Chapter 628: Charging the Formation
"That's easy."
Earth Monkey crooked his mouth with a cigarette dangling, looking indifferent. "You can play some pinball machines, slot machines, and the like first. Once customers start arriving later, you can open a table and gamble against each other. Mahjong, Pai Gow, dice—you can decide the game yourselves. Our humble shop only provides the equipment and doesn't interfere with the process."
"What the hell..." Xiao Cheng was taken aback. "Your venue is for participants to gamble against each other?"
"You can also choose to gamble with me," Earth Monkey said coldly. "But I play for high stakes, afraid you won't be able to handle it."
"You..."
Xiao Cheng naturally knew that Earth Monkey had been running this shop for years and was definitely an old gambler. If he rashly gambled against him, he would likely be completely defeated.
"Sister Tiantian..." Xiao Cheng turned his head and said, "I'm afraid I need to discuss this with you all..."
"Both of us already have 'Echoes'," Tiantian said. "Instead of potentially dying at any moment in the next few days, it's better to die meaningfully now."
Zheng Yingxiong nodded after hearing this. "And we might not die."
Xiao Cheng pondered for a few seconds after hearing this, then decided not to hesitate any longer. He counted out six 'Paths' and handed them to Earth Monkey.
Earth Monkey unceremoniously accepted them and said, "You all are really lucky. The original ticket price is four Paths, but since you are new faces, I'm giving a discount and only charging two."
"Don't talk nonsense," Xiao Cheng frowned and retorted. "Your own wall says the entrance ticket is two Paths."
"Oh? That's right." Earth Monkey nodded. "No way around it. Please forgive me, everyone. A casino owner can't survive without telling lies."
The three of them then stopped talking to Earth Monkey and turned around to walk into the casino.
There were indeed some devices that could be played by a single person. If they were lucky, they might earn a few more 'Paths' before other participants arrived.
Xiao Cheng thought for a moment, lowered his head and rummaged in his cloth bag for a while, then took out three 'Paths' and handed them to Tiantian.
After Tiantian took the 'Paths' with a confused expression, she saw Xiao Cheng hand three 'Paths' to Zheng Yingxiong.
"Each of us gets three, and we split up," Xiao Cheng said. "I think those single-player devices are all luck-based games. It wouldn't be reasonable to just let me go alone. The three of us playing separately increases the chances of winning 'Paths'."
"But will this work?" Tiantian asked worriedly. "I know nothing about these things..."
"I'm not much better than you," Xiao Cheng also shook his head. "Let's each rely on our luck."
Zheng Yingxiong looked down at the three 'Paths' in his hand with a flattered expression.
"But I can't do it..." His childish voice came out. "These things I..."
"We are a team, little brother," Xiao Cheng reached out and patted Zheng Yingxiong's head. "This is a 'Ground-level Game'. You can participate too."
Zheng Yingxiong looked up after hearing this, gave Xiao Cheng a very serious look, and then asked, "Can I really?"
"Why do you always like to ask 'can I'?" Xiao Cheng was a bit puzzled. "Didn't we already agree when we brought you here?"
"But... but I've never participated in a game before..." Zheng Yingxiong said quietly. "I've been happy enough that you two brought me to participate in games these past two days."
"Never... participated in a game?"
Xiao Cheng and Tiantian exchanged a glance, finding it hard to comprehend.
His memory seemed to have been preserved for a long time, yet he had never participated in a game?
"It's okay..." Xiao Cheng thought for a moment and said, "Whether you've participated in games before or not, now we've entered together. So you can do whatever you want."
After hearing this, Zheng Yingxiong clutched the three 'Paths' tightly in his hand and nodded seriously.
After the three of them confirmed a few nearby facilities, they split up and scattered.
Xiao Cheng walked for a while and came to a 'coin pusher'.
Although it was called a 'coin pusher', to be precise, it was more like a 'Path pusher'.
After all, this machine was packed with many 'Paths', all round and tightly packed together, looking as if they were about to slide out of the exit, very tempting.
There was an input slot at the top of the machine, just the right size to throw the 'Paths' in.
Xiao Cheng had played coin pushers in arcades. This kind of device had little to do with 'luck'; it required more 'financial power'.
When you only had two or three coins, choosing the coin pusher was naturally like drawing water with a bamboo basket—futile. But if you had two or three hundred coins, this machine could potentially create greater wealth for you.
Xiao Cheng thought for a moment and then moved on.
Although those 'Paths' looked like they were about to slide off, 'Paths' could still be stacked. If he didn't choose the right timing to drop them in, he might lose all his chips within ten seconds, so he had to give up.
After a few more steps, he saw a long table.
At the far end of the table were six small holes arranged in a triangle: one at the top, two in the second row, and three in the third row.
The topmost hole was very small, about the size of a 'Path', and outside the hole was written 'Eight Times Great General'.
The second row had two slightly larger holes, outside which was written 'Three Times Left and Right Vanguards'.
The third row's holes were the largest, written as 'Two Times Foot Soldiers'.
On the side of this rectangular table closest to Xiao Cheng, there was a spring-loaded cylindrical launcher that could just fit a 'Path'. Next to the device was written 'Charging the Formation'.
The distance between the launcher and the holes was over three meters, making for considerable uncertainty.
This machine seemed to compare a 'Path' to a soldier preparing to charge into formation. Once it charged, if it entered the 'Eight Times Great General' hole, it meant the charger killed the enemy general and received an eight-fold reward—one 'Path' turned into eight 'Paths'.
Overall, this machine didn't seem too difficult and involved a certain amount of skill; it wasn't a pure luck game.
However, the 'Great General' was surrounded by his own 'soldiers', not only the 'Foot Soldiers' in the first row but also the 'Left and Right Vanguards' in the second row.
The areas of these holes were not small, but winning the eight-fold reward was very difficult.
Xiao Cheng took a glance. On both sides of the table, there was a groove, and in each groove were piled many 'Paths' from the losers. These soldiers who had failed to charge the formation lay quietly on the sides, like corpses that had died in battle.
Xiao Cheng thought for a while and finally decided to use this game to test the overall difficulty of 'Earth Monkey's Game'.
If he kept being timid, not to mention winning back the 'Paths' he paid, he feared that when other participants arrived, he wouldn't even have the capital to gamble against them.
He took out a 'Path', placed it on the launcher, and with a heavy expression pressed the switch.
(Recently, participating in events plus non-stop signing has caused a lot of typos in the manuscript, affecting everyone's reading experience. I apologize to everyone. If you find any typos, please give immediate feedback or @ me. I will definitely correct them right away. Thank you, and once again, I apologize.)