Chapter 195: Luo Shaotian’s Investigation

Not long before this…

“Elysium,” this underground palace stuffed full of desire, had a corner with no flashing neon, no sexy bunny girls— even the light itself seemed to dim there.

A small, pitch-black door stood silently in the shadows.

Two bodyguards in black suits stood guard at the entrance.
Sunglasses on, builds like iron towers.

“Bzzzt…” A faint crackle of static came through Luo Shaotian’s bone-conduction earpiece.

“Pay attention to that direction, Luo Shaotian,” Night Oriole suddenly spoke.
“Our terminal just picked up… a very uncomfortable fluctuation.”

“Uncomfortable?” Luo Shaotian frowned slightly. “Be specific.”

“Psychic energy response. It’s weak, but the terminal still caught it. It’s right at that door. Black. Move closer and see what’s going on.”

“Copy.” Luo Shaotian nodded.

He walked slowly, like a wealthy patron out for a casual stroll.

But when he was about five meters from the door—

Smack.

A large hand in a white glove blocked his path.

“Sir.” The bodyguard on the left spoke.
“Please stop. This area is not open to regular guests.”

Luo Shaotian halted, lifted his chin slightly, and gave an arrogant smile.

“Bullshit? You think I ain’t got money?”

The bodyguard frowned, clearly not quite understanding.

That was exactly the effect Luo Shaotian wanted.
He switched to Mandarin.

“I’ve got more money than I know what to do with. You think I’m scared I can’t afford the entry fee?”

As he spoke, he pulled out a crystal chip worth ten thousand U.S. dollars and tried to stuff it into the guard’s jacket pocket.

The guard didn’t even glance at the chip.

His arm stayed there, unmoving.

“Sorry, sir. This isn’t about money.” He repeated coldly.
“This… is not a place you should be.”

“Tch…” Luo Shaotian clicked his tongue inwardly.

These two gate gods… they’re actually something else.

They don’t even recognize money?

To avoid tipping their hand, he didn’t force his way in.
He put on an annoyed “fine, you win” expression and turned away.

“Looks like… brute force won’t work.”
“Don’t rush. Find a spot and wait.”

Chen Bing’s calm voice came through the earpiece.
“If it’s guarded, there’s definitely something shady inside. Just wait for an opening.”

“Understood.”
Luo Shaotian nodded.

He didn’t go far.
Instead, he circled around and finally sat down at a blackjack table not far from the black door.

The table’s position was perfect.

On the surface, his back was to the door, fully focused on playing against the dealer.
But in reality, through the specially modified wide-angle cameras in his sunglasses, he could clearly monitor every movement in that corner.

“Hit.”

Luo Shaotian tapped the table, casually losing a few thousand dollars.

Time ticked by.

Ten minutes.
Twenty minutes.

The black door was like a dead black hole.
No one went in or out.
Even the two guards looked frozen, not changing posture once.

Just as Luo Shaotian began to wonder whether he was going to lose all his chips here—

“Here it comes.”

Li Qing, who had been monitoring the feed, suddenly spoke up in his earpiece.

“Three o’clock direction! A strange guy’s heading over!”

Luo Shaotian’s hand paused slightly.

Using the side-rear view of his sunglasses, he saw the figure.

A middle-aged man in a suit.

But the suit was wrinkled and rumpled, his tie crooked,
stained with patches of unknown filth.

His hair was a mess, like a bird’s nest.

More striking was his condition.

His face was deathly pale, eye sockets sunken, eyeballs webbed with terrifying red veins.
He looked like a walking corpse whose vitality had been drained dry.

He staggered through the crowd, heading straight for the black door.

“Stop.”

The guard’s cold voice rang out again.

“I— I—”

The man shuddered violently.

But unlike Luo Shaotian, he didn’t retreat.

With a thud, he dropped to his knees, both hands clutching the guard’s legs.

“Please… please let me in…
I… I… I don’t have any money left… really, none at all…
I sold my house… sold my car… even… even the two hundred thousand my daughter needs for her heart surgery…
I lost it all in that last round…”

“I can’t go back like this… I don’t have the face… I don’t have the face to see my wife…”

As he spoke, he kowtowed frantically, his forehead slamming into the marble floor with dull thuds, blood quickly seeping out.

“Oh?” The guard, who had been icy the whole time, finally reacted.

He lowered his head.

“So… you came here to…”

“Yes! I know the rules! I know!” The man jerked his head up, eyes bloodshot, shining with a sickly light.
“I heard… that here you don’t just gamble money… you gamble lives!”

“I may be out of money… but I still have this rotten life!”

He clutched his chest tightly, as if trying to rip his heart out to show them.

“Give me one more chance!
Just give me some chips—just a little!
I can turn it around!
I’ll win back my daughter’s life-saving money!”

“G-gamble… lives?”

At the distant table, Luo Shaotian’s fingers clenched around his cards.

So it’s real… gambling with lives?

“Heh heh…”

The guard let out an extremely low, chilling laugh.

Instead of driving the man away like before, he stepped aside, making room.

“Since you’ve come to this realization…”

He reached out and pressed the fingerprint lock beside the black door.

Click.

A soft sound.

The black door, shut all this time, slowly opened a narrow crack.

An invisible, icy draft seeped out from the gap.

Through the infrared imaging of his sunglasses, Luo Shaotian saw a blurry, twisted mass of heat.

“Please.”

The guard made a “go ahead” gesture.

“Th-thank you! Thank you!”

The man looked as if he’d been granted a pardon.
He scrambled to his feet, not even bothering to wipe the blood from his forehead, and staggered into the darkness beyond the door.

Bang.

The door shut again.

Silence returned.

Luo Shaotian took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the shock in his chest.

Follow him in?

Don’t act rashly.

Chen Bing’s voice immediately sounded, carrying a note of warning.

“The psychic fluctuation inside that door is extremely unstable. And… we need to know the consequences.”

“Consequences?”

Yes. Gambling with lives—what does that actually mean?
What happens if you lose?
And what happens if you win?

Chen Bing analyzed calmly.

“If that man comes back out, we can infer the rules inside by observing his condition.”

“…Fine. I’ll wait.”

So Luo Shaotian sat back down at the table.

Half an hour passed.

The chips in front of him were replaced again and again.

People around him left in jubilation.
Others exited with their heads hanging low.

But that black door never opened again.

The man who went in was like a drop of water merging into the sea— gone completely.

“Tch.”

Luo Shaotian glanced at his watch, irritation creeping in.

Half an hour.

If this were a normal gamble—even a sudden-death round— there should’ve been a result by now.

Unless…

“Let’s go back, Luo Shaotian. No need to wait anymore.” Chen Bing said helplessly.

“Why?”

“Just now… the psychic fluctuation in that area suddenly spiked violently— then went completely silent.”

“You’re saying…”

“That’s right.”

“He’s already… lost everything.”

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