97 Desert: Mr. Qi

103.

If the plan changes, please act according to the latest situation.

Aria sorted the carambola seeds with one click, held the membership card she picked up in her palm, and pulled Kara to the guard under the slightly puzzled gaze of the shop owner.

"Miss, please show us your membership card, otherwise you are not allowed to enter according to the rules..." The security guard wearing sunglasses spoke the game lines in a serious tone. Aria waved the green membership card she picked up in front of him, and the man respectfully stepped aside.

"Please come in."

"Let's go, Kara," Aria said with a smile that showed she was in control, "Let's go in."

Kara's eyebrows raised slightly, a little surprised at her calmness, but the blonde girl didn't ask any more questions, just gently held Aria's hand.

She whispered something quick and short in Kryptonian, but the portable translator didn't translate it.

"I will protect you."

…

Entering the casino, what greeted her was not the hustle and bustle of the night or the heat, but a refreshing coolness that was especially refreshing in the desert. The oxygen content here was significantly higher than outside, as if to keep every guest alert and alert. The soft, non-glaring lighting illuminated the gaming tables like daylight, so much so that Aria couldn't help but glance up at the gaming clock to check the time.

Yes, it was night time, but this configuration was a bit too exaggerated - could it be Mr. Qi's new trick?

Aria instinctively searched the venue for Mr. Qi—according to the game's settings, he would meet players here, along with Jiang Dao's Walnut House. However, the farmer looked around but couldn't find Mr. Qi. The entire venue was in a state of dismal business. Aside from the hooded young man he had just met, still sitting at a table playing cards with the dealer, the business was even worse than it had been in the previous few sessions.

Is it Mr. Qi? If it were anyone else, they'd have lost everything after running the place for so long without a single customer. No, it's not like they haven't had a single customer yet. There's still one, isn't there? Maybe this whole game was solely supported by Hooded Brother before she even opened the desert map.

With a little respect, the farmer moved to the table to see how Hooded Brother was fighting.

Sensing her approach, the young man showed no resistance. He even moved to the side, leaving her with a good view.

Hood Brother, you're a good man! I'll return your membership card to you in a moment.

The dealer remained noncommittal and smiled faintly: "Sir, can we begin now?"

The young man nodded and pushed the pile of purple tokens he had exchanged in front of the dealer without any reluctance. Aria stared at him with wide eyes as he went all in. Just as she was thinking about whether she should contact his family to take him away and take care of him to death, the dealer had already pressed the bell on the table.

"Then let the game begin."

The first round of dealing was quick and precise, with the cards falling like feathers as the dealer flipped his wrist.

The young man took the cards, glanced at them calmly, and then turned his gaze back to the table.

The only thing the dealer could see was his blue eyes - infinitely calm, different from the gamblers he had seen elsewhere - this man was not here to make a huge fortune, he knew it from the first day he appeared here.

But the more this happened, the more the dealer felt sorry for him - the talent and ability this man displayed at the card table, in his opinion, was exactly what Lord Las was looking for.

However, the moment the adults saw him, they made their decision: "It's not him."

Despite his regrets, he still had to continue with his work. The dealer looked down at his cards and asked in a routine manner, "Do you want to continue?"

Young man: "Continue."

A new card was handed to him.

"continue."

The accumulated value of the cards in his hand grew larger and larger, drawing ever closer to that terrifying explosion line. A single misstep would mean losing everything. Even the dealer across from him began to narrow his eyes slightly, his gaze constantly shifting between the chips on the table and the young man, yet the young man continued to draw another card as if he were just playing a game.

"I think..." the dealer said carefully, "You've already lost."

After several rounds, the cards in the young man's hand had already crossed the line - although he didn't want to see this result, he did lose all the chips.

The farmer jumped up and down: "Oh my God! You didn't gamble all your money!"

“I don’t think I lost.”

The young man suppressed his laughter twice, then spread the cards in his hand on the table. The cards were arranged in order from small to large, and the total was 21.

Victory seemed to be his - if it weren't for the two cards of the same suit and number.

This is blatant cheating!

Aria was stunned again, her gaze tinged with sympathy towards the young man. Mr. Qi, while seemingly easygoing, was quite strict with those who didn't take the game seriously! Once, someone attempted to reach the top of the mountain by exploiting a bug without achieving perfect progress. Mr. Qi mocked them and even knocked them unconscious with a punch.

The dealer was so frightened by this blatant operation that his face turned pale. His lips trembled and it took him a long time to squeeze out a word from his throat: "You know that we need to notify that gentleman..."

Lord Ras will not tolerate deception and will certainly punish him - and then his life will no longer be in his own hands.

The hooded young man was very calm about this result, even showing a bit of nonchalance, which was obviously intentional: "Please do as you wish."

The dealer took a deep breath, bowed, and left, quickly disappearing through the secret door.

He was so calm, but the farmer was not so calm. She moved closer and asked curiously, "Are you really ready to be beaten?"

The young man looked up slightly, seemingly not quite understanding what Aria was saying. But as the angle adjusted, he could now see her eyes. It felt as if he'd seen that rich blue before... Then again, aren't there a bit too many blue-eyed NPCs in this game?

The farmer seriously suspected that the game had been secretly modified with a beautification mod. It felt like a brick had fallen from the sky, and at least five out of ten people it hit were handsome blue-eyed men. So even though the hooded man hadn't revealed his full face yet, just based on those eyes, Aria had equally and impartially labeled him a blue-eyed handsome man.

"You did this on purpose to see Mr. Qi, didn't you?" The farmer stroked his chin, pretending to be serious. "...But this method is obviously not advisable."

The other person leaned slightly towards her, the topic clearly piqued his interest. "Why?"

"You definitely didn't want to just glance at Mr. Qi when you met him, did you?" Mr. Qi's frosty face flashed through her mind. Aria felt the words were a bit strange, but she couldn't take them back now. She continued, "But from what I understand, Mr. Qi's attitude towards cheaters... is generally quite strong."

"Probably the first time you see him, you'll be taunted and then sent packing. You won't have time to chat with him, so I think this might be a wrong move."

The farmer criticized the current situation, trying to make the other party understand Mr. Qi's formidable nature. Fortunately, the other party understood the meaning of the song and grasped the key point from Aria's meaningless chatter: "You want to make a deal with me?"

Aria nodded frantically, practically giving someone a thumbs-up. "So I think you're still short of two more friends!"

She patted herself, then patted Kara, as if controlling Mr. Qi was just a matter of one sentence: "We two are super good fighters. When Mr. Qi comes calling, we can at least help delay you for a while."

Thinking of Frosty Face's super strength of punching one after another when he was extremely angry, the farmer quickly patched it up: "Of course, if he is particularly angry and very strong, I can take the punch for you first." Kara couldn't do that. There was no reason. She simply didn't want Kara to get beaten.

"...I'll faint first, so you can have more time to talk to him."

It's unclear whether he was impressed by the generous terms. The hooded man didn't move. He tapped the green velvet-covered gambling table. "It sounds like you've paid a lot in this deal. What do I need to hand over?"

He had already thrown out some bait, and the other party would surely demand more. The changes in the desert here were more complex than he had imagined, but he could offer some insignificant intelligence in exchange...

Thinking of this, the fluffy-haired farmer reluctantly took out the green membership card in front of him, his eyes almost glued to it.

"You dropped this a while ago." Although in Star Valley, anything found usually belonged to the farmer, Aria still wanted to go through the formalities when faced with something that was clearly owned. "If this thing isn't very important to you, could you trade it with us?"

The main reason is that she doesn’t want to do Mr. Qi’s four tasks again!

"...Of course, you can go back if you want." But the farmer will keep watching you, the bad guy, forever...

Those blue eyes were a little surprised, as if he didn't expect the other party to use this as a bargaining chip, but he quickly suppressed the few outward emotions and nodded to agree to the deal.

"It's a deal."

…

Mr. Qi's dealer reappeared at the secret door five minutes later. He looked more weathered than when he first came in. It seemed that the mental pressure of facing Mr. Qi was much greater than simply working here.

"Please follow me." The man bowed slightly in invitation and led them through a set of secret doors and stairs that rose layer by layer. This place seemed to be far away from eavesdropping, so the man spoke the second sentence, but it was only for the hooded man.

"His Excellency said you were his acquaintance... so I think I should remind you of something."

"...The adults are very different now. If you notice the difference later, please don't bring it up..."

Why does it feel like a weird rule?

The farmer scratched her head, puzzled by the Riddler's behavior, but she soon understood why the man said that.

Because Mr. Qi really installed the beautification MOD!

Ra's al Ghul wore a dark green medieval-style robe, with golden lines climbing up the corners of the robe as if they had life.

Mr. Qi had his back to them, his eyes fixed on the bare wall. When he turned around, his eyes were like the sharpest sword, piercing through his disguise.

"Detective," Lars sighed, "the pursuit of the truth is a noble cause, but have you ever considered... that this stubbornness will consume you?"

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Unveiling the Curtain: Tim Drake!

In some publications, Russ also called him Detective

Aria: My frost melon! Where's my frost melon?