A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 269 Pigs Playing Cards

"Why didn't you tell me about your brother's upcoming hearing?" Quinn, with his arm around Xia Dai'er dressed as a man and carrying a thousand pounds of chips he had just grabbed from the counter, walked with a swagger, giving off the air of a nouveau riche taking a gigolo out for a ride.

"How did you know?" Xia Dai'er's voice sounded inexplicably guilty.

“My friend told me that he knows a member of parliament.”

Quinn cautioned, "Don't tell your family that I brought you to this casino, especially not as 'Shelby'."

"Please, my mom is very strict. If she finds out I'm gambling and wasting our family fortune, I'll be grounded for at least a month."

Xia Dai'er sighed softly, "My brother told me not to tell, afraid it would cause you trouble."

There's another half-sentence left unsaid.

He thinks you can't solve it.

A burst of enthusiastic cheers erupted from the nearby gambling tables, and all the casino's dealers and waiters immediately stopped what they were doing and joined in the jubilation. A young man, his cheeks flushed with excitement, was surrounded by a crowd, amidst the bubbling sound of champagne being popped—

"From the incredibly lucky blackjack table! And this divinely blessed young man! He's the biggest winner of the day so far! One bet! Five hundred pounds!"

The dealers and casino staff around them repeatedly shouted, "Five hundred gold pounds! Five hundred gold pounds! Five hundred gold pounds!"

Envious and jealous glances were cast at the card table. This amount of money could buy a house in Eastwell. However, this was just one of the many cheers that Golden Wind cheered every day. The bunny girls gathered in a row and performed a well-trained chest-shaking dance to pour drinks for the lucky winner.

"Great!" They swayed their bodies with each sentence, making it all the more exciting: "Golden Wind! Everyone! Offers you! Champagne! Happy! Memories! Together—we wish you! Good luck always!!"

If there were any ladies from island nations who frequent host clubs here, they would definitely be able to find traces of host club champagne calls in this performance. I wonder which genius came up with this idea.

After this series of actions, the atmosphere inside the casino noticeably heated up. Many gamblers who were initially quite rational began to look at the higher-risk betting options, calculating their luck for the day and fantasizing about whether they could be the next lucky one to drink champagne.

Quinn and Chaldale were also looking at the gambling table, and they no longer talked about the hearing.

Neither of them were the type to covet five hundred gold pounds; they were simply drawn by the sight of an acquaintance.

The lucky winner of the 500 gold pounds was a boy who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old. He had a high nose, almond-shaped eyes, and was quite handsome. Unfortunately, his purple dyed hair looked rather out of place, and his complexion gave the impression that he was indulging in excessive drinking and womanizing at a young age. Combined with the large area of ​​cheap tattoos exposed on his sleeves, it was clear that he was probably a good-for-nothing hoodlum.

At that moment, he was sipping champagne, basking in the celebrations and admiring glances of those around him.

Quinn wasn't looking at him, but at the hooded man behind him.

There were many people in the casino disguised like Xia Dai'er, but her blatant use of a hooded cloak seemed to be a public declaration of her mysterious identity, which only drew more attention. Although she wore a hood, her behavior was unprofessional, with half of her face still visible.

Light yellow hair, a slightly chubby face, and freckles on her cheeks.
It was Megan, a girl from the fortune-telling class.

What happened next confirmed that Quinn hadn't mistaken her for someone else. After the crowd dispersed, the thug-like winner turned around and excitedly picked her up, jumping up and down so much that his hood fell off, revealing Megan's slightly tired face.

"Meghan! You're a genius! Amazing! Amazing!!"

Megan nervously pulled her hood up, afraid that someone would see her face and make her look suspicious.

"Keep your voice down," Megan whispered, tugging at the man's sleeve. "Apu, let's go."

"Why leave? We can keep winning! That's five hundred gold pounds, six hundred more, a thousand more—"

"But...but you promised me, you'd win just once..."

The man took Megan's hand and said tenderly, "I knew you would help me, baby."

Megan was momentarily at a loss; the extremely shy girl seemed unsure how to reject her boyfriend.

Quinn frowned slightly. It was midnight; even if the students weren't sleeping, they should be in their dormitories meditating and honing their mental strength. It wasn't the weekend; how did the students with curfews get out?
Although the two spoke very softly, Quinn was still able to hear their conversation clearly in the noisy environment, even though they were more than ten meters apart, and immediately felt that something was wrong.

Quinn glanced at the piles of gold chips on Megan's boyfriend's table and activated the Demon King's Eye.

He quickly discovered something amiss.

In the monotonous, grayish-white field of vision, Megan's left eye was emitting an abnormal purple light. Like a splitting lightning bolt, it was gradually dimming—the overload residue left by the overloaded operation of the arcane circuit.
Quinn now understood how he had won those five hundred gold pounds through gambling.

Megan majored in circuit tuning, a niche profession similar to that of an arcane doctor, which requires seeing through the skin to adjust and enhance the circuits hidden within the body.

After adjusting the circuit, the tuner can do this with just his eyes.

Although Megan is only a freshman now, as a genius of Grindelwald, seeing through the cards is no problem for her.
Seeing that Megan couldn't resist persuasion and was preparing to help her boyfriend gamble again, Quinn was in a real bind.

What are you going to do with the arcane magic you learned in Grindelwald?

Yes, good boy! The academy's transformation, the class's dedication, the teachers' excellence, and the pinnacle of the arcane world.

Gambling with arcane magic is strictly prohibited by the academy, and even the lightest punishment is a major demerit.

The returns from gambling are very low. First, Grindelwald's students don't lack that kind of money. Second, casinos aren't stupid; they'll notice something's wrong if you keep winning big. If they can't find any clues about cheating, they can basically conclude that it's an arcane sorcerer.

Ordinary casinos usually offer to pay you to leave and not return, but Golden Wind Casino is not an ordinary one.

Megan's hooded appearance had clearly attracted the casino's attention. Two people carrying arcane devices were approaching from within Quinn's sight. Mana was emitting a glow of operation in the Demon King's Eye. Although the purpose of their arcane devices was unclear, they were definitely related to detecting arcane cheating.

The Golden Wind has nurtured so many arcane mages; they're not just for show.
Seeing that the two were still oblivious and ready to continue gambling, Quinn hesitated for a moment. If they were students from other classes, it wouldn't matter, but these were students from his own class, Celia's roommates, who had just sent him a gift half a day ago.
Given Megan's personality, these are probably not things she wanted to do.

Quinn took out a gold chip and casually tossed it into the cleavage of the nearest bunny girl. The other woman looked at Quinn with surprise and pointed at Megan, saying casually, "Go, take that little hooded girl a drink. Tell her the piano teacher bought her a drink, but don't tell her it was me."

The bunny girl, receiving a tip, readily complied, since drinks were free at the casino. Soon, Megan, having received a drink, quickly turned around, looking around frantically. Unable to find the person she was looking for, she panicked, lowered her head, and hurried away from the table.

Her boyfriend tried to stop her, but Megan was very determined to leave. Without Megan, he couldn't win any more money, so he reluctantly followed her away.

"An acquaintance?" Xia Dai'er asked curiously.

"Problem student. Her homeroom teacher is furious."

"What a coincidence, I've run into an acquaintance too."

"Ok?"

She pointed to the same gambling table, where a middle-aged man in a suit and tie, who was betting on blackjack with Megan's boyfriend, was slumped in his chair, looking utterly dejected. He was clearly the loser of the previous hand; his chips were almost gone.

“The manager of my family’s airport,” Xia Dai’er said irritably, “is a descendant of my great-great-grandfather’s brother. I was in class with his son this morning, honestly. My mother values ​​him so much, and he’s gambling in a place like this during work hours—”

"So what are you doing?" Quinn asked cheerfully.

"I'm inspecting whether the employees are slacking off, don't laugh!" Xia Dai'er's confidence was lacking.

"Gambling has both advantages and disadvantages, but people only see the advantages."

"But what about the drawbacks?"

"The plane crashed."

Quinn stepped forward and took Megan's boyfriend's place.

The two staff members who had the arcane artifacts exchanged glances when they saw Shelby. Now that the other two were gone, they chose to retreat back into the background.

He poured all his chips, worth nearly a thousand pounds, onto the table, piling them up into a small, gleaming mountain.

The people around were startled. Several gamblers chose to leave immediately. The casino's tables operated on an equal-betting system, and Quinn was betting big. If they couldn't bring out the same amount of chips, they would have to move to another table for him to play with the dealer.

Chaldale's relatives did not leave.

He perhaps saw this as an opportunity, observing Quinn for a long time before sitting quietly and waiting for him to place his bet. Quinn signaled to the dealer to deal the cards.

"It's actually a math game. You don't need to gamble; you can guarantee a profit just by calculating the probabilities. There are six decks of cards; it's easy to calculate."

He glanced at his cards, immediately put down ten pounds in chips, and then chose to suspend his hand.

"I drew a 14, and the dealer has a 6 upside down. It seems like drawing another card would increase my chances of winning, but actually, the risk of busting is very high. According to the formula, I should stop now."

Xia Dai'er lowered her voice and asked in a somewhat neutral tone, "What formula?"

"Count the cards, make corrections, and then calculate the current true number."

The dealer dealt the cards, and after the draw, Quinn unsurprisingly had the lowest score. The winner was Chaldale's relative, who excitedly pocketed Quinn's hundred gold pounds.

In the second round, Quinn put up ten pounds of chips, glanced at his cards, closed his eyes and thought for a while before choosing to suspend his hand.

Specifically, these cards are divided into three groups: low, medium, and high.

When the cards were revealed, it was still Xia Dai's relative who won, pocketing twenty gold pounds in a short time. He looked at Quinn as if he were a god of wealth.

In the third round, with ten gold pounds, he glanced at his cards and finally chose to take them, but he still lost after the cards were revealed.

Thirty gold pounds, a year's income for a middle-class white-collar worker in Eswell, was given to Quinn without a second thought, as if it were a gift.

The game of cards was played very quickly.

Half an hour later, a crowd had gathered around the card table, all admiring Quinn's extravagant spending. Half of the mountain of gold chips on his table had disappeared. The dealer and Xia Dai'er's relative had been trading wins and losses, although the dealer had won more due to the rules. However, the middle-aged man in a suit and tie had noticeably improved his complexion.

He looked at Quinn as if he were looking at a god of wealth.

Although Quinn won a few more games afterward, he lost more than he won overall. He didn't make a fuss and continued to teach his girlfriend math.

"Student, did you understand? Let me test you. Did this round put me in a favorable position? If my card is 20, what are my chances of winning?"

Xia Dai'er covered her ears. She felt some amazing knowledge pass through her brain, but then it slipped away. Now her mind was blank. Master, please stop reading.

The onlookers, initially intimidated by Quinn, quickly dismissed his blunder as mere rambling, finding a kind of amusement in watching a monkey squander its fortune.

"Please place your bet," the dealer said with a smile.

The middle-aged man beside him clasped his hands together, prayed for the goddess's blessing, and then carefully revealed his cards, pushing out ten chips and waiting for Quinn.

Quinn glanced at the cards and dealt twenty.

"Stop the game, double your bet."

This was the first time he had doubled his bet.

As the cards were revealed, looking at the dealer who had blown his hand and the frowning gamblers at the table, he smiled and said, "It's 81%."

The chips were gathered back on the table, and the malnourished mountain of chips was replenished by one corner.

Another half hour passed.

The gambling table was completely surrounded, with occasional gasps of surprise erupting from it.

People from another world have never seen anything like this before; the math is a bit beyond their level.

The small mountain of one thousand pounds chips on Quinn's table had grown into two large mountains that needed to be split in two to hold them.

"Trading is suspended. Let me test you. What are your odds of winning at this point?"

Xia Dai'er was completely bewildered. Although her little brain couldn't process it at all, it didn't stop her from feeling excited. How could she keep winning?

"It's 91 percent."

The cards are revealed: Quinn has 18, the dealer busts, and the other player has 17. Quinn wins.

The last set of chips on Xia Dai'er's relative's table had also reached Quinn, which he had just acquired ten minutes earlier. At this moment, his expression was ashen.

He clutched his head, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at Quinn, then suddenly roared, "Did this guy cheat? How could he win so easily? Security! That damn guy dares to cheat in Golden Wind?"

Quinn shrugged, indicating to the croupier beside him that they could have someone check it.

The dealer had actually called earlier; damn it, this guy was winning seven out of ten hands later on, but there was a note the manager had slipped to him under the table—

The boss said to let him win, and not to make a fuss.

"This gentleman didn't cheat. Please trust our professional judgment." The dealer gave a forced smile; his career had truly hit rock bottom.

The casino had also lost several hundred pounds, so there was no reason for him to protect Quinn. He had nothing to say, rubbed his head in frustration, and got up to leave.

"Does it look familiar?"

Quinn stood up and swept the pile of chips into his basket like trash. "This kind of thing happens every minute of every day in casinos. Join the math department family and save those losing loan sharks!"

People rushed forward, all wanting to ask Quinn what formula he was talking about, but they were blocked by the thugs with unfriendly expressions.

He returned the thousand pounds he had withdrawn, and cashed the fifteen thousand pounds he had won into checks, which he then enjoyed to his heart's content.

"Extraordinary power? Or arcane magic?"

After leaving the casino, Xia Dai asked admiringly.

"It's really just a math problem. It's a little difficult, and I'd be in trouble if two more people came."

"Isn't that just about winning however you want?"

"No, I know the owner of this casino. Under normal circumstances, if I won like that, I would have been fired long ago. Otherwise, I could have won one game after another until the casino went bankrupt."

"That's still pretty impressive, okay? Why did you have to say the formula in front of others?" Xia Dai'er thought to herself that it could be used to splurge at various casinos.

"Heh. I want to see how people react when they find out I'm winning money using this formula."

Quinn could sense that there were several eyes watching him in the shadows while he played cards.

Ike will find out about all this soon.

He could build such a casino, so it's impossible that he doesn't know the famous MIT blackjack formula. The premise is, that guy is a hero.

"Whose reaction?"

Quinn glanced at his curious girlfriend and slipped the check into her pocket.

"Here you go, for living expenses."

".ah?"

Her cheeks flushed slightly. "What? What living expenses? We're not married, and you're not my husband."

"It's only a matter of time."

(End of this chapter)