I fucking loved the System! And I also fucking hated it. Today was a love day, however.

My [Tinker] Skill sussed out the cheater thanks to his hidden speaker being out of tune, but I wasn’t done just yet. I had to figure out where his illicit information was coming from to really impress Goldshanks.

I got out of the cushioned stool by the slot machine and slowly walked over to the cheater’s table. He was sitting stock still, eyes staring at the cards in his hand. He didn’t so much as look up when the dealer placed down the stage cards, or flinch when his opponent screamed in frustration as he chose to fold, the only movements I saw were on his lips. In hindsight, that should’ve given it away.

“[Detect Cheating], why don’t you take it from here?” I whispered.

Detect Cheating (lv 5)

Target

Charles Gross

My eyes were immediately pulled to his left ear as expected, but they were soon dragged towards the emergency alleyway exit. Not wanting to lose the feeling, I followed along and walked outside after making sure the door wasn’t linked to some kind of alarm.

The pull on my gaze didn’t stop until I looked up at a metal box attached to the outer wall. It was an incredibly unassuming electrical container, just a stainless steel cube with a keyhole on the side and metal tubes coming out of it that led back into the building. In other words, the perfect place to hide a radio transmitter.

It was too far away to get a proper look at. I took several steps back, and after making sure that nobody was around, I began running towards the box and leaped as I reached the wall it was fastened to. I flew several feet into the air and grabbed hold of one of the pipes, thankful that there was a gap between the tube and the wall for my fingers to fit.

I stood there for several seconds to make sure I wasn’t about to fall back down. When I was confident I had a grip, I looked more closely at the electric box. The lock was barely scratched, so the lock wasn’t likely broken. Especially since it was also attached to the box itself, so it couldn’t have been replaced to hide the damage.

“So what’s wrong, then?” I mumbled to myself.

“You tell me!” came a shout from below. “And maybe you can tell the police as well!”

The sudden noise made me lose my balance and I tumbled down to the ground. Despite the concrete floor, my fall still kicked up a cloud of dust that left me coughing as I got back up.

“So, you fancy yourself some kind of inspector? You can’t fool me, cheater!” exclaimed an older man in front of me. He had gray hair and wrinkled skin, but unlike the old folks I’d seen so far, he had the face of someone who hated fun. It didn’t help that he was wearing an off-blue uniform with the words “security” written over it. “And you couldn’t even be smart enough to bring a ladder? Boy, my job is getting easy! Now come on, let’s get you to the police.”

“Wait, hold on! I’m not a cheater! I’m here to catch one!” I shouted. “I’m in the middle of an interview with Goldshanks and the cheater I’m supposed to catch did something to that box.”

“Really, an interview?” The old man poked his head out at me. I instinctively took a step back. “Now how come I heard nothing about this? I’m sure you have some kind of proof?”

“I… oh yeah!” I reached into my pocket and pulled out Goldshanks’ letter, handing it over to the old man.

He looked over the sheet of paper with a careful eye, before crumpling it up and sticking it in his pocket. “I bet this was forged.”

“What?!” I shouted. “No it isn’t!”

“Yeah, I’m sure it is. The signature’s not right.”

“I got it from one of the attendants! It even has the casino’s logo on the paper!”

“I still don’t believe you. Now come on, I’m calling the police.”

“Wait!” I interrupted him as he was reaching for a walkie talkie. “Why don’t you just ask whoever’s on the other side if I’m supposed to be interviewing? That’ll be proof.”

“No can do. This walkie talkie is for security purposes only.”

“And isn’t my identity related to security?”

“Mmh, I don’t see how. I’ll use it to get someone to call the police, though.”

My brain short-circuited. I looked down at my hands to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, and when I turned my wrist, I saw the time on my watch. One minute left.

“Fuck,” I silently whimpered before taking a deep breath and talking in a slow voice, like I would to a baby. “How about if we check with the front desk, sir? I’m sure the attendant there can tell you I’m an interviewee.”

“Well… alright. But I’ll be performing a citizen’s arrest when Kamila tells me otherwise.” The old man grabbed my arm and dragged me to the back door. His pull didn’t have much force behind it, but his grip was like iron and absolutely stung!

Seriously, how was anyone supposed to tamper with the electrical box with a security guard this anal hanging around?

Before I made it through the door, I looked back at the electrical box and activated my Skill.

Tinker (lv 3): Diagnose Problem

Device

Electrical Box

Issue

N/A

Wait, nothing?

“Hey Kamila!” screamed the security guard when he was within ten feet of the front counter.

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The attendant covered her ears as the man approached her. She looked as displeased as I was. “What is it, Frank?”

“Caught this here cheater outside telling me he was an interviewee! Ha! Of all things-”

“He is,” she deadpanned back.

“Great! So call the police, then.”

“No,” she sighed. “He is regrettably here for an interview.”

“Aww shucks.” The old man snapped his finger. “Well why didn’t you tell me about him?”

“Yeah, why didn’t you tell him?” I asked, trying to shake the old man’s grip. But he still wouldn’t let me go.

“Oh, it must’ve slipped my mind,” replied Kamila with a fox-like grin. “But it looks like his interview is just about up! I’m assuming you were about to leave without saying anything, since you went out the back door.“

“Nope, just went out to check for clues,” I replied, only focused on getting out of Frank’s grip.

“Well you’re free to go now, in any case. I doubt you figured it out if you thought there’d be clues outside. It wasn’t even that complicated!”

That was the last clue I needed, the pieces all snapped together. My lips curled up into a smile that rivaled the smugness in even Kamila’s and I softly spoke. “I’ve actually figured it out. I’d like that appointment with Mr. Goldshanks, please.”

The attendant’s face fell into a neutral look. “Very well then,” she said between bared teeth. “Follow me.”

I ripped my arm out of the security guard’s hand and began following Kamila, but not before giving Frank a glare. He returned it.

“Goldshanks’ office is on the left, same place as last time,” said the attendant.

“What about the security room?” I asked. “I’d like to talk to the guy who’s in charge of that if I’m going to be working with them.”

“Todd? He’s in the room at the far left, but I don’t see any need for you to go in there until Goldshanks-.”

I didn’t let the attendant finish, and shot past her towards the back of the hallway.

“Hey!” She shouted at me. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

I ignored her and threw open the door on the left. She began calling for additional security, but I didn’t mind. I’d found exactly what I was looking for.

Inside, a short man with curly brown hair carefully spoke into a microphone while his eyes were glued to the monitors hanging from the wall. The screens showed the casino floor from the eyes of the security cameras at all angles. The slot machines, the roulette wheels, and most importantly, the poker tables. The largest screen was zoomed in on the hands of the cheater’s opponents.

“Alright, I found your cheater!” I exclaimed, turning around to face my forming audience.

They promptly tackled me to the ground.

“Hey, hey!” I shouted as they picked me up by each of my limbs. I tried to wrench myself free from their grips without hurting them, but it was hard to break free without giving someone a black eye. I was starting to have second thoughts about how I was going about this…

“What’s going on?!” boomed a familiar voice.

I lifted my head to see a tall, rotund man saunter into the room. A cigar lazily hung from his mouth, but his eyes were as sharp as a hawk’s. And they were staring right into my soul.

“M-Mr. Goldshanks, sir!” I let out between struggles. I hoped I’d be able to keep myself in the same room for long enough to speak my peace. “I found the cheater!”

Damien Goldshanks silently held out a hand and the bouncers stopped. They looked at each other before slowly letting me down.

I got up and dusted myself off. The casino’s owner looked at me drily, his glare being a prompt to continue.

“Uh, right. So I found the cheater, Charles Gross.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And you barged into the security room to tell me that?”

“I barged in here to confirm my suspicions on how he was cheating! I figured out everything you asked me to find!”

Several people in the room raised their eyebrows, but didn’t speak a word.

“He had a small speaker in his ear that was feeding him information on all of his opponents’ hands.” I paused for a second before realizing that I couldn’t just leave it at that. Sure, I had the System tell me how he was cheating, but I couldn’t say that to everyone here without getting thrown into an insane asylum. “That’s why he didn’t even bother looking at their facial expressions while playing. He was staring at his cards the entire time.” Nice save, Chuck. Nice save.

“So that’s the first thing I asked of you,” said Goldshanks with a patient nod. “Find the cheater and how he’s doing it. What else did you discover?”

“I tracked the signal to the electrical box out in the back. That’s where I was found by Frank, who didn’t take kindly to me trying to inspect it.”

“He’s one of our most careful and determined security guards,” said Goldshanks.

“Yeah, and anal,” whispered someone in the room, who surprisingly wasn’t me.

The owner ignored the comment and continued. “He wouldn’t take kindly to anyone tampering with our electronics.”

“Exactly!” I said, slamming a fist into my open palm. “So how would anyone be able to tamper with it to cheat? And how would the accomplice be able to look at everyone’s cards on top of that? It made no sense! But that’s when Kamila’s comment helped me piece it all together.”

“What did I say?” said the attendant in a huff.

“That the answer is simple. And it really is! So how was everything hacked? It wasn’t. It was an inside job, and Todd here is the one getting the information and feeding it to our cheater. So there’s your cheater, the method, and finally, their accomplice.”

The room stayed silent as I spread out my hands in a display of showmanship.

Someone coughed.

Shit, did I overdo it?

Clap, clap, clap.

Everyone turned to face the source of the sound: Damien Goldshanks.

“Ha. Haha! This is exactly what happened at the World Poker Tournament three years ago!” The owner walked forward until he was just in front of me. “A venue employee with access to security cameras was caught feeding information to the man who ended up winning the whole thing. It was an utter embarrassment to the host, and I need someone who’ll keep something like that from happening to me.”

“Wait, does that mean-”

“You’ve got the job!” Goldshanks let out a guffaw as he slapped my shoulder with a massive hand. “Goldshanks’ Casino is going to be hosting the latest iteration of the tournament starting Monday, and I’ll need all the extra security I can get!”

“Really?! Yes!” I pumped my fist in the air.

“Yup, you’re now on floor security. The pay is three hundred a day for the course of the tournament, with one hundred a day afterwards.”

“As in dollars?”

“What else? In Otrokan tolars?” Goldshanks let out another laugh.

I laughed nervously with him until the number he gave me finally hit. Then I was laughing for real.

“But it’s not all fun and games. I expect you to be working your ass off during the tournament with how many cheaters there’ll probably be. Now, let’s head to my office and get the contract signed. I expect you to be here on Monday at 9 am on the dot.”

“Yes sir!” I exclaimed, following Damien Goldshanks to his office.

After signing the contract, I headed out to find something nice to eat. It had been a long morning, and I deserved a break.

[Skill Level Up! Detect Cheating lv 6 -> 7]

[Detect Cheating Perk Obtained! Information: Method]

Where the hell was that when I needed it?!