Pain

After winning the annual race, Baccarat had met up with them to celebrate.

"Congratulations! Your first win was very impressive, I'm surprised that you guys were so much further ahead of the others. Impressive driving, Rei!" Baccarat said.

"Haha, thank you." Rei replied, nervously rubbing her nape.

"Also I lost the umbrella you gave me, sorry about that." Imai said.

"Don't worry, I can always get you another one. A better and luxurious one at that." Baccarat said with a wink.

"Ah, it's okay. I don't want to lose it again." Imai said with a chuckle.

"Anyway," Uta said, feeling annoyed. "Where are we going now? Are we going to keep playing?"

"Oh, that's right. Let's go to the VIP room where there's high risk and high return. A place where people participated in a special gamble that would make them billionaires." Baccarat said.

The three glanced at each other before nodding.

"Let's go."

"Wait a moment." Baccarat said.

She knocked on the elevator door a few times when a big head suddenly phased through the door. Imai was about to roundhouse kick it until Baccarat introduced who he was.

"This is Tanaka-san, the security guard of the casino." Baccarat said.

"Welcome, sururururururu." Tanaka said with a strange laugh.

"He can slip through anything using his Phase-Phase devil fruit ability." Baccarat said.

"Now, lend me your hands." Tanaka said.

Imai and the others linked hands and phased through the wall using Tanaka's ability. She thought it was quite useful especially if they were to break someone out of prison or a bank heist.

"Imai, you have a strange look on your face as if you want to do something bad. You're not thinking of anything like that, right?" Uta questioned, unintentionally seeing through Imai's intentions.

"It's not the first time I've seen it." Rei added.

"No, no. Of course not, we're here to have fun and relax." Imai said. "Anything, look at this place."

Inside the VIP room, there was a large golden paper bag holding up goldfish, and was hung up by strings in the ceiling. Along with that, there were women covered in gold, dancing on the table entertaining both genders.

Definitely a sight for the eyes.

Moreover, at the very bottom, there was a table with people sitting around the table, and were playing rolling dice.

"By a special gamble, you mean rolling dice?" Imai asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Imai, look! Even the navy is here!" Rei pointed out.

Sure enough, a man and a woman walked past them without batting an eye. Imai thought this was strange since the navy would always chase after her when they got the chance.

"Don't worry, this is a special location permitted by the World Government. There's a rule forbidding marines from touching the pirates. The same goes for the pirates too." Baccarat explained.

"Wow, the amount of power this place has is absurd. To be able to enforce these special conditions, is this the power of wealth.?" Imai questioned.

The drums had started to play as a man with an enormous torso and arms but disproportionately smaller legs appeared in the middle.

"Wow! What the hell did he eat to grow that big? But he skipped leg day everyday, what a turn off." Rei said with her shoulders slumped.

"Who cares about someone's size? Either way, we could still beat them up." Uta said.

"Calm down you two, we're here to have fun. Didn't you hear the rules of this place? No fighting."

"Okay, Imai."

"Yes, captain."

"Anyway, Baccarat. Would you mind explaining who he is?" Imai asked.

"Of course, his name is Dice. He's got a reputation as the champion of the underground deathmatch shows. He was so strong that he lost people to fight against. So we've appointed him as the dealer here." Baccarat said.

"I see, show using their fear of him to force the people into playing the game fairly or else they'll be punished. I guess I can see why people see him as scary." Imai said with a nod.

"Are you perhaps not scared of him? Not even a little intimidation?" Baccarat asked, she couldn't hide the surprise in her tone.

"Did you forget who I was? I'm the Fifth Emperor. The only person I'd fear is myself since I am the greatest of all." Imai siad.

"Imai, look!"

"Captain, he's picking both of them up at once!"

Unknown to her, Baccarat had an annoyed expression on her face.

Imai turned to watch Dice throw the two large dice in the air before lifting the big cup to catch the dice. He then turned the cup over with incredible power.

Dice jumped into the air and spun in the air before slamming his forehead against the cup made of steel. WIth a bang, the cup broke, and shattered into different pieces revealing the two dice.

Imai couldn't help but be surprised at the mobility of the man. She had thought his movements would be slow and focused solely on his brute strength. But still, what was the point of having the ax if he wasn't going to use it?

Suddenly, Imai felt a shiver down her spine as he watched the man's expression turn into joy. There were tints of pink on his cheek when his head bounced off the battle. The man was a masochist, an extreme one at that.

"Feels good!" Dice yelled with pleasure.

"Captain, I have a feeling that this guy is weird. When his head hit the steel, he seemed like he enjoyed it." Rei said, cringing.

"I saw that too. I don't want to beat him up anymore if he's going to make that expression when I start fighting him." Uta added.

"Yeah, he's what you call a masochist. And judging by his extreme ways, he's dedicated to that weird kink of his." Imai grimaced.

"And we have a winner!" the announcer said.

Finally, their bets had finished, and it was their turn to risk everything to return high.

Would their luck bless them with profits?

Or would betting their luck be their downfall?

There was only one way to find out.

"Let's gamble!"