“Quest Complete: Many people believe that the Goddess of Chaos governs the laws of Luck, but in fact, Luck is just an illusion created by Arcana’s favor. However, it takes more than simply being lucky to win a game, and if you did not comprehend the rules and how to play efficiently, you would not have been able to win ten hands of Blackjack in a row.”

Michael’s experience bar was at 75/80 the moment he received his first reward, and then suddenly an illusory cube suddenly coalesced in the palm of his open right hand. Gabriel, who was still sitting beside him regardless of the fact that he had lost all of his money several games ago, gasped as he ‘Scanned’ the object.

“Arcane Die: Increases wearer’s Wisdom by two and Defense Rating by three. Soulbound to Michael, and can only be utilized by him. Rare Quality, requires level­-five.” It was one of the most elusive types of equipment that could be utilized: a ‘trinket.’

He immediately ‘Equipped’ it, and similar to the ‘Unequipped’ Arcane Orb, the tiny glowing cube began floating above and behind the man’s head. Not just Gabriel, but the dealer and the other people who had been watching were completely amazed at what they had just witnessed.

It wasn’t all that strange for veteran adventurers to receive ‘divine’ artifacts, bestowed by the Goddesses, for valiantly fighting against powerful monsters. However, the concept of ‘Quests’ was completely forgotten by most ‘NPCs,’ so from their perspective, Arcana had literally just given him a gift for no particular reason.

On top of the fact that he had just won ten games of Blackjack in a row, and had three-hundred and fifty-two illusory gold coins sitting in-front of him, it was completely normal for people to envy him. At least they did until a few seconds later, when he started screaming while clenching both of his fists tightly and the skin on his face, neck, back and chest began charring.

A massive ‘-30’ appeared above his head, as he roared “Fucking shit balls! Rahh~!” The aura that erupted from his body actually sent the little Goblin man to his right, flying a few meters across the room.

Gabriel yelled “Hey, are you okay?! What’s happening to you?!” However, noticing the disturbance, several of the ‘pit-bosses’ who were already preparing to ‘remove’ Michael from the casino, quickly moved in for the kill.

Under the pretense of protecting the patrons, a bulky Ogre Warrior, wearing full steel-plate armor, ran over and swung down a massive club towards the Human’s head. With his Health already dramatically reduced, it didn’t take much for his skull to be cracked open and his body to fall limply to the ground.

Michael noticed that upon his death, all of the clothing that had become ‘Soulbound,’ instantly disappeared. The floating die and the ball vanished as well, and when he respawned, they materialized along with his body: on the other side of the Blackjack table. He was holding the Arcane Orb in his right hand as he yelled “You fucking piece of shit!”

The level-10, rank-F Ogre had an incredibly high Defense Rating, but when the glowing sphere bounced off of his chest-plate, a ‘-40’ popped-up. Since the giant man couldn’t feel any pain, or see the damage-number, he was still unable to grasp the situation.

He looked down and saw that the Human had certainly died, yet an exact replica had suddenly materialized, and was shouting at him. Michael threw the ball again, and then a third time, which finally caused the Ogre to fall limply to the ground: his body didn’t even twitch.

A loud monotonous and feminine voice announced “You have reached level-nine.” as the Human began glowing brightly. However, he didn’t have time to invest any stat-points or even open his status-screen.

Picking up his crystalline card, he tried to store it in his inventory and received a strange message: “Would you like to deposit three-hundred and fifty-two gold into your currency tab? Doing so will destroy the previous storage device.”

Without thinking too deeply about it, he immediately agreed and the card vanished into thin air. Gabriel yelled “Michael, w-what just happened!?” and then followed after the fleeing man.

At least five or six Orcs, Ogres and Humans were chasing after the two of them, as they escaped onto the main-street. They were calling for the ‘guards’ to help them catch the two ‘thieves,’ but upon seeing a level-19, rank-E High-Elf, there was no one foolish enough to aid the pit-bosses.

They actually entered into a different casino, one which was on the other side of the giant caste, and Gabriel asked “Can you please talk to me now?”

Noticing that the flamboyant man was still following him around, Michael frowned and directly said “I’m sorry, but I’m not gay… Don’t get me wrong though, you’re definitely very beautiful. Unfortunately, I just can’t get turned on by a guy’s asshole; it just isn’t the same.”

Gabriel glared at him and yelled “What does that have to do with anything!?” They were standing in the entryway to a casino called ‘Avarice.’

Michael casually walked up to the cashier and placed fifty gold coins on the counter, accepting a new crystalline card, which had a different logo on it. Then he headed towards the gambling hall, which had a slightly different vibe, and he could tell that it didn’t seem nearly as sketchy.

After the blonde Elf pestered him for a few more seconds, he whispered “Stop freaking out. You saw my fucking title, right? I’m immortal… I can die, but just not permanently. Why are you following me anyway?”

The tall and lanky man was stunned when he finally realized “So that’s what the title means…” Then he explained “They were chasing both of us, and I… I don’t know, I figured that it would work out somehow if I followed you?”

Michael sighed dramatically and said “If you’re trying to get me to give you some money, I won’t. Besides, you’re like ten levels above me for fuck’s sake; just go into the jungle and hunt some magical-beasts.”

Gabriel frowned and asked him “Why did that guy kill you?” as the two of them sat down at a Poker table.

He shrugged and nonchalantly explained “It’s obviously because I won too much money. They would have waited until I tried to leave and then brought me to a back room, to do things quietly. However, since I was distracted and causing a commotion, they used that as an excuse to execute me publicly.”

After hearing that, the High-Elf was horrified, he had seen a handful of people who had been winning jackpots or doing well at the card-tables, that were probably murdered. Yet, he was naive enough to think that they were actually receiving some kind of special VIP treatment.

The moment that Michael won his first hand, he received another Quest: “Win ten games of Poker in a row. Reward: Fifty experience-points and a Soulbound item.” Unfortunately, Poker wasn’t nearly as reliant on Luck as Blackjack.

Gabriel asked him “If this is such a horrible place, then why are there so many people here?” The dealer had already started giving out the cards to everyone who had illusory coins in front of them.

Michael glared at the feminine man and then sent out his wisp-form to see through the Elf’s pants, before sighing dramatically and complaining “If you were a woman, I would probably be a lot less annoyed right now. Anyway, isn’t it obvious? People are fucking idiots! Doesn’t matter if it’s this world or the one I came from, race doesn’t matter either… It’s not even about Intelligence, because I’ve known plenty of really smart, but incredibly dumb assholes in my life.

“Why would anyone come to a place that’s obviously a death-trap, and then stay here complacently until they’re eventually killed? This whole damn town is called ‘The Temple of Asura.’ Chaos is in the name of half the stores, restaurants, and bars, so I’m gonna take a wild guess and say: this place is a literal hellhole.” After that he turned to the dealer and said “I’ll bet five.”

Gabriel had no idea what he was talking about, so he just muttered “I still don’t get it…” as he watched the strange Human gambling with huge sums of money. Michael won seven games in a row, but then lost the eighth, so he had to start back from the beginning.

Compared to Blackjack, the rate at which he was earning gold was far slower, and he didn’t draw the ire of the ‘pit-bosses’ who were scattered around the room. On the second try, he lost the fifth hand, and on the third attempt, he made it all the way until the tenth… but still lost.

Michael grumbled “Ugh, this is fucking bullshit.” but as he stared at his accumulated one-hundred and sixty-seven coins, he couldn’t help but smirk. He muttered “Hehe~, I finally made enough money.” as he stood up and left with the crystalline currency-card: The ‘beautiful’ High-Elf continued to follow after him.

Next!