**Chapter 31: Extorting Just One Person Is Too Boring!**
As Lu Yibei silently followed the two men, an old one and a young one, Ahua knew she had grasped evidence of their cheating and was ready to start her so-called “extortion.”
Completely unaware of the cheating methods employed by the other party, Ahua couldn’t help but whisper after following Lu Yibei for a short distance, “Hey, Wang Buliu, what exactly did they use?”
Hearing this, Lu Yibei paused slightly, raising a small hand to the side of her mouth and speaking softly, “I can tell roughly that they seem to have an ability similar to ‘luck high-interest lending.’”
Lu Yibei was relatively certain of this; just now, when those light golden threads wrapped around her fingers, even she could turn her luck around, transforming a weak hand showing five or six into a good hand showing eleven or twelve, let alone other people or urban legends.
The fact that the two members of the Dark Lamp, after having their hands tangled by the golden threads, consistently received good hands over eighteen points across nine rounds was the best proof of this.
“When their game is proceeding, they lend luck to others, allowing them to draw good cards and win continually; however, the one receiving the luck might only win a few hundred to a thousand in a single round.”
In fact, during those nine rounds just now, Lu Yibei had continuously folded, losing less than a thousand in chips each time, which was insignificant compared to the ten thousand or more lost in the tenth round.
She even suspected that if she hadn’t suddenly interrupted and broken the increasingly intense follow-ups, the potential winnings from that last round could have reached over a hundred thousand or more.
“Finally, when the target has won enough, they will retrieve their luck by several multiples and increase the betting stakes, winning a large amount in a single round. This is basically their strategy.”
Lu Yibei had observed carefully; in the first nine rounds, the light golden threads tangled on both members of the Dark Lamp had only counted eighteen.
When he manipulated the threads to peel off from the two members of the Dark Lamp and then wrapped them around the young man, the quantity far exceeded eighteen.
If her guesses about the effect of the light golden threads were correct, it should be that the middle-aged man would receive several times more when reclaiming the luck lent out; as long as he operated skillfully, he could suddenly wipe out his opponent’s chips after losing several unimportant rounds.
“That’s everything I just observed, but…” Lu Yibei frowned slightly, “I still haven’t fully seen through their methods and don’t have a ten out of ten confidence.”
Although she was mostly clear about how the middle-aged man won his rounds, she still had one lingering question: how did they get their opponents hooked?
For an ordinary person, winning nine rounds in a row might inflate their emotions, but the other two guests at the table were members of the Dark Lamp, and even they got carried away. There must have been some influence of spirit energy involved.
However, this did not affect their subsequent actions; to extort them, it was enough to know their main cheating method.
After hearing Lu Yibei’s analysis, Ahua suddenly understood, “I get it! Should we go and extort them next?”
Lu Yibei waved her hand, “Not so fast, let’s play with them first!”
“Play with them?” Ahua tilted her head in confusion, wanting to ask more, but found that Lu Yibei had already walked away to where Liu Banxian was locked in a fierce struggle over a betting table.
She patted Liu Banxian on the shoulder, then raised a small hand to her lips, making a funny face but maintaining a stiff expression as she said, “Buddy, I have a big project worth hundreds of thousands, want to know more?”
————
While Lu Yibei was secretly plotting to get money from those two cheaters, the two members of the Dark Lamp, Le Er and Ma Bing, returned to Nan Hao’s side after just having been at the same betting table with her.
Nan Hao looked grimly at the dejected pair, speaking in a low voice, “What are you two doing? Losing so many chips to that guy, more than the guests?”
“I see you two have really worked hard this past year for nothing.”
“Boss, you can’t blame us; you know that guy’s ability is just too bizarre.” Le Er said, looking at Nan Hao with a sad face, “Moreover, that guest was no simple matter either.”
“Oh?” Nan Hao raised an eyebrow and pressed, “What do you mean by not simple?”
“She might have one of the most terrifying abilities,” Ma Bing interjected.
The so-called most terrifying abilities usually referred to precognition, intuition, unusual luck, keen insights, superior calculation skills, and so on.
Guests with these abilities could win as efficiently as those cheaters, and while there might be some cheating involved, the Dark Lamp members had no legitimate reason to arrest them.
“Exactly!” Le Er echoed, “She claimed her intuition was very strong, and every round seemed like she could predict the outcome.”
“She claims her intuition is super strong; does that mean she really is?” Nan Hao smacked Le Er on the back of the head, “How have I taught you?”
Le Er raised his hand to brush off Nan Hao’s palm, exclaiming, “Ouch, Boss, that hurts!”
“Dare to block? I…” Just as Nan Hao was about to lash out, a red-dressed bunny girl walked over and whispered something in his ear, instantly turning his expression serious.
After the bunny girl left, Ma Bing took a look at Nan Hao’s expression and quietly asked, “Boss, what did that sister just say to you? Your expression seems a bit off?”
“Hmph!” Nan Hao sneered, “She told me that your two tablemates from just now have collided.”
“Interesting, let’s go take a look!”
————
In the entertainment city, on the third floor, four guests sat at a poker table.
Liu Banxian, the disguised Ahua, and the two old and young cheaters were playing Texas Hold’em.
Now wearing a spell-formula solidification mask of Zhu Yan, Lu Yibei stood at a distance, observing as the light golden threads inconspicuously wrapped around Liu Banxian and Ahua’s fingers, and she subtly signaled them.
Once the dealer delivered the two hole cards in front of them, Liu Banxian surprisingly did not look at his cards but directly grabbed some chips and chose to call, displaying a posture of playing without looking at his cards.
Ahua, who had already made arrangements with Liu Banxian, predictably chose to call, raising the stakes and throwing a few chips into the center of the table.
The two old and young cheaters confirmed their hole cards and calmly indicated they would call.
In the second round of betting, Liu Banxian didn’t actually count; he simply grabbed a handful of chips and tossed them out without care, saying cheerfully, “Playing cards is all about having fun! It’s just about luck, 1000!”
“2000!” Ahua raised the stakes again, subtly positioning herself in opposition to Liu Banxian.
The two old and young cheaters hesitated for a moment but still chose to call.
“Call!”
“Call!”
“5000!” Liu Banxian bet again.
Seeing this, the two cheaters exchanged glances and chose to fold.
So, in the following minutes, history repeated itself.
With the aid of the light golden threads, Liu Banxian and Ahua took turns winning, and due to their intentionally high bets, the total stack of chips in front of them gradually increased.
Finally, when the game reached the sixth round, the middle-aged man could no longer contain his impatience and chose to “sweep the net.”
However, just as he activated his spirit ability to strip off the light golden threads from Ahua and Liu Banxian and transfer them to the young man, Lu Yibei appeared.
She hurried from a distance, leaped up, and delivered a punch to the middle-aged man’s shoulder.
“Hey, godfather! I didn’t expect to run into you here!?”
“You actually told your godmother you were on a business trip? Gotcha now! If you don’t give me a thousand or eight thousand for hush money, I’ll be sure to report you!”
People disrupting the game would typically be subdued immediately by the black-clad men patrolling the hall.
However, seeing Lu Yibei’s innocent demeanor combined with her earnest tone made it seem like she genuinely ran into her godfather, freezing them in momentary hesitation.
The entertainment city’s rules prohibit disturbances during games but do not specify that one cannot chat with acquaintances while a game is ongoing.
The middle-aged man, feeling pain in his shoulder, abruptly turned around and saw the girl behind him, momentarily stunned.
She was a beautiful girl with big eyes and a doll-like face, around fourteen or fifteen years old, dressed in a pure white rabbit fur coat, wearing knee-high white socks and dark red round-toed shoes, carrying a small leather backpack, with an entirely harmless appearance.
Facing such a face, even though he was very aware that no guest allowed on the third floor was innocent, it was hard to take aggressive action against her.
There were indeed super high-spec problem children that followed major figures around.
Gazing at the girl, the middle-aged man felt a surge of anger but could not vent it. Instead, he calmly said, “Who’s your godfather? Look closer!”
Lu Yibei grabbed one of the middle-aged man’s hands, pouted, blinking her innocent big eyes, “Aren’t you my godfather?”
Being entangled by an unknown person and having the game disrupted, the middle-aged man was filled with rage, forcefully shaking off Lu Yibei’s hand, he growled, “Open your dog eyes and take a good look!”
Lu Yibei frowned, looking perplexedly at the middle-aged man, as if she realized she had made a mistake, and fell silent.
Seeing this, the middle-aged man took a deep breath, rolled his eyes, and decided not to argue with this strange girl.
However…
Just as the middle-aged man turned away, Lu Yibei suddenly brightened and heavily patted his shoulder again.
“Oh, I get it! Stinky old man, you’re afraid I’ll tell godmother, pretending not to know me, right?”
“Tsk! This trick, you used it the last time I caught you cheating! It won’t work this time; hurry and give me hush money, or I’ll go report you!”
As she spoke, Lu Yibei deliberately emphasized the words “hush money” and “report” with her tone.
“Bang——!”
The middle-aged man, filled with pent-up anger, did not catch the hidden meaning in Lu Yibei’s words, and slammed his hand on the table, just as two black-clad men enforcing order in the entertainment city stepped forward.
“What’s going on here? Sir, can we help you with something?”
“Hmph!” The middle-aged man snorted coldly and fell silent.
The two men turned to Lu Yibei with serious expressions, “Miss, it seems you are disturbing this gentleman’s game.”
Lu Yibei pouted and seriously examined the middle-aged man, shaking her head.
“He didn’t do it on purpose! I thought he was my godfather!”
“Tsk tsk, he really does look a lot like him, but upon closer inspection, I think he’s not as handsome as my godfather, and his aura is a bit lacking…”
As she spoke, she politely bowed to the middle-aged man, “Uh, sorry, sir, I mistook you for someone else! I’ll buy you a drink to make up for it later, okay?!”
After saying that, she bounced away like a little rabbit toward the water bar in the corner of the hall.
Watching Lu Yibei leave, the middle-aged man sat back down, ready to focus on the game again, only to find that Liu Banxian and Ahua had mysteriously vanished.
He stole a glance at the young man beside him, who shook his head and whispered, “Been too long, impatient, and folded.”
The middle-aged man was left speechless.
How strange, didn’t my ability to influence my opponent’s emotions work?
Why did they leave?
The middle-aged man had his doubts, but with the dealer right there, some things couldn’t be said too explicitly and could only be temporarily suppressed.
Looking at the empty table, he suddenly felt like he had painstakingly raised a pig just to fatten it up for the new year, only to have a problem child break down the pigpen and let the pig escape before the new year.
“How much did we lose?”
“More than twenty thousand…” The young man replied, pausing to add, “They bet quite lavishly and folded too early in the final round, only recouping twenty thousand.”
“…”
The middle-aged man fell silent for a moment, squinting his eyes as he scanned the hall of the entertainment city, quickly locking onto Liu Banxian and Ahua, who had already sat down at another table, and slightly raised his chin, “Let’s go over there.”
The young man nodded, got up, and followed the middle-aged man toward that table.
————
In the shadows.
After watching the entire event unfold, Nan Hao crossed his arms over his chest, a meaningful smile playing at the corner of his mouth.
At that moment, Le Er approached and quietly asked, “Boss, what should we do now? Do we go find that girl to talk?”
Nan Hao shot him a look, “Talk about what? What’s there to discuss?”
Le Er scratched the back of his head, “Isn’t she…”
“What about her?” Nan Hao spread his hands and said, “Did she cheat? No? Did someone report her for engaging in activities against the entertainment city’s rules? No?”
“She hasn’t done anything, and you want to bring her for a talk? Be careful she doesn’t file a complaint about you for harassment.”
Nan Hao might have said it casually, but if Lu Yibei seized the opportunity, she would indeed complain!
“So we just leave her alone?” Le Er asked in confusion.
“Of course not!” Nan Hao chuckled, “You’ll go tell the security brothers downstairs to keep an eye out. If that girl causes trouble again, let them deal with it later.”
Pausing, seeing Le Er wanting to speak, Nan Hao squeezed his shoulder firmly, speaking earnestly, “Xiao Er, we are Dark Lanterns, not police officers. We don’t need to pull every cheater out and uphold justice every time.”
“No matter what means, as long as we can make those damned guys stop, that’s enough, understand?”
“Bad guys have their own bad guys to deal with them, and sometimes it’s a good option to use guests to keep the cheaters in check. Remember how the brothers on the third floor handled that Alisi girl?”
Mentioning that Alisi, who had recently become a legend in the entertainment city, Le Er’s eyes brightened, and he nodded vigorously.
When Jiang Li, known as Alisi, first appeared at Dream Come True Entertainment City, thanks to her sharp insight and exceptional calculation ability, she won a substantial amount of chips, causing great headaches for the Dark Lanterns.
However, later on, these Dark Lanterns discovered that every time she won enough chips, she would pass it all “back” to the entertainment city’s big boss in their original form, giving them all a sigh of relief. The Dark Lanterns on the third floor even deliberately arranged for troublesome cheaters to be seated at the same table as her.
Although Jiang Li sensed that the Dark Lanterns were using her, the abundance of chips from the cheaters allowed her to win enough quickly, and she didn’t mind this mutual utilization.
————
Meanwhile, in the central hall on the third floor.
As the two old and young cheaters reappeared at the poker table, Liu Banxian and Ahua exchanged knowing glances, having previously agreed to quietly win just before Lu Yibei’s appearance, even engaging in a brief small talk with the two.
“Hey? Aren’t you those two guys from before? Did you manage to slip out?” Liu Banxian said, half-seriously, half-jokingly, “When gambling, the biggest taboo is encountering women. Women are disasters; when met, it’s certainly bad news!”
“Honestly, if it weren’t for that little girl from earlier, you guys would probably have won big time with those hands!”
“……” The young man opened his mouth, intending to say something to Liu Banxian, but before the middle-aged man could intervene, Ahua chimed in with a strange tone.
“How come what this old man says is so unpleasant? Why do you say encountering women is always bad? If that is considered bad, your mother giving birth to you must be the worst thing in the world.”
After saying this, Ahua subtly frowned.
Where did Lu Yibei learn such strange remarks?
“That little girl, you want to go against me, huh? You have been like this since earlier, chasing after me!” Liu Banxian frowned, “Do you know what respect for the elderly and love for the young means?”
With Ahua and Liu Banxian poking at each other, the middle-aged man twitched the corner of his mouth and tried to smooth things over, “Come on, you two, we’re all here to have fun; don’t get hung up on the details, let’s play.”
Just now at the table, they took turns winning, and after getting disrupted by that unknown girl at a critical moment, surprisingly, they had opted to fold. How odd; he initially thought they were in cahoots, but seeing how they were now verbally sparring without holding back, he put that doubt aside for now.
So the game continued; after a few rounds, Ahua and Liu Banxian won a lot of chips again, while a vast number of the light golden threads wrapped around their hands.
Seeing the time was ripe, the middle-aged man activated his spirit ability to strip away the light golden threads tangled around them, transferring them to the young man.
At the same time, the young man covertly activated his spirit ability to interfere with Ahua and Liu Banxian’s emotions.
Just then, a soft patter of footsteps approached from behind the middle-aged man, and the next moment, someone harshly patted him on the shoulder.
The soft and cute “godfather” sounded in his ear, and his heart sank, his face twitching uncontrollably.
“Godfather, godfather, I told you, I met someone over there who looks just like you! Everyone Mistook them for you!”
Lu Yibei exclaimed sweetly, shaking the middle-aged man’s shoulders back and forth.
The middle-aged man, “……”
“Godfather, what’s wrong? Why’s your face looking off? Oh~! You must be afraid I’ll tell godmother, right?”
“Don’t worry, I’m very loyal, and if the hush money is enough, I won’t report you.”
Once again, Lu Yibei emphasized the words “hush money” and “report” with her tone.
Hearing this, the middle-aged man slightly frowned, looking uncertainly at Lu Yibei, glancing her up and down.
“……”
Turns out I didn’t mishear; she indeed emphasized the words hush money and report…
Could it be she has seen through our methods?
That is very likely, otherwise how could she always appear at critical moments?
While the middle-aged man was contemplating this, the young man saw Liu Banxian and Ahua slip away again and was furious, suddenly standing up and pointing at Lu Yibei, “You stinking b*tch, open your eyes and look properly! This is the *one* you mistook earlier!”
“Uh… ah?” Lu Yibei blinked in surprise, grabbing the middle-aged man’s shoulders and turning him to face her, examining him with wide eyes.
Seeing the middle-aged man nod in resigned despair, she immediately thumped her little fist against her forehead, feeling annoyed, “What’s going on today? Why did I mistake again?”
“I’m really sorry; how about… I’ll buy you a drink, uncle?”
After saying this, she stuck out her tongue and quickly ran off towards the bar in the hall.
Watching Lu Yibei leave, the middle-aged man waited a moment before quietly telling the young man, “I’ll go talk to her.”
“Talk about what?” The young man was puzzled.
“Paying to avoid calamities,” the middle-aged man gritted his teeth as he spoke, clenching his fist tightly.
Although he wanted to k*ll that girl immediately, he didn’t dare act in the entertainment city.
————
When the middle-aged man arrived at the bar in the hall, he searched around but couldn’t find that annoying girl.
He watched in disbelief as she appeared walking this way but couldn’t find her, feeling perplexed.
Just as he was in doubt, a bunny girl at the bar presented a glass of wine worth a hundred chips to him, and as he watched, he thought of something, his eyes lighting up as he quickly called to the bunny girl.
“Wait, who sent this wine?”
The bunny girl smiled at him, “Hello sir, it was sent by that girl.”
As she spoke, she pointed toward the center of the hall.
Following her direction, in the most eye-catching and noticeable spot of the grand hall, there was a lavishly designed crystal fountain shaped like a red heart ace poker card.
At that moment, by the fountain stood a girl in a red-and-white windbreaker, expressionless, waving at him.
That girl was Lu Yibei, who had shed her disguise.
It’s her? The middle-aged man frowned, instantly recognizing Lu Yibei as the one who had disrupted him at the same gambling table before, confirming his suspicions.
He felt that Lu Yibei likely knew his cheating methods and planned to use this as leverage to extort him.
“Ha——!”
He deeply inhaled, his face dark as he raised his glass and downed it in one go, then quickly made his way to the center of the hall, stopping beside Lu Yibei.
“Speak, how much do you want?”
“Uncle, you really are straightforward! I like that about you, much more than my real godfather,” Lu Yibei shrugged.
“However, I’m not planning to take your chips, which means it’s free.”
“What do you mean?” The middle-aged man furrowed his brow, his expression suspicious.
Everyone in this world knows that free often comes at a high price, especially in circumstances like this.
“Don’t be nervous, Uncle!” Lu Yibei said, raising a finger, “I just need you to help me with a small task.”
“Hmph, that small task might not be easy, huh?” The middle-aged man coldly replied, “You’d better tell me if it’s something excessive; even if the entertainment city confiscates my chips and throws me out, I’ll refuse it.”
“Don’t worry, it’s very simple. Hearing you say this makes me more confident I can accomplish it.” Lu Yibei said with a straight face, “I just need…”
“If someone comes looking for you later, asking what I told you, you just tell them I’m a Dark Lamp member, but not a qualified one. You caught me cheating, and it only cost you a little in chips to buy me off. How about that? Very simple, right?”
“Oh, make sure to say it was only a small amount; don’t tell them the exact chips.” Lu Yibei added.
The middle-aged man was taken aback. He initially thought he was a fish that Lu Yibei had reeled in, but suddenly became bait.
After a few seconds of silence, he lowered his voice and said, “I can help you, but I can’t guarantee anyone will come asking me about this.”
Lu Yibei patted his shoulder meaningfully, “Don’t worry, they’ll come looking for you. Otherwise, why do you think I’m here to meet you?”
As she spoke, Lu Yibei surveyed the opulent hall, her eyes scanning the area. Where her gaze landed, shadows of people looking suspicious hurriedly ducked away.
Because they all saw it and heard it, they will be frightened… Lu Yibei thought to herself, turning to head toward Ahua and Liu Banxian, who had completed their rumor-spreading task.
Although they only leaked fragmentary information at the poker table, rumors would complete and grow in the audiences’ minds on their own.
To allow the rumors to grow faster, it was enough to have someone see Lu Yibei whispering with the middle-aged man in the main hall and spread that around.
“……”
So, extorting just one person is way too boring; adults must extort all of them!
After all, they can’t just come here and k*ll me, right? Lu Yibei thought.
(Tomorrow I have to go out, so I may update less, which is why I’m updating more today~)
