High-Stakes Gamble

"Gulp."

Lu Mingxuan swallowed hard in shock.

So far, the total bets placed by the three of them in this round had already exceeded the sum of all the previous games.

Chips were piled high on the table. At a rough glance, there had to be at least sixty thousand.

What shocked Lu Mingxuan even more was that since the start of this game, Lin Sizhi had thrown in nearly seventy thousand chips in total.

He had been carrying those chips on him from the very beginning.

Where had he gotten so many chips?

Even more terrifyingly, the game still was not over. The three of them had already thrown far too many chips onto the table. Under such circumstances, no one would fold before seeing the cards.

If they did not see the outcome, they probably would not be able to die in peace.

Time passed second by second.

Looking at the chips before her, Lu Xinyi pushed out a stack of two-thousand-point chips in the final second of the countdown.

"Raise. Twenty thousand!"

By now, the mountain of chips in front of Lu Xinyi had nearly been emptied.

Earlier, Lu Xinyi had obtained thirty-six thousand points' worth of chips by drawing blood. She had won another thirty-two thousand from her game against Jiang He and the others, then around thirteen thousand more during her match against Lin Sizhi.

But in this round, she had already put in forty-three thousand points.

Lu Mingxuan was a little worried. He had folded this round, so there was nothing he could do to help.

Still, judging by Lu Xinyi's expression, she had not lost her mind.

She had raised by twenty thousand because she had determined that this was the upper limit of Lin Sizhi's chip pool.

Even if he had risked his life drawing blood, and had been extremely lucky enough to win two or three rounds at the Chip Exchange Machine, he could not have obtained more than this.

At this point, if Lin Sizhi had fewer than twenty thousand chips left, they would reveal their cards.

If he had more than twenty thousand left, then something beyond reason had happened, and she would have to consider cutting her losses by folding.

Lu Mingxuan turned to look at Lin Sizhi, and his heart abruptly sank.

Because Lin Sizhi really did pull out another twenty thousand points' worth of chips from his pocket.

Not only him—Qin Yao also pulled out twenty thousand from her pocket.

"Raise."

"Raise."

It was as if all the strength had instantly drained from Lu Xinyi's body. She froze completely.

She looked at her remaining chips. There were only thirty-eight thousand points left.

Lu Mingxuan opened his mouth, but stopped himself before speaking.

If it were him, he would keep raising at this point. They had already thrown in over sixty thousand chips; there was no reason to stop now.

Yet in the final second of the countdown, Lu Xinyi squeezed out two words through clenched teeth.

"Fold."

Lin Sizhi looked somewhat surprised. "Oh?"

He smiled. "Not bad. A rational choice."

He pulled another two-thousand-point chip from his pocket. "Raise."

Lu Xinyi turned to stare at Qin Yao.

Because she knew that after she folded, Qin Yao had no reason to keep raising. As long as Qin Yao chose to call, they would have to reveal their cards.

Then she would be able to see exactly what Lin Sizhi was holding.

Even if she really had been bluffed by a weak hand, at least she would lose without complaint.

And Qin Yao would definitely call, because the chips on the table had already piled into a mountain, exceeding one hundred thousand!

Whoever won would take all the chips.

During the game with Jiang He, Lu Xinyi had learned that Community No. 17 was unlike them. It did not have a tightly organized structure. They called it cooperation, but in reality, everyone fought for themselves.

So when faced with over one hundred thousand chips, there was a high chance Qin Yao would choose to reveal the cards and take the gamble.

Yet Qin Yao simply tossed her hand onto the table.

"Fold."

"Clatter, clatter."

The mechanical arm moved, sweeping the mountain of chips over to Lin Sizhi.

Lu Xinyi's heart sank completely. Her plan to see the hole cards had fallen through as well.

The mechanical arm collected all the playing cards and threw them into the recovery slot within the gambling table. Then it took out a new deck and resumed the process of shuffling and dealing.

Lu Mingxuan looked at the chips in front of him.

Because he had not taken part in the godlike battle of the previous round, most of his chips had been preserved. He still had over forty thousand now.

He was beginning to understand why Lu Xinyi had folded.

Because if Lu Xinyi had not folded and had instead pushed in her remaining thirty-eight thousand points, then once she lost, her chips would immediately be wiped out and she would be forced to leave.

With only Lu Mingxuan left, their odds of winning the remaining two rounds would drop drastically. They could only lose their ante and leave.

By keeping her final thirty-eight thousand points' worth of chips, Lu Xinyi could still coordinate with Lu Mingxuan if she got a strong hand, maximizing their chance to recover.

After all, at the gambling table, heaven and hell were separated by a single thought.

There was another reason as well: Lu Xinyi had judged that Qin Yao would definitely call and reveal her cards.

So even if Lu Xinyi folded, she would still get to see what hand Lin Sizhi had.

It was just that Lu Xinyi had not expected Qin Yao to give up on those hundred thousand chips so decisively that they did not even get to see Lin Sizhi's hand.

It was hard to say whether that decision was right or wrong, because Lin Sizhi really might have been holding an extremely strong hand.

Lu Mingxuan looked at Lu Xinyi. She had lowered her head, and he had no idea what she was thinking.

Then he looked at Lin Sizhi. Even after winning so many chips, Lin Sizhi showed no particular expression. He had not even stacked them like the others, simply letting them lie in a messy heap before him.

"There are still two rounds left. We still have a chance to win it back," Lu Mingxuan comforted her.

The mechanical arm had already finished dealing, but Lin Sizhi did not look at his cards.

He glanced at the countdown on the large screen. "It seems you still haven't figured out the situation.

"The most important thing for you right now is not thinking about how to win, but figuring out how to hand over the rest of your chips to us sooner."

Lu Mingxuan's eye twitched. "There's no point in talking trash."

Lin Sizhi shook his head. "No, this isn't trash talk. It's a reminder.

"Lu Xinyi, if you really are smart, then you should know what I mean by now.

"Of course, if you're idiots, I don't mind wasting more time with you."

Lu Xinyi slowly raised her head, her gaze becoming even more confused.

She had already had many questions she could not make sense of, and after hearing Lin Sizhi's "trash talk," she was even more baffled.

"Raise."

Lin Sizhi was the dealer. This time, he waited until the countdown was nearly over before slowly tossing out a one-thousand-point chip.

Suddenly, Lu Xinyi seemed to think of something. Her gaze passed over Lin Sizhi and landed on the rest area for the Community No. 17 players, where Jiang He and Su Xiucen had originally been sitting on the sofa.

Yet at some point, the two of them had disappeared.

At that moment, all the questions Lu Xinyi could not understand connected in an instant, thundering through her mind!

The game was not over, and Jiang He and Su Xiucen had nowhere else to go. The only explanation was that they had entered the booths in the Chip Exchange Area again.

Where had Lin Sizhi and Qin Yao gotten their chips?

They could only have won them from the Chip Exchange Machine.

Qin Yao had originally been left with only eight thousand chips, yet in this game, she seemed to have nearly unlimited chips just like Lin Sizhi. The only explanation was that during the dozen or so minutes between the two games, she had entered the Chip Exchange Area again.

The question that had been troubling Lu Xinyi finally had an answer.

"There's something wrong with the Chip Exchange Machine!

"Lin Sizhi found some kind of loophole in the Chip Exchange Machine, which is how he got so, so many chips!"

Lu Xinyi hurriedly looked at the large screen. The countdown showed seventeen minutes remaining.

"So much time has passed already!"

Lu Xinyi was shocked, because before this game began, there had still been forty-six minutes left.

At the normal pace of a six-player game, it could end in around fifteen minutes.

But now, nearly half an hour had passed, and the gambling match had only reached the eighth round.

This was not only because the high-stakes gamble in the previous round had involved repeated consideration and repeated raises, consuming a great deal of time. It was also because Lin Sizhi had deliberately dragged things out from beginning to end.

Thinking back on it, every time it had been his turn, he had almost always used up the entire minute of thinking time. That had greatly increased the duration of this game.

"Was this part of your plan too?" Lu Xinyi's heart sank.

Originally, she had planned to spend the final half hour studying the Chip Exchange Machine, but now only fifteen minutes remained.

Qin Yao had already chosen to raise, still adding only one thousand on top of Lin Sizhi's bet.

Lu Xinyi immediately said, "Fold!"

She turned to Lu Mingxuan again. "You fold too!"

Lu Mingxuan froze for a moment. He had a pair, so his hand was fairly decent.

But Lu Xinyi's attitude was firm. "Fold. Now."

Lu Mingxuan did not understand why, but he still chose to fold.

Lu Xinyi then waved at the other two Community No. 3 players sitting in the rest area.

"There might be a loophole in the Chip Exchange Machine that can get you a huge number of chips. Go try it immediately!"

The two were somewhat shocked, but they did not ask any questions. They quickly entered the booths.

Lu Xinyi looked at the large screen again, her mind racing.

"If this goes smoothly, we can end the gambling match within a minute and still have fifteen minutes to find the Chip Exchange Machine's loophole..."

She had already guessed roughly what that loophole was.

Since the odds of winning were not high, there was only one possibility for consistently obtaining a large number of chips from the Chip Exchange Machine.

That was when she got a strong hand, she could use some method to earn chips without limit.

Ten minutes—no, if she was lucky, five minutes would be enough to multiply the chips in her hand several times over.

Yet when the one-minute countdown at the table ended, Lin Sizhi leisurely picked up another two-thousand-point chip and placed it in the betting area.

"Raise."

"You..." Lu Xinyi froze.

She suddenly realized that they were back to the original problem: as long as Lin Sizhi and Qin Yao kept slowly raising like this, they could burn through all the remaining time.

If Lu Xinyi had really pushed all her chips in during the previous round and lost, then she would be free right now.

She could go to the Chip Exchange Machine, sell two hundred milliliters of blood, and use the loophole she already knew about to earn another huge batch of chips.

But now, the thirty thousand-plus chips she had left had instead become an obstacle holding her back.

Because the game rules stated clearly: after a multiplayer gambling table began, players could only leave after completing ten games or running out of chips.

Lin Sizhi glanced at the countdown on the large screen. "There isn't much time left. Shall we discuss the ransom?"