Zero Points

Black Widow smiled. "It's a basic skill in our line of work. Nick Fury and Hill can both do it, and they're pretty good."

Apocalypse looked at them. Nick Fury and Hill nodded.

Hill said, "In our line of work, a lot of our clients frequent places like this. You could call it required training."

The manager strained to listen. What line of work was Hill talking about?

His first instinct was to assume these beautiful women were escorts who traded on their looks.

But Hill, Black Widow, and Daisy carried themselves with too much authority. Any one of them had a presence to rival his boss's. They didn't look like women selling themselves.

Apocalypse said, "That makes things easier."

Easier for Apocalypse, perhaps. The manager was close to tears.

At every coin-operated machine, Apocalypse put in one coin and won the top prize.

Then he quietly contemplated something for a while before putting in a second, largely useless coin.

By the time he had spent all thirty-four coins, the chips on the golden tray were worth several million.

The second coins had hardly won anything, but the win rate and payouts still left the manager dripping with cold sweat.

This was absolutely not normal.

Yet he couldn't see what was wrong.

With dice or cards, skill came into play, and an expert had plenty of room to maneuver.

But putting coins into a machine was pure probability. Gambling skill was useless.

The casino had been open a long time. It wasn't as though they had never encountered gambling masters.

When they couldn't deal with one at the table, they usually found a way to deal with them away from it.

But someone who came in and gambled against the machines' odds, then took them for millions? Nothing like that