The inside of the Bear’s Den was completely at odds with Zane’s Garden. Rather than flashy lights and deafening music, the casino was dressed up as a comparatively humble hunter’s lodge. Emphasis on comparatively.

The bold crimson carpeting and bright, faux-wood paneling along the walls gave off a strong artificial feeling, contrasting with the decorations densely scattered over both. Various stuffed heads were mounted on the walls, from American moose to African lions. There was even a bear-skin rug sitting on the carpet, head and all!

I slowly made my way to the counter, my eyes never breaking from the rug’s own soulless sockets. A coppery smell strong enough to taste pervaded the air as rows of patrons silently pulled on slot machines or sat around rustic wooden tables with card-filled hands, making it hard to not bump into any of them on my way past.

“You sure take your time, Mike.” Anna was standing by the front counter, her face in a pout. She turned to the older woman sitting on the other side and gave her a thumbs up. “This is the guy I was talking about, Olga! He made Ivy steam up so badly I almost started laughing in front of her!”

“You wish for us to hire a man who almost broke your cover?” asked Olga with a strong Slavic accent. She regarded me with her permanent scowl.

“Yeah!” exclaimed Anna. “There’s no way he’s going to be let back into Zane’s, so what’s the problem?”

The attendant looked back over to me and sized me up. After several seconds, she spoke. “And what will we be hiring him for?”

“Security,” I replied. “I’m an expert at catching cheaters.”

“Front or back?”

“Huh?”

“We’re understaffed,” Anna interjected. “He’ll have to do both.”

I didn’t know what she was talking about, but security was security.

“Very well, then,” said Olga. She looked back at me. “Then find me a cheater.”

I stumbled. “L-like, here? As in right now?”

“Yes, this is your interview. Find me a cheater.”

I looked over to Anna, who shrugged. “I said I’d get you an interview, and here it is!”

“Well, alright,” I awkwardly replied, turning to face the crowd. On the bright side, there being an actual interview probably meant they were interested in my skills, and not my body. “Hold on, how do you know there even is a cheater here? What if I can’t find any because there aren’t any?”

“Why would we need someone to find cheaters when there aren’t any?” Olga deadpanned back.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“Fair… I guess.”

The casino’s patrons all looked unassuming for nighttime gamblers, their bored eyes focused on the cards in their hands or the spinning wheels before them. None of these errant souls came off as cheaters to me, but I wasn’t exactly an expert on the subject. [Detect Cheating], however, was. I closed my eyes and looked inwards, before flipping the mental switch to enable the Skill.

Ten seconds.

Ten seconds was how long I lasted before shutting it down with a loud scream. I was clawing at my scalp by the end of it, with my eyes widened and lips parted to reveal a row of hatefully gnashing teeth.

It was like feeling all of the scorn, hate, and loathing of someone who absolutely hated you all at once. Times a thousand. Seriously, what the hell happened there?! The feeling was nowhere near as bad last time!

“Did you stub your toe?” asked the attendant. “We don’t need such a crybaby here.”

“No, I’m just… getting myself excited is all. Helps me focus.”

She shrugged and went back to watching me work.

Anna tried to give me an encouraging smile, but she couldn’t hide how weirded out she was.

While I kept myself from strangling the nearest person for those ten seconds, I was able to at least worm out a lead. Most of the negative pressure was coming from below me, underneath the floor, but there was a pair of strong pulses coming from two gamblers in particular. I looked at them, a pair of men wearing cheap Hawaiian shirts, sunglasses, and fedoras, and tried to piece together what the Skill was trying to tell me.

Detect Cheating (lv 3)

Target

Jack Brown

Detect Cheating (lv 3)

Target

Ronald Chen

I stumbled backwards as the names flowed over my field of view, surprised at the unprompted System notification. That must’ve been what the [Information: Cheater] perk I unlocked some time ago was. The only problem was, I still didn’t know how they were cheating.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for me to figure it out. My eyes felt like they were guided down Jack’s arm, where I saw a card sticking out of his sleeve that matched the ones the casino was using. Ronald, though, was a bit tricker. My eyes just rested on the blackjack player’s head, and chances were, he was just counting cards. There was no way to prove it though, but hopefully finding one cheater would be enough to get hired.

“Those two,” I said, turning to the attendant. He’s got cards up his sleeve and the other’s probably counting.

“Very well, then,” said Olga, pressing a button on her desk and whispering into the adjacent microphone. “Send security, we have a pair in need of punishment.”

I shuddered at the giggle Anna let out, but was soon distracted by a trio of large men dressed in cheap suits who exited from the back door. They quickly surrounded the two cheaters, grabbing and dragging them through the same entrance.

“It looks like you have promise yet,” said the attendant with the beginnings of a smile. “Though you still need to prove yourself in the back. Anna, you will conduct the next stage of his interview.”

“Sure thing!” she exclaimed, jumping off her seat on the counter and heading around to the back. “Come on Mike, if you lose me again, security will just throw you out.”

I jogged up close behind her and followed her through the same door the guards went through.