Luck and Courage

Though she was certain he wouldn't act rashly, Ling Chu's body instinctively tensed the moment she saw Karl Claude draw his gun.

Karl Claude loaded a single bullet into one of the revolver's six chambers, then spun the cylinder. After a metallic scraping sound, no one knew which chamber held the bullet.

Ling Chu watched his movements and understood: "Russian Roulette?"

She hadn't eaten pork, but she'd seen pigs run.

She'd seen this game in plenty of Western films and shows—formally called Russian Roulette, but really just gambling with life. This revolver had six chambers; load one bullet, spin the cylinder, and two people betting their lives took turns aiming at their own heads, pulling the trigger until one died or surrendered.

Since the cylinder spun randomly, in theory each person's chance of death was perfectly equal. It was a raw, savage kind of "fairness"—stripping away skill, strength, and every other factor, testing only pure luck and nerve.

And the horror of this game went far beyond death itself. The agonizing psychological torment before each trigger pull, the helplessness against random fate, and the pressure of watching your opponent and yourself brush past the Death God in turn—that was its cruelest part.

Ling Chu couldn't figure out why he wanted to play this with her.

The big boss of the casino and captain of the ship, betting his life against a nobody like her over a few hundred chips.

Either he was an arrogant, overconfident fool, or he had some trump card guaranteeing a hundred percent win.

From their rounds at the blackjack table, she didn't think he was the former. So what was his trump card? What made him so sure he'd win?

She asked him calmly, "Isn't it a bit much to stake your life for these chips?"

"Don't you find blackjack too long and dull, miss? I feel the same way. This kind of gamble is much more exciting," Karl Claude said with a smile. "And these chips aren't insignificant. You still have over thirty thousand Sea Shells' worth on you. On certain Lawless Islands, five thousand Sea Shells is enough to buy a life."

"If I die, you don't need to worry about my men causing you trouble. A bet is a bet—that's the rule of our Golden Finger Gambling Ship. If you beat me, you become the new captain of the Golden Finger. How about that? Doesn't sound like a bad deal, does it?"

"Care to take the bet?"

Before Ling Chu could answer, Karl Claude had already picked up the revolver. "To show good faith, I'll go first."

He raised the gun to his temple without hesitation, curled his finger, and pulled the trigger.

A crisp click.

The sound of the firing pin hitting empty—nothing happened.

Karl Claude smiled and handed the gun to her. "Your turn."

Ling Chu stared at the gun in silence.

"If you don't dare to bet, just admit defeat. Leave all the chips you won today and that bow, and you'll at least keep your life. Learn your lesson—Sea Shells aren't that easy to earn, miss."

Karl Claude seemed utterly confident she wouldn't play this game.

He'd seen her type before—a newborn calf unafraid of tigers. In casinos, it was often these newbies who got favored by the Goddess of Luck. But when it came to a real life-or-death gamble, they'd all piss themselves in terror.

Ling Chu looked at the revolver on the table, and the unease in her gut deepened.

She flicked open her Eyepatch to scan the gun. Normally she kept it closed—otherwise, on the ship, she'd see a bunch of skeletons with data panels floating around her. She only opened it when needed.

[Karl Claude's Special Revolver] [Quality: Unique] [After loading one bullet, no matter how the cylinder is spun, the bullet will always fire on the last shot.]

Ling Chu froze, her face betraying nothing, but inside she was cursing Karl Claude's ancestors up and down, digging up their graves and flipping them over.

No wonder he was so confident—he was cheating, that old bastard!

Karl Claude signaled the Dealer to pour him a drink, inwardly certain Ling Chu wouldn't dare pull the trigger. Even if she did, he'd still win for sure.

Then Ling Chu suddenly moved. She grabbed the gun from the table, aimed it at her own forehead, and pulled the trigger in rapid succession.

Click, click, click, click—

Four hollow sounds of the firing pin hitting air.

Karl Claude looked up in shock. Ling Chu pushed the revolver—now with only one bullet left—back to him, a faint smile on her lips.

"Looks like I win this round."

The ash on Karl Claude's cigar was nearly burning his fingers. The heat jolted him back to reality.

Ever since he'd modified this revolver, he'd never lost at Russian Roulette.

He usually let the other person go first. They'd often fire just one shot, then he'd empty four blanks, leaving the last bullet for them. Sometimes, when he met someone too scared to shoot, he'd fire one shot "in good faith" first, then hand it over. They'd usually fire one shot and give it back, and he'd still empty the remaining three blanks. Either way, he won.

This was the first time he'd met someone daring enough to fire four shots in a row.

"Little Girl's got some nerve, huh? Going all in like that?"

Interest flickered in Karl Claude's eyes.

"After playing these rounds with you, I've learned one lesson," Ling Chu said meaningfully. "Never leave your fate in someone else's hands."

Karl Claude made no comment. He reached out, picked up the revolver from the table, and stared unblinkingly at Ling Chu as he pressed the muzzle to his own forehead. With a smile, he pulled the trigger.

BANG!

This time, the sound wasn't the hollow click of an empty chamber—it was the roar of a real shot.

The instant the bullet fired, Karl Claude's body dissolved into wisps of black shadow, then coalesced back into its original form a moment later.

The bullet struck the wall behind him, leaving a scorched black hole.

Ling Chu watched his body turn into intangible black smoke and reform, unmistakable shock flashing in her eyes.

Anyone who can captain a ship must have a hidden trump card.

She felt a trace of relief that she hadn't impulsively moved against him; otherwise, she would surely have ended up in a miserable state.

"I concede. You can take everything you've won today, plus double the four hundred and twenty chips. On top of that, I'll personally top up your chips to a thousand—this is a reward for the brave."

Karl Claude said generously.

Though he disliked seeing others take money from his casino, and though he cheated, Karl Claude was still a man of his word when it came to what he said.

"But miss, do you have something on you that boosts luck? Would you be willing to sell it? I'd pay a high price for it."

If you can't find the book by its title, try searching by the author—maybe it's just been renamed!