At this moment, the chips the "Chip Exchange Machine" had won were neatly stacked inside by mechanical arms and sealed behind thick transparent glass.
In that instant, Qin Yao had a few ideas, such as what would happen if she snatched the chips directly from the mechanical arm during a wager.
But she quickly dismissed the thought. Throughout the entire exchange process, she had been firmly locked into her seat and could not reach the chips at all. Besides, the "Promenade" had made it very clear that anyone who broke the rules would inevitably face the punishment of Deduct Visa Time, or even deportation.
Don't court death by crossing the line.
After leaving the small chip exchange booth, Qin Yao felt as though her eyes had lit up and greedily breathed in the fresh air.
Compared to that dark, cramped little booth that left her somewhat short of breath, the area outside was practically heaven.
This place resembled the lounge area of an upscale bar or café. There were spacious sofas, exquisite coffee tables, and an old record player spinning a vinyl record. Its melodious music somehow lent the whole scene an artistic air.
In the most spacious part of the area stood two enormous gambling tables, each with eight seats.
The booths of the Chip Exchange Area, meanwhile, were located around the edge of the entire venue. Their exteriors were dilapidated and crude, with rough, uneven cement walls stained by plenty of grime. They looked completely out of place with the rest of the setting.
At this moment, the doors of the other booths opened one after another.
What surprised Qin Yao was that two familiar faces emerged.
"Sister Jiang He? Aunt Su! We're actually in the same game?"
Qin Yao's delight was obvious, because the people who had emerged from the neighboring booths were acquaintances she had met in Community No. 17: Player No. 2, Jiang He, and Player No. 8, Su Xiucen.
"Yao Yao! I'm so happy to see you!" Jiang He looked delighted as well, even hugging her excitedly.
"But... what's going on here?" Jiang He frowned as she looked toward the only booth whose door had not opened.
Su Xiucen pointed across the room. "Hey, look! There are people over there too!"
Following Su Xiucen's hand, Qin Yao looked toward the other side of the gaming venue and found four Chip Exchange Area booths there as well. Four completely unfamiliar faces emerged from them one after another.
On their side, there were likewise four booths, yet one of them had remained shut the entire time.
"Is there even someone inside? Could they be from our community too? Why haven't they come out?"
Jiang He stepped forward to take a look. The booth door was still tightly locked, and the red indicator meant the internal lock had not been released. Naturally, they could not enter.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
Jiang He lightly knocked on the booth door, but received no response.
Although these booths looked crude, their soundproofing was actually excellent. When everyone had been inside earlier, they had not heard anything from outside at all.
"Could they have died in there...?"
Jiang He's expression changed as the possibility suddenly crossed her mind.
To exchange chips, one had to draw blood. If too much blood was drawn, it was entirely possible to faint—or even die.
Su Xiucen instinctively backed several steps away from the booth.
Qin Yao hurriedly said, "Sister Jiang He, let's not worry about irrelevant things for now. The game isn't over yet.
"Look, the screen says we still have to play at least one game against players from another community before we can leave."
Jiang He looked toward the two multiplayer gambling tables in the center of the venue. On the wall directly in front of them was a large screen clearly displaying the relevant game rules.
[Players of Community No. 3 and Community No. 17, greetings. Welcome to "Blood Poker".] [Players who have finished exchanging their chips may proceed to the automatic gambling tables in the center of the venue to play.] [The game rules remain Simplified Golden Flower. The specific rules differ slightly for multiplayer games. Detailed rules and hand rankings can be found in the instructions on the gambling tables.] [The gambling tables can automatically shuffle, deal, and collect cards according to the rules, helping everyone complete their games with absolute fairness and impartiality.] [Each multiplayer gambling table accommodates two to eight players. At the start of each game, there must be at least one player from another community.] [The default ante for multiplayer gambling tables is 1,000 chips.] [After a game at a gambling table begins, players must complete ten rounds or exhaust all their chips before leaving.] [Violence or any other rule-breaking behavior is strictly prohibited during this game. Violators will face Instant Death Punishment.] [The game duration is 90 minutes.] [At the end of the game, the Promenade will tally each player's chips. After players return to their communities, their chips will be converted into the corresponding amount of Visa Time.] [If a player has not played a game with other players by the end of the game, 10,000 minutes of Visa Time will be deducted.] [Will you be Full of Pots, or Lose All Capital?] [The game has begun. Good luck!]
A countdown had already appeared on the large screen. The time remaining was 1:25:33, which meant that the time spent in the Chip Exchange Area had also been included in the ninety minutes.
The scarlet numbers kept ticking down. Though the ticking sound was not loud, it created an overwhelming sense of urgency.
Jiang He instantly realized something and asked, "Yao Yao, Aunt Su, how many chips do you have left? I have 19,000."
Qin Yao counted the chips in her hands. "18,000."
Su Xiucen gripped her chips tightly. "Me too. 18,000."
Clearly, this Visa Time was extremely precious to Su Xiucen.
She only had sixteen days of Visa Time remaining. If she could take these chips out with her when she left, her remaining Visa Time could double.
"You both exchanged 200 milliliters of blood too, right? And... you called?" Jiang He asked.
Qin Yao and Su Xiucen looked at each other, then nodded.
Since everyone had gone through the same process when gambling against the Chip Exchange Machine, it was easy to infer what had happened from the number of chips they had left.
The 1,000 fewer chips Qin Yao and Su Xiucen had compared to Jiang He were clearly the losses from calling twice to see their cards.
Jiang He sighed. "How could you call? That kind of wishful thinking is no good.
"This game is obviously unfair. The right choice was to run without hesitation.
"A little curiosity or refusal to accept it, and you lose 500 for real.
"But that loss is still bearable. Surely no one would be stupid enough to raise or keep gambling under those circumstances, right?"
After saying that, she glanced at the booth that still had not opened, unsure what had happened inside.
Su Xiucen sighed. "I understand. I'll take this money as the price of a lesson..."
As someone who lived frugally, losing a thousand for no reason made her heart ache.
Qin Yao was not as upset. She only felt that the game rules were unfair. "The Chip Exchange Machine could obviously have just robbed us directly, yet it put on a show and played two rounds with us."
Given the current odds of winning and losing, gambling against the Chip Exchange Machine was absolutely the worst possible choice.
Because the Chip Exchange Machine drew one extra card, its chances of forming a better hand increased dramatically, giving it an overwhelming advantage in Simplified Golden Flower.
"What do we do now? Do we gamble with those people?" Su Xiucen was at a loss.
Qin Yao thought for a moment and said, "We probably still have to gamble, right?
"If we don't, they'll directly deduct 10,000 minutes of Visa Time. But if we do gamble, even if we lose the ante in all ten rounds, it's only 10,000.
"As long as we get a fairly strong hand in any one round during that time, we can win back quite a lot."
Jiang He shook her head slightly. "It's not that simple.
"The situation at the table changes in an instant. How can you be sure that what you get is actually a 'fairly strong hand'?
"There's a situation called a bad beat. That is, you get a pretty good hand, but someone else happens to have an even better one.
"If you confidently raise in that situation, you'll only end up being wiped out in one bite. Then your losses probably won't stop at 10,000—you'll Lose All Capital."
Qin Yao had some doubts. "But that's still a low-probability event, isn't it? If we keep folding because we're afraid of that, won't we never be able to win?"
Jiang He thought seriously for a moment. "I think we still need to sit at the table, but we don't necessarily have to gamble entirely according to the game's rules.
"This game actually has a Perfect Solution."
Before you continue