Chapter 158: Placing a Bet

Chapter 158: Chapter 158: Placing a Bet

With that in mind, Seraphina Sinclair sent a few runes to Pretty Guardian.

She didn’t even include a single word. Extra warnings were useless to the intelligent and wasted on the foolish.

Pretty Guardian was clearly the former.

A few Fire Drawing Runes and one Heavenly Light Rune. With these runes, as long as Pretty Guardian wasn’t a fool, she could essentially walk all over the other players.

Not long after Seraphina Sinclair sent the runes, the announcement board showed that Leo Lowell had used an Arena Certificate on Pretty Guardian.

Leo Lowell didn’t even give Pretty Guardian a chance to talk trash.

The regional channel instantly exploded over the news, and someone immediately popped up, shouting, "Place your bets, place your bets! Who will win: Pretty Guardian or Leo Lowell! Let’s look at their records! Pretty Guardian has one victory, having slain Leo Lowell’s own brother, Donovan Lowell! Meanwhile, Leo Lowell has won a whopping fifteen consecutive arena matches!"

"Is there even a question? I’m betting on Leo Lowell, of course! Pretty Guardian is famous, sure, but that’s just notoriety from all that trading drama. I’ve watched Leo Lowell fight his way up match by match!"

"That’s right, our Leo is incredibly strong! You can’t go wrong betting on him!"

"I didn’t think much of him at first, but now I feel like Leo Lowell is on the same level as Master Blacktiger! How long has it even been? He’s fought fifteen matches and hasn’t lost a single one! That level of strength is just absurd, right?!"

"What’s Master Blacktiger got to do with anything? Are you just mentioning him to make your boy sound better?"

"I’m betting on Pretty Guardian. I don’t care about anything else, I just want to see if Leo Lowell owns the damn arena or something!"

There weren’t many forms of entertainment in The Black Mist World, so betting had become one of the few pastimes available to people.

This hadn’t just started with the appearance of Arena Certificates, but their introduction had caused the number of participants in the betting pools to multiply several times over.

Previously, the betting pools were far more complicated. There were more rules to follow just to participate, and the results were often ambiguous.

Things were different now. With a trade agreement in place and the system declaring a winner, no one could even think of welshing on their bet!

Seraphina Sinclair had previously made a point to look into it. The bookmakers were a small team, a crew of about a dozen people, backed by a bigwig from a private group run by Frostleaf. Even if the payouts were huge, they could cover them.

Besides, these people were very cautious and never set high odds.

Seraphina Sinclair thought for a moment and decided to seize this opportunity to make a small profit in Black Fog Coins.

Seraphina Sinclair was completely confident about the outcome of this arena match.

It wasn’t because she believed in Pretty Guardian’s strength, but because she believed in her own runes. More than that, she believed that the sharp-tongued but clever woman would know how to use this "surprise" to its full potential to kill her opponent.

Having made her decision, she no longer hesitated.

Opening the regional channel, Seraphina Sinclair found the ID of the player shouting for bets—Fortunefalls.

’What a festive name.’

She sent a message, and a reply came back almost instantly.

[Fortunefalls]: M-Master Blacktiger? You were looking for me! How can I help you?

’A bit too polite.’

[Blacktiger Ford]: What are the odds on this betting pool you’re running?

[Fortunefalls]: Right now, the payout for a Leo Lowell win is 1.2 to 1, and for a Pretty Guardian win, it’s 2 to 1! Master... are you... interested?

[Blacktiger Ford]: Mm. I’m betting on Pretty Guardian to win.

The other end went silent for a few seconds, seemingly processing her unexpected choice.

In their eyes, the powerful Leo Lowell with his stellar combat record was clearly the safer bet. Add in the revenge motive, and his chances of winning seemed even higher.

But if Seraphina Sinclair lost, they would profit, so of course they wouldn’t try to talk her out of it.

[Fortunefalls]: O-Okay! How much do you want to bet, Master? We accept materials, Black Fog Coins, or other valuable items...

’How much to bet?’

That was indeed the question.

Seraphina Sinclair currently had over 17,000 Black Fog Coins. Betting it all would be too flashy, and besides, she wasn’t in the habit of gambling away her entire net worth.

’I’ll just bet... ten thousand Black Fog Coins.’

’It’s a round number. That’ll make it easier to calculate the winnings.’

She sent the message, and Fortunefalls’s reply came back instantly.

[Fortunefalls]: What? How much?! Ten thousand Black Fog Coins?! Are you sure, Master??! That’s so much! You want to bet it on Pretty Guardian?

Seraphina Sinclair knew, of course, that he was surprised she was betting on Pretty Guardian, but she ignored his astonishment and simply asked, "What, you can’t cover it?"

He didn’t reply for a good while, and even the hawking in the regional channel went silent.

Seraphina Sinclair was a little confused at first, but then she realized ten thousand Black Fog Coins was a huge sum of money. She guessed he had probably gone to discuss it with his leader.

’They’ll probably send someone else to talk to me.’

Sure enough, a new message arrived a moment later.

[Bluebird]: Master? You want to bet ten thousand Black Fog Coins on Pretty Guardian?

’So he’s the "master" they were talking about in the regional channel.’

Seraphina Sinclair replied with a single word: "Yes."

The moment Bluebird saw that word, he sucked in a sharp breath.

’And here his foolish partners were, thinking this was a windfall from heaven! They thought that while Master Blacktiger was strong, her judgment was awful, and she was just handing out Black Fog Coins like charity!’

’How was that even possible?’

’This was the person ranked number one, who always took first place in dungeons. Her strength and her judgment were beyond question!’

Bluebird absolutely admired her, but...

’So why was this master being so difficult today, coming to fleece *him* of all people?!’

’Would she make a bet like this if she wasn’t absolutely certain?’

’Or to put it another way... why on earth would she be willing to just throw ten thousand Black Fog Coins down the drain?!’

’She must have realized she could profit from this, that’s why she’s here!’

’That was just too cruel...’

At this thought, Bluebird raised a hand to wipe his tears.

’He’d been doing this for two weeks, and business was just starting to pick up. He had only earned a handful of materials and barely any Black Fog Coins.’

’One shearing from Master Blacktiger, and he’d probably lose everything!’

’But what could he do?’

’Refuse the bet? That would be the same as ruining his own reputation!’

’Besides, it’s not like Blacktiger Ford was robbing him. She was already showing him respect by placing a proper bet.’

’Fine, let her fleece me. I’ll just have to earn it back slowly.’

Bluebird’s heart was bleeding, but he couldn’t voice his complaints. He could only follow procedure and confirm with Seraphina Sinclair:

[Bluebird]: Master, please don’t take this the wrong way, but the sum is just too large, so I must confirm it myself. The payout is 2 for 1. If you win, we will pay you twenty thousand Black Fog Coins. Are you sure you wish to place this bet?

[Blacktiger Ford]: I’m sure. Send the agreement.

A betting agreement, notarized by the system, was sent over instantly.

The terms were clear, stating the stakes for both parties, the payout ratio, and the settlement method.