You're All Dead Now -1
“I can’t believe it.”
Sama Gyeong-hwi had nothing to say in answer to Yu Gyeong’s mutter.
“Even though I’m seeing it with my own eyes, I still can’t believe the scene in front of me.”
It was that unreal.
Yu Gyeong stared blankly at the gold coins that kept piling up in front of Ho Cheon-an’s seat and murmured,
“How is something like this even possible?”
Every gambler and every staff member on the entire second floor of Cheonsang Pavilion was giving everything they had.
Gamblers who were having their gold coins stripped away helplessly by Ho Cheon-an. Were they second-rate hacks? Not at all. They had gathered every gambler of any reputation in Luoyang, then sifted and sifted again until only the best were seated at the tables. Even the gamblers who never sat down themselves had put their heads together and drawn up plans.
Even to outsiders the schemes were enough to make the tongue click in awe, and the tables themselves were merciless affairs that used every means available without the slightest scruple.
In Murim terms, it was as if every famous master had been gathered into a renowned formation and the fight had begun with one man already surrounded.
Just holding out inside that would have been enough to call someone an absolute expert…
Yet Ho Cheon-an, alone, crushed every gambler and dominated the very space that was the second floor of Cheonsang Pavilion.
Gulp.
Looking at Ho Cheon-an lounging casually at the gambling table, Yu Gyeong found a single word rising in his mind.
Absolute One.
He wore a human shape, yet the sheer, overwhelming presence felt like nature itself—something no human strength could ever oppose. Just as no one believed they could push a mountain aside or dry up the sea,
he no longer seemed like an opponent any human could take on.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Yu Gyeong gazed blankly at Ho Cheon-an’s back as the man shuffled the cards. Hak-jo looked as if he had already abandoned everything. Heuk-jeo and Cheong-seo stared at the shuffling hands with eyes full of terror.
An honest, even shuffle that seemed to use no tricks at all. Yet every time those cards were mixed, the three gamblers were toyed with like little boats caught in a storm.
As emperor he had mobilized the full power of the Eastern Depot to set the board. And Ho Cheon-an was casually trampling that board underfoot. Yu Gyeong felt as if Ho Cheon-an’s back were speaking to him.
Is this all you’ve got?
Then you’ve already lost.
Awe. Defeat.
Yu Gyeong quietly lowered his head and closed his eyes.
The conversation he had shared with Hyeok Gi-rin that day replayed in his mind. Yes. That was right. Who in the world could take money from Ho Cheon-an at a gambling table?
“I’ve… lost.”
Yu Gyeong murmured the words to himself alone.
In a single night of gambling I had won the enormous sum of three hundred gold nyang.
I, Ho Cheon-an, had completely crushed the second floor of Cheonsang Pavilion today. But was this an efficient way to take money at a gambling table?
Not even close.
The basic principle is to keep feeding the other side the illusion that they only lost by a hair’s breadth, that just a little more luck or skill would have let them win.
Sitting in one place and sucking out the other man’s money, land deeds, house deeds, family heirlooms, his wi— no, never mind that. Anyway, if you can take it, you take even the soul. That’s how you do it properly. Making the other side acknowledge the gap in skill and accept defeat doesn’t really benefit you at all.
If I had kept winning by the slimmest of margins and planted the hope that they could still beat me, I might have walked away with five hundred gold nyang in a single day.
So why did I crush the second floor of Cheonsang Pavilion instead?
Because I never intended to diligently fill five hundred gold nyang.
Because I wanted to show only my real skill, as a warning not to try any more stupid tricks.
I had demanded collateral from the two of them. Du-jak and Sama Hwi-gyeong were men who simply could not be trusted.
Even after taking the collateral, I still kept my suspicions about both of them and about this whole situation.
They were putting me into a five-hundred-gold-nyang game? What exactly about me made them set up a board like that? Without even the most basic skill check, they just dropped a request on me to recover a treasure worth five hundred gold nyang. Was that even reasonable?
Even if they were eunuchs with connections in the Eastern Depot, I was a gambler who only ever lost money in public. The one and only win anyone knew about was the shell game against Tang Do-gyeong. Even if I gave them the benefit of the doubt and assumed they also knew about the Seongrak Pavilion incident where I had disguised myself as a merchant,
even adding Seongrak Pavilion into the evaluation, was my skill really trustworthy? Could a gambler who had lost money for five straight years suddenly earn trust just because he had won big recently? Enough trust to seat him, without any verification, at a five-hundred-gold-nyang table?
No.
Then what exactly had the two of them believed about me when they decided I would win on this absurd board and brought me along?
The answer was simple.
They never needed to believe in me in the first place.
What they needed was not a gambler who would win for them, but a sucker who would sit down at a carefully prepared table.
The moment I arrived at the second basement floor of Cheonsang Pavilion and saw the gambling tables, I felt it in my bones.
Three perfectly coordinated gamblers seated at the main table, every spectator and every guest playing other games also filled with gamblers, and as if that still weren’t enough, even the pavilion’s own staff completely in on the fix—a thoroughly rigged game.
They had laid out a board so blatant that any gambler would only lose, and lose helplessly. What more needed to be said?
The evidence overflowed.
Du-jak’s attitude inside the gambling hall, openly rooting for the opposing gamblers, proved it. So did the two men’s faces when I took three hundred nyang in a single night and their souls left their bodies.
If it had really been the situation they claimed—embezzling the Five Treasures and having their necks on the line—they should have gone wild with joy every time I won money.
The whole thing was so ridiculous that they even forgot to act.
Come to think of it, the timing of their approach was also exquisite.
Right after I had a huge fight with Hyeok Gi-rin. In other words, right after it was proven that my relationship with Hyeok Gi-rin wasn’t anything special, the two of them came looking for me.
They must have decided, “This guy has no real connection to the princess, so we can fleece him.”
In their eyes I must have looked like a delicious piece of prey.
My own martial strength was at best First-rate. A worthless nangin with no backing was about to have an audience with the emperor and receive a massive reward.
Their real goal was probably the actual Five Treasures. In other words, wasn’t the reward the emperor planned to give me the Five Treasures themselves? No matter how great the merit, awarding a treasure worth five hundred gold nyang didn’t make sense, so maybe the value of the Five Treasures they spoke of had been inflated.
They would somehow rope me in with gambling debts, then palm a fake off on the man who was supposed to receive the real Five Treasures while they pocketed the genuine article themselves.
Anyway, it was certain that these two bastards had planned to clean me out.
And now I had to return to Gungcheong Hall while pretending I hadn’t noticed their conspiracy at all.
“It really was a brutal table.”
I put on a heavy expression and let out a long, exhausted sigh.
“The entire gambling house had set the board to clean us out. Once this is over, the two of you would do well never to set foot in that Cheonsang Pavilion again.”
When I looked at them with a grave face, Sama Hwi-gyeong finally remembered he was supposed to be acting and hurriedly opened his mouth.
“I-is that so?”
“Yes. Even the guests who looked like they were playing other games and the spectators wandering around were all gamblers and all in on it together. They were completely colluding with the pavilion itself. I’ve never seen a more outrageous setup in my life.”
“How could that be! Then when we gambled there before, we fell for the same trick?!”
Wow, this guy’s acting is actually good. The whole board just flipped on him, so the shock should be huge, yet look at him recovering instantly. Is he really an Eastern Depot eunuch?
I thumped my chest and said,
“Don’t worry! By the next time we go out I’ll have won enough to recover the Five Treasures.”
“I’m counting on you! My neck is in your hands!”
Sama Hwi-gyeong even managed tears as he grabbed my hand with a desperate expression. Nice try, nice try. But what am I supposed to do? The Du-jak behind him looks like his soul has completely left his body.
“By the way, Master Du-jak.”
When I called him, he finally seemed to come back to himself and looked at me.
“What’s with that face? You look like you were hoping I’d go down in spectacular flames.”
Du-jak’s face went deathly pale and Sama Hwi-gyeong’s expression changed in an instant. Watching them, I burst into loud laughter.
“Hahahaha! Just a joke, a joke! You both looked so shaken by the gambling house’s schemes that I thought I’d lighten the mood with a little joke!”
“Heh heh, heh heh heh! Yes. I was truly astonished myself. I clung to you like a drowning man grabbing at straws… a-and it was truly astonishing!”
“Hahahaha! It’s a situation that would surprise anyone. Don’t worry! Next time I’ll fill the remaining amount and recover the Five Treasures for certain!”
“R-right! I’m counting on you…! Haha… hahahaha!”
I laughed heartily together with Sama Hwi-gyeong and thought,
If we just go back to Gungcheong Hall like this, the whole thing is over.
All I have to do is run straight to Hyeok Gi-rin and snitch on the current situation. If I pretend to consult a comrade about getting mixed up in something like this and tell Hyeok Gi-rin, she’ll launch an investigation and their collars will be grabbed in no time.
This is a case of unauthorized removal of the emperor’s guest and an attempt to lay hands on the emperor’s tribute goods. Sama Hwi-gyeong goes without saying, and that Du-jak bastard will be cleaned up too.
Frankly speaking, even if that Du-jak bastard isn’t the emperor, once Princess Hyeok Gi-rin decides to tear into him, what chance does he have of holding out? I kept laughing and maintained the warm, friendly atmosphere.
“Hahahahaha!”
“Hahahahaha!”
“Heh… heh heh…”
My bright laughter and Sama Hwi-gyeong’s, plus Du-jak’s distinctly less bright laughter, accompanied us as we returned to the Imperial Palace.
Once I had quietly returned to Gungcheong Hall, I immediately raced off to find Hyeok Gi-rin.
You’re all dead now.