Chapter 23: Let’s Play a Game (2)
"The rules are simple. We’ll play blackjack for money. The loser will pay the other side the amount of the bet. If you fail to pay up, you’ll pay with your body parts. The game will continue until one of the two sides has run out of money entirely, or until one of them is unable to make a physical payment."
When Ghost spoke these words, the anxiety in Dean’s heart vanished instantly; the young man smiled and said, "As you wish."
It was clear that the Ghosts were quite taken aback.
Dean was genuinely delighted.
If money was involved, there was no one who could stop him.
He could lose as much money as he liked; if there was any cheating involved, he could uncover it and, in the end, walk away from there safely.
The fact that none of the other players had lost a limb was enough to convince him that he did indeed stand a chance of winning.
In this situation, the only thing to do was simply wait and see the outcome.
Blackjack.
It was a card game Dean knew quite well.
Players in this game played against the dealer; players are dealt all their cards face up; the dealer’s first card is face up, whilst the second is face down.
The game aims to get closer to 21 than the dealer without going over 21.
If a player’s total is lower than the dealer’s, the hand is lost; if it exceeds 21, the hand ’busts’.
It was a simple game, but it could be seen as a rather odd one, as it required calculating based on the card counts.
Card counting was never regarded as a good thing, but given the current situation, it couldn’t be said that Dean was particularly concerned about it.
"First bet: 100 Nether and Aether coins," the ghost said suddenly.
There was an ugly grin on his face.
When Dean heard that sum, his eyes widened in shock; he didn’t know what to say in response.
100?
Just... 100?
Dean wouldn’t even wipe his arse with that sort of money.
Now, that was a crude way of putting it, but the young man realised fully and completely at that moment that he wasn’t dealing with your average ghost.
He’d thought about what could be done with 100 Nether and Aether coins.
To be perfectly honest, Dean didn’t know much about this sort of thing, that is, economics.
To be perfectly honest, Dean didn’t actually live in this realm, or the Aether-Realm.
That’s why his understanding of money was practically non-existent.
With 100 Nether and Aether coins, it would be possible to pay a month’s rent in the rural corners of the Nether-Realm, or to eat at a perfectly decent restaurant, albeit not a luxurious one, for more than twenty days.
In short, for a normal, low-level ghost, this sum was far more than expected.
Of course, this only applied to the lower-level regions of the realm.
Dean had finally withdrawn 100 Nether and Aether coins from the system and, this time, had actually placed the coins on the table.
The money had arrived in a small purse in Dean’s hand.
The system really was a mystery.
Whatever.
When the ghosts saw him withdraw the money so easily and without a word, they looked at one another.
"No takebacks or escape attempts, right, human?" one of the ghosts had asked.
Dean simply smiled and replied, "If you lot won’t, I shan’t either."
The Ghosts burst out laughing as they looked at one another.
Then the leader of the Ghosts sat down in a chair and pulled a pack of playing cards from the inside pocket of his coat.
Exactly 52 cards.
He shuffled the cards for perhaps five minutes.
"I’ll be your croupier today," said the ghost, before dealing enough cards to himself and Dean.
The moment Dean looked carefully at his own card and the one lying face-up in front of the ghost, he tilted his head and smiled.
"So they’re openly cheating," thought the young man.
Whilst the 2 of hearts and the 2 of diamonds lay clearly in front of Dean, the 10 of hearts lay in front of the man.
In this situation, it wasn’t difficult to predict the next card.
"Hit," said Dean.
The moment he said this, his theory was confirmed.
"4 of spades," thought Dean.
He clearly wanted to show his appreciation to the people opposite him.
It was quite obvious they were cheating.
Even someone who didn’t know the game could have realised this.
Still, how were they doing it?
This ’ghost’ had shuffled the cards right in front of Dean’s very eyes.
So, whatever method they were using to cheat, there had to be a way.
If Dean could figure it out, he might be able to counter it somehow; or, conversely, he might be the one cheating and could win every hand.
Dean realised there was no point in playing this hand any further and, after saying ’hit’ twice, tried to end the game quickly.
He didn’t have much to lose anyway.
With these two cards he’d drawn in quick succession, Dean had already gone over twenty-one.
The young man had drawn two tens in a row.
This... was an unbelievable act of cheating.
On top of that, what happened next was even stranger.
The dealer immediately turned over his cards, revealing yet another ten.
Four tens in a row.
This... was such a massive cheat that it almost made Dean burst out laughing.
The probability of such an event was, mathematically speaking, almost 0.671%. This meant it was something that might happen once in nearly 150 hands, and this had happened on the very first hand, hadn’t it?
Bullshit.
Dean was aware of this too.
The young man had smiled and asked, "Again?"
He then produced another handful of Nether and Aether coins and placed the pouch on the table.
The man collected the cards, shuffled them again and dealt them out.
The same thing happened again.
The aces had appeared without a trace of detail; they’d been thrown down, and Dean had taken two or three before topping them up with a nine or a ten, busting straight away.
This had happened time and time again.
The Ghosts were laughing, but at the same time they were trying to show respect for the game.
Dean, however, understood the reason for this all too well.
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