NOVEL NEXT Chapter 161 - Lucky Streak
The bustling energy of the Nexus Casino pulsed around the group, a vibrant, continuous hum that seemed to vibrate through the very ground. Kazue, her eyes still wide with the thrilling shock of the 'Supreme Skill Upgrade Ticket' she had just won, felt a boundless energy coursing through her. The casino stretched before them, a dazzling, impossible landscape of glowing machines and shimmering screens.
Their immediate objective was clear: amass enough points to acquire the elusive L-rank Plot Device. They knew their current combined total, even with Drake's recent win, was nowhere near the exorbitant price of a hundred thousand points. The task ahead was daunting, yet the taste of recent victory, specifically Kazue's improbable win, fueled a cautious optimism.
Angela was the first to speak. She scanned the vast, glittering expanse of the casino floor, her gaze analytical, searching for the most efficient path to their goal.
"Alright."
She stated, her voice cutting through the sensory overload with practiced precision.
"Again… We have our objective. We need points, and lots of them. This is the place to get them, but we need a strategy. We can't afford to be reckless… Did you hear me this time, Kazue?"
Her eyes, sharp and calculating, assessed the myriad games before them, each a spectacle of light and sound.
Meera, however, bounced on the balls of her feet, her eyes gleaming with a mixture of excitement and barely contained impatience.
"Oh, but this is much more exciting than just browsing dusty shops for hours!"
She exclaimed, her usual boisterous energy bubbling over. She clapped Drake on the shoulder, a hearty thwack.
"Come on, everyone! Kazue clearly has a knack for this, didn't she? Let's find another game! We're on a roll!"
Her enthusiasm was infectious, momentarily overshadowing Angela's caution.
Drake felt a strange pull towards the buzzing energy of the casino. The unexpected rush of defying expectations, of bending the odds, was undeniable. He still carried the subtle weight of his past actions, the memories of a darkness he preferred to keep buried, and that this place kind of reminded him of, but the exhilarating unpredictability of the Nexus Casino offered a strange, almost welcome, distraction from his own thoughts.
"I agree, we need a plan."
He stated, his voice firm, grounding their excitement.
"We can't afford to just throw our points away blindly."
He glanced at Falk, who was already whirring with renewed analytical fervor.
"Falk, can you analyze these games for us? Find us something with a favorable edge, something beyond pure chance?"
Falk, perched on Kazue's head, emitted a series of eager whirs and clicks.
"Sure can!"
He chirped, his mechanical voice buzzing with delight.
"The Nexus Casino presents an unparalleled opportunity for probabilistic analysis! My optical sensors and data processing units, so my eyes and brain, he-he, are already engaged. I am prepared to discern exploitable patterns even within phenomena ostensibly governed by 'luck'!"
His enthusiasm was palpable, almost matching Kazue's own, as he began to scan the myriad of chaotic displays around them.
Their strategy, quickly formulated between Angela's sharp analytical mind and Falk's unparalleled observational capabilities, revolved around finding games with exploitable patterns, even those cloaked in layers of 'luck' and fantastical mechanics.
Falk, perched usually on Kazue's head, or sometimes Drake's shoulder for a clearer vantage point, would observe each game with meticulous detail. His mechanical eyes and prodigious brain would process vast amounts of data, watching other users' successes and failures, discerning the hidden variables, the subtle tells, the underlying algorithms that governed even the most fantastical contests.
He could see patterns where others saw only chaos, statistical anomalies masquerading as random chance, and the intricate ways in which external energies or skills subtly influenced outcomes. He was their silent, calculating oracle, turning games of supposed pure chance into exercises in applied probability.
Their journey through the Nexus Casino began. It was a place where the rules of reality seemed optional, and the games themselves were a testament to the system's boundless, often bewildering, imagination.
Their first calculated gamble took them to a towering, pulsating crystal known as the 'Chrono-Flux Conundrum'. The game's premise was simple: users had to predict the exact moment a shimmering temporal ripple, visible only as a faint distortion in the crystal's core, would stabilize and emit a burst of Chronal energy.
Bet correctly, and win big. Bet wrong, and lose it all… It seemed like pure chance, a chaotic dance of time. But Falk, after observing several failures, detected a subtle rhythmic fluctuation in the ripple, a hidden temporal signature that betrayed its true nature.
"Kazue!"
He chirped, his mechanical voice a rapid-fire stream of data.
"The Chronal energy emission follows a non-linear decay curve with a probabilistic variance. However, a micro-burst of focused elemental energy, specifically a concentrated burst of temporal light, applied at the 0.7-second mark after the initial ripple, should stabilize the variance by 87.3%!"
Kazue, not understanding anything, kept silent for a while.
"What...?"
"Just activate the machine when I tell you..."
The girl nodded and focused her will. She didn't have a 'temporal light' skill, but her intuition allowed her to manifest a shimmering, almost intangible pulse of purified light from her palm, aiming it at the crystal. The crystal hummed, the ripple shimmered, and exactly at the predicted moment, it pulsed, exploding with golden Chronal energy.
"Now!"
Shouted the mechanical bird just in time Kazue released her energy… They won, the crystal flashing 'SUCCESS!' in glowing letters, drawing a small cheer from the surrounding onlookers.
Next, Drake found himself drawn to 'The Soul Echo Chamber'. This game involved projecting one's soul energy into a vast, dark chamber, hoping to resonate with a rare, dormant 'Soul Echo' that floated within. The stronger the resonance, the greater the payout. Most users simply brute-forced it with raw spiritual power, often disturbing the echoes and causing them to vanish.
Falk, however, noted that the echoes responded to purity of intent and the harmonic resonance of one's inner Ki.
"Drake!"
He clicked, perched on Drake's shoulder, his voice urgent.
"The echoes respond to a specific harmonic frequency, so it may do it with your 'Imperial Ki', I theorize it does with the one derived from disciplined self-reflection, not aggressive projection! Channel your Ki with internal calm and let it flow, rather than force it."
Drake nodded and closed his eyes, focusing inward. He released his Imperial Ki, not as a weapon, but as a gentle, resonant wave, filling the chamber. Almost immediately, a myriad of Soul Echoes, shimmering with ancient light, swirled around him, drawn by the purity of his cultivation. The chamber glowed with a soft, ethereal light, signifying a monumental win. Drake merely nodded, a grim satisfaction on his face.
Meera and Kazue then teamed up for 'The Dream Weaver's Loom'. This game presented them with a giant, ethereal loom, where players had to weave threads of pure 'dream essence' into a coherent, beautiful tapestry within a strict time limit. The threads were intangible, difficult to control, and often resisted manipulation, twisting into nightmares if the weaver lacked focus. Falk observed that the dream essence responded to both creative imagination and emotional stability.
"Meera, your vibrant emotional resonance is key here."
Falk clicked, perched on the woman's shoulder, his mechanical voice a rapid flutter.
"Kazue, your boundless imagination provides the structural framework. Combine your emotional energy with Meera's mental projections!"
Meera, fueled by her vibrant, expressive personality, poured her emotions into the threads, a spectrum of color and feeling. Kazue, letting her fiction-fueled imagination run wild, visualized fantastical creatures and impossible landscapes, guiding Meera's emotional energy into breathtaking patterns. Their combined efforts, a symphony of emotion and imagination, resulted in tapestries that shimmered with impossible beauty, earning them massive payouts and drawing gasps from onlookers. Katya, standing nearby, watched with a mixture of grudging respect and a faint, almost imperceptible twitch of her lips, amused despite herself.
Katya herself, possessing a keen eye for subtle detail, found her niche in games that involved direct observation and quick, decisive action, particularly those focused on 'identifying anomalies'. One such game was 'The Glimmering Flaw'. This challenge involved a rapidly changing, hyper-realistic holographic illusion of a battlefield or a complex cityscape. Users had to spot a single, minute inconsistency or flaw in the illusion – a misplaced pebble, a flickering light, or a subtly wrong shadow– before it shifted again. It required lightning-fast observation, an almost preternatural ability to detect imperfection, and a cynical eye for the cracks in reality.
"Katya, this is perfect for your innate talent for detecting flaws. I don't think I need to help you with this."
Falk chirped from Kazue's head, watching the girl from afar.
"Was that an insult…?"
Said Katya with annoyance. However, with her sharp and cynical gaze, she proved surprisingly adept. Her eyes would narrow, a faint smirk would touch her lips, and she would jab a finger at the screen with uncanny precision, identifying the nearly invisible anomaly that others missed completely. She won a steady stream of points, her victories quiet but consistent, often leaving the smug, overconfident users who relied on flashy, brute-force skills utterly bewildered and frustrated by her inexplicable success. She found herself enjoying the challenge, a faint thrill in outsmarting others, a familiar satisfaction from her past life.
Drake and Kazue even teamed up for a quick round of 'Celestial Roulette'. This game involved a massive, celestial sphere, its surface a swirling canvas of constellations and nebulae. Users would bet on which constellation a falling 'cosmic spark' would land in. It appeared to be pure chance, but Falk quickly calculated that the spark's trajectory was influenced by the subtle gravitational pulls of the players' own energy, if precisely applied.
"Drake, use your Imperial Ki to create a minute gravitational well at the edge of the 'Draco' constellation."
Falk instructed, his mechanical voice a rapid-fire sequence of commands.
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"Kazue, release a burst of elemental energy in the opposite direction simultaneously, a light 'push' from the opposing vector!"
Their combined, synchronized effort, a precise blend of Drake's potent Ki manipulation and Kazue's raw elemental force, subtly nudged the cosmic spark toward their chosen constellation, leading to another win. The crowd around them began to buzz, sensing an uncanny streak of luck and an impossible string of victories.
However, not every game was a win. They tried 'The Mimic's Maze', a shifting, holographic labyrinth that tested spatial reasoning and memory. Falk detected subtle inconsistencies in the illusionary walls, but the sheer speed of its changes, combined with moments of pure, random distortion in the spatial fabric, meant even his calculations couldn't guarantee victory. Drake, despite his excellent spatial awareness, lost a few thousand points here, his usual focus momentarily broken by the chaotic shifts.
"Too many variables, it's unfortunate."
Falk grunted, frustrated, as Drake's avatar slammed into an illusory wall.
They also lost a small sum at 'The Chronal Chase', where users had to 'tag' a fleeting, temporal echo of themselves within a rapidly changing temporal field. Kazue, despite her quick reflexes, struggled with the unpredictable time-skips and paradoxes inherent in the game's mechanics.
"It's like trying to catch smoke!"
She complained, pouting, as her avatar missed the echo by a hair's breadth. Falk admitted defeat here.
"The inherent chaos in this particular temporal field is exceptionally high."
He chirped.
"Rendering predictive modeling would be largely inefficient. The random elements are too dominant, disrupting any consistent pattern."
Later on, due to Falk's recommendation, Meera, somewhat reluctantly, teamed up with Angela for 'The Strategist's Chessboard'. It was a high-stakes, real-time strategy game where users commanded holographic armies against system-controlled forces, with bonuses for complex maneuvers and devastating tactical victories. Meera's explosive, aggressive tactics, favoring direct assault and overwhelming force, clashed constantly with Angela's calm, precise strategic mind, which preferred calculated maneuvers and flanking actions. This often led to heated debates even in the middle of gameplay.
"Dear god, just attack! Don't overthink it!"
Meera would shout, exasperated, her holographic general charging heedlessly into enemy lines.
"Patience, woman! We need to control the flank, not just charge headlong into a slaughter!"
Angela would retort, her voice strained, trying to salvage the situation. Falk found their emotional synergy, or lack thereof, to be a fascinating study in human interaction.
"Their conflicting methodologies create a dynamic tension that paradoxically leads to unpredictable outcomes."
He chirped. Despite their friction, however, their individual strengths often compensated for their clashes, leading to a few surprising, hard-fought victories that bewildered even Falk's initial calculations.
Their winning streak was phenomenal. They weren't just breaking even; they were accumulating points at an astonishing rate that dwarfed their previous understanding of wealth in the system. Users around them, initially skeptical, began to gather, watching their uncanny success with a mix of awe, envy, and outright frustration. Their faces, at first bored or dismissive, turned into masks of curious bewilderment, then genuine surprise, and finally, outright disbelief as the points continued to flow into the group's account.
"They just keep winning!"
Someone would exclaim from the growing crowd, their voice tinged with a blend of admiration and exasperation.
"What are they doing? Is it some new skill?"
"Are they cheating?"
Another whispered, but the system's constant monitoring meant no direct cheating was possible in these official games. The rumors of Falk's almost supernatural analytical brilliance, however, began to subtly spread through the murmuring onlookers, offering a plausible, if unsettling, explanation.
Their success was a dazzling spectacle, a rapid-fire display of skill, intuition, and Falk's unparalleled analytical genius. He processed vast amounts of data from each game, quickly identifying the hidden mechanisms, the subtle biases, and the statistical loopholes that allowed them to consistently tip the odds in their favor. He would whisper complex calculations and precise timing into Kazue's or Drake's ear, his mechanical voice a rapid-fire stream of numbers and probabilities, often too fast for anyone else to fully comprehend.
"The resonance frequency is oscillating at 7.3 Hz, Kazue!"
He'd chirp, his optical sensors flickering rapidly.
"Adjust your energy output to a sympathetic pulse of 7.37 Hz! Now!"
And Kazue would comply, a subtle wave of her hand resulting in a perfect score, the game machine chiming in triumph.
"Drake, the inertia field on the 'Thunderstrike Mallet' exhibits a momentary phase shift at precisely 0.45 seconds into the downswing. Aim for a micro-adjustment of 1.2 degrees to the left at that exact moment!"
And the blond would execute the impossibly precise movement, smashing the mallet into the perfect target. However, even with Falk's genius, luck still played its hand, a reminder that the system always retained a degree of unpredictability. Sometimes, a random variable, a truly unpredictable fluctuation in a game's complex algorithms, would cause them to lose. A shimmering orb would veer off course at the last second, a shifting illusion would perfectly hide the anomaly, and a temporal echo would simply vanish before they could tag it. They lost, but their losses were minor and quickly recouped by subsequent wins. The thrill of the gamble, of playing against the very system itself, fueled their determination, transforming their mission into an exhilarating pursuit of fortune.
By the time they had spent what felt like several hours in the bustling casino, moving from one glittering game station to another, their point totals had swelled to an almost unimaginable degree. They had collectively amassed a staggering 280,000 points. This figure, glowing in bright green, flashed on Kazue's private system screen, a testament to their coordinated efforts and Falk's uncanny abilities. Even Meera and Angela, seasoned veterans of the system's economy, stared at the updated total with open-mouthed astonishment, a rare display of genuine shock.
"Two hundred and eighty thousand points… In a couple of hours."
Meera breathed, her eyes wide, a rare moment of genuine shock on her usually vibrant face.
"That's… that's incredible. I've never seen anyone accumulate so many points so fast outside of a high-stakes scenario."
She looked at Falk, perched on Kazue's head, with a newfound respect that bordered on reverence, as if seeing him for the first time.
Angela simply nodded, her usual composure momentarily broken by the sheer magnitude of their winnings. Her eyes, usually so analytical, flickered with a rare hint of genuine surprise, even a touch of awe.
"Indeed. Falk's… abilities are truly exceptional. His data processing is beyond anything I've witnessed in a single entity, whether organic or synthetic. What was his origin again?"
But not only had they accrued a vast fortune in points, their string of exceptional victories had also garnered them special prizes, awarded for truly outstanding performances. Drake had won a [Random A/S-Rank Race Change Ticket], a shimmering, iridescent card that promised a complete metamorphosis to a new race of immense power, with a minimum of A-rank at random. The potential for such a change was staggering, a true game-changer for any user.
Kazue, in one of her most dazzling displays of intuitive control, had been awarded a [Set of VoidSpark-Adamantine x10], a collection of ten medium-sized, dark, impossibly dense ingots of an unknown metal, shimmering with strange, warping properties. Falk, upon seeing the prize, had almost vibrated off Kazue's head, emitting a series of frantic, pleading chirps.
"VoidSparl-Adamantine?! What is that metal I have never seen before?! The structural integrity! The theoretical applications! Please, you must let me study this when we return! I sincerely beg you!"
Kazue, amused by his fervent request, had readily agreed. Meanwhile, Katya, to everyone's surprise, had perhaps the most exceptional luck of all. She received an exchange ticket for an exclusive skill, one of the day's most coveted and elusive grand prizes: [From the Past with Love! Lv5]. Its description was vague, unsettlingly so, merely stating that it allowed the user to utilize "things from the past".
Despite its cryptic nature, the announcement of her win had sent a wave of applause and murmurs of excitement through the onlookers, lasting for several minutes. Several users, recognizing the ticket's immense value, immediately approached her, offering extravagant trades for the skill, but Katya, with a characteristic yet dismissive huff, simply ignored them all, her gaze fixed only on Kazue, who beamed at her with pride.
Their success, however, had not gone unnoticed by more than just the immediate onlookers. As they discussed their next move, contemplating the vast new sums in their possession, a figure approached them. He was impeccably dressed in a suit of deep, shimmering charcoal grey, tailored to perfection, its fabric subtly shifting with an inner light. His movements were fluid and elegant, and his face, though unremarkable, held an air of professional courtesy, yet radiated a quiet, undeniable authority. He was clearly an executive-level presence within the casino.
"Pardon me."
The man said, his voice smooth and cultivated, cutting through the general din of the casino with effortless clarity, his tone perfectly modulated.
"My sincere congratulations on your quite remarkable winning streak. It's truly been quite a spectacle, the talk of the entire main floor, in fact. You have garnered considerable attention."
He offered a polite, almost deferential bow, while his eyes, dark and knowing, swept over each member of the group, lingering for a moment on Falk.
"Perhaps, given your… unusual aptitude, and the sheer volume of your recent acquisitions, you might find yourselves more comfortable in our VIP area?"
His gesture encompassed the opulent surroundings, yet implied a hidden realm of even greater luxury and exclusivity.
The group exchanged bewildered glances. A VIP area? Neither Meera nor Angela, despite their extensive experience navigating the Trade Nexus and its hidden corners, had ever mentioned such a place within the casino, or even seemed aware of its existence. The concept of an exclusive, higher tier seemed to pique their curiosity, even among the seasoned veterans.
"The VIP area of the casino is reserved for a select clientele. Groups that display a particularly high level of talent. Or who attract a certain kind of attention, a unique methodology that stands out even in this place."
The man continued, seeing their confusion, while his smile widened almost imperceptibly.
"And you are clearly not a common group. Your methodology is, shall we say, unprecedented."
He finished, his gaze settling on them, a faint, knowing glint in his gaze. Kazue's eyes widened, a mixture of awe and apprehension in their depths. She looked at Drake, then at Angela, then at Katya, and finally at Meera, a silent question passing between them. They had the points. They had far more than they needed for the Plot Device, and then some.
"Well…"
Angela said, a note of finality already in her voice, her practical mind focused on their mission's completion.
"That's very kind, but I don't think that will be necessary. We've acquired the points we need, so we'll be heading out. We have what we came for."
The others nodded, a collective agreement to end their gambling spree and focus on the mission: finding that L-rank Plot Device for Adam. But before they could turn to leave, Kazue, sensing a deeper opportunity, spoke up.
"Wait!"
She interjected, with a soft but firm voice, her gaze fixed on the impeccably dressed man.
"Excuse me, sir. But… is it possible to find the specific Plot Device we're looking for? Would going to the VIP area help us find that?"
The man's smile widened. He had been waiting for a question like that, a subtle triumph, a knowing glint in his eyes.
"If it is a particular Plot Device you seek, then our VIP area is most certainly your best option. You will find yourselves among the most prosperous and influential users in the Nexus, certainly. But more importantly, among the rotating prizes, exclusive auctions, and private dealings of our VIP clientele, we maintain a very extensive collection of Plot Devices. Including, I assure you, many of L-rank, specifically those that are rarely found on the open market, and often are not even publicly advertised."
He said, his voice smooth as silk, a velvet invitation that seemed to pull at the very air. His words hung in the air, a tempting whisper of possibility, hinting at a secret trove of power and a key to their true objective.
The group halted. Their previous decision to leave shattered completely. A collection of L-rank Plot Devices… It was an opportunity too perfectly aligned with their objective to ignore. They exchanged quick, intense glances, a silent debate passing between them, weighing the risk of the unknown against the tantalizing promise of achieving their goal for Adam.
After a moment, a collective agreement settled over them, their gazes hardening with renewed determination. It couldn't hurt to check, just in case. They turned and followed the impeccably dressed man towards a discreet, almost invisible elevator, its polished chrome doors sliding open silently to reveal a luxurious, plush interior, bathed in a soft, golden light. It was a portal to a new tier of the Nexus, a realm of even greater power, wealth, and hidden secrets.
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In a secluded observation room, high above the main casino floor, deep within the heart of the colossal structure, a group of shadowy figures watched the scene unfold on multiple flickering screens. One of them, a figure of immense, almost unnatural size, let out a low chuckle, a sound that rumbled like distant thunder, echoing softly in the plush room.
"They're certainly amusing, aren't they?"
He rumbled, his voice deep and gravelly, laced with a predatory amusement.
"Making quite a show for themselves. Very entertaining. Let them entertain us for a while longer."
His gaze, however, was fixed intently on one particular screen, showing Kazue, her face alight with curiosity, with Falk perched innocently on her head, observing the casino. A predatory smile stretched his obscured lips, a chilling promise in his eyes.
"Then, when their guard is down, bring them to me."
His voice lowered, a chilling whisper that carried through the room.
"After all, I have my eyes on a certain prize that has caught my attention. And I intend to have it."
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Meanwhile, a lone, cloaked figure, its face hidden by deep shadows, stood motionless, observing from a distant street corner outside the main casino entrance. They had been watching the group for some time, their presence a silent, unseen shadow in the bustling Nexus Casino. They watched as Kazue, Drake, Katya, Meera, and Angela entered the discreet, luxurious elevator, their forms disappearing into the exclusive VIP area of the casino. The cloaked figure remained motionless for a long moment, then, with a subtle shift of their weight, they began to move, following them from afar.