Card Room

A door opened in front of A of Clubs and everyone walked in. In the center of the room was a large card table covered with a green velvet tablecloth. There were two scoreboards on the table to record the scoring and four seats were placed around the table.

A few seconds after everyone walked into the room, two doors on the side walls opened. Two more teams with around 10 people each walked in. Although everyone wore silver masks so their expressions couldn't be seen clearly, Xiao Lou recognized many familiar people. They were Gao Xiaoyi's team and the bearded uncle's team from the Eternal Kingdom!

Obviously, after leaving 8 of Spades they had also drawn 8 of Clubs. Everyone had the same progress and were therefore matched together. Gao Xiaoyi also felt that Xiao Lou's eyes were familiar and couldn't help asking, "Did we meet in 8 of Spades?"

The bearded uncle smiled. "What a coincidence. It seems all those from 8 of Spades came here."

Xiao Lou nodded. "Yes, this secret room is a points race. Whoever gets more points will get more gold coins."

Fortunately, this Clubs secret room didn't require killing others. Xiao Lou didn't want to fight against the other challenger teams. It wasn't easy for everyone to get here and it was best to win together. This time there was nothing life-threatening in the secret room and there was no need to take away their opponents' cards. The gold coins challenge secret room was just a matter of winning more or less. Therefore, there was no psychological pressure.

Before entering the S-grade secret room, the young Clubs keeper gave everyone gold coins as welfare. How much they could win depended on the challengers' abilities.

The Clubs teenager stood in the middle wearing white gloves. "Each team will send two players first. It is a three game, two wins elimination system with a total of three rounds." He handed out three cards of different colours to the captains of the three teams. "The red team, the yellow team and the blue team will face off in pairs. The loser is eliminated and can't play again. You have three minutes to discuss the arrangement of players."

Xiao Lou had received the red card.

The knockout system meant that if the two players sent in the first round lost, these two players wouldn't be able to play in the following matches. If they lost in all three rounds, at least six players would be required to participate. The more people in the team who could play cards, the more points there were that could be earned.

Xiao Lou gathered his teammates and asked softly, "The Fifty K game, who here can play?"

Ye Qi raised his hand excitedly. "I can!"

Qu Wanyue continued, "My hometown also plays this type of points game, especially in the new year. I played Fifty K with my family before entering the Card World.

Long Sen scratched his head and smiled. "Wanyue taught me. I can play."

Xiao Lou looked at Chief Shao and Shao Qingge smiled. "I know all card games that can be named."

Everyone, "………"

He was worthy of being the person who scared other players out of calling by going All-in in 2 of Clubs. It seemed that Chief Shao was very professional when it came to playing cards and gambling.

Both Liu Qiao and Old Mo said that they couldn't play. They might understand the rules but there was a big difference between those who already knew how to play and those who didn't. One had to have experience to know how to control the order of cards played, how to protect teammates and how to count cards.

Xiao Lou looked at Yu Hanjiang and suggested in a low voice, "Then let Teacher Qu and Long Sen go first. Chief Shao and Xiao Ye will wait and see. If Teacher Qu and Long Sen lose then we will let Chief Shao and Xiao Ye go to fight. It shouldn't be necessary for a third group of players to play."

Yu Hanjiang was happy and simply nodded with crossed arms. "Just do it."

Xiao Lou announced the decision and his teammates expressed no objection. They looked towards the card table in the middle of the room and the chairs around it. Xiao Lou led his teammates to the back row to watch the game.

The red team sent the Long Sen and Qu Wanyue couple. On the blue team's side, Gao Xiaoyi and Lin Yuhang were playing. On the yellow team's side, it was the bearded uncle and a tall woman with long hair.

The Clubs teenager announced, “The red team will fight the blue team. The winner will fight the yellow team. The first round will start. Please prepare.”

Gao Xiaoyi and Lin Yuhang walked over and sat down facing each other. Qu Wanyue and Long Sen also went to sit down. The first round began and the cards were dealt.

In order to make it easier for the other teammates to watch the game, a big screen floating in the middle of the area showed the situation of the table in real time in bird's-eye view. Of course, the player's hands were hidden and invisible so as to avoid any attempts at communication between teammates. Furthermore, the presence of the mask made it difficult for teammates to communicate through facial expressions. As for eye contact, both sides could use it so it was relatively fair.

Ye Qi whispered to Xiao Lou, "The cards are disabled. I can't use Heart has a Tacit Exchange of Romantic Feelings."

Xiao Lou nodded. "That's only natural, otherwise you could pass on your cards."

Ye Qi was excited. "Teacher Qu and Long Sen have the tacit cooperation of a couple. They should be able to kill the blue and yellow teams in succession!"

Xiao Lou rubbed his temples. "Don't say such things before the game starts or it will be easy to be hit in the face."

Ye Qi immediately mimed a zipper motion over his mouth

There were three rounds in a game. If Long Sen and Qu Wanyue could play to the end then no other players were actually required to play from their team. However, Long Sen's luck today was very bad.

In the first game, Gao Xiaoyi drew 3 of Hearts and gained priority. The moment she started, she directly threw a straight of 9, 10, J, Q, K!

In order to beat this straight, a 10JQKA straight was required but neither Qu Wanyue or Long Sen had such a good hand. The two of them couldn't raise it and the other side got the 10 and K points.

Gao Xiaoyi followed by throwing out the 556677 connected pairs. Qu Wanyue was after her and played 778899. As a result, Lin Yuhang who was after Qu Wanyue suddenly threw a bomb.

Long Sen, "…I can't raise it."

In this round, the Gao Xiaoyi pair scored another 10 points.

Gao Xiaoyi's hand of cards together was pretty good. A triple and a single, connected pairs and a straight. After playing most of her hand, all she had left were small pairs and single cards. Qu Wanyue had many pairs and gained back the right to play. She won 10 points.

She had just played a triple and one card when Lin Yuhang played the 5, 10, K bomb and gained 25 points.

Long Sen had a bitter face. "I can't raise it."

He must not have washed his hands together. He had a hand of messy little pairs such as 33, 66 and 88.

In the first game, Gao Xiaoyi finished her hand first and won first place. Qu Wanyue was second, Lin Yuhang was third and Long Sen still had over a dozen cards in his hand.

Gao Xiaoyi got 150 table points and 50 bonus points. Since one point could be exchanged for 10,000 gold coins, they won 2 million gold coins in this game alone. Long Sen and Qu Wanyue received 500,000, which wasn't much compared to the opposing side.

Ye Qi looked at Shao Qingge and whispered, "Your card Thousand Gold Coin Throw costs 10,000 gold coins for one use. Teacher Qu can only use your skill five times."

Shao Qingge helplessly rubbed his temples. "I will try my best to save some money. I will never use this card until the critical moment, okay?"

Ye Qi laughed. "I mean, Chief Shao's card is still very useful. We will earn more money later. In the future, my flute will be on cooldown but you can still use the gold coins to hit people. Your skill might be very expensive but there is no cooldown!"

The skill that spent money didn't have a cooldown time. This was the advantage of the S-grade card Thousand Gold Coin Throw. Of course, this card wasn't invincible. After all, the gold coins might not hit anyone. Once Ye Qi and Long Sen's control card skills were on cooldown, Shao Qingge could use gold coins to control the field at any time. 100,000 for each use might be painful but it was nothing compared to everyone's safety.

In the first game, the blue team won.

Long Sen rubbed his hands awkwardly. "My hand was too stinky. I only got single cards and small pairs."

Qu Wanyue smiled and comforted him. "Playing cards really depends on luck. It doesn't matter. Your hands won't always be smelly."

Xiao Lou heard this and had a bad feeling in his heart. Sure enough, Long Sen was cursed by Teacher Qu and his luck was terrible. His frustrated voice kept coming from the card table. "I can't raise it."

"No."

"Pass…"

Qu Wanyue regretted it. "I shouldn't have talked too much."

Long Sen not only had a poor hand but often missed key scoring cards such as 5, 10 and K. Fortunately, Qu Wanyue's card luck was good today. She relied on the 5, 10 and K of Spades in the second game to blast the opposite side's JJQQKK connected pairs and won 45 points in one round.

After three rounds, the Long Qu couple won 125 points in total which could be exchanged for 125 gold coins with a face value of 10,000. Due to their 2:1 loss to the blue team, the two of them were eliminated.

Gao Xiaoyi and Lin Yinhang won as the blue team and continued to face the yellow team players.

Long Sen and Qu Wanyue were somewhat embarrassed as they walked back to their teammates. Their tacit understanding when playing cards was actually good and they also cooperated with each other. However, there was really no way to win with their bad hands. Long Sen was speechless about his hands. There were no big pairs. All of them were 3 of Spades, 4 of diamonds, 6 of Clubs, 7 of Spades etc. A straight couldn't even be connected. It was very sad.

Long Sen scratched his head helplessly. "I'm sorry, blame me."

Xiao Lou patted him on the shoulder. "Don't mind it. The card game really depends on luck and you tried your best. It isn't bad that you could win 1.25 million gold coins. It is almost 12,500 yuan. do you think that you can win over 10,000 yuan by playing three games of cards in reality?"

The depressed Long and Qu were comforted after hearing Professor Xiao's words.

The 1.25 million gold coins might not be enough for Chief Shao to release his skills several times but it was enough for everyone's living expenses after returning to the main city! They didn't have to worry about eating and drinking. The main city had low prices and they could eat meat and fish every day for a month. It wasn't a waste of effort.

Qu Wanyue sat back in the chair and looked at Shao Qingge. "Chief Shao, Xiao Ye, we will rely on you next."

Qu Wanyue said that Long Sen wouldn't keep having bad luck and as a result, Long Sen kept repeating 'I can't raise it' consecutively. Shao Qingge started to poison himself with a smile. "I might be able to play cards but it can't be helped if I'm not lucky."

Ye Qi tacitly continued. "I am always last every time I play cards. I might not even touch a K later."

Shao Qingge continued. "I might not even touch a 5."

Ye Qi nodded seriously. "We might not even get one point."

Their teammates, "……"

The two of them were really too much. Wasn't this too poisonous?

Shao Qingge and Ye Qi looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

They had been poisoned to this point and they could only hope that when they played that their cards weren't too bad, even if they weren't lucky. At the very least, drawing a straight or big pair or something and not being as miserable as Long Sen who only drew small cards.

At this point, the first round of the game had ended.

Gao Xiaoyi and Lin Yuhang of the blue team must've washed their hands together. They were very lucky. Not only did they win against the Long Qu red couple, they also won against the yellow team's bearded uncle combination. After all of this, they made a lot of money and the eyes of the two people were full of smiles.

Then in the next second, the Clubs teenager informed them indifferently. "In the second round, the table points will remain unchanged but for every round of settlement, the reward points need to be deducted from the opponent's points. If the points aren't enough, it will be deducted from your bank card balance."

Everyone, "……"

Sure enough, A of Clubs wouldn't simply send benefits!

In other words, let's talk about a certain round. If the red team finished first and second and got 100 bonus points, the 100 points would be deducted from the opponent's existing points.

Gao Xiaoyi and Lin Yuhang had earned hundreds of points but these points hadn't been converted into gold coins and weren't entirely theirs. What if they had points deducted? Similarly, Teacher Qu and Long Sen only won 125 points in three games. If the Shao Ye combination continued to lose, these points would be deducted and they might even lose their bank card deposit?

Shao Qingge glanced at Ye Qi. "Let's go, it's our turn."

Ye Qi spoke seriously. "I will try my best to escort you to finish your cards later. If my hand is good then you will escort me. Don't just look at the table points but pay more attention to the bonus points. After all, the bonus points are 100 and 50. This is quite large."

The 5, 10 and K of the two decks added up to 200 points. However, if they didn't have too many of these cards in their hands and couldn't get table points, they could give priority to finishing their cards and gain 100 or 50 points depending on their ranking.

Ye Qi had clearly seen through the rules of this game. The 5, 10 and K cards should take priority but the number of cards in the hand was also important. It was just like in Fight the Landlord when he assisted his teammates in gaining the priority and clearing the cards. Aiming for the bonus points was also a strategy.

Shao Qingge smiled slightly and patted Ye Qi's shoulder. "Come on."

The two of them went to the table and sat down. They looked at each other through the mask and gave each other encouragement with their eyes.

This was his first time fighting side by side with Chief Shao. It might only be a card game but Ye Qi couldn't help feeling excited. He hoped to have better luck with his cards and help Chief Shao win more money for his skills!

Proofreader: Fictional Reality