"Dong!~"
"Dong!~"
"Dong!~"
At 8 PM, the clock tower next to the casino chimed punctually, just like the familiar "dang-dang-dang-dang~" sound that would ring out when Suya watched the news broadcast. For the Britannians, it had a similar effect.
Footsteps kept pace with the chimes, blending with the initially soothing light music from the strolling minstrels in the casino hall, which suddenly transitioned into a lively tune.
Thump, thump, thump!
Steady, confident footsteps echoed at the hall's entrance, causing a few gentlemen in the casino to turn their heads.
And soon,
In the grand hall of the Wincheston Grand Casino, all the gentlemen and ladies seemed to sense an unwelcome presence and collectively turned their heads.
Then, they saw—
A golden-haired young knight, accompanied by two beautiful maidens behind him, strode straight towards the crowd.
He wore no extravagant accessories, nor custom-tailored attire, yet the aura radiating from him made people instinctively want to kneel and offer a knight's salute.
Like a true king!
Even more astonishing were the two beautiful girls behind him, carrying mountains of chips. Their beauty and the piled chips in their hands shone together, like brilliant jewels adorning a crown, making it difficult to avert one's gaze.
As this group approached, all the gentlemen and ladies instinctively parted to clear a path.
All the seductive dealers, who were dealing cards or spinning roulette wheels, simultaneously stopped their actions, looking up in unison. Their gazes, burning with anticipation, fixed on Suya, who walked in with the wind, wondering which table he would grace.
However—
Suya led his companions directly through the crowd to the twelve roulette tables, then courteously looked at the dealers who had stopped spinning the wheels, smiling as he said:
"Please continue."
He turned back to Merlin and Gawain behind him:
"Go, place 17 on every table."
As these words left his mouth, the hall suddenly fell silent. Then, an old gambler suddenly seemed to remember something and exclaimed:
"He wants to play with twelve tables all at once, by himself!"
Afterward, the hall erupted like a boiling pot. Those who understood this practice began to chat excitedly, while those who didn't tried every way to get closer to the old gamblers to listen.
In Britannia of this era, except for a very few casinos like the Wincheston Grand Casino, which were officially sanctioned by the royal family, gambling was prohibited nationwide.
And even at the Wincheston Grand Casino, the maximum bet limit on each table was only 1,000 gold pounds, and the amount a single person could bet was controlled between tens of silver shillings and a few hundred gold pounds. Even if the winnings exceeded 1,000 gold pounds, only 1,000 gold pounds would be settled; anything over was illegal.
However, there were always those big gamblers who sought excitement and felt it only after betting tens of thousands of gold pounds. To accommodate such guests, the casino invented the method of 'dragging' multiple tables to circumvent the kingdom's laws.
At this very moment, Suya was about to 'drag' 12 roulette tables to gamble, though it hadn't truly begun yet.
At this point,
All the gamblers surrounding the tables watched as Merlin and Gawain, behind Suya, one by one, placed a single gold chip, with a face value of 1, on the number 17 of each of the 12 roulette tables.
Seeing this scene, the people who had just been excited suddenly felt as if cold water had been poured over them, and a hint of disappointment appeared in their eyes.
"I thought he was going to bet big. Only 1 gold pound? Even with 12 tables, it's just 12 gold pounds."
"Tsk, it doesn't seem like he's gambling against the house, which means we can bet too? Should we follow him?"
A few old gamblers conversed in low voices.
Soon, a few of them, amazed by Suya's grand entrance, gritted their teeth and followed Suya by betting on 17. More gamblers, however, placed their bets on the 4, 8, or 12 sectors where 17 was located.
Soon,
The dealers at each table began to spin the wheel.
All the surrounding gamblers intently watched the small steel ball spinning in each roulette wheel, silently praying for the ball to land in their chosen area.
But Suya did not look at the roulette wheels. Instead, he watched each dealer spinning the ball, observing their every subtle movement and posture, his pupils suffused with a bloody hue.
Soon,
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap...
One by one, the steel balls fell into the slots, and the results were revealed.
None of the 12 steel balls landed on 17. The closest one landed on 4, four slots away.
In other words,
Suya lost everything in the first round.
But Suya remained unconcerned and continued to instruct Merlin and Gawain:
"Continue to bet on 17, still 1 gold pound per table."
Seeing this scene, the gamblers' gazes towards Suya subtly changed, as if they were looking at a foolish wealthy blockhead, feeling somewhat speechless.
He made such a grand entrance, brought so many chips,
Yet he used the fewest chips to bet on a single number across 12 tables simultaneously.
So, he's just hoping to win one table out of 12 for a 35-gold-pound profit, using big data for elimination?
Purely relying on luck?
However, if he played like this, with the thickness of the chips Suya held, he might indeed be able to play all night, but if this trend continued, it was only a matter of time before Suya lost everything.
Thinking this, many onlookers who had gathered to watch the spectacle immediately dispersed.
Next, Merlin and Gawain continued to follow Suya's instructions, placing 12 chips on the 17 slot of each table.
The twelve dealers quickly began the second round of spinning.
And at this moment, Suya slowly shifted his gaze to the roulette wheels. In his mind, 12 figures, with different postures, different strengths, and different angles, shot the ball.
The 12 figures of the dealers spinning the ball in different ways corresponded to each steel ball in the roulette wheel.
At this point, if it were a mathematician, their mind would already be listing equations to calculate.
But Suya did not start calculating. It was impossible to calculate anyway. Even Professor Edward O. Thorp, whom he had heard of in his previous life, who beat casinos with blackjack, had never achieved a breakthrough in calculating the landing position of roulette balls, even though he had already summarized equations.
In a mathematical sense, it is indeed possible to exhaust the possible landing spots of a steel ball in roulette. One would only need knowledge learned in high school, substituting all data such as friction, arc, speed of the steel ball's launch, superimposed gravitational effects, trajectory, etc., into formulas to establish a mathematical model. In an ideal state, the landing positions of all steel balls are predetermined. (The model has interfering factors like noise that cannot be perfectly incorporated, preventing 100% accuracy.)
However, applying this to a casino presents two problems:
Firstly, how to measure and model it.
Secondly, how to quickly calculate in a casino environment without being detected.
Suya possessed the eyesight to instantaneously measure the steel ball's trajectory and build a model in a short amount of time.
But unfortunately, he was not a mathematician; he got a headache just looking at math problems.
So, he chose another method—
He correlated the trajectories of all the steel balls with the slight habits of each dealer, immersing himself within them.
Then,
"Mimicry, start."
In the casino hall built one-to-one in his mind, Suya simultaneously transformed into twelve dealers, standing before each table, their eyes devoid of emotion, with purely rational gazes, replicating every action of all the dealers one-to-one.
If someone could peek into Suya's mind at this moment, they would see—
The twelve 'himself' standing before the tables had identical movements to the twelve dealers spinning the ball, without the slightest deviation.
Finally,
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap...
One by one, the steel balls fell into the slots, and the results were revealed.
The 12 steel balls landed in slots 12, 34, 6, 11, 22, 19, 18, 8, 11, 37, 4, and 0 respectively.
In the second round, Suya still lost everything.
However, in the scenario established in Suya's mind,
After the balls were launched, Suya's predicted results were:
12, 34, 6, 11, 22, 19, 18, 8, 19, 37, 4, 0.
12 results, 11 correct!
At this, Suya couldn't help but curve his lips into a wicked smile.