Chapter 6

The accusation of Jin Dun cheating threw the activity room into chaos; before the patients armed with tables, chairs, and benches could surround him, Wu Chang left the room ahead of time.

As he left, he made a blessing gesture.

Hope he gets hurt.

Zhu Li escorted him back to his room and stood at the doorway, pulling out a keychain from her waist to select a key.

"For safety, don't go out today—I'll bring you lunch and dinner."

In the instant Zhu Li was picking the keys, Wu Chang saw two keys tied inside the slit of her nurse's skirt—one black, one red.

Seeing no one around, Wu Chang stripped off his shirt, revealing the muscular physique Zhu Li had graded a perfect score, and as her gaze was drawn to it, he pinned her against the door, his other hand sliding up her thigh toward the two keys.

"Want to stay a little longer?"

Zhu Li slapped his hand down on her thigh with immense force, preventing any upward movement.

"You can't touch those. In this sanatorium, the basement and fourth floor are forbidden to patients—getting too close is a serious violation."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow, his pinned hand subtly clenching.

"If you can't touch them, does that mean you're okay with me touching this?"

Zhu Li leaned close to Wu Chang and whispered, "That depends on your performance."

Watching Zhu Li's retreating back, Wu Chang raised an eyebrow.

He'd bet right—this woman was indeed on his side.

Without Zhu Li's protection, Jin Dun would never have let him leave the activity room so easily.

This layer of medical staff skin was more useful than he'd imagined; with such a cheap guardian angel around, no matter what misunderstanding she had about his identity, that misunderstanding must continue.

After seeing Zhu Li off, Wu Chang immediately checked the rewards from the Blood Testament of the Gambler.

Player nickname: NoBeef.

Player level: 1 (0/100)

Health: 8 (5)

Strength: 9 (5)

Agility: 9 (5)

Endurance: 7 (5)

Energy: 0 (0)

Inspiration: 52 (5)

Willpower: 31 (5)

(Values in parentheses are the average for adult males aged 20–40.) Skills: Mamba Iron Elbow, Firearms Proficiency (Skilled).

Items: Silver Dawn, Favor of the Goddess of Luck.

Talent: Transcendence.

Compared to his previous stats panel, after completing the Gambler's Blood Testament, his Agility and Willpower each increased by one point, and his Inspiration rose by two.

Four stat points may seem small, but according to the game panel's note, each level-up grants only five free stat points.

The stat reward from completing a Blood Testament is nearly equivalent to leveling up—so the return is quite substantial.

Moreover, besides the stat reward, he gained a new game item.

He opened his inventory and pulled out three twenty-four-sided dice, each marked with numbers 1 through 24.

"Item name: Favor of the Goddess of Luck."

"Item rank: D."

"Item skill: Lucky Strike."

"Roll all three dice; if all show 1, activate Lucky Strike, increasing the success probability of your next luck-based choice—the boost depends on your Inspiration value."

"Item skill: Loaded Dice."

"The Goddess of Luck grants extra favor to her chosen: she has loaded the dice with a bit of lead, ensuring they always roll 1 when activated. This skill can be activated once per dungeon dimension."

Damn, even the Goddess of Luck is cheating.

Completing the Gambler's Blood Testament granted four stat points and a D-rank item; even without knowing the Abyss game's market value, he could guess the reward was insane.

No wonder the Talent description had the Game Master suspecting he was hacking.

What, the Goddess of Luck loads dice, but I can't even get a tiny assist mod?

Alone in the room, time dragged painfully. With no computer or phone, to pass the time, he rolled the three new dice.

The Lucky Strike skill had no usage limit or cooldown—it relied purely on luck; if he rolled three 1s, he could save his Loaded Dice activation.

Couldn't he get lucky once in a whole day?

Two hours later, Wu Chang lay slumped on the bed, muttering softly:

"Right—probability of rolling three 1s on twenty-four-sided dice is less than one in ten thousand. You, a non-lucky bastard who needs a guaranteed drop at 1.6%, even if you wake up drenched in low blood sugar, stop dreaming."

As time passed, night fell quickly; nurses shook their bells to announce evening.

Wu Chang got up from bed and lit the kerosene lamp on the table.

By its light, he pulled out the three dice again and activated Loaded Dice.

The three dice spun briefly, then stopped in perfect unison—three ones. Cheating still works best.

He put away the dice, moved the table to the center of the room, and sat on one side.

After a long while, just as he was about to fall asleep, footsteps echoed down the silent corridor.

The footsteps drew nearer; estimating the timing was right, he prepared to rise and open the door—only to find the door, locked from inside, opened by itself.

Jin Dun walked in, sat across from him, and smiled: "Ran into a little trouble—delayed a bit."

Judging by Jin Dun's condition, his trouble was far from little.

The nurses of Moonlight Sanatorium were all terrifyingly strong; the patients they guarded were certainly no pushovers.

Jinton's hospital gown was almost soaked into a blood-soaked garment, the wounds on his body numbering at least several dozen—knife wounds, blunt-force trauma, burns, everything one could imagine.

Setting aside these minor injuries, Jinton's round head now bore one more deep dent than it had during the day, likely caused by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon.

A square table leg had been driven into his abdomen and hadn't been pulled out in time, still seeping blood at this moment.

The reason it hadn't been pulled out was probably that bandaging one-handed was inconvenient—his left arm had been torn clean off from below the shoulder.

If Jinton were to lie down and play dead now, the medical examiner would need several days just to determine which wound was fatal.

Another one thoroughly wrecked.

Wu Chang struggled to keep his expression in check and asked in a concerned tone, "Brother Jinton, is your body all right? Do you need to go get treated first?"

Jinton grinned broadly, revealing a row of white teeth streaked with blood.

"Just some minor injuries, nothing to worry about. Brother Xiao En, what do you want to bet with me?"

Wu Chang pretended to reach under the pillow, pulled Silver Dawn from his portable storage, and slapped it onto the table.

"Brother Jinton, do you recognize this?"

Jinton stroked Silver Dawn with his only remaining right hand and sighed, "What a finely crafted flintlock!"

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow—the technological progress of this instance plane already had firearms in existence, which would save him quite a bit of explaining.

"Brother Jinton, have you seen a gun before?"

Jinton said, "I used one during my time in service. I can guarantee that the flintlocks used by the royal family and the great nobles aren't a patch on it! If you're using this as the stakes, I'm afraid I can't come up with a matching wager."

Wu Chang shook his head and explained:

"No, it's a prop for the gamble, not the stake. In the place where I live, there's a traditional gamble called Russian Roulette."

Jinton's face showed curiosity. "What do you mean?"

Wu Chang briefly demonstrated the firing mechanism of a revolver—opening the cylinder, taking out a single bullet and loading it into one chamber, spinning it, then closing the cylinder.

"The rules are very simple. Six chambers, and right now only one chamber has a bullet. You and I take turns pressing the gun to our forehead and pulling the trigger. The one who gets shot loses."

He looked at the deep-red resentment behind Jinton. "If I lose, this gun is yours. If you lose, I want the key to that white door in the underground area."

Such a simple, brutal set of rules suited Jinton's tastes perfectly. He licked his lips and said, "No problem. The key you want is in my room—if you win, you can go get it yourself. But I have one condition: I have to be the one to spin the cylinder, and I have to be the one to fire the first shot."

"Fine." Wu Chang agreed readily.

Jinton slapped a piece of paper on the table, stuck his thumb into a wound on his body, dipped it in blood, pressed his fingerprint onto the paper, then pushed it in front of Wu Chang.

"To prevent anyone welching after losing, we need to sign an agreement before we start. No problem, right?"

The paper contained only one simple sentence.

"The winner takes all; the loser has nothing."

Wu Chang had seen this agreement within the resentment—it possessed a certain binding force. Once signed, the loser of the gamble would die on the spot, and even the player could not resist it.

The power of the agreement came from a massive crescent moon that occupied half the paper. The moon's outline was composed of countless intricate curves, exquisite and ornate, as if representing some powerful entity.

Wu Chang used a dagger to cut his thumb and pressed down a fingerprint as well.

"Of course no problem. If you're not reassured, I can even pinky-promise with you."

Jinton said, "I hope you can still be this optimistic in a little while."

Jinton picked up the gun, carefully inspected the cylinder, confirmed nothing was amiss, then spun the cylinder one-handed, and while it was still spinning, inserted a bullet and closed the cylinder.

He pressed the muzzle against his forehead, the smile on his face growing ever more brilliant.

This gamble called Russian Roulette looked random, but for a top-tier gambler like him, controlling which chamber the bullet ended up in through eyesight and technique was practically child's play.

Random? Not random at all! He fired the first shot, so Wu Chang would have to fire the last one.

He could already picture the final outcome of the gamble—after five consecutive empty clicks, Wu Chang would be trembling as he held the gun, unable to pull the trigger on the shot that was destined to pierce his skull.

The despair of pushing himself into the abyss with his own hands would make Wu Chang fear, struggle, go mad, beg…

And in the end, losing the gamble by forfeiting, he would be pinched to death like a bug.

Watching the opponent at the gambling table step by step walk toward the cliff—such a show never got old no matter how many times he saw it. This pleasure was enough to mask the pain in his body at this moment.

"The gamble begins!" Jinton shouted excitedly, his finger pulling the trigger.

At the exact moment Jinton pulled the trigger, Wu Chang picked up the wooden board he had prepared long ago and blocked the liquid that sprayed out.

Setting down the wooden board, Wu Chang expressionlessly picked up Silver Dawn and wiped the bloodstains clean off it.

The setting that allowed silver bullets to be loaded at any time really was convenient to use.

(End of chapter)