BXBX NOVEL Chapter 169
There was a man wearing a top hat, a regular suit and several large sparkling diamond rings on his hands. The strange thing was that this person was wearing a layer of white gloves under the rings. He stood at the back of the audience and held a black lacquered wooden cane as he looked up at Tang Erda’s small TV.
The man’s fingers holding the oval-shaped head of the cane moved slightly, as if he was thinking. Finally, his lips curved up in a smile. “There are quite a few dark horses this year.”
He casually pulled out a white pocket square from his chest pocket but this white pocket square seemed magical. It was pulled out one pocket square after another, with different patterns printed on the pocket squares. There were different player portraits on them in pencil and the one that was pulled out at the end had the portrait of Spades.
If Wang Shun was here, he would’ve quickly recognized the identity of this low-key, oddly dressed spectator who wasn’t known to most players. He was the one Wang Shun was looking for and who he thought could crack Bai Liu’s desperate situation of being besieged by the King’s Guild—the president of the number five guild ‘Gambler’s Club’, Charles.
President Charles’ skill status was called ‘Magician at the Gaming Table.’ The thing this person most liked to do was look for dark horse players who could appear in the league and invest in the training of the player so that this player would gradually grow into a strong player and shine in the league.
At the same time, the guild president would place sky-high bets on the ‘dark horse’ he had trained during the league. By relying on this person’s amazing performance at the time and the president being an investor behind the scenes, he won the ‘dark horse’ game and gained a large amount of points.
To put it simply, the favorite gambling method of the president of the Gambler’s Club was ‘horse betting’. He would record the ‘champion dark horse’ that won every year on his magic item (such as the silk pocket square).
For example, the pocket squares with pencil drawings on them that the president was constantly pulling out were the champion of the league each year.
Spades on the last pocket square was last year’s league champion.
There was a fact that wasn’t well known to outsiders. When Spades was a newcomer, he successfully won the championship with the strong support of the president. Charles chose Spades as the horse to bet on and relied on Spades to suppress the amazing performance of all league players, making a lot of money in all the league bets where Spades appeared.
It was just that the odds for Spades this year were too long. Almost no one would bet for Spades to lose. All of them won with Spades.
It was such a one-sided gamble that even if they won, the winner wouldn’t earn many points.
As a gambler who liked to bet once and earn a lot of money, Charles naturally wouldn’t be satisfied with a dark horse with low odds. What he needed was a dark horse who could come back against the odds, was full of highlights and was high risk and full of uncertainty at the gambling table.
It was only such a dark horse that could give him high returns. This was the essence of a gambler. So the president came out shortly before the start of this year’s league season to find a dark horse.
The big guilds had some information databases that weren’t known to others. For example, Wang Shun of the King’s Guild. The Gambler’s Club also had this type of information database.
The oddly dressed magician president rummaged through his suit pocket for a while before pulling out a bright rose-red silk pocket square. He sighed and smiled. “I found it.”
The front of the pocket square had a pencil drawing of Tang Erda. The appearance of Tang Erda on the pencil drawing was a bit younger and colder than he was now, but his condition wasn’t very good. He wore the blood-stained uniform of the bureau and his face was injured. His eyes were empty and scattered but in the direct gaze, his eyes seemed to be filled with hatred and despair. He seemed decadent and crazy.
In the drawing, there was a small golden trophy under Tang Erda’s right chest. The left and right sides of the trophy were painted with the laurel branches symbolizing the champion.
The back of the pocket square had information written in strange pictogram characters. This couldn’t be understood by any ordinary player in the game but Charles stared at it for a while before looking at Tang Erda’s small TV with great interest.
“No wonder why I feel you are familiar. It is you, the Withered Rose Hunter.” Charles lowered his hat and smiled more meaningfully. “Time traveler, the champion of other world lines. I see how the fools who saw you take the trophy in that timeline cheered for you, the savior they thought could take them out of the game—”
His fingers slid down the silk scarf and he saw Tang Erda’s support slogan: The legendary hunter who saves the people with one hundred shots, one hundred hits. Steel fists without two blows. Gun God Tang Erda.” (paraphrased from the slogan of Li Shuwen).
Charles smiled even more when he saw Tang Erda’s slogan in response: If I win, I will end the game and protect every innocent person so that you can successfully leave the game.
“It is too naive.” Charles casually rolled up the rose-colored silk handkerchief with Tang Erda on it into a ball and shook it in the palm of his hand. The silk handkerchief disappeared. “How many of the people who can enter the game are innocent?”
“Players whose purpose and methods used don’t agree will eventually go crazy because they can’t achieve their goals.”
In short, it wasn’t suitable to be his dark horse. He liked someone who was a bit more utilitarian and who understood what they were doing and what they could get.
The magician slowly lowered his hand. As a silk handkerchief was pulled out from between his fingers, it turned into a bouquet of roses in full bloom with a ‘bang’.
Charles casually handed the bouquet of flowers to a female audience member who had just been frightened by the ‘bang.’ He faced the female audience member cheering for Tang Erda and half bent over with a smile. “Sorry for disturbing you just now. It is just that this player’s small TV is better to watch with a bouquet of roses. I will give it to you, Miss.”
The female audience took the bouquet of roses in a daze. By the time she reacted, the strange magician had disappeared. She looked down at the roses in her arms and her expression became strange.
The roses had been in full bloom when they were handed to her but now they were starting to wither.
However, she soon forgot about this strange person because more exciting things attracted her attention. She held her breath nervously and watched the small TV that was doing calculations.
[System prompt: Player *** (The player has chosen not to disclose his name so it is blocked).]
[10,107 people have liked Player ***’s small TV, 0 people have bookmarked Player ***’s small TV (the player prohibits the audience from bookmarking this small TV), 7,003 people have recharged Player ***’s small TV for a total of 10,102 points.]
[18,020 people are watching Player ***’s small TV. Congratulations to the player for getting 10,000 likes in one minute! 10,000 points have accumulated! You are loved by the audience!]
[Congratulations to Player *** for getting the promotion position and entering the core promotion position of the central screen. The number of views is rising rapidly…]
“Promoted! The first promotion in a level three game! It is a good start!”
“F*k, who is this person who is so strong and mysterious? His name panel is hidden and no one is allowed to bookmark…”
***
Let’s return to Bai Liu’s small TV.
Unlike the cheers and shock on Tang Erda’s side with the promotion scene, the situation on Bai Liu’s side was somewhat bleak.
Not only was he fighting hard with Liu Jiayi but he seemed to be delaying time until Liu Jiayi’s skills refreshed and then he would continue delaying time. The confidence in confronting monsters couldn’t be seen at all. He was just cowardly trying to survive. Even if there were audience members on Bai Liu’s side, they would just be disappointed.
In addition to there being no audience members, there was also a group of people who hoped that Bai Liu would die early.
“It is really a waste of Witch’s ability. I don’t know why Witch is running after him…”
“Isn’t it said that he is a control player? He is controlling Witch but it is too wasteful for Witch to play like this. The guild never made Witch work so hard. How dumb is he to think of delaying time? Don’t let Witch block an attack for you again! A man should stand in front of her and protect her!”
The group of middle level players in the guild who were watching the show couldn’t help being anxious and they wanted to take over for Bai Liu.
Unlike most of the new players who spoke strange and bitter things about Bai Liu, most of the intermediate players of the King’s Guild had risen by receiving Liu Jiayi’s healing benefits.
Liu Jiayi operated well and had good awareness. Many times Hearts didn’t care about the lives of the guild players so she picked a large number of people to play a level three game together. It was like raising a Gu. Through the cruel game mechanism, the advanced players were screened out from the intermediate players and then the reserve members for the league were screened out.
Therefore, many members were more afraid of their ruthless president than in awe.
Under Hearts’ practice of raising a Gu, the existence of Little Witch was especially precious.
Liu Jiayi had a strong ability to control the group and stabilize healing. Under the premise that the game was cleared, she would do her best to bring everyone out of the game.
For many intermediate players who weren’t too strong, they really had their lives because of Liu Jiayi. Liu Jiayi was their life preserver and they had really deep feelings for Liu Jiayi.
During the time when Little Witch’s age was unknown, this group of players regarded Little Witch as a goddess. Once Little Witch’s young age was clear, these people competed to be her brother or father.
Now this group of people saw Little Witch running away with Bai Liu and it was equivalent to their baby sister (daughter) being abducted by Bai Liu, this big villain. It could be said that they had a bitter feud with Bai Liu. Their feelings for Bai Liu could be summed up as: I can’t wait to crush Bai Liu on the spot and snatch Little Witch back.
Now the Little Witch they held in the palm of their hands was diligently and painstakingly doing hard work for Bai Liu. She seriously protected Bai Liu and overstretched her physical strength to the point where her small face turned white. Even so, she didn’t utter a single complaint. Their mood was simply…
Even if they hated Bai Liu to death and didn’t give Bai Liu a like or point, many of them were quietly watching Little Witch’s small TV, secretly charging her points and adding likes, begging her to be okay.