Darkstone Code-Chapter 872 - 870: A Minor Scene

This isn’t a "business negotiation" kind of trip. People won’t discuss any matters, and some of the big shots aren’t here themselves, they just sent their kids.

This also means that Lynch is unlikely to do business with some of them, as they can’t make decisions. Talking now is meaningless.

In the late afternoon, everyone gathered together, and the general manager of Every Moment (Federation) Company appeared on the scene to give a few remarks.

The gist of it was to thank everyone for spending a lot of money they also thought was inexplicable, allowing Every Moment to grow rapidly into its current scale, which even they themselves hadn’t expected.

Indeed, there are people who would spend a million or two annually on a few tobacco fields and some naturist farm women, but in any case, they are grateful to every guest present. It’s because of them that Every Moment is what it is today.

This trip is all about making everyone happy and joyful.

After the opening ceremony, the cruise ship was already sailing at sea, with the Federation’s coast guard not far behind. Since it’s a coastal journey, there’s no need to dispatch battleships.

If any trouble arises, it would take about one or two hours to reach the shore. Besides, this journey has been going on for more than a decade without any problems, so everyone feels very assured.

After eating some food in the restaurant, people on the yacht dispersed, and the waiters shifted from males to young, pretty girls in simple outfits with bunny ears.

"I want to go to the casino!"

Penny said to Lynch, "I don’t like watching opera. Every opera is long and boring, and I really don’t like their flashy stage style..."

Sometimes opera can get a bit flamboyant to showcase tension and drama, like some overly contrived expressive gestures.

It’s also unpopular because it’s too long. An opera often lasts several hours, and sometimes the plot is fragmented and chopped up into "acts" and "scenes."

After all, it’s a stage play, not capable of the rapid scene switching of movies, which bothers some people who are less enthusiastic about opera.

Just as you start to understand something, suddenly a new scene begins, with unfamiliar characters and lines, leaving you clueless about what’s going on.

But for those who can memorize all the lines, this isn’t a problem.

Most young people don’t like these things, which gives the elders a reason not to like them.

"I don’t like watching movies either because they’re not as beautiful as me nor act as well as me..."

This is the second refusal; she doesn’t want to waste her time in a movie theater.

"I don’t want to go to the gym either. Look at our clothes, I didn’t bring sportswear at all..."

"I don’t want to go to..."

She listed a bunch of refusals to various venues and finally concluded, "My butt hurts, I want to go to the casino!"

"What does your butt hurting have to do with going to the casino?" Lynch asked, after hearing her reasoning, which almost disrupted his logical thinking.

The girl stared straight at Lynch, "Because my butt hurts, so I want to go to the casino."

She was still upset; originally, in that game, she and Lynch should have been on the same team, at least in the first half.

They were supposed to fiercely punish the naughty girl who spilled stuff and dirtied the carpet. She even deliberately placed a leather whip in the most conspicuous spot!

But Lynch ruined her plan. She participated from start to finish and was utterly heartbroken!

She had never been treated that way since she was a child; neither her father nor mother had ever laid a finger on her!

But in that exercise room, she was beaten to tears by Lynch, and even more...

Thinking about it made her face flush more red with a mix of shyness and annoyance, even wondering deep down if something was wrong with herself and why she suddenly felt that way.

Feeling the girl’s emotions, Lynch cheerfully granted her wish, "Alright, you’ve persuaded me. Because your butt hurts, so we’re going to the casino."

The girl showed a slightly victorious smile, linked arms with Lynch, and they headed straight to the casino.

According to the Federation’s laws, minors are prohibited from entering casinos—

They may have already had relationships with at least a dozen or even dozens of people of the opposite or same sex by this time, possibly married and divorced, with children already two years old. But they still can’t enter casinos or drink alcohol.

Sometimes, the Federation’s laws are just as people sarcastically describe them, made by people with pig brains.

Luckily, this is the Every Moment Cruise, where there are no police officers, prosecutors, community minor rights supervising volunteers, or judges.

No one will stop Lynch and a pretty girl from entering the casino.

Penny was a bit nervous before entering the casino, but once no one stopped her, she suddenly became excited.

"This is my first time in a casino. I’ve never been to one before!" She whispered to Lynch about her past life.

"Even when filming movies, the agency tried to avoid places where minors couldn’t go, to avoid causing trouble for me off-screen."

"I have to say, this is great, we need to exchange some chips and small change..."

The two walked to the place where chips are exchanged. Using the number plate on their key, they received fifty thousand dollars worth of chips.

These chips are a free gift from Every Moment Company to each pair invited to the Spring Pinnacle. If they lose and want more chips, they’ll have to "settle up."

They would have to pay for it themselves.

Of the fifty thousand dollars in chips, forty-nine thousand nine hundred dollars are tokens, some round, some square, very exquisite and beautiful.

There’s still one hundred dollars, all in one-dollar coins, and the girl is very interested in the slot machines.

She lifted her skirt and ran ahead of Lynch, and at each machine she passed, she put in a dollar and pulled the lever, then ran to the next one.

Perhaps she wasn’t doing it to win money, just for pure enjoyment.

Laughter and the sound of the reels spinning inside the slot machines, mixed with some monotonous electronic buzzers.

Some people glanced over, smiled and nodded at Lynch, then moved their gaze away.

That hundred dollars was quickly consumed by these slot machines. The girl was slightly out of breath, "What bad luck, not a single win!"

She grumbled a little, but there was no displeasure on her face.

"It’s because you spread all the money across different machines," Lynch explained a bit, and the girl looked at him.

Lynch took a coin out of his pocket, slid it into the nearby slot machine, and pulled the lever.

The drum behind the glass started spinning swiftly.

"There’s a very sophisticated device inside here. Every time you pull the lever, it informs another device that it’s gobbled up another dollar in its own way."

"When it has eaten enough, reaches a suitable number, and you invest money again, it’ll offer you some reward."

"What it gives you is always less than what it swallows. You average more opportunities with each machine you pass by, so it’s normal not to gain anything."

The girl watched Lynch with a bit of a blank stare, then turned her silly gaze to the girl holding the chip tray beside her, "Is that so?"

The pretty chip girl smiled but didn’t confirm nor deny, and from that attractive yet false smile, the girl detected that what Lynch said might be true.

"It’s boring, let’s play differently. Let’s gamble against others, I’ve seen that in other movies..." she said as she headed for the distant gaming table, Lynch following closely.

Money, power, and status greatly manifest in these moments. When Lynch arrived at a gaming table, a young man stood up suddenly, smilingly offered his seat to Lynch, and left with his companion.

Earlier, someone had been watching him for a long while and didn’t let at all, not until Lynch approached.

Lynch smiled at the young man. If nothing unexpected happens, there’s a good chance they’ll "coincidentally meet" soon and get to know each other.

There are so many methods and ways of socializing, it’s nothing unusual.

"This is blackjack, Mr. Lynch."

"The minimum bet is a hundred dollars, and the maximum is ten thousand dollars."

"The dealer is chosen from among the players, each taking a turn once."

"If you’re dissatisfied with the current maximum bet, we can arrange a private game for you."

"Is there anything unclear that you’d like me to explain further?"

Lynch shook his head, taking a tray of chips from the chip girl’s tray held in front of her chest.

To prevent the round chips from running wild, there’s a special box to hold them, containing hundreds, two hundreds, and five hundreds.

He placed the chips in front of himself, nodding and smiling at the players at the table, then said, "Let’s begin!"

Blackjack is not a complicated game, and the Federation’s blackjack does not follow Gafura’s linear card-calling rules but uses random calling rules.

The former rule is that the next player can only choose to call or not after the previous player has completely played their hand.

The latter rule does not have such restrictions, anyone can call at any time, with the order prioritizing those who speak up first, increasing competitiveness among players.

Lynch casually tossed a small handful of chips into the betting area, maybe one or two thousand dollars, he wasn’t very concerned.

The first hand was neither good nor bad, a medium-sized point. After observing the card-pulling results of others, he decided to give up, thinking the probability of big cards coming next was higher.

Lynch remained very calm; not to mention one or two thousand, even a million or two million "games" would not make him tense.

On the contrary, Penny watching nearby was so nervous that she clenched her fists.

Lynch happened to notice this scene and joked, "Who are you planning to fight?"