Monetized Suffering

In the midst of their awkward waiting, Victor couldn't help but raise his concerns.

"Um, why aren't we starting the next round?"

Brian held out one hand to the side.

"Even if the outcome is clear to us, the rules are made to be followed. He was allocated 45 minutes, and thus we must wait 45 minutes before starting the next round. It won't end anytime soon, in light of the fact that our friend here was so eager to start."

A frown formed on Leo's face. He ended up taking out the cards in his playing deck, and exchanging them for chips before getting up.

"I wish to stand up."

With that, he disappeared, leaving the rest of the players to only awkwardly sit there. The silence was a rather uncomfortable one for most of the people there, though Brian didn't seem to mind and Jack was just having fun with Seedy the entire time.

After the 45 minutes were finally up, Max's body was disturbingly distorted, becoming a far larger mass of flesh. It was turned into what appeared to be sludge of flesh, though he retained some semblance of a mouth.

It almost appeared like a melting crying baby, though it seemed more like slime imitating a baby even if the former was actually closer to the truth.

Three Blood Cards burst out from his body along with a black deck. One of the Blood Cards went to Brian, another to Jack, and the final one went into the air before disappearing. A similar thing happened to the black deck, where it opened up and all the cards were disturbed between the three places in the same way.

Brian let out a soft hum, mumbling to himself.

"It appears she still gets her share even if she left early... interesting."

Jack smiled after receiving his rewards.

"Thank you!"

Brian let out a chuckle waving a hand back and forth.

"Don't thank me, it was Emily who gave me that opportunity to distribute the Taken's deck. Similar to how you had your private session with her."

Jack nodded a few times with a bright smile.

"Ah, I get it now!"

From that point, he lost most of his interest in what was going on, probably because there wasn't anything particularly interesting to pay attention to anymore.

After Max was thrust through a portal and any physical trace of him disappeared, Brian began dealing with the cards once more.

Maverick in particular continued to look at Max's empty seat, glancing at where the blood used to be, now gone in its entirety.

It seemed he was contemplating his situation. Although losing a nose wasn't something insignificant, his situation wasn't nearly as bad as what Max had experienced. It gave him mixed feelings that were hard to process given the aching pain he was still feeling.

As for the others, none of them seemed particularly invested in the game, still in a bit of a daze and lull from all the waiting and rather horrifying experience.

At least in the beginning, nobody went for any crazy plays. Instead, they stuck to rather standard strategies. Maverick was actually the first to get a relatively big win where the total chips were in the double digits.

Immediately afterward, he converted his playing cards into chips and cashed out, leaving the table. Despite converting a significant amount of his own cards into chips, Victor was still struggling greatly. If it had only been a question before, now it became quite clear he has no idea how to play poker.

It did not take long for him to go bust, losing all of his chips. In particular, it was a loss against Ava much to his grievance. Despite them never being on a tram of any kind, he still felt betrayed. He was somewhat smart and kept a 5 among his remaining cards, which let him deal with the punishment process far more smoothly. After tossing away a 5, he disappeared in a flash of light.

The three left, Nina, Ava, and Samantha briefly looked at one another. At this point, most of them recovered from the shock. Even if they were mentally scarred by the incident, they had shoved it into the back of their mind, an issue to worry about some other time.

Samantha couldn't help but chide Ava as the most recent winner.

"Why don't you use your playing cards and leave like the others? Are you trying to get every little penny you can, leech?"

Ava clicked her tongue and slammed her hands on the table.

"You think I'd be staying in this hellhole any longer than I need to? I've already used almost all of my cards on chips, you dumb broad!"

Samantha's expression soured, but she didn't say anything back, realizing that Ava was indeed not lying. As for Nina, she was notably silent and was quite gloomy about the whole situation overall.

Ava ended up taking a small win, which was just barely enough for her to reach 50 total chips after converting some of her own cards. Afterwards, it was Nina who took the win and was able to leave, which made Samatha the loser even though she still technically had some chips to play with.

Because there was nobody else to play against.

Unfortunately for Brian and Jack, she had a 5 to pay the punishment for and was promptly booted out of the game.

With that, the entire thing wrapped up.

From there, the table and all the cards disappeared. Jack suddenly found himself ushered into a seat by some sort of invisible force. Then, a series of notifications appeared in front of him.

[Hosting completed successfully, well done!]

[Base rewards: Pair of 7's, Blood card

Maximum potential extra rewards: 1 Death, 2 Collection

Collected rewards: 1 Death, 1 Collection - Value 6

Requirements for Special Reward have been fulfilled.]

After all of that text appeared, the promised rewards were presented to them. For both of them, they received one 6, two 7's, and 2 Blood cards. However, including the additional cards siphoned from Max, it was an additional blood card among a few extra cards between 2 and 4 that were mostly 2's.

As for the "Special Reward," it was different for both Brian and Jack.

Jack's was rather simple.

[You have been granted the First-level Clearance Host pass! Access to Private Suites (Final level residences) has been given. First purchase includes a month-long free trial after standard fees begin to apply. Additional clearance can be acquired after the Private Suite is officially registered and appropriate hosting missions have been completed as per requirements. See more after purchase.]

That reward manifested as a keycard. However, unlike Brian's which was checkered red and black, his was simply a deep red. Jack picked it up enthusiastically, after which it automatically coated itself into a dull black, making it look rather unassuming.

Upon seeing his reward, Brian let out a chuckle.

"Would you look at that. It seems The House has appreciated your efforts and given you a rather high reward, even for fulfilling the special requirement. My arrangements are no longer necessary to acquire a room it seems. One small tip I will give you is that the Private Suites as they call them, also provide a shop to spend your blood cards. While it is your choice what you do with your currency, I recommend you don't spend it there. There are... other places for such a thing."

His eyes narrowed slightly as he held out one hand.

"There is also the option of consuming them if there is a desperate need to improve your vitality when death is near. It will also come with the side benefit of improving your attributes permanently. While these effects directly pale in comparison to what is available to purchase even in the Suites, resolving emergencies is not something that one can truly put a price on. Just keep in mind most traditional human bodies are not fit to efficiently take advantage of a blood card's benefits."

Jack nodded a few times, taking everything in.

"Ok! I got it!"

It was then that Brian picked up his own reward in between two fingers.

[You have been granted the third fragment of the Timeless Key!]

The system prompt did little to explain it any further, and as it said the reward appeared as a small broken piece of a key. While the engraved design on what was undamaged was rather intriguing and mind bending, it still looked rather unassuming.

In truth, it looked like a somewhat fancier than normal piece of junk.

However, there wasn't an unsatisfied expression on Brian's face. In fact, his smile spread out ever so slightly more than normal. He let out a small hum before tucking it away into his black deck.

Jack gave it a curious look, but since it seemed Brian had no intention of explaining further, he decided not to look into it any further.

The silence was appreciated by Brian, though he communicated it quite subtly through his movements. And it seemed Jack picked up on it from the way he smiled back.

In a flash, they were brought back into Brian's apartment. Together, they left the place, after which they were met with Jack's entire crew who were rather anxious to see him. And he was in turn happy to see them as well, waving with his arm all the way up in the air.

"Hello everybody!"