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墨書 Inktalez
It was already past three in the morning when Jiang He knocked on the iron plate. Moments later, the sound of chains echoed from below, and soon the iron plate was pushed open. A face appeared before everyone, and Jiang He met his gaze. The person frowned as he looked at Jiang He.
The one who opened the door seemed to be only eighteen or nineteen years old, with a head full of blonde hair and a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He blew a smoke ring and impatiently asked, "What do you want?"
Jiang He furrowed his brow, unsure of what this person meant. Seeing that Jiang He had no response, the young man was about to say something when Old Shao calmly interjected, "Li Erdan."
It turned out this was street slang, and Old Shao had heard it in his youth—Domain Organization.
"Come down," the young man said, tossing the cigarette butt to the ground. "That guy Li Erdan has been pulling in quite a few people lately; looks like he's gone desperate."
"Right," Old Shao replied, glancing at Jiang He before leading the way down. "Li Erdan is here for some action."
"Action!" The young man ushered everyone inside and pulled the iron door shut, locking it with chains. Below the iron plate was a long staircase that was quite wide, with a chair placed beside it. It seemed this person was specifically assigned to guard the entrance; sitting there alone must have been incredibly boring.
The corridor was brightly lit as if it were daytime. Upon opening a door, they were greeted by a cacophony of voices inside—a lively scene. An underground parking lot had been transformed into an underground casino, spacious and well-equipped. Looking through the inner door revealed several distinct areas.
What should have been parking signs had all been replaced with gambling indicators.
Area A was for card games, with large tables neatly arranged and covered in clean green felt. Some were playing Fight the Landlord, others Blackjack, while a few were gathered around for Zha Jinhua.
Area B was dedicated to Mahjong, where brand new automatic Mahjong tables were in operation, shuffling tiles with sounds echoing throughout. There were calls for bets, requests for tiles, exclamations of winning hands, and complaints about bad plays.
Area C featured electronic games with various slot machines, gambling machines, and arcade games.
The entire underground garage was divided into these three large areas, covering a vast space. People moved between the areas, shouting and laughing; there must have been hundreds present. From afar, several private rooms could be seen within the garage. The doors to these rooms were tightly shut; it was unclear whether anyone was inside or what they might be doing.
In the casino walked men and women dressed in uniforms—the men were enforcers while the women served as dealers.
Not far from the entrance was a counter stocked with drinks and snacks; all sorts of consumables were available. There was no cash visible in the casino; instead, they used special chips unique to this establishment. The chips bore distinctive markings that seemed impossible to counterfeit.
Old Shao cautioned, "Keep your eyes open. Anyone capable of running an underground casino on this scale has powerful backing. Once those four doors close, if any conflict arises outside, no one will know what's happening inside. If something goes wrong, they can easily find scapegoats to resolve it. Our goal is to find Li Erdan."
Old Shao scanned their surroundings and continued, "If we can't find Li Erdan, we'll let Captain Liu lead another team in after we exit. If we do find him, keep an eye on him discreetly until he leaves the casino. If anything happens, text Guan Deng; he'll be waiting for us outside."
"Understood," several of them nodded in agreement.
The scale of this place far exceeded Old Shao's expectations. He had imagined it to be a modest underground gambling den, with perhaps a few dozen people gathered to play Mahjong or Fight the Landlord. However, upon arriving at the garage, he realized he had misjudged the situation.
Including the bouncers and waitstaff in the casino, the variety of gambling machines and specially designed chips made it clear that this was no ordinary establishment.
A question arose in Old Shao's mind: such an underground casino seemed to lack strict management. It was too easy for people to come and go; didn't they fear police infiltration? As he pondered this, he realized there must be some issue with the management of this casino.
So who was behind this operation?
Li Erdan and Wang Da were not the types to frequent such a "high-end" casino. How did they even know about its existence?
Standing in the midst of the casino, these questions swirled in his mind.
But now was not the time for such thoughts; the most important thing was to find out if Li Erdan was here. The group split up to search, and while Old Shao was lost in thought, he noticed Jiang He and Yuan Jun already exchanging chips. Each of them traded in a hundred, receiving a red chip in return.
The underground garage was bustling with people, and it was hard to tell where Li Erdan might be hiding.
Jiang He navigated through the crowd with his chips in hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the security cameras on the ceiling rotating back and forth, indicating that they were operational. This meant there were still eyes watching over the casino; Jiang He knew that those inside were sharp-eyed.
They could quickly distinguish between gamblers and cheaters, and they knew who might be undercover police.
With this thought in mind, Jiang He casually sat down at a blackjack table. He glanced around; they were playing twenty-one.
He hadn't intended to play—only to observe Li Erdan's whereabouts—but as soon as he took a seat, the dealer dealt him cards. With no other choice, Jiang He began to play. Any card game is a game of probability, which happened to be Jiang He's specialty. With just a glance, he could memorize all the cards on the table.
Naturally, he won that round. Then came the second and third rounds, all victories for him. Li Erdan had yet to be found, but soon Jiang He's stack of chips grew larger. He noticed that the dealer was subtly switching cards; even though the dealer's speed was nearly imperceptible, these actions did not escape Jiang He's keen observation.
He could pick up on any subtle clue, especially those right before his eyes.
With his exceptional observational skills and ability to calculate probabilities, Jiang He quickly turned one hundred dollars' worth of chips into one hundred one-dollar chips.
In a private booth, a woman in her twenties watched Jiang He intently.
She leaned slightly to her companions and said softly, "Go check out that guy."
Two burly men nodded.
While Jiang He was gambling, Yuan Jun wandered around the casino with a chip in hand. He paid no mind to the cameras; he hadn’t forgotten his purpose for being there—he was looking for Li Erdan. After circling the underground casino several times, he finally found Li Erdan in a secluded corner.
It turned out that Li Erdan wasn’t gambling at all; he had fallen asleep in a corner of the garage. It seemed that Li Erdan truly believed that the most dangerous places were the safest. Hiding here, he was both safe and comfortable, avoiding the cold winds and rain outside.
What Yuan Jun didn’t know was that while he was meandering through the casino, someone had already set their sights on him. The casino’s enforcers noticed that Yuan Jun’s eyes weren’t on the gambling tables; he showed no interest in gambling and instead wandered around, clearly not there to play.
A few of them became alert, and when they saw Yuan Jun standing in front of Li Erdan, they realized what he was there for.
Jiang He had piles of chips in front of him when suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder. Jiang He turned to find a tall man, over six feet tall.
At the same time, another person tapped Yuan Jun on the shoulder.
“Brother, what are you doing here?” the man asked Yuan Jun.
As this happened, the sleeping Li Erdan woke up. Rubbing his eyes, he looked at Yuan Jun standing before him.
“Are you here to see Li Erdan?” the man asked again.
Li Erdan immediately stood up from the ground, looking at Yuan Jun with sudden fear. He quickly sidestepped Yuan Jun and headed for the exit.
Yuan Jun immediately followed Li Erdan outside but was blocked by two burly men.
Li Erdan walked faster, seemingly realizing something. Seeing Li Erdan about to escape, Yuan Jun knew that if he let him slip away quietly, finding him again would be difficult. With this thought in mind, Yuan Jun grabbed one of the man's wrists with his left hand and kicked out with his right foot, knocking the man down to the ground.
The man on the left snapped back to reality and shouted, “Someone’s causing trouble here!”
As Li Erdan was about to disappear from Yuan Jun’s sight, Yuan Jun couldn’t afford to hesitate any longer. He shouted, “Li Erdan is here!”
Upon hearing his name called out, Li Erdan quickened his pace and yelled loudly, “Police! The police are coming! Run! Open the door!”
In an instant, the underground casino erupted into chaos. Everyone scrambled; some jumped up and ran outside while others hurriedly grabbed chips in the confusion. People pushed and shoved each other as chaos ensued, making it impossible to tell who was who.
The sound of the rolling shutter echoed as it slowly rose.
Old Shao thought to himself that this was not good. He hadn't anticipated the scale of the casino to be so large, and with so many people rushing out, it was certain that quite a few would escape in the chaos.
But he also heard Yuan Jun's shout, so he responded, "Catch Li Erdan first."
Jiang He stood up and was about to rush outside, but he was firmly blocked by a burly man who seemed intent on stopping him. For the burly man, Jiang He’s slender frame was no match; he could take on five of Jiang He without breaking a sweat. The man wouldn’t let go, and Jiang He had no way to break free.
At that moment, a signal flashed in Jiang He's mind.
He closed his eyes and thought quickly. As a right-handed person, there was a seventy percent chance the man would loosen his grip. There was also a seventy percent chance he would throw a right hook. If he crouched down immediately, the man wouldn't be able to hit him. After that, if he punched the man's lower body, there was a hundred percent chance the man would fall to the ground, incapacitated.
Sure enough, in the next moment, the burly man released his grip on Jiang He's shoulder.
Jiang He suddenly crouched down, and the man's punch missed completely. Without any hesitation, Jiang He delivered a swift punch to the man's lower body, causing him to double over in pain and collapse to the ground, losing his ability to attack.
Jiang He turned to shout towards Yuan Jun and saw Li Erdan making his way through the panicking crowd towards the exit.
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