novelhk Page 130
Page 130
Junko Hanakami's biggest regret now is telling these bastards that she has a companion.
She didn't think too much at the time; she just hoped that the bastards who had kidnapped her would be wary and release her.
It wasn't until she witnessed firsthand how this group beat a man who had secretly gone to use the gashapon machine to death and then hung his companion on a table that she realized something.
These people are truly vicious and ruthless.
I will not feel any psychological burden because of taking someone else's life.
But... there's still a chance.
The ice in the middle of the table had melted considerably. Junko glanced at the man who was barely alive, bit her lower lip hard, and said to the black man opposite her:
"I...I want more cards."
“That’s more like it,” Jesseni said with an undisguised sly smile, then picked up a stack of cards beside him, flipped one over, tossed it in front of the girl, and feigned surprise.
"Hey, look at your luck, it's really not that great..."
"This King is worth 11 points. Your previous hand already had 16 points, so you busted."
"The rules were explained to you clearly from the beginning, so don't say I lied to you."
"Hiss, so including the [Primal Crystal] I lost this round, the amount of [Primal Crystal] I owe has doubled again..."
Junko Hanagami's face turned deathly pale in an instant. She stared blankly at the cards in front of her, her body feeling as if it had been immersed in ice water, numb and suffocating.
He looked like a gambler who had lost everything.
At that moment, Jesseni also revealed his true colors, his eyes greedily fixed on Yuwen Chaolu and the others, and he said in a low voice:
"So far, she owes me a total of 247 [Primal Crystals]..."
"You'll have to settle this score now."
"This is clearly robbery!" Yuwen Chaolu accused instinctively, but her tone softened upon seeing the dark muzzle of the gun.
"We...we don't have that many..."
They didn't have that many. In the past, the [Primal Crystals] they collected were used to open gacha boxes, and the rest were used to authenticate items. Even so, three of the girls still hadn't had their attributes enhanced.
After escaping from Wenzheng Street, they had no chance to collect any more along the way, so the less than one hundred coins they had taken out in front of Nie Qingyun were all they had.
Seeing this, Jesseni was not angry at all; instead, he laughed even more disgustingly.
"It's alright. If you don't have enough [Primal Crystal], you can use other things to make up for it."
As he spoke, he began to openly scrutinize Yuwen Chaolu.
Even the most naive girls would realize what the other person meant by such behavior and instinctively take a step back.
"If we lose before, we can just win it back."
Just then, a man's voice suddenly rang out, interrupting the conversation.
Nie Qingyun bypassed the girls, walked directly to the round table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
He had been standing at the back without saying a word because he needed to gather intelligence as quickly as possible.
During their conversation, he had just used a drone to patrol the entire Zeng Building again, and he was certain that apart from the people in the shops, Jesseni had no other outside help.
Even if they did, they couldn't possibly arrive at the scene immediately after a conflict.
The immediate priority is to figure out the enemy's skills, and the second priority is to help Hanagami Junko escape danger.
Pistols, especially kinetic energy pistols, don't pose much of a threat to "transcendent" individuals like Nie Qingyun in actual combat.
But Hanagami Junko is different; she hasn't received any attribute enhancements and is no different from an ordinary person.
Nie Qingyun wasn't entirely confident he could subdue the other party before they fired. Even if he were to take action, he would at least need to find an opportunity to make the other party turn their gun around first.
As Nie Qingyun took his seat, Jesse raised an eyebrow.
He wouldn't have noticed that there was a man standing at the very back of the crowd if the other person hadn't stepped forward.
Moreover, the other person's composure made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.
The more humble one's past, the more likely one is to have an excessive sense of self-esteem.
Especially after gaining power, Jessini wanted everyone around him to obey him.
As for ordinary people, they should be humble and subservient to themselves.
For a fleeting moment, he almost flipped the table and started hitting people.
But upon hearing the other party mention participating in the betting, Jesse secretly loosened his clenched fist, a cold smile creeping across his face. Looking at the man who had suddenly appeared before him, he said coldly:
"I wonder if you have the right to sit here."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a loud crash came from the table.
Suddenly, a bag filled with Primal Crystals appeared on the table. Just by looking at the size of the bag, it was conservatively estimated to contain several hundred crystals.
These might not seem like much to Nie Qingyun, but for an ordinary person, they would certainly be a considerable sum.
Jesse's eyes nearly popped out of her head, but the bag vanished again in the next second.
It's clear that the other party has reclaimed the [system space].
There have been at least a dozen deaths in Jessini, so he knows that if items are stored in the [data space], even killing the other party may not guarantee obtaining them.
But now, the opportunity has arrived.
Jesse even began to wonder if Nie Qingyun had lost his mind.
You want to beat me at my gambling table?
Isn't this a dream?
Thinking of this, a fierce glint appeared in Jesse's eyes.
Fine, I'll let you live a little longer until I extort all your assets, and then let you die hating your own incompetence.
Nie Qingyun only glanced at the ugly face of the other party, which couldn't hide anything, and he already guessed what Jesseni was up to.
But he didn't pay it any mind, and just gave Hanagami Junko a comforting look.
The first thing Shinomiya Yuma did upon returning was not to share information, but to complain. And Jesse didn't even try to find a chance to ask questions. From the moment they entered the shop, these scumbags' attention was all on the women.
This is no match for Liu Chengyuan at all.
Perhaps they can't even be called rivals.
In Nie Qingyun's eyes, this group of people was no different from monkeys in a zoo that only knew how to perform tricks on people.
Chapter 168: My evaluation of you can be summed up in just two words (3K)
After Nie Qingyun took his seat, two more men in their early twenties joined him, bringing the total number of people seated around the large round table to seven.
Excluding Junko Hanagami, who was already penniless, there were only 6 people actually involved.
The rules are simple; it's standard blackjack, or more officially, "Blackjack."
Simply put, it's a deck of cards with the two Jokers removed. The remaining cards, 2-9, are counted at their original value, K, Q, J, and 10 are all counted as 10 points, and the Ace can be counted as either 1 or 11 points, depending on the player.
The goal of the game is to make the sum of the cards in your hand no more than 21 points and as high as possible.
The rules are clear, but they are not fair.
Because apart from Nie Qingyun, the rest of them were all in cahoots.
Everyone present knew that this group would cooperate with Jesse to win all the chips without reservation.
But Nie Qingyun remained calm and, taking advantage of the time it took to deal the cards, immediately activated the communication channel of the [S11 Individual Support Drone].
Junko Hanagami, still tormented by guilt and fear, suddenly froze. Hearing the familiar voice in her mind, she subconsciously looked up in Nie Qingyun's direction.
The latter stared calmly at the cards being dealt to him.
"Don't stare at me. This is my private communication tool. No one can hear you when you speak here. You don't need to speak. Just try to express what you want to convey with your thoughts, and I will receive it."
After briefly explaining how to use it, Nie Qingyun immediately began asking questions:
“Junko, tell me everything that happened to you when you were brought here.”
"Can you even hear me when I speak like this?"
Junko Hanagami was clearly not used to this way of communicating, but in order to avoid giving herself away, she immediately looked away.
"Just think of it as a cordless phone. Don't be nervous. Communication time is limited, so please keep your description brief and concise."
Upon hearing this, Junko Hanagami pondered for a moment and replied:
"When the hot pot sauce ran out, I went downstairs to get food, just like before."
"Just as I was about to go back, I don't know why I couldn't move my body."
"At first it was my legs, then my arms. When I felt something was wrong and tried to call for help, I couldn't even make a sound."
"Then, then I saw Jesse walk out from the shelf next to me..."
"After a while, a few more people came, tied my wrists with ropes, and led me here..."
Hearing this, Nie Qingyun's eye twitched, and he interrupted:
"Did any conflicts occur during the entire process?"
"No... I couldn't control my body at the time, I could only be led around by them. After we got here, I saw them beating up another person..."
"Is that the one lying on the ground?" Nie Qingyun glanced discreetly at the corpse lying to the side.
"Did you notice anything else unusual when they were beating people?"
"For example, skills and the like."
Junko Hanagami thought about it carefully for a moment and replied:
"That's it. After that, they started blackmailing me... asking if I had any companions..."
During their conversation, Nie Qingyun noticed that the numbers on the playing cards on the table hadn't been read, so he casually pulled out a handful of [Primordial Crystals] and threw them on the table to raise the stakes.
Although Hanako's description wasn't detailed enough to save time, Nie Qingyun still gleaned a lot of important information from it.
First of all, what prevented Hanako from moving was undoubtedly a skill, and the skill's owner was very likely Jesseni.
Secondly, this skill doesn't take effect instantly; it has a process. Also, this skill has a distance limit; otherwise, Jesseni wouldn't have needed to go upstairs.
However, the specific conditions and restrictions for initiating the operation are still uncertain, and there is currently no way to formulate an effective countermeasure.
We need to find a way to touch the other person.
Nie Qingyun was thinking as he made his bet.
During the process, the man who was hanging on the table completely lost consciousness, and his body remained suspended in the middle.
To everyone's surprise, after a few rounds, Nie Qingyun, who had acted like a novice at the gambling table, not only did not lose chips, but actually won a lot more.
Seeing this, the girls were naturally overjoyed and all surrounded Nie Qingyun, their faces beaming with pride as if they had finally gotten their revenge.
Of course, Nie Qingyun wouldn't think that way.
As long as Jesseni, as the boss, doesn't resolve this issue, no matter how much he wins, he can't get out of this gambling table.
Indeed, that's exactly what Jesse did.
Looking at Nie Qingyun surrounded by girls, a hint of annoyance appeared in his eyes.
This is not just because they just lost a negligible amount of [Primal Crystal].
It depends on the other party's attitude.
After that man stepped forward, the group of incredibly beautiful girls calmed down considerably.
Especially the girl with wheat-colored skin, who was clearly flustered and lost her composure when she first came in.
But when the man was about to sit at the gambling table where he was destined to lose, they didn't even try to stop him.
But judging from their behavior, they seem to have a very good relationship.
That means they weren't afraid of losing, or rather, they were convinced from the beginning that the man would definitely win.
Even now, with the [Primordial Crystals] they had won piled up in front of Nie Qingyun, they still acted as if it were their due.
It was as if the other party was destined to lose to Nie Qingyun.
This unintentional, unpretentious demeanor is the most hurtful form of contempt.
Jesse was indeed stung, and immediately slammed his fist on the table with a loud bang, overturning the ashtray full of cigarette butts, which caused the woman with the surgically enhanced face next to him to scream.