Chapter 399 Gambler of Fate

The Golden Cod casino was located two blocks east of the Three-Legged Sea Dog tavern, near the heart of the Saltwater District.

Ostensibly a casino, the exterior of the Golden Cod was incredibly crude compared to the magnificent, palace-like gambling halls Xia Nan remembered from his past life.

Nestled in the narrow gaps between densely packed buildings, it had been converted from an old ship-rigging warehouse.

The building itself held zero aesthetic appeal. It was a low, wide, single-story longhouse with thick wooden walls smeared in ugly, anti-corrosive black tar. The roof was covered with several layers of mottled canvas. Devoid of decoration, its identity was declared only by the massive signboard hanging above the lintel—a codfish painted in gold.

Rather than a "casino," it was more fittingly described as a "gambling den."

The air was thick with a complex stench—a mix of strong tobacco, sour sweat, cheap ale, and the cloying spices used to keep people awake. The crisp rattle of dice, the clatter of violently swept chips, curt curses, manic laughter, angry shouts, and the sounds of brawling drifted out—

Even before entering the den, just standing on the street outside, one could feel the greed radiating from within, almost dense enough to take physical form.

The heavy curtain at the entrance was suddenly flung open, and a skinny, malnourished-looking young sailor was shoved out. He staggered a few steps and fell face-first into a mud puddle by the door.

Struggling to his feet, his thin shirt was soaked with filthy mud. His belt pouch hung flat, but his hand maintained a death grip on a few copper coins, as if they were his last hope for a comeback.

He slowly raised his head. Mud clung to his cheeks, and his eyes were slightly red, though he shed no tears. Only an empty bewilderment remained in his gaze, as if it hadn't truly hit him yet that the wages he'd earned from two months of grueling ship work had all been lost in half a night.

He subconsciously tried to turn back and re-enter the den, but after taking just two steps, he was deterred by the fierce glares of the vicious bouncers standing on either side of the door.

Hesitating for a moment, he finally turned around, shambling toward the other side of the street like a man who had lost his soul.

Xia Nan withdrew his gaze from the young man's retreating back. Having never been fond of such places, he couldn't help but frown.

Hera keenly noticed the shift in the black-haired adventurer's expression.

Knowing it was his first time in Barracuda Bay and that he was unfamiliar with the environment, she worried he might form a poor impression of her because of it.

Hera took the initiative to explain to Xia Nan, "Barracuda Bay is just like this. It eats people without spitting out the bones, much like the Misty Forest back where you're from."

"People with weak wills who can't resist temptation like him—even if they didn't leave their money in the casino, they definitely wouldn't be able to hold onto it in a place like Barracuda Bay. Getting fleeced clean is only a matter of time."

"Besides, our Golden Cod is actually considered one of the better ones. At least when they lose everything, we genuinely let them leave. If this were any other casino in town, they would take the opportunity to offer some 'comeback money' at terrifyingly high interest rates. They'd have to use their future voyage earnings or even their own bodies as collateral. Without being skinned alive three times over, they shouldn't even think about walking out those doors."

"Since they're going to get taken advantage of anyway, it's better they pay a little tuition fee here with us. Maybe they'll learn their lesson and stop gambling altogether."

"By then, they won't have any debt on them, so they can start over at any time."

Xia Nan remained noncommittal.

Hearing Hera's words, the muscular bald man beside them instead revealed a look of astonishment.

Naturally, he wasn't surprised by the information she disclosed; his usual job was overseeing this gambling den, so how could he not know the actual situation here?

What truly surprised him was that his boss, Hera, was actually taking the initiative to explain herself to someone else.

It seemed this exceptionally young-looking adventurer wasn't a newly hired thug, as he had originally assumed.

Without realizing it, he elevated Xia Nan's importance in his mind by quite a margin, even beginning to recall if he had offended the man along the way.

In this world where extraordinary power existed, the gap between individuals was stretched to infinity, resulting in clear distinctions in status and position.

Hera, a Class Holder herself who controlled a portion of Barracuda Bay's underground factions, valued Xia Nan because of his unexpectedly high potential. Yet the muscular bald man, who had to keep his voice down as a sign of respect before her, could make the two vicious guards at the door too afraid to even lift their heads just by looking at them.

The guards respectfully lifted the gambling den's curtain for the three of them.

Stepping into the Golden Cod, the first thing to catch the eye was the murky smoke drifting through the air. Silhouettes flickered everywhere; the entire gambling den was packed with people. Normally, the tables were almost entirely obscured. Only during the momentary, focused silence before a reveal, followed by explosive cheers or wails, could one catch a glimpse of a table's edge through the gaps in the crowd.

Rivervale Town had similar establishments. While the environment and specifics might differ, the behavior of the gamblers was largely the same. The losers either staggered out or slumped against the wall with empty eyes, while the winners brandished their coin pouches with red-rimmed eyes, loudly and ecstatically calling for their companions to buy drinks.

But bizarrely, the current scene inside the Golden Cod had undergone a change compared to normal.

Several card tables, which were always surrounded by gamblers, were now eerily vacant, leaving the dealers standing isolated in place. The air, typically filled with raucous noise, was now swirling with a tense atmosphere built on whispers and low muttering.

Yet the number of people inside the Golden Cod hadn't decreased compared to usual; in fact, it had even increased.

The reason for the sight before them—

—was that a massive portion of the gamblers in the casino were currently crowded tightly around a single card table.

Even if only as bystanders, they wanted to witness with their own eyes this legendary night destined to leave a heavy mark on the Golden Cod's history.

The crowd around the table was far too dense, completely blocking any line of sight from the outside.

Standing at the entrance, even though he immediately sensed the anomaly, Xia Nan couldn't see exactly what was happening over there.

Only through the intermittent, excited cheers of the gamblers by the table, and during the brief moments when the jumping crowd parted, could he catch a glimpse of the towering mountain of chips piled up in the very center.

"Boss Hera, it's that table!"

In stark contrast to his burly physique and the fierce tattoos on his head, the bald man's current behavior was like a student tattling to a teacher as he pointed a finger toward the crowded table.

"I asked around. That person arrived at the casino this afternoon."

"It's been at least three or four hours since then, but—"

"It's been nothing but pushes or wins. They haven't lost a single hand!"

Hera said nothing. She only frowned as a glimmer flashed through her azure eyes, her gaze seeming to pierce through the crowd to see the card table inside.

"I called over all the experts on duty today to take a look. They didn't find any signs of cheating, nor were there any traces of magic particles being manipulated."

"It's as if—they just have pure, unadulterated luck."

"They've been winning continuously since this afternoon."

Luck. Whether in his past life or here on the Aifala Continent, where supernatural powers existed, it was an inexplicable and mysterious concept.

Most of the time, it might just be an excuse, but a tiny minority of individuals would affirm its existence with a tone of longing, or even reverence.

But for the casinos in Barracuda Bay, and even the entire Southern Archipelagos, that word had become a taboo—a subject to be avoided at all costs—because of a legendary figure from many years ago.

Even to this day, in tavern corners scattered with empty bottles, or deep within shadow-shrouded alleys, gamblers would still speak with reverence and fanaticism about that entity who had already achieved legendary status:

—[Gambler of Fate] · [Tymora's Brow] · Arlene. She was also the only legendary figure in history to have simultaneously collected blacklists from all thirty-two large casinos across the three districts of Barracuda Bay.

No one knew where she came from, nor did anyone know what her purpose was in using her identity as a gambler to shatter the psychological defenses of every casino manager with such humiliating and mind-breakingly cruel methods.

That dark period, which felt like an eternal night, had become the collective nightmare of every casino worker in Barracuda Bay.

Even though she had never been involved in this line of work before, shortly after taking over the Golden Cod from its previous owner, Hera had been reminded of this hidden history in a highly covert manner.

She had even developed some interest in it, using her own channels to conduct a deep investigation, though unfortunately, the intelligence she managed to gather was sparse.

Because of this, she understood her subordinate's implication almost instantly.

"Are you saying that person—has returned?"

"No, no, no!" The bald man shook his head like a rattle-drum, a look of fear unconsciously creeping onto his face. "It's been many years. Barely any eyewitnesses in Barracuda Bay are even left, but the major factions have people specifically keeping an eye on the town entrance around the clock."

"If that person had really returned, the casinos in the city—especially those in the White Cliff District—would absolutely not be this quiet!"

"I just think that the person in our casino right now operates somewhat similarly to that legend."

Hearing this, Hera immediately let out a breath of relief.

But halfway through that breath, she suddenly seemed to realize something and choked it back.

Her expression grew dark and grim.

Standing off to the side, Xia Nan looked slightly confused.

He could gather that the crux of the situation was that an incredibly lucky gambler had arrived at the Golden Cod and hadn't lost a single hand since the afternoon.

But as a newcomer, he was completely lost regarding the cryptic riddles and "that person" they mentioned in their subsequent conversation.

He had no idea what kind of entity could make them afraid to even speak her name.

Refusing to hold it in, and seeing that Hera and the bald man were just standing there with no intention of stepping forward, he asked them directly about his confusion.

Perhaps acting out of some desire to escape reality—delaying out of fear of going up to check—Hera and the bald man were initially tight-lipped. But under his questioning, they soon began filling him in piece by piece.

After listening, a strange look crossed Xia Nan's face.

[Gambler of Fate] Arlene. Nothing else aside, just that name alone—he had actually seen it before.

The note on the Attribute Panel for the [Fate Coin] came precisely from her.

Back then, he had paid special attention to it because of the title, [Tymora's Brow]. Later on, due to the various events he encountered in the real world, he had gradually forgotten about it, burying it deep in his memory.

But he never expected that after more than a year, he would actually come to Barracuda Bay and hear the name of this legendary entity once again.

He couldn't help but marvel at the wonders of fate.

And the glorious deeds she left behind in Barracuda Bay made Xia Nan—who had just advanced to Level 3 and received a path for a future sub-class from his Attribute Panel—start making connections in his mind.

It was just like how he needed to complete a grand ritual of fear and intimidation—to "ignite the tinder"—in order to meet the requirements for his own sub-class.

Could Arlene's actions across the major casinos in the Southern Archipelagos have also been to satisfy the advancement conditions of a certain class?

However, given the exaggerated commotion she caused—so immense that locals still spoke of it with deep fear and panic many years later—it was probably an advancement ritual for at least the Transcendent Tier, if not the Legendary rank above it.

Perhaps she realized that standing here delaying was only a slow death.

Hera took a deep breath, a flash of determination passing through the depths of her green eyes.

She signaled the bald man with her eyes to get some people to part the crowd, and she was already walking toward the card table.

Xia Nan followed closely behind.

They were positioned to the side and rear of the table. Even with the bald man and his subordinates shoving the crowding gamblers to the sides, they still couldn't get a full view of the face of the gambler who was making Hera treat her like a mortal enemy.

The first thing Xia Nan saw was a mountain made of chips, which looked particularly spectacular within the casino.

The chips that those red-eyed gamblers would risk their lives and fortunes to win were currently piled haphazardly to the side, stacked so high they tottered, treated like nothing more than random pebbles found by the side of the road.

The chips at the very top swayed slightly with every impact of the dice cup against the table, drawing the gamblers' stares. Some even intentionally shouted or stomped their feet during the crowd's celebrations, hoping to make the chip mountain collapse so they could fish in troubled waters and snatch a few for themselves.

The gambler drawing the entire room's attention had her face obscured behind the crowd and the chips. All that was visible sticking out from behind the mountain of chips was a soft, pointed hat adorned with a white feather.

A pair of exquisite high-top leather boots embroidered with a clover pattern dangled in the air, swinging back and forth beside the chair legs, seemingly reflecting their owner's exceptionally high spirits.

Xia Nan suddenly felt that this getup looked somewhat familiar.

While he was lost in thought, the commotion of Hera's subordinates parting the onlookers by the table also caught the gambler's attention.

The white feather swayed gently. The pointed hat shifted to the side of the chip mountain, and a fair, slightly flushed face quietly peeked out from behind the chips.

Crystal-clear amber eyes shifted slightly, locking onto the face of the young adventurer.

A familiar voice rang out across the card table: "Xia Nan!?"