First bets

"Although I haven't a clue about what they were talking about, I can guess that they weren't very savoury characters"

"No, they're infamous for forcing new players to go through the gauntlet so they can make very quick returns"

"The gauntlet?"

"Well there's a wide variety of games around here"

"I can see that"

"And the gauntlet is an arena style game where people bet on if someone will successfully complete it or if they will suffer any manner of injuries, with betting on specific injuries paying better than any major ones"

*So its sort of like horse racing in that regard*

"How many people manage to complete the gauntlet?"

"Its actually quite a few in every rotation, but humans like yourself have an abysmal record, which is likely why they picked you"

"So they don't do it to everyone, story of my life right there" although he said this quite jovially his face gave off a hint of sadness that the man in front could clearly pick up on as his face shifted to be sadder as well, not that Noah noticed he, he was a blackjack player not a poker player, he had very little emotional body language knowledge.

"No, but you also need to know that contracts aren't just lawfully binding here, if you don't keep your side of the deal, you get teleported someplace else which no one has returned from"

Noah grimaced at this information since it meant that he could no longer sign contracts and then renege on them, nor could he use a false name, both tactics that he had used before to swindle others out of money to gamble alone with before he hit his winning streak.

A few seconds of silence followed in which Noah use to get a better look at the man in front of him, he was wearing all green apart from his shorts which were a bright red giving off a weird tropical vibe that didn't seem to fit with the casino's whole atmosphere and made him a very standout-ish character.

His skin was the same deathly pale as the dealer that he had seen just before, his face as soft as a young woman's, hair about as long as one of Noah's arms and his ears as sharp as a broadsword, `damn, that's the second non-human I've seen today, or is it?`

He didn't really care enough to wonder about whether or not the people he had seen today had been human or something else.

"Well I'll be off, I've got to make chips somehow"

"What game are you going to play?"

"Just an elven card game, its not really possible to translate it through any means, including the casino's language barrier"

"Why not try blackjack?"

"Never heard of it, plus I'm not playing a game that someone random told me about"

"Well why not come with me and I'll teach you while you watch, after I go to my room and freshen up"

He had only just remembered that he had yet to actually visit his room.

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm going to have to pass on that one"

"Alright"

he was a little sad that he had failed to convert someone else to loving blackjack as much as him but to each their own.

"Oh by the way, you get forced to rotate around the games here and the different gambling halls after a set amount of time or chips spent, so don't think you can only get by by knowing a single game" that was the last thing the man said before he walked off back into the crowd of games and gamblers disappearing from Noah's view.

20 minutes later and Noah was sat on his bed, the comfort of which he hadn't felt for a very long, it was as if he was sitting on a cloud that stretched just the length of his height.

It felt like everything in the room had been personalised towards him specifically, the fridge contained his favourite foods that made up a Sunday roast, call him old fashioned but he liked the simplicity of it.

The desk had several items on it, a deck of cards that he could use to practice, a pen and paper and the picture of him and his son that he held dear, speaking of which he hadn't even been able to say goodbye to anyone, not that many would care now.

Just the act of seeing the photo was enough to get Noah motivated once more *I'll get you back* was the thought that crossed his mind, even if he didn't know what he could get for playing the games here and winning chips he had a feeling that the rewards could be anything he could want.

But all that could wait, for he had to win first and collect his prize second, it worked like that in all facets of life much to the hardship of that life that could come about because of pure luck.

He had washed himself and glossed his hair with gel once more to give it its distinctive symmetrical look that had taken him years to master, for some reason he felt as energetical as he had when he was young *possibly just an effect of the storybook unfolding before me*.

With that thought in his head he stepped out into the hotel floor of the casino, the red velvet turning into a monotony for his eyes too look at, as if sensing this feeling of his the carpet started to shift colours in front of his eyes, going from a deep and rich red into a luscious Tyrian purple, `Holy sh*t, that might be the coolest thing I've seen so far`.

Incidentally Noah didn't really care about being able to talk with different races to his own, he cared more of the vanity and decor of a room, seeing the lack of need to remove the carpet to change its colour as a marvel of technology that the creator of which deserves a Nobel prize for.

He also didn't care much for anything inside of the room other than the cards, which he would use to practice his card counting and remind himself of the many variations such as a 16 vs 10 which he personally knew like the back of his hand but it was good to be prepared, the rest of the inside included some games consoles from every generation and a tv that he would probably only use to watch sport on.

When he returned to the gambling floor he started his way down with a determination visible from miles away, he walked with an almost machine like focus, making sure to bypass all the other tables, this is when it dawned on him, what if there weren't any blackjack tables in the casino, `No I can't afford to think like that`.

And so he started yet another journey of wandering, this time though he found what he was looking for in due time, a section of tables marked by the sign *Blackjack* oh what a beautiful site that was to Noah who wanted to jump with joy at his discovery but held himself back.

He decided not to join a table immediately though and instead waited for one of them to re-shuffle their deck and start a new shoe which took longer than the journey to discover this land of beauty, but eventually a table in the centre started shuffling and he joined nearly immediately noticing that there were several betting squares per person to allow for splitting and other sorts of additional bets.

Moving quickly he sat in the centre of the table to allow him ease of viewing the dealer's cards to help with keeping the running and true counts.

"Hi there, would you happen to be new to this game?" looking to his left where the voice came from he saw a seemingly familiar face but couldn't put his finger on it, it was a woman of average height, her clothing was loose and baggy looking like she had come straight out of the 70s or 80, her hair was bunched up into a ponytail at the back, she had bright blue eyes that looked as if the sky had been implanted into that small space, in other words to anyone else she would have looked absolutely stunning, but to Noah the game was more important than silly thoughts about other people, he needed to keep the count which meant trying to keep as few distractions as possible.

"No, no need I am personally quite experienced with how the game works"

"Oh, ok, sorry for disturbing you" she slinked into a smaller posture and looked to be quite embarrassed about it, but Noah paid no heed as the first cards were being dealt.

The hands went as follows:

Noah's: K,2

Others: 5,6, 4,3, 10,7, k,10

Dealer's face-up: 7

This lead to a count of +1 then he remembered something crucial

"Dealer, how many decks are we playing with?"

"4"

He almost forgot to get the number of decks for the true count, that could have proven disastrous later on down the road, so instead of the count being +1 it was +0.25 which he would count as neutral in advantage and so would only bet small amounts.

Since the count starts at neutral he had put 50 down as a safety bet, others were betting insane amounts at the start, one had put 700 down on the king and 10, but that was a safe bet for the dealer has to fold when they hit 17 or above.

The order of play went from right to left, so first was the woman who had tried to teach how the game was played, she had the hand of a 5 and 6, this was a promising hand as any 10 value card would take her to 21.

"Hit or fold?"

"Hit"

`the sensible choice, at least the people on the table sort of know what they're doing` he wasn't sounding so polite in his head, but he was a bit of a experience discriminator.

This didn't show on his face as he watched keenly on the next card to be drawn.

...It was an ace, the poor girl had just pulled the worst card she could have at that moment *poor lass* even Noah felt sorry for her, she had practically been given a winning hand and it had been snatched away by some unseen force.

But he still kept count which was now perfect 0, fully neutral once more.

"Hit me"

She didn't even wait for the dealer to ask her, her annoyance evident, `Fair enough, even I would feel like punching something`, despite how he sounded he was not a very patient person and could change his attitude at the drop of a hat which he had done on many occasions and gotten himself into many spots of bother because of it.

The card gods were most likely laughing at the poor soul that had just received that card, it was a 2, bringing her to 14 and the count back to what it was.

Noah couldn't decide if that pull was worse than getting a bust, since at least with a bust you weren't too humiliated afterwards, the 2 just felt like rubbing salt into a wound that had been opened by the ace.

"Hit or fold"

This time the question took her a solid minute to decide upon, on the one hand she could stick and hope that the dealer bust, on the other if that was a 10 value card that was turned over she would immediately lose her bet to incredibly unfortunate circumstances.

"H-Hit"

Uneasiness practically dripped from her voice as she said those lines her face being pointed directly down as if shielding her view from some horrific event taking place in front of her.

As luck would have it she pulled a 5 bringing her total to 19 and the true count to 0.5.

"STICK" she practically screamed this with joy audible and her eyes lighting up as she sat back and breathed out heavily.

"Now then sir, hit or fold"

"Hit".