Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Valbus's Ruin
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I smiled leisurely, taking in Valbus's face as it grew increasingly distorted.
“Ugh… ughhh!”
In the end, he flung his cards away and tore at his hair.
“Why. Why did it come to this? Why do you have so much money…….”
Valbus muttered as if he couldn’t comprehend it at all. Well, the number floating above our heads right now was.
1,073,741,824 gold.
‘Whoa, smashed past the 100-trillion-won mark.’
I’m me, and Valbus is Valbus, after all.
Right now, the combined value of Valbus’s artifacts amounted to 100 trillion won.
How much time had he spent robbing and hoarding artifacts from others?
“Enough… please just give up already……. I’ll hand over all the gold I’ve won, and you can pick as many artifacts as you want.”
Valbus trembled, seemingly lacking the courage to reveal his facedown cards, and begged me. In response, I tilted my head and spoke in a tone that suggested I truly had no idea.
“Anyone hearing that would think you’re the one losing. I’m the one who’s been on a losing streak this whole time.”
I placed a hand over my chest as if nursing an emotional wound and let out a deep sigh. From behind, Zero and Kane—who’d been munching on snacks—glared at me with utter disdain.
Luna at least struck a cheering pose, but Kane and Zero… I’d have to treat those two to some green juice sometime soon.
“Go ahead and open them.”
As I tapped the cards with my fingertips and flipped one over, Valbus convulsed like he was on the verge of a seizure.
“12. 12. 12.”
“This is rigged! It’s rigged!”
He’d lost big, and Valbus shot to his feet, scampering around in every direction.
2,147,483,648 gold.
“Dealing again.”
“Please, nooo!”
In the end, tears burst from Valbus’s eyes.
* * *
“Open. 2, 12, 9.”
“Open… 3, 10, 10.”
After holding out for a while without opening his cards and then bolting out of the cave, he was grabbed by Kane and dragged back to his chair.
Now, with eyes glazed over like a dead fish’s, Valbus muttered his score in a dazed stupor.
The result was the same 23 points, but Valbus’s double cards secured his win.
34,359,738,368 gold.
About 3,500 trillion.
With Valbus’s card hand confirming his victory and my defeat, the number hovering above our heads vanished. In its place, a noble-looking scale materialized, accompanied by a ticking sound in my mind as it tipped further toward my side.
4. If the stakes escalate to the point where one party lacks the means to pay, the wager or gamble ends right there.
Per that clause, though he’d won the game, Valbus had no artifacts worth the next pot—roughly 7,000 trillion—and so the gamble concluded. That, of course, meant his loss.
‘I was in danger too.’
The gold stuffed in my sub-space ring had probably been hanging by a thread.
“Ah… ahh… my collection…….”
Before Valbus could claw at the few remaining strands of hair on his head, I instinctively realized it.
Everything he owned now belonged to me.
I swallowed a laugh that threatened to explode and instead spun Kruger’s ring with a rattle.
Thanks to the divine contract, it seemed the artifacts had automatically filed into the warehouse brimming with gold.
I shoved aside the mental image—like a casino roulette wheel spinning—and rose to my feet.
“Business is done. Let’s go.”
“Yes, Young Master!”
“See, with a table and chairs…….”
If Valbus had been a benevolent NPC, I might’ve left him with a modest apartment after fleecing him like this. But Valbus was closer to a villainous NPC.
Just as the rumors had suggested before we entered, he’d occasionally preyed on desperate souls who arrived penniless, weaponizing their plight to steal even their memories and toy with them.
“This can’t be… it can’t. Not even a nation’s budget would amount to this…….”
Leaving Valbus slumped on the floor, his face a picture of ruin as he muttered to himself, I stepped out of the cave.
* * *
Is this even possible? No, it can’t be. It just can’t.
These were the artifacts I’d gathered myself.
The divine records I’d collected.
And now, to lose them all like this?
‘It wasn’t a fair match.’
That’s right. It wasn’t fair from the start. How could the stakes keep doubling each time, pushing everything to the opponent?
Valbus wanted to throttle his past self, the one who’d dismissed it all as mere “fun.”
The reason it had begun wasn’t anything grand. Humans always itch to recoup their losses the moment they start dropping coin.
He’d expected them to come crawling back, pleading for “just one more round.” Bankruptcy had never crossed his mind.
A fleeting amusement. Probably some noble out there in the world.
He’d simply planned to savor the sight of that cocky punk crumbling—sobbing over his mounting debts, clinging to the desperate hope of a single win, dragging out the game until he broke.
‘Me? The gambler Valbus, losing?’
Sure, he could lose. But not like this.
Valbus’s eyes turned ferocious. His teeth ground together with a gritty crunch.
“Yeah, there’s a trick somewhere. You thought I wouldn’t notice?”
The image of that impudent, arrogant human fiddling with his ring surfaced in Valbus’s mind.
That ring, infused with potent magic.
Undoubtedly a sub-space artifact.
‘Kill him.’
If he killed the brat, no enchantment could hold him back—Valbus could crack it in a mere century.
A hundred years, nothing more. Far easier than rebuilding his collection from scratch.
‘And that record book, at the very least…….’
Penned in ancient elvish script, there was no way they’d decipher it.
Valbus hauled himself to his feet and raised both hands.
A deep rumble vibrated through the cave, shaking it violently.
“Die, human. Die! I’ll take back what’s mine……!”