Author’s POV:

Bensen chuckled lightly while his droopy eyes were aimed at Razi. “It’s just me and you now missy.” He tried intimidating her with his rotten instincts but it was ineffective.

Razi ignored him; shifted her eyes onto Manager Kim and said, “Let’s just get this over with. Roll the dice please.”

“Somebody is impatient.” Bensen was trying to figure out why Razi was acting as tough as she was. He thought to himself, ‘Does she actually thinks she can beat me in a gamble?’ He glanced at Smoke Pac. ‘That man’s presence must be what is giving her so much confidence. But sorry to break it to you, little girl… you can’t win this gamble.’

Bensen smiled internally and continued to speak to himself, ‘This game is rigged in my favour. Before coming here, I got Mr Kim to agree with this simple game of dice. I know the exact number of dice that will show up, but I am not going to share this secret with a snot-nose brat like you. The moment you agree to my terms you’ve already lost. All of my brother’s assets already belong to me, you just don’t know it yet. Ha-ha-ha! I’m such a genius schemer. I can’t wait to see the abhorring look on her face when she loses.’

Finished curating his thoughts, Bensen side-glanced Manager Kim and gave him the signal to commence the dice shake. He scraped up the dice into the jar right away and started shaking them.

Eyeing both players, Manager Kim spoke, “This will be the final round. Once a decision is made it cannot be retracted.” He made sure they understood what was at stake.

‘That geezer looks like he is sure of his win.’ Thought Smoke Pac. ‘If he does win, I will enjoy tearing through his chest.’ Without realizing it, Smoke Pac allowed his sinister smile to bleed forth. When Bensen saw it, an old memory flashed before his eyes.

‘Smoke Pac?’ Bensen’s facial features became paralyzed as he stared at the familiar lean upward curve of Smoke Pac’s lips. ‘It can’t be him… could it?’ Myriads of theories began coursing through his mind. He, himself couldn’t keep up with his frenetic thinking process.

‘It couldn’t be him. He’s supposed to be dead.’ Bensen began to remember the rumours he heard of Smoke Pac’s death several months ago. ‘Sharp Stepper isn’t a fellow who makes mistakes and brags about it. But, it was rumoured that he killed Smoke Pac in a warehouse off 7th avenue. That couldn’t be a lie because he vanished from the criminal underworld soon after. There was no trace of him. Because of his absence, my brother was able to drastically maximize his profits in the illicit trade of arms… What the hell is going on here?’

Bensen’s head was starting to sweat profusely. The wrinkles on his face made the detour difficult for the droplets to travel. ‘This can’t all be a coincidence.’

He was staring at Smoke Pac incessantly. ‘The moment this Pink Diamond showed up, my energies started feeling off. Now that I think about it, there was some chatter recently about Smoke Pac coming back from the dead. Shortly after these rumours start to surface, my brother ends up dead and his entire underground business collapsed. Something smells fishy. My instincts are usually on point. Something isn’t right about that man.’

“Bensen…” Manager Kim tried gaining his attention by calling his name several times. “Bensen, Mr Bensen!”

“Huh! Yes?” Bensen surfaced from the waters of his thinking and gave his focus to Manager Kim. “What is it?” He looked lost as he asked this question.

Manager Kim gestured to the jar that he had face down on the table and told him, “It is your turn to make a choice. Ms Campton already made hers.”

“She has…?” Bensen was surprised by this information. Due to his intense focus placed on Smoke Pac earlier, he didn’t get to hear what Razi decided nor was he looking out for the signs that Manager Kim was hinting to him.

Bensen was left in the dark. Now he had to rely completely on his gambling instincts to guess the winning number. ‘Damn that Pink Diamond for detracting me.’ He cursed internally as he stared at the jar while eyeing Razi occasionally.

Bensen had wasted enough time already. His procrastination was causing unrest among his family members who were eagerly waiting for him to say something. “Alright, I’ve decided…” He calmed his breathing then picked a random number from the top of his head. “I call even.”

“I didn’t hear you properly. Did you say odd or even?” Manager Kim reiterated the question to pass on a hint to Bensen.

However, Smoke Pac intervened by saying, “He said even. We all heard it, right?” He glanced at the Camptons who nodded their heads in support of his claim.

“There you have it.” Smoke Pac looked at Manager Kim. “You must have wax in your ears. That explains why you didn’t hear properly even though you are so close.”

“Hmm…” Manager Kim looked askance at Smoke Pac, thinking that he had been figured out. Without asking Bensen another question, he slowly removed the jar from over the dice. “The results are… even!”

“Yes, I won! Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Bensen was elated by the results. He turned to Razi and said, “Why are you still sitting around the table? You’ve lost the gamble.”

“No, I didn’t. I also called even, you deaf coot.” Remarked Razi.

“What?” Bensen looked at Manager Kim for verification. “Is that true?”

“It is. Both of you called even. The result is a draw. Therefore, we will go again. Try and pay attention this time.” He warned Bensen to look out for the signals.

“Alright, I’ll be more attentive this time. Go ahead and roll the dice.” Bensen was more focused this time around. Not wanting to be distracted, he didn’t stray his eyes from Manager Kim’s hand even after he settled it on the table.

“Place your bets.”

Heeding Mr Kim’s command, Razi spoke first, “I call…” she paused to think of the logical answer. Her eyes shifted from Smoke Pac to Bensen. She made sure to observe Mr Kim and Bensen keenly to see if there was any secret cheating going on between them.

Bensen didn’t make a choice yet, he waited for Razi to speak before he voiced his thoughts.

“What the heck.” Razi gave up on thinking too much. “I call even again.”

“Oh?” Bensen portrayed an almost unnoticeable smile. “I call odd.”

“Is that your final offer?” Mr Kim glanced at both players and affirmed their choices. “It is settled then. The results are…” It took him a lot slower to lift the jar. When he finally got around to doing so, all heads peaked towards the table to identify the winner.

“It’s even! Oh my God, I can’t believe it. I won!” Razi was the happiest she had ever been in a long time. So much joy overtook her that she got up from around the table and ran into Smoke Pac’s arms. “Babe I won!” She started kissing his face as if they were true lovers.

“Hey, I get that you’re wet but please don’t drool all over me.” Although he was annoyed by how Razi was dashing herself at him, Smoke Pac had to endure her embrace to play along with the plan.

“This must be a mistake. Papa never loses.” Charlie was appalled by the results sitting on the table. He wasn’t the only Campton who was upset, the others were as well.

“What the hell just happened?” Bensen was unsatisfied with the result. A while ago he was certain that he would emerge victorious from the gamble. So imagined his surprise when he found out he lost.

“Manager Kim…?” Bensen gave him a questioning gaze. Their eyes were engaged in a mutual conversation. 10 blinks in under 5 seconds was an indicator that something had gone wrong with their plans. The dice were supposed to show up as odd but instead, they were even. How could this have possibly happened?

Let’s rewind a few minutes before the last dice was rolled. At that specific moment when Mr Kim and Bensen were secretly scheming the results, Smoke Pac was doing some scheming of his own. He had his Value Meter active during the entire procession of the gamble.

What he learnt during his observation was that after the dice were placed on the counter, their value shifted from 0.02% to 0.04%. The value was represented in the sum of the dice facing upward. In the second game, it alternated between 0.01% to 0.03% while the jar was already dropped. This could only mean one thing, someone was definitely cheating. The result changed during the dice’s rest period.

As soon as Smoke Pac realized this, he understood that there was some sort of magnetic trigger installed in the jar that made the dice shift faces accordingly. If he could hack that technological metric then maybe he could ruin the cocky smile sitting on Mr Kim and Bensen’s faces.

A spark from Smoke Pac’s thought generated an upgrade in his Value Meter called Gambler’s Luck. Gambler’s Luck increased the probability of the target’s success rate by 70%. This upgrade wasn’t free. He had to spend 201 Skill Points to purchase it from the Rubik’s Store, additionally, it sucked a few percent of his Blood Bank.