Chapter 89
Translator: TrueDetective
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: 25. Is Gambling Okay? Even for Monks? (3)
[General Public Exclusive Gambling Hall →]
[← Martial Artist Exclusive Gambling Hall]
[*Martial artists caught using the general public gambling hall will lose their hands.]
This is absurd.
“…How the hell are we supposed to take this?”
As I muttered to myself, having lost all sense of reality, Dang Sa-cheon replied with a serious expression.
“We’ll probably have to go to the martial artist exclusive gambling hall.”
Is now the time to be worrying about that?
After seeing that insane sign, all you can think is that since we’ve cultivated martial arts, we should just head to the martial artist one?
“Why are there separate gambling halls for martial artists and regular folks?”
“Exactly. We didn’t account for this. Makes it hard to pull off scams here.”
No, seriously.
Even with a martial artist exclusive gambling hall right in front of us, is scamming money the top priority?
I get that Dang Sa-cheon is dead serious about building up capital for the agency.
…Though it feels like he just wants to scam people. Anyway.
“The fact that there’s a separate martial artist gambling hall… doesn’t that mean martial artists actually exist?”
I still couldn’t believe there were other martial artists in the world that I didn’t know about.
“I’m one of those martial artists who was hiding out, so I can’t really say much……”
Right beside me was my workplace mentor, who I thought was just a regular guy but turned out to be the reincarnation of the Shaolin Abbot, so it wasn’t entirely unbelievable.
“…….”
Na Hani, who I thought was an idol but turned out to be a Shaolin disciple, also pressed his palms together like my mentor, as if he had nothing to say either.
But these two didn’t seem particularly shocked by the sign.
Come to think of it, the owner of Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, CEO Lion, was the Heavenly Demon himself.
Thinking that a gambling hall run by the Heavenly Demon would only have regular people was my mistake from the start… bullshit.
Does it even make sense that they’re running a gambling hall targeted at martial artists like it’s the most natural thing?
Are there way more martial artists in this world than I thought?
Maybe CEO Lion so readily invited us to his casino because there was a separate martial artist section.
As I stood there confused, Dang Sa-cheon asked,
“What’ll we do?”
“What do you mean, what?”
“We’re heading to the martial artist gambling hall, but you, hyung……”
Even in this situation, this guy Dang Sa-cheon is fully aware he’s a martial artist.
Well, I’m a regular person, but I had no intention of splitting off.
This isn’t some real jianghu battlefield; it’s just a casino, and I didn’t think my life would be in danger just for a regular guy entering the martial artist section.
Plus, I wanted to get a look at some other martial artists.
“I’m going to the martial artist gambling hall too. Doesn’t seem like they block regular folks from entering.”
Anyway, now that I know there’s a martial artist gambling hall.
No way I’m turning back now.
I need to see with my own eyes just how many martial artists use this place.
We headed in the direction the “Martial Artist Exclusive Gambling Hall” sign pointed, and at the entrance draped with beaded curtains stood a plain-looking attendant.
“I’ll help check your entry.”
The smiling attendant gave us a quick once-over and said,
“Three martial artists, one regular person, one yokai. Correct?”
Can they tell at a glance who’s a martial artist and who’s not?
More importantly, yokai? This isn’t his first time, is it?
They know he’s a yokai and still let him in?
“That’s right.”
For some reason, Dang Sa-cheon had slipped back into character and gave a curt reply, so the attendant nodded and handed over a sheet of paper.
“If the regular guest wishes to use the martial artist gambling hall, please sign this pledge.”
…A pledge?
I said sure and took it, but the contents were ridiculous.
[I acknowledge that this is a martial artist exclusive gambling hall and pledge to abide by the ironclad rule of non-interference no matter what happens here.]
…Really don’t want to sign this.
It gives off this ominous vibe like something’s definitely going to happen once I step inside that’ll make me want to report it to the cops.
“So-i, why don’t you and Na Hani wait here? Me and Dang Sa-cheon can go in.”
Sunbae must have noticed my hesitation to sign and quietly suggested it.
Snapping out of it, I hurriedly scrawled my signature.
“No… I’ll sign and we’ll all go in together.”
Just the two of them?
Sunbae doesn’t seem to realize yet how much of a total bastard Dang Sa-cheon is.
I signed the pledge and handed it back, and the attendant lifted the beaded curtain to let us inside.
But instead of the Central Plains scenery I’d expected,
It was a machine games zone and a table games zone.
Split right down the middle, looking no different from any other modern casino.
“The clothes… modern style too.”
“It’s the 21st century, hyung.”
Dang Sa-cheon, who said that, was dressed in wuxia robes.
I could feel passersby giving him weird looks.
Even among martial artists, does Dang Sa-cheon get these stares?
Sunbae scanned the casino interior and whispered softly,
“Slots won’t make big money, so let’s hit the table games zone.”
Sunbae… didn’t you just say the only gambling you knew was horse racing?
“…What the hell is that?”
Following sunbae to the table games zone,
An odd sight caught my eye.
Red and black alternating, numbers from 0 to 36.
A bead rolling above it… no… floating in midair and moving around.
Dang Sa-cheon tilted his head and muttered,
“Looks like it’s being moved with Void Grasping.”
“What?”
No sooner had I reacted to Dang Sa-cheon’s words than the floating bead trembled and dropped right onto a number.
A guy who’d been glaring fiercely at the bead relaxed his expression and grinned slyly.
“Hoh. Not bad.”
“You’re the impressive one……”
Seeing them exchange lines like that from opposite sides of the table, they were clearly competing internal energy over control of the bead.
No way… is this what a martial artist exclusive gambling hall is? Gambling using martial arts?
Dang Sa-cheon, who’d been watching, nodded and said,
“If scam gambling—no—martial arts gambling is free rein, making money won’t be hard.”
“Won’t be hard?”
“We’ve got the Shaolin Abbot with us.”
Sunbae, suddenly singled out by Dang Sa-cheon, blinked with a dumbfounded look.
“…Me?”
“The Shaolin Abbot can crush these scrubs without breaking a sweat.”
Dang Sa-cheon’s voice wasn’t quiet, so all these scrubs turned to glare at us.
Sunbae looked troubled.
“I’m not confident in gambling……”
But the moment he said that and sat at the table,
The roulette bead slammed into the spot sunbae had bet on with tremendous force.
“…Have you done this before?”
“Huh? No, first time gambling.”
Sunbae replied innocently, having bet all his freshly exchanged ten million won in chips on ‘0’.
“Why only bet on 0?”
“Form is Emptiness.”
“…Pardon?”
“If it was 108, I’d have bet on 108.”
Even my trusted sunbae was spouting nonsense now.
The chips that started at ten million won ballooned in no time, drawing attention not just from the table but from martial artists elsewhere too.
I probably would’ve safely followed sunbae and bet on 0……
Martial artists, huh? Pride mattered more than losing money, apparently.
The gathered martial artists bet against sunbae elsewhere, and when they lost the energy contest, they’d vent frustration, clasp hands in respect, and quietly withdraw.
“I get how this place works now.”
“Yeah… it’s just a place to compete martial arts levels normally……”
“Can’t let Changhye do all the work, so I’ll hit another table.”
“…Go ahead.”
I was about to tell him to behave, but figuring Dang Sa-cheon would somehow multiply the money no matter what, I let him go.
Na Hani had vanished into thin air at some point too.
As a regular person anyway, I couldn’t join this scam—martial arts gambling, nor did I want to.
What mattered was figuring out where all these martial artists had come from.
With most martial artists’ attention on sunbae’s table,
I tried to slip in and eavesdrop on their chatter.
Then someone placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Server boy?”
* * *
A Demonic Cultist who’d tripped into this world
Was living a boring daily life as the ‘Demonic Cult Leader.’
Shrine of Supreme Demons Leader All-Fiends Nourishing Sword’s casino, Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.
This casino, if you had to describe it,
Was a gathering spot for all sorts:
Martial artists who crash-landed in this world.
Martial artists summoned by someone.
Possessed martial artists.
Reincarnated martial artists, and so on.
Of course, the righteous faction types seemed to be rallying around the Namgung family side.
But those like him, who’d walked the demonic path in the past, had settled here, drawn by the nostalgic name ‘Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.’
While frittering away time with support from the suspiciously fake cult leader who wanted to establish a Heavenly Demon Divine Cult in this world,
He heard some guy was dominating the roulette game, so he came to watch.
The aura emanating from him was no joke—definitely a righteous faction guy.
And something awfully familiar.
‘…Shaolin?’
What’s a monk doing in a casino?
And that insane martial arts level.
There were tons of martial artists here, but few had reached the Void Grasping realm.
Some seemed to be there to observe,
But others were already watching the monk with cold eyes.
Whatever happened to that monk showing off his strength wasn’t his business……
‘Live long enough, and you see a monk gambling with Void Grasping right in the heart of Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.’
That’s when he sensed an odd presence among the nearby crowd.
Among martial artists brimming with internal energy, one stood out with not a scrap in his dantian.
‘Looks just like a pretty boy gigolo, straight out of the righteous faction.’
He wasn’t looking down on the gigolo looks.
High-level martial artists naturally had their appearances altered.
That guy massacring Demonic Cultists at the roulette table had a rugged face, surely from shedding his mortal shell—a supreme expert.
Judging by looks was for noobs.
But this pretty boy in front of him had an eerily empty dantian.
As if someone had deliberately sealed it from holding qi.
For a guy like that to casually be in Hundred Thousand Great Mountains casino……
“Server boy?”
He called out just in case, and sure enough,
The guy reacted.
The casino servers were all regular people without internal energy.
Otherwise, they’d get suspected of rigging games by the house.
That’s why the servers here mostly had constitutions like his.
Most servers hated being called “server boy” as outdated, but this one was different.
He turned toward the call without a moment’s hesitation.
The Demonic Cult Leader flashed a friendly smile at the server boy.
“You’re a server boy, right?”
“…Something like that.”
The reply was a bit slow, but he didn’t mind.
“Bring me a Zhu Ye Qing.”
“Zhu Ye Qing?”
“Don’t know Zhu Ye Qing? There’s even a song, ‘Zhu Ye Qing and Fragrant Pork.’ ”
“It’s not that I don’t know Zhu Ye Qing… but you know that song?”
“The more you hear it, the more nostalgic it gets.”
The server boy’s gaze narrowed slightly as he looked at him.
But… he’s clearly a regular person, so why does demonic qi emanate from him?
Plus, this guy’s face looked familiar.
Like I’ve seen him somewhere……
“Where do I get the Zhu Ye Qing from?”
“You’re asking me that?”
What kind of ridiculous server boy is this?
New hire who just arrived?
But his face rings a bell.
The server boy, who’d been sizing him up, asked politely,
“Just the Zhu Ye Qing?”
“Yeah. No cup needed.”
The server boy nodded, vanished from sight briefly, then returned with the Zhu Ye Qing and two cups.
“Why two cups?”
“Drinking alone gets lonely, doesn’t it? Thought I’d keep you company… don’t you want to?”
The server boy was awfully bold.
But the Demonic Cult Leader was also in this other world with no one to drink with.
Plus, from this server boy with not a drop of qi, he faintly sensed a nostalgic absolute sovereign.
The Heavenly Demon’s aura. Was that too weird?
‘Come to think of it, there’s an idol called Heavenly Demon active in this world.’
The name Wi Hwa-jin—he didn’t know the Heavenly Demon’s real name, so whatever.
But the looks honestly resembled the Heavenly Demon he served.
Still, the Demonic Cult Leader firmly believed he wasn’t the Heavenly Demon he knew.
‘My Heavenly Demon wouldn’t slum it as an idol.’
Lost in such thoughts, the server boy filled his cup to the brim with Zhu Ye Qing and handed it over.
“No charge for the drink, so spill some Central Plains tales.”
“Central Plains tales?”
“How you ended up here… that sort of thing.”
“Then.”
It was no big deal, so with a sip of liquor, the Demonic Cult Leader leaned in gravely and began his tale.
“I’ll tell you how I rose to Vice Leader of the Demonic Cult…… Huh? Why’s your face saying, ‘This guy was Vice Leader?’ ”
“…No way.”
Eyeing the server boy’s suspiciously smiling face, the Demonic Cult Leader continued his story.