"Of course."
Viktor casually tossed the cards to He Ao.
He Ao caught them smoothly, and the entire deck landed neatly in his palm.
Even without the enhancement of "martial arts," He Ao's own reflexes were far from poor.
A casino-customized deck manufactured uniformly by a factory looked almost completely identical from the back. Even the most advanced high-resolution Prosthetic Eye would struggle to distinguish every card clearly.
That was what Selina knew. Even she could not tell the differences between the backs of these cards.
He Ao did not know that, but he wanted to try using Hyperthymesia.
The moment he activated Hyperthymesia, the entire world before his eyes changed. Everyone's faces, even the pores on their cheeks, became crystal clear.
This was Hyperthymesia. The moment it activated, the "world" in He Ao's eyes became different. He could clearly see the texture of everything and rapidly imprint it into his mind in distinct categories.
He Ao even suspected that, while using Hyperthymesia, he was not "seeing" with his eyes at all, but viewing his surroundings from a higher perspective and taking everything in at a glance.
But Hyperthymesia had limited duration, and he had no time to study it closely. He looked at the deck in his hand, casually took the top card, and held it beneath the light.
It was a Two of Diamonds. He Ao turned it over several times, carefully examining every detail.
Then he swiftly switched to another card.
He had originally wanted to see whether he could memorize the numbers on the cards by remembering the minute differences between them.
But he discovered something interesting: the patterns on the back of every card were actually subtly different.
These minute differences did not seem to exist within the spectrum of visible light. He Ao could only vaguely sense the variations in the patterns, and those differences could only be seen when facing the card backs directly or viewing them from certain special angles.
He Ao lifted the deck and rapidly went through every card.
Just as he expected, every card had this special "design." His brain swiftly established a connection between those patterns and their corresponding card faces.
This had been a deck that had been "tampered with" from the start. The casino staff should have special tools that allowed them to know the face of a card without flipping it over.
Interesting.
He Ao handed the cards back to Viktor and smiled softly. "No problem."
Viktor checked the deck, confirmed that He Ao had not tampered with it, then handed it to Selina. "Then let the game begin."
He took two steps back. Casino employees on either side brought over two chairs and placed them behind He Ao and Ludo.
Ludo shakily glanced at He Ao, then at the cards in Selina's hands. He seemed to relax a little and slowly sat down.
He Ao also seemed somewhat nervous. He took several deep breaths and slowly calmed himself before sitting down. He placed his hands on the table, then seemed to think that was inappropriate and moved them beneath the table, even stuffing them into his pockets.
Then, beneath everyone's gaze, he took his hands back out of his pockets. His breathing remained tight and hurried, as though he had been nervous the entire time.
Watching He Ao's movements, Ludo gradually calmed down. He Ao might be capable when it came to killing and fighting, but he was still a rookie in a casino. Soon, Ludo would avenge that gunshot from earlier.
"Ander?"
Seeing how nervous He Ao looked, Selina watched him with concern.
"It's fine!" He Ao nodded lightly at her. "It doesn't hurt to try."
Giving up was the same as failing, while gambling still left a chance of victory.
Hearing He Ao's words, Selina took a breath and began dealing to both sides.
Her dealing motions were not professional, but no one present cared about that.
He Ao gambling against Ludo now was really gambling against the casino itself. He was challenging the casino on its own turf.
Most gamblers usually lost money at casinos and had no fondness for them. They loved watching this sort of spectacle. Whether it was professional or not did not matter; seeing the casino get slapped in the face was satisfying enough.
But seeing how nervous He Ao was, they figured he was just a greenhorn, and the spectacle lost its appeal. Ludo might be vicious, but his gambling skills were decent. Rather than watch Ludo crush a rookie here, they might as well go play a few hands themselves.
So some people gradually began to leave.
Selina dealt each of them their first face-down card. He Ao went first, and Ludo went second.
Normally, once gamblers received their hole cards, they would look at them. But He Ao did not. He simply lowered his head, seemingly lost in thought.
Since He Ao did not look, Ludo naturally did not look either. If he did, it would make it seem as if he had been intimidated by a rookie like He Ao.
Besides, he knew what his card was without looking.
Every deck at Crown Casino had been tampered with, and he had long replaced his right eye with a specially made Prosthetic Eye. This Prosthetic Eye was not particularly advanced, but from certain angles, it could capture the special patterns on the backs of the cards and calculate which card each pattern corresponded to.
So all he had to do was lower his head, and he would know that his face-down card was a Diamond 10. By changing his angle slightly, he could also see that He Ao's face-down card was a Club 9.
This was cutting-edge technology from the Nord Financial Consortium. It had operated reliably for years without anyone ever seeing through it, so Ludo had great confidence in it. He Ao could not possibly expose it.
Selina began dealing the second face-down card. He Ao was dealt first again, and through his Prosthetic Eye, Ludo could clearly tell that He Ao's second face-down card was a Spade 2.
At this moment, He Ao still seemed extremely nervous. His breathing remained rapid.
Selina began dealing Ludo his second card.
Ludo stared at Selina's beautiful hands, watching the card they dealt toward him. From his current viewing angle, he could not determine what card it was. Even though he was cheating, he was still a little nervous.
He began trying to shift his line of sight to an angle where he could identify the card.
Just as he was about to see the number on the card, a violent sound came from in front of him.
Ludo instinctively looked straight ahead.
The face-down card landed on the table before him.
Across from him, He Ao seemed to have become overwhelmed by nervousness. He abruptly rose from his seat and slapped the table, producing a violent sound.
"What's wrong, rookie?" Seeing He Ao like this, Ludo was thrilled and could not help taunting him. "Did you realize you're no good, so you're about to kneel and beg for mercy?"
But before he had even finished speaking, a cold black gun barrel was aimed at his forehead.
The smile on his face froze instantly.
"If you die, I could probably 'cheat' my way into winning this game?"
He Ao smiled at Ludo. His breathing gradually steadied, then his left hand swept across the gun's grip as he swiftly removed the magazine and inserted it back in.
"Please be quiet, sir."
He lowered the muzzle and lightly pulled the trigger.
Bang--
A plastic bullet fell toward the table in front of Ludo, grazed his finger, struck his second face-down card, then ricocheted away and skimmed past his cheek.
It was a toy gun.
But even though it was only a plastic bullet, Ludo still felt a faint sting on his cheek and hand.
He glared at He Ao with a livid expression. He knew perfectly well that He Ao had toyed with him using a toy gun, but he did not dare say another word, because he did not know whether He Ao would pull out a real gun next time.
"My first face-up card," He Ao slowly lowered the toy gun in his hand and flipped over the face-down card on his left. "Club 9."
"My apologies," Ludo slowly flipped over his own first face-down card. "Diamond 10."
He grinned at He Ao. "Bigger than yours."
This time, He Ao showed no reaction at all. He only smiled at him.
Before you continue