CH 53: Nothing's Like Being Rich

"A-Ali, isn't that too much?" Crowler asked, wiping the sweat off his face :"I-I mean your DP... getting some DP as prize is something, but isn't having it multiplied a bit too much? Especially yours?!" But Ali just casually checked his nicely trimmed nails, blowing on them :"I'm taking on the dorms of the academy, you know? I think that's a reasonable reward."

"W-well, yeah, b-but..." Crowler stuttered. With a sigh, Ali put his arm around his shoulder, whispering :"Listen, the only reason why I couldn't get this kind of a reward is if the Chancellor didn't let it happen. But he doesn't need to know how much DP I have. I doubt he personally keeps a tab on a student's DP, so there's no way he'd expect a student to have as much DP as I do.

And that's why he will agree to this. After all, which student is ballsy enough to challenge the entire academy by himself? He'd definitely agree to almost any reward. You just need to inform him beforehand so YOU won't get into trouble for giving me so much DP, and he'll definitely agree."

"W-will it really work out like that...?" Crowler asked, unsure. But the noiret just smiled kindly :"Of course! I'm sure he'd agree even if he knew how much DP I have. But we're just playing it safe. You know, better safe than sorry."

"W-well... alright, I'll do it. Let's see if it will work out like you said." The professor finally gave in, causing his student to smile brightly :"Fantastic! Then I'll leave it to the reliable and trustworthy professor Dr Crowler himself." Making him puff out his chest proudly :"Of course, just leave it to me! I'll be going to see to it then. Wait for the good news of your amazing teacher."

But just before he could walk away with a prideful stride, Ali's hand on his shoulder stopped him. Looking back confused, he was met with the happy smile that smelled trouble :"Also, be sure to come to me so we can duel, alright? After all, we're talking about multiplying my DP. It would be a total waste if I couldn't raise it as much as possible, right?"

"Ahh..." The poor professor whimpered pitifully, a fearful look in his eyes as the noiret chuckled gently, still smiling kindly :"Be sure not to be late, okay? And don't try to get out of it by dragging it either. Otherwise, your ass is grass. Okay, dear Dr Crowler?"

In the end, Crowler could only walk away depressingly with slumped shoulders. But after sensing Ali's warning gaze on him, he quickly started running. He couldn't stop cursing himself and that Slifer slacker for getting him into this mess.

Walking back with a sinister smirk, he slumped on his chair as Alexis sighed :"Geez, you really like to cause trouble, don't you? What was that about?" But Zane was the one to answer :"It was actually a pretty good move on his part. It was because of the odds of the bet, right?" Receiving a smug smirk and a nod, the older boy continued :"As I thought."

Alexis :"As you thought what? Mind filling me in the plan?"

Zane :"It's obvious, really. There are two reasons as to why the odds of you losing are so. The reputation and skill of the Paradox Brothers, and the students' hate for Ali. What he did now was piss them off and make them hate him even more. Making it so even more students will bet against you two. Causing the odds against you to go even higher. Meaning the DP you'll gain will increase even higher. Even a single increase in betting multiplies what you'll get, you know? Especially since the odds of you winning are 1 to who knows how much."

Alexis :"Oooh, I get it now. Yeah, that is pretty smart, actually. But, Ali, I'm not doubting your skills, but are you sure you'll win? There are around 300 students in just the Obelisk Blue dorm, males and females combined, you know?"

Ali, smirking :"Huh, don't worry, sweet cheeks. I'm gonna be having fun with the Slifers, but with the other two dorms, both will end with a single turn."

Jasmine :"Well, aren't you confident? But why didn't you dismiss us two too from the duel?!"

Mindy, pouting :"Right, you did it with Lexi! That's not fair!"

Ali :"Are you Alexis?"

Jasmine/Mindy :"Huh? N-no?"

Ali, smirking :"Then shut up. Zane is my best pal, Jaden is my best friend, and Alexis is my student. These idiots are the closest people to me. Of course I'd make exceptions."

Alexis :"Hey, don't call me an idiot."

Ali smiled teasingly :"Then do you want me to call you Dorogaya (Dear)? Ili ty by predpochla, lyubimaya? (Or would you rather sweetheart?) Mozhet, lyubimyy luchshe? (Maybe beloved is better?)" Before chuckling as she kicked him under the table with a blush and a glare.

Mindy, pouting :"You're playing favorites here. Aren't we friends too?"

Ali :"Nope, you're acquaintances at best. And of course I'd play favorites. I always play favorites."

Jasmine :"Wow, mean."

Ali, shrugging :"I'm just telling the truth."

"Anyway, what was with the reward you asked for? I feel like there's more to it than what you let on." Zane asked, drinking from a bottle of water. (A/N: BO'OH'O'WA'ER!) But instead of answering, the noiret simply took out his PDA, and went to DP.

Knowing Ali, the girls expected Zane to either be shocked, but they didn't expect him to just turn to the side and spurt out the water he just drank. "W-what the heck?!" He coughed as Ali slapped his back. Calming down, he turned to his best pal :"What the hell is that number?! Have you robbed a DP bank or something?!"

Ali, laughing mischievously :"Hehehehe."

Alexis, frowning :"What's wrong? Is something the matter?"

Zane :"His DP is what's wrong! Seriously, what the hell have you done?! How many zeroes was that?!"

Ali, smirking :"Calm your tits, sugar tits. This is why I've been so excited since yesterday."

Alexis, drinking water :"Excited about what?"

Zane :"About having 26,000,000 DP?"

Alexis, spurting out the water she just drank :"26 what?!"

Jasmine/Mindy :"Wait, what?!"

Ali :"Hehehehe, yup! Remember how I asked you to find out how much DP dueling a teacher and the Vice-Chancellor would fetch?"

Zane :"Yeah, 500,000 DP."

Alexis/Jasmine/Mindy :"Five hundred...?!"

Zane :"Wait, don't tell me..."

Ali :"Yup, This is because I started dueling Dr Crowler since yesterday instead of random Obelisks."

Zane :"What? Then how much did you have before that?"

Ali, whispering :"About 1,300,000 DP."

Zane, whispering :"That's still too much. Wait, so you got 25,000,000 DP by dueling Dr Crowler?! How many times did you duel the poor bastard?"

Ali :"I've set our schedule as 50 duels per day. 500,000 x 50 = 25,000,000. My greedy ass would be an idiot if I didn't take full advantage of him."

Zane :"50 duels? And he agreed?"

Ali, smirking :"He couldn't not agree."

Zane :"Let me guess, you've got dirt on him."

Ali :"Yup, some major ones."

Zane :"Explains it. Also explains why you asked for that kind of a reward. Multiplying that much by five... and by each duel you win... damn..."

Ali :"Right? Multiplying my DP, 26,300,000 by 5 is going to be one hell of a cash in one night."

Zane :"Tell me about it. That's seriously a lot."

Ali, laughing sinisterly :"And that's not all. I told Dr Crowler to come to me after solving everything. I'm going to raise my DP even more."

Zane :"To how much? Isn't 26,000,000 already enough? That's 2.6 million dollars."

Ali :"Nope, it's not. At least not for me. And I'm going to raise my DP to 100,000,000 before the matches."

Zane :"... Poor Dr Crowler."

Alexis :"Holy shit..."

Jasmine :"That's... way too much... isn't it?"

Mindy :"I don't think any student has ever had that much DP before... how much will that be if you win the matches...?"

Ali, smirking and whispering :"It will go from 26.3 million to 100 million before the duels, then to 500 million after I beat the Slifer Red dorm, then to 2.5 BILLION after I beat Ra Yellow dorm, then to 12.5 billion after I beat Obelisk Blue dorm! Hahahaha I'll literally get a billion dollars from beating some weaklings!"

"Holy son of a bitch..." Zane whispered, leaning back and rubbing his mouth, as shocked as the girls :"That's seriously an unfathomable profit in a single night..." But Ali's smirk simply widened :"And there's also the bet!" Causing him to groan even more :"Oh my god... you're going to get Seto Kaiba himself to come here and deal with you... there's also the DP you'll get from beating the students themselves..."

Ali :"Hehe~, yup! 300 students in Obelisk, 200 in Ra, and 30 in Slifer, males and females combined. That means 600,000 DP (300x2k) from the Obelisk Blue dorm, 200,000 DP (200x1k) from the Ra Yellow dorm, and 3,000 DP (30x100) from the Slifer Red dorm! 803,000 DP in total. It ain't much, but it's good I guess."

Alexis, face twitching :"800,000 is... good?"

Ali, shrugging :"Compared to 12 and a half billion, it's not even worth mentioning."

Zane :"Not true. Actually, the DP you'll get will be multiplied according to how many students you go against in a single turn. Since you'll go against 300, 200 and 30, then you need to multiply what you'll get from Obelisk dorm, Ra dorm and Slifer dorm."

Ali :"That'll be 180m from Obelisks, 40m from Ras, and 90k from Slifers. 240.09m in total. Pretty good I guess. Wait, why hadn't you told me that before?!"

Zane :"Why?"

Ali :"Then I would've dueled against multiple morons instead of a single one when dueling! Do you know how much more DP I'd have by now if I did that?"

Zane :"... Sorry, I didn't know either. I'm not a tag player, so I hadn't paid attention to it. I only found out recently."

Ali :"Eh, whatever I guess. It's already been done, and I'm already rich. And am going to become rich as fuck in a few hours. So, whatever."

Mindy :"... Al, you're really good at math, aren't you?"

Jasmine, confused :"He just said he's going to earn 12 billion DP, and that's what caught your attention?"

Mindy, giggling awkwardly :"I just wanted to point it out..."

Alexis :"Wait, then wouldn't betting not work? Isn't betting supposed to move with how much money is involved?"

Zane :"Normally, yes. The odds will move with which side has more money betted on it. If Ali put all 12.5b in the bet, then the odds will immediately crash. That would be the case normally. But here in Duel Academy, things are different. It's not the DP that determines the odds, it's the number of people that have betted.

Meaning even if he put in everything, the odds would still stay the same since it's decided by the number of people who've betted. If 50 students have betted on one side and 25 have betted on the other, the odds will be 2/1. If it's 100 to 25, it will be 4/1. That's why I said what Ali did just now was an amazing thing to do. Now, with how many people that have betted and will bet against you two, the odds simply will go higher."

Ali :"Now that I didn't know. But better for us anyway."

Zane :"Hell yeah. And since so many people will bet against you, I'm honestly curious as to how high the odds will go."

Ali :"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go and see how it will be before I start the DP grind with Dr Crowler."

Zane :"Are you planning to bet now?"

Ali :"No, I'm doing it next year. What do you think?"

Zane :"That's not what I meant, asshole. I was saying if you're going to pour in what you have now and what you'll get later, or wait and do everything in one go."

Ali :"Everything later. I can't lose any DP right now since that will be multiplied tonight."

Zane :"Good. Then let's go, everyone. Oh, should I call Syrus and Jaden to come with us? They may come across some trouble if they go by themselves."

Ali :"I was just about to tell you that. Yeah, call them. We'll meet them on the road. Now, let's go get rich."