Chapter 264: Life and Death Casino (36) [Arc 8 - END]

  The destroyed gambling arena at this moment resembled a living hell, the space shattered into nothingness due to immense power, exuding an atmosphere of terrifying dread.

When Ruan Qing’s blood stained the maid boy, the entire arena fell into a dead silence, and even the live stream room became eerily quiet.

It was as if time itself had frozen at this moment.

Only the gentle breeze softly blew by, lifting Ruan Qing’s disheveled hair, as if crowning him for his victory, with the whole world serving as nothing but a backdrop.

Ruan Qing coughed up another mouthful of blood, which dripped down the corner of his mouth, spreading across his chest like blossoms of snow plum flowers.

It made him appear extraordinarily striking.

Even the sunlight seemed to favor him.

His pale face looked almost translucent under the sunlight, with long eyelashes casting beautiful shadows below his eyes, so exquisite that he hardly seemed real.

And yet, so breathtakingly beautiful.

It turned the entire ruined, devastated gambling arena into something resembling an ink painting.

And he was the only splash of color in this ink painting.

Like a beam of light seen as salvation in the darkness.

The maid boy stared at the person before him with an unclear expression, his whole body emanating hostility. He let out a cold laugh and spoke, “It’s just a draw...”

Before he could finish, he seemed to sense something, and his face darkened even more.

It wasn’t... a draw.

The boy’s lips were stained with Ruan Qing’s blood, and both he and the young girl had been stained with the maid boy’s blood.

The three of them had been eliminated at the same time.

But there was still one person left.

The woman, who was nearly dead and had been overlooked by him.

Ruan Qing looked at the dangerously hostile maid boy and gave a faint smile. He weakly reached out to touch the bloodstain on the other’s face and spoke softly.

“It seems... I’ve won...”

He and Xia Yi were indeed eliminated at the same time, but he still had one person left on his side.

Li Ruoshi.

Li Ruoshi, who stayed alive for his sake.

The same Li Ruoshi that the maid boy thought was impossible to survive and thus overlooked.

In this round, he had won.

Ruan Qing kept the powerless Xia Yi by his side, all for this very moment.

Ruan Qing knew very well that, under the temptation of the stakes, the maid boy’s guard against him was at an all-time high.

No matter what he did, he would not succeed.

That’s why, from the start, Ruan Qing had never intended to do anything himself.

Xia Yi was his final trump card.

The weaker someone appeared, the more they could lower others’ guard; the weaker they seemed, the more limitless the possibilities would become.

The chance of directly attacking and succeeding against the maid boy was zero, but the chance of succeeding against him was much higher.

After all, his blood was red too.

Ruan Qing had never set arbitrary rules. When analyzing and selecting the bet, he had already factored himself into the equation.

But that still wasn’t enough. Even with the maid boy on high alert, Ruan Qing couldn’t win.

Because no one was faster than the maid boy.

And to make someone lower their guard, you had to elevate them to the highest point, high enough that they believed they had a 100% chance of winning the bet.

Only at that point would they let down their guard.

So Ruan Qing used every possible tactic to elevate the maid boy to the highest point.

Of course, if he could directly eliminate the maid boy, that would be even better.

But even if he couldn’t, he wanted the maid boy to realize that no matter how much he schemed, he couldn’t harm Ruan Qing in the slightest.

When it was just him and Xia Yi left, the maid boy would think that there was no way Ruan Qing could win the bet.

And that would be his only opportunity.

He had won the gamble.

The maid boy looked at Ruan Qing without any expression, allowing him to touch his face.

Ruan Qing looked at the bloodstains on the maid boy’s face, his smile radiant. His beautiful eyes carried a hint of indescribable madness, adding an air of arrogance that made him seem superior.

This was an arrogance that came from his very bones—arrogance he was born with.

The paleness of his face and the blood at the corner of his mouth gave him a sense of fragility, making him appear both cold and elegant.

Yet, it also made people want to desecrate the divine.

At this moment, however, no one had the time to dwell on such thoughts. They all stared at Ruan Qing in disbelief.

He had actually won.

He had truly defeated that monster-like dungeon boss.

With sheer strength, he proved that he wasn’t a delicate flower that would wither without care, but a magnolia thriving amid thorns.

No one had believed the young man could win, especially after Han Ze was eliminated.

But the young man had indeed won.

Every gambler and every viewer watching the livestream felt their hearts pounding violently, their eyes filled with excitement and fervor, completely captivated by the young man.

Captivated by his intelligence, his ruthlessness.

And by his madness.

If there were gods in this world, it must be him—the young man.

With the body of a mortal, he had calculated everything. In the weakest of forms, he had won a gamble with almost zero chance of success.

The spectators—gamblers—erupted into wild cheers, and even the livestream was flooded with comments.

[Ahhhhh! My wife is way too handsome! He’s so handsome, I can hardly breathe. How is he this handsome?!]

[I was wondering why my wife was dragging that dead weight along. I thought he was being foolish, but it turns out I’m the fool.]

[Am I the only one feeling sorry for my wife? He must be in so much pain, sob sob... I want to blow on his wounds! (Lifts his shirt) Hoo~ Hoo~]

[So this is what a top player looks like! I knew my wife couldn’t be weak if he made it to the top. Now I truly understand why he has so many admirers. Who could possibly resist him? Ahhh!]

On the maid boy’s side, the three staff members had long since been eliminated by Han Ze, leaving only the maid boy standing.

Now, even the maid boy had been stained red. This gamble was officially over.

The people inside the gambling game were all transported out.

At this moment, Xia Yi had returned to normal. Seeing Ruan Qing bleeding profusely from his abdomen, her tears flowed immediately, and she rushed over to check on his injury.

However, she was shoved aside by Han Ze.

Han Ze himself was severely injured and had trouble even standing, but he seemed oblivious to the pain. He supported Ruan Qing helplessly, his eyes red, his voice trembling slightly. “How are you?”

“Does it hurt?”

The other eliminated players quickly gathered around. Even the bearded uncle was there.

The bearded uncle had thought he was doomed, but after he was eliminated, a player quickly fed him a potion purchased from the Life and Death Casino shop. 

Although it wasn’t enough to heal him completely, it prevented him from dying immediately.

The other eliminated players were in similar situations.

This wasn’t because the players outside the game were particularly kind, but because of Ruan Qing.

Before entering the game, Ruan Qing had used all of his coins to buy life-saving potions and handed them over to the players who didn’t enter the game. 

Whenever a player was eliminated, those outside would immediately use the potion to keep them alive.

However, the potions only served to keep them alive.

Ruan Qing didn’t have enough coins to buy fully curative potions for everyone, and it was impossible to give his coins to others to purchase better potions.

After all, human nature couldn’t stand up to any test. No one could guarantee that someone wouldn’t just use his coins to clear the game themselves.

So, choosing a potion that treated all external injuries was the best option.

As long as he kept the players alive, whether he won or lost the game, Ruan Qing had a way to save them.

Blood continued to flow from Ruan Qing’s abdomen. Even though he pressed down on the wound, the bleeding didn’t stop. He was starting to feel cold all over.

There was only one dose of medicine left.

Ruan Qing didn’t take the potion handed to him by another player. Instead, he weakly looked at Li Ruoshi and motioned for the player to give the potion to her.

Li Ruoshi’s breathing was faint, and she had already lost consciousness. She was only holding on because of something Ruan Qing had said.

If she wasn’t treated soon, she wouldn’t survive until they cleared the game.

This game was a gamble above all gambles.

The three staff members had a decent amount of gold coins on them, and once they were defeated, all of that naturally belonged to Ruan Qing.

Ruan Qing no longer had the energy to check how many coins there were, so he simply asked in his mind.

‘System, how many gold coins?’

The system responded promptly. Ruan Qing quickly did the math and realized that these gold coins were enough for the players in the game to clear the dungeon.

But it still wasn’t enough.

There was still a shortfall of more than thirty thousand gold coins.

Without hesitation, Ruan Qing instructed the system to distribute one hundred thousand gold coins to each person, leaving only sixty thousand for himself.

As soon as the other players received the gold coins, they heard the system’s notification for clearing the dungeon in their minds. They looked at Ruan Qing in disbelief.

Many players were eager to say something, but before they could, they were immediately teleported out of the dungeon.

After finishing everything, Ruan Qing turned to Han Ze, weakly took out a coin, and then asked in a feeble voice, “Heads?”

“Or... tails?”

Han Ze stared blankly at the blood-stained coin in Ruan Qing’s hand. He wanted to answer the question, but his mouth opened and no words came out.

Because deep down, he felt a sense of fear.

It was as if, once he made his choice, the young man before him would disappear.

This fear and panic weighed on him, making it hard to breathe, and so heavy that he couldn’t utter a single word.

The maid boy had also exited the game. He looked at the two figures, a hint of mockery in his eyes. Then, before Han Ze could answer, the maid boy decisively transferred all his power to Han Ze.

Including his memories.

And as the maid boy gave everything away, his figure turned into particles of light and slowly dissipated in the Life and Death Casino.

Upon closer inspection, it would be evident that those particles of light didn’t disappear but instead flew deep into the maze of the Area Two of the Life and Death Casino.

However, no one noticed this scene.

When Han Ze received the power and memories, his eyes widened in shock. A flood of memories rushed into his mind, causing a splitting headache.

This pain wasn’t physical but felt as though it was tormenting his very soul—so intense that it was unbearable.

Yet, despite this, Han Ze did not let go of Ruan Qing’s hand.

A few seconds later, the pain vanished, and Han Ze understood everything.

He realized the person in front of him was a player and that his mission was to obtain 100,000 gold coins.

After splitting the coins among the three staff members, they were still 30,000 short for the player to complete the level of the gambling game.

The question he was asking now about heads or tails was to retrieve the coins he had given earlier.

It was also his attempt to clear the instance.

Han Ze pressed his thin lips tightly together. After a minute of silence, his eyes reddened as he spoke hoarsely, “...Heads.”

Ruan Qing’s eyelashes trembled slightly. He wanted to flip the coin, but he no longer had the strength.

Seeing this, Han Ze took the coin from Ruan Qing’s hand and silently placed it in his own hand.

The coin landed… tails up.

[Congratulations to Player Ruan Qing for clearing the instance <Life and Death Casino>.]

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