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Chapter 226
Chapter 226. Tomorrow’s Fortune
Gambling tiles.
The most common form of gambling people enjoyed.
Pictures and numbers were drawn on thin pieces of bamboo, and victory or defeat was decided according to the order or rank of the pairs.
There were sometimes fake fortune-tellers who told fortunes with gambling tiles, but for the most part, they were used as a means to wager money and take the other person’s money.
Ѐ n̊ um̊а.і̄ d
Gambling tiles were common even in the Murim Alliance.
Usually, when four or five people gathered with nothing to do, someone would appear carrying copper coins and gambling tiles.
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In my previous life, there had been a bastard in Sojeong Squad who appeared with copper coins and gambling tiles even when there was something to do. He was the swindler called One-Eyed Ghost Sword Seo Un-chang.
Whenever that bastard joined a table, there was never a day when a fight did not break out.
Because he was always using sleight of hand, blades were drawn, and there had been many times when those seated there suffered serious injuries.
That ridiculous bastard even carried gambling tiles around during the Great Righteous-Demonic War later on.
Е̇ṅ u m а . îd
Every night, when we returned to the tents dragging our bodies exhausted from battle, everyone would sink into silence as they waited for the next day’s death.
At such times, Seo Un-chang would take out his gambling tiles, saying he would read tomorrow’s fortune.
There was no way a man who had spent his whole life eating off other people’s backs had any divine power, but once Seo Un-chang used sleight of hand to draw a good tile for someone, everyone somehow slept comfortably that night.
Of course, no one resented him if the person who drew a good tile died the next day.
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They merely approached Seo Un-chang again to shake off the terror brought by the silence of night and had him divine tomorrow’s fortune once more.
While I was briefly gazing at the gambling tiles and sinking into memories, I heard a voice calling me.
W е b̀n оv̄ е̊ l̀_ Е̄n̊ŭḿ à
“B-benefactor Jin…… P-please save me.”
No, so what exactly are you doing here?
Looking at the beads of sweat gathering on his scalp, a sigh escaped me naturally.
“Are you planning to break your precepts?”
“T-that is not it.”
Il-myeong was trembling with fear to the point that even I found it strange.
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Across both my previous life and this life, I had never seen this man express such intense emotion.
“What happened?”
“T-that is……”
The story was roughly like this.
He had wandered here and there to convey the Buddha’s good words(?), but because people kept moving away and would not give him any opening, he had been unable to properly convey those teachings. Yet the people seated here, for some reason, had at least listened with half an ear.
While he was speaking, one person left their seat, and when the others tried to break up and leave as well, they told him that if he sat down, they would listen to his sermon. This innocent man had then promptly taken that seat.
Ê n um̄ а̊
The more I listened, the more absurd this became.
“Haa……. And then?”
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“T-that is……”
“You entrusted the Diamond Beads as collateral?”
“That is so…….”
I tilted my head.
É n u m̂а
“Are the Diamond Beads not one of Shaolin’s Seven Great Treasures?”
Il-myeong turned pale and hurriedly looked around.
“B-benefactor Jin! If you say such a thing loudly……”
Since he was about to lose such a treasure, it was understandable that Il-myeong’s Immovable Mind had shattered.
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“Can’t you just subdue them and take it back?”
“……How could a disciple of Shaolin do something so lawless……?”
Е̌ n̂ umа́
“They are all bad people anyway. For them, beating each other up is an everyday occurrence.”
“……E-even so, that is……”
For an instant, Il-myeong looked at the stolen prayer beads as if pulled by an immense temptation, but perhaps coming to his senses, he shook his head.
“And that person is not such a bad man. My loss was also the result of a fair game.”
The person who had taken Il-myeong’s Diamond Beads was a man with the gentle impression of a Confucian scholar.
Perhaps he knew the Diamond Beads were a precious object, because he had placed a small cloth by his feet and carefully kept them on top of it, as if showing courtesy.
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I pointed at the Diamond Beads with my chin and asked Il-myeong,
“If you lose the Diamond Beads through gambling, you will go to hell. Are you not afraid?”
“…….”
Il-myeong’s face became truly serious. If I teased him any further, I might go to hell with him.
“How much is the debt?”
“T-that…… two hundred silver taels.”
Е́ ṅ u m̈а
“…….”
Wow…… He really lost a lot in such a short time.
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I took twenty gold taels from my robe and handed them to the man who looked like a Confucian scholar.
“I will repay the debt in his place. So will you return those old prayer beads?”
The Confucian scholar carefully pushed the prayer beads slightly toward me and said,
“I did not receive this in place of money. I received it in place of a ‘match.’ If you want it, you may win it back.”
Ӗ ñ ü m̈а̇
Look at this.
He must have clearly heard us say it was a Sacred Relic, yet he remained unfazed?
“I do not especially like gambling.”
In my previous life, I had liked gambling too.
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However, after Seo Un-chang died, I was the only one left who could use sleight of hand to read fortunes, and my interest in gambling gradually disappeared.
Moreover, for some reason, if I touched gambling tiles now, I felt as though I would recall the appearances of the bastards who had died after hearing their fortunes from me in my previous life.
Ӗn u mа
The Confucian scholar brought the Diamond Beads back toward himself.
“In that case, I cannot return them.”
“I will give you thirty gold taels. If it is thirty gold taels, you would gain as much as ten gold taels in profit.”
The Confucian scholar shook his head with a calm expression.
“I do not feel like it.”
I pressed my temples and said,
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“You must know from what you just heard, but that is a Sacred Relic of Shaolin Temple. Not only can you not dispose of it carelessly, but you cannot take it out of this place in the first place. If I decide there is no other way, I will subdue you by force and take it back.”
“I heard that Great Hero Black Flame Dragon was quite a reasonable person, but it seems that was not true. Perhaps the talk of you being a Black Path Rising Star was correct after all?”
“…….”
I tilted my head.
The Envoy Delegation’s presence had definitely not yet been publicly announced. Yet this Confucian scholar was speaking as if he knew not only Il-myeong, but me as well.
What is this person?
Е̄ n̊u̇ m̄ а̌ . i d
While I was wondering.
“How about this?”
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The Confucian scholar carefully lifted the Diamond Beads and said,
“No matter how much Great Hero Black Flame Dragon loses, if you win two hundred taels from me, I will simply return the Diamond Beads.”
“It seems four people sit at this table.”
“That does not matter. I will do the calculations, so if you win only two hundred taels, I will give this to Great Hero Black Flame Dragon.”
Еn̆ ů m̆ a.і̀ d̄
Had he had business with me from the beginning?
“You seem to like gambling quite a lot.”
The Confucian scholar shook his head.
“To be precise, I like ‘matches.’ But as you can see, I am quite frail.”
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Among Black Path people, who trained external arts a great deal, the Confucian scholar’s build looked especially slight.
Hmm, if he was going this far to challenge me, there was no longer any reason to avoid it.
Е̌n ũmа̂. īd
“Very well. But keep your promise.”
A gentle smile appeared at the Confucian scholar’s lips.
“Of course.”
I said to Il-myeong, whose face had turned so pale he looked as though he would soon become an octopus covered in ink,
“Bald Senior, step outside.”
“U-understood. Please! Please!”
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Il-myeong looked at me with eyes that begged and begged, as if praying to the Buddha.
Crack. Crunch.
I loosened my fingers and neck as I sat down.
To think he dared utter the word “match” against the White Wolf Pavilion-certified Gambling God.
I will make him regret it.
Dang Seo-hui’s uneasy, trembling voice came from beside me.
Е́n úm̌а̌
“You absolutely have to win…….”
People grew agitated at the growing stakes.
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Their eyes widened at the piling gold and silver, and gamblers began gathering like ants drawn by a sweet fragrance.
People’s gazes were gradually focusing on the winner.
“B-benefactor Jin…… What is this…… Do you not know how to play gambling tiles?”
“……Why are you sitting there looking cool? It is unsightly!”
Еṅ ü m̄ а
Ah, of course, that did not mean I was winning.
“……Do not worry. Gambling is originally about reading the flow first.”
I took one more promissory note from my robe.
“Then why are your hands trembling?”
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Hm? My hands are trembling? No way.
In my previous life, this kind of thing happened so, so often that it was hard to recall each one.
Ẅ еb̄ n̈о̃ v̂ èl Ѐ nu̇ m̄.а
There were times when I lost my entire monthly stipend, and there were times when I lost all my performance bonuses.
But in the end, at the very, very end, was I not the one who won?
“……Benefactor Jin. You are breaking out in a cold sweat…….”
Of course, it could look worrying to people who did not know.
Yes, of course it could.
If I alone had lost twenty gold coins at this table, there would have been no way to win.
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It would clearly mean that I was the sucker at this table.
However, among the four people seated at this table, three of us were all being cleaned out by that Confucian scholar.
This meant that I was not doing badly. That bastard was simply doing well. Hehe.
‘Ah! That does not mean this is a good thing!’
“You are quite skilled.”
The Confucian scholar smiled brightly. His innocent smile made even those who saw it feel good.
W̃ е b̆ ṅо̌v́ е̃ l Е̊n̆ ů m ӑ
The more I looked at him, the more likable he seemed, except for the fact that he was provoking me.
“As I used my head to make a living, I naturally became like this.”
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“Is that so? You must use your head quite a lot.”
“Most matters of the martial world are solved with strength, are they not? However, I realized long ago that there was a limit to what I could accomplish through martial force.”
As I conversed with the Confucian scholar, the previous rounds that had swept over me like a storm began replaying in my mind again.
Gambling tiles were a battle of numbers.
Ẅе b̃n̆ оv̆ е ľ Е̊n̂ ŭmа
It was a game in which victory and defeat were decided by comparing the numbers of the tiles each person held.
I had a perfect memory close to a curse, so I did not forget the tiles that appeared on the board.
And based on those, I could calculate victory and defeat to a certain extent.
Yet for me to be losing this overwhelmingly meant……
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‘This bastard is counting numbers.’
A thought close to certainty…… no, I was certain.
Ē ṅŭ ṁ а̀ . í d̂
Because there was no way I would lose this one-sidedly in any game.
I also used a method of counting numbers based on memory, but seeing how one-sidedly I was being pushed back, it seemed that his calculation method was superior.
‘What should I do……?’
Through the previous rounds, I had already grasped how excellent his skill at counting numbers was.
Even if we continued gambling like this, it would probably be difficult for me to beat him.
The numbers on gambling tiles were limited, so the number of possible cases also decreased.
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Moreover, the Confucian scholar had accumulated countless experiences, so he was probably counting numbers while recalling most tile combinations based on the numbers his opponents discarded.
It would be hard for me to gain an advantage through memory alone.
“Let’s lower the stakes a little. This is too vicious to play.”
A Black Path man who, like me, was losing his stake spoke in dissatisfaction.
I said without even looking at him,
“If you have no money, leave.”
W̊ ӗbno̊ṽе̄ ĺ Еn̈ ü m̈ а̌
“What?”
“I said leave if you have no money. I have something I need to recover.”
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“Look at the way this bastard talks!”
The Black Path man reacted sharply to my words. Since he was losing money, it was an entirely natural reaction.
Even so, I could not stop.
Because I had to recover the Diamond Beads.
Ên̂ u m̈a.
Still looking only at the tiles in my hand, I barked at him.
“Did I say something I shouldn’t have? If you have no money, you should not gamble. Why are you acting disgracefully and asking to lower the stakes?”
At my attitude, Il-myeong and Dang Seo-hui were instead flustered and tried to stop me.
“B-benefactor Jin……”
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“I-it seems better to stop.”
The Black Path man’s face turned bright red, and as if he had nothing more to hold back, he swung his fist at me.
Ẁ ê_b̈ṅ ǒ v̈е̄ l̂ Ӗn̈üm а̃
Struck by the fist before I could sense it, I flipped over the table beside me and instantly turned the place into chaos.
The Black Path man still fumed as if enraged.
“You arrogant little brat, you sure talk like a disrespectful bastard. Come at me, you bastard!”
Such a pathetic provocation did not enter my ears.
Rather, after being hit once, my dizzy head felt even more organized.
“If you are done venting, get lost, you beggar bastard.”
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After barking at the Black Path man who had swung his fist at me, I tried to sit down again.
But the Black Path man once again swung his fist at me.
Whoosh—
Tap.
“Benefactor, you have already swung your fist once, so it would be best to stop.”
“L-let go of this!”
E ñ ŭ m а
However, it was blocked at once by Il-myeong.
“We are doing something important right now. Please leave, as Benefactor Jin said.”
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The Black Path man looked as though he could not understand how the medium-height Il-myeong had so lightly restrained his fist, but in the face of that overwhelming divine might, he eventually snorted and left.
“Benefactor Jin, are you all right?”
“Ah, yes. I am fine.”
After organizing the gambling tiles, we began dealing the tiles again, and Il-myeong and Dang Seo-hui, who had been checking my injury, stepped back.
Е̄ n u m ä.і̌ d̈
The other person who had been participating in the game also seemed to feel that the atmosphere was unusual, so he gathered his stake and left the table.
Now only the Confucian scholar and I remained at the table.
The Confucian scholar, who had been checking his tiles, stared at me quietly.
“……How about receiving treatment first? I will not run away.”
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Was he thinking of me even amid all this?
This person truly felt different from other gamblers.
W ēb n о v e l̀ Е̃ń u ma
Should I say he did not seek money, but found joy in gambling itself?
I shook my head.
“My body has warmed up, and if we stop here, I feel the excitement will die down.”
“If that is what you wish.”
With only two people playing, the speed grew even faster.
Until now, victory and defeat had leaned entirely to one side, but things changed slightly.
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If the Confucian scholar won three rounds, I won one. After a little more time passed, if the Confucian scholar won two rounds, I won one.
The problem was that the stakes exchanged whenever I won were too small.
The money I had to win from him was two hundred silver taels, but the money I had won back so far was only thirty taels, while the money he had taken had now reached five hundred silver taels.
The people who had been gathered noisily to watch until just moments ago had at some point clamped their mouths shut and begun observing the match.
As if that did not burden him at all, the Confucian scholar continued dealing the gambling tiles and carrying on the game as before.
“People say that among the rising stars of the martial world, Young Master Jin’s resourcefulness is the greatest, and that is why your epithet includes the character ‘Yeom,’ meaning thought.”
Wе bn̈ о v̂e l̃ Ѐn üm а
“Rumors tend to contain many exaggerations.”
“You are modest.”
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The Confucian scholar smiled brightly once more.
“They say you possess a mysterious talent, never forgetting anything you have seen once.”
“I think of it more as a curse than a talent.”
This time, too, I lost.
E_num̈а̂ . і̀ d
The Confucian scholar swept up the money piled in the middle.
Then he dealt the tiles again.
“If that were a curse, Young Master Jin’s name would not have spread this widely.”
“Do you truly think so?”
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This time, I won.
I weakly gathered the money, which was less than what the Confucian scholar had taken.
Е nŭ_m ӑ .і d̀
He immediately shuffled the tiles and dealt them.
“I do. If not for that talent, neither the Taeul Sect nor Young Master Jin could have soared so high.”
“One could see it that way.”
“In that regard, I felt a great deal of curiosity about Young Master Jin. I am also similar to Young Master Jin, you see.”
“Is your memory good?”
The Confucian scholar shook his head.
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“No. For me, calculations simply happen whether I want them to or not.”
“Calculations……. Was there nothing difficult about that?”
“It would be a lie to say there was not. Since I can foresee the results of things even when I do not wish to, should I say life is not interesting? At least gambling like this has become my only pleasure.”
I had thought I would win this time, but once again, the Confucian scholar swept up the money.
As expected, his skill at counting numbers seemed superior.
“So there was a reason I was losing money.”
En̈ u m̂ ã
“Well…… it is not necessarily that. If one looks into it, does luck not play a large role in gambling?”
“Luck, is it……. The difference in the sums is too great to call it mere luck.”
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The Confucian scholar simply smiled brightly.
In any case, I won this time.
Perhaps my head was loosening up a little.
I was gradually matching his win rate.
Ë ňum̊а
After becoming certain that he was counting numbers, I had also gradually reduced the money I wagered on rounds I would lose.
At some point, we continued in a state where each of us lost a little and won a little.
And as the scale of the game shrank, some people apparently grew bored and began leaving one by one.
At that moment, the Confucian scholar shuffled the gambling tiles and said,
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“Do you know that some people divine their own fortunes with gambling tiles?”
“I have done it many times.”
Eǹ ǔ mа_.і ď
Across both my previous life and this life, there was probably no bastard who had read fortunes with gambling tiles more often than I had.
After the Confucian scholar dealt the tiles and checked his own hand, he proposed,
“How about we read our fortunes with this round and make it the final match?”
“When you say the final round?”
“Once this round ends, regardless of the result, I will return the Diamond Beads. However, if you lose, in exchange for returning the Diamond Beads, you will give me the Black Dragon Sword.”
I examined the Confucian scholar’s hands.
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There were slight calluses on both hands, but they were not the hands of someone who held a sword.
“You do not seem to use a sword as a weapon, so why do you need a sword?”
“I want to make it proof.”
“Proof?”
When I asked back, he looked at me and grinned.
“Proof that I defeated the Black Flame Dragon.”
Wè bn̂.оv̌ еl̆ Е̄ n̆ŭmа̌
“Why would you need proof that you defeated someone like me?”
“Hmm, simply…… I thought it would be nice to have.”
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I examined my tiles.
Then I nodded.
“Very well.”
At that moment, Il-myeong’s desperate Sound Transmission reached me.
W e̊ bn̂ о̇v е̂ ĺ Е nü m а
-B-benefactor Jin…… You cannot guarantee certain victory with those tiles, can you?
Good grief. When did you become a gambling expert?
I ignored the words of the gambling expert bald head and continued looking at the Confucian scholar.
“The Black Dragon Sword is a precious object, but it is not comparable to the Diamond Beads. Are you fine with that?”
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“I would rather hear that I defeated the Black Flame Dragon than that I defeated Monk Il-myeong.”
“I do not know whether I should be pleased. What am I, really?”
Еn um̆ а
We each drew one more tile and began arranging our hands.
Each time, we placed one silver coin on the table, but it was nothing more than a formality.
After all, the stakes in this round were ultimately the Diamond Beads and the Black Dragon Sword.
The Confucian scholar began rubbing his chin.
“When I first heard the rumors of the Black Flame Dragon, I was so shocked that my body trembled. I had never imagined someone of such a degree could exist.”
“Is that so?”
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He slowly nodded.
“Perhaps because I, too, am shouldering my sect alone, I became even more emotionally invested.”
“I am not shouldering it alone.”
“Even so, in the end, the one shouldering the heaviest burden is……”
The Confucian scholar discarded the tile marked with the number ten and drew a new tile.
“Someone like us.”
Wе b̌ ñ.o.vě l Е n um̃ ӑ
At length, the Confucian scholar grinned, showing his teeth.
“In any case, it seems my fortune is a little better.”
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Bullshit.
He had looked at his initial hand and decided to make the wager, yet now he was talking about luck?
“…….”
“Shall we reveal them, then?”
Е̇ n_ú m̊а
The Confucian scholar placed the Diamond Beads on the table.
I also untied the Black Dragon Sword and placed it on the table.
The Confucian scholar slowly laid his tiles down on the table.
“Unfortunately, it seems I have won this match.”
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When the Linked Sword hand, with five consecutive numbers, appeared, deep exclamations rang through the area.
“Good heavens. When he discarded the ten tile, I wondered if perhaps……!”
W е̃b́n о v́ е̂l̊_ Ёñu ṁ ӑ
“A Linked Sword……! In the end, that Confucian scholar won.”
“I suppose so. Even I have only seen that hand three times.”
How absurd.
A real Linked Sword hand had appeared.
It was such an implausible hand that even One-Eyed Ghost Sword had rarely used it when cheating at gambling.
And in the final round, with the most important thing at stake?
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In the end, it meant that from the moment he received his initial tiles, the bastard had predicted that a Linked Sword would appear.
And I had flailed beautifully within his calculations.
The Confucian scholar reached for the Black Dragon Sword and said,
“I should boast to my sect fellows. That I defeated the Black Flame Dragon, that is. Hehe.”
With a smiling face, the Confucian scholar reached for the Black Dragon Sword as if he no longer cared about the Diamond Beads.
“Stop right there.”
Е̄ n ŭ m̆ а̄ .і̊ d́
I grabbed the wrist of the Confucian scholar who had taken hold of the Black Dragon Sword.
“Where do you think you are carelessly moving your hand?”
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Although the difference in our martial arts was evident, the Confucian scholar kept smiling as if he had all the leisure in the world.
“Do you intend to use force after all?”
“What are you talking about?”
I did not know where things had gone wrong.
Ŵ е̇ bn о̃ v̀ еľ Ĕ n ü m̂ а̊
Perhaps it had gone wrong from the moment that bald head sat down at this table.
Even so.
That did not mean I had sat here proudly without being able to solve the problem either.
“I have not even revealed my tiles yet.”
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“Heh, even if you look at them, they will be……”
Tap. Tap.
Ŵ е̃ḃn̈ о v̄ ẽ l̊ Е̂ń u ṁ а́
I placed the tiles on the table one by one.
“……?”
Each time I laid down a tile, the smiling Confucian scholar’s face hardened.
“W-what is this……”
“Have you never heard that it is not over until it is over?”
Each time I laid down a tile one by one, the surrounding gamblers’ eyes grew wider.
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“Huh…… Huuuh?! Huuuh!”
At length, when all the tiles were revealed.
Groans like moans burst out from every direction.
“Good heavens…… To think I would see that.”
“Is that hand even supposed to be possible?”
Four one tiles and one king tile.
W̃e b̄n̊ о v̄ ėľ Е n ūm а.
It was the strongest hand in gambling tiles, the Five Heavenly Kings.
“W-why the Five Heavenly Kings?!”
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The Confucian scholar stared alternately at me and my tiles with an expression of disbelief.
“I suppose I was lucky.”
I grinned at him.
Why, what?
W e b́n̆о̂v̊ê_l E nù m ӓ
Why do you think the Gambling God is the Gambling God?
Because the Gambling God wins no matter what.
You brat!
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