At this moment, the Chips that the 'Chips Exchange Machine' had won were already neatly stacked by the mechanical arm inside, covered with a heavy transparent glass.
In that instant, Qin Yao had some thoughts, like what would happen if she directly snatched the Chips from the mechanical arm during a bet?
But she quickly dismissed the idea, because throughout the exchange process she was firmly locked in her seat, making it impossible to reach those Chips; moreover, 'Walkway' made it very clear that any behavior breaking the rules would definitely be punished with 'a reduction of visa time' or even 'deportation'.
Don't court death by touching the red line.
Leaving the small booth of the Chips Exchange, Qin Yao felt a brightness before her eyes as she greedily breathed in the fresh air.
Compared to that dark, cramped, somewhat suffocating narrow booth, the outside area was simply like paradise.
It was somewhat like a high-end bar or café lounge, with spacious sofas, exquisite coffee tables, and an old record player that was playing vinyl records; the graceful sounds added a touch of artistry to the whole scene.
The most spacious area featured two large gambling tables, each with 8 seats.
The booth of the 'Chips Exchange Area', on the other hand, was at the edge of the entire scene, with a dilapidated, crude exterior; the walls were rough, uneven concrete surfaces, stained with a lot of dirt, forming a completely different style.
At this time, the doors of other booths were also opening one after another.
To Qin Yao's surprise, the ones coming out were two familiar faces.
"Jiang He? Aunt Su! We're actually in the same game?"
Qin Yao's joy was palpable, as the people emerging from the adjacent booths were indeed acquaintances from Community 17, player number 2, Jiang He, and player number 8, Su Xiuqin.
"Yaoyao! I'm so happy to see you!" Jiang He looked quite delighted, even giving an excited hug.
"But... what's the situation?" Jiang He frowned and glanced at the only booth whose door hadn't opened.
Su Xiuqin pointed to the opposite side: "Hey, look! There are people over there too!"
Following Su Xiuqin's gesture, Qin Yao looked over to the other side of the gaming area and found that there were also four Chips Exchange booths from which four completely unfamiliar faces emerged one after another.
On Qin Yao's side, there were also four booths, but one had still not opened.
"Is there someone inside? Could it also be someone from our community? Why haven't they come out?"
Jiang He stepped forward to take a look; the booth door remained tightly locked, with the red sign meaning the internal lock hadn't been undone, thus couldn't be entered.
"Hello, is anyone there?"
Jiang He gently knocked on the booth door, but no response came.
Though the booths appeared crude, their soundproofing was excellent, as previously no external sounds were heard while everyone was inside.
"Could they be dead in there...?"
Jiang He's face changed, a thought like this flashed through her mind suddenly.
To exchange Chips, you need to draw blood. If there's excessive blood loss, fainting or even death is possible.
Su Xiuqin instinctively took a few steps away from the booth.
Qin Yao hastily said: "Jiang He, let's not worry about irrelevant things, the game isn't over yet.
"Look, the screen says we have to at least play a game with players from another community before we can leave."
Jiang He looked toward the two multi-player gambling tables in the center of the arena, noticing a large screen on the wall in front of them that clearly spelled out the game rules.
[Hello, players from Community 3 and Community 17, welcome to 'Blood Poker'.]
[Players who have exchanged Chips can proceed to the automatic gambling table in the center to play.]
[The game rules are still 'Simplified Three Card Brag'; the specific rules for multi-player games are slightly different. Detailed rules and hand rankings can be found on the gambling table's instructions.]
[The gambling table can automatically shuffle, deal, and collect cards according to the rules, helping you complete the game absolutely fairly and justly.]
[The player limit for multi-player tables is 2 to 8, and at least 'one player from another community' is required to start the game at each table.]
[The default ante for multi-player tables is 1000 Chips.]
[After the game starts, you must complete 10 rounds or exhaust all Chips to leave.]
[Any violent or illegal behavior during the game will result in immediate death penalties.]
[The game time is 90 minutes.]
[At the end of the game, Walkway will tally the number of Chips players have, and upon returning to the community, these Chips will be converted to corresponding visa time.]
[If by the game's end, you've not played with other players, you will be deducted 10,000 minutes of visa time.]
[Will you earn a great deal or lose it all?]
[The game has begun, good luck!]
The timer on the big screen had started counting down; the time now read 1:25:33, indicating the time previously spent in the Chips Exchange Area was also included in this one and a half hours.
Bright red numbers were constantly ticking, and although the "tick-tock" sound wasn't loud, it gave a sense of extreme urgency.
Jiang He realized something immediately and asked: "Yaoyao, Aunt Su, how many Chips do you have left? I have 19,000 left."
Qin Yao counted her Chips: "18,000."
Su Xiuqin clutched her Chips tightly: "I also have 18,000."
Clearly, this visa time was very precious to Su Xiuqin.
She currently had only 16 days of visa time remaining, and if she could take these Chips out, her remaining visa time could double.
"Did you all exchange 200ML of blood? And... placed a bet as well?" Jiang He asked.
Qin Yao and Su Xiuqin looked at each other and then nodded.
Since everyone had followed the same process when betting with the 'Chips Exchange Machine', it was easy to guess what exactly happened based on the remaining number of Chips.
The 1000 fewer Chips they had compared to Jiang He were obviously the result of two check and see bets.
Jiang He sighed: "How could you check and see? Such a gambler's mindset is no good.
"This game is clearly unfair, running immediately is the right move.
"A little curiosity or disbelief will cost you 500 solid bucks.
"But this loss is still acceptable; no one should be foolish enough to raise or keep gambling under these circumstances."
After saying this, she glanced at the booth that still hadn't opened, wondering what was going on inside.
Su Xiuqin sighed: "Understood, this money can just serve as a lesson..."
As someone who lives frugally, losing a thousand yuan for no reason felt utterly painful to her.
Qin Yao, however, didn't feel too bad, merely finding the game rules unfair: "The Chips Exchange Machine could clearly just take the Chips directly, yet it pretends to play two rounds with us."
Given the current odds, betting against the 'Chips Exchange Machine' was definitely the worst choice.
The Chips Exchange Machine drawing an extra card greatly increased the probability of forming a better hand, presenting an overwhelming advantage in this 'Simplified Three Card Brag' game.
"So what should we do now? Are we going to bet against those people?" Su Xiuqin felt somewhat helpless.
Qin Yao thought for a moment and said: "We probably still have to bet, right?
"If we don't, we will be directly deducted 10,000 minutes of visa time. While if we do, even if we lose all ten rounds of ante, it's still just 10,000.
"During this time, if we get any big hand, we can recover quite a lot."
Jiang He shook her head slightly: "It's not that simple.
"Situations at the gambling table change quickly, how can you be sure you've got a 'big hand'?
"There's something called a 'cooler,' which means you have a pretty good hand, but it just so happens someone else's hand is better.
"In that case, if you confidently raise, you could end up being wiped clean instead. In such instances, the losses might not just be 10,000 but everything."
Qin Yao was somewhat doubtful: "But isn't this a rare event? If we pass every time out of fear, then we can never win, right?"
Jiang He pondered for a moment seriously: "I think we should indeed sit at the gamble table, but we don't have to play entirely by the game rules.
"This game actually has a 'perfect strategy'."