The House Always Wins
How about a fun game? The newly established Tower Coin Casino on the 91st floor of My House Tower! From the outside, it looked like a radiant crystal palace, almost like a sacred sanctuary... but the moment you took a single step inside, that grand impression was instantly flipped on its head.
This place was... a literal crystallization of desire and entertainment, remodeled by Tricia pouring in an astronomical amount of Tower Coins!
A massive main hall lined with towering golden pillars and hundreds of glass chandeliers! Endless rows of slot machines! Tables where colorful chips rolled around, packed with card games like roulette, poker, and blackjack!
On one side of the wall, a drink bar dedicated to otherworldly beverages constantly served drinks infused with the unique magical energy of Eriel!
And—the staff welcoming the customers here were all... incredibly...!!! Succubi in bunny girl outfits!!!
...Of course, to respect everyone's tastes, a small number of incubi dressed as butlers were also employed!
In other words, a massive casino that could satisfy everyone had been born!
Of course, a few people might express dissatisfaction... but the moment they did, an Angel Guardian would immediately step forward and politely escort them out physically, so there was absolutely no problem! (?)
For reference, all the slot machines here were powered by mana, not electricity. They were devices that Yurining and Tricia had researched and built together in the past, only to leave them abandoned until now!
By exploiting the Object Creation function of the "System," she was able to copy the slot machines like crazy!
Of course, it cost a massive amount of Tower Coins to do so... but Tricia had this to say:
"You get back what you invest!!!"
True to her words, the slot machines here were sucking up the climbers' Tower Coins at a terrifying speed...!
"Alright, this is the one...! I'm definitely pulling the grand prize this time!!"
A climber sitting in front of a slot machine inserted a Tower Coin he was clutching tightly in his hand and pulled the lever!
Ding-ding-ding-ding!
Clack! Clack! Clack!
"Arghhh!!! A dud again?! Just how many times have I spun this thing!"
Having emptied his pockets of every last Tower Coin to spin the slot, the climber fell into despair, having walked away with nothing but a few fourth-place rewards!
For reference, the reward list was as follows:
🥇 1st Prize: Heart of the Tyrant Dragon [Mythic]
🥈 2nd Prize: Archangel's Feather Amulet [Mythic]
🥉 3rd Prize: Essence of Happy Dreams [Legendary]
🎖️ 4th Prize: Character Card - Sian Nightmare [Sian-grade]
As a result, this climber had gained absolutely nothing except five useless character cards featuring the Sian(?) illustration of Sian Nightmare!
Just then, a succubus in a bunny girl outfit passed by and spoke in a seductive voice.
"Excuse me... would you like to exchange those cards for another reward?"
"Huh? You can exchange these?"
"Fufu, with five Sian cards, you can get a free drink at the bar over there~ And if you drink it, we'll also give you a free Sian Lottery Ticket. Who knows? It might be another chance."
"Oh...?"
Hearing those words, the climber immediately ran to the drink bar and ordered a random drink, omakase-style.
He immediately scratched the Sian Lottery Ticket, but the result only read:
"What on earth is this?!"
In the end, without even understanding what "Sian" actually meant, the climber gulped down his drink.
For some reason... the drink tasted incredibly bitter, but surely that was just his imagination.
"Dear customer, is the Mandragora Juice to your liking?"
"Dammit, no wonder it's so bitterly awful!!!"
Right next to him, another climber, Ban Hwi-yeol of the Fighter class, was harboring grand ambitions.
Indeed! He was one of the very first climbers to enter this tower... Ban Hwi-yeol of the Glory guild's vanguard!
"Alright, I'll exchange my Tower Coins for chips... and strike it rich with this slot machine!"
In his hands, he held a whopping 85 casino-exclusive chips!
In terms of Tower Coins, it was equivalent to about 850 Tower Coins!
In other words, he was about to dump a fortune capable of buying two high-end computers straight into the casino!
Furthermore, he was... a man of incredible guts!
"A real man goes all-in!!!!"
Click!
Ding-ding-ding-ding!
Bam-bam-ba-bam!!
"Woohoo!!! I hit the jackpot!!!"
The moment the three heart symbols aligned, the slot machine erupted in a fanfare, spewing out a massive pile of chips!
Congratulations! Your 85 chips have been multiplied by 300x!
You have won a total of 25,500 chips!
"This is what I'm talking about!!!"
Basking in the envious stares of all the surrounding climbers, Ban Hwi-yeol was completely drenched in extreme dopamine!
Wearing the happiest expression in the world, he gathered up his massive pile of chips.
However! There was one crucial fact he had overlooked!
"What?! I can't exchange them back into Tower Coins?!"
"Yes. As stated in the precautions, chips cannot be exchanged back into Tower Coins."
Ban Hwi-yeol's face fell upon hearing that his massive winnings couldn't be converted back into Tower Coins.
"Tsk, I guess I didn't read the precautions properly..."
"Instead, we have many rare prizes that can only be purchased with chips. Would you like to visit the Prize Exchange over here?"
"Well, nothing I can do about it. Let's see what kind of prizes you've got."
Since he couldn't convert them back anyway, Ban Hwi-yeol headed to the Prize Exchange to buy something.
And the moment he saw the prize list on display, he stood there utterly dazed.
A mythic-grade sword once used by Abnir, the God of the False Paradise. (Usage restrictions apply.)
🪙 88,888 Chips
A fate-twisting die belonging to Chaos, the Great Archdemon of Chaos. (Usage restrictions apply.)
🪙 32,980 Chips
Highly effective for treating hair loss.
🪙 17,777 Chips
"A hair loss... treatment...?"
With a face as if possessed by a ghost, he purchased one Archangel's Silver Thread Candy.
A hair loss cure whose very existence had been a mystery, finally revealing itself to the world...!
In truth, it was a candy made by incorporating a single strand of Tricia's hair!
Elsewhere, climbers getting sucked dry of their Tower Coins could easily be spotted all over the casino.
Among them, there was one area in particular that drew everyone's attention—
For some reason, beneath a wall where massive portraits of Lekki and Ju Ji-ye hung, a giant pachinko machine stood with majestic presence!
The scene looked exactly like a page ripped straight out of a famous gambling manga.
"O God...! Please have mercy on this humble servant and grant me the blessing of salvation!!!"
A climber of the Priest class knelt down in prayer before pouring in Tower Coins to purchase a massive amount of pachinko balls!
Rattle-rattle-rattle-rattle!
Dozens of balls shot out like bullets, and the rainbow-colored slots began to spin frantically!
The flashy visual effects and sound design filled him with immense anticipation... but the result was—
Every single ball drained into the worst possible pockets, resulting in a total loss!
"How can this be... O God!!! Have You truly forsaken this poor lamb?!"
Devastated, the Priest fell to his knees on the floor and wailed.
As he sat slumped there for a long time, someone quietly placed a hand on his shoulder.
It was neither a bunny girl succubus nor a butler incubus—
It was the expressionless maid NPC that Tricia had created during the tutorial!
"Customer. Excessive gambling is harmful to your mental health. Therefore, we highly recommend taking a short break."
"N-No! Please, just one more time! This time, I really, truly feel like I'm going to succeed!!!"
Ultimately, the Priest was grabbed by the scruff of his neck and dragged away by the maid.
He was soon escorted to a bunny girl succubus for mental counseling to begin his gambling addiction therapy.
...And even the cost of that therapy was billed in Tower Coins.
It was a textbook pyramid scheme, but he never did reach the truth.
Meanwhile, what was the situation like at the blackjack tables?
"So weak~ ❤️"
The dealer here was Lekki.
Truly... the ultimate boss of unfairness!
It was clearly a winning game, but the moment Lekki provoked them even slightly, the climbers would make reckless moves and lose, a cycle that repeated endlessly!
"Dammit! Why did I call hit?! This is ridiculous!! This is rigged!!!"
The moment an enraged climber reached out toward Lekki—
An Angel Guardian appeared in the blink of an eye, subdued the rioting climber, and threw him out.
Watching this from afar, Tricia wore a wicked smile.
"Fufu... as expected, gambling really is a harmful culture, isn't it...?"
The structure of the Tower Coin Casino designed by Tricia was strictly a "one-way street."
Climbers could spend Tower Coins to purchase the casino's exclusive currency, "chips," but they could never convert them back.
Even if they won big rewards from various games like slot machines, blackjack, pachinko, or roulette, it was ultimately just an internal refund utilizing the tower's own resources.
The chips purchased with Tower Coins could only be used inside the casino, and their value lay solely in exchanging them for the tower's rare items or prizes.
In other words, this system blocked any outflow of Tower Coins while simultaneously driving the climbers' voluntary consumption—a closed-loop revenue extraction structure!
It didn't allow them to earn Tower Coins, but it planted hope through other rewards.
Because of this, the Tower Coin Casino was practically a golden goose for Tricia, costing her almost nothing, while for the climbers, it was nothing less than an endless swamp of temptation.
Desire is always packaged in the form of fantasy.
And here, on the 91st floor, the Tower Coin Casino was the ultimate headquarters of that fantasy...!