2026-09-11 20:04:39
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Chapter 368
Evan stared at the massive bet. His heart raced. He had Pocket Kings. It was an incredibly strong hand. The board was safe. If he called and won, he would eliminate the Brain and take a massive lead in the tournament. But if he called and lost, he would be crippled. He would have almost no chips left. Evan looked at the glass jar. The brain was a mathematical genius. It calculated probabilities perfectly. Would a perfect computer risk its entire life on a bluff? Or did the Brain have a set of Fours, Sevens, or Twos? "Kid," Marco whispered behind him. "It is a huge bet. Be careful. Machines don't bluff like humans do."Evan needed an edge. He needed to know if the machine was lying. He could not read its face, because it did not have a face. He could not read its heartbeat, because it did not have a heart. Evan took a slow, deep breath. He closed his eyes. He opened the mental door in his mind. He triggered his Chronos Perception. The pain was absolutely horrific. It was worse t
Chapter 367
The fat gold man folded. The woman in white feathers folded. The bet came to Jax. Jax looked at the old man. The Syndicate Boss’s glowing red eye stopped spinning. It focused completely on the old man’s shaking hands. "You are weak, old man," Jax said, his deep, robotic voice dripping with cruelty. "You are betting on hope. I do not believe in hope."Jax pushed a tall stack of black chips into the center. "I call."Everyone else folded. It was just the old man and the metal monster. "Show your cards," the Dealer commanded. The old man flipped his cards over with trembling fingers. “Queen of Hearts. Queen of Diamonds.” A very strong pair. Jax laughed. He flipped his cards over. “Ace of Spades. Ace of Clubs.” The best possible starting hand in the game. The Dealer flipped the five community cards rapidly. None of them helped the old man. No Queens appeared. "The winning hand is a pair of Aces," the Dealer said coldly. "The player Jax wins the pot."The old man let out a horribl
Chapter 366
Behind Evan, Marco rested his good hand on the back of Evan’s leather chair. "Just breathe, kid," Marco whispered softly. The old grifter’s voice was full of pain, but it was steady. "Do not look at the guards. Do not look at the spears. Look at the cards. Play the man, not the table."Rell stood next to Marco. The scavenger girl held her sharp knives tightly. She watched the shadows. Glitch was hiding behind Evan’s chair. The tiny hacker was trembling. "I do not like this game, Evan. It is too scary.""I will protect you, Glitch," Evan said quietly. "I promise."Evan looked back at the table. He placed his bare, bruised hands flat on the soft black velvet. "Deal," Evan commanded. The Dealer’s hands blurred. He slid two cards face down to every player. The Obsidian Tournament began. Evan did not touch his cards right away. He remembered what Marco had taught him. He watched the other players. The fat man made of gold picked up his cards. He smiled a greedy smile. The woman wit
Chapter 365
The Glass Lotus was perfectly quiet. The beautiful, haunting classical music had stopped. The only sound in the massive, circular room was the soft, sharp snapping of physical paper cards. The tall Dealer in the black tuxedo stood at the head of the round, black velvet table. His hands moved with perfect, robotic precision. He wore pure white silk gloves. Evan Kennedy sat in his chair. The chair was made of soft, dark leather, but it felt like a bed of nails. His whole body was tense. His muscles were tight. His white hair was damp with cold sweat. A thin line of dried blood marked his chin. He looked around the sprawling table. It was a table of nightmares. There were eight players. They were the elite of the Mid-Levels. They were monsters, cyborgs, and criminals who had spent centuries stealing time from the poor. To Evan’s left sat a woman. She wore a sparkling silver dress. But her hair was the most terrifying thing about her. Instead of normal hair, a hundred thin, glowing b
Chapter 364
The entire ceiling was the clear glass dome. They could look up and see the dark, stormy sky and the toxic green fog swirling outside. In the very center of the massive room, there was one single, huge, round table covered in soft black velvet. This was not a busy casino. There were no slot machines. There were no cheering crowds. This was a private, deadly arena. Sitting around the black velvet table were the competitors. There were only eight chairs. Seven of them were occupied. Evan walked slowly toward the table, his heart beating a steady, calm rhythm. He studied the people he was about to play against. They were the most terrifying, dangerous people he had ever seen. In the first chair sat a woman. She wore a beautiful, sparkling silver dress. But her hair was not human hair. It was a writhing, moving mass of thin, glowing blue fiber-optic cables. The cables hissed and moved like snakes. She was a master hacker, wired directly into the network. In the second chair sat a ma
Chapter 363
Glitch pressed the button. The tiny hacker was crying silently, hating to see his best friend in so much pain. Evan slowed time. The gray world swallowed him. He stared at the metal arm. He did not just look at it. He felt the rhythm of the electricity. He saw a tiny, bright blue flash in a wire on the left side of the arm. At the exact same time, he saw a faint orange glow of heat build up near the elbow joint. Evan processed the math instantly. The computer was sending power to the pinky finger, but the elbow motor was preparing to brace for the movement. Evan snapped back to normal time. Before the metal finger could even move, Evan reached his bare hand out and slammed his finger down directly onto the robotic pinky finger. A split second later, the robotic pinky tried to tap the table. But Evan’s finger was already there, holding it down. "He blocked it," Glitch gasped in pure amazement. "The computer chose the pinky, and Evan knew it before the signal reached the motor!"
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