pertwk Chapter 177 Train Tunnel Effect
Chapter 177 Train Tunnel Effect
Chapter 187 The Train Tunnel Effect
"In that case, I'll bet everything on this one too."
Vio didn't even lift his eyelids, responding crisply and decisively.
First round of calls, all in.
Casino legends and gambling kings have both made the same foolish mistake.
Inside the transparent yet enclosed room, Vio glanced sideways at the Plasma Team member acting as the dealer beside him, as if urging his subordinate to quickly push all the chips forward.
The dealer was clearly intimidated by his boss's bold gambling. After a moment of trepidation, he began moving stacks of chips, sweating profusely.
The advantage of having a subordinate as the dealer becomes apparent here – within the limits of the rules, Vio can act arbitrarily, even placing all-in bets with ease.
And so, all the chips on the black and white table began to move, much like soldiers heading to the battlefield, silently and resolutely converging towards the central area.
The castle and hill-like exterior are gone, leaving only a sea of purple chips—a sea worth 20 billion Alliance Coins.
If managed properly, funds of this size could easily acquire dozens of listed companies, and even have the opportunity to monopolize two or three highly profitable industries.
But at this moment, these chips are nothing more than tools for gamblers to compete with their desires.
.
"For a gambler, your strategy is not bad."
Behind the shimmering purple ocean, Vio remained composed. He looked down at the cranberries and began to praise them—
"It's clear that you have some understanding of my card counting techniques. You know that in the formula for analyzing a game, even the hole cards that have been folded and cleaned must be included as indicative information—this is the only part of the formula that relies on human judgment. Therefore, at the beginning of the game, you decided to attack this point, trying to make me make incorrect predictions about the deck by constantly folding and forcing me to fold."
"Since you gave a wry smile and discarded your hand, it must have been a low-ranking mixed suit, right? Since you suppressed your fear and made a big bluff, your hole cards, even if not ace cards like JQKA, must at least be a high-ranking hand? Since you went all in without hesitation, you must have drawn a powerful hand that inspires courage... But all of this is a lie! You keep repeating this operation, using more and more variables to challenge my equation, letting errors and distortions accumulate, trying to overturn my solitary wave equation at some point."
The evil-type king remained expressionless, but his hand, which had been quietly hidden behind the edge of the table, was now clenched into a fist, with veins showing.
However, this patience was clearly reflected in the huge mirror behind him, making it utterly meaningless.
"The strategy is commendable. But unfortunately, the clock face will reset to zero."
Vio tapped the white edge of the table with his knuckles, the vibrations like the ticking of a second hand traveling over mountains and valleys, all the way to the back of Yueju's clenched fist.
“There is a famous analogy in mathematics: when a train longer than a tunnel enters the tunnel, and its locomotive emerges while its tail has not yet entered the tunnel, a person standing outside the tunnel can automatically complete the train using experience and imagination, without thinking that the train is incomplete. This is the so-called train tunnel self-completion effect.”
"Just last night, on my way off the ship to select the playing cards for the competition, I designed an analytical method based on this train tunnel effect to guess the hand of the Double Dragon poker game. This method serves as the only part of the clock face algorithm that requires subjective operation. Unlike the unpredictable human heart, data and algorithms can neither deceive nor conceal. The face cards shown on the table can be used to guess your face cards according to fixed rules. Even if it cannot hit the bullseye accurately, it can be converted into a database as a reference for subsequent calculations."
“This is not something a human can do…” came a dry sound from Yueju’s throat.
“But I can do it.” Vio’s usually calm and unhurried voice suddenly became high-pitched—
"If a clever gambler can use his mental calculations to control the unpredictable nature of life, which is as volatile as a storm at sea, then a top mathematician can dominate that storm and manipulate it personally. My brain is constantly working with precision. It may not be as powerful as a computer driven by a Megatron, but with all my might, it is enough to calculate all the possibilities at the table right now—your two face-down cards, five community cards, and the probability combination of 52 to the power of 7, guided by previous data and after extreme compression and simplification, have become an unwavering lone wave."
The old man pointed to the card table: "I can't specify the value of every card, but now there are only 19 possible hand combinations, and whichever one of them points directly to my victory."
"Let's reveal our final trump card."
The dealer reached for the face-down cards at the black and white boundary on the table. He intended to flip over all the community cards in succession, but after flipping over only one, he was stopped by a voice.
"Excuse me, I want to continue betting."
The one speaking is Cranberry.
As soon as he finished speaking, a dramatic change occurred inside the transparent room.
Strong winds began to howl around the bottom of the cube, where narrow windows were originally used for ventilation.
The whooshing sound was like a train speeding by.
Amidst the strong winds, something overwhelming surged into the room.
One by one, in clusters, in vast swathes... countless light, thin objects were blown into the sky, crashing into the transparent, reflective glass ceiling before turning into a torrential downpour.
The dealer stopped what he was doing because one of the items flew up to his head and then landed on the back of his outstretched hand.
Those are banknotes.
One, followed by four zeros, ten thousand, is the largest denomination banknote ever issued by the Union. Although it is no longer commonly used and has ceased circulation, its value as a general equivalent remains.
An endless stream of banknotes floated into the sky, fell to the ground, scattered across the table, covered our shoulders, and filled our vision...
"Money, which is just paper with patterns and cannot be matched with its value, is surprisingly popular. The reason for this phenomenon is the trust that the Pokémon League has given it."
As Lingju spoke in a flippant tone, countless banknotes had unknowingly reached past her feet.
"This is the power of trust, which can turn a piece of paper into a fortune, trash into wealth, and nothing into something priceless."
The ventilation vents were completely covered in banknotes. No more banknotes were flying into the air, but the flow of money into the room continued unabated. The gambling room, spanning several hundred square meters, gradually transformed into a sea of banknotes. The water level instantly rose above the calves of the three people present and bravely climbed towards their knees.
"So, these pretty pieces of paper and the purple round cards on the table are the same thing, they are all symbols created based on a certain kind of credit - which means that they are all a kind of chip. In some ways, because they do not go through the casino's cut, their value is even higher than that of regular chips."
The sea level formed by paper money kept rising until it was level with the black and white gambling table, at which point it barely stopped rising.
At this moment, Vio and Lingju were half-submerged in banknotes. With the slightest movement, a loud rustling sound of paper would be heard. People who love money would probably especially enjoy this scene.
"Blueberry, what do you mean by this?"
Vio vaguely guessed his opponent's intentions and, unable to hide his anger, questioned him.
He had previously inspected the ventilation openings, but because he only focused on whether they could provide clues to the gambling, he only checked for cameras or lights to guide the way, ignoring the device beneath the narrow ducts…
The transparent room now resembles a giant piggy bank overflowing with money. The two duelists are no longer visible from the deck; all that can be seen is the bustling display of Alliance banknotes.
"This is all the cash on the gambling ship that's in reserve, a full 15 billion. I'm going to put it on the table as chips for the second round of betting."
—The blueberry bared its fangs menacingly.
"This violates the rules!" The dealer promptly fulfilled his duty this time.
"Putting aside the question of whether cash can be used as chips... if your opponent's total chips are insufficient to call, you can't bet like that!"
Players who cannot call must fold.
If Vio cannot wager a sum equivalent to 15 billion in cash, he cannot continue the current game.
This is a complete foul in Double Dragon Poker. If such a rule were accepted, gamblers could keep raising their bets and forcing their opponents to fold, thus eliminating any competitive element.
“Mr. Vio certainly has enough leverage to follow up.”
The Dark-type Champion flicked the banknotes off his shoulder, then sneered at his opponent.
"As the financial director of the Plasma Group and the sage who controls United Finance, he hasn't spent a single penny since he boarded the gambling ship."
Indeed, even the first chip in blackjack was provided by a kind gambler. From the moment Vio boarded the ship, he had been building a tower without any foundation.
Now, this illusory tower is just one step away from reaching the pinnacle. He's just a hair's breadth away from betting against the gluttonous oranges and perfectly resolving the threat the casino poses to Team Plasma.
But at this moment, the opponent, who was about to be defeated in one move, still shamelessly blocked this step. He relied on a blatantly unreasonable scheme.
"To think you can win my Royal Union empty-handed, without even the risk of losing a single misstep—even Cresselia from the Sinnoh legends couldn't tolerate such a dream, could she?"
Lingju crossed her legs amidst the banknotes, loudly mocking Vio's miscalculation. Her leather shoes pressed heavily against her two hidden cards, an air of unyielding authority that wouldn't allow anyone to reveal them, displaying a thuggish, villainous aura befitting the reputation of the "Evil King."
"If you want to win money at the gambling table, then show me some real awareness!"