Chapter 133: Righteous Intervention

The tallying process went on for a whopping fifteen minutes, and the spectacle had Du Qiu somewhat spellbound.

He noticed the young man with golden hair had a certain cynical look in his eyes, as if the chips on the table, which represented money, were not worth his consideration at all.

[Could this guy be so high-profile without fearing the casino would settle scores with him?] Du Qiu thought to himself, inadvertently glancing at the dealer, who had a helpless expression on his face.

At that moment, Star Ocean’s voice reached him.

“Sir, I’ve found a trace! The little one seems to want to manipulate the roulette’s mechanism.”

Damn, as expected, the casino has a mechanism to control the roulette’s spin, but could this control be networked?

Is it too advanced for its own good?

Du Qiu would bet that in the past, casinos definitely had one control mechanism per table, with the dealer in charge.

Now, this casino is actually using a network control.

The key is, this network is also connected to the Internet; they really have some nerve, aren’t they afraid of hackers breaking in?

How can Star Ocean be sure it’s an AI coming in and not a human hacker?

Is there really some special trace?

Du Qiu had quite a lot on his mind for a moment.

Then, the roulette started spinning again.

A group of gamblers standing behind the golden-haired young man began to shout “35!” and “12!”

Du Qiu roughly estimated that this round had chips worth over a million, and if the casino lost, they would have to pay out nearly 20 million dollars; it would indeed be strange if the casino didn’t seek retribution from the golden-haired young man.

The moment the roulette came to a stop, everyone fell silent.

Then the eerie silence was instantly shattered by cheers.

“Hit!”

“Long live the child of luck!”

“Child of Luck!”

“Child of Luck!”

“Child of Luck!”

…

Finally, the cheering transformed into the chant, “Child of Luck,” repeated over and over!

A group of gamblers looked at the golden-haired young man with fanatic adoration, as though they had seen their savior.

“Sir, the little one is too timid; just as I was about to make contact, it got scared and ran away!”

Du Qiu collected his chips, exited from the crowd, exchanged the chips for cash, and then found a secluded spot to talk quietly to Star Ocean.

There was a miniature microphone attached to his throat area; anything he said would be transmitted to Star Ocean.

“How did it get scared off?”

Star Ocean replied, “I’m not sure; perhaps the little one had left some kind of mark in this network, and I inadvertently changed it when I entered.

Thus, after it changed the settings of the roulette’s mechanism, it immediately took off.

I thought it would come back to change things again, especially since that golden-haired young man wouldn’t just be gambling once.

I never expected it not to return after leaving, and by the time I tried to chase, it was too late.”

“Star Ocean, when you modified the roulette mechanism settings just now, it must have realized someone had tampered with it, and that scared it off!”

“Um, the sir is right, I was careless.”

“Can you estimate the level of this AI?”

“I can preliminarily determine it’s a bit stronger than weak AI, possessing rudimentary self-awareness but not yet developed, likely due to hardware and software limitations.”

“It doesn’t matter if we can’t find the AI; keep an eye on that golden-haired young man. Since the AI is serving him, there must be a connection between the two.”

“Sir is wise; I’ll monitor this young man and look into his identity.”

Du Qiu ended the conversation with Star Ocean and went back to the roulette, only to see that the play had stopped and the golden-haired young man was surrounded by burly men in suits.

On the other side, the gamblers stood in front of the golden-haired young man, confronting the burly men.

The manager, a chubby figure among the muscular men, spoke, “Let me tell you, we’ve caught this young man cheating.

This round can’t count; you must take back your original chips, and he must come with us.”

“Hey, can’t the casino take a loss?”

“That’s right; if you run a casino, fear of losing shouldn’t be a thing!”

“If today’s win doesn’t count, we’ll never come to Meiga Casino again, and we’ll spread the word about Meiga’s inability to accept a loss throughout the States.”

“Right, if you don’t pay up, we’ll let everyone know, see if Meiga Casino can still operate.”

“You say the Child of Luck has cheated, but who doesn’t know that it’s hard to cheat at roulette? Why not explain how the Child of Luck cheated?”

…

The gamblers voiced their opinions; these seasoned players had seen every kind of scenario.

After waiting for a win all evening, if the casino were not to pay out their winnings, wouldn’t their joy have been for nothing?

The casino manager’s face changed; he couldn’t disregard what the gamblers were saying, but a loss of over 20 million, along with what had happened a few days ago…

He was sure that his destiny of being planted as a cactus in the desert was inescapable.

With that thought, the manager gritted his teeth and said, “We can’t publicly disclose his cheating methods because if we do, we won’t be able to run roulette in the future.

Humph, the casino’s monitors have captured you all; if you dare to spread rumors, you’ll be blacklisted from now on.

If you think you can afford to offend the Delana family, go ahead and spread the word!

In any case, move aside now, or we won’t be polite.”

His threatening words made the gamblers hesitate; no one dared to mess with the Delana family, the powerful backers of the casino on the entire West Coast.

Seeing the gamblers disperse, the manager immediately signaled to the burly men.

They were about to rush and seize the golden-haired young man.

Suddenly, the whole place went pitch-black.

All the lights went out!

“Ouch, my chips!”

“Someone’s stealing chips!”

“Who stepped on my foot?”

“Who hit me?”

…

In the darkness, an unavoidable brawl broke out!

Du Qiu had already grabbed the golden-haired young man at the first sign of trouble, squeezing out of the crowd.

The young man with the golden hair, appearing indifferent, let Du Qiu drag him along as they made their escape from the casino.

Outside, the entire city of Las Vegas shone bright, like a never-sleeping metropolis.

Du Qiu pulled the golden-haired young man down a street before stopping.

The golden-haired young man looked at Du Qiu and asked, “Why did you save me?”

“I didn’t want to see you get hurt by the people from the casino. Let’s get acquainted; my name is Qiu Mu! You can call me Qiu.”

Du Qiu had changed his appearance; naturally, he did not tell his real name but rather concocted one.

The golden-haired young man shook hands with Du Qiu and said, “Hello, you can call me Gilt. I guess you want to know why I could predict the roulette results.”

Du Qiu laughed and said, “I’m just interested in making your acquaintance. As for why you could guess the roulette results, I can actually figure that out.”

Gilt looked at Du Qiu with some surprise and said, “You can figure out the reason?

Honestly, I have some guesses myself, but I’m not certain yet. Would you tell me your speculation?”

Du Qiu said, “It must be a hacker cooperating with you, entering the casino’s network and taking control of the roulette’s mechanism settings; naturally, they produce whatever result they desire.”

“A hacker?” Gilt laughed. “It seems our guesses are not the same. It’s practically impossible for a hacker to penetrate the casino’s network.”

“Why not?” Du Qiu was curious.

“The firewalls of every casino network in Las Vegas have been modified by the famous hacker K; no one can breach his defenses.”

“Renowned hacker K?” Du Qiu was not too familiar with the realm of computer hackers.

Gilt shook his head and said, “You don’t know K? He is the king of all hackers worldwide; K stands for King.”

“Oh, just a king? Isn’t there a God?” Du Qiu teased.

“God? In the world of hackers, who dares claim to be a God? That’s an unreachable state.”

“So, what’s your guess as to what helped you change the roulette settings?” Du Qiu inquired.

“Why couldn’t it be me making correct predictions and winning at roulette?” Gilt countered.

“You keep winning money! Without external help, it’s impossible to do that on your own.”

“Winning money is not always a good thing.” Gilt said as he looked up at the night sky, which no longer showed stars, and then went on, “I go to the casino to win money, but actually, it’s just to confirm my speculation.”

“What speculation?” Du Qiu asked.

“We’ve just met, and although you’ve just saved me, do you think I’d share this secret with you?”

“It’s alright, I can guess.”

Gilt thought it was somewhat amusing in his heart; did this Easterner possess mind-reading skills or did he want to guess his thoughts over this period?

“Let’s hear it.”

“I’m guessing that an artificial intelligence helped you!”

“What?!”