Even without his Intuition, Loren could tell at a glance that the woman in red was abnormal.
Her gaze was hollow, much like someone Loren knew well.
Noah. Every time Loren saw Noah, he had that same look—a look of utter indifference toward everything.
With no one else placing bets, the dealer started the game.
Earlier, the casino manager had shot a glance at the dealer. The dealer met his eyes, then released the small ball.
The roulette wheel spun, and everyone's hearts were in their throats. The only sounds left were the clicking of the wheel and the rolling ball, so quiet that you could hear the other gamblers swallowing their saliva.
The dealer was the most nervous of all. She knew what had just happened over at the slot machines, so even though she was using some tricks now, she was still flustered.
Just as the ball was rolling along the outer rim, the wheel came to a stop.
The ball's speed slowed more and more, while the dealer's heartbeat quickened faster and faster. Finally, just as the ball reached above the "0" slot, it came to an abrupt halt, then settled steadily inside the "0."
A deathly silence followed, then a frenzy of cheers. The gamblers who had bet big were crying tears of joy, while those who hadn't followed the bet or had bet small were stomping their feet in frustration.
"Hitting the number pays thirty-five to one."
"That's seventeen gold and fifty silver for me, one hundred seventy-five gold for this lady, plus everyone else's chips. Pay up."
Loren held out his hand, signaling the house to pay.
"Yeah, pay up!"
The crowd pressed aggressively for their money, but only the woman in red remained calm, quietly watching Loren.
The dealer was about to wet herself from fear. She kept glancing at the suited man. This round, she had lost nearly two hundred gold—which converted to two million coppers, about two million RMB in purchasing power.
That amount meant nothing to the casino's profits, but for a lowly dealer like her, it was extremely dangerous.
"Pay them."
In the end, the suited man chose to pay. After all, the rules were clear—if no cheating was caught, then there was no cheating. Even if Loren's methods were obvious.
But the roulette wheel belonged to the casino. The dealer worked for the casino. Even if he tried to call Loren out for cheating right now, Loren would just push all the blame back onto the casino.
Rather than argue with Loren, it was better to just pay up. At least this way, it could serve as publicity for the casino.
"Yes..."
The casino staff distributed the chips, and in an instant, Loren's chips multiplied by more than thirty times.
What Loren did next was simple: he took a small portion—seven gold—and placed it on the number 0 again.
Though the gamblers had no idea why Loren didn't go all-in this time, they still followed his lead and bet their entire fortunes on 0. The woman in red also bet seventy gold, still ten times Loren's amount.
This time, the dealer's hands were trembling.
Losing two hundred gold, she might just be sold off somewhere else.
If she lost this round too, she couldn't even imagine her fate.
Just on this table alone, there was over a hundred gold. If she lost, she'd be looking at a deficit of at least four thousand gold...
"Hold on a moment before starting. Everyone just saw that there was a problem with that roulette wheel, but that's the casino's responsibility, and we've accepted the result.
"That round is over. We're going to swap out the roulette wheel. No objections, right?"
The suited man suddenly interrupted the dealer. He had been observing all along, and when he saw Loren bet on 0 again, he thought he had figured out Loren's method.
He theorized that Loren had come to the casino early and tampered with the roulette wheel, using some method to make it stop on 0.
"Be my guest."
To the suited man's surprise, Loren had no objection at all to swapping the wheel.
"No, that's not right..."
Seeing this, the suited man quickly dismissed his previous theory.
If that were the case, Loren wouldn't have chosen such a conspicuous number as 0. That was way too obvious—so obvious it was practically a provocation.
So Loren must have some other method.
"Could it be a magnet... no..."
The suited man quickly ruled out that idea. Magnets were too crude, and the ball's material might not even be iron...
While he was agonizing over this, the new roulette wheel was brought in. The dealer nervously looked at the suited man, as if asking whether he should continue.
"I'll do it myself!"
The suited man took the steel ball from the dealer's hands and sat down in her position.
Before starting, he checked the old roulette wheel, but found nothing abnormal on it.
"Could it really be a magnet?"
The suited man recalled the scene. The number 0 had indeed been opposite Loren. If Loren pulled out a magnet at the critical moment, it could have worked.
But to generate that much magnetic force, the magnet would have to be big. He had observed Loren earlier, and it was unlikely that Loren was carrying a large magnet. Plus, Loren hadn't made any obvious moves.
Still, to be safe, the suited man decided to switch to a copper ball.
While inspecting the wheel, he pretended to casually slip his other hand into his pants pocket. When he pulled it out, he had already swapped the ball for a copper one.
"Anyone else placing a bet? No? Then we begin."
Before starting, the suited man asked with feigned calm.
The group hesitated for a moment, then placed their chips on 0 as well. This was the first time the suited man had seen so much money stacked on a single number.
"Begin!"
The suited man tossed the copper ball and spun the wheel. The copper ball hit the wheel, bounced off with a dull thud.
Every thud seemed to strike the hearts of the onlookers. This time, the gamblers had truly bet everything they had.
The suited man was even more nervous than the gamblers. They had only bet their fortunes—he had bet his whole life.
He wasn't the real owner here. The casino's true owner was a big shot, the kind who, in the old days, would have been qualified to send gifts to Loren.
His status wasn't low. Even if he lost that much money, he wouldn't die. But if someone cheated to win that much, the situation was entirely different.
The wheel finally stopped, but the copper ball was still spinning. The suited man pressed his foot on a hidden mechanism—one that could control the wheel's center of gravity.
The casino's roulette wheels were highly precision-engineered. Even the slightest shift in the center of gravity would affect the ball, and others would hardly notice.
Just as the suited man was about to use the mechanism to change the center of gravity, he suddenly froze.
He had realized a blind spot. If the roulette wheel itself hadn't been tampered with, then maybe the mechanism had been?
Since only the dealer could access the mechanism, he had initially dismissed that possibility, assuming Loren couldn't cheat through the mechanism.
Suddenly, a flash of insight struck the suited man. A possibility occurred to him.
Loren was using the dealer. He had indeed tampered with the mechanism—reversed it.
From the start, Loren going all-in was meant to pressure the dealer, making her desperately try to avoid the number Loren had bet on.
That meant shifting the center of gravity toward that number, causing the iron ball to land on the opposite side, never inside the number—the most conservative move...
That line of thinking played right into Loren's hands! Loren had reversed the mechanism, so that move would only make the ball land exactly where he wanted it...
The ball was about to stop, and sweat dripped from the suited man's face onto the betting table.
"?"
Loren could sense the suited man's emotions, which left him a bit confused. How did this guy have so much internal drama going on?
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