"Eh?"

Garett's palms began to sweat profusely.

He looked at Daniel with a shocked face, and his mind filled became confused.

"Why would you keep your minus card and even go through the trouble to risk getting a worse hand just to reject my trade proposal!?", Garett thought.

It didn't make logical sense. If Daniel was only looking out for himself, he would have accepted the trade in order to receive a better score, and a better chance at getting 2nd place.

2nd place...

As opposed to a potential 3rd or 4th place...

4th place...

Wait a minute.

The loser in this game is the 4th placer.

There is no merit in getting 2nd place as opposed to 3rd place, however there is great merit in getting 3rd place as opposed to 4th.

By rejecting the trade offer, Daniel had eliminated the chances completely that he would come in 4th place, by ensuring that Garett would come in 4th place with a score of -4.

Not only this, but if he had not suggested a trade in the first place, Garett would have simply traded out his entire bad hand for a new one. The chance of Garett receiving 2 minus cards on his own was low, but if Daniel pretended as if he was going to make a trade with Garett, he was inviting Garett to take the low risk.

There would be 0 chance of Daniel coming in first place if he made the trade. There would be a possibility that he would come in last if he made it.

Could Daniel have strung him along this entire game?

That had to have been the case. It wouldn't make sense otherwise.

Defeated, Garett placed his cards down- prepared to lose.

He hung his head low.

"This truly is my own defeat. If I had been able to figure out that Daniel would betray me like this, I may not have lost."

But wait

The hand he received.

The order of the cards

They were all too perfect.

If Daniel had planned to betray Garett like this, wasn't the situation a bit too convenient to do so?

Garett then thought back to when the dealer was distributing the cards.

During the practice round, he went slowly and Garett could easily read his movements, however during the actual round he went so fast that Garett could not even see what he was doing.

"Is it possible that the dealer planned this out?!"

However, there was no point thinking about this.

The four men all placed their cards down, and revealed their hands.

Daniel ended with +1, Garett with -4. The short man revealed a score of +3, 3 pluses and 2 zero cards.

And the man with the glasses revealed a hand of +-0, with a plus, 3 zeroes, and a minus.

"Mr. Garett, if you will please come this way, I will begin to introduce you to our line of work."

Garett stood up quietly. He didn't plan on rebelling, or accusing anyone of cheating. The fact that he had come here and not realized what was going on was a gamble that he lost.

However, as he was standing up, he felt a sharp sting in his back.

Daniels hand had gave him a pat, and when he looked over he saw Daniel making a sinister face.

He looked over to see the older man, who had also placed his hand on the shoulder of the man with glasses, laughing.

"You too, eh? It looks like i'm not the only one who lost the gamble."

Garett felt woozy, and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep.

----

When Garett awoke, he was in a dark place. He tried to feel around, but couldn't.

"Where am I?"

The last thing he remembered was losing the gamble.

It felt almost like he was in a lucid dream right now. He couldn't control his movements, but he could think freely.

All of a sudden, a screen popped up in front of him.

[Game over]

[Would you like to try again?]

[Or would you like to play a new game?]

...

"What is this?"

"Game over?"

Garett let out a sigh before randomly thinking that he would select the [try new game] option. As if responding to his will, the option was selected.

[You have selected to play a new game]

[Generating world]

[Generating characters]

[Locating players]

[Generating Items and Skill trees]

[Loading complete]

"Whats going on here?"

Garett's thoughts were jumbled, and he couldn't think straight.

"Am I playing some sort of game? Where did the casino go? Don't I have to work for them?"

Garett's questions were soon answered as a message popped up on the screen in front of him.

[In your previous life, you were sold off as a sacrifice. After being killed, you have now selected the option to play a different game, as opposed to returning to the previous one for a new playthrough.]

Garett was still confused, but he decided to give up on thinking too hard and focus on the situation in front of him.

He knew one thing for sure. Daniel had betrayed his trust, and the casino was much more fishy of a place than he was let on.

Some feelings of anger pent up within Garett, but in the end he decided on one thing.

"From this point on, I won't lose to anyone. If it means cheating, lying, stealing, deceiving, even killing. I refuse to lose."

With that, another message popped up on the screen.

[Character creation]

[Please design the character that you will play as]

There was a next button on the screen, which Garett imagined pressing, and it was then selected.

[Step 1: Choose your class]

A list of classes were presented to Garett.

[Warrior: Warriors are those who fight using melee weapons.]

[Rogue: Rogues use various tactics and tools to fight, such as stealth techniques, throwing weapons and ranged weapons, etc]

[Mage: Mages use various spells to attack, heal, or buff]

[Craftsman: Craftsmen are able to use materials to create various items, improving the overall strength of a party]

[Note: Each class has many sub-classes and specializations. No two players will end up with the same build due to the endless possibilities.]

Garett would have ran his fingers through his hair if he could.

"This is very similar to an RPG..."

Garett began considering the pros and cons between the classes. He immediately thought that warrior would be the best choice, given that if he was alone he would still be able to defend himself.

The other classes seemed interesting and useful, however there was one that he stared at for a while.

[Craftsman]

I wonder what the potential of this class could be...

Before he could even finish his thoughts, as if the system was responding to his curiosity, a message rang out.

[The craftsman class has been selected]

"Eh!? Wait a minute! I didn't want to select that one! Go back!"

[Once a class has been selected this option cannot be changed]

The message rang out, almost mocking Garett.

"Why you...."

Garett eventually calmed down and let it go.

Who was he getting mad at anyways? A computer?

I suppose I'll just have to play through and find out what this class can do.

----

Please select a subclass

Sub classes:

[Blacksmith]- Your focus is on crafting weapons and armor

[Enchanter]- You can apply various buffs to items through the use of magic

[Alchemist]- you can brew potions and salves to assist your party

[Scholar] You use the laws of the natural world, and apply them in various ways to improve your party through innovation. This class is essentially a "Jack of all trades, master of none, as you can use the skillsets from all 3 types of craftsmen.

Just reading through the description, Garett knew which choice to take.

"I dont even know if I will have a party, and even if I do, I will likely be the only craftsman in the party. I should select the scholar class in order to be able to maximize the amount of skills and items I can use."

Typically in an RPG, selecting the class that allows you to use a whole variety of skills would make you unable to specialize and become extremely powerful in the later game, however Garett was unaware of this.

However, once he imagined selecting the scholar class, once again it was automatically chosen.

[Congratulations! You have gone against the typical decision to specialize in one specific area, and as a result you will be rewarded with the potential to become a master of all branches of crafting and technology! Crafting and Blueprint design experience +100%]

[New skill: [Craft item]. With a blueprint and the required ingredients, you are able to create items. Cannot be used during combat.]

[New skill: [Design blueprint]. If you gain knowledge about a certain topic, you can create blueprints in order to use that knowledge to design various technological and magical items. Cannot be used during combat.]

This message regarding "going against the typical decision" slightly confused Garett, as he thought the choice was obvious, but either way he was glad to hear that he made a good decision.

----

Statistics:

You have 5 Stat points that you may allocate

Current Statistics

[Strength: 0]

[Dexterity: 0]

[Perception: 0]

[Charisma: 0]

[Intelligence: 0]

Garett stared at this screen for a while, contemplating what to do.

He had played a few games similar to this before, not to a great extent however, but he understood more or less what these statistics meant.

"For now, I suppose I should put 2 points into Intelligence, you never know when I may need to outsmart my opponents. I'll leave charisma alone for now... the main priority will be survival. I suppose I'll put 2 into strength and 1 into perception."

Once Garett had decided on this, the screen flashed up with the new statistics.

[Strength: 2]

[Dexterity: 0]

[Perception: 1]

[Charisma: 0]

[Intelligence: 2]

Garett was slightly concerned at leaving some of the statistics at 0, however with only 5 skill points to start off the only way to avoid that would be to perfectly balance everything. Garett had given himself the skills to survive, so that was all that really mattered.

----

The next screen was a bit different.

[Personality test]

[Please fill out the following questionnaire]

1. You see an ad online that says "5 Singles want to meet you in your area."

How many singles want to meet you in your area?

"What the hell is this?", Garett thought. He almost let out a laugh when he saw this question, before coming back to the reality of the situation. "I guess this isn't time to be leisurely joking around. How should I even answer this?"

[Answer in the way you truly feel]

A message popped up on the screen, and Garett let out a sigh.

"I guess truthfully. I'm not an extremely good looking guy but I'm sure there would be at least 1 person who would like to meet me. Maybe 2."

[System processing. Retrieving 2 female players. Players have been added to the party. Party currently at maximum limit of 4 members.]

"..."

"Did I just doom 2 poor people to be summoned to this world with me..."

"Well shit."

Garett apologized in advance in his mind.

But wait a minute

If the party is now at the maximum limit, this would imply that it already had 2 members before.

Who was the second member?

The next question appeared on the screen.

2. What hobbies do you have?

Garett immediately answered this one, without hesitation.

"I enjoy studying, calculating, and analyzing the environment around me in a mathematical sense. I play various strategy and probability based games."

[System processing. New skill: [Tactical Analysis] Lvl 1. You may now analyze the battle situation before making a decision. This is an upgrade of the ordinary [Inspect] Skill. You may notice things about the enemy formations that others will not notice. Action point cost: 3.]

[New skill: [Analyze]. Upgrade of the [Inspect] skill. You may use this on items in order to get a better understanding of the mechanics behind them. Action point cost: 2 (If in combat)]

Final Question: What do you wish to do with your life?

What a deep question this was.

However, Garett once more knew the answer the second he read the question.

At that moment, something changed in Garett. It was as if he had a sudden moment of reality. All the memories of Daniel betraying him flooded back into his head. All the times that he helped them out, or was used and he stayed quiet.

Anger- no, maybe even regret filled Garett. Regret that he allowed others to use him. Regret that in the end, he was unable to go against the will of others. Regret that he wasn't strong nor smart enough to win the gamble.

A creepy smile drew itself across Garrett face. His eyes filled with bloodlust, and he began to laugh to himself quietly in the darkness.

"I want to defeat anyone who stands in my path, fair and square. If someone uses deceitful methods against me, I will use deceitful methods against them.If someone plays fair against me, I will play fair against them. I will win against all others, only stooping as low as they do against me."

[You have been assigned an alignment. Lawful Evil.]

----