Mage Manual-Chapter 180 - 160 Igula and Emi

Chapter 180: Chapter 160 Igula and Emi

Cramped, gloomy, messy.

Igula’s right side was a large cardboard box filled with more than twenty boxes of tissue paper, probably bought during a big sale. On top of the box, a cabinet-style heater and various temporarily unused household items were piled; to his left was a tightly shut door.

This was the storage room, and it had been his dwelling for the past five days.

The distinct feeling of hunger in his belly indicated that it was 18:00. Emi should be back soon to feed him.

Remembering the past few days’ life, Igula couldn’t help but sigh. Although he had achieved his goal and remained unscathed under the Crime Hunting Hall’s extensive search, the way he had accomplished it was rather special—he had been kept by Emi like a dog.

Like an actual dog, Igula tugged at the collar around his neck, feeling an inexplicable irony.

He had struggled to remove the chip collar from the back of his neck for freedom, yet now, for freedom, he willingly wore a real collar.

As for why Crime Hunting Hall Hunter Emi Lexus would shelter him, one had to trace back to the story of Igula’s part-time job at a mud café three years earlier.

Although males of Meiwa descent often work part-time in mud cafés, just as ogres with regular jobs might paint after work, Igula seldom did such—mainly because working in mud was too slow for money, and swindling was much more satisfying.

If Igula was willing to work part-time at a mud café, it could only mean one thing: the mud café provided convenience for his swindling pursuits.

‘Gambling Apocalypse’ was such a place, operating as both a mud café and a tea café. Just by the name, one might think it was a gambling den, which it indeed was. Customers entered and had to spend money to buy initial chips, participating in various gambling activities.

What set it apart from other casinos, though, was that it gambled on time of domination.

Customers could freely find a Croupier they favored to gamble against, with both sides using 60 minutes as their chips. If a customer won the 60 minutes of a Croupier, it meant they could dominate the Croupier for that time, and the Croupier had to comply with all kinds of customer demands; conversely, if the Croupier won the customer’s 60 minutes, then the Croupier could dominate the customer for that duration, and the customer had to accommodate the Croupier’s demands.

Yes, win or lose, the Croupier would still play around with the customer—hehe. After all, the customer’s chips were bought with real silver, and it wasn’t possible to send a customer home confused and not respect their needs. A store that didn’t respect customer demands would definitely close down.

Simply put, it was a mud café/tea café selling gambling as its attraction, but its business was much better than other themed cafes in the same industry—betting always proved to be the mechanism that best stimulated human impulses. Customers who won left feeling mentally and physically exhilarated, whereas those who lost and were played with by the Croupiers (who wouldn’t be polite) were also sparked with a competitive spirit, leading them to try again and thus ensuring numerous repeat customers.

Igula worked part-time in this place, naturally, for the ‘time of domination.’ He specifically targeted rich women, voluntarily approaching and enticing them to challenge, and then smoothly winning their 60 minutes.

Once in the room, Igula could use the ‘time of domination’ as a pretext to make the rich women swear oaths to him, such as “treat me well for a lifetime” or “give me your most precious possession.”

The rich women, thinking it was a Croupier’s special fetish, readily agreed, only to be bound by Igula’s Technique Spirit Contract, forcing them to uphold their casually spoken oaths and even preventing them from calling the police, as that would not constitute “treating Igula well for a lifetime.”

These customers were not only swindled out of their fortunes by Igula but he also refused to mate with them, which was quite a lack of professional ethics.

In addition to the wealthy women, occasionally rich men would also come to him, and Igula naturally welcomed them all. He even made them take oaths like “never have sexual desire for anyone but me in the future,” helping them completely cure the human flaw of being tempted by beauty to lose money.

In this way, swindling wealth but not seducing, Igula greatly promoted the redistribution of wealth through his part-time job, even surpassing his main profession in efficiency at one point. But the phrase “all plain sailing” would never appear in a Swindler’s life, and one evening, Igula met Emi.

To gain control, Igula, who had a high winning rate, quickly earned the title of ‘Gambling Master’ in that shop. Therefore, there were gamblers who didn’t lust after Igula’s body but simply wanted to measure their gambling skills against his, and Emi was one of them.

When Emi entered the shop, she didn’t hide the traits of her Moon Shadow Clan. Originally, Igula didn’t want to provoke this privileged class, but Emi insisted on choosing him, and no one else wanted to compete with the Moon Shadow, so Igula had no choice but to submit to her allure and take her on as a customer.

Emi was skilled at gambling, but Igula, in addition to his gambling prowess, as a Swindler, he also had a profound understanding of human nature, which was the secret to his undefeated record. After Igula defeated Emi without any suspense, he had already decided not to harm her and to simply perform his normal part-time job at the mud café as if he had been bitten by a dog.

However, Emi was not willing to accept her loss and insisted on continuing to gamble, even buying more chips. Repurchasing chips was allowed; in order to encourage clients to spend, if a customer bought N times the chips, the Croupier had to provide N times the service duration, whether they won or lost.

Before they embarked on the second round of gambling, Igula, as if compelled by some demon, asked Emi a question, “If I win, I can make a wish that lasts for 120 minutes, you know.”

“No problem.”

The Contract was established.

Unlike ordinary Contracts, Igula had set a limit on the number of times (one) and the time (120 minutes). The more limitations a Contract spelled out, the stronger its effect became, especially since the other party belonged to the Moon Shadow Clan; Igula’s purely exploitative ‘tyrannical contracts’ could potentially fail.

But when Emi lost 300 minutes later, things began to take a subtle turn. At that time, she seemed to receive an urgent message and left Gambling Apocalypse immediately; afterwards, Igula quickly learned that Emi was a Blood Frenzy Hunter.

He immediately realized he was holding onto a golden wish.

After that, Emi frequented the shop for gambling with Igula, switching between various gambling games. Although there were rounds that Emi won, generally, Igula still dominated her. The time limit on this wish, after numerous accumulations, also reached 9,000 minutes.

Just as Igula was pondering how to maximize the benefits of this wish, the Crime Hunting Hall cornered him inside Gambling Apocalypse.

That explained everything, no wonder Emi kept seeking him out to gamble, no wonder Emi never initiated the ‘gambling settlement phase’.

High-end Blood Frenzy Hunters often appeared before Swindlers in the form of prey.

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