Card Room (Rebirth)
Card Room (Rebirth) - Chapter 14: Challenge 10.5

Xiao Lou saw the Player No. 1 prompt. Before he could think carefully, his body was sucked into the world of 2 of Clubs.

To his slight relief, the world of 2 of Clubs wasn’t a barren mountain or a terrible zombie beast.

This was a square enclosed room with an area of 10 square metres. There was a door in front and the left and right sides had a mirror occupying the entire wall. There was a desk in the middle of the room and a 16 or 17 year old boy sitting on the boss’ chair behind the table.

He was wearing a black tuxedo with a neat white shirt and bow tie. His skin was white and his facial features clear, but his face didn’t have any expression. It was like a delicate and beautiful sculpture was sitting there.

The teenager looked up at Xiao Lou and spoke lightly, “Hello, I am the keeper, A of Clubs. Welcome to the Clubs room.”

Xiao Lou thought about how Liu Xiaoyuan of the Zombie Town tried to trick him into opening the door by saying he was A of Spades and his back instantly tensed with vigilance. His entire body was in a state of alert as he calmly asked, “The keeper? Shouldn’t you appear after clearing the instance?”

The teenager replied, “The Clubs room is different. A challenge game needs a fair referee so I showed up early.”

The teenager sat on the chair calmly and didn’t show any signs of attacking Xiao Lou. Xiao Lou felt slight relief and asked, “You are personally acting as the referee?”

The teenager nodded. “I will give you some basic items before the game starts.”

The moment he spoke, some items appeared on the table in front of Xiao Lou.

There was a formal black suit, a silver metal mask, a strange bracelet and 10 gold coins.

Gold? Xiao Lou’s eyes brightened as he took the gold coins and examined them carefully.

A circular gold coin had a diameter of approximately 5cm. The front, bottom, left and right sides of the front were imprinted with patterns of hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs and the reverse side was written ‘1000’. This should be the value of the gold coin.

The gold coins of this Card World were much larger than the coins in reality and their value was exaggerated. It directly started at 1,000.

A of Clubs opened his mouth. “I hate challengers who wear colourful clothing. Please change into this set of clothes and I will send you to the Clubs room.”

He hated colourful clothing so he had everyone wear a black suit? Was he certain this wasn’t going to a funeral?

Xiao Lou didn’t have time to spit out these words when his clothes suddenly changed. He magically put on this black suit directly and wore the silver mask on his face. The bracelet was automatically placed on his wrist and his clothes disappeared without a trace.

The instant change of clothes startled him slightly but many things in the Card World couldn’t be explained scientifically. He quickly accepted the set of equipment from entering the Clubs room. He wore a black suit and the mask covered his face, revealing only a pair of eyes.

Xiao Lou retracted his gaze from the mirror and asked the teenager, “What are these items used for?”

“The mask is for the protection of the novices, lest your expression reveal too much information to the opponents. The hand string is a transfer bead that allows you to get a good card. There is only one chance to use the transfer bead in each game. The 10 gold coins are the principal I am giving you.”

Xiao Lou gently raised an eyebrow. “Principal? Is the 2 of Clubs secret room a betting game?”

“Yes. The Clubs room below B is friendly to newcomers and you can make some gold coins through the low level rooms to prepare for the future. In the Card World, if you don’t have gold coins then you won’t last long.”

Xiao Lou, “…”

It turned out that A of Spades wasn’t lying when he said that Xiao Lou would ‘know soon.’

The first three secret rooms rewarded him with cards while Clubs rewarded him with gold coins. Gold coins could be used to buy items such as ‘contracts’ from the keepers and he might also purchase equipment he needed later.

He had the transfer bead so the other challengers must have the same items. It would become particularly critical when winning a big bet using the transfer bead.

Covering the whole face with a mask would help newcomers a lot. Otherwise, if a person had a good card, others would be able to tell just by looking at their expression. Now everyone wore a mask and could only rely on guessing.

Xiao Lou rarely played card games. Fight the Landlord was his cousin’s thing and he had never heard of 10.5. A contract required 10,000 gold coins and he had exactly 10,000 as principal. He didn’t want to make more money. As long as he kept these 10,000 gold coins, he could buy the contract and then go to find Yu Hanjiang.

Xiao Lou was bowing his head to think when A of Clubs’ cold voice was heard. “Go, the game is about to begin.”

The front door slowly opened. Xiao Lou took a deep breath and walked in.

The moment he entered, there were six doors that were also open at the same time.

Seven challengers walked into the gaming area.

This was a high-end casino that was more than 100 square metres. There was an oval table in the centre with a dark green, velvet tablecloth. There were eight luxurious seats around the table, seven of which were marked with 1-7. The remaining seat had no number but the ‘club’ pattern was drawn.

A of Clubs, who had just given him the items, was sitting on the chair.

The keepers could split into countless copies. Just now, there were seven A of Clubs who gave items to everyone at the same time. Therefore, the seven challengers were dressed in the same black suit and silver mask, the style a bit strange.

The thick carpet on the ground was very soft and everyone’s footsteps were absorbed by the carpet.

The surroundings were very quiet.

The crystal chandelier above their heads cast light like a broken diamond. The silver masks on the faces of the seven people reflected the same cold metal lustre. The quiet room gave a sense of oppression that seemed to draw air away. No one dared to speak.

Then A of Clubs slightly opened his mouth. “Everyone, please sit at your number plate.”

Everyone moved.

Xiao Lou’s gaze swept around.

No. 2 was a 1.6 metres girl with long, straight hair. Her skin colour was pale and her body was thin. It was hard to imagine how such a thin girl like her passed the other secret rooms.

No. 3 was a tall, strong adult male with a height close to 1.9 metres. His slender legs were eye-catching and the man was perfect. He wore a suit and looked like the cover model of a fashion magazine. Perhaps he adjusted his image when entering the Card World?

No. 4 was a full-bodied mature woman with curly hair and red nail polish. No. 5 had a braid behind him but he was clearly a man looking at his figure.

No. 6 was a middle-aged fat man with a beer belly. No. 7 was a tall girl with a high ponytail who seemed very refreshing

Four men and three women, he hadn’t expected there to be so many contestants in the game.

Xiao Lou walked over to sit on the right hand side of A of Clubs in the number 1 spot and the others took their seats in turn.

He turned his head to look at the opponents in this game again when he happened to meet a pair of eyes. It was a pair of dark, deep and cold eyes.

No. 3. The other side might be wearing a mask but his sharp, sword-like gaze seemed to see directly through the mask to Xiao Lou’s face. It seemed to be able to see to the bottom of the human heart, revealing all the ugliness and evil thoughts deep inside people.

Staring at these eyes, Xiao Lou’s back stiffened and an image flashed through his mind.

On a rainy day, the group leader of the police stood at the window and turned to look at him with such a gaze.

Xiao Lou had seen many people but Group Leader Yu’s eyes left too deep of an impression. The pair of cold, deep eyes were like the water of a winter pool. Just looking at it deeply imprinted it in Xiao Lou’s mind.

Even if the man’s face was covered by the mask, he could recognize this person by the eyes alone.

He had just seen the announcement that Yu Hanjiang refreshed the world record for 2 of Spades. Based on the time calculation of when Yu Hanjiang cleared 2 of Spades, it was highly likely he would enter 2 of Clubs. Moreover, Yu Hanjiang’s height was close to 1.9 metres, his legs were long and his body was also worthy.

No. 3 was Yu Hanjiang!

Xiao Lou heard the sound of his heart beating violently. He didn’t expect that he would actually meet the group leader directly in the 2 of Clubs secret room.

The latter was clearly slightly stunned. It was unknown if he recognized Xiao Lou but then the man’s cold eyes relaxed slightly and he nodded gently to Xiao Lou. Xiao Lou also nodded politely in response.

In this strange Clubs room where the rules weren’t clear, the two people were afraid to say anything more. Still, one look and one nod were enough.

‘It is him.’ Both thought at the same time.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang came to a tacit understanding.

They couldn’t acknowledge each other when the rules were unclear, nor could they let the other challengers know that they knew each other.

Seeing that all seven people were sitting, A of Clubs took out a deck of cards and read out the rules of the game with a blank expression. “Challenge 10.5 , this is a type of poker game. During the game, you aren’t allowed to use language or physical movements to communicate with each other. The offenders will be directly eliminated.”

The teenager glanced at everyone and his slender fingers spread out the deck of cards on the table.

This was a brand new deck and the order of the four suits was from A to K.

Removing the jokers, there were four suits of A-K cards for a total of 52 cards.

The teenager pointed to the playing cards on the table and said, “in The 10.5 game, A, 2, 3, 4 all the way up to 10 are called ‘point cards’, where A stands for 1 point and 2-10 stands for their respective points. J, Q and K are called ‘people cards’ and they all represent half a point. The goal of the game is to make the points of the playing cards in your hands add up to 10.5.”

“One game has a total of five rounds and there are five types of final hands. Please look at the screen.”

On the big screen to the side of the room, five hands were listed in order from largest value to smallest.

King: the total points of the five cards was exactly equal to 10.5. For example, A, 2, 3, 4, K.

Five small people: After five rounds of dealing cards, they happened to get five people cards such as J, Q, K, Q, K.

Five small: the total number of points of the five cards was less than 10.5, such as A, A, 2, 2, 2.

10.5: there were less than five cards in your hand but the number of points was exactly 10.5, such as 8, 2, K.

Flat cards: The sum of the cards in your hand was more than 10.5, such as 7, 6, or less than 10.5, such as 2,7.

Seeing that everyone was looking seriously at the screen, the teenager continued speaking, “This is a D-grade secret room. In order to take care of newcomers who never play poker games, this will remain on the big screen and you can always check it.”

“Once the game starts, you can choose ‘deal a card’ or ‘don’t deal a card’ for every round of dealing.”

“The first round of dealing forces everyone to bet 1,000 gold coins. In the second round of dealing, you can actively fold. If you fold then you won’t lose any gold coins. If you don’t fold, you have to call at least 1,000 gold coins. The person who calls afterwards must be equal to or greater than the previous player. If the gold coins in your hands aren’t enough then you can go all in.”

“If all five players in this game are flat, no one reaches 10.5 and there are no five small cards or five small people, it will be regarded as a failure and all the gold coins bet will be recovered by me.”

“In the seven games, the number of folds can’t exceed five times. People who lose all their gold coins will be thrown to the Nightmare Room to be punished.”

“The rules of the game have been explained. I will give you five minutes to understand.”

Xiao Lou might rarely play poker games but the screen showed the sequential card types and A of Clubs explained it clearly. He carefully read it twice and quickly understood.

In the seven rounds of games, everyone was forced to bet 1,000 before the cards were dealt and they couldn’t fold more than five times. This meant they must at least call for two rounds and couldn’t fold all the time.

If they couldn’t win one game, they would lose 10,000 gold at the end of the seventh game and be thrown into the Nightmare Room to accept punishment.

The Nightmare Room, the name alone caused the listeners to feel cold. Xiao Lou didn’t want to personally experience it.

Winning money from other people while ensuring you didn’t lose was the key to the game.

Everyone had the transfer bead and equal opportunities.

When to use the transfer bead to get the best cards, when to call and when to fold…

This wasn’t only a betting game but also a psychological game!