At the scene of Bai Liu clutching Spades' hand, the surrounding circle of players—who had just run out of the room—looked dumbfounded.
Mu Sicheng and Liu Jiayi choked and coughed. Mu Ke, a player who had not yet officially met Spades, didn't react but was vaguely aware of the man in front of him. Tang Erda, standing next to Bai Liu, twitched his forehead twice, reaching out to pry Bai Liu's hand off Spades without a word.
At that moment, everyone was thinking the same thing: Why are you messing with him?
But before Tang Erda could act, Bai Liu released Spades' hand, placed it behind his waist, shook it slightly, and stepped back to put some distance between them. He smiled politely. "Sorry to pull you in so suddenly. I mainly just wanted to get to know you."
Spades sidled up, water from the ends of his hair sliding down to his pale lips. He opened and closed them slightly. "Spades."
Bai Liu introduced himself. "Bai Liu."
Spades' eyes, hidden behind damp strands, seemed to study him. Then, with a slight nod, "I know you. You said in the forum to put your name on me."
Bai Liu froze. He had forgotten about that.
The moment grew awkward. Bai Liu pursed his lips and asked calmly, "So… what do you think?"
"Just win me," Spades replied, his voice light and elegant. "I don't dislike your name. It's… nice."
The onlookers sucked in cold air. What the hell is going on?!
Bai Liu's breath caught. His hand behind his back clenched, though his face betrayed nothing. Smiling, he forced the conversation forward. "Can I put it anywhere on your body?"
Spades didn't flinch. He looked calmly at Bai Liu. "Anywhere. If you have a particular preference for my body parts, you can ask me to prepare them in advance."
Bai Liu: "…."
Onlookers: "…."
Help! Is this really happening?!
"All assuming you can beat me," Spades added evenly. "But you don't have the strength to do that yet."
Bai Liu averted his gaze subtly, not meeting Spades directly. He blinked. "I'm going to beat you at this game."
Spades nodded. "Then you can put your name on me all you want."
Bai Liu: "…." He really didn't mean it like that.
With that, Spades gathered his whip and turned away without a backward glance. The players in front of him were dumbfounded, yielding to the cold-hearted bogeyman. No one had expected Spades to meet a rookie league player so harmoniously, even one who had abruptly stopped him.
After Spades left, Liu Jiayi leaned over, glancing at Bai Liu's face and ears with pity. "You couldn't resist the first time Spades spoke to you. You had to keep talking."
"That guy has no human feelings, immune to provocations, flirtations, or any kind of attention—and he bounces off them unconsciously. Look at you getting flirted with in reverse…"
Bai Liu gently held Liu Jiayi's head down. "What did you just say?"
Liu Jiayi quickly adjusted her tone. "I just watched Spades break into a cold sweat at your provocation. You were amazing!"
Mu Sicheng couldn't help asking, "Why did you mess with him like that?"
Bai Liu looked in the direction Spades had left. "To make sure of something."
"So… are you sure?" Mu Ke asked softly.
Bai Liu gave a relaxed smile. "Sort of."
Apart from that person, there was probably no one else in the world who could choke him like that on first meeting.
Why this guy didn't remember him wasn't clear—but that was fine. Some things were enough for one person to remember.
Bai Liu withdrew his gaze and turned to the pool of flowing light. His dark eyes reflected the colorful, treacherous hues. "Let the training begin."
"Yes!"
-----------------
Day 7 of training.
Charles sat down, folded his arms on the table, and leaned forward. "The tournament is approaching. Your guild members and I are handling support, so you don't need to get involved for now. I called you here today because there are two important things you need to decide personally—"
"—team badges and weapon modifications!" Charles held up two fingers and smiled. "Every battle group needs a collective team badge."
He continued, gesturing as he ranked the major guilds. "The top guild, Killer Sequence, has the Reverse Cross. The King's Guild has the Crown. Third, Golden Dawn—the Seven Strings with Wings. Fourth, Kabbalah—the Leaves of Life. Fifth, my own Gamblers Club—the Chip."
Charles snapped his fingers, and a silver-rimmed chip badge appeared. He placed it on the table, smiling at Bai Liu.
"The sixth guild, the Deer Hunters, uses a stag's head. The seventh, the Freemasons of Paradise, the folding cloak. And so on."
"Your guild's original badge was a zombie tusk, but it doesn't suit your team anymore. After a week-long discussion with the design team, a new badge has been created for you."
Charles retrieved a box resembling a valuables case, flicked it open with a gloved hand, and looked at Bai Liu with satisfaction. "Here it is."
Inside lay a gleaming circular medallion: a diamond-encrusted platinum hexagram, with a half-opened werewolf eye in the center, a blood-red jewel the size of a pigeon's egg.
Bai Liu lowered his eyes to examine it. "The hexagram is the symbol of Satan, and the half-opened werewolf eye… I've seen that on werewolf-killing game cards. It symbolizes the werewolf card."
He looked up at Charles. "My team was called the Wandering Circus. This has nothing to do with Satan or Werewolf Killing, does it?"
"Be observant of the hidden meaning behind your symbol." Charles' smile deepened, his gaze flicking to the reverse cross lanyard at Bai Liu's collarbone. "There was a better symbol for you than the six-pointed star, the Reverse Cross, but that's already taken by Killer Sequence and can't be reused."
Bai Liu's eyes lingered on Charles for a moment, then returned to the glowing red badge.
Charles extended it. "If you'd like to adopt this design, it can be yours as a reference. It costs about 10,000 points, which translates to—"
"—10 million." Bai Liu smiled and took the badge. "Thank you, Mr. Charles. This will be the badge of the Wandering Circus."
Mu Sicheng, Mu Ke, Liu Jiayi, and Tang Erda all froze. You actually accepted it? Ten million just made you cave!
Bai Liu gestured for Charles to continue.
"And—" Charles redirected the conversation. "—the thing more important than the badge is weapon modification."
He leaned back lazily, snapped his fingers, and a system screen unfolded in front of him.
The screen was normally void-projectable, but Charles preferred aesthetics. He projected it onto a deep wooden board. Liu Jiayi couldn't help but notice the gold edging on the board. What a luxury…
On the screen, three-dimensional models of various weapons rotated: black whips, playing cards, guns, bows—the weapons of Congress leaders.
"There are two ways to modify a weapon in this game," Charles explained. "One is through a change in core desires—like Mu Ke's dagger." His gaze swept over Mu Ke, then landed on Liu Jiayi with a haughty smile. "The other is transformation through another person's skills."
"Hearts gave the little witch a skill-playing card. It's a way to store her skills in a card through my skill and give it to you for use. But that queen paid a price for it," Charles said slowly.
Liu Jiayi looked up in dismay. She knew that Charles' skill, Phantom Devourer, could turn someone else's skill into a physical object and store it—but she had never realized that this was how her playing cards had come to be…
Hearts had never been a good match for Charles. She wouldn't have liked such a frivolous man, let alone considered working with him.
"My skills are well-suited to weapon modification," Charles said. "I can count myself as a not-so-subtle weapon modifier, and I'll demonstrate the process to you."
Charles walked over to Bai Liu, bent down, and reached out like a street magician asking a passerby for a prop. He smiled. "For example, this Mr. Bai Liu, may I have your skill weapon, your old wallet, for a moment?"
Bai Liu raised an eyebrow, pulled the old wallet from the system panel, and handed it over.
Charles bowed, took the wallet, and with a flourish, flipped it over. It transformed into a pair of yellowed, aged leather gloves, which he held between thumb and forefinger and displayed to Bai Liu.
"Wallet gloves," Charles explained. "Your notes are stored inside. They're easy to access, not as conspicuous as a wallet, and convenient for trading." He opened the glove's inner compartment for Bai Liu. "Your main weapon is the long whip. The glove complements it perfectly and protects your hands during use."
Charles returned the gloves to Bai Liu with an inviting gesture. "You can try them."
The gloves fit perfectly—not too big, not too small. Bai Liu tried taking out soul notes and point coins. Under Charles' guidance, he accessed them almost magically, hooking a coin from the inner compartment and holding it effortlessly. Using the long whip became much easier, without rubbing his palm raw.
Mu Sicheng and Mu Ke looked fresh-eyed—it was their first time witnessing a live weapon modification.
Liu Jiayi remained silent, while Tang Erda examined the gloves with mixed feelings, then shifted his gaze to Bai Liu, who was trying them on with precision. He felt as if he were watching Bai Liu gradually become Bai Liu (6) from another timeline.
Bai Liu (6)'s skill weapon was also a pair of gloves made from a wallet, but far more elaborate: glossy black leather gloves that looked extremely expensive. The Wandering Circus Guild reportedly spent millions of points annually on maintaining them.
"I'm not being charged for this makeover, am I?" Bai Liu asked as he flexed his hands in the gloves.
Charles' smile froze briefly before returning to its usual composure. "I'm happy to serve my chosen betting horse."
He glanced at Bai Liu's somewhat battered gloves and added, somewhat forbearingly, "But you should take care of your skill weapon. I've never seen one more worn and old."
"How many points does maintenance cost?" Bai Liu asked casually.
Charles straightened. "Maintenance costs vary by guild president, but the top ten guilds average around 630,000 points per year. The most expensive last year was Spades' Lizard Bone Whip—it cost 1.26 million points."
Bai Liu went half silent, then asked incredulously, "He spends that much…?"