The entrance was as grand as the holographic model from the ticket, more so since the smallest detail had not been spared when looking at the casino live in person. Hundreds of players waiting for the doors to open stood outside the grand entrance covered with velvet road and carpet that you would see at a Hollywood movie premiere.

Many players tried to step in and pass the NPCs, but were quickly challenged and subdued with little effort. The bouncers were as intimidating as they were numerous, that even if a player managed to get past the first 10 more would take its place. Cee wondered why they even bothered, but perhaps it was the thrill of the challenge that kept gamers trying to achieve seemingly impossible feats. The moment she got near the crowd Cee heard the tone of the ticket coming to life as another message appeared from out of the frog crest.

[ Please use the back entrance for your convenience. ]

“Looks like I won’t have to swim through that crowd,” she muttered as the ticket pointed her in the right direction.

The arrow that had been vague and broad was not narrow and forthright, practically painting a path that only she could see. It led her around the building to the back of the casino where not a single player could be found. There under the dim fluorescent light was a plain and ordinary steel store, painted in with a graffiti mark of white cat with toothy grin printed at its center. The ticket lead her to the cat's face, until the arrow disappeared paint on the door began to glow with a white neon sheen.

[ The event will begin shortly,

Please wait in the designated area. ]

The door opened on its own revealing a pool of translucent gel webbed within its frame. To her it looked like a portal one would find in a science fiction movie, perhaps a secret passage to the unknown.

“Well, here goes nothing,” she said, gripping her ticket tightly as she walked into the portal.

She vanished into a pool of the crystalline mist as the door slowly closed behind her to become dormant once again. When the area was empty once more a pair of fine polished shoes stepped out from out the shadows. He wore a large shaggy coat bowler hat, giving the impression of a furry cat with a large fur coat that matched on his beard and mustache. Behind him the tap of a long ebony cane stepped up behind him, and with it a man wearing a black fedora and coat. He presented the cane to him as a knight handing over his sword before his feudal lord.

“Thank you for letting me borrow your cane, sir.” He smiled.

“It’s all part of the game,” he said, grabbing the gain with his long claw-like fingers. “So, what are your impressions of the contestants thus far?”

“There’s a lot of potential, one particular individual comes to mind.”

“A high roller, low roller?”

“I believe you would call her a steam roller, sir.”

“A steam roller, that’s something you don’t see everyday. If she’s green what makes you think she’ll put on a good show, even if she’s just running on fumes?”

“There are no rules to luck, but no harm taking a chance, as Miss-Fortune would say.”

“I know she designed you, but why do you constantly have to remind me of her?” He lamented as looked into the Lucky Star that was nearly reaching its zenith of the 7th hour. “Whatever happens, it’s the will of the game and a rush to the finish, only the brave know the rocky path leads to the truth of fortune... God she was such a hodgepodge of mixed metaphors.”

“Indeed, sir.”

“We might as well get in our places, before the main event, shall we?”

With the tap of his cane a great golden ring rushed up from the ground. It swept up the two figures like a flash of light and carried them away like the whisk of the wind. The alley was silent once more, with only the muffled cries of the anticipating crowd echoed throughout the sands.

# # #

She opened her eyes to take in her new surroundings. She expected some VIP lounge one would find at a club, but instead it could have been the backstage of the theater. Only the light of a few ghost lights hovering around like tiny fairies in the mist. There were chairs and crates occupied by at least 20 players, performing various games of skills against one another among the scaffolds and curtains. A large red curtain barred the center of the stage with long yellow rolling tying it together. Before she had time to take it all in, her eyes were interrupted once more by the sound of window opening again.

[ The event will begin shortly, please prepare yourself accordingly. ]

“Well, aren’t you the odd number out?” She heard a voice calling to her.

“Huh?” The window vanished to reveal a friendly looking space staring right back at her.

She was an orange skinned player wearing a red sequin dress. A tiara of feathers waved across her long blonde hair, swaying as she shook her head like a curious fish.

“Why are you staring at her bubble head?” Another voice called from over her shoulder. “Don’t you know that personal space applies to VR as well as real life?”

“Can’t a girl be curious about a statistical anomaly, bunny butt?” She called a player that casually walked up behind her.

He was a scrawny looking player with a set of bunny ears that were clearly attached to a headband on top of his white albino hair. His eyes were fixed on the girl’s feathered headdress in a stern and lecturing manner.

“Excuse me, but who are you two?” Cee asked.

“Oops, ditzy me, I forgot to make the introductions,” she said playfully, bumping her blonde hair like a mallet with her fist. “My name’s Fi-Ownya, everyone calls me Fi and that guy with the rabbit ears is Chance, funny names I know but the world is full of funny people wouldn’t you say?” She talked like they were long time friends even though they just met a moment ago. “I am 19, I’m a math major in college and I like card counting, costumes, and chamomile, or as I like to call them the 3 Cees.” She giggled.

“For Lucks sake Fi, this isn’t a dating website, how many times have I warned you about giving out personal information?”

“Well, she’s going to find out eventually, so I thought we should just get the small talk out of the way before meeting new friends.”

“You know, friends usually learn each other's name first before they start to make it official.”

“Oh, right, ditzy me.” She said playfully, bonking her head again. “What’s your name, frog legs?”

“...Cee.”

“Ha, I knew it.” She said practically squealing in her high heeled shoes. “Two Cees and one makes 3, that’s a good sign... If we had one more we’d have a 4, unless you consider 4 an unlucky number, which some Eastern cultures do, except for Hinduism but that’s into a little gray area around the second World War...”

“You’re rambling again, bubble head.”

“Oops.” She playfully bumped her head again. “I like numbers, you know.”

“I can see that.” Cee said not know what to make of these bizarre characters.

“Don’t mind her, she’s a real headful but she can be useful sometimes.” Chance said, walking up in a spandex suit.

“If you say so.” She said to Chance.

“On that note, she did bring up an interesting point earlier.”

“About what?”

“Technically this promotion had 100 early access tickets on sale. The number of people here, I’m guessing we were all broken up into groups of 20, but with you it makes 21. So that means there’s an extra ticket no one accounted for, so my question is how did ‘you’ come across that?”

“Are you accusing me of cheating?”

“No, the game’s failsafes would have picked up on that if you had a phony ticket. I had to practically spend a small fortune to get mine, and Fi...well let’s just say she’s ‘really’ good at counting.”

“I just got lucky.” She said playing with feathers on her tiara. “Who’d have thought one of the lottery pulls would be expressible of the Einstein primes.”

“Dumb lucky is more appropriate.”

“Hey!” Fi said insulted.

“I don’t mean to sound threatening, just giving you a word of fair warning. Odds are I’m not the only one who noticed, so I’d watch your back, these events can be very competitive. Have you ever competed in one before?”

“Actually, this is my first time playing VR.”

“No way, you’re a steam roller!?” Fi said in excitement.

“Why don’t you say it louder, bubble head.” Chance grabbed her by the dress and pulled her closer to the group conversation.

“You’re the second person who’s calling me that? What does that even mean?” Cee asked.

“It’s like saying you’re a newbie in other games.” Chance said in confidence. “Steamer roller just means you’re new and your character is running on fumes.”

“Yeah, there’s also high rollers who have skills above level five and low rollers who have skills below level 5.” Fi added.

“Level 5?”

“Think of it like a deck of playing cards.” Fi said. “Below level five has cards A through 10, but above level five is when you get Jack, Queen, and King. I know it doesn’t seem like much but it makes a difference since you play different games with each level you progress. Kind of like the difference between three card poker and regular poker, you can’t make a royal flush with three cards don’t you know?”

“You put a lot of thought into this.”

“I ‘reaaally’ like counting.” She simply smiled.

“That said, you might want to even out your L/K count before the main event.”

“Oh, yeah.” She said looking around for any sign of a fountain. “Shouldn’t there be a fountain somewhere?”

“It’s over here.” Fi grabbed Cee’s hand and pulled her across the auditorium with Chance following close behind.

On the far edge of the backstage, just in the corner of a collection of boxes and various stage props was a small stone obelisk that looked like a bird bath with water sputtering out like a water fountain.

“This is it?” Cee asked, noticing it wasn’t as grand as the other fountains she had seen.

“It’s water isn’t it?” Chance said.

“Just stick out your hand to activate its feature.”

As instructed Cee placed her hand over the fountain spout to activate the item’s window.

[ Exchange Fountain

Convert 10 KP, 1 LP or G$1,000, from one to the other.

Purify Cursed Items for for G$10,000 ]

“I’m surprised they had such a thing, normally stations like this are hard to find.” Chance said.

“I like the Cursed Removal feature, normally it would cost twice that much and they charge by the level. Had I known that I would have brought my full charm collection.”

The exchange rate seemed pretty straight forward, but knowing that she may need all the Luck for Karma to compete, she decided to know how to alternate her current stats.

“Convert 600 Karma Points into 60 Luck Points.” She said as the water began to glow. “Also, use Purify Cursed Items.”

“W-wait!” Chance rushed over to her side in a panic. “You didn’t say how many items!”

It was too late, for the water had begun to turn a strange yellow glow as he stats quickly changed.

[ Name: C-note

Luck Points: 67

Karma Points: 356

G$: 0 ]

[ Beginning purification process. ]

From out of her hand emerged her five items, 5 charms in various shapes and sizes. One was a heart that glowed as red as a ruby, the other were a leaf, a clover, a diamond, and a star covered in a dark dingy darkness. They began to circle the bird bath like a carousel as the dark aura began to evaporate revealing their colors like rainbows. The colors of red, green, blue, white and yellow then merged together like a miniature sun sparking a light that blinded the three players standing by.

When they opened their eyes the items had disappeared leaving only one item left from the merger of all four. It was a small charm in the shape of a frog crouched as if waiting to jump at the right moment. The little trinket floated down from the fountain and into Cee’s hand as examined the item before placing it in her personal inventory.

[ Frog Princess Charm (Lv. 5)

Can be converted into 50 KP, 5 LP or G$5,000,

Either by command or when circumstances demand it. ]

Chance was dumbfounded by this current turn of events, Fi was excited, as she screamed with utter excitement and clapping.

“Luckyyyyyy!”