socalfunplaces Page 231
Page 231
He touched the slightly rough table, looked up, and intended to observe the dealer and other players in this card game.
In the dim space, a creature that looked like a monstrous, rotting monster slowly emerged from the darkness, pulled out a chair opposite the table, and sat down.
As its body sank, its skeletal face was revealed in the light emanating from around the table.
"It wasn't the same dealer as before... The previous dealer was quite nice."
Latis looked at the tangled, messy hair on the giant dealer's head, shook his head, and still thought the skeleton dealer who had been smiling earlier looked kinder.
The monstrous dealer nodded to Latis, then looked at the two card players on either side who were gradually entering the light. Latis stroked his chin and also looked to both sides.
On the left was a card player whose entire body was illusory. He looked somewhat like the card players he had met before, except that his body was larger. Latis examined this card player for a while and guessed that he should be a bone spirit, just like Seren.
The Bone Spirit card player, draped in a dark red cloak, glanced around the card table with his ethereal eyes, then walked straight through the back of the chair and sat down as if he had stepped through a mold.
The card player on the right is a strange skeleton with bone wings. Its skull does not look like a human skull, with extremely large eye sockets and what appears to be a remnant of a bird's beak.
The bird-like skeleton pulled out a chair, then inexplicably stepped onto it. To Latis's astonishment, its leg bones strangely bent and folded, causing it to kneel on the chair. With this movement, its bony wings drooped down, overlapping and pressing against the chair back.
The monstrous dealer nodded to the bone spirit and the birdman skeleton, then flipped his hand, and a deck of cards appeared in his enormous palm.
The dealer casually scrambled the cards on the table with his fingers, then scraped them off with his fingernail, and the whole deck was neatly returned to his hand.
It cut the cards a few times, then pressed the back of the cards with its withered fingertips and dealt five cards each to Latis and his two card-playing friends from a distance.
Latis took a deep breath. This time, the dealer dealt the cards decisively and efficiently, without letting the players come forward to draw cards. He couldn't see anything that could be used to cheat.
He glanced at his two card-playing friends who each held five cards in their hands, and without making a sound, he reached out and took the cards in front of him into his own hand.
"Let's get some good cards, let's get this clod of dirt on us!..."
Latis mimicked the card-reading technique from the movies, slowly slicing open the corners of the cards—one, two, three…
Then, looking at the cards in his hand, he subconsciously rubbed his fingers together and sighed in disappointment.
Chapter 238 Mr. Bones' Soul Maid
Ace of Spades, 3 of Spades, 7 of Clubs, 6 of Diamonds, 4 of Hearts!
Latis was somewhat helpless, wondering if he was going to lose like this again.
The monstrous dealer glanced at him, a confident and arrogant expression appearing on his ugly face. Latis and the dealer exchanged a look and fell silent.
From the dealer's expression, he already knew that the hands he and his two friends had dealt were entirely under the dealer's deliberate manipulation. The dealer already knew the outcome, and all that was left was to enjoy the players' performance.
"A dealer in a 'talent-based' gambling game isn't necessarily fair... Come to think of it, the dealers at Ocean World used card decks before..."
Suddenly, his expression changed as he noticed that the simulator was displaying the item information of the cards in his hand.
[“Willpower Deck”: A deck that was popular for a time in the vast world, allowing players to change their hand by competing with the dealer's magic. However, after all four players ran out of magic in one game and were caught by the Star Sea Gambling Police, it generated widespread negative publicity and eventually disappeared from the gambling tables of the vast world.]
"It really is a deck! But... good grief, did you guys go there to play cards or to fight? You used up all your mana in just one game?"
Latis muttered a somewhat exasperated thought to himself, then pondered uncertainly:
"If it were a contest of magic power, I might actually be able to... but in this dimensional journey, my body is a blank slate. Will this even work?"
He thought for a moment, then looked at the smallest card, the 4 of hearts, and suddenly his mind went blank.
crunch--
The monstrous dealer across the table shifted his chair, exchanged a glance with the flushed Latis, and gave him a disdainful smile.
"Yes, it really works!"
The pulsation of the soul startled Latis, as if the soul always carried that massive amount of magic power, which could still be projected to this place even after crossing an extremely long distance.
Before he could even ponder the underlying principles, Latis's head jolted as if he had struck a metal plate. He instinctively maintained the flow of magic and glanced up at the monstrous dealer.
The clash of magic made Latis vaguely sense that the opponent's magic reserves were similar to his own. He thought for a moment, glanced at his hand, and stopped the magic contest.
The dealer chuckled, tapped the table with his dry fingernails, glanced at the players on either side, and signaled that they could play their cards.
The skeletal spirit draped in a red cloak rippled outwards, seemingly sighing. It then laid out the cards on the table with a look of disinterest, its illusory hand passing through the table and leaving only five cards on it.
Queen of Spades, 7 of Spades, 7 of Diamonds, 7 of Hearts, 5 of Hearts!
This is a set of three.
Latis looked thoughtful as he gazed at the birdman skeleton.
The bird-like skeleton's bone wings trembled slightly, making a clattering sound. It seemed quite disappointed and simply threw out its cards.
黑桃5、梅花5、方块5、方块8、方块9！
It's also a set of three.
The dealer let out a strange, snickering laugh, his enormous hand pressing down on the fifteen chips on the table as he looked at Latis provocatively.
It's time to show off your real skills!
Latis chuckled, and in front of the monstrous dealer, he pinched the Ace of Spades in his hand, and with a thought, magic poured out of his hand like a tidal wave.
Crunch!
The two card players watched in bewilderment as the monstrous dealer suddenly slid back half a meter, then followed the dealer's shocked and angry gaze to Latis.
Someone actually dared to provoke him a second time after clashing with him once!
The monstrous dealer angrily unleashed a portion of his magic power, then confidently looked at Latis, eager to see him instantly defeated and begging for mercy.
boom!
However, it was the monstrous dealer who suffered a huge loss. The magic power, which was almost greater than his total power, slammed into his soul, leaving him completely disoriented.
The sight of the card players watching from both sides humiliated the troll. He roared and unleashed all his magic power with a desperate urge.
The tide of magic surged back and forth on the thin card, reaching a stalemate like Ultraman battling a beam. Latis stared intently at the giant, his fingers clenching the Ace of Spades tightly, increasing the output of magic.
This is not good!
Although his magical power was very profound, its quality was far inferior to that of the giant dealer in front of him. Therefore, with similar magical reserves, after exhausting his own reserves, he could only seem to be able to fight off one-third of the dealer's magical power!
The giant seemed to have noticed this as well. He suddenly let out a grotesque laugh, leaned forward, and slammed his massive body onto the table with a loud thud. The unrestrained sound was filled with unbridled mockery and oppressive power.
"Damn, this is really annoying..."
Latis looked at the giant's gaping maw and grimaced in annoyance, but there was nothing he could do in this situation; this dealer was stronger than the others he had seen before.
He shook his head, about to give up the magical battle, when suddenly a contract in his soul that had been dim for a long time suddenly shone brightly. Before Latis could react to what was happening, he sensed a surge of powerful magic power gushing out from it and crashing straight towards the giant!
When the giant's powerful magic encountered this magic, it melted away instantly, like ice and snow under the scorching sun, without encountering even the slightest obstacle.
boom!
As the giant monster tumbled off the chair, Latis's fingers also rubbed the corner of the card.
The monstrous dealer jumped up in shock and anger, and amidst the astonished gazes of his two fellow dealers, slammed his hand on the table.
Where does this magic come from?
Latis suppressed his doubts, smiled slightly, placed the Ace of Spades, which had become the 5 of Spades, on the table, and then spread out the remaining cards as well.
黑桃5、黑桃3、梅花7、方块6、红心4！
Upon closer inspection, this seemingly chaotic hand, though small, turned out to be a straight, just enough to beat the two players' three of a kind.
Clack clack...
The sound of the bird-man skeleton flapping its wings came from behind. Latis turned his head and saw that the bird-man skeleton's mouth was wide open, and the entire bird-man was leaning over the table, staring blankly at Latis's hand.
Latis frowned, suddenly realizing a problem: the five cards he had created using the deck's special properties had already been played by his two card-playing friends!
That is to say...
He looked to his left and right, and saw that both of his card players had turned their heads toward the monstrous dealer, as if waiting for the dealer to make a ruling.
The monstrous dealer's chest heaved violently. A hint of surprise flashed in his angry eyes. After a moment of silence, he gripped the chips and, suppressing his anger, pushed them in front of Latis.
The two card players sighed, stood up and looked at each other. They didn't have any objections to the result, after all, cheating has never been forbidden in the game of talent, but they didn't know that this was an ancient card game.
After nodding to Latis in congratulation, the card players retreated and disappeared into the darkness.
Latis watched the troll quickly pack away its deck, suppressed his confusion about what had just happened, thought for a moment, stood up, and asked the departing troll:
"Brother, can I ask you a question? Are you from the Bone Spirit Realm? Are the participants in this betting game also from the Bone Spirit Realm?"
He had wanted to ask this question for a long time. After all, the previous bets all seemed to involve people from the corresponding planes, but when he traveled between planes, he had never heard of anyone being selected to participate in any talent bets.
A look of astonishment flashed across the troll's face. He put the deck into his pocket, glanced at Latis, and his lingering anger slowly dissipated. He remained silent for a moment, looked at Latis with confusion, hesitated for a while, and then drew a horizontal figure eight on the table.
Watching the troll turn and leave, Latis scratched his head, put away his chips, and pondered:
'8? Infinite? ...Could it be the Endless Dimensional Travel Agency?'
The light around the table slowly faded, and Latis's vision was plunged into darkness once again.
……
……
十五枚筹码在黑暗中逐渐散开，最终形成了1、1、1、2、2、2、6的组合。
The talent gamble has ended; you have acquired seven talents.
[Fear of Insufficient Firepower (Normal): When you are unable to eliminate enemies with overwhelming force, you will feel an extremely strong sense of crisis.]
[Naturally Rebellious (Common): Your bones are naturally capable of twisting in the opposite direction.]
[Cancel Aftercast Animation (Normal): You can use one action to cancel the aftercast animation of another action.]
Love can transcend all things (Excellent): With love, you can transcend all things.
[Animalistic Teardrop (Fine): The teardrop you generate can be used to summon a clone.]
[Bus (Excellent): As a millennium bus, the more passengers you carry, the more stable the ride will be, and the faster you will go.]
[Safe Word (Legend): You can choose one of several phrases as your safe word. When you chant the safe word, you will gain invincibility for (number of safe word characters * one second).]
Your dimensional journey is about to begin...
……
……
Tick.