Chapter 286 (1): Gambling God, Gambling Saint, Gambling Freak

Moonlight’s seal site.

Wayne set up a small table and called out to Megan, who had concealed her appearance. “Hey, you, Black Dragon. Yes, I’m talking to you. Since we’re all just sitting around anyway, why don’t you join us for a game of poker?”

It was July twenty-second, the third day after Wayne arrived in the Frozen Land.

The Frozen Land on the South Pole was currently in a frigid season with polar night, with no day-night cycle. Tracking dates served little practical purpose, but Wayne maintained a strict control over his biological clock out of his obsessive tendencies.

Wayne and Auston had arrived in the Frozen Land on the same day. On day one, the Darkness Knight had received a thorough beating from the substitute teacher, the Moonlight Knight, through the Nature Knight’s introduction.

Wayne coveted the White Night Creed. Through some intelligence work, he learned that Darienne, the Moonlight Knight, was absolutely addicted to card games, so he formulated a plan to exploit that weakness. For that, he sought out Megan and asked for a treasure from Auston through her.

On day two, the Darkness Knight received lessons from Leo, the Sun Knight. Worried that the knight would recognize him, Wayne deemed it inappropriate to make a move that day. Thus, he was absent from the show of the Sun Knight pummeling the Darkness Knight.

On day three, Darienne returned for happy hour, and Wayne returned as well. He brought the props he had prepared to Moonlight’s seal site: table, chairs, cards, chips, drinks, and snacks...

The Church of Darkness’s camp truly wanted for nothing. The playing cards and chips, especially, seemed unlimited in quantity.

According to the elves, cards were hard currency in the Frozen Land because of the three knights’ shared hobby. They might lack clothing or food, but never cards.

That was when Wayne finally realized why Moula had always come and go in such a hurry, staying only briefly at the Church of Nature’s headquarters without even eating before rushing back to the Frozen Land. It turned out that his card buddies were urging him to hurry, and his own addiction was serious.

Jokes aside, the elves of the Church of Darkness took good care of the three chosen knights, allowing them to focus on guarding the Lands of Seal and nothing else. The dark elves would handle everything else diligently.

Putting himself in Moula’s shoes, Wayne would rather stay in the Frozen Land than the Church of Nature’s headquarters, too.

“A two.”

“Three. Just over.”

“No, that’s not how you play. This is Fight the Landlord. Two beats three. Let me explain again. Fight the Landlord[1] is about two commoners fighting against one aristocratic landlord...”

Having received the script in advance, Megan made a show of declining repeatedly before finally joining the game. In this round, she was Senna’s teammate in their fight against the evil landlord, Wayne.

After two rounds, Megan and Senna found the game unexciting, so Wayne decisively changed to the more popular game, Blackjack. The three of them played cards while the Moonlight Knight battled the Darkness Knight in the background. It was a spectacular scene.

In the arena, Darienne’s silver armor gleamed like moonlight, and her sword flowed like water. She wielded her rapier with agile yet powerful movements, silver hair flying as she danced like the moonlight in the night sky, gentle yet fierce.

Auston wore black, gleaming armor, spreading darkness indefinitely with him at the center. The red eyes on his mask blazed fiercely, like a massive beast hiding in shadows. Twilight Despair devoured everything in its path with the momentum of violent storms, like darkness incarnate.

The two knights clashed, and moonlight and darkness collided. Darienne hadn’t used White Night Creed. Instead, she conjured a rapier of waning moon. Silver trajectories cut the darkness into pieces like moonlight lighting up the night.

Auston, likely influenced by the domestic violence he was subject to, attacked with violent sweeping motions. Twilight Despair turned into black lightning, each swing unleashing terrifying shockwaves of black light.

Their fighting styles were completely at odds. Darienne was calm and composed, her swordsmanship refined and her movements agile in close combat. Whenever darkness engulfed her, she easily tore through it and broke free.

The gap in their life essence was so great that even though Darienne specialized in dexterous positioning, her speed, strength, and even reflexes still completely dwarfed Auston’s. If this were a life-or-death battle rather than sparring, Auston would’ve already met his demise.

Their experience in combat wasn’t even in the same league, and their battle techniques were worlds apart. Auston knew well that making this into a battle of skills would mean certain defeat. Only by leveraging more powerful and deeper darkness could he suppress Darienne’s offense continuously, until darkness consumed the moonlight.

That was what he craved. The pressure from Darienne and Leo would continue to push him, and he would continue to endure and understand more pain, turning him into a qualified Darkness Knight. For his wife and daughter, he put aside whether his body would be able to handle it and willingly went all in.

Boom!

The light of Darkness morphed into a massive hand that covered the sky, rumbling as it engulfed Darienne’s slender figure. The next second, silver patterns bloomed, splitting the hand of Darkness in two.

Darienne walked out calmly, pointing her rapier toward the ground with a sneer. “I thought you would show some improvement after a day. Turns out that you’re still the same crude fighter who only knows how to attack with brute force. Your understanding of Darkness isn’t deep enough.”

“I won! Hand over the chips!”

Darienne’s eyes twitched. The chatters from the side of the sparring ground grated on her. She had wanted to say something earlier: couldn’t they respect the serious fight between Moonlight and Darkness?

She took a deep breath. “Darkness Knight, how did Leo teach you? He couldn’t possibly have been...”

“Amazing! As expected of me. I have incredible luck! I have a great hand!”

“Been... been...”

...Been playing cards the whole time.

Darienne was furious. Glaring at the trio on the side, she roared, “You three, quiet! This is the Land of Seal. Either play cards elsewhere or shut your mouth!”

She huffed and turned to Auston, venting her fury on the Darkness Knight.

Crash! Clang!

Today’s sparring session ended half an hour earlier than the first day. Auston lay prone on the ground like a dead dog, gasping for a long time before he got used to the pain coursing through his body. Getting to his feet with the support of Twilight Despair, he thanked Darienne politely and left without a word.

Megan’s focus wasn’t on the card table. When she saw that today’s sparring session had ended, she immediately tossed her cards to the table and went up to support Auston. The couple walked while leaning on each other, painting a picture that would make Silvia turn green.

Wayne wasn’t bothered at all. He set down his cards in disappointment and said to Senna, “What a shame. I was visited by rare luck, but the game ended before I had enough fun. I’m not bragging when I said that, given my luck today, I wouldn’t lose even if I faced the Gambling God.”

“You’re cocky, kid!” Darienne stormed toward the card table, her eyebrow arching when she saw the thick stack of chips piled up in front of him.

Pretty impressive!

But his opponents were obviously terrible players. Crushing newbies wasn’t anything to be proud of. She could’ve done the same.

“Lady Darienne, my apologies for bothering you earlier. We’ll take our leave.” Wayne gathered his chips, looking like he was in a hurry to go.

Darienne opened her mouth and closed it. Her card addiction made her want to ask Wayne to stay for a couple more games with her, but a knight’s pride prevented her from asking. She glared at him in frustration, making it seem like she wanted him out of here as soon as possible.

Senna, emotionally intelligent as she was, said, “You said your luck is good today, and not even the Gambling God could beat you. Why not invite Lady Darienne for a few rounds? I heard from the elves at the camp that Lady Darienne was an extremely skilled card player.”

Not bad. You’re observant. No wonder you can become an Oracle High Reverend!

Darienne snorted, waiting for Wayne to invite her rather than expressing her willingness.

“That wouldn’t be appropriate. We’ve already disturbed the knight for quite some time, and she still needs to guard the seal. It’s too important for her to have time for card games.”

Wayne muttered quietly to Senna before scratching his head with an awkward smile and saying, “Lady Darienne, you have my most sincere apology. She didn’t mean any offense. You know how it is. Dragonbloods speak whatever comes to mind.”

“Idiot! Lady Darienne had superb skills. This is a rare opportunity. Have her teach you a trick or two.” Senna gave Wayne pointed looks.

After several exchanges of glances, Wayne’s confusion morphed into realization, and he said tentatively, “Lady Darienne, would you... like to sit down and play a few games?”

“Ha, young man, you’ve got guts. Since you’ve invited me so sincerely. I suppose I can give you some pointers.”

Under Wayne’s earnest invitation, Darienne slowly sat down. “You’re Moula’s successor and will one day become the Nature Knight. I’ll let your disturbance of my lesson slide this time for Moula’s sake, but don’t let it happen again.”

“You’re merciful.” Wayne nodded vehemently. Once she was seated, he split the chips and shuffled the cards, asking curiously, “The seal requires your personal attention. Is it really fine to humor me like this?”

“It’s fine as long as I’m sitting here.” Darienne waved her hand dismissively, urging Wayne to hurry up. She hadn’t played cards in ages and was practically having withdrawals. She was so hungry for it that she could swallow the chips.

With her confirmation, Wayne started the game. Darienne, finally welcoming rain after a long drought, was so delighted that she lost five games in a row.

Her face darkened from the series of losses.

“This can’t be right. This shouldn’t happen...”

Darinne muttered, demanding to shuffle the cards herself. The result was the same. When she didn’t cheat, Wayne would always get whatever cards he needed, his luck so good that it would leave him with no friends.

In fact, people would be excluding him wherever he went, given how lucky he was!

“Damn it, it’s impossible for me to lose every game. Kid, are you cheating?!”

Darienne suffered defeat after defeat, her anger accumulating the more she thought about it. Since she wasn’t cheating, Wayne had to be.

As the Moonlight Knight, she still had some integrity. Since she was playing with an immature knight like Wayne, she had not cheated, no matter how desperately she wanted to turn things around.

If she were playing cards with Moula or Leo, who were her equals, they would all be doing whatever they could to win.

“Lady Darienne, my luck is truly incredible today. There’s no changing that...”

A few moments later, chips piled up high in front of Wayne. Meeting Darienne’s widened eyes, he quickly put a steady hand on the table.

“Why are you holding the table down? Do you take me for a sore loser?”

Furious, Darienne flipped the table.

Amid the flying chips, she saw the dumbfounded look on Wayne’s and Senna’s faces. She regretted her impulsive behavior and bit out, “I flipped the table because you questioned my sportsmanship, not because I can’t handle losing.”

Whatever you say. Your territory, your rules.

Wayne nodded, cleaning up the table and preparing to leave. “Lady Darienne, it’s getting late. Neither of us has chips left before us. Let’s call it a draw today. Another day, we’ll settle the score.”

“We do it

today

!” Darienne slammed the table like a gambler possessed by their addiction. “That wasn’t a draw. You’ve been winning the whole time. What didn’t happen, didn’t happen. You don’t have to try to preserve my dignity. I’ll win it back myself.”

“Um, we’re continuing?” Wayne blinked.

“You said it. I didn’t force you.” Darienne pressed the table down hard. “Those earlier games didn’t count. There were too few of us here, so the good cards stayed in your hand.”

“Understood. I’ll ask two girls to join our game to make sure you have a good time.”

1.

Dou Dizhu

, a common card game in China for three players. ☜