Chapter 130: Lost the Monster Cards, There Are Still Magic Game Cards

Maintaining a high level of vigilance toward this person, Jier signaled that they could begin.

Although his expression gave nothing away, Jier's attention was actually fixed entirely on the other party. Under Jier's gaze, this casino Shop Assistant, who had an expressionless face and very ordinary features, skillfully drew a new stack of Monster Cards from the side of the table.

Without shuffling, he took the top half of the Monster Cards in front of everyone, then placed the cards on a tray for those around to inspect.

Jier went first; he flipped through the cards in his hand and discovered that the point values in this half were relatively high, but the cards were fairly uniform, so there was nothing unusual.

The others could not see any issues with the cards either, and after a round, they returned to the hands of the casino Shop Assistant.

"The cards are fine, you may shuffle and deal," Jier said, raising his hand to signal.

The casino Shop Assistant nodded and began to shuffle. His movements were extremely fluid, yet sharp, fast, and clever, leaving onlookers dazzled. Many of the spectators began to offer praise.

However, some old gamblers who frequented this casino looked closely at the Shop Assistant, yet they could not recall ever seeing this person in the casino before.

If a casino Shop Assistant possessed such impressive skills, they should have had some impression of him.

Although these people were not whispering loudly, both Jier and the casino Shop Assistant had sharp ears and clearly heard them. Jier's mouth curled up as he looked at the other party suspiciously, while the casino Shop Assistant frowned imperceptibly.

There was no helping it; the situation was not going as smoothly as he had anticipated, so he had no choice but to step in personally.

Not only were the clothes on his body ill-fitting, but the exquisite mask on his face had to be one commonly used for work.

Swish, swish, swish—the cards changed patterns and were shuffled like flowing water in the casino Shop Assistant's hands. Soon, a stack of cards that no one could be sure about was shuffled.

The casino Shop Assistant flicked his fingers, sliding the cards across the table toward Jier and himself.

Twenty-five Monster Cards were dealt to each person in no time. Jier picked up his cards and saw that, unexpectedly, they were all quite good.

This made him frown, because his goal was to lose; if his cards were too good, how could he lose?

Was he really going to win this round?

"Who goes first?" Jier asked.

"My lord, please, you go first." The other party did not miss any opportunity to let Jier lead.

Thinking that he would likely win when he wanted to lose, Jier casually played a Monster Card of appropriate size: "Killer Poison Vine!"

【Killer Poison Vine】, 10 combat points, is a bloodthirsty plant common in the forests of hot, high-precipitation regions. The entire plant is poisonous, and its vines are active; people walking slowly through the forest are particularly prone to being accidentally surrounded by this thing, then poisoned until they collapse and die.

After the person dies, these poison vines will slowly pull their own large, equally active root systems out of the soil and move onto the corpses of the humans and large animals they have poisoned to obtain nutrients.

Scholars have measured the size of this 【Killer Poison Vine】 and found that although it looks unremarkable, some varieties can actually grow to hundreds of meters in length; an area as large as a stadium from a past life could be within the control range of a single poison vine.

It is considered the largest plant in the vast majority of forests.

The casino Shop Assistant picked up his cards, took a look, and said, "I fold this round. My lord, please continue."

Jier pursed his lips, flipped over the 【Killer Poison Vine】 he had just played, and tossed it into the middle of the table.

It was still his turn to play.

Jier deliberately chose the card with the lowest combat power in his hand: "Nail-Hair Beast!"

The 【Nail-Hair Beast】 is a peculiar monster that lives in open forests and hills. It resembles a wild boar but is larger, with adults often weighing over a ton. Its body is covered in hair that is as hard as metal, and these hairs can be projected by squeezing its skin, making it a very troublesome monster. Fortunately, this monster requires a vast living environment and competes severely with humans for land; in most cases, on newly developed land, these monsters are the first to be cleared out. Later, the arriving populace often only sees monster specimens hanging on walls and rarely encounters a living 【Nail-Hair Beast】.

However, some monster scholars have discovered that some tribes of goblins have a cooperative relationship with the 【Nail-Hair Beast】. They will raise or provide for the 【Nail-Hair Beast】 in normal times, and this spike-covered monster will protect the goblins under their shelter when other monsters or beasts appear.

It is very hard to deal with.

This monster card only had six combat points, which was already the weakest card in Jier's hand.

But clearly, the person disguised as a casino Shop Assistant had used tricks during the previous shuffling or dealing, otherwise, it was unlikely that all the cards in Jier's hand would have such high combat power.

"My lord, I play 【Horned Python】, 3 combat points. You win this round."

The casino Shop Assistant smiled and played a common 【Horned Python】 Monster Card. Facing this method of deliberately not trying to win, but rather letting the other party win, Jier couldn't keep a straight face for a moment. Because according to the rules, whoever plays all their cards first wins, and that was where the problem lay.

If one party deliberately wants to lose, the game cannot continue.

Jier realized this and pushed his cards away: "No, no, this can't be played. If you deliberately let me win, and my cards have higher combat power, then I'm bound to win, right? This round doesn't count; let's even switch to a different gambling game."

"My lord, that is fine, but in terms of victory or defeat, this round must count as your win. After all, everyone look at my cards, how about it? They are all relatively smaller in combat power compared to Lord Jier's, right? Since I used my chance to skip at the very beginning, I was bound to lose this round. Therefore, Lord Jier clearly won this round."

The casino Shop Assistant showed his cards, which were clearly weaker than Jier's by more than a little. The people around could see it, and they all agreed that this was the case.

"Fine, I'll credit your superior skill." Jier stood up, looked around, and chose a gambling table opposite them.

Then, the crowd moved over.

These were Magic Game Cards adapted from the common Magic Game Chess.

The cards were divided into types: Commoner, Priest, Noble, Knight, Mage, and Scholar. When it was originally a game of chess, one had to move them on a board according to rules, similar to the chess of a past life; one needed to protect the King and use pieces to slay the opponent's King.

This type of game chess is quite common, ranging from simple pieces made of wood by ordinary people to special pieces with magical illusions.

But the game cards adapted from Magic Game Chess were clearly different in gameplay.

It was still a duel between two people, and both sides had cards similar to the former, but the King was not the key piece that needed protection; rather, it was a powerful card in the deck that, aside from needing to be wary of Commoners, could beat all other cards.

Calculating victory or defeat involved markers of varying quantities representing food or logistical supplies on the side. They were usually small treasure chests representing wealth, or grain wagons representing food—all small, chess-like objects.

Whoever ran out of these pre-agreed-upon logistical supply pieces lost.

"Let's keep it simple: three logistical supply pieces per person, and ten cards in hand, how about that?" Jier wanted to get it over with quickly, so he proposed.

After all, there were ways to play fast, but one could also play slowly, with a single game lasting over an hour.

Because there could be many cards representing various positions, and there could be more than ten pieces representing life, this meant the game simulated a large-scale battle, and it was normal for it to last an hour or two.

"As you say, Sir Knight."

Clearly, this fake casino Shop Assistant was confident he had Jier in the palm of his hand and was indifferent to the terms; as long as he was the one shuffling and dealing, he could certainly weaken his own cards and strengthen Jier's.

Although these Magic Game Cards had more variables than the simple size-comparison Monster Cards, it wasn't a matter of just swapping hands to guarantee a win.

But he remained full of confidence. If he let Jier win this time, it would be two wins and two losses. Immediately after, no matter what happened next, as long as the situation reached three wins and two losses, Knight Jier would be considered the loser, and he would have to honestly cough up the dozens of Gold Coins on the loan document as agreed.

Of course, doing this wasn't just for the money; getting close to probe Knight Jier himself and taking a little revenge for the destruction of one of their Thieves Guild branches were all factors.

And as for this so-called "little revenge," the massive loss of dozens of Gold Coins was just the beginning.

Last night, he had set his sights on the hotel room where this young Knight was staying. He had wanted to go in for a look, but his intuition told him there would be a danger to his life, so he abandoned that opportunity and set his sights on the other party's subordinates instead.

By simply sending out two decoys, these young, wealthy, and inexperienced Warriors were lured, ignorant and unaware, into the casino under deliberate temptation.

Then, using spices that could trigger emotions to make them gradually excited, combined with a whole night of letting their guard down, he gradually built up the Warriors' trust in the casino.

In the end, with just a few heavy bets, they drained these guys of all their money, then used suggestive language to make them lose their heads, borrow money, and ultimately end up in total ruin.

This entire complex setup was intended to lure Jier the Knight over early in the morning for a close-up encounter, to intuitively gauge his mental state, his way of doing things, and his special abilities through this compromise of a "confrontation."

This fake Shop Assistant had just used a small, specialized device in a second-floor private room of the casino to detect Jier using Life Energy to influence the dice.

But he still hadn't figured out how Jier had managed to influence the magnetic mechanism on the first round.

This time, Jier specifically proposed that he handle the shuffling and dealing himself; the fake Shop Assistant paused for a moment, but still gestured for Jier to proceed.

"Then I'll begin!"

Jier clumsily picked up the cards in his hand and felt their backs; the dazzling patterns on the back revealed nothing, as each one seemed similar, yet also slightly different.

If the casino were to cheat using the patterns on the back of these cards, it would be quite normal; most people would find it hard to see anything unless they had undergone relevant training.

Jier shuffled the cards haphazardly for a while, then, in the simplest way possible, dealt ten cards to each of them, one by one.

The Shop Assistant's mouth twitched as he watched this scene.

He had assumed Jier the Knight would also possess a set of high-level dealing techniques—skilled maneuvers that could distribute specific cards to whoever he wanted. Due to the speed of the hands and the intricate patterns on the backs of the cards, an average person wouldn't be able to see anything.

As for playing tricks on the card patterns, the casino did have such cards, but this was not that deck.

The Shop Assistant cautiously picked up his cards and looked through them, discovering that the types of cards were evenly distributed, unlike the hand he had specifically dealt to Jier in the previous round. Just now, he had deliberately placed some cards with higher combat power on top while shuffling; when dealing to himself, he dealt lower-power cards from the bottom of the deck, and when dealing to Jier the Knight, he dealt higher-power cards from the top.

Dealing the cards quickly in this alternating high-and-low fashion naturally resulted in Jier's hand having an excessively high average combat power, which caused problems for the simpler rules of the Monster Card game.

That is, when Jier's hand had excessively high combat power, if the opponent also wanted you to win and intentionally lost, Jier basically couldn't lose even if he wanted to.

But this Magic Game Card was different; not only was Jier presiding over the deal this time, ensuring there were no issues with the cards.

Furthermore, the rules of this Magic Game Card limited the ability to predict wins and losses.

This game deck has seven types in total: 【Commoner Card】, 【Knight Card】, 【Cleric Card】, 【Scholar Card】, 【Mage Card】, 【Noble Card】, and 【King Card】. Each set contains two 【King Card】s, four 【Noble Card】s, four 【Scholar Card】s, four 【Mage Card】s, four 【Cleric Card】s, eight 【Knight Card】s, and sixteen 【Commoner Card】s.

There are forty-two cards in total; two players duel, and before the agreed-upon Logistics Wagon Chess Piece representing life is exhausted, they must choose the appropriate hand to defeat the opponent.

The mutual restraint relationships of the seven types of cards are summarized as follows:

【Commoner Card】 can beat 【King Card】 and 【Scholar Card】, but will be beaten by 【Knight Card】, 【Noble Card】, and 【Cleric Card】, and is equal to 【Mage Card】.

【Knight Card】 can beat 【Commoner Card】 and 【Scholar Card】, but will be beaten by 【Noble Card】 and 【King Card】, and is equal to 【Cleric Card】 and 【Mage Card】.

【Cleric Card】 can beat 【Commoner Card】 and 【King Card】, but will be beaten by 【Scholar Card】, and is equal to 【Knight Card】, 【Mage Card】, and 【Noble Card】.

【Noble Card】 can beat 【Commoner Card】 and 【Knight Card】, but will be beaten by 【Scholar Card】, 【Mage Card】, and 【King Card】, and is equal to 【Cleric Card】.

【Scholar Card】 can beat 【Noble Card】 and 【Cleric Card】, but will be beaten by 【King Card】, 【Mage Card】, 【Commoner Card】, and 【Knight Card】, and has no equal.

【Mage Card】 can beat 【Noble Card】 and 【Scholar Card】, but will be beaten by 【King Card】, and is equal to 【Commoner Card】, 【Cleric Card】, and 【Knight Card】.

【King Card】 can beat 【Commoner Card】, 【Knight Card】, 【Noble Card】, 【Scholar Card】, and 【Mage Card】, but will be beaten by 【Cleric Card】, and has no equal.

Many gamblers who frequent the casino are not skilled at these game rules, but because Jier has played Magic Game Chess, he could quickly adapt to this improved Magic Game Card.

Even if he couldn't adapt, the rules were written by the casino on a wooden board to the side, visible at a glance, making the corresponding restraint relationships easy to understand.

"So, shall we begin?" Jier proposed.

Jier had ten cards in his hand and three Logistics Wagon Chess Pieces representing his life, but he didn't know what the opponent's hand was like. When dealing just now, he had simply channeled Life Energy into the 【King Card】; sensing it now, he had one 【King Card】 in his hand, and there was another 【King Card】 left in the deck.

As for what cards the opponent had, Jier was completely in the dark.

?? I wonder how the rules for this game were designed? I feel like there's a problem, but I can't put my finger on where it is.