[ 6 of Clubs ]

“The river’s end tells success, prosperity, but let’s see if that turns out to be true. Reveal your card player, and I’ll show mine.”

Cee slowly revealed each card hoping that of these four cards, two of them would be enough to turn the tide.

C-Note revealed,

[ King of Spades ], [ 2 of Clubs ],

[ King of Diamonds ], [ 8 of Spades ]

“Three of a kind, that’s a pretty high hand, but let’s see what the dealer has under his sleeves.” With the turn of one card, all the other cards stood face up to reveal themselves.

Benjii-Benjamins revealed,

[ 4 of Spades ], [ 3 of Spades ],

[ 8 of Diamonds ], [ 10 of Spades ]

Cee’s eyes looked shocked and awed as she read the cards and connected the respective outcomes. She knew what he was going to say even before he said it, but it didn’t affect her any less. It was like a knife had struck her in the brain stem.

“I’m afraid a straight beats a three of kind.” He nodded as he started grabbing the remainder of the tips.

“That’s it? I’ve lost?”

“What did you expect?” Benjii said, stacking his chips. “You gave it a good try but the cards weren’t right on this one.”

“No, wait...” Cee noticed that time was still stagnant even though the game was over. “...you said that only one person could decide when the game ends, but since time isn’t moving again that means the game isn’t over.”

“Very clever.” Benjii said putting his deck to rest and resetting the table. “Reading cards is like reading life, open to interpretation and varied depending on how you define it. So, now that you’ve lost, how are you going to take it? Are you going to sit there and accept that you lost or are you going to do something about it?”

Cee thought for a moment, she had no chips and no means of escape and nothing, but if she left this world she and her friends were going to assume the massive debt. So, then how was she going to stop this, or could there be some way to turn the odds in her favor.

“...Somebody has to lose in this game, but it doesn’t have to be all of us.” She said with a deep breath. “What if I assume this debt instead of my friends?”

“Would you really accept a debt of over a 100 grand for people you barely even know?” Benjii said with a snarl. “That is very foolish full if no downright stupid.”

“I know I haven’t known these two for too long, but they have lives, opportunities, things that I can’t decide on my own because I’m playing by myself. If I betray their trust now even without their consent that would make me no better than a gambling degenerate who only looks out for himself instead of others. So, since I came here alone, I assumed all the risk on my own and I’ll take responsibility for that...”

“Ha, ha.” Benjii laughed heartily. “You know you sound like somebody I know, she was always spouting the same righteous moniker. Even when the some of use got in deep she could take charge and pull us from the fire, even though some would have just sold her out for the drop of hat.”

“Are you trying to insult me?”

“It’s more of a compliment, what you’re showing her is leadership and responsibility, another thing that people are lacking these days. So, for that I think we can work out a compromise if you don’t mind hearing me out?”

She looked at Benjii his eyes piercing like a wild cats, his teeth grin like a tiger’s maul, in the debts of his demonic presence she felt a hint of salvation.

“Go ahead, let’s make a compromise.”

# # #

Time resumed its natural course, as Fi and Chance unfrozen from their mid-sentence discussion. Before they could even utter another syllable, a noise rang out across the empty halls as a new window appeared before them.

[ The match is over, the winner is:

Benjii-Benjamins! ]

“What, he didn’t even start yet?” Chance screamed in outrage.

“Wait, we lost, but we’re still here. Shouldn’t we have been booted out of the system?”

“Wait a second.”

Chance viewed his personal resource window.

[ Chance-Lrr:

Luck Points: 1

Karma Points: 0

G$: 0 ]

“It’s zero, shouldn’t that be a negative number?”

“I can’t even explain it myself.” Fi said looking at her own window. “Cee, can you...”

It was then that the two players realized that they were no longer sitting at a game table, they were standing on their own two feet. Next to them standing in the shadow of the overwhelming Benjii was Cee with her head turned to him with a blank expressionless face. A window was clearly visible for all to see, one with Cee financial status.

[ C-Note:

Luck Points: 1

Karma Points: 0

G$: -G$ 103,216,055 ]

“Cee, did you...” Fi tried to utter.

“...It had to be done.” Cee simply said.

“I didn’t ask you to.” Chance said, rushing over to her side. “What makes you think you can make a decision like taking on our debts without even asking about it?”

“I couldn’t ask you even if I tried, would you rather have been stuck with half of the debt instead?”

“Yes!” Chance said with a face of flustered expression. “I’m not some charity case, I make my own ends meet, I don’t need help from someone who didn’t ask me first.”

“Now who’s being a bubble head?” Cee said with aggression matching his own. “It was my match, and you couldn’t be there, this was the only way so at least one of them got out of her debt free.”

“I won’t accept this.” He stomped his feet over to Benjii demanding an explanation. “What’s the deal with money bags? I thought our debt was supposed to be split? Nobody pays off my debts but me.”

“So you shall.” He simply said. “At least now it will take you weeks instead of years.”

“W-what?” Chance said.

“After a little talking between me and Ms. Cee, we came to the conclusion that it would make much more sense to pool the collective debt than separate it individually.”

“Who? What? How?” Fi tried to piece together what had transpired in that split second between Cee’s encounter.

“After much consideration, I decided to bequeath a special skill to Ms. Cee that will enable you two to pay off your debts in a timely fashion while without restricting you from accumulating G$ rewards in game...Observe.”

A window appeared for everyone to see, it showed what Cee had acquired only recently and what her friends had only heard about but never knew someone who possessed it.

[ Debt Collector (Lv.1)

An exclusive skill.

Holds on outstanding debt another player,

Receiving half their daily LP and KP earnings,

Player is affected by the cursed skill Indebted.

Cost: 1 LP per player,

+ G$ 2,000 daily

“Ordinarily this skill is reserved for shareholders, but for this instance she was willing to accept it as well as accumulate the various costs there.” Benjii continued to explain. “You two can still earn sand dollars in the game but it will all be transferred to Cee by the end of the day. Ultimately, it still restricts you from making outside transfers so it works in the system’s favor, especially if the skill advances over time.”

Fi started to break out in tears after hearing all this.

“What are you so sad about?” Chance asked. “She just bailed you out too.”

“It’s...not...that.” She said, sucking up her tears. “It’s just...you really are my friend, aren’t you?” She pleaded before Cee’s feet with flowing tears. “Everyone’s always...so...scared of me in real life...and too nice...in this game...but...you...really are a true friend.”

“Stop all that crying Fi, you’ll ruin your makeup.” Cee picked her up by the shoulder. “I didn’t think about making friends when I first started here, but just because I own this debt doesn't mean you’re obligated to be my friend or anything. I did it because it was the only way I could think of so at least someone came out of her above board.”

“I guess I didn’t have to make that silly wager after all.” Fi said, finally holding back her tears.

“Wager, what wager?” Chance asked.

“She made a handshake deal before we started.” Cee casually explained. “She said that if she won I’d be her friend and if I won she’d give me some sand dollars.”

“Well, nobody won, so I guess that means that contest is undecided.”

“On the contrary, who says you lost?” Benjii interrupted.

“Well, we didn’t win either?” Cee replied.

“Then I guess we’ll call it a tie.” Benjii said, lifting his cane up. “Funny thing about ties, nobody loses, but that doesn’t mean everybody loses. It’s all up for interpretation.”

SLAM! He slammed the tip of his cane down like a mighty spike as the area of darkness disappeared into avoid of pure white light, slowly encroaching all around them. Benjii stepped into the light vanishing with his cane held over his shoulder strutting across the field. The darkness disappeared as the players heard his voice called out to them.

“Remember to stop by when I call you, and enjoy the rest of your stay here at the wishing pond casino!”

A flash of blinding light hit the players, that temporarily blinded the players. When they next opened their eyes, they were surrounded by a swarm of twinkling lights and sounds around them. It sounds like a casino would be with sounds of slot machines, cheers of happy people, blessed and players alike calling through the area. At the center of their view was a giant smiling cat statue watching shooting out of a large pole it was standing over next to a pond. The top of that pole was a sign in bright emerald decoration saying, “Welcome.” They were all standing on a red carpet leading up to that ivory fountain, greeted by blessed greeters, players passing by, but what really caught their attention was the windows that appeared shortly after their face.

[ You have acquired Hard 8 (Lv.8) ]

[ You have acquired Easy 8 (Lv.8) ]

[ You have acquired Crazy 8(Lv.8) ]