Punishment

Felina originally wanted to say a few words to help Lizer, but Lizer gave her a look and blew softly by her fair, crystal-clear earlobe:

"Don't worry, he will be begging us to buy them in a moment."

Hearing this, Felina looked at Lizer with some doubt. Lizer smiled, held her in his arms, and explained:

"His card skills are too poor.

He will need our gold coins very soon!"

Lizer spoke at a moderate volume, but it was just loud enough for Fili beside him to hear.

This implied that he would soon lose everything. Fili glared at him fiercely and shouted harshly:

"If you don't know how to speak, boy, then shut your mouth!"

Lizer smiled, shrugged, and left Fili, heading to the nearby rest area to relax.

The people around Fili urged him to place his bets, so he could only glare at Lizer one last time before ignoring him.

Arriving at the rest area, a curious Felina asked Lizer:

"Hubby, how do you know Fili's card skills are bad?"

Lizer lay comfortably on the sofa, holding Felina and laughing:

"Give me a kiss, and I'll tell you."

Felina gave Lizer a charming eye-roll but still did as he asked and kissed him.

Satisfied, Lizer explained:

"Just now, he opened with a pair of Eighth-Ring Sorceries. At that time, he basically had the biggest hand.

He should have gone all-in or placed a heavy bet to increase the calling risk for the players with smaller hands who were hoping for a flush sorcery or a royal killer move. Instead, he placed the minimum bet.

Seeing such a small bet, the opponent would definitely call, even with a poor opening hand, because there was a chance for a royal killer move.

As a result, the other party got a royal flush at a very small cost and decisively raised the bet.

At this point, Fili should have known the other guy had a big hand.

But he still called! If he isn't stupid, who is?"

There was another hand where he had already drawn three Ninth-Ring Sorceries.

Suddenly raising the bet at this time would tell any fool that he had a big hand.

Several opponents with mediocre hands all folded.

As the cards continued to be revealed, he ended up with three Ninth-Rings and two Eighth-Rings, a super ultimate move second only to a royal killer move.

But because he didn't know how to bait them, he only won one round of minimum bets.

Playing this game with such a completely strategy-less approach, he would lose everything no matter how good his luck was!

Sure enough, it wasn't long before Fili's gold coins were completely wiped out.

He stared blankly at the pair of Ninth-Ring Sorceries and pair of Eighth-Ring Sorceries in his hand.

He clearly had a heavenly opening with a pair of Ninth-Rings, but he never expected the opponent to actually have a consecutive series of five, six, seven, eight, and nine continuous killer move combinations of the same element.

It was the largest combination of all sorcery card hands, winning away all of his remaining chips...

Dejected, he wanted to find an acquaintance nearby to borrow some gold coins.

But everyone was at the gambling tables, and there was an unlucky superstition that lending money to others meant lending away one's financial luck, so naturally, no one would lend to him.

Should he go borrow from the casino's loan sharks again?

He hesitated, then remembered the man and woman who had come looking for him earlier.

Although they made him jealous and annoyed, since they wanted his Silver-Ringed Trout, perhaps he could look for them.

Thinking of this, Fili had no choice but to walk toward the rest area where Lizer and Felina were.

Seeing them looking at him with half-smiles, Fili had to suppress his anger and laugh awkwardly:

"This young gentleman said earlier that you wanted my Silver-Ringed Trout. Do you think we can discuss the price?"

The market price for a Silver-Ringed Trout was twenty gold coins each. Will said Fili had six, which would be 120 gold coins.

But that was under normal circumstances, and times had changed.

If Fili had politely sold them to him earlier, it would have been fine, but now...

Lizer had already decided on a price. He looked at Fili, who was suppressing his anger and trying to curry favor, and smiled:

"80 gold coins for all 6!"

"You!"

Fili stood up abruptly, quite angry.

Lizer's price was too low!

Lizer took a sip of tea and said leisurely:

"Are you planning to go borrow from the loan sharks again?

For someone deep in debt like Wizard Fili, the compound interest must already be at the highest tier, right?

Or is Mr. Fili going to head to the market first to sell the Silver-Ringed Trout?

And wait a few days to see how long it takes to lose it all again?"

Pausing for a moment, Lizer continued:

"This is also a small punishment for your rudeness to me earlier."

Lizer had calculated it perfectly. The interest if Fili went to borrow from loan sharks would be exactly higher than 40 gold coins.

And what if Fili waited a few days to sell the Silver-Ringed Trout before coming back?

Gamblers always believe their fate will turn around in the very next round, and missed opportunities won't return!

Would he wait?

Was he willing to wait?

"You! You! You!"

Sure enough, Fili pointed at Lizer, his face flushed red, yet he neither made a move to attack nor stormed off.

After a moment, he sighed and shook his head:

"No, that's too low! Can you add a little more!"

Seeing Lizer still shaking his head, Fili wanted to slam the door and leave.

But he also felt it was impossible for him to keep losing today; things must reverse after reaching an extreme!

As long as he had a little more capital, he would definitely win!

Breathing heavily, he wanted to agree but felt unwilling. Several times he opened his mouth to agree but stopped.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and said:

"150 gold coins! I also have a Lightning Bolt sorcery rune model here, I'll sell it to you together!"

Lizer's eyes lit up upon hearing this; the Lightning Bolt spell was quite good.

Both he and Felina had seen Rice use it. Its speed was swift, making it basically very hard to dodge, and its power was relatively strong...

He thought about it and shook his head:

"I can give you 120 gold coins at most! Lightning Bolt is only worth 40 gold coins."

40 gold coins was the academy price Lizer had learned from Felina.

But in reality, you couldn't buy this sorcery rune model at this price on the outside.

Fili naturally refused, but he was somewhat unwilling to give up. After the two haggled back and forth, Fili suddenly said:

"Didn't you say my card skills are bad? Then your card skills must be very good!

How about we make a bet? You teach me your card skills and give me the 150 gold coins first.

If it proves that the card skills are useful, I will return 50 gold coins to you.

If the card skills are useless, then all 150 gold coins belong to me!"

Lizer looked at him with a half-smile; this guy actually had his eyes on his card skills.

However, Lizer used to be a master at Texas Hold'em, known as the little tyrant of his research institute.

This sorcery card game, which was somewhat similar to Texas Hold'em, was indeed not that difficult for him.

He thought about it. This way, he could save another 20 gold coins, so he casually agreed to Fili's proposal.

At the same time, they signed a contract as a guarantee; a gambler's words could never be easily trusted.

Next, Lizer explained the tricks to Fili:

Tricks like going all-in on pairs, testing the waters with straights, placing small bets for big moves, and slowly baiting with big hands.

Seeing that Fili was still somewhat doubtful, Lizer analyzed it for him from the perspectives of the psychological battle between players and the balanced equation of risk and reward.

Now Fili was finally convinced. This sorcery card game was indeed a psychological battle!

Carrying the 150 gold coins and the tricks Lizer gave him, Fili re-entered the card game from earlier, half-believing and half-doubting.

As expected, having made some preparations, Fili was no longer as easily read by his opponents as he had been moments ago. By utilizing Lizer's tricks, he continuously raked in chips at the card table.