Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 347: 342: The Last Chip

Lance notices Shuihua’s login through special attention and friend login reminders in real time.

He feels a bit hesitant.

Although there’s no game today and their team did well in the group competition yesterday, now is the time for free activities.

But at this time, all of his teammates are watching other teams’ games and studying their opponents in advance.

Champion-hungry Roger doesn’t even participate in the closed beta registration for “Speed Chase.”

His teammates are working so hard, and if he goes to play a new game, he feels like he’s letting them down…

So even though he successfully grabbed a spot, he didn’t log into the game during the day but instead trained with his teammates.

Even after training, he didn’t go play the new game but prepared to watch tonight’s group competition.

After all, the competition results are currently the most important thing for the entire team, and naturally, the club has assigned people to collect and organize important information about the “Speed Chase” closed beta.

Just like that, Lance came up with a bunch of reasons to convince himself not to log into the game.

But he can’t help but think: Shuihua is very busy with her third year of high school, he’s been busy with daily training, and there’s rarely any time to play together…

Lance is torn.

“Ding!”

A pleasant alert sound rings in his ear.

“Want to play together?” Shuihua sends a message.

“Alright, invite me.” Before his brain could react, his hand had already sent the reply.

The next moment, a team invitation popped up, and Lance swiftly clicked confirm, logging into Night City with Shuihua.

Due to his focus on training and researching opponents, he knows very little about the game’s closed beta.

Looking at the black-clothed teammates around him, their heavy automatic rifles, and the captain who’s using hand gestures to command him to attack, he doesn’t think too much and pulls the gun’s bolt to change positions while looking around for Shuihua.

Just as he leaves the captain’s line of sight, Shuihua suddenly appears and grabs him.

“Don’t mess around, let’s just stand for a while, and we’ll retreat when the battle starts.”

“Huh?” Lance is a bit confused, “Aren’t we doing the opening task?”

“No way!” Shuihua explains for him, “This isn’t even the opening task, but [Lincoln’s Malice], designed to trick players. Whoever falls for it is unlucky!”

A moment later, the battle begins, and Shuihua immediately takes Lance away, even driving away the vehicle of these black-clothed people.

“Where are we going?” Lance asks as he drives.

“Paradise Casino!” Shuihua says decisively.

“Do you know how?” Lance asks in confusion.

“Of course! I’ve searched online during the day, and many rules are super simple!”

Lance wants to say, “Gambling isn’t just about knowing the rules,” but then he thinks, isn’t the point of playing the game just to have fun?

So he goes with her.

Upon arriving at the casino, he even exchanges all the money on him for chips and gives them to Shuihua.

Now the casino is different from when Super Tomato and Camille Victoria were here earlier.

Back then, there were only a few players in the entire casino. Now, when Shuihua and Lance enter, they see several people who don’t quite fit in with the surrounding environment.

After maintaining eye contact for three seconds, the player’s ID appears on their shoulders.

Apparently, the [Paradise Casino] has attracted quite a few players to play.

However, it’s evident that everyone doesn’t have much money, and the chips they get are scarce.

Many people enter and lose their chips in no time, then leave to find ways to make money.

Otherwise, there would be more than just these players in the casino right now.

When Lance and Shuihua enter the casino lobby, they coincidentally recognize two players.

One of them, a social bull, comes over and greets them: “Oh! It’s the Goddess! The Goddess has come to her backyard! Can your humble shepherd spread your glory and let the whole Internet be bathed in it?”

Lance’s forehead veins throb: Who is this lunatic?

Shuihua is also quite surprised.

Although she knew before that her good luck seemed to have become a joke on the internet and many people knew about it, she has never encountered such a situation before and doesn’t even understand what this set of words means.

Lance isn’t too pleased, but he doesn’t make decisions for Shuihua either. Instead, he explains to her, “It means wanting to live stream you playing the game so that netizens can all watch.”

“Ah! No, no!” Upon understanding, Shuihua waves her hands to refuse.

She can’t stand having a stranger follow her around, recording and live streaming the whole time.

“What a pity!” The dramatic player looks regretful. “Not being able to witness the Goddess’s rampage firsthand is a great regret in life!”

However, although the player is a bit dramatic, his character is unexpectedly decent.

After expressing his regret, he doesn’t insist on following and live streaming or recording. He doesn’t even follow behind them and just goes off to play on his own without bothering them again.

Shuihua asks Lance curiously, “Aren’t you live streaming today?”

Lance shakes his head.

He doesn’t have the energy to live stream while training and researching opponents.

“Do you want to live stream?”

Lance is puzzled, “Didn’t you say you don’t like being watched by many people while playing games?”

“But don’t you have live streaming time requirements? If you don’t make enough during regular hours, won’t you have to work overtime at the end of the month?”

Lance’s first reaction is to tell Shuihua that his contract is actually very flexible, and he doesn’t need to worry about live streaming time. However, he stops himself and smiles, “Alright, thank you for the favor, Goddess of Luck.”

Shuihua rolls her beautiful eyes and slaps his arm, “Get off!”

As Lance starts the live broadcast, netizens flood in.

Especially after finding out that the “Goddess of Luck” is also there, the inflow of audiences becomes more intense.

Initially, the audience wants to ask Lance about his competition preparations and which team they support in tonight’s match.

But as soon as they see the live broadcast screen, they forget all about those questions and focus on Shuihua, even giving her gifts non-stop!

“Oh! What do I see! The Goddess is in her element! Isn’t she going to win the casino owner’s underwear?!”

“God! Once again, gracing the Internet!”

“When will the goddess start her own live stream? The man next to her is so annoying!”

“I’ve prepared all my Spring Festival’s money! Goddess, start your own live stream! My wallet is all for you!”

Lance saw this and was fuming again, especially the audience who called him annoying, even while wearing his live broadcast room administrator badge…

A bunch of traitors!

When these people sent him gifts, they were like, “Thank you for your reward,” but when it came to Shuihua, it’s straight up “worship”?!

What the hell!

Shuihua greeted everyone in the live broadcast room with a smile, then happily took her chips and looked for interesting gambling tables to play.

Most people in the live broadcast room had witnessed Shuihua’s incredible luck, and now that she was at a casino that relied on luck, they thought it was like picking up money!

Everyone expected Shuihua to dominate!

Perhaps Lance was the only exception.

Having grown up together since childhood, Lance knew very well that Shuihua’s luck in reality was actually quite average.

When they were in elementary school, he had won “another bottle” several times when buying drinks, but Shuihua had never won. She was so angry that she even vented her anger on him.

Later, he secretly bought many drinks, spent all his pocket money to win again.

Afterward, taking the opportunity to help Shuihua open the bottle, he swapped the winning bottle cap for hers. Her mood improved, and she smiled and showed off her good luck to him.

This incident left a deep impression on him, so he always thought that Shuihua’s current bursting luck was indeed just a coincidence.

If her luck disappeared one day, it would be nothing unusual.

What happened next seemed to confirm his feeling.

Shuihua did not live up to the audience’s expectations.

Initially, she gambled on big or small at the dice table. The first time she won, the live broadcast room applauded.

However, she lost the second round.

She also lost the third round.

Shuihua didn’t mind, but the audience was terribly disappointed.

Next, she switched to the roulette wheel, betting on odd or even numbers. She won two out of the three rounds.

She bet on the numbers and lost.

Shuihua wanted to try blackjack, but looking at the pitiful few chips in her hand, she had to give up on that thought for now.

She returned to the dice table, alternating between wins and losses, but her chips were dwindling, and she was clearly losing more than winning.

The live broadcast room was already filled with wailing:

“No! Goddess, you lost your touch!”

“Her touch hasn’t collapsed, just shattered at most.”

“Actually, it’s quite normal. Luck is a mystery; how can one always win?”

“I don’t care. I will always be loyal to the Goddess of Luck. It must be the casino’s fault!”

“Accept the reality; luck is just a lie of fate, the goddess is just an ordinary player.”

“Are you a bit disappointed?” Shuihua asked Lance.

Lance shook his head; he really didn’t care at all.

As for the comments in the live broadcast room, he didn’t care about them either.

“Whatever~” Shuihua laughed. As she left the casino, she casually put the last chip into the slot machine, “Shall we go find some money?”

“Okay.” Lance nodded with a smile, following Shuihua.

Lance’s foundation is the competition venue. As long as he performs well in the competition, his popularity will steadily increase.

Shuihua is still in school, not even a live streamer, so she doesn’t need such gimmicks to make money.

So, the title of “Goddess of Luck” was just a small amusement; whether they had it or not, it wouldn’t affect both of them.

The two left the casino without any concerns.

However, as soon as they reached the edge of the lobby, Lance suddenly realized that the music always lingering in the casino had –

Stopped.

Shuihua also noticed it immediately.

If you’ve been there all along, plus being surrounded by enthusiastic gamblers, you might not even notice the music.

But when the music abruptly stopped, it was very noticeable.

All the gamblers also lifted their heads from the tables, wondering what had happened.

The next moment, the hidden speakers in various parts of the casino sounded at the same time, and the grand, majestic, joyful symphony thundered!

In the casino lobby, countless colorful balls exploded at the same time, and golden confetti fluttered down like a rain of gold!

The gamblers understood what had happened and applauded as one.

The staff emerged quickly from every corner, lined up neatly, clapping and approaching Shuihua and Lance.

“What happened?” Shuihua asked, puzzled.

Just after a short pause, Lance turned his head to the area of the slot machines and immediately widened his eyes!

When Shuihua saw Lance’s reaction, she finally remembered the chip she had casually thrown into the slot machine.

She looked over, and the entire row of slot machines had stopped. Red warning lights flashed above them.

Only the slot machine she had played displayed three identical large red numbers clearly on the screen—

“That is—”

The casino manager had already come to their side, looking incredulous but still dutifully congratulated them:

“Congratulations, young lady, you’ve won the jackpot! You’ve won the 30 million super prize from our casino!”

Hearing this, Lance stared blankly at the huge “check” in the casino manager’s hand and the long string of zeros on it. His expression could only be described as—

Dumbfounded!