CH 4.1

When it came to gambling, Bai Jing had never been involved in it so had no knowledge of it in his mind.

As far as he could tell, his ability could sense jadeite; however, he had only tried it once by chance the day before. He didn’t know if it could be applied to all jadeite.

Bai Jing stood up, changed into a clean shirt and black slacks, and walked out of the room.

He planned to go to the Gu Group’s gambling house to try a few more times, preferably to find out the pattern of his sense perception ability of jadeite before deciding whether to go down the path of gambling on stones.

The vast hall was still crowded, packed to the rafters.

Bai Jing could understand the feeling. Although one could bet on Starnet as well, it was like watching a football match. There was nothing like watching it live to get the blood pumping.

He approached the crowd, looking up at the two huge screens in the air.

On the big screen was an advertisement for the Gu Group’s nutritional solution. Bai Jing scanned it, the nutritional solution he drank yesterday was from this brand.

He couldn’t help but think of the information of the Gu Group he had found when he did a search on them yesterday.

As the largest plutocratic family in the empire, the Gu family had a monopoly on almost 30% of the jade business in the empire, and there was no shortage of their presence in various other industries.

But the Gu Group had done more than that.

Traditional gambling involved going to a casino, selecting the original stone, solving it and judging the ups and downs based on the jadeite that came out.

The odds of losing a bet on a stone were extremely high, but many people still enjoyed it. In case they were lucky enough to get a high quality jadeite, they could be assured of a lifetime without suffering.

Even though it was true that many people were involved in traditional gambling, it was far from common.

Instead, the Gu Group was the first to pioneer the method of betting on stone betting battles and betting on stones itself, turning the gambling on stones into a national carnival!

From then on anyone could bet and back their favorite gamblers on Starnet as well as enjoy the thrill and excitement of gambling on stones.

As the proprietor, the Gu Group would make a fortune no matter who won, would be able to sell the stones quickly, befriend the gamblers and make the Gu Group’s name known all at the same time.

Bai Jing calculated silently. Every day the Gu Group had ten betting battles, and assuming that each person bet a thousand starcoins and the number of people on site was a thousand, even if one didn’t count the portion of Starnet bets, there would be a flow of at least ten million starcoins every day.

As expected of the number one plutocratic family in the Empire, they were very good at doing business.

Of course, in order to be fair, the two gamblers taking part in the battle had to be of equal strength, with a maximum difference of one level in rank, and the rough stone selected had to also be of the same grade, with a similar price difference.

Opponents for each betting battle would be matched randomly to avoid cheating.

And right now, was the interval session just after a betting battle, with a three-minute countdown on the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Out of habit, Bai Jing used the corner of his eyes to look around to eliminate danger in advance and inadvertently saw the middle-aged man called Jiao Gui saying something to a clean-cut teenager.

As the betting battle was about to begin, the teenager gritted his teeth as if he had finally made up his mind somehow, the ends of his eyes tinged bright red with agitation, and then both of their light brains flashed at the same time.

Bai Jing withdrew his eyes, a coldness surfacing in his teal eyes beneath the lenses. This Jiao Gui was cheating another newcomer again. If that teenager lost the bet he placed, he would end up in a miserable situation.

The countdown ended and a sweet-looking host appeared in front of the screen: “Hello everyone, I’m your host Tan Shu. We will now begin the second betting battle of the day.

Standing on my left hand side is Level 2 Stone Gambler Shi Hang, eighteen years old, with a 14.25% increase rate, please welcome him everyone!”

The camera turned to Shi Hang, a beautiful young man with short, spikey hair and an arrogant-looking face, who had five rough stones on a pedestal beside him. They were the rough stones he had selected.

“The next person betting against Shi Hang is Miss Lin Na on my right. Twenty-three years old, also a level 2 Stone Gambler with a 12.75% increase rate, let’s give her a round of applause!”

Lin Na was a quiet woman who was slender in stature. She smiled slightly at the crowd as the camera panned to her.

The host: “We begin with the rough stone selected by Stone Gambler Shi Hang. He has selected a material that sells for 30,000 starcoins in Area D. Please look carefully.”

The left half of the screen zoomed in to show the five pieces of material in a holographic mode with a 360-degree all exposing presentation, with an immersive touch experience for the viewers on Starnet.

Bai Jing looked carefully, only to see that some of the material had a yellowish-brown surface, some were black, some grey and white, and their sizes varied greatly from the size of two fists to over half a meter high.

One of them had an irregular circle of green spread across its surface and what looked like moss on the underside. He reached out to touch it, and the virtual technology perfectly recreated the feel of the material, although to Bai Jing it only looked like a dirty stone.

“We continue to look at the materials that Miss Lin Na has selected. Also in the Area D section with a price tag of 30,000 starcoins, please look carefully.”

As the host continued with the introductions, the five other rough stone pieces were duly displayed on the right half of the screen, showing the numbers 6-10.

The next while was for the selection of the materials to be bet on, which lasted 50 minutes. The overall time didn’t seem to be too long, averaging out to just five minutes per material.

The crowd observed the surface and feel of the material carefully, touching the surface from time to time to feel the touch, or shining a strong light on it, looking a little bit like professionals.

As Bai Jing listened to the discussion all around him, he began to use his sense perception ability to look deep into the materials as well.

He used his ability on the No. 1 rough stone which had a yellow sandy crust and a clumped pine surface, was about the size of a football, not too rough to the touch on the outside and which he had heard the man next to him say would do well.

His sense perception ability barely traveled an inch into the material when it started to detect activity. Nevertheless, this activity was only a thin layer, which showed that it wouldn’t be able to produce jadeite. This should be what people often called ‘green skin’.

Bai Jing tried about five more pieces in quick succession, none of them showing much activity until the seventh, when there was finally a slight reaction, yet it felt worse than the luminous green jadeite from yesterday. The last three rough stones were dead, with nothing to show for it.

Bai Jing sighed to himself. Sure enough, it was true that ‘in gambling on stones, there was a chance that you would lose nine times out of ten. Even a master gambler could hardly produce jadeite.’

It was still early, so maintaining his composure, he moved close to Jiao Gui and the teenager, watching the two out them corners of his eyes.

Jiao Gui studied the rough stones repeatedly then gritting his teeth, bet 10,000 starcoins on No. 1.

In his opinion, this yellow sand skinned piece of rough stone was a little more pluggable, and as Shi Hang had become a level 2 Stone Gambler at a young age and had a higher rate of winning, he trusted his judgement.

The clean-cut teenager next to him glanced at Jiao Gui nervously, then placed a similar bet, using 5,000 starcoins on No. 1.

In reality, he’d only had 1,000 starcoins in his savings and had borrowed the remaining 4,000 from the middle-aged man, but as long as he bet correctly, he wouldn’t have to worry about his tuition fees for this semester and could even buy quite a few mech parts for his studies!

Bai Jing took in the demeanor of the two and deliberately coughed lightly a few times to draw their attention.

Jiao Gui looked at him for a while, then there was a brilliant flash in his eyes, ” Yo, isn’t this the new guy from yesterday?”

He remembered it clearly. This boy won on his first bet with frightening luck! Making him unable to help but wonder which stone he would be betting on this time?

As a regular in the casino, Jiao Gui believed in luck. As the old saying went, it was difficult for a god to break an inch of jade. Even the gods couldn’t tell, so didn’t it all boil down to luck?

He smiled as he approached Bai Jing, greeting him warmly, “Little brother, do you remember me? I lent you 1,000 starcoins yesterday to place a bet.”

Bai Jing glanced at him coldly then ignored him.

The expression on Jiao Gui’s face turned awkward when he didn’t receive a response, but in his heart he cursed him: one day he would crush this beautiful boy under his body and make him cry for mercy!

The one-minute countdown sounded and Bai Jing turned on his light brain, intending to place a bet.

As Jiao Gui was standing not far from Bai Jing, he stood on his tiptoes quietly, stretching his neck to look at his light brain. His lips hooking up, Bai Jing also cooperated by slightly raising his wrist for him to see.

‘No. 7’. Jiao Gui noted it down secretly. He wanted to see just how lucky this teenager was!