The city that never sleeps, the thorns of sin.
The sound-guided magic array played soothing background music, and the graceful bunny girls walked through the brightly lit and extravagant venue, bringing up waves of cheers.
The clash of chips, the bartender shaking the ice in the glass, and the sound of high heels stepping on the ground all announce that a beautiful night in the city that never sleeps is about to begin.
Suddenly at some point.
The lights in the entire place went out for a moment, and then lit up again.
The next moment, a middle-aged man in a white robe walked into the venue.
The hall was dead silent; even the sound of breathing could be heard.
The middle-aged man had an ordinary face and was dressed in pure white clothes. He looked like an ordinary pastor or priest in a small church in a town.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the middle-aged man who walked into the venue.
...
...
Or to be more precise, it was the pattern painted on his white robe.
The pure white eye of truth.
“It’s the audience.”
After a long time, someone spoke, breaking the strange silence in the meeting room.
The entire casino suddenly exploded. Waiters, dealers, gamblers... everyone was whispering to each other. Those who knew about it talked eloquently, and the onlookers continued to explain it to others after understanding it.
"audience".
This is a nickname for a group of extraordinary people.
Generally speaking, the supernatural organizations or groups on the Western Continent have obvious tendencies, either leaning towards the order camp, such as the Three Towers, or leaning towards the abyss, lost kingdoms and other fields, such as many cults.
However, the "audience", like the Shadow Council, is a rare entity that is active in both the Order camp and the Lost Realm, yet is tolerated by all parties.
The Shadow Council relies on its own strong strength and the intelligence business that is needed by both camps, while the "audience" relies on their unique logic of action.
They are really just spectators.
The two armies were at war, the plains were filled with the roar of artillery fire...
A battlefield where high-ranking warriors fight for their lives...
Or maybe it was the scene of the birth of a major magical invention, the change of royal power, the alternation of power...
"Audiences" can be seen at almost all major events in the Western Continent.
The members of the "audience" do not have a clear pet system style like many supernatural forces, but are all kinds of strange, from first-level beginners to title-level beast masters.
It is even rumored that on the day when the Holy Calendar Era was opened, and at the final battle that ended the "Earth of Disaster" era, there were "audiences" of legendary rank.
The only thing the "audience" had in common was the white robes and the mark of the Eye of Truth on them. They could appear anywhere in the Western Continent, and what they watched might be the establishment and fall of a kingdom, or perhaps just the daily life of a commoner...
Moreover, the "audience" will never interfere with the process, and even if they are killed on the battlefield, they will never take any retaliatory actions.
It is as if the "audience" is really just what they claim to be, just a witness and recorder of history.
In the city that never sleeps, called the Thorns of Sin, the arrival of the "audience" means only one thing -
That is, a legendary gambling game against the banker is about to take place.
The minimum amount of each bet at an ordinary gambling table in the City That Never Sleeps is one Rhine gold coin. Although the number is not high, in fact, in the monetary system of the Western Continent, the Rhine gold coin is already the highest-level currency unit. One coin is equivalent to the entire annual salary of an ordinary urban civilian. There are also smaller units of copper coins and silver coins.
However, this pales in comparison to the upcoming match.
According to a waiter with decades of experience in the City That Never Sleeps, the dealer's gambling game starts every one or two months, but the last time the "audience" was invited to witness a gambling game was three years ago.
The guest on that occasion gambled his hereditary territory consisting of three towns, and ended up losing everything.
…
The middle-aged man with an ordinary face and wearing a simple white robe walked towards the top floor of the City That Never Sleeps and soon disappeared in the corridor.
The next moment, the metal baffle was raised.
The scene on the top floor of the city that never sleeps is thus reflected in the sight of gamblers throughout the casino.
It was a very plain gambling table. Viscount Lori sat on one side of the table with an elegant smile, while a young man with half of his face covered by a white mask sat on the other side of the table. Both sides looked very calm.
A middle-aged priest in a white robe stood in the center of the long table, watching everything on the gambling table with a calm expression.
He reached out and brushed over a silver-white revolver and a box of bright yellow bullets on the table.
"Revolver - "Iron Moon", pure metal structure, no magic array or spirit interference."
The priest took out bullets one by one from the ammunition box, and then loaded them into the cylinder of the revolver one by one.
"Six pieces of ammunition, identical in quality and appearance, but only one of them is a live round, and five are blanks."
The middle-aged priest looked at the ejected revolver magazine in his hand and tapped his fingers lightly in the air.
"During the gambling process, this item is forbidden to be used, and it is forbidden to be peeped..."
"The eyes of truth bear witness."
After doing all this, he placed the revolver with the cylinder ejected on the gambling table: "According to the rules, the one who flips the cylinder has the back hand."
Char reached out and picked up the revolver, then stretched out his slender fingers and fiddled with the revolver cylinder.
jingle.
The magazine loaded with five blank bullets and one live bullet began to rotate rapidly. Char moved his wrist slightly, and the rotating wheel made a crisp sound and fit into the revolver body.
Char could clearly sense that the moment the revolver was embedded in the barrel, the internal details of the gun disappeared from his mental perception.
It was as if covered by a thin layer of fog. Apart from the plain appearance of the revolver, all the information and details inside it - whether it was the weight of the gun body, the slight vibration caused by the rotation of the revolver cylinder, etc. ... all seemed to be mosaiced and could no longer be seen.
The concealment of this information fog is not very strong, and he only needs to exert a little mental strength to pierce it, but this also means that his behavior will be noticed by the person who releases the information fog, and he will be directly judged as the loser.
This is the meaning of the existence of "audience".
For those with extraordinary mental power and keen perception, there are too many ways to cheat in the process of gambling.
For example, a Beastmaster with specialization in memory can easily distinguish the subtle differences in the texture of seemingly identical playing cards, while a Beastmaster with specialization in perception may be able to determine which chamber is loaded with a bullet simply by weighing a pistol and judging by the uneven weight distribution.
Of course, the information fog and extraordinary prohibitions of the "audience" are limited to the revolver itself, just as the dealer will ensure that no one will peek or cut the cards with a ghost hand when a card game is dealt.
But apart from this, all extraordinary means will not be restricted, whether it is relying on a strong memory to remember and count cards, or using trash talk to break down the opponent's psychological defenses, it is itself part of the game.
"I have always respected the elderly and loved the young."
“So, the elderly are given priority.”
Char pushed the closed revolver across the long table.
"Roulette!"
It was not until then that the onlookers below burst into exclamations and learned the true content of the gambling game.
Compared to the most popular blackjack in the imperial capital, Empire Poker... Roulette is rarely used because of its overly bloody and violent content, but this does not hinder its well-known reputation.
Roulette does not have the complicated rules of many variations of card games, but is quite simple and clear.
A bullet is loaded into the revolver's magazine, and the order of the magazine is messed up. The two betting parties take turns shooting themselves until one of them loses.
As for the result of failure - there is naturally only one.
Even if a beastmaster is at the title level, if he does not actively contact the soul contract to draw the power of his pet, he will die if he is hit in the head by a bullet at close range.
And if one uses extraordinary powers to protect oneself, it is a breach of contract.
According to the rules in the Thorns of Sin, the defaulter will lose everything, whether it is all the wealth in his body or his own life.
Those crimes that were buried underground in the city that never sleeps and never seen light were what Lori committed in this way.
And at this moment, the dealer standing at the top of the city that never sleeps is actually going to play roulette. Who is that mysterious player?
What kind of means were used to force Viscount Lori from the throne of the City That Never Sleeps to such a state.
The gamblers are all players, and of course they are more inclined to support the mysterious man wearing a half-face mask.
The waiters and the girls remained calm.
Of course, Lori himself also had his share of wins and losses at the gambling table.
But to this day.
The City That Never Sleeps is still the City That Never Sleeps, and Viscount Lori is still Viscount Lori.
…
In a corner of the casino where a huge noise broke out, Dark Crow looked at the figure of the white-robed priest on the top floor and couldn't help but frowned slightly.
"The Ranger, Thoros."
"Audience" is a synonym for an entire supernatural organization, but the actual audience members are independent individuals.
The audience member who appeared in the City That Never Sleeps was exactly the person recorded in the Imperial Military Department, a six-ring beastmaster with his own title.
Apart from those legendary "audience members" who are not well documented and live in history, "Ranger" Soros is already the pinnacle of the current "audience members".
"I didn't expect Soros to be in the imperial capital. If it was a spectator of the fourth or fifth ring, he might have been deceived by some tricks."
"But if Soros comes in person, it is impossible for him to tamper with the gambling process unless he is a legendary figure who specializes in this."
Dark Crow looked at the scene on the top floor with a slightly frown on his face.
"I've read some files and know that Joker should be an expert in the field of illusion."
'But Lori is one level higher than him, and it is impossible for him not to have countermeasures against the ability of illusion.'
If any random illusion could really work, Lori wouldn't be able to hold on to his current position as the master of the City That Never Sleeps.
"Diris, don't you think our new leader is a little too impulsive?"
From Dark Crow's perspective, today's Sword Bearers are simply the weaker party compared to the great nobles in the Imperial City, otherwise they would not be wiped out again and again.
What they should do is to be patient and wait, just like the family motto of the "Dark Knight" Fren family - hide in the shadows, wait and accumulate strength, and wait for the right time.
As the newly appointed leader of the Sword Wielders, Char led them directly into the Thorns of Sin, and even bluntly revealed to the other party the information he had.
Although relying on these intelligence trump cards, Soros was successfully forced into a life-and-death gamble.
But correspondingly, it also means that Char has also forced himself into a desperate situation.
He is the king of gamblers. Whether it is cheating, cheating, or honest gambling at the gambling table, what has Viscount Lori not experienced in these decades?
Putting his own life on the gaming table, and in the field where the opponent is best at, in the eyes of Dark Crow, Joker's behavior is undoubtedly giving away his life.
"Though theoretically, what you said is correct."
"But, will it really be useful to just endure, show weakness, and hide yourself in the dark?"
"Although I have never joined, from what I know, the previous Sword Holders have always upheld the philosophy of hiding and developing, but in the end their endings did not change at all."
Diris, who was also wearing a half mask, revealing only her fair and delicate chin, took a sip of the wine in the glass and spoke softly.
"I hid myself in the dark, restrained all my minions, and nominally said that I was enduring and growing..."
"But if this continues, when the time is right... we have become accustomed to forbearance and have long forgotten how to wield a sword. Will we still be able to bring down the sword of punishment that hangs over our heads?"
"Your Highness gave up on choosing the Sword Master from the old Round Table and his confidants, the many five-ring or even title-level masters, and instead invited him, who was just an ordinary student who had just broken through the third ring. Perhaps he wanted to bring about some changes..."
"This is a completely different change from every previous sword wielder."
"I understand what your Highness means." Dark Crow frowned, "But this is not a reason to attack the opponent's strengths with your own weaknesses and to rush to your death without any strategy."
"I understand your concerns."
Diris looked at the scene on the top floor with her pure eyes: "To be honest, I don't think Joker's illusion will work."
"But, after all, the leader was chosen by His Highness himself, and since I met him... he has never let me down."
"What kind of surprises might this time bring?"
As he spoke, Diris turned slightly and glanced at the blonde girl next to him.
Although she was wearing the same style of half mask, Airola never participated in their conversation.
She just sat quietly in the corner, her eyes fixed on Char who was sitting at the top level, next to the gambling table.
As someone who had entered Char's dreams and often acted as an intruder, Diris was well aware of the tacit understanding between Airola and Char that outsiders could not understand.
If Char was really in some life-or-death crisis, Airola would have gone berserk long ago, just like what happened to Lieutenant Colonel Sieg when Char fell into a coma not long ago.
And now the blonde girl is still waiting quietly, which means everything is still under control.
For no reason, Diris began to look forward to what was going to happen next.
…
Sizzle——
The metal body of the revolver made a harsh friction sound against the wooden table, and then stopped in front of Viscount Lori.
He picked up the revolver in a gentlemanly manner.
Viscount Lori didn't pay any attention to Char's previous trash talk. In the thousands of gambling games he had experienced, there were countless words that were thousands of times more unpleasant than Char's, but he managed to keep a lazy smile all the time.
In his opinion, it was just the wailing of a loser. He was indeed old, but he was still a lion at the gambling table.
The city that never sleeps is the lion's territory. He patrols there day and night, watching countless high-rollers kneel in fear after their failures, howling and wailing for mercy.
The information fog on the revolver still exists, obscuring all information and details within the chamber.
The arrival of Soros, the six-ring "audience" was beyond Viscount Lori's expectations, and made cheating on the revolver itself a pipe dream.
But it doesn't matter. Viscount Lori does know a wide variety of cheating and cheating techniques, but he has never bothered to use such tricks. He knows these only to see through his opponent's cheating.
With those tricks, he couldn't become the king of this city that never sleeps. "One hundred souls."
"Deal done."
A dark and deep voice sounded deep in Viscount Lori's soul.
The next moment, Viscount Lori pointed the revolver named Iron Moon at his chin.
Bang--
White smoke and flames came out of the muzzle, but no bullet was fired.
A blank bullet.
This is a matter of course.
He is a beastmaster, but he is not good at fighting. The reason he can reach the fourth ring rank now is entirely due to the pet beast he contracted by chance.
To be precise, it is not appropriate to call it a pet... because what they signed was not a traditional master-servant contract, but a transaction contract.
It was a demon from the spiritual abyss, and the deal was simple, as every demon does... one party provided the soul, and the demon granted him a short-term luck boost.
Relying on the deal with the devil, Viscount Lori won all the key gambles, and the City That Never Sleeps also devoured the lives of countless people through gambling.
The crimes rampant in the city that never sleeps were initially intended to satisfy the devil's greedy appetite for souls. However, after Lori became Borgia's white glove, he became addicted to the guilty pleasure of having the power over the life and death of others.
Lori put the revolver down, the elegant smile on his lips unchanged.
If it is a card game, such as blackjack, Viscount Lori may be temporarily at a disadvantage due to his lack of calculation ability and memory. After all, luck is important in card games, but unless the luck is so strong that you always have the biggest hand, there is also the possibility of relying on powerful skills to make up for the difference in luck.
Roulette is the only gambling that is the simplest and most brutal. Under the information fog of the "audience", it becomes a pure competition of luck.
If the live bullet lands in the 1, 3, or 5 chamber, one side wins; if it lands in the 2, 4, or 6 chamber, the other side wins. There is no room for any technical interference.
If there is only one possible game in roulette, it is to use psychological warfare to make the opponent afraid, afraid to shoot himself, and thus choose to admit defeat.
From this perspective, the party that goes first in roulette will undoubtedly gain the upper hand in terms of momentum, which is why Lori calmly accepts that he goes first.
Lori looked at the mysterious man with an unchanged expression across the table and slowly pushed out the silver revolver.
In this game that relies purely on luck, he who can trade luck with the devil is undefeated.
This mysterious man may have wanted to minimize his advantages in gambling skills and experience through such a simple and crude gambling method as roulette, but he didn't know that it was his own cleverness that ruined the last slim chance of winning.
In this way, possible hidden dangers can be eliminated... and after the opponent is defeated, you can also take the opportunity to investigate the source of his information and his own background.
The information shown by the other party made him feel alarmed. Viscount Lori would not be able to rest easy until he figured it out.
As he was thinking this, Viscount Lori saw the mysterious man wearing a white mask also raised his revolver.
However, he was not aiming at the chin, but at his own temple.
"Persona."
Meaningless bytes came out of the other party's mouth, and then the trigger was pulled.
Bang--
There was still white smoke and flames, but no bullets were fired. Similarly, no huge Orpheus stand-in appeared behind him.
In the casino below, gamblers burst into cheers.
As players, they naturally like to watch the fun and of course they all hope to be on top. They don’t know how much wealth the dealer has embezzled from the gamblers, but they want to fall from the altar.
For a moment, countless malicious eyes were cast at Viscount Lori, expecting him to shoot him in the head.
And it turns out that the bloody and exciting feeling of blood splattering at any time is far more eye-catching and exciting than the simple collision of cards and chips.
Good luck.
Viscount Lori looked at the scene before him with an unchanged expression.
From a purely probabilistic perspective, the probability of Char's shot hitting the target is 20%, and considering that he had made a lucky deal with the devil, the probability that Char's shot was a live bullet is even higher.
This shows that the other party’s luck is not bad. If I didn’t make the deal with the devil, I might really become a loser.
Of course, Viscount Lori was not in a hurry about this. This was a game of pure luck, and he had already been invincible.
He still had an elegant smile on his face, waiting for the other party to return the revolver.
"Dark Raven, Nightingale."
"I read the files of the sword masters of all generations. Do you know what my biggest feeling was after reading them?"
"The combat capability is not strong enough, the organization and discipline are not strict enough, and the confidentiality mechanism is not good enough, so the news leaked?"
“Neither.”
"These are just reasons for a single defeat, but they are not excuses for twenty-seven defeats."
"In my opinion, the greatest failure of past sword holders was—"
“I can’t handle the pressure.”
Along with the calm words of the black-haired boy, there was the sound of the trigger being pulled again.
"And since I am your boss now, I have to teach you a few things first."
"The first rule of the Sword Bearer..."
“Stay graceful under pressure.”
The next moment.
Viscount Lori's pupils, along with those of all the onlookers below, suddenly widened.
Bang--
Amidst the flames and smoke, the mysterious masked man still stood there, unharmed.
"What happened? Wasn't the deal done?"
"No, the deal is done, and your luck has improved as you wished, just as it has always done."
Deep in the soul, facing Lori's questioning, the dark and deep voice only gave such an answer.
Thinking of this, Lori's mind calmed down a little.
He had made deals with the devil more than once or twice, so he was certainly aware of the other party's capabilities.
Although such spiritual demons are very greedy and can even be described as evil, they will always abide by transactions and contracts.
Below, the entire casino was silent.
No one knew why Char did this. Continuous shooting was indeed allowed by the rules, but it was equivalent to helping the opponent take the risk of a shot. Only a fool would do this, or he knew the location of the bullet in the magazine from the beginning.
However, there is no fool who can stand at the gambling table with Viscount Lori...
And unless you are a legend, no one can cheat in front of a six-ring "audience".
For a moment, countless eyes were fixed on Char's slender back. Countless people began to speculate about his identity, while others were trying to figure out the meaning of Char's words just now.
A legend came here to play roulette with a gambling kingpin? How could it be possible?
And what does he mean by "Sword Wielder"?
However, Char, who was the focus of thousands of eyes, did not have his movements affected at all.
He simply raised the silver-white revolver named "Iron Moon" again.
"The countless failures in the past have worn away your spirit and also made you lose yourself."
"You have positioned yourselves as the weaker party, choosing to hide and conceal yourself, muddling through the targeting and oppression of the great nobles. As long as you can eke out a moment of peace, you think you have already won."
"But, have you ever thought about it?"
"What is the meaning of the so-called "Sword Wielder"? "
In the eerie silence of the entire casino, Char once again pointed the gun at his own temple.
"We are the sword of Damocles hanging high in the sky."
"Whether they are demigods or saints, once they reach the border of the empire, they can only tuck their tails between their legs and behave themselves under the sharp edge of the sword hanging overhead, and follow the laws and order of the empire."
“So, the ones who should be afraid, who should hide, who should cower in the shadows and live in fear are not us, but our opponents.”
"Sword Bearer's Code, Rule 2—"
“Always remember who is the prey and who is the hunter…”
“They are the prey and we are the hunters.”
Snap——
The trigger is pulled.
One thousandth of a second later.
Bang--
The hot flames flashed at the muzzle again.
However, the scene of the mysterious man's head being pierced and blood plasma bursting did not appear as Viscount Lori had expected.
Viscount Lori's elegant smile could no longer be maintained.
As for the third shot, he could explain it by saying that the gun was supposed to shoot himself, so it was a blank bullet.
Then the fourth shot missed, and Lori really panicked.
"Is the transaction really correct?"
"Everything is fine."
Lori was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly spoke.
"One more bet, five hundred souls."
"Deal done."
It was still a deep and dark response, but Lori felt a little calmer.
This round of gamble is too crucial and he can't afford to lose.
Normally, the moment the revolver stops rotating, the order of the positions of the live ammunition and the blank ammunition is fixed.
But in fact, under the cover of the information fog, even the audience himself cannot know everything.
Therefore, when no one is observing the internal order of the cylinder, the lucky amplitude disturbance can still be effective.
It seems contrary to common sense, but this is a world full of supernatural and mystery, and this conclusion was reached by Lori after many experiments.
Then--
He was like the audience who had already held their breath.
He looked silently at the black-haired mysterious man in front of him and raised the revolver again.
As if he had noticed the focused gazes around him, the mysterious guest turned his chair slightly and glanced at the people below.
The corner of his mouth, which was not covered by the mask, revealed a faint smile.
"This world is darker than you think. Simple kindness and sainthood are meaningless here."
“So, sometimes, you have to be more crazy, more vicious, and more cunning than those sinister, cunning, and crazy villains, so that you can do what you think you should do.”
"but--"
"Although it seems so far away and vague, and sounds a little unrealistic, and even a bit like a pie in the sky, I actually really like Your Highness, Sieg, and the ideal and future that you have described to me."
"Because I don't want to live in a world where kindness is seen as a weakness."
Snap——
The hammer hit the primer of the bullet, making a crisp sound.
Amid the rising flames and white mist, came that still calm and indifferent voice.
"Sword Wielder's Code, Rule 3."
"In order to fight against evil, you can become crazier and more evil than the evil."
"But in the meantime, remember your ideals and don't forget your roots."
"I don't want our prey to become our former comrades one day."
The revolving magazine rotated sixty degrees.
At this point, five of the six bullets in the magazines have been fired.
Only the last one is left.
Char played with the revolver in his hand for a moment, and then gently pushed it out.
Crash.
The revolver slid across the tabletop.
Then, it froze in front of Lori, who looked as pale as death.
"So--"
"It's your turn."
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