Chapter 143: The Arena
Half an hour later.
“In this round, the dealer has 18 points. Number 1 has 17 points, Number 2 has 20 points, Number 3 has busted — Number 2 wins, Number 1 and 3 lose.”
The dealer spoke calmly as she pushed some of the chips to Chen Chen with a metal ruler.
Currently, the chips before Chen Chen had piled up to the height of a small table. At the same time, a large crowd of spectators had gathered behind him.
“Oh my G.o.d...”
After the dealer’s announcement, the crowd instantly murmured among themselves.
“Chen, how do you do it?”
Leo and Davis, who had already lost all their money, wore incredulous expressions. There was no doubt that everyone had lost and won some rounds, but the chips in their hands had slowly shifted to the dealer’s side. Only Chen Chen’s chips did not decrease but grew in volume instead.
“It’s just a question of probability.”
Chen Chen felt that this was enough, so he threw down the cards in his hand and said to the dealer, “There’s a total of 10.62 million USD here. Please transfer 10 million to my account. The rest is yours.”
“Thank you, sir!” The dealer was stunned and hastily bowed in grat.i.tude.
With just this tip, she could retire right away.
As Chen Chen left, the spectators behind could not refrain from clapping softly before they slowly dispersed.
Chen Chen took out his phone and looked at the time. It was already ten at night. At the same time, he realized that despite being connected to the cruise ship’s Wi-Fi, the internet traffic was zero. At once, he asked, puzzled, “Does the Wi-Fi here have no signal?”
“Let me see...”
Leo took out his phone and said in amazement, “Me too. Although it’s connected to Wi-Fi, I can’t get online. Seems like there’s a problem with the Wi-Fi.”
“This kind of thing often happens at sea.” Davis sounded unconcerned.
Just then, there was the sudden sound of helicopter rotors from outside the doors of the casino. The minute they heard this, Leo and the rest perked up.
“The contenders we’ve invited will be here soon!”
With that, they headed out of the casino.
Chen Chen followed the group. After they walked out, they followed the sound and saw a small helicopter, flickering with a red light, in the dark, heavy sky, hovering above the Symphony of the Seas.
“Once the pathfinder helicopter arrives, the ones we’ve invited would be here right away,” Davis, as if worried that Chen Chen would not understand, quickly explained.
Chen Chen nodded.
Sure enough, a short while after the helicopter landed on the helipad, another cruise ship appeared on the horizon and rapidly drew closer.
This cruise ship was pitch-black all over. Although it was not small, next to the Symphony of the Seas, it looked like a small dirt mound beside a large mountain. There was no way to compare them at all.
The people from the helicopter came forward to exchange a few words. More than ten minutes later, thirty or forty men dressed in various attire boarded the ship intermittently.
From Chen Chen’s perspective, everyone in this group radiated a ferocious, formidable aura as if each one was “reeking of blood”. Only those who had seen blood before would have such a presence.
Chen Chen stood on the upper deck and looked down. Prince Steele’s bodyguards and crew were conducting full-body checks on everyone. They were only brought in one by one after all suspicious items had been confiscated.
At this moment, an icy gust of wind tore past the deck, messing up Chen Chen’s hair with a wailing sound.
The wind was getting stronger, to the point where it could no longer be ignored...
Chen Chen slowly looked up and gazed into the distance once more.
The sky was extremely gloomy. It was no longer a clear indigo sky but eerie darkness. It looked like a ceaselessly rolling thick fog that was startlingly black...
Rain clouds had fully condensed and formed above the Symphony of the Seas. A violent storm was inevitable.
“It looks like there’ll be a storm soon. D*mn this weather!”
Leo was grumbling. “Chen, let’s head back first.”
Chen Chen stood with his back to Leo and the rest. Currently, a smirk was tugging at the corner of his lips, then it vanished.
“Alright, let’s go back.”
They returned to the casino.
As the boxing match was starting soon, Leo and the rest did not continue gambling. Instead, they stood on the sidelines and chatted. From time to time, members from the other families came over and joined in. It was Chen Chen who stood to one side with nothing to do.
Chen Chen glanced at the table where they were playing Fight the Landlord. He happened to notice the brown-haired young man playing together with two forty, fifty-year-old ladies.
Moreover, the 4 million worth of chips on the young man’s table had dwindled to less than 200 thousand...
At this point, the young man was gripping four cards in one hand, bl.u.s.tering at one of the ladies, “You can crush me with seventeen cards? Do you think you can crush me? If you crush me today with seventeen cards, I’ll eat this mahogany table! Right! Here! Right! Now!”
“...”
Chen Chen turned away with an indifferent expression and checked the time again. Just then, a few crew members in uniforms walked over and started to clear out the tables and guests in the back half of the casino. Their team leader even looked over to Leo and nodded subtly.
When Chen Chen turned back, he just so happened to see Leo nodding back. When Leo noticed Chen Chen looking at him, he shot a grin at Chen Chen.
“What are they doing?”
Chen Chen asked curiously.
“My dear Chen, you’ll know soon.”
Leo patted Chen Chen’s shoulders. Then, something happened, which Chen Chen could never imagine.
The back half of the casino, after being cleared of people and tables, started to descend gradually. It was like a modifiable stage. A deep circular pit appeared.
The deck in the pit lowered continuously, revealing a flight of steps, creating a circle of tiered seats like a basketball court.
At last, as the deep pit formed, a circular fighting arena, eight meters wide and surrounded by metal nets, appeared in the middle.
Meanwhile, dozens of part.i.tions were lowered from the ceiling, dividing the surrounding s.p.a.ce into dozens of small, private rooms. These rooms formed a circle around the periphery of the venue, giving an un.o.bstructed view of the entire arena.
Some of the crew members began to move the sofa from the lounge area next to them into the private rooms.
Chen Chen shook his head. He truly did not expect that a hidden mechanism like this would exist on such a standard-looking cruise ship. If the ship was not hired out privately, ordinary pa.s.sengers would never witness this.
Was this the world of the rich?
Chen Chen raised an eyebrow. Astonished cries erupted behind him as well.
Indeed, everyone who was throwing money around in the casino had seen the sudden drop of the arena and was instantly shocked.
“Let’s go, Chen.”
Leo and the rest evidently knew about this mechanism long ago. He called out to Chen Chen, then took the lead and occupied a box. Meanwhile, the crowd that was endlessly surging up from behind was stopped by the crew.
As news of this spread, more people hurried over swiftly. Nonetheless, other than the members of the eleven plutocrat families who could watch from the box, everyone else could only sit in the tiered seats below to watch the compet.i.tion.