The sound of rain gently pattered outside the rented room's window, rhythmically in the silent night, occasionally a whiff of wind would slip through the cracks of the window, stirring the eardrums, composing a soothing and light folk song.
The gloomy weather of the day, like many worries knotted in the chest, Lin Chuan liked it better now, with a little rain.
Listening to the voices in his mind, Lin Chuan revealed a smile.
A new profession, a new life, had arrived.
It was less to call it a life experience, and more a pass that allowed Lin Chuan to walk from reality into the Virtual World.
This Virtual World was just like opening a blind box—there was an unknown expectation waiting for Lin Chuan.
"Experience a new life immediately!"
The next instant, Lin Chuan's vision began to intertwine reality with the Virtual Reality.
He could hear the rain outside the window, feel the chill of the night wind penetrating the room, and he could also experience the fresh sensory impact brought by another Virtual World.
"I hope this time it's a beautiful life experience."
Lin Chuan silently prayed in his heart.
[Each experience is your beautiful memory.]
[This system will save this memory for you in the form of a novel.]
[In this experience, your profession is...]
[Swindler!]
Lin Chuan's eyes bulged.
Swindler?
Alright, alright, so this is how you play, system?
Last time, Thief.
This time, Swindler.
You're too cruel!
[Congratulations, host. You have obtained a skill—Cheating Techniques.]
[Using 'Virtual Reality' technology, we are creating a new world for you.]
With the drop of the sweet electronic sound, a new world gradually appeared before Lin Chuan's eyes.
In the Virtual New World, Lin Chuan had clear sensory perceptions of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste, and moreover, had a high degree of freedom to control his own behavior.
He could do whatever he wanted.
Inside the new world.
In a huge and luxurious hall, exquisite sculptures, dazzling crystal chandeliers, and glittering gold decorations—the hall's neon lights flashed non-stop, weaving into a colorful tapestry.
Dreamlike and hazy.
Amidst the crowded throng, Lin Chuan was there, the scent of perfume and tobacco flooding his nostrils, his ears filled with a cacophony of sounds.
Some laughed loudly, some cheered, and others wailed in despair.
"This must be a casino," Lin Chuan muttered to himself.
Where a Swindler appeared, a casino was the likely place.
This life experience was truly cruel!
Lin Chuan quickly made his way through the crowd, and a beautiful waitress in a white shirt and a tight-fitting black skirt, with a graceful figure, immediately greeted him.
"Sir, how may I assist you?"
"I'd like to play a couple of hands."
Lin Chuan had acquired the system's gifted Cheating Techniques; his mind was filled with information about dice, cards, mahjong, and more.
"Very well, sir, please follow me," the pretty waitress beckoned Lin Chuan up to the second floor.
On the second floor, there were spacious lounges, noisy and bustling with loud voices and foul language amid the din.
"To hell with it, I'm flowering on the gang!"
"Damn it, All-in!"
"You wretched little cheat, your grandpa's got four Ks!"
"..."
Lin Chuan strolled leisurely, casually entering one of the lounges.
Inside the lounge, a group of gamblers with stern faces surrounded a gambling table, their eyes bloodshot from concentration, gazing intently at the table, full of expectation and tension.
In front of the gambling table stood a sexy woman.
She shook the Dice Cup in both hands; the dice spun and tumbled inside it, making a crisp colliding sound.
In the casino, this woman was known as Dice Girl.
Lin Chuan's ears twitched; he could clearly hear the sound inside the Dice Cup, and every collision was subtly different.
If it were another time, Lin Chuan, the casino newbie, surely wouldn't have been able to distinguish it.
But now, he was a master of Cheating Techniques, no longer a newcomer.
Clack!
The Dice Cup landed on the table, and the dice settled with a clear sound to the ear.
The gamblers hastily placed their bets.
Lin Chuan lit a cigarette and casually tossed a chip onto the table.
Bet small.
"No more bets!"
Dice Girl leaned over with a charming smile and slowly lifted the dice cup at an extremely slow speed to reveal the result.
"Big, big, big, big, big!"
Lin Chuan inadvertently caught a glimpse of the scenery when Dice Girl leaned over, and it indeed was big but was the product of technology.
The dice cup was opened.
122, small.
Lin Chuan had bet correctly.
Lin Chuan smiled, "listening" dice skills weren't so difficult after all.
Each face of the dice had different degrees of indentations, which led to each side making different sounds upon collision and when hitting the ground.
Inside the dice cup, each collision the dice made emitted a subtle difference in sound.
The sound of landing was even more distinct and audible.
"I've really done it, I've become an expert in 'listening' dice!"
The next round began.
Dice Girl continued to shake the dice cup, the amplitude of her shaking was large, and the two mounds of technology on her chest also began to shake, drawing the gamblers' gleaming eyes to unanimously look up and down.
The casino was filled with a unique kind of excitement.
Lin Chuan continued to place bets.
If Chen Xiaodao could turn twenty dollars into twenty-five million, then earning two hundred and fifty thousand shouldn't be a problem for me, right?
Lin Chuan thought to himself.
However, he remained cautious and didn't place loud bets.
There's always someone better than you are, heaven beyond the heavens.
In the casino, surely there are more than one swindler.
And with advanced technology nowadays, who knows what might be waiting to trap a swindler.
Lin Chuan decided to keep it low and practice his hand, getting familiar with 'listening' dice.
In the following few rounds of betting, Lin Chuan's bets were very accurate.
But each time he bet small amounts of chips and even intentionally bet wrong occasionally.
In a casino, a person who always wins is certainly suspicious.
In the dice room, Lin Chuan made a small profit.
Change venues.
Lin Chuan left the dice room and entered the poker room.
There are many ways to play poker.
Lin Chuan sat at an 'All-in' round table.
All-in, also known as a Flush.
The ultimate showdowns of 'God of Gamblers,' 'Knight of Gamblers,' 'Saint of Gamblers,' they all play All-in.
At the start of the game, the croupier would hand out two cards, and the player with better cards would decide the betting amount, while others choose to "call," "raise," and so on, to not "call" is to lose.
Until five cards are dealt, players reveal their bottom cards, and the player with the higher hand wins.
Lin Chuan began to play All-in.
Lin Chuan looked at this angle and quietly hummed a tune to himself.
"Dum-dum-dum-dum..."
The exclusive BGM of the God of Gamblers!
This scene was too novel for Lin Chuan, he had only seen it in films.
But now, it was a real experience.
The croupier was a handsome young man who looked at everyone, "Which gentleman would like to shuffle the cards?"
Lin Chuan raised his hand, took the deck of cards, but only casually cut the deck a couple of times.
In the gaps, he glanced at the corners of several cards, with no further development.
The first hand, Lin Chuan felt his cards and did not call.
The second and third were the same.
However, each time Lin Chuan shuffled the cards, even though it seemed casual, he caught a glimpse of several cards.
By the fourth hand, Lin Chuan began to call.
He had the Two of Hearts face down, with the Three of Clubs, Four of Clubs, Five of Diamonds on the table, and the final card, the Ace of Spades.
Though a small straight, it already swept the board.
It turned out that Lin Chuan hadn't cheated by stealing, hiding, or swapping cards; he created extremely subtle creases on the cards with each shuffle and memorized them, and after three rounds, he reshuffled the deck to arrange the cards into the sequence he wanted.
The fifth hand, he won big all the same.
Suddenly, a special alarm sounded in the poker room and the gamblers immediately panicked.
"The police are here."
"Run!"
"Damn it, I just won some money!"
Lin Chuan's heart skipped a beat. Was he going to be caught so soon?
The gambling hall erupted into chaos as the gamblers bolted, scattering in all directions, not even bothering to collect their chips.
"This way," someone said.
Lin Chuan also ducked his head, quickly blending into the departing crowd.
In reality, he hoped the swindler would be caught.
But in the virtual world of "Experience Life," he was the swindler, and all he wanted to do was escape.
If he were to be caught, wouldn't his "Experience Life" come to an abrupt halt?
That simply wouldn't do.
If the "Experience Life" wasn't complete, he might not even be able to take the Cheating Techniques back to reality.
Lin Chuan's card skills were terrible, he always lost to all three players when playing with friends. Learning this poker cheating technique, he didn't need to swindle, just not losing so badly would suffice.
Life was already tough enough, there was no need to rub salt in the wounds.
If he could pick up a thing or two, maybe when he got a girlfriend in the future and had to play mahjong with his mother-in-law, he wouldn't be at such a loss. Losing everything.
Cough, wishful thinking.
Lin Chuan was still a single dog, with no end in sight to his bachelorhood.
Real world.
Night rain shattered against the windowsill, blooming in a burst of fleeting flowers, the cool breeze carrying the chill of early spring, blowing into Lin Chuan's room.
The experience of "Life" continued.
Scenes after scenes, as if from a first-person point of view, projected like a movie before Lin Chuan's eyes.
Lin Chuan, a master of Cheating Techniques, could play dice, poker, mahjong, Pai Gow... Every game was his domain in the Martial World, and he seldom met his match!
Life, as fascinating as a novel.
The night rain in Anling City had stopped.
Outside Lin Chuan's window stretched a clear night sky, with moonlight faintly filtering through the clouds and the crystal-clear glass, illuminating the room.
A sweet female voice echoed in Lin Chuan's mind.
[Congratulations, your 'Swindler's Life' experience has been completed.]
A smile spread across Lin Chuan's lips.
He waited for the system's next announcement.
[You have acquired 'Cheating Techniques'.]
[Your swindler career experience has been automatically converted into the novel "Swindler".]
[Would you like to export it now?]
Lin Chuan laughed, "Export it! Export it ruthlessly!"
How to export?
It turned out that the system had installed an exporting software on Lin Chuan's computer.
As soon as the 'Experience Life' was complete, this software could automatically generate the text.
However, it required some time.
[Exporting...]
[Due to the lengthy nature of the 'Swindler's Life' experience, the novel is expected to be about 1 million words, requiring 10 hours to export.]
[Current progress: 5%.]
...
The following morning, Lin Chuan woke up.
Reflecting on last night's experience, his mind was still foggy and in a daze.
Compared to the 'Thief's Life', the 'Swindler's Life' contained much more information. Even after sleeping, Lin Chuan's temples were still throbbing.
This was clearly a sign of overusing his brain.
Lin Chuan rubbed his temples, then checked the exporting progress.
[Current progress: 80%.]
"It's not finished yet; I'll go buy a couple of decks of playing cards to try out the Cheating Techniques."
Lin Chuan quickly washed up and headed downstairs.
His rental apartment was on the sixth floor, a walk-up building without an elevator. Below was a small supermarket owned by Old Zhang, the landlord.
Today, the sun was shining bright.
Inside the small supermarket, it wasn't Old Zhang behind the counter but a rather pretty girl in a loose hoodie and gray sweatpants, sucking on a lollipop.
Lin Chuan recognized her.
She was Old Zhang's daughter, Zhang.
Lin Chuan strode into the supermarket: "Zhang, grab me a couple of decks of playing cards."
Zhang jumped up flusteredly, pulling at her sweatpants, "What do you need?"
But the tablet on the table was still on, showing a video playing softly and suggestively: 'Madam, you surely don't want to...'
Lin Chuan's eyes sharpened.
That's the new series that just came out, right?
Lin Chuan remembered very well, the series number was ************
Zhang's face flushed as she hurriedly pressed the power button on the tablet, "You just said... what do you need?"
Lin Chuan smiled, "Two decks of playing cards for me."
Zhang immediately took two decks of cards off the shelf, "That's four yuan."
"Zhang, you surely don't want to..." Lin Chuan grinned.
"Just take it, hurry up."
Still blushing, Zhang pushed the playing cards towards Lin Chuan.
Lin Chuan blinked, "Could you also give me a couple of dice?"
Zhang pursed her lips, deftly fetching the dice from a drawer.
"Where's Old Zhang?"
Lin Chuan asked casually.
"He played cards all night yesterday, and he's probably still at it," Zhang said with a sneer, "You, a novelist, why are you always prying into other people's privacy?"
"Cough cough, girls should watch less explicit stuff!"
Lin Chuan burst into laughter and then took off.
He was a long-term tenant in this neighborhood and frequented the local store for daily necessities, so he was acquainted with Old Zhang and Zhang.
As for the landlord, Old Zhang, his only job was collecting rent, and his hobby was playing cards and mahjong—often till midnight, even all night.
Sometimes when he lost too much, he'd even raise the utilities fees.
Therefore, Lin Chuan had no qualms about tricking Zhang out of the two decks of playing cards and the dice.
Lin Chuan was even considering, should he challenge Old Zhang to a couple of games and win back his rent?
No!
He'd also have to let him owe a few years' rent.
Hahaha…
Lin Chuan returned to his rented place, a one-bedroom, one-living room apartment.
The rain last night had washed away the oppressive and heavy air.
Now, the morning sun, unobstructed, barged into his room aggressively, almost filling up the entire cramped space.
Lin Chuan took a deep breath and took out his props.
First to try rolling the dice.
He found the dice cup, put three dice in it, and started shaking.
The system might have rewarded the skill, but it was just theory; he had to experiment to find out if it was real "Cheating Techniques."
The dice cup, the crisp sound reverberating inside the cup.
Clack!
The dice cup came to rest.
"Triple sixes, open!"
He opened the dice cup—three sixes!
A real triple!
Let's go again!
Clack!
Clack!
Clack!
With continuous practice, Lin Chuan's hand shaking the dice cup started blurring in the sunlight.
Every time, three sixes, triple!
"I truly am a Cheating Sect genius!"
Lin Chuan showed off his eight shiny teeth in the sunlight.
Strike while the iron's hot. If dice Cheating Techniques were no problem, it was time to test the card Cheating Techniques.
Lin Chuan immediately took out the playing cards.
The hand speed honed over twenty-four years of singledom was indeed fast.
The brand-new playing cards, in Lin Chuan's hands, were as he wished; he had any card he wanted.
This level of skill was at least that of a Cheating Sect's Righteous General with decades of experience!
"I've made it, taoist master here!"
"From now on, I'm the king of the gambling table!"
"Hahaha!"
Lin Chuan got slightly carried away, his laughter filling the small apartment.
At this moment.
The neighborhood suddenly erupted with a cacophony of noise.
As a writer used to failure but professional in spirit, Lin Chuan instinctively walked to the window and looked down to capture material from real life.
On the ground, several police cars were parked haphazardly.
A group of people, escorted by officers in blue uniforms, formed a line and got onto the police cars, while onlookers gathered around curiously.
"What's happened?"
Lin Chuan muttered curiously.
Suddenly, he saw a familiar figure in the crowd.
Landlord Old Zhang!
His daughter, Zhang, was wiping away tears ceaselessly nearby.
Yikes!
Lin Chuan inhaled sharply, immediately realizing what was happening.
Landlord Old Zhang and the others had been caught for hosting a gambling gathering.
Lin Chuan looked at the dice and playing cards in his hands; it felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over his heart, chilling him to the core.
Gamble?
That's something you can't afford to get involved with!
Once you descend into the gambling world, life just gets more and more difficult.
Lin Chuan pursed his lips.
After much contemplation, he put away the playing cards and the dice.
"Forget it, let's see if anyone likes 'Swindler's Life'?" Lin Chuan mumbled to himself.
Gambling is never the right path.
Writing is the ultimate destination!