Chapter 16: Ca-ching
‘I think I misheard you. What did you say?’
‘Draken died. 4 days ago.’
“Daragon? Are you okay?” Nayla asked. Daragon’s face grew pale as he dropped to the floor.
‘Take over for me please.’ Daragon thought to himself.
Priscilla watched it all unfold without saying a word.
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‘What the hell.’
“Daragon?!” Nayla shouted worriedly while going over to help Daragon get up.
“I’m fine. My head hurts.” Daragon said while shrugging Nayla off.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’ll be going now.” Daragon got up to leave.
“Aren’t you staying here for tonight?” Nayla spoke softly. She had a bit of disappointment in her voice mixed with her concern for Daragon going out late at night.
“Oh right. My bad, I forgot.”
“You forgot?” Priscilla inquired.
“Nevermind that. I’ll cook dinner now.” Nayla stated as she took the grocery bags from the floor which Daragon had dropped.
Daragon and Priscilla sat across from each other. Both were on the floor.
“So… Uncle Tenshi.”
“Who?”
“You went with him, didn’t you? Where is he now?”
“I have no idea who this Tenshi man is.” Daragon answered straightforwardly.
“He goes by the nickname Relic too. I don’t like it since it dehumanizes him. But he prefers to be called that.”
“Oh, him. Wait, why don’t you call him Relic?”
“Well, Draken told me to call him that. And Uncle Tenshi doesn’t really mind.”
“Draken… how do you know my brother?” Daragon grilled.
“Lets just say I’m indebted to him. But back to my question. Where did he go?”
“He left.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Daragon looked down. He remembered the slap Relic delivered to him and kept quiet.
“Tell me then. Has he gotten over Encil yet?”
“Okay the food’s ready!” Nayla interrupted the pair with a pot of food. Daragon scanned the meal. It was quite simple. Egg fried rice with chicken and chopped up vegetables. However, the presentation was astounding. It looked like a high class meal despite only costing around 6 Euros to make one plateful of it.
The reverberations of a gluttonous monster chewing on its prey rang through the room. Daragon turned his head to see Priscilla, the ‘dignified’ looking Elf gobbling her food.
“Slow down Priscilla. Nobody’s going to take your food.” Nayla scolded as she turned to Daragon, taking up a different tone. “Sorry about her. She’s always been lacking table manners.”
“Seconds.” Priscilla commanded while bringing out her plate. Nayla looked down in defeat as she grabbed her another serving.
Daragon ate slowly. The food was nice. And that’s how the night went. They went to sleep after the meal. Daragon, sleeping on the floor.
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Daragon was woken up by the rays of the sun blinding his eyes. He glanced and noticed Nayla was gone. After folding the blankets he had used, he laid them all on one side and prepared to leave.
“Wat are yu doin Encil?” Daragon turned to see Priscilla mumbling something in her sleep. It looks like only Nayla had left early. His impression of Priscilla had been ruined.
Daragon opened the door as a knife flew by his cheek, cutting it.
“What the heck?”
“Sorry.” Priscilla apologised while rubbing her eye. “It happens.”
“That sounds highly unlikely.”
“It’s the truth. Whenever I feel unsafe my body automatically throws something at it.”
“Well then, I’m leaving before you feel any more unsafe.”
“Where are you going?”
“Yet to be decided and none of your-” Another knife flew by.
“Sorry. I also throw stuff when I’m annoyed.”
“Where the hell are you getting these knives from?!”
“I sleep with sharp objects. Makes me feel safe.”
“That makes even less sense!” Daragon retorted.
“If you’re not going anywhere, do you have spare money?”
“I need money.”
“I’m not asking for your money. Just wanted to know if you wanted to see the Casino? Nayla told me you planned on checking out the place.” Priscilla suggested. “I don’t want to go there alone. Plus you could win more money.”
“More money is better than current money. Where is it?” Daragon was tempted. Although it was his other self that said it, he too wanted to explore the country a bit.
“Depends which one we’re going to. There’s only two.”
“Two in the town? That’s so little.”
“No, two in the Lion City. One is at Marina Bay Sands. That’s probably closer and Uncle Tenshi took me there before so I know the way.”
“Alright how do we get there?”
“Let me bathe and change first.” Priscilla said.
‘I should probably change too.’ Daragon thought to himself, rumaging his bag that Aisha
The two changed after taking turns with Nayla’s only bathroom. There was no running water, just a bucket since Nayla cut cost by using mana to make the water fall onto her like a showerhead.
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“Hm?” Priscilla tilted her head while looking at the map, eyeing it closely.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“What do you mean ‘Hm?”
“This isn’t right. We’re supposed to be at Marina.” She said while turning to the sign that clearly said ‘Yishun’.
“Give me that map.” Daragon snatched the map out of her hands and looked at it closely. “This is in Chinese! How did you even read it?”
“I didn’t. I was going off memory. I swear this was the route Uncle Tenshi took.”
“Did he by any chance go through a portal.”
“Oh!” Priscilla gasped.
“You’re hopeless.” Daragon was increasingly annoyed at the girl.
After asking some locals, they directed them to the Mana Railway Train, abbreviated as MRT. A fast network of trains all ran on Passive Mana. It costs nothing to use since anyone that is on there would be powering it with Mana. However they would have to go through a Mana Gauge station which would check their levels of mana and also take a tiny bit of it to be transferred into energy as a tax.
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“So this is it?” Daragon asked.
“Yup. This is the place.” Priscilla confirmed.
The two stood outside the three towers. The tourist trap with a ‘flying boat’. Of course, it would take far too much Mana to actually maintain a boat in the air
“Come on. Lets check out the Casino.” Priscilla said.
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“Sorry kids but you have to be 21 to enter.”
“Do we need an adult?” Priscilla asked.
“No. Even with an adult, you’re not allowed to enter.” The man tried to explain.
“Just give it a rest. I should have known better than to try to go to a Casino. Though I thought the age was 18.”
“That’s for the Lottery and Horse Races.”
“But Uncle Tenshi let me enter here before.” Priscilla turned her head facing down in disappointment. It was highly irresponsible of Relic to have done that though.
“Priscilla?” A voice boomed. It was a woman wearing nothing but a white collared shirt and black tie. She had sunglasses despite it being indoors.
https://i.imgur.com/GrjOUXr.png
“Auntie!”
“I told you not to call me Auntie.” She said, a bit annoyed. She did look too young to be an aunt and was self-conscious about her age. “If you’re here, where’s Relic?”
“Uncle Tenshi isn’t with me. I wanted to go inside to make money like Uncle Tenshi.”
“Even Encil is with you though.”
“I’m not Encil. I’m Daragon Eccel.” Daragon corrected.
“Eccel?” She then turned her eyes to Daragon’s wrist. A watch he had. And then his necklace hidden under his shirt. “You two should come with me inside.”
“But Director-” The clerk tried to rebut.
“Unless you want your children to starve, you’ll keep quiet.” She shot back and walked with Priscilla inside. Daragon followed quietly.
‘Hey, you there?’ He thought, trying to call out his other self. No response. ‘I don’t have a good feeling about this woman.’
Daragon walked past the slot machines along the main path. He heard screams of joy mixed with cries of agony. Riches to be found yet brimming with debt. The trio diverged to a door that said ‘Restricted’. She put her hands on a small rectangular device attached to the wall and the door opened. The door led to a staircase deeper down which in turn opened up to a giant room full of people fighting in small cages as well as many tables of people playing poker. They were a mix of ages.
“This is the VIP Area. Its only accessible to those who hold a an account here that reaches a threshold of five million.” She elaborated. Daragon and Priscilla were stunned to see that everyone in this room had upwards of five million or more in cash.
“I don’t have an account though.” Priscilla said.
“No but your friend does.” She pointed to Daragon.
“Me? I’ve never even been here before.”
“But your brother has. And he told us if and when he dies, his brother would inherit the fortune. Even if he wasn’t of legal age yet.” She explained. “Your necklace is proof of your identity.”
“He did? Wait whats the balance?” Daragon asked. Skipping over the fact she saw his necklace despite it being underneath his shirt.
“Ten million.” Daragon’s eyes widened. When did Draken have the time to go here? And why did he spend ten million? Did he really win all that or deposit it?
“Can I withdraw it?”
“Not all of it at once. Only up to 100,000 though we do have a withdrawal fee of 20%.”
“20%? That sounds exorbitant.” Daragon was bewildered by the extreme price. That meant 2 million wasn’t even his. However, this was a Casino. ‘I could win it all back. No. Why would I gamble over such a large amount of money.’
“So can we gamble here Auntie?” Priscilla asked again.
“I said stop calling me auntie Priscilla…” She said, twitching a smile in anger.
“What is your name anyways?” Daragon questioned.
“It’s Lois Yang.”
“You’re Chinese?” Daragon asked.
“That doesn’t really matter right now. Can we gamble?” Priscilla buzzed.
“Sure but this place is a bit special. You gamble with a special type of chip.”
“How special can a Chip be?” Daragon chalked up her talk to being just that. Big talk. It was probably just a bigger number chip with special colours.
Lois brought out a single Chip. Instead of a large number like 5,000, it was just a single digit. 1. Perhaps it was simply making the denominations bigger so patrons didn’t think they were gambling much? Nay!
“This represents 1 month.” Lois smirked.
“One month?”
“Our motto is ‘Time waits for some men. Rich men.’” She further explained. “I won’t explain much further but in short, you can buy time. Afterwards just crush this and your body will be rewinded by the time you did.”
“What? There’s no way that’s possible. If it was, there would be immortal people roaming the Earth.”
“Yes, there are of course some limitations. The effect is only temporary. It lasts for 10 minutes. So you’d have to keep getting more and more. Afterwards, it’ll return your body to the age you were originally.”
“That still doesn’t sound possible.” Daragon rejected. “And who would want something temporary?”
“You know Relic, right? That man can create portals from thin air. You think time manipulation is impossible?” She scoffed. “And you think people don’t like temporary pleasures? Have you ever eaten good food and wanted more? That’s temporary yet millions enjoy in fine dining.”
“Hold on, you mean this is from a Seguri?” Daragon ignored her last comment. He did agree with her logic a bit.
“Yes. And you can also withdraw your own lifespan. However, that will not return. Time takes easily but doesn’t give much.”
“So Time’s a biznatch. Got it.” Daragon said while thinking it over. “How much is a month?”
“100,000.”
“No I meant how many days are in a month. Because some months have 30 days. And one has 7. I don’t want to get scammed.”
Yes. In a year there are 365 days but 13 months. The first five months have 29 days. The next 7 have 30. And the last month, called ‘Mavar’, had 7 days. Every 4 years, January had an extra day.
“Well, we quantified one month as 30 days. A year chip only had 360 days and not 365. So 12 Chips.”
“I’ll get a two years then. Break them up into 12 chips of two months.”
“Hey Daragon… can I have one?” Priscilla asked. She didn’t have anywhere enough to gamble but she really wanted to earn the money. “I’ll pay you back. Come on, please?”
“Fine.” Daragon sighed.
“And he’s out! Now as per the agreement, all of his chips will be lost!” An announcer shouted. They turned to a cage of two men fighting. Both were quite old. One was knocked out.
There was a screen with two numbers and the faces of the two men. One said 245 and the other said 335. The part saying 245 turned into a 0 as the knocked out men started rapidly aging. The men around the cage cheered and cried at the same time. Some were cursing him.
“What was that?” Daragon asked.
“Oh. That’s the fighting cage. Its the main part of this place. Those with debts that cannot be paid back are offered to earn back their debt here. They fight by risking their life. They have nothing to lose after all. And the rich people bet on them and pay off their debt by purchasing their life.” She elucidated. “It’s a win-win situation for all parties involved.”
“As long as they had the choice. I guess its okay.” Daragon told himself. “I’ll just stick to games I know like Poker.”
“I’ll do that too!” Priscilla raised her hand enthusiastically.
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“And that’s all your chips!” The dealer said.
“What?!” Daragon groaned. He had lost everything in a matter of seconds. Just like against Relic. He was confident in his counting skills but his face gave away everything. Contradictory to him, Priscilla was on a roll. “Withdraw 48 months. Now! I'm going to win this time. I know it.”
Daragon said as he was given more chips. This time he went to the Blackjack section. His card counting skills would be better used there.
‘Hey.’ His other self said.
‘Oh. What were you doing?’
‘Reading our memories for the past few days. See if there was anything I missed out on. I was also watching some of our memories with Draken…’
‘I know its been hard on you since you’re me but I’m gambling right now. So let me concentrate.’
‘Alright then. I’ll go then.’
“Bullshit!” Daragon stood up to yell. “There’s no way there was an Ace! I clearly counted how many Aces there were!”
“You were card counting?” The Dealer grinned. “You must have miscounted then. And card counting isn’t allowed here.”
“Mr. Eccel, please follow me.” Lois walked up to Daragon and put him to the side. She got up close to him, her chest at his eye level. “You just accused us of a serious offense.”
“Oh did I…” Daragon shifted his eyes. He couldn’t think straight with the blood from his brain drained.
“Yes. And you’ll have to pay the fine or make a bet.”
“What? A fine? I clearly counted! 8 Aces in a deck of 104! I know that’s the standard for every Casino. Altering the deck has to be illegal!”
“Mr Eccel, please lower your volume.” She leaned closely to his ear. “If you don’t want to get fined there’s still the other option.”
“Fine. What’s the fine?” Daragon asked. He realised there was no use in arguing but the fine wouldn't be that big.
“5 million.” Lois smiled.
“Thats more than what I have!” Daragon had bought 72 months. Worth about 7.2 million. He had 3.6 million left in the bank. He could ask Priscilla for some but his pride didn't allow that. "There's no way it would cost that much!"
"Do you know exactly how much money this Casino makes in a single day?"
"7.4 million. Yeah I read newspapers." Daragon answered. The actual newspaper stated 688 million in a quarter. But after doing basic arithmetic, he rounded it down to 7.4. "There's no way an accusation could cost that much."
"That's the surface level. Because the government doesn't want anyone that isn't rich or in their social circle to know about this place. To these highrollers, 7.4 million is grain in the sand. You lost 7.4 million yourself." She explained. "We exchange around 100 million in a single day just from here. And you just accused us of scamming them. None of those guys lost the same amount as you. In fact, most of them profited."
"So its a baseless accusation. Then let me go?"
"No. Your accusation could have made them contemplate. And when they lose they might blame it on us, remembering your words. And then we'd lose a customer."
"Well I don't have the money to pay you guys back."
"You could just hand over something worth of equal value. Like that pendant or watch."
"What? The watch? Draken gave it to me and its just a basic model. And even if it was worth that much, I will never give it away." Daragon stood firmly. "And the pendant is a family heirloom. You know I can't give it."
"Well then how else will you pay it?"
"How about we play a game. I'll bet 2.5 million. If I lose then, then I'll pay my debt back in the cage fights." Daragon offered. He was confident he had enough fighting experience.
"Alright. What game would it be then? Poker? Blackjack? Or maybe even the roulette wheel."
"No. I want to pick the game. You might rig it again."
"Mr Eccel. Please don't accuse us so lightly."
"Whatever. But I get to pick."
'It doesn't really matter, brat. We'll still win and get that watch. You can never beat the house.'
Daragon thought long and hard. He knew he couldn’t choose a game that the Casino had. Everything was either in their favour or too luck based. That left him with two options. A skill based game he knew how to play or the cage battles. While he could fight, he wasn’t confident in betting on himself or others. There was a chance they could be paid off to lose. So really there was only one option.
“Chess!”
Next Chapter: Cage Fight