Chapter 1548: Chapter 1546: The Tavern in Snow and Ice
Cold, very cold, extremely cold.
When the body was assimilated by glowing numbers, this was Richard’s feeling, which continued to intensify.
It was as if he had taken off his clothes and placed himself on a polar ice plain; the endless chill kept attacking, making him feel like even his blood and soul were going to freeze.
Just when it was almost unbearable, his vision flickered, then brightened, and he appeared in a completely unfamiliar environment.
The body assimilated by glowing numbers was restored, and the clothes he wore were exactly the same, the only change being the environment.
Looking around, it was no longer the previous mountain top, but a plain.
Under the dark sky, snow was falling thickly on the plain, the depth almost reaching above the knees, causing the slightly eased cold to once again envelop Richard entirely.
Richard narrowed his eyes and looked around. Despite his cleverness, he couldn’t determine the situation at the moment, only opting to act cautiously.
After a while, he saw a faint light flickering in the distance. He pondered for a few seconds, then stepped forward towards it.
"Crunch, crunch..."
...
The footprints left in the snow quickly got covered up by the new snow. Richard reached the place where the light appeared.
It turned out to be a tavern established on the roadside, not very large, but emitting a faint energy wave from inside.
Richard reached out a hand and knocked on the tavern door rhythmically.
"Knock knock knock, knock, knock knock knock!"
"Squeak," the door opened, and a middle-aged man with a flaming red beard appeared, seemingly the tavern owner. He glanced at Richard and asked in a buzzing voice, "Passing by?"
"Yes," Richard nodded.
"Then come in quickly. This damn weather is enough to freeze a person to death," said the tavern owner, rubbing his hands and inviting Richard in, kindly pointing to a fireplace in the center of the tavern, "Sit over there for a while and warm yourself up first."
Richard nodded again and sat by the fireplace as the tavern owner suggested.
The fire roared beside him, occasionally throwing out sparks, but for some reason, he couldn’t feel the warmth, at most slightly alleviating the chill that seemed to freeze the soul.
Richard frowned slightly, sitting while observing the interior of the tavern.
He could see that this was indeed a very ordinary tavern, with a half-old bar counter, shaky wooden tables, the previous tavern owner, and scattered guests making up everything.
To say where it was different from the Test Plane Wizard World inn he had visited before, perhaps it was the largest table in the middle of the tavern, around which quite a few people were gathered, playing a very special card game.
The cards, similar in size to poker on Earth but thicker, were made of a special material, with gold foiling and intricate patterns on the surface, faint energy continually emanating from the cards—the very same he sensed outside the tavern.
This is...
Richard approached the table where the card game was happening, standing on the periphery to observe.
At the moment, two people were playing cards, both of them were fat men.
The first was dressed like a farmer, the second... also dressed like a farmer.
However, the first person was a bit younger, the second was older, seemingly like a father and son.
Richard observed for a while and found the card rules quite peculiar, with overly unconventional contents on the cards. For instance, he saw a Wizard’s pattern on the card, a Beastman’s pattern, a Floating Airship’s pattern, and then a Jet Fighter’s pattern, a Self-propelled Artillery’s pattern, and even a Nuclear Bomb’s pattern.
The people in the card game were not unfamiliar with the patterns and even knew their uses.
The young son forcefully played a "Floating Airship" card, and the older father immediately followed with a "Jet Fighter" card.
"Your airship is too slow, and it doesn’t have beyond-visual-range combat capabilities, I can fully suppress you," the older father commented, "The airship is a good card, but you played it a bit early. You’re gradually losing the advantage you painstakingly established, my son."
"Dad, you spoke too soon. I played the airship merely as a decoy. The real killer move is here," the young son said, throwing out a card with a Black Robed Wizard pattern, exclaiming, "Spirit Mage, control your fighter jets, that way I have an absolute aerial advantage."
"That may be so, but don’t forget I still have the ultimate weapon."
"Bang!"
The older father threw out a card with the "Nuclear Bomb" pattern, and a very tiny mushroom cloud actually emerged on the table.
The surrounding onlookers collectively sighed with "ah" in admiration, the young son pursed his lips.
The tavern owner behind the bar shouted displeased, "Hey, be careful not to damage my table!"
However, no one paid him any mind and the card game continued.
A few minutes later, as the card game concluded, the older father used a Doomsday Mecha to kill the young son’s Biochemical Giant, winning the victory.
The father’s face revealed a smile, then he looked up at Richard and invited, "You seem like a new face, watching from the side for a long time, want to have a game with me?"
"Me..." Richard thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "I think I’ll just watch."
"Alright then." The older father didn’t persist and started playing cards with another old man with an alcoholic nose.
One game after another, the card games proceeded, players exchanged one pair after another, but regardless of who replaced them, after each game, they would sincerely invite Richard to play.
Without exception, Richard refused them all.
In his view, the current situation was too strange, and before gathering enough information, he wouldn’t want to add any complications beyond what was necessary.
Thus, the card games went on for a hundred rounds, two hundred rounds, three hundred rounds...
At the end of the five hundred and twelfth round, Richard noticed the original father and son pair returned to the table and started the game anew.
...
"Floating Airship!"
"Fighter."
"Spirit Mage!"
"Nuclear Bomb."
"..."
...
"Biochemical Giant!"
"Doomsday Mecha, haha, my son, you’ve lost."
The exact same card play order, exactly the same results, and naturally the same post-game invitation.
"You seem like a new face, watching from the side for a long time, want to have a game with me?" the older father looked at Richard and asked.
Richard had already left the card table and returned to the fireplace, upon hearing this, his heart stirred, and he suddenly guessed a certain truth.
The next moment, he directly reached his hand into the fireplace, and under the fierce burning flames, his hand was completely unscathed.
So this is how it is...
Richard raised an eyebrow and looked at the older father, responding, "Sure, let’s have a game."
