Chapter 153.1 The Horror Club
To get underground, he had to use the elevator.
Not everyone could go down. The elevator required a card swipe, which was only limited to dealer’s work badge. If a guest wanted to try more exciting casino games, they had to first win ten consecutive rounds in the million-dollar level gambling table on the first floor, then proceed to the dealer for asset verification. Only after completing this series of procedures could they be taken to the underground casino.
Wen Shi realized the importance of Li Nan’s career choice. Using other person’s work badge allowed him to effortlessly bypass the need to interact with NPCs.
Inside the elevator going up, the walls gleamed with golden brilliance, but going down, all sides were painted in dark black. It created a gloomy and oppressive space. After Li Nan had swiped his employee card, he pressed the button for the third underground floor.
Inside the elevator, a mechanical voice immediately warned, “The third-floor casino only served special clients. Those who entered without permission would face the consequences.”
Li Nan paid no heed to the warning, and as the elevator descended, he said, “They didn’t enforce the rules on the third floor.”
The reason for the lack of enforcement was as straightforward as the warning had suggested: ordinary people going down were essentially food for monsters.
At first, the elevator moved at a normal speed, but after passing the second underground floor, it began to slow down. The smell in the air started to change, not into an unpleasant fishy odor, but a faint plum blossom fragrance. This surprised Wen Shi momentarily. He had heard that the third floor was a monster’s paradise, so he had pictured a chaotic and filthy environment.
About two minutes later, the elevator jolted, and finally, the doors opened.
“I won, hand it over!” a rough and low growl directly reached his ears.
Right in front of Wen Shi was a gambling table. He watched in horror as a cleaver descended from mid-air, chopping off the gambler’s claw opposite him. Black-red blood sprayed and formed a small stream on the table, but it was quickly masked by the serene plum blossom scent.
That gambling table was not meant to be closely examined. It had absorbed a lot of blood, and its surface was greasy and matte.
It wasn’t very far, and the mist formed by the blood in the air was almost reaching Wen Shi’s side.
“……” His intuition hadn’t been wrong. The air here was only slightly better than the outside.
The sound of the door opening attracted several nearby monsters. They turned their heads in unison towards him. When they saw Wen Shi, their eyes instinctively glowed with a wolfish green light.
Wen Shi was also sizing up these monsters.
Their appearances were incredibly diverse. Some had bodies that resembled segmented lotus stems stitched together with fine threads, while others looked like beastkin from the Golden Tower Kingdom, with animal heads and human bodies. On a single gambling table, there were seven or eight different kinds of monsters.
The ghost children became more obedient once they arrived here. They didn’t run around but formed a small group, snarling at some unfriendly monsters in a show of defiance.
“You, come deal the cards,” a fanged monster on the third gambling table beckoned to Wen Shi.
Wen Shi seriously wondered if he looked like an easy target. Even though he was standing with Li Nan, in the eyes of these monsters, it seemed like he was the juicy meat on the menu.
In truth, based solely on his bearing, Wen Shi did indeed tend to arouse the sadistic desires of these monsters. His dealer’s uniform seamlessly blended the vulnerability of a kitten with the sensuality of an adult male, creating a visually striking impact. The deciding factor was that Li Nan had killed some monsters here before, and most gamblers didn’t want to easily provoke him.
Wen Shi glanced around and saw a few human dealers scattered about. They earned a huge service fee for working here for one night, but it was essentially gambling with their lives.
Sometimes, when the monsters lost at cards, they would vent their anger on the dealers, and on-the-spot cannibalism wasn’t uncommon.
“Is there any etiquette for killing here?”
Li Nan shook his head. “No rules. They even host special hunter games every month, enticing humans with exorbitant fees to be used as chips. Killing happens casually.”
“Sounds good.” Now he didn’t need to pick and choose. Just a swift clean-up later.
Considering himself a role model, Wen Shi said meaningfully to the ghost children following him, “Learn to give others a chance no matter when.”
After saying that, he walked to the card table, displaying an impressive shuffling technique.
Unfortunately, what the monsters saw wasn’t the dexterity of those hands but the delectability of a human dealer’s hands. Wen Shi scanned around, and many of his gamblers were eyeing him. Player’s flesh was naturally more enticing to monsters than the natives. A half-human, half-cat dealer like him looked like an irresistibly tempting morsel to them.
Worried that other monsters might beat them to it, some gamblers moved closer to the table.
Wen Shi calmly shuffled the cards, counted the gamblers at each table, silently calculating how many monsters were here.
In the end, he came to a conclusion: enough.
“Why the delay?” the monster impatiently urged, “Hurry up and deal the cards.”
Shouting to deal the cards, the monster sniffed the lingering scent of the gambler’s blood that had been chopped off earlier, unable to restrain its hunger. The monsters eyed the tempting veins on the young man’s neck, easily imagining the satisfaction of tasting that sweet, fresh blood after biting through.
Following instinct, in the next breath, the monster pounced ferociously.
The other gamblers around, eager to get a piece of an arm or a leg, rushed in like a tide.
Wen Shi lowered his eyes to the cards in his hand, shaking his head with a sigh, “Low rationality is definitely not a good thing.”
The monsters’ insatiable appetite was closely related to his current state.
The live chat was even more excited than these monsters:
【Scissor Granny: Is this what I’m finally waiting for?】
However, before the second comment could appear, Wen Shi had already taken action. All the cards in his hand suddenly floated in mid-air, forming a wall around his slender body.
The charging monster was blocked by the cards but, after a momentary pause, continued its fierce assault.
There were three levels of the【One Strike Flattens All】skill. Wen Shi had never used the highest level,【Transcendent Mastery】, until now. In this level, there was no need for a sword. Even gentle gestures could harm.
His weapon at this moment was playing cards.
The cat-eared dealer stood calmly in place, becoming the center of attention in the entire third underground floor.
What seemed like ordinary playing cards turned into metal pieces, effortlessly sliding across the approaching monster’s neck. A faint red line appeared on the thick layer of flesh, accompanied by a crisp sound. The monster’s head slammed onto the floor, its mouth still wide open, blood and saliva mixed and flowing out.
The playing cards seemed to have a will of their own, as they scattered in all directions. Instead of the brutality of a sword, the elegant corners of the cards gracefully grazed the necks of every monster along the way.
The scene erupted in screams.
The ghost children’s faces turned even paler than paper, their eyes wide open. They seemed to vaguely see a more terrifying poker Grim Reaper hovering above the monsters, wielding a scythe.
With a gentle touch on the big head, the ghost child standing next to Wen Shi finally snapped out of it, trembling as it raised its head.
Wen Shi’s gentle smile overlapped with the expression he had at the Celebrity Museum. He asked, “Still want this arm?”
The ghost children couldn’t speak, their mouths only managed to stay shut tightly against Wen Shi, shaking their heads vigorously, fearing they might accidentally get hurt by the flying cards.
They would learn to behave like good kids.
With the number of viewers skyrocketing, Wen Shi’s rationality was rising too. The slightly chilled blood in his body finally resumed its normal flow.
【Patient 109: F—ck! Is this for real? Is this fair?】
Wearing a pitiful expression, he actually dispatched the monster within seconds. He had even made a bet before, declaring that if he lost, he would allow the game administrator to transport him here, and he would accept whatever consequences awaited him.
【Patient 233: Remember the terms of the bet? Sending him here is probably his way of dealing with us!】
【Patient 250: Damn, what a dark world we live in.】
“Hanged Ghost Who Hates Ropes enters the live stream.”
【Little White Cord: After killing so many monsters, he’s definitely going to face Boss Mei’s punishment. @Flower Butterfly @Mountain Elf @Slip-Slide Head, come and take a look at Boss Mei!】
“Boss Mei?” The monsters in the comments were frantically tagging their companions, almost everyone mentioning this alias. Wen Shi repeated it.
According to online information, the owner of the Golden Plum Casino was referred to as “Boss Mei,” but judging from the reactions of these NPCs, Boss Mei was clearly not just one person.
Wen Shi’s expression remained unchanged, but he was subtly exerting pressure on the edge of the gambling table that his joints even turned a bit white.
Since the game had left an escape route for players to increase viewer count, the monsters on the third underground floor weren’t much of a threat. The corresponding danger would likely manifest in other ways.
Boss Mei seemed like a formidable one. There was an eighty percent chance that it would trigger a certain event, possibly a chase or something else. But if luck wasn’t on his side and he fell into that twenty percent, where he had to rely on brute force, Wen Shi might be in deep trouble.
Suddenly, he remembered that he had already used【One Strike Flattens All】four times. Should he consider using Xie Tangyan’s “Grand Swordmanship”?
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