Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

"..."

Seeing his stiff expression, the tavern owner chuckled and joked, "Don't be so nervous. Most of the people who come here are gang members. They make money quickly and have nowhere else to spend it, so they come here. We have our own rules here: once you come in, you're a guest; once you leave this room, nobody knows anyone else."

“What if I asked the latter?” Zhang Renfeng continued.

“That’s a rare sight. Since you were able to get in, you must know the rules. The starting price is $30, which most adult films can’t afford… As far as I can remember, you’re the second one.”

"The second one?" Zhang Renfeng's curiosity grew even stronger.

$30 is no small sum. It's not that it's impossible to come up with that amount, but given the general situation of contemporary Chinese laborers, they would never exchange such a large sum of money for casino admission tickets.

"He's just like you, he doesn't understand playing cards either. Just like you, he leans against the bar counter watching others play. He told me that in his country, there's a game called 'Mahjong,' which requires four people to form various hand combinations to end the game."

“We talked a lot. Maybe it's because we live far from home and have no relatives, and we had a few drinks, so we just grabbed someone and started talking outside.”

It's safe to say that no one could empathize with this feeling better than Zhang Renfeng.

But he was different. He still had his junior sister, Wolf. Although they weren't together right now, they were both far away, which helped alleviate much of the loneliness of being away from home.

……

"By the way, do you know Red Center?"

The bartender made it sound casual, which made Zhang Renfeng pause for a moment. He wasn't sure how to answer, so he nodded.

Then, the bartender glanced around, lowered his voice, and whispered, "Don't tell anyone... I've discovered Red's secret."

"What do you mean?" Zhang Renfeng asked.

"He came from the Qing Empire, just like you. The small wooden plaque left at the murder scene was actually a mahjong tile!"

The bartender counted on his fingers, "【Red Dragon】, 【White Dragon】, 【Green Dragon】, in mahjong terminology, it's called the Big Three Circles, which was taught to me by the last foreigner."

……

"Is that so?" Zhang Renfeng finished his drink, his feelings complicated, and replied casually.

Those in the service industry are all about reading people's expressions and noticing whether a customer is being difficult or not.

With just that one "Really?", the bartender could tell that the other person was being somewhat perfunctory.

He then changed the subject, saying, "Since you've come all this way, don't waste your time here. Go down and take a look around. You must be the only Asian among all these white people, so conspicuous. Maybe God will give you special favor."

"...He has already been very kind to me."

Setting down his wine glass, Zhang Renfeng slowly rose and strolled toward the gambling table.

Chapter 482: This is a Pig Butchering Scam

"Just to confirm, Ali and Nina, is that you two?"

It was obviously a fake name, but it didn't matter. Hundreds of people came and went every day, and the dealer had no interest in paying attention to them. Working here for years and dealing with all sorts of people, he had developed his own way of judging people—he could tell roughly what kind of person a customer was just by glancing at them.

The boy sitting on the left, leaning back in his chair, had droopy eyelids and was looking at the card table absentmindedly. His overalls were dirty, and he wore a large baseball cap, clearly a factory worker, and he had an unpleasant odor about him. It was easy to imagine that a laborer so young could produce $30; the money must have come from shady sources.

But it doesn't matter.

Once you're inside, they won't investigate whether the money was stolen, robbed, or obtained through fraud.

Sitting on the right was a girl who looked very elegant—she wore a light-colored hat and a light blue suit with two rows of teardrop-shaped buttons, which from a distance looked a bit like a skirt, clearly a carefully designed piece.

Beneath the suit jacket was a Justicar undershirt, making her look somewhat like a playful young man, which clung tightly to her relatively flat figure. She wore clean, crisp shorts, revealing her pale calves, with ruff-like details adorning her ankles.

No need to watch anymore, it's a scam.

Based on the dealer's years of experience, a glance is enough to tell that the girl on the right named Nina comes from a relatively well-off family.

This was her first time in a casino, and you could tell from her demeanor and movements. The girl looked around nervously, like a squirrel that had just climbed down from a tree. Her gloved hands rested on the gambling table, and her body was slightly hunched. She was both curious and nervous about what was happening before her.

"New fish," also known as "water fish," is a term specifically used to describe this type of person.

Often, customers travel from afar drawn by the reputation of Siegfried Casino. These novice tourists, when faced with experienced veterans, have no chance of keeping their chips. The dealer even suspects she might not understand the most basic rules.

But it doesn't matter, as the bookmakers, they will still make a profit regardless of winning or losing.

"These are the cards you'll be using. Let me confirm, 54 cards, right?"

He spread the cards out on the table: four suits—spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds—plus two jokers.

He removed the Jokers, folded his hands, skillfully shuffled the cards several times, and then placed them in the center of the table.

Theoretically, regardless of the game, there should be a dealer involved. However, the reality is that there are simply too many customers here. If a dealer were assigned to every table, there simply wouldn't be enough manpower. In most cases, the customers take turns dealing the cards themselves. Only in games with exceptionally large prize pools are professional dealers involved.

"I won't go into the rules of the game, but I'll talk about 'cheating'."

"If you suspect someone is cheating, you can call the poker community over, but you must give a general description of how the person cheated—whether they switched cards, switched dice, or something else. The poker community will then conduct a public body search of that person. If they find nothing in the end, you will have to pay the poker community $15 in chips."

"So expensive?" Nina exclaimed.

"Of course, Miss~~~ They're very busy with their work too. If you make them work for nothing, shouldn't you charge them more? This rule is to let you think things through. Don't call out this or that unless you're absolutely sure."

Ali crossed his legs, his tone somewhat flippant, picked up a deck of cards, and began shuffling them, asking, "Can we begin?"

The dealer nodded, stood up, and went to attend to matters at the other tables.

……

“I hate wasting time.” Ali glanced at the girl sitting opposite him, secretly pleased, but feigning impatience. “You know the rules, right?”

“I know…” Nina’s tone was somewhat ambiguous, “It’s just comparing the size of the hand.”

Just from hearing that sentence, Ali could tell that the other side didn't know how to play at all.

He stared at her ornate purse with the eyes of a cunning hyena.

"Okay, let's get started."

----

Texas Hold'em is a little less fun to play with just two people.

There were so many gambling tables like this, it was overwhelming. No one else joined in, because Ali was betting very small, adding stakes one cent at a time, employing a tortoise-like strategy. Seeing that there was a cunning old fox at the table, others immediately lost interest and kept their distance.

Playing like this is allowed by the rules, of course, but adding it penny by penny subconsciously makes people feel like it's grinding away. At other gambling tables, winning a round means winning several dollars at a time, which is much more exciting! But here, the unit of measurement has changed to cents, so who would want to sit at the same table as you?

However, this way of playing is very friendly to newcomer Nina.

She was quite unfamiliar with the rules of the casino, and she couldn't readily name the different hand rankings; she was a complete novice.

As a beginner, everything in this game is new and exciting.

When she won, even if it was just a few cents, it was enough for her to experience novelty and excitement. But even when she lost, it was still only in cents, so she wouldn't lose much; it was practically a risk-free, high-profit business. Nina's attention became increasingly focused, her eyes glued to the two cards in her hand. She licked her lips, no longer paying attention to her surroundings, completely immersed in the world of card types, ranks, and suits.

There were only two players, and the game was very fast, but Ali and Nina basically had to wait until all five community cards were revealed before a winner could be decided.

This is also one of the problems with beginners; they don't fold in time to cut their losses, they're incredibly stubborn, and they want to play against you until the very end.

Nearly eighty games have passed since then, and Nina's win rate against Ali remains around 70%, meaning she has won almost 56 games.

"It should be about time..." Ali thought to himself.

He was undoubtedly a genius at blasting fish, because he didn't just bombard the enemy randomly, but rather used a methodical approach. In a sense, his thinking was very similar to that of online games more than a hundred years later—he created an artificial "newbie protection period."

Texas Hold'em is also a card-drawing game, involving probability, strategy, calculation, and a whole host of other things. Beginners can't process all that information at once. Therefore, Ali manipulates the game, controlling the odds of winning. At this stage, cheating isn't even necessary; since there are only two players, he only needs to control his own card-playing strategy.

After playing so many rounds, Nina became more and more confident in herself and began to increase her bets. Gradually, the bets were raised to the dollar unit.

The difference in chips between the two sides began to become increasingly apparent.

Ali looked annoyed, his brows furrowed, clearly furious from losing too many cards. He let out a deep breath and, with a tragic expression, pushed all his chips onto the table.

All in!

This is a common reaction of gamblers when they are desperate to lose, so they simply bet everything at once.

Nina couldn't suppress a smile. With her previous 70% win rate and 30% loss rate as a foundation, she wasn't wary of this situation. Her play was unusually bold, and she went all in, pushing all her chips up at once.

……

Ali's eyelids twitched slightly.

----

"You're cheating." A voice suddenly came from the side, not very loud, but it made his heart skip a beat.

Turned.

But then he saw a yellow-skinned cowboy standing beside him, calmly looking down at him.

Chapter 483: The World Is So Big

"W-what?" Being interrupted at the most crucial moment, Ali's feelings can be imagined.

He stood up angrily, shoving the chair aside and throwing it down, his stance menacing. Nina, sitting opposite him, was startled by this sudden turn of events and watched them nervously.

In reality, the sound of the chair hitting the ground was nothing compared to the noisy chatter in the hall, and it didn't even attract any attention.

In casinos, this is just a common sight, and as long as it doesn't get too chaotic, the poker community won't even bother to intervene.

Zhang Renfeng was naturally not intimidated; he remained completely still, leaving Ali in an awkward position. Throwing the stool aside was just a bluff; once he stood up, the difference in their physiques was quite obvious—he only reached about chest level with the other man.

"And where did you come from? What gives you the right to say that?!"

“I saw it.” Zhang Renfeng nodded slightly at his sleeve. “You prepared a deck of cards yourself, didn’t you? When cutting the cards, you slipped them between your fingers to the back of your hand, and then replaced the cards hidden there with the cards you wanted. Those replaced cards should be in your sleeve.”

Ali's expression changed from hostile and defensive, with clenched teeth, to astonishment. After the astonishment, his mouth opened slightly.

He had honed this combo many times in actual combat—the first step was to identify the weak players in the crowd. This wasn't difficult, because not everyone here was a seasoned player; there would always be newbies. And newbies, mingling in the crowd, would have an unmistakable, peeking-in look. The second step was to slowly raise the bet, creating an artificial protection zone for newbies, while simultaneously building a favorable hand within this zone. The third step was to go all in, then use extremely fast card-swapping techniques to deliver a powerful four-of-a-kind or a royal flush to eliminate the opponent.

A classic "pig butchering scam" is completed by using a small investment to potentially gain a large return.

Before this, no one had ever seen through his movements, not even once.

But Zhang Renfeng had already witnessed similar techniques countless times with his senior brother. And those props weren't just flimsy playing cards and dice; they produced large glass jars filled with water, braziers, and peaches one by one.

In terms of dynamic vision, he was only slightly inferior to top marksmen like Mike and Calaway, so he could spot Ali's cheating moves with ease.

His expression was somewhat stiff. He glared at Zhang Renfeng resentfully, but said nothing. He then picked up the chair that had been thrown on the ground and neatly pushed it back into the table.

After all, their methods have been exposed. If the poker community were to come and catch them cheating, they wouldn't be so lenient.

"Tsk..."

He glanced at Zhang Renfeng sideways, said nothing, grabbed the chips that belonged to him on the table, and decisively got up and left.

……

"Oh, I see. I was wondering why!" Nina, who was watching from the sidelines, didn't say anything. Her face was full of shock, as if she couldn't quite accept that this had happened to her. She sighed softly, "How come I was able to win so easily when I played high cards and pairs?"

Zhang Renfeng looked the girl up and down. The top hat, dress, skirt, buttons, ruff collar, and those eyes that were looking around—it was clear that she wasn't a child raised by an ordinary family. She looked like a noble lady from some noble family.

Unlike Evelyn's slightly ethereal and distorted voice, her voice was very sweet and delicate, and her appearance was somewhere between a girl and a young woman. Although she didn't deliberately use a affected tone when she spoke, her voice easily evoked a subconscious protective instinct in people.

With just a glance, and considering the unsuspecting gambling game just now, Zhang Renfeng quickly figured out something.

"Taken secretly from home?"

"Wow, that's amazing! How did you know?" Nina covered her mouth slightly, her eyes lifting a little, revealing an expression of surprise mixed with admiration. Then she immediately lowered her voice, looked around, and asked cautiously, "Um... do I really look like a soft-shelled turtle?"

“A little.” Zhang Renfeng nodded, casually picked up a round chip, placed it in his hand, and gently rubbed its surface. “Excuse me for being blunt, but you shouldn’t have come dressed like this.”

“I see…” Nina lifted the hem of her long dress and smiled helplessly. “But there was nothing I could do. The opportunity was too rare, and everyone’s attention was elsewhere. If I wanted to leave, I had to act immediately; there was no time to change.”

"Your family must be quite well-off," Zhang Renfeng said, scrutinizing the girl's clothes. "Why did you sneak out?"

"I'm so bored staying at home all day! It's just practice, practice, or having afternoon tea with those aristocratic ladies... But the world is so big, I want to meet more different people!"

"Besides, if I hadn't run away, I would definitely be in bed by now, and I wouldn't have run into you~~~"

As she spoke, Nina swung her legs, as if splashing water. She spread her arms wide, making a "big" gesture, her smile incredibly excited. To her, all of this seemed to be some kind of novel and thrilling experience.

Zhang Renfeng felt a pang of emotion; he inexplicably saw a glimpse of himself in this young girl. Both came from wealthy families and were filled with curiosity about the world beyond the confines of books.

Everything in the martial arts world once fascinated Zhang Renfeng, but after plunging into it, he found that it was just like that. It wasn't as heroic as described in the books; instead, it was full of deceit and treachery, and people were calculating every single penny.

However, upon further reflection, he realized that he had never been deceived like this before when he was navigating the martial world. With his senior brother, a true martial artist, by his side to protect him, the traps and schemes that were meant for this wealthy young master were naturally kept out of sight.

Thinking this, Zhang Renfeng sighed and missed his senior brother even more.

……

"Thank you for helping me earlier." Nina's melodious, sky-like voice gently pulled him from his thoughts. "May I have the honor of knowing your name?"

“No need for such formalities. My surname is Zhang, Bruce Zhang.” Although this identity was already better than nothing, Zhang Renfeng still decided to put on an act since he was on someone else’s turf. “You can call me Mr. Bruce or Mr. Zhang, it’s up to you.”