Chapter 600
* * *
Ding— Ding— Ding—
No more bets!
Click, click.
The entrance to the casino echoed with the clamor of spinning slot machines, dealers shouting, and chips clattering together.
Influencer 1 arrived at what felt like a paradise where all five senses were drowned in pleasure.
"Are you visiting alone?"
"Yes. By myself."
"Please follow me. I'll explain everything."
A waiter wearing a bow tie led Influencer 1 inside. The interior of the casino spread out before her eyes.
The slot machines roared beneath the ceiling, dazzling graphics flashed everywhere, and lucky winners celebrated their fortunes.
"Whoooa...."
Thousands of roulette tables made her dizzy, yet her heart raced. The constantly spinning images seemed to steal her entire attention.
Before she realized it, excitement had completely taken over her face.
"If you'd like to play table games, you'll need to exchange for chips. The machine games all accept cash directly."
It was her first time visiting a casino, and she was just about to hesitate.
"As a special first-time visitor event, we'd like to give you ten complimentary chips."
The waiter politely handed her the chips. On the small golden tray were stacks of the lowest-denomination chips.
"Oh! Thank you! Good. Very good."
Influencer 1 accepted them with a bright smile.
"Seriously, people from Greater China just love me. I guess I really do have one of those Chinese beauty faces...."
Holding her chips, she wandered around looking for the table that seemed the easiest.
"No more bets!"
Hearing the announcement from behind her that no more betting was allowed, Influencer 1 spun around. Curiosity filled the profile of her face as her silky hair swayed.
The ends of her hair fluttered as though everything had suddenly gone into slow motion.
The game she was looking at was the most basic form of gambling.
Roulette.
The dealer's ball came to a stop on one number.
"Black. Twenty-two!"
"Yesss!!!"
The people who had bet on that number eagerly collected their chips.
"One hundred thousand dollars!"
Hearing someone's jubilant shout, Influencer 1 muttered,
"One hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars... one hundred thousand... ten thousand is...."
Then realization suddenly struck.
"Seventeen million won!!!"
At her astonished cry, a woman with long manicured nails gestured toward her.
"Want to join? I'm leaving anyway."
She was one of the people who had just won. After hesitating for a moment, Influencer 1 walked over.
"What kind of game... is this?"
"It's easy. You just pick the number and color you want."
The woman handed one of her own chips to Influencer 1.
"Good luck."
Before she even had time to gather herself, the next round began.
"Place your bets."
People started placing chips wherever they wanted. Gemstone rings, diamond watches, and chips. Chips. Chips.
Countless hands swirled before Influencer 1's eyes. Clutching a single chip, she hesitated before placing it on a number no one else had chosen.
"Red 7. Is that correct?"
She had simply picked the color of the dress she was wearing. And the number seven.
Influencer 1 was that simple.
The people around her, however, exchanged strange smiles.
"...Yes...."
Not understanding what they meant, she merely nodded.
The dealer announced,
"No more bets!"
From this point on, no chips could be moved.
Several nearby players decided to offer her some advice.
"Hey, rookie. Guess you were thinking of Lucky Seven, huh? That's the worst number."
"What?"
"The odds are only 2.7%. There are thirty-seven spaces on a roulette wheel—numbers one through thirty-six, plus a single green zero. The chance of the ball landing on exactly seven out of those thirty-seven spaces is one in thirty-seven. Mathematically, that's exactly 2.7%. You just threw your money away, little lady. Heh heh."
After the veteran gambler finished his lecture, Influencer 1 replied,
"What are you even saying...."
She wasn't particularly good at English.
"Roulette is a game where people who calculate probabilities rule everyth—"
Before he could finish his lesson—
"Red! Seven!"
The dealer shouted.
Everyone turned to look at Influencer 1.
"Congratulations. You're the only winner this round."
"...Me?"
"That's right. Lady Luck herself. You won thirty-five times your bet!"
Influencer 1 simply stood there with her mouth hanging open.
Applause erupted all around her.
"Ah, damn it! If I'd known, I would've bet on it!"
"I actually lived long enough to see the ball land on Red Seven."
"What a waste! Why'd you only bet one chip?!"
With a single chip worth about 17,000 won, Influencer 1 had just won approximately 610,000 won.
"...Eeeeeeeehhhh!!!"
It was only natural that she let out a scream of pure happiness.
* * *
"Six hundred ten thousand won! Six hundred ten thousand won!"
As Influencer 1 happily counted her chips one by one, everyone watching her shared the exact same thought.
'She should've bet more....'
What if she had wagered 170,000 won instead of 17,000?
She would have won 6.1 million won.
What if she had bet 1.7 million won?
She would have won 61 million.
If she had put up an entire month's salary, she could have won several years' worth of annual income in one shot.
Having won chips, Influencer 1 immediately joined the next round.
This time, she chose one of the numbers that many other people had bet on.
"Congratulations. Already your second round? Beginner's luck is really treating you well."
One of the nearby winners struck up a conversation. A mountain of chips sat before him.
Because he had wagered a lot...
He had won a lot.
Looking at that mountain of chips, Influencer 1's eyes seemed to say it all.
If I'd bet more...
I'd have won more.
Dangerous music began to play.
'Ah... the timing.'
With his arms folded, Ji Haebeom watched the screen while concentrating on the sound flooding in from both sides.
This was a Dolby Cinema.
A theater obsessed with speakers.
Speakers had been installed in places no one would ever expect, allowing the audience to hear the film from overhead, behind their backs, from every direction imaginable.
Its sense of direction and spatial immersion was on an entirely different level.
'And on top of that... Noah Williams.'
Once music composed by the Hollywood genius everyone adored layered over the scene, every moment suddenly gained overwhelming justification.
Every single frame unfolding before his eyes belonged to an entirely different world.
A secretive, mischievous atmosphere.
Music that seemed to whisper directly into his ear.
It felt as though the God of Gambling had seized every one of humanity's senses in the palm of their hand.
Every nerve from the crown of his head to the tips of his toes tingled.
Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.
Then came the sounds of the casino.
Every sound within that space seemed woven into the score Noah Williams had composed.
The mechanical noises of the roulette wheel.
People's footsteps.
Someone screaming.
Someone laughing.
And...
...
Chips.
The chips gripped in someone's hand.
The chips bouncing across the table.
The chips greedily swept away by white, black, and yellow hands.
The chips gathered in the dealer's hands.
The chips carried away by waiters on silver trays.
And every single scene...
Was captured by CCTV.
...
Inside a dark room sat a man gazing at an entire wall of surveillance monitors as though they were priceless works of art.
The melody that had been whispering softly into the audience's ears quietly faded into the background.
In its place, blatantly gloomy music took over.
Seated in a leather chair, he looked like the god who ruled over this entire world.
The glow from the CCTV screens illuminated the side of his face.
Slowly.
Leisurely.
From left to right.
From bottom to top.
Chen Wei casually shifted his gaze before taking a sip of whiskey.
Knock. Knock.
An unwelcome visitor announced themselves.
Chen Wei answered with a snap of his fingers.
"About what you mentioned last time..."
"Ah."
Without even waiting to hear half of his subordinate's report, Chen Wei rose from his chair.
One of the CCTV screens, perfectly aligned with his eye level, displayed the junket room.
"Mm. Right."
Chen Wei opened the office door and walked straight ahead without the slightest hesitation.
He pressed his thumb against the fingerprint scanner of an elevator that ordinary people were never allowed to use.
His subordinate followed close behind.
Ding.
The elevator doors opened with a pleasant chime.
Unlike the dark and empty office upstairs, everything outside glittered with overwhelming luxury.
The moment the leisurely sound of his dress shoes blended into the laughter filling the casino—
Bang!!!
Without a moment's hesitation, Chen Wei strode forward, seized a man's collar, and slammed his forehead directly onto the gaming table.
"Urgh...!"
Before anyone else even had time to react, he reached into his jacket, pulled out a fountain pen, and twirled it between his fingers.
The sharp pen tip gleamed beneath the chandelier.
Stab!
"AAAAAAAHHHH!!"
Still holding the man down, Chen Wei drove the pen straight through the back of his hand.
As the man writhed in agony, a concealed playing card hidden inside his shirt cuff slipped into view.
Blood poured from the wound, soaking the table.
A boss whose cruelty came as naturally as breathing.
He wasn't like Kay from Season 1.
That villain lived for indulgence and empty bravado.
Nor was he like the Director from Season 2.
That villain lived to satisfy his twisted need for self-validation and authority.
Season 3.
For Chen Wei...
There seemed to be only one thing.
Entertainment.
"Rules exist for a reason."
His voice carried no emotion.
But his eyes were different.
They were the eyes of someone thoroughly enjoying a gamble.
"In my establishment..."
They were the eyes of a true gambler.
* * *
"Last month alone, there were already over thirty Hold'em pub cases nationwide. Seoul, Busan, even Jeju."
"I heard Jeju's become a complete disaster now that foreign tourists are mixed into it."
"If this spreads into Gangwon too, it'll become an even bigger nightmare because of Land."
Everyone in the Violent Crimes Unit had a headache.
It wasn't just the station where Detective Ma and Detective Kwak worked.
The camera smoothly panned across the room.
The situation was deteriorating nationwide.
"Those damn brats! Their blood's not even dry yet and they're already gambling!"
"They start with ten or twenty thousand won in the classroom, then before long they're stealing from their parents' wallets to hold games."
Gambling spread faster than a contagious disease.
"Those idiots come here as tourists and pull this kind of crap... Makes catching them twice as hard."
"I just want to throw every last one of them into the sea!"
At the station where Detective Kwak and Detective Yoon worked, the briefing continued.
"And next. Once they run out of gambling money, where do they go? That's why third-tier financial companies and illegal lenders are booming these days. The number of personal bankruptcy and debt rehabilitation filings by people in their twenties and thirties has skyrocketed by over twenty percent compared to last year."
The PowerPoint advanced to the next slide.
"Once people become obsessed with money, ordinary jobs don't satisfy them anymore. Illegal debt collectors show up at their workplaces... then those bastards end up working as cash mules for voice phishing rings."
"...Damn."
The police chief pressed a hand against his forehead.
"You know those drug dead drops? Those are becoming a real..."
Originally, it should have been difficult to recruit people for work like that.
But now, business was booming more than ever.
Because gambling had spread like a trend.
No one feared debt anymore.
They could always win it back.
"Tighten regulations on Hold'em pubs. And send plainclothes officers into every so-called hotspot."
After the briefing ended, Detective Yoon appeared deep in thought.
Opening his laptop, he checked some files before muttering,
"Don't pull anyone from our team."
"Why? What's up?"
"Gambling's stronger online now than offline."
A world where a single tap completes a payment.
Money itself begins to feel unreal.
You spend it without thinking, as naturally as water flowing downhill.
Everything on the internet stimulates impulsiveness.
The endless popup banners.
The bright red text saying Today Only Sale.
News articles about celebrities buying houses.
Shopping buttons for the 200,000- to 300,000-won brands influencers wore.
"You're going after online gambling?"
Most of the young people working at Hold'em pubs were barely in their early thirties.
A job where someone that young could make easy money naturally led them to recruit others.
You should do this too.
The money's great.
You know how I made mine...?
"Yeah. Besides, the average age keeps getting younger."
So what if someone lacked the courage to work there directly?
Or was simply too young to get the job?
"Wi-Fi. We'll catch them through the records."
Naturally...
The only path left was {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} online.
Posting promotional comments for gambling sites in exchange for commissions.
Then using free site credits given by an older acquaintance to start gambling themselves.
The moment someone experienced how easy it was to make money—
And how easy it was to lose it—
There was no going back.
Detective Kwak and Detective Yoon had set up public Wi-Fi throughout Seoul's busiest areas.
[SYSTEM] (Public_WiFi_Free)
"Well?"
"Hmm... for now...."
They had begun an unofficial joint operation with the Cyber Crime Unit.
Everyone visible on the screens was staring down at a phone.
Modern society.
A world where everyone walked around with a phone in one hand, unable to stop looking at something.
[crs.shopping.never.com]
[r3---sn-3yt7en7s.zoozlevideo.com]
[graph.youstagram.com]
[comic.never.com / titleList.nhn]
"We'll have a pattern within a week."
The phone screens people were holding came into view.
Quite a few of them displayed the exact same pages.
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Flash. Flash.
Like the cheap neon signs lighting up the night streets...
Their phone screens glowed with the same gaudy advertisements.