Records of the Weakest Emperor - Chapter 252

A gambling den always had odds stacked against its players.

The persistent existence of a house edge on all games meant that every player was mathematically likely to lose their money in every game that they played against the house.

But to be frank, playing at the casino was one of Calvin’s favorite past times.

He was always someone that often like to reverse-engineer things and find out how exactly a certain object or a concept worked.

Back then, he was a fledgling player that had no idea how casinos operated.

He had to pay a huge price before he understood that in order to succeed in the casino, he must work on maximizing his winnings while cutting his losses as soon as possible.

Of course, he learned not to cut his winnings short while he had the momentum.

But despite his best efforts in finding out the best strategies in winning against the house in the casino, Calvin had committed the blunder whom he still considered to be his most shameful mistake of all time.

It was because after using at least six months of his life researching on how he could beat the house, Calvin had been negligent and forgot the existence of something so crucial, yet was everywhere in Las Felipinas.

Mana!

Fortunately, Calvin had always cut his losses whenever it crossed the threshold of his personal risk tolerance.

As a result, he didn’t lose that badly.

Then, after he knew that he could use Mana to influence the outcome of the games.

He was now basically using the same technique as the house, albeit he was working against them.

A year passed and Calvin had basically mastered the techniques necessary for him to win a hundred percent of the time.

Of course, he was sensible enough not to actually win a hundred percent of the time.

With his prudence, Calvin walked away—a hundred thousand Joselian pesos richer after about a year and a half in the casino.

No one had any suspicions against him due to his enormous winnings, after all… most of them saw how he struggled for such a long time before he got a lucky break.

In fact, even the Manager of the casino itself even congratulated him for his winnings and jokingly told him to never come back.

Calvin knew that it wasn’t a joke, the Manager actually wanted him to return and spend all of his winnings in the casino.

But Calvin understood that he had to leave sooner or later.

Thus, he left.

A hundred thousand Joselian pesos richer and with a treasure trove of knowledge concerning popular games in the casino.

Calvin revealed a smile. But recalling his role in the Rags to Riches Casino, his smile quickly turned complacent and arrogant.

Aurelia had finally led them to their destination.

It was a round table in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the casino. Needless to say, their arrival attracted the attention of the boorish people in the casino.

Albeit, most of them had their eyes on Christine instead of on Aurelia or Calvin.

Aurelia walked behind the counter.

She donned a long-sleeved suit jacket that seemed to be tailored for her and similar to the outfits worn by the other dealers in the casino.

Calvin was surprised by her outfit.

It was because she was actually wearing three layers of clothing—a white long-sleeved tunic, a waistcoat, and a vest that seemed to be solid enough to protect her from the sudden attacks of enraged boorish losers. Calvin suddenly recalled the name of that ‘young man’.

‘Sum Jing-Woo.’

‘A Korean name.’

‘It seems that he really is an Earthling. There is no doubt about that.’

A stern look appeared on Calvin’s face.

Earthlings would soon come into the picture sooner or later.

But he didn’t expect that they actually had their hands in the inner workings of Joselian earlier than what Calvin had once thought.

‘Damned it…’

‘Did the timeline change after all?’

Calvin’s expression went cold.

No matter what, even if the timeline changed, his goals hadn’t changed at all.

“Calvin?”

Christine suddenly spoke up. “What’s wrong? You have such a scary look on your face…”

“Ah.” Calvin let out a surprised yelp. Then, he woke up from his trance and saw both Christine and Aurelia staring at him in confusion.

“My apologies, I was revising my strategy.” Calvin casually waved his hand in dismissal and made a random excuse.

Aurelia’s lips twitched.

Strategy?

The word “Strategy” was all too familiar for Aurelia.

This was a word that most of their customers often used as their excuse whenever they talked to their families about them losing everything that they had.

‘I have a strategy that I can use to recoup my losses! Don’t worry, I’ll take back everything that they took from us! Just give me this chance!’

‘Please, just give me this chance!’

Then, that was the last time that they would ever see their families.

Some of them ended up as one of the beggars near Yang Bridge, while some of them died under the guilt of their own sins.

These people might not have a lot in common, but they had a word that they always used.

“Strategy.”

Christine looked at Calvin in astonishment.

He was never the type of person to joke around when it mattered, so she was full of curiosity hearing his words.

“Yup.”

“What kind of strategy is it? Does it work all the time?”

“Well, I won’t say that it works all the time.” Calvin awkwardly scratched his head. “I’ve always been lucky since I was a child. I guess if we play a game that relies heavily on luck. We should be able to win most of the time!”

He then turned to look at Aurelia who was staring at him as if he was an idiot deep within her eyes.

“Manager, which game is the most dependent on luck?” Calvin looked around the casino with this curious look in his eyes.

A single glance was all it took for everyone to judge him as a greenhorn to casinos.

Some people were already judging him as a retard that came here to ‘donate’ his money to the casino.

If not for the fact that he was being backed by the gorgeous young miss of the Allana Martial family—Christine Allana—these people would’ve probably already spat harshly onto the floor with disdain.

Especially, when they heard that he had a ‘strategy’ that he was planning on using against the house.

Sure, the word ‘strategy’ intrigued them.

But after hearing that his so-called ‘strategy’ was his ‘luck’ since he was a child.

These boorish men weren’t so stupid as to actually believe him.

They immediately called his bullshit deep inside their hearts.

“The game that’s the most reliant on luck in our establishment is the Dance of Dices!” Aurelia replied with a smile.

But inside, she was already imagining herself laughing all the way to the bank.

While the Dance of the Dices mostly relied on the surface, she was actually skilled enough to manipulate the outcome by virtue of special rocks inside the dices. The rocks embedded deep in the dices were so small, yet their effect was subtle and impactful.

Those strange rocks were attracted to metal, so Aurelia simply had to manipulate the contraption made out of metal beneath the table and the dices would briefly ‘dance’ before sticking into the numbers where she wanted it to land.

With these thoughts in mind, Aurelia looked at Calvin and observed the minute changes in her expression.

To be frank, she was still unconvinced that the young lady of the Allana Martial family would bring in a prodigal young master to waste their money.

After all, the Allana Martial family was a strict family with tight rules and strict culture. This was why Aurelia still couldn’t believe that this young man beside her was truly a good-for-nothing.

No matter what, this person must have some tricks under his sleeves!

Aurelia thought to herself.

However, there was nary a change in Calvin’s expression.

In fact, he even looked somewhat confused as he asked. “What’s Dance of Dices?”

Aurelia was rendered speechless.

‘Could it be that this guy is truly a dumbass?’

‘Then, why was the young lady of the Allana Martial family with him?’

‘Wait, what if she came here to have fun without caring for the money?’

‘After all, those members of the Allana Martial family are rumored to be so uptight and strict that they seldom entertained themselves.’

‘What if this was the young lady’s way of entertaining herself?’

‘But entertaining herself by losing money? That doesn’t make sense!’

‘However, it also doesn’t make sense why would she bring in here a dumbass good-for-nothing man that obviously only came here to spend her family’s money like water?’

Aurelia wracked her brains hard to think of the answer why Christine brought with her such a brainless man in a place where one’s brain was a necessity for survival.

In the end, without ever reaching an answer…

Aurelia returned to her senses and swiftly assumed a professional tone of voice and posture before she replied, “The house will hurl two dices up into the air. On the table will be eighteen slots with numbers. You just have to guess which among the eighteen numbers would the two dices land…”

“What?” Calvin revealed shock and delight. “Two dices? Only eighteen numbers? Isn’t that too easy?”

‘Shit, this guy really is a dumbass…’ Aurelia thought to herself.

Christine also had her doubts as she stared at Calvin.

Letting out a sigh, Christine could only hope that Calvin wouldn’t lose so badly against the house as to affect her family’s reputation.

Else, the repercussions would be something that she would have to pay a huge price to endure.

“How about the payout?” A somewhat greedy look appeared on Calvin’s face.

Aurelia hid her disdain and explained. “There are two modes in the Dance of Dices. Classic and High-risk.”

“In Classic, there would be two dices. To win, you only have to correctly guess one landing number for the dices.”

“As for High-Risk. The payout ratio is 1:10. But to win, you have to correctly guess both landing numbers for the two dices. The payout ratio for the Classic mode is 1:2. Which mode do you want to play, young noble?” Aurelia revealed a sweet smile.

Christine looked at Calvin, waiting for his decision.

The crowd also focused their attention on Calvin at this moment.

This was the moment where they would find out—once and for all—whether Calvin was truly a dumbass or not.

And Calvin truly did deliver according to their expectations.

“High-Risk! Go big or go home has always been my motto!”

“I rather bet my entire life to win it big, than to be a coward in the face of opportunity!”

His words sent the crowd into an uproar. It has been years since someone was actually stupid enough to play High-Risk Dance of Dices. But what angered the crowd the most wasn’t actually Calvin’s decision. It was his words.

‘Than to be a coward in the face of opportunity.’

These words of his were basically the same as slapping the faces of those that chose to play the Classic Mode in the past.

It was tantamount to calling them cowards!

In an instant, some people stood up and headed in Calvin’s direction.

Fortunately, the security of the casino seemed to have become tighter with Christine’s arrival.

A cordon was soon made around Calvin, Christine, and Aurelia as the latter lightly chuckled and praised.

“Young noble sure is a daring and bold person. All right, let’s start the game. Please place your bets.” In her mind, Aurelia was already thinking of a plan that she could use to keep Calvin for as long as he could inside the casino.

It would be better if he walked out of here in debt.

After all, he had always hated men that only knew how to brag but had no evidence whatsoever to support their claims.

She wanted to teach him a lesson.

Calvin took one glance at her and said, “Don’t bother about letting me win the first few rounds. I know that you are planning on doing that so I don’t get scared of the casino. But don’t worry, I came here to go big, so I definitely won’t be coming home without winning something big!”

In the very next moment, Calvin placed Christine’s family medallion and declared.

“With this medallion as the backing, I bet a thousand Joselian pesos at once! Let’s roll!”

The expressions of everyone in the casino immediately changed upon hearing his declaration.

Christine almost had a heart attack hearing him bet a thousand Joselian pesos in a single round.

Has he gone senile?!