"Thank you for your invitation, but I'm not in a rush to play. You guys can go ahead," smiling, Lisa courteously rejected Taehyung's invitation.
She then slowly walked around and saw that many people couldn't hold their excitement and had already sat down to play.
Lisa wanted to try her luck. Seeing that one of the tables was missing a player, she sat down.
Sitting opposite from her was an aged lady in her fifties. She wore an abundant amount of makeup, was slightly chubby with an updo hairstyle and a cigarette in her mouth. By her looks alone, it was obvious that she wasn't a kind opponent.
To her left was an average looking skinny man with glasses, who looked to be in his late thirties.
To her right was a fat bald man in his forties. On his wrist was a Rolex, reeking of the smell of money.
"Eh, we got ourselves a young lady. We can start now," the bald man creepily laughed.
Before anyone else could speak, the dealer on the side immediately said, "The table is full and I can deal now. Before I do, please place your bets."
The smoking woman immediately threw in a thousand dollars worth of chips, and the man in the glasses followed her lead.
Lisa bet at the same time as the bald man, which increased the pot to four thousand dollars. They weren't going all in, so it wasn't an exciting situation where victory or defeat was being decided.
"Good, now I shall deal." After speaking, the dealer began to deal poker cards with his white-gloved hands.
Show hand poker was relatively simple with 28 cards in total: 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, and ace.
The goal of the game was to compete with the total value of their hands. The procedure was that everyone would first take two cards that would only be seen by them and a third card that would be seen by all.
They would then compare the values of their cards, including poker hand combinations...
Lisa didn't have good luck, the two cards she was dealt were eight and nine.
If both were eight, she could maybe get three eights and spice things up, but it was quite unfortunate that she got an eight and a nine.
Lisa noticed that the smoking woman smiled slightly after reading her cards and a triumphant look flashed across her face.
After, the dealer began to distribute the shown cards. The smoking woman got a king, the bald man and the man with glasses got jacks, and Lisa got a queen.
The woman was dealt the biggest card, so she raised the bet.
"Three thousand," she said as she threw in three thousand dollars in chips.
The man wearing glasses hesitated, before finally saying, "I fold."
He then turned his cards face down, signaling his forfeit.
Lisa threw in three thousand dollars and said, "Raise."
The bald man also handed over three thousand dollars worth of chips. "Raise."
In the second round of dealing, the woman got an ace, the bald man got a queen, and Lisa got a jack.
The woman had the biggest again, so she raised another five thousand. "Five thousand."
Before Lisa could speak, the bald man turned his cards over, signaling forfeit. "I fold."
The woman laughed triumphantly and looked at Lisa provokingly. If Lisa forfeited too, it meant that everyone's chips belonged to the woman.
Lisa calmly held up her chip and was about to throw it when the bald man reminded her, "Girl, she has an ace and king, which adds up to 28 points. You have a queen and jack, which is 23 points. You're five points behind. If you don't have enough valuable cards, you're going to lose for sure. It's like throwing away money."
"It's not the final round yet, nothing is set in stone. Maybe I'll get a big hand in the third round." After speaking, Lisa threw five thousand dollars of chips in without any hesitation, creating a loud noise on the table.
The others shot her baffled looks; they didn't think that a young girl like her would be so bold.
"Hurry up and deal." The middle-aged woman seemed a bit impatient.
The dealer immediately dealt the third round of cards. He only dealt two as only Lisa and the woman were left playing.
In the last round, the middle-aged woman had the bigger hand, so she got dealt first. This time, she got a queen.
Lisa got an ace, so this time she had the right to speak first. The dealer reminded her, "You can raise now, miss."
Without hesitation, Lisa took out ten thousand dollars in chips and put them in "Ten thousand."
The spectators around them were stunned... Ten thousand was quite a large amount of money, as everyone only had a hundred thousand chips in total.
The smoking woman was originally fully confident, but when she saw how exuberant Lisa was, she immediately hesitated.
Her visible cards were king, ace, and queen, with another ace and king as her hidden cards.
As for Lisa, her visible cards were queen, jack, and ace with eight and nine as her hidden cards. Lisa lost for sure whether it was her visible or hidden cards.
However, others did not know what Lisa had. They only saw her courageously raising ten thousand.
The man wearing glasses said, "This girl probably has a straight flush, either with eight, nine, ten, jack, and queen or ten, jack, queen, king, and ace. She could also have some other poker hand."
They saw Lisa's shown cards were queen, jack, and ace and therefore thought that she had a king and a ten.
"Ma'am, would you like to raise? If so, please place your bid," the dealer reminded the smoking woman.
She hesitated for five seconds before looking up at Lisa and discovering that the young lady's face was filled with confidence.
She clenched her teeth and turned her cards down. In a defeated tone, she said, "I fold."
"The winner is this lady here." The dealer saw her forfeit and pushed the chips in the pot to Lisa with his ruler.
Lisa won 14,000 dollars in one go, it couldn't be more satisfying...
"What cards did you have?" The woman deeply inhaled and threw her cigarette butt onto the ground. Stepping on it with force, she begrudgingly asked Lisa.
Lisa smiled and turned her cards up with her slim fingers, dropping the jaws of everyone around.
It was only an eight and a nine...
It was so much less than her opponent, but she was brave enough to place a ten thousand dollar bid. Was she looking for death?
"What? Eight and nine, you..." The woman was jumping with rage.
If she had known that the girl had so few points, she would have raised with everything she had. She gave up at the key moment with the large numbers she had, only because she thought that Lisa had a straight flush.
"You had so few points, how could you be so confident?" The man wearing glasses was speechless, and he asked Lisa in a hushed tone.
"My self-confidence wasn't based on my points, but rather on the fact that the woman wasn't brave enough to follow, because she thought I had a straight flush." Carefully packing up her chips into the bag, Lisa's mood was busting through the roof.
"I'm gonna die from anger, what a shame," the woman complained.
The bald man looked at Lisa with respect, "That was daring of you. Let's play another round."
"No, I have to switch tables now. You've seen my tactics, it won't be fun for me to keep playing here." Smiling, Lisa rose from the table.
She wasn't actually afraid to continue playing, because even if she did, they would still lose.
Although they were all older than Lisa, they couldn't hold their composure and showed their emotions overtly.
Seeing their changes in expression was enough for Lisa to guess the approximate value of their cards, it wasn't challenging at all.
She was just trying her luck though, it wasn't great. The good thing was that Lisa had a quick brain and won using psychological tactics.
"Yo, girl, you're too daring. Sit with me and we can win everything off of them." At some point, Bang Chan walked up behind Lisa and began watching her. To be frank, he was sincerely worried for Lisa.
If that woman was a little gutsier and raised ten thousand, then Lisa would've suffered a crushing defeat, right?
The girl had the guts to gamble, no wonder Jimin liked her so much, she was indeed likable.
"Sorry, I don't like working with others," softly smiling, Lisa straight up rejected Bang Chan's invitation to join forces.
Then, she walked towards another table...
"Eh... This girl's too bold..." Bang Chan's face filled with loneliness.
He was counting on Lisa to win big since his luck today was quite bad. He lost both rounds he played. If he kept on losing, he would probably be eliminated before the day ends.
Lisa circled around and finally found Chaeyoung. Looking at her chips, Lisa almost fainted.
"Miss Chae, do you know that you're close to being eliminated?" Sitting down beside her, Lisa hopelessly reminded her.
"I can't do anything about my luck being bad." There was a bitter smile on Chaeyoung's face.
The hosting party ruled that no outside help was permitted, and everyone must play for themselves, so Chaeyoung became the first sacrifice.
She couldn't get Lisa to help her, so she could only try her own luck. It was unknown whether her opponent was too strong or her luck was just too bad.
Her original stash of a hundred thousand dollars was almost gone, having dwindled to less than twenty thousand...
"What should I do? Help me think of ways to get back up, please?" Chaeyoung held Lisa's hands.
"I can't help you, it's fine if you lose and get eliminated. You didn't really think that you'd win the 'Gamble God' title, did you?" Lisa felt like it's alright if she lost, she could become a spectator and not have to worry or stress over things.
"But... the stupid cop will make fun of me for sure," Chaeyoung worriedly said.
"Haha... he won't because he's not doing good either. I suppose he'll be eliminated along with you."
"Really? Haha, that's great, I don't have to worry anymore." She was dragging down Bambam with her and knowing that he would lose too lightened Chaeyoung's mood.
Lisa went back to Jungkook and stood beside him for a little while, but she had no reason to worry about him.
He won so much that his bucket was full, while the three other players at Jungkook's table basically lost everything.
In less than an hour, he won more than thirty thousand. He stood up and put his arm around Lisa's waist, pulling her close.
"Doll, how did you do?"
"I only won fourteen thousand." Lisa smiled.
"No worries, we're not in a rush. We still have more than an hour, let's go get a drink."
Then, Jungkook, with Lisa nestled in his arms, walked to the resting area off by the side and ordered two cups of coffee.
Bambam and Chaeyoung already lost all they had and were watching the scenery on the sidelines...
Bambam said, "That couple is completely godlike, they went to get coffee before time was up."
Chaeyoung replied, "Unlike us, they're certain that they will win."
Bambam said, "Then did you have time to get any rich boys on your hook?"
Chaeyoung snapped back, "What hook? My table was full of grandmas and old men."
Bambam laughed...
Chaeyoung said, "What the hell are you laughing about? Does your mom know that your laughing point is horribly low?"
Lisa and Jungkook sat for a little while before getting up again. "Let's go, we have less than half an hour left. Let's play another round before it ends."
Lisa nodded, putting her black glasses back on before they split up.
This time, Lisa picked a table where her opponents had relatively more chips.
The three other players were all young men, probably all sons of rich families.
"Hey hey, it's a young girl. This should be interesting," someone said.
"Don't sit here, they're all very good," a middle-aged man behind her kindly reminded.
Lisa turned her head to thank him, "Thanks, but... I like playing poker against stronger players, it's more interesting that way."
"You're brave, little girl. I approve of you," the male opponent opposite of her smiled and said.
Lisa didn't say much more, she simply took out all the chips she had and put it on the table. It wasn't much, only a little more than a hundred and ten thousand, but it wasn't a small amount either.
"You can deal now, we don't have much time left," Lisa looked up and said to the dealer. She didn't want to chit-chat because it was a waste of time.
The dealer nodded and began dealing...
This time, Lisa had relatively good luck. Her visible cards were both kings.
The man opposite of her had a slightly larger value, as he had two aces.
The other two players folded, and the value of the chips in the pot reached about fifty thousand.
"The girl's about to lose, her opponent probably has three aces," a spectator behind her calmly analyzed the situation.
"Yeah, the girl has big cards too, but her luck is not as good," another man said.
Lisa didn't speak and silently looked at the table...
The dealer dealt for the third time, and her opponent got another ace, causing the crowd to gasp...
He had three aces in view, it was the largest possible value one could have!
As for Lisa, she got a jack. Lisa had two kings and a jack whereas her opponent had three aces.
The young man laughed out loud and threw in fifty thousand chips in a satisfied manner, "I'll raise fifty thousand this time. Little girl, are you brave enough to follow?"
Lisa's face showed conflicted emotions for a bit, it looked like she was thinking...
"Girl, stop thinking. Even if you have three kings, you would still have less than him. You'll suffer a crushing defeat."
"What if he only has two eights hidden?" Lisa asked.
"Hahaha... Are you joking? How could I have two eights?" The man arrogantly laughed.
Just when everyone thought Lisa would fold, she pushed in all her remaining chips, which was about ninety thousand dollars.
She only said two words, "All in."
"Are you crazy?" the spectators fell into an uproar, thinking that Lisa had lost her mind.
"Are you sure you want to go all in?" The man was about to jump with joy, he had never seen a more idiotic woman.
She even bet that he had two eights, the smallest cards. He didn't, he had a jack and a queen, which were still relatively valuable cards.
So, he thought that the girl was going to lose for sure...
"I'm sure," Lisa gave a firm answer.
The man immediately matched with about ninety thousand dollars worth of chips.
"I'll go all in with you..."
The dealer calmly looked at the two players and said, "Please show your cards."
The man couldn't hold his ground and flipped his cards, showing a jack and a queen.
Added onto that were three aces.
Lisa's mouth formed a smile as she showed her cards.
Everyone's jaws dropped...
It was two kings, and Lisa already had two kings and a jack shown.
Although the man had the greatest value with three aces, Lisa had four kings.
It was completely unexpected...
"Holy fuck, four kings! What in the world..." The spectators were all excited.
The man across from her was shocked speechless and looked at Lisa with a pale face. "Impossible, she cheated!"
The dealer slowly said, "Sir, please remain calm. The cards are all provided by us, the hosting party. There are no issues, and all guests who entered Cloud Hall went through high-tech scanners. Cheating isn't possible since nobody brought in any cards."
"How could this be... how?" The man was dumbfounded; he fell back to his chair and kept repeating the same sentence.
The most infuriating thing was that he thought the girl had no backing since she was appearing to be very conflicted just now. If it were anyone else, they would be bursting through the roof with arrogance when they saw four kings in their hand. However, Lisa was not like that, as she thought that she would scare her opponent into a small bid if she acted too confident. She faked a conflicted expression and successfully muddled her opponent's analytical abilities, winning everything.
The dealer pushed two hundred and fifty thousand chips in front of Lisa with his ruler...
Lisa slowly opened the bag she brought along with her and put all the chips in.
She then rose slowly and left the table...
"This girl is too pro," the two other opponents lamented.
It was a good thing that they folded early. Otherwise, they would've lost everything as well...
"Does anyone know her? Who is she?" one of the men asked.
Since all the guests on the cruise were local celebrities, most people knew each other. However, they had never seen the girl who wore black-rimmed glasses and a mickey mouse sweater, so they were quite shocked.
Most people expressed that they didn't know her, which increased the mystery behind her identity.
When she got back to Jungkook again, he had already finished his battle and was smoking on the couch with a million dollars worth of spoils.
Seeing Lisa walk up, he pulled her down so she was sitting on his lap, treating her with adoration.
"How much did you win?" Jungkook gently smiled and asked her.
"Not much." Lisa modestly smiled.
"How much is not much?"
"Only two hundred thousand, it's not even one-fifth of what you have."
"You don't need much, just enough for you to advance."
"There's no meaning in advancing, I won't win anyways."
"Who said that?" smiling, Jungkook asked.
"Do I have to say it? I'll never win with you here." Lisa pouted her mouth, looking as if she had been wronged.
"I'll just give you first place."
"No, I want you to win it."
"Why?"
"I'll be happier if you got the first place because nobody knows who I am, there's no point if I win. As for you, you represent JC, and if you win, it'll help with JC's reputation as well as your own reputation."
"How can your small brain move so quickly? You leave no ground for other people to stand on."
"If I am not smart, I wouldn't have married you, right?" Lisa replied.
The two looked at each other and smiled...
Closeby, Jimin silently looked as the scene unfolded with his chips, which were worth more than a million dollars.
"Hey... you shouldn't have come, you have no interest in becoming the gambling god, and you don't care about the prize anyway. You're just here to suffer motion sickness..." Taehyung complained.
That was right, Jimin suffered from motion sickness on water...
However, he got on the cruise ship anyways, just to see the face of a certain somebody.
"Don't talk crap..." After coldly speaking, Jimin turned around to leave Cloud Hall with an unpleasant expression.
After two hours of battle, having lost all their chips, Bambam and Chaeyoung were both stuffing their faces with food now.
Those who only won a little were eliminated as well, and the remaining fifty advanced to the second round of competitions tomorrow.
"Kook, do you know what are we playing tomorrow?" Lisa excitedly asked.
"Probably fight the landlord, a game of Chinese origin."
"Are you sure you're not mistaken?" Lisa felt like it was a stretch, how could they play a lame game like that at such a big international event?
"Who knows? I was just guessing." Jungkook smiled.
After returning to their room, Jungkook took out his laptop and held a video conference with Assistant Lee.
Lisa wanted to go find Chaeyoung, but then she realized that she may be disrupting the couple.
Standing outside the door, Lisa was conflicted. That was when she saw Taehyung headed in her direction...
"Lisa, can you come and take a look at Jimin?"
"What's wrong with him?" Seeing the anxiety in Taehyung's expression, Lisa felt uneasy.
"He's seasick, and he's throwing up a lot."
"Seasick?" Lisa was a little astonished, but without another word, she followed Taehyung into Jimin's room.
They belonged to the highest class of guests, so their rooms were all located on the most luxurious floors and were executive suites.
They were on the same floor as well, so they arrived after walking a few hundred meters and turning a few times.
When Lisa walked in, Jimin was hunched over the toilet in the washroom and throwing his guts out...
"Jimin, I got Lisa... oh, wait, no, I got the godlike doctor for you."
After Taehyung finished speaking, Jimin was pulled back to reality. He was leaning against the toilet, looking weak and ruined with a pale face.
However, surprise and happiness appeared the moment he saw Lisa, though it was very brief.
"Why are you here?" Struggling, he forced himself up and wiped his mouth with some tissue.
"I heard that you're seasick." Lisa patiently looked at him.
Jimin nodded, grabbing the pack of cigarettes from the counter and putting one in his mouth.
Before he could light it, Lisa dashed over, grabbed it from him, and threw it into the garbage can.
"Uh... What are you doing?" Jimin was a little stunned.
"Given your lack of common sense, I don't know how you survived to today. A seasick person would only make their conditions worse by smoking, because the smell of smoke irritates the brain and senses, causing more severe reflux."
Jimin, "-_-"
Taehyung, "Listen to the doctor."
Jimin, "She's not a doctor, just a nurse, okay?"
Lisa, "I see that you still have the energy to talk back to me, I guess you don't need my help then?"
At that, Lisa turned to leave...
"Eh Eh Eh... That's not what I meant, don't go, I... I'm really very seasick," Jimin spoke in a soft tone for the first time, not because he actually wanted Lisa to treat his sea-sickness, but because he wanted her to stay a bit longer.
Lisa paused in her steps. Turning around angrily, she pulled on Jimin's shirt and yanked him onto the big bed in the bedroom.
She pulled out a small bottle of essential balm from her little purse, applied some to her fingertips, and lightly pressed on a pressure point on Jimin's temple.
When Jimin's head came into contact with Lisa's fingertips, he immediately felt an electric shock through his entire body.
That mysterious feeling, that feeling of nervousness, that feeling of extreme excitement...
"Ahem... I'll just make myself scarce." Taehyung motioned to leave.
"You don't need to leave, I'll take him outside for some fresh air." Lisa tapped Jimin's right temple and then proceeded to drag him out of the room.
5 meters from Jimin's room was a hallway that led directly to the deck.
Lisa dragged him all the way to the deck to enjoy the comfortable ocean breeze, and as expected, Jimin began to feel a lot better...
"When you're seasick, you can't eat too much food. You should maintain a half hungry condition, and try to avoid any irritating smells, including seafood and cigarettes. You can make your symptoms better by coming out for some fresh air, and get the front desk to send up some medicine. Although it won't be super effective, it's still better than nothing."
Lisa said a lot, but Jimin didn't remember a single thing...
Because he was too busy looking at Lisa's profile...
Lisa was no longer wearing her glasses at this point, and the sea breeze blew onto her delicate face; the corner of her eyes appeared to have gained a different kind of charisma.
Jimin had a crazy thought, he wanted to hug her, then kiss her eyes.
But he was scared because he was afraid that once he overstepped, he wouldn't be able to get even half a step near her again.
"Did you remember everything I just said?"
Jimin, "-_-"
"Why are you staring off into space like an idiot?" Lisa glared at Jimin.
"I'm... I'm not."
"Did you get everything that I said?"
"Yeah."
"Repeat it back to me," Lisa said in all seriousness.
Jimin, "-_-"
"Yo girl, you're playing me on purpose, aren't you? How is it possible for me to repeat that long spiel of yours, I'm not a playback machine," Jimin complained on purpose.
"Forget it, it's a waste of my breath to speak too much to you," Lisa sighed slightly.
Then, she asked Jimin, "I don't get it, don't you know that you get seasick? Why did you come aboard in the first place? Are you so bored that you had to get involved? You're not in need of any money, the prize money shouldn't be of any temptation for you."
"Ahem... I um... It's a hobby of mine," Jimin said purposely.
"You like to gamble?" Lisa frowned.
"No, I like to be where the party is."
Lisa, "-_-"
Jimin's reply left her at a loss for words. Risking his health to be a part of the party... Although she couldn't empathize with seasickness, she knew that it was a feeling worse than death. People usually felt as if they were going to throw up their organs.
That kind of feeling was almost like one was going to go to heaven...
"Fine, anyways, be careful, drink some ice water if you feel uncomfortable so you can control it. Don't move around too much, and don't eat too many random things."
Lisa then turned around to leave...
"Lisa." He suddenly yelled out, unwilling to let her go.
Lisa turned around to look at Jimin...