The wheel kept spinning and all Wren could see was a blur of the different colors as the heavy brass mechanism whirred with the neon lights bleeding together into a hypnotic ribbon of violet and gold.

The rhythmic clack-clack-clack of the needle was almost deafening over the heavy bass of the club’s music.

At his side, Cara kept bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet, her hand gripping his arm tight as she kept saying

"Come on, come on... Land at King’s ransom..."

Wren sighed.

"I need to warm myself up for the Tofu guy, or whatever his name was," Cara insisted with her eyes locked onto the wheel.

"You shouldn’t drink that much or you’re just going to throw it up before the guy even gets here," Wren warned.

Cara shot him a deeply offended glare. "You are absolutely no fun. If you are going to come to the club, then you should come for the full experience, no?"

Before Wren could say anything back to Cara to defend his very reasonable stance on alcohol poisoning, the wheel had spun to a grinding stop.

The heavy brass pointer had clicked directly into the red-glowing sector of Double Trouble, which made the fat bartender slam his hand on the counter with a booming laugh.

"We got Double Trouble!" the man announced, his eyes crinkling under his pristine chef’s hat. "So Wren the Obvious better get ready for some serious drinking."

Wren turned his head to Cara, fully expecting her to be disappointed that she missed the jackpot.

Instead, she flashed him a wicked grin. "This isn’t that bad, actually. It’ll definitely get my brain running."

The bartender quickly laid two frosted glass cups on the dark oak table.

He reached below the counter and pulled out a heavy bottle of dark amber liquid, shaking something else in his left hand, telling them the name of the ’awakening shots’ that he would give them which was a local concoction known as the Bostaran Burner.

Wren’s eyes widened slightly, and he immediately wanted to speak up.

He opened his mouth to warn the bartender that he was specifically allergic to the base root used in that exact drink; however, before the words could leave his throat, Nyx stopped him.

[Do not worry Host, since your body was rebuilt after awakening me, you no longer have those allergies so you can drink as much as you want!]

Wren clamped his jaw shut. He wanted to curse at the floating blue tab that only he could see, profoundly irritated by the casual revelation of his altered biology but he sighed and at the end of the day, he just shook his head.

’Just because I won’t go into anaphylactic shock doesn’t mean that I actually like the taste of the damn thing...’ Wren thought bitterly.

The bartender was entirely in his element.

He snatched up a polished silver shaker with his thick wrists moving gracefully.

He dumped a handful of crushed ice into the metal tin, followed by a pour of the amber root-liquor.

With a sharp flick of his thumb, he uncorked a small vial of fiery red syrup, dashing exactly three drops into the mix before tossing in a squeeze of fresh acidic lime.

The man slammed the tin shut and shook it violently.

Frost rapidly bloomed across the outside of the metal shaker and with a final, dramatic flourish, he popped the top off and strained the chilling, blood-red liquid equally into the two frosted glasses then he pushed it at them across the polished wood while clearing his throat.

"Voila!"

Cara didn’t stop in her steps at all. She immediately raised her hand to the cup, lifted it up right beneath her nose, and took a deep whiff.

"This is nice stuff as usual..." Cara praised as her eyes gleamed.

Without a second of hesitation, she tipped her head back and downed it all... the ice-blocks, burning liquor, and all with a deeply satisfied smile then she slammed the empty glass back onto the wood. "Ah! This one hit the brain perfectly. I am fully ready for tonight now."

The bartender beamed, wiping his hands on a rag. "I am glad to be of help."

Then, they both turned their heads, looking directly at Wren and asking him if he wasn’t going to drink. Wren swallowed hard, looking down at the violently red liquid sloshing slightly inside the small cup.

’It’s just alcohol...’ he told himself, trying to rationalize the situation. Just because he didn’t like it didn’t mean that it would kill him.

At worse, it would just make him hurl his lunch out onto the pavement but Wren was sure that with his enhanced body, he could cross the distance and go throw up outside before making a scene.

So, he grabbed the freezing glass and with a deep breath, he then lifted it up to his mouth, tipping his head back and swallowing the entire thing in one go.

Wren blinked rapidly as the thing went rushing down his throat like a trail of liquid hellfire.

It burned intensely, a sharp, spicy heat that settled heavily in his stomach before spreading a sudden electric shock through his limbs. He dropped the cup back onto the table while exhaling a harsh breath.

"Good job, Wrenny Boy!" the bartender praised loudly. "But that was just an Awakening shot, The real one is yet to come."

Cara leaned over and enthusiastically patted his broad back with her cheeks already becoming a bit flushed and red from the high-proof alcohol.

"We should do the second shot immediately to stay in the mood!"

Wren coughed slightly, turning to look at her glowing face.

"Are you already high?" Wren asked, genuinely impressed by how fast the alcohol seemed to hit her.

Cara laughed.

"This? Make me high? You haven’t even seen anything yet, Wren."

The bartender quickly cleared the two empty shot glasses away and brought out one big bowl, setting it directly between them. He cracked his thick knuckles and his eyes locked onto his craft.

"Let’s see what we can do for the Double Trouble main event..." the bartender muttered.

He moved like a machine, grabbing bottles from the rails without even looking at the labels.

"A little bit of this..." The man said, pouring a heavy glug of spiced dark rum into the copper bowl.

"And a little bit of that..." He continued as he added a steady stream of sparkling ginger beer.

He tossed in a handful of muddled blackberries, squeezing fresh mint leaves between his palms before dropping them into the dark liquid to release their oils.

He added more massive, hand-carved blocks of ice that clinked loudly against the copper, and dashed in more sweet botanical syrups to make it absolute perfection. Finally, he plunged two long, black plastic straws directly into the center of the icy concoction.

He pushed the heavy bowl over to them.

"Drink away" the bartender commanded.

This made both Wren and Cara lean down over the table with their faces mere inches apart.

Cara looked at him with a highly competitive glare. "You better drink and not leave it all to me."

And so, they drank.

Wren pulled the chilled liquid up through the straw.

It was deceptive... it tasted sweet and refreshing on the tongue, but it burned his throat a bit with the sheer volume of hidden alcohol as he kept swallowing.

He took a breath, enjoying the icy rush; however before he could say that he actually wanted to drink more, he heard a loud, slurping sound.

Cara had aggressively finished almost everything in the bowl, her cheeks hollowing out as she pulled the liquid like a vacuum.

She drew back her face, wiping a stray drop from her chin, and smiled.

"Thanks Bart! That drink was lovely hehe~"

Then, she reached into her pocket, pulled out another crisp fifty-credit cash bill and slapped it onto the table. "I shouldn’t be the only one to enjoy this, Wren, why don’t you spin it too?"

Wren sighed, shaking his head at her sheer ridiculousness. "Okay."

The man cleared the wet copper bowl away and smoothly reset the brass mechanism putting the wheel back on its starting axis.

He looked at the tall, muscular man. "Spin it as hard as you can, kid."

And that was exactly what Wren did. He gripped the edge of the wheel with his muscles bunching under the tight silk-blend tank top and he spun it hard.

The sheer force of his pull made the entire heavy oak table tremble a bit with the heavy base of the wheel groaning in protest as it spun into a wild violent blur.

Cara immediately raised a surprised eyebrow at his casual display of immense strength then she grinned in a way that made Wren’s spine tingle with sudden apprehension. What exactly did she have in store for him tonight?

Even after all that violent spinning, the wheel eventually lost its momentum. It ticked slower and slower, before it slowly came to a stop directly at Dealer’s Choice.

Wren let out a long sigh, and Cara clapped his shoulder cheerfully.

"Drink it p Wren, don’t be a pussy~"

The bartender didn’t even hesitate.

He completely removed the wheel from the counter and placed a heavy thick-bottomed cup on the table before adding a dark, smoky bourbon drink and spicing it up with exactly two cubes of ice.

"This will fit you nicely..." the bartender said with a nod toward Wren’s dark, imposing outfit. "Take it all at once."

So, that was what Wren did. He picked it up, took another deep breath, and sent the shot down his throat, forcing himself to swallow everything despite the intense burn.

Cara clapped her hands together, throwing her head back with a loud laugh at the slight grimace on his usually cute face like she enjoyed seeing his suffering.

[Ding!]

[Make Cara laugh genuinely three times in one outing] 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

[Time Limit: Tonight]

[Reward: 1,000 Credits]

[The rewards have been deposited in your System Balance]

Wren ignored the shimmering blue text.

He turned to Cara instead. "Can we finally sit down so I can finish what I was saying yesterday?"

However, Cara stubbornly shook her head.

"We still need drinks, Wren and I have just another club activity to get free drinks with you."

Without waiting for his approval, she grabbed his hand again and physically dragged him along, pushing through the sweating dancing crowd toward one of the far tables of the dark club.

Wren blinked, trying to adjust his eyes to the dimmer lighting in the back.

As the crowd parted, he saw the source of the commotion.

Two men were completely without their upper clothes on with their bare sweating torsos gleaming under the violet neon lights.

They sat opposite each other with their massive hands locked together on a reinforced iron table, deeply engaged in a brutal arm-wrestling contest.

Despite the bulging veins on their forearms and the trembling of their muscles, both men were holding completely blank poker faces.

Everyone around them, including the glamorous Whore Twins who were standing on their tiptoes was cheering them on with feral intensity.

Suddenly, the burlier man with a thick beard found his leverage and he slammed the other man’s hand completely into the iron table with a loud sound.

CLANG!

The winner instantly broke his poker face, leaping up and swirling his discarded shirt above his head with a roar.

"WOOH!!!!"

The rest of the crowd cheered along with him. The burly winner turned around to bask in his glory and his eyes suddenly landed on Wren and Cara.

He grinned, panting slightly as he looked at Cara.

"What’s up, Cara the Drunk? And who is this?"

Cara puffed out her chest proudly. She immediately pointed a finger at him and said.

"This is Wren and he is going to participate in the Harlow Handshake."

Wren’s eyes widened slightly. "Harlow Handsha—"

The burly man aggressively interrupted him, turning his massive frame fully toward Wren.

The man cracked his knuckles with a wide intimidating grin splitting his bearded face.

"I like your guts, pretty boy. I wish you a warm welcome to the Harlow Handshake... this is going to be your hell."

Wren didn’t say anything.

He just stared at the sweaty man while completely unbothered by the threat. However, before he could formulate a proper response, a translucent blue tab suddenly appeared directly in front of his eyes.

[Limited Time Mission has started...]

[Win 3 rounds of the Harlow Handshake within 30 minutes to establish dominance]

[Time Limit: 30 minutes]

[Reward: 7000 Credits]

’So you’re in on this too Nyx?’