Kill the Sun

Nick left the fifth floor and walked to the second one.

For now, the second floor was designated for the unremarkable Physical Specters, like the Money Sink and the Bleeding Lady.

Of course, now, there was a third Specter as well.

Nick went to one of the western Containment Units and stopped in front of its entrance.

'Do I have enough money with me?' Nick thought as he checked his pockets.

Next, he retrieved several long pieces of metal.

Each of these pieces represented a thousand credits.

Nick had an entire stack of them.

'Should be enough,' he thought.

Naturally, since this Specter came from the city, Nick knew how to work with it.

Nick opened the door and walked inside.

Compared to earlier, Nick wasn't in a rush, and he entered at a leisurely pace.

He closed the door behind him and looked to the middle of the Containment Unit.

"Hello, hello! I presume you are a new customer?"

A tall man wearing a fancy suit and a black top hat stood in the middle of the room with a charming smile on his face.

In front of the man was a table with several decks of cards on top.

The table was made of a very rare material, wood, and its top was completely black.

This was one of Dark Dream's three new Specters.

The Gambler.

Nick walked towards the Gambler, who only looked at Nick with a toothy smile.

"Hi, I'm the Chief Zephyx Extractor of Dark Dream, your new place of residence," Nick said.

"Oh, so I'm in Dark Dream now?" the Gambler commented with interest. "I heard some of my previous customers talking about this place. You're a new Manufacturer, right?"

"Kind of," Nick said.

Obviously, the Gambler was very much sapient.

It was even quite intelligent.

"I can see that you are not a man of many words," the Gambler said as he retrieved one of the decks of cards.

The backside of every card had a black void on it with two red eyes in the center.

Then, the Gambler started to shuffle the cards casually.

"What are my new guidelines? Is it only money, or are we playing for keeps?" he asked.

"Money," Nick said.

"Oh, that's sad," the Gambler said with lament. "Are you really not interested in a real game? If you win once, you can earn a full kilo of Zephyx."

"The rules and the deck are fair. It's always a 50/50. Why don't you live a little?"

Nick looked with an unamused gaze at the Gambler.

"The document says it's more like 40/60," Nick said.

The Gambler laughed. "That's because most people are just not good at playing cards. With perfect strategy, the chances of winning are 50%. Maybe even more since I am not completely perfect myself."

"Not interested," Nick said. "Someone I know very well always says that you should minimize the things you can't control and maximize the things you can control."

"Why would I risk losing the Zephyx inside my body when I can increase it without risking it in a significant way?"

Nick looked into the Gambler's eyes.

"And I don't want any of my employees to do the same. Nobody is allowed to gamble with their Zephyx. Even if they want to."

"If I hear that any of my employees have gambled with their Zephyx with you, I will quarantine this Containment Unit for a month."

"Do you understand?" Nick asked.

The Gambler kept shuffling the deck and sighed. "Of course. Only playing for money."

Nick nodded. "Good."

Then, Nick took out the stack of metal plates and put them on the table.

When the Gambler saw that, his smile widened.

"Alright," the Gambler said. "Let's start with an easy game of chance. We both draw a card, and the stronger card wins. Is a bet of a thousand credits fine with you?"

Nick nodded.

The Gambler reached forward and pulled one of the metal plates out of the stack, placing it on the table.

Next, the Gambler cut the deck in half and gave Nick one half.

Both of them pulled their first card and looked at it.

When Nick saw the image on the card, his eyebrows rose in surprise.

The picture was of a big red slime in the middle of a Containment Unit.

On the top right was a five, and the card's name was in the middle of the top.

The Blood Ancestor.

"Where did you get this deck?" Nick asked as he looked at the card.

"I made it myself," the Gambler said. "I make new cards based on the Specters I've heard about. I don't know exactly how all of the Specters look, but I heard enough about every Specter in here that I can paint a pretty clear picture of them."

"Interesting," Nick said, looking at the card. "And where did you get that information from?"

"Don't you already know that, Nick?" the Gambler asked.

Nick was not surprised that the Gambler knew his name, even though he hadn't told him his name.

And yes, Nick knew how the Gambler knew all of this.

It was also possible to gamble with information.

In fact, one could gamble with almost everything, and the Gambler would accept the bet as long as he had the power to collect what he was owed.

The Gambler had probably worked with people from Ghosty's Lab to get enough information about the Blood Ancestor to create the card.

"So, what did you get?" the Gambler asked.

Nick placed the card down. "The Blood Ancestor."

When the Gambler saw that, he had to laugh.

"Wow, luck is a cruel mistress," he said.

Nick didn't show any reaction, but he felt a bit good.

After all, who didn't feel good when winning a game?

Then, the Gambler placed down his card.

When Nick saw the card, his eyes widened.

It was a forest of huge red mushrooms filled with holes that were dripping with blood.

The entire floor was covered with roots that looked like veins, and there were screaming faces on all the different caps of the mushrooms.

In the top right was a six, and the name of the card was…

The Crimson Fungus.

"To lose with a Fanatic," the Gambler said with a chuckle as he collected the metal plate.

"Truly tragic."