Chapter 130.
After parting ways with Den, Flam was dumbstruck by the chips he received from Rosellis. "Just what the heck am I supposed to do with this?"
It was unreasonable to tell Flam to play by himself when he didn"t even know that casinos existed.
"Well, if you don"t know, you can ask." Flam thoughtlessly asked a dealer of a nearby game how to use the casino.
That was the beginning of Flam"s misfortune. Flam became an absolute sucker and lost all the chips he got from Rosellis to other gamblers. If it had stopped at that point, there would have been no problem. However, not knowing anything, Flam was tempted by gamblers and ended up in debt.
In a flash, Flam had gotten on the express train to h.e.l.l and became a fighter in the underground ring. This then led to the current situation of him making his debut under the stage name of the Underground Undertaker.
I thought about Flam as he was driven into a corner while only wearing his trunks. Something"s wrong with this.
"Get it together." The opponent spoke to Flam at this moment. Flam had still not fully grasped his situation.
Flam"s opponent continued to speak while wearing spiked gloves, "It’s none of my business what the situation that landed you in this crazy place is. But if you don"t get a hold of yourself right now, you"re going to die by my hands."
The opponent had eyes that were weary of life. Flam nodded. Although he was not even aware of the situation or what was going on, he could see that he had to fight the opponent immediately in front of him.
The opponent"s worn-out fighting spirit made Flam realize reality. When Flam readied his stance, a bell rang out as it announced the start of the game, and the opponent took action first. The opponent approached quickly and threw a light punch. He was wearing spiked gloves, so even if the punch were light, getting hit would cause a lot of damage.
Flam hit the opponent"s fist with his left arm and deflected the attack. He then aimed for the opponent"s abdomen with a palm rather than a fist. The opponent frowned as he saw a palm flying towards him, and he tried to hit the arm away with his fist.
Flam gently swung his arm, dodged the fist, and tried to hit the opponent with a palm. However, the opponent had already retreated and taken a step back.
"Are you playing around right now!?" The opponent was furious. It was insulting that he was fighting for his life while Flam wasn’t taking it seriously.
"No, how could I be playing around in a fight?" Flam responded in a serious tone.
However, this further enraged his opponent. "Then keep being careless and die!"
The opponent quickly approached as he lowered his body and threw an uppercut, but Flam pulled his upper body back and dodged.
At the same time, he hit the opponent"s left leg.
"Ugh!"
When the opponent"s posture crumbled, Flam once again threw a palm strike at the opponent’s abdomen and pushed him back. Following this, Flam leaned forward and struck the opponent"s jaw with his palm.
Flam’s last blow shook the opponent’s brain, and he fell backward. He was knocked out.
The audience that usually gathered here to see a b.l.o.o.d.y fight had been silently watching Flam’s fight, and they broke out into applause.
"Ohhh!" There were cheers and whistles, jeers about the lack of blood, and complaints that they lost money, but Flam ignored it all.
Gradually, Flam was building a reputation in the underground speculation arena as a rising newcomer after a series of games.
* * *
I was amazed by Flam’s match.
His opponent was not that bad, and he had a pretty dangerous punch. Yet, Flam avoided it well and suppressed the opponent without seriously hurting him. Even though he wasn"t even showing off his full skills, he won consecutive matches.
"Undertaker!"
"Undertaker!"
The more Flam won, the crazier people became.
Against this match’s opponent, Tiger Mask, the Undertaker caught his back in an instant and grabbed his neck, doing a chokeslam. With his airway blocked, Tiger Mask resisted, but he fainted in less than ten seconds, and the Undertaker released the chokeslam.
Great! My chips just increased by 1.2 times from that match. Go, Undertaker!
By the way, my chips seem to have increased too much. Ever since I accidentally hit the jackpot at the slot machines three times in a row, I gave up on the thought of using up all my chips before leaving tonight.
For now, I decided to leave the chips with Rosellis and receive them as money later on. Exchanging the chips under my name definitely made the back of my head itchy. If it was Rosellis, a platinum plate adventurer, even the casino should not be able to touch her recklessly.
After leaving to find out what was happening, Rosellis came back to where I was. "Wow, Flam is pretty good at fighting."
He fought well enough to multiply my chips. This is what they call “a bear with talent, but the person takes the money.”
Rosellis answered in a sour manner, "I told you; he"s not a guy who goes around getting beat up."
"So what happened?"
At my question, Rosellis sighed first. "That idiot is in debt."
"How much?"
"Two gold coins."
I couldn’t hide my shock at Rosellis"s answer. Two gold coins were a week"s budget for a fairly large estate. To put it simply, with Flam"s salary, it would take more than 15 years to pay back that large sum of money. If you considered the interest, 20 years was not enough.
No, the interest rate in places like this would be out of the realm of common sense, so he would probably have to live as a slave for the rest of his life.
"Did he go crazy? No, how is that possible?” I asked.
"I don"t know. It must be possible since he’s in that state." Rosellis scratched the back of her head in frustration.
"Anyways, I"ll go withdraw some money, so wait a minute."
I stopped Rosellis from trying to go back up with her bank book. "I have money here, so let’s just pay it back right away."
I pushed forward the chips I won. If you calculated the chips that were piled up and being pushed around in a cart, it was almost ten gold coins. Since I started with 33 silver coins, it came out to be 30 times more in profit.
"Will it be all right? He might not be able to pay you back."
I shrugged my shoulders at Rosellis"s concern. It was at most two gold coins, and my pocket s.p.a.ce was flooded with gold coins. "Well, it’s fine. I was planning on spending all the money before I left anyways. It"s not bad to pay off his debt while I’m at it."
And because I informed Fiona that Rosellis and Flam had known each other since they were young, I felt a little sorry for his suffering. Fortunately, Fiona seemed to be refraining and took it from two hours to five minutes, but the fatigue probably lasted longer than five minutes.
Of course, I couldn"t tell Rosellis what I was thinking. The king"s ears are donkey ears! (1)
Rosellis gave a fake laugh. "All right, as long as you don"t mind.”
After the match, Rosellis and I grabbed Flam as he came out from the ring. "Follow me, you idiot."
When Rosellis pulled on Flam’s mask, he coughed like he was being strangled, "Hey, let go of me!"
It looked as if he was being pulled by his hair. If Flam were not dressed in a mask and just trunks, it would have looked like a scene from a morning drama.
"You punk, I told you to go play by yourself, but you cause trouble instead? Do you want to die?" Rosellis. .h.i.t Flam’s back.
Jjak! There was a clapping sound and a red handprint.
"Ahh! It hurts!”
"Of course, do you think I hit you so it wouldn’t hurt, you punk!?" She consecutively hit Flam on the back with a steady hand. Considering what Flam did, he did deserve to be hit.
For some reason, Flam’s back still looked well, so I gave it a hit once too.
Whack!
"Argh!"
There was a really loud slapping sound. With Rosellis holding his mask, Flam flapped around like a fish out of water. It"s been a long time since I felt a slap like this.
“You slap so well!" Rosellis also seemed to admire it.
“Can I give another slap?”
“Of course.”"
Flam was stunned by Rosellis"s acceptance. "Ah, no! What did you just hit me with? Wasn"t that a whip?!”
"Ayy, don’t exaggerate. It’s just a palm."
"It"s the palm of my hand." I did have a whip in my pocket s.p.a.ce, but I had hit him with my palm.
Yet, Flam didn"t believe Rosellis and me. "That can"t be true! There’s no way only a palm would hurt that much!"
He complained a lot for a guy who defeated his opponent with a palm during his match.
I whispered to Flam as he denied reality, "I just need you to stay calm for a moment. I will check your back."
"What, what do you mean?"
"Back. Let"s see your back!”
"Ack! It was my fault!"
I was trying to mercilessly hit Flam’s back despite him begging for his life, but I stopped when a chubby man suddenly ran towards us from afar.
"Just what are you doing to my fighter?!" The man was sweating from running the short distance, and he must be the one who swindled Flam into debt.
Rosellis stopped holding Flam’s mask and pulled it down. She then grabbed the man by the collar and lifted him. The man who seemed to be several times heavier than Rosellis was raised with one hand.
"Are you the one who cheated this idiot into debt?"
"Kuk! Kuk!" The man being dragged by his collar was getting strangled and couldn"t speak properly, so he just coughed.
"Since we need to be able to converse, just let him go."
At my suggestion, Rosellis stared at the man with irritation and let go of her grip.
"Aigoo!" The man struggling in the air directly fell on his b.u.t.t and made a sound.
"Me! Huh-huk, huh-huk. Do you know who I am?!" After barely regaining his breath, the man grew enraged with Rosellis and pointed his finger at her.
Let"s pray for the repose of the deceased.
Rosellis simply broke the finger being pointed at her.
"Ahh! My hand! My finger!"
Rosellis spoke, kicking the screaming man"s stomach, "And do you know who I am to be acting so c.o.c.ky?"
"Keuck! Huk!” The man held his stomach and let out a heavy cough from his lungs. It must have been hard to breathe since he just got a proper hit in the stomach.
"Did you even know what kind of idiot he was before sending him to a place like that?"
"Wha, what?"
I kindly answered the confused man, "The man you swindled is a direct subordinate of the adventurer"s guild director."
The man who heard me looked like he didn"t understand.
"So what I’m saying is that you’ve been marked by the adventurer’s guild.”
At my intuitive words, he became pale and began to beg. “I, I didn"t know! Please spare me!"
Rosellis spoke coldly to the begging man, "You know how much General Glont cares about his men, don"t you?"
As far as I knew, Guild Director Glont was an intense man who previously threw a white glove at a n.o.ble who touched his direct subordinate and cut his head off on the spot. Thanks to that, Viscount Asilante and the count that the n.o.ble was a.s.sociated with had a territorial war and ended up expanding the count’s land.
As a result, the territorial war ended with Uncle b.l.o.o.d.y and Guild Director Glont charging into the count’s castle and slaughtering all the knights. Wasn’t it said that afterward, the count was completely ruined, and Asilante was promoted to a count?
"Save me!"
I dropped chips worth two gold coins on the head of the man who was begging me to save him. "This is our old man"s debt. Two gold coins’ worth of chips."
The man trembled as he was. .h.i.t by my chips. "Ah, no! I don’t need them!"
I whispered to the man as he refused, "Ayy, no. Even if you scammed him, the contract is legal, and we have to repay it. That way, our adventurer’s guild won’t feel guilty and get rid of you."
Since we could not get evidence of the scam, we had to repay it. Honestly, this was more convenient than proving that it was a scam. I smiled refres.h.i.+ngly at the man. The man stared at me like he was looking at a devil, but the gaze of a dead man was of no concern to me.
You"re already dead! I took Flam"s debt certificate out of the bewildered man"s arms.
"I’ll be taking this. Do your best." I patted the man on the shoulder.
Notes: 1) Expression showing frustration at having to keep a secret.