
Right into its heart.
“Raise, 1 million.”
I bet money.
“Fuck!!! My money!!!”
I lost money.
“Oh dear!!! You lost all the money you won earlier? I’m so fucking sorry about that!! Buurrp!!”
I won money.
Cigarette ash piled up.
No matter how many ridiculously expensive martinis I drank, instead of getting drunk, my mind only grew clearer.
My eyes became bloodshot, and my brain melted into mush.
“Raaaaise!!!!!! 5 million!!!!”
“Fuck... You play like such an asshole...”
“Kihyaow!!!!”
A wave of thrills where heaven and hell changed every second.
The misery of a loser whose guts felt like they had melted into sludge.
And the joy of victory, something that could not be traded for anything.
At this moment, I could forget everything.
That fucking Premium Route.
Life in the hell that was Necropolis.
Even that little back of a head.
“Whew...”
Twelve heated hours passed.
Only silence hung over the table after the fierce battle had swept through it.
The fat man and the suited player, who had acted so arrogantly, stared blankly into space with expressions like their souls had been stripped bare.
“Mmm, yummy.”
And in front of me stood a pile of chips stacked like a fortress wall.
Starting capital: 25 million Bios.
Today’s net profit: 53 million Bios.
Total: 78 million Bios.
It fell slightly short of my target of 125 million, but it was more than enough for one day’s pay.
An amount I could never have saved through honest work.
“Cash out. I had a wonderful time.”
I rolled my stiff neck and stood from my seat.
With a flick of my fingertips, I sent a chip to the dealer.
“Young master, you won a lot. Want to buy me another drink?”
A seductive scent drifted over from beside me.
The Red Dragon Family lady in the red cheongsam.
I did not know whether she was staff or someone important, but she was looking at me with a gaze gleaming with curiosity and interest.
Had she fallen for my animal magnetism?
“I don’t drink outside.”
“Then should we get a room upstairs?”
The Red Dragon Family lady licked her lips and smiled, even after I turned her down once.
A little casino knowledge here.
Why were there so many call girls in casinos?
The excitement of gambling was like a cheap aphrodisiac.
Dopamine and adrenaline flooded the brain until the woman beside you looked ten times more like a delicious prize.
She was probably tossing out such obvious flirtation because that was what she was after.
And because she hoped to get a little extra out of it.
“Ha, you’ve got some nerve.”
Did I look like someone who would fall for such a shallow trick?
“A room for one night.”
“That will be 200,000 Bios.”
“Please send some alcohol up too. Room service is available, right?”
She had judged me perfectly.
Ah, I had finally made it back.
To where I belonged.
To my life.
To my original resolve.
Footnotes:
[1] Red Pole: a high-ranking triad enforcer, traditionally responsible for fighting.
“Jinlian Duchang” is the native pronunciation of Golden Lotus Casino. The Korean wording jokes that it should not be confused with the Korean word for smallpox.
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