Chapter 191: Buy-In

The Golden Calf Casino was a stark contrast to the city surrounding it. Utterly devoid of any humans or demons calling the outskirts of Hell home, the buildings were covered in thick layers of dust and debris. Half the windows were shattered, and the half that weren’t led into businesses that ranged from neglected to ransacked. The sidewalk they walked along was cracked and uneven until it gave way to a wide granite path leading up to the casino doors. Long pools were filled with rows of fountains that danced along to the music blasting from speakers hidden in the rocks. Tall palm trees lined either side of the walkway, gently swaying in the breeze. Warm light shone up from below, illuminating a line of rose bushes, which emanated a noxiously rich scent. The bay of sliding glass doors shared the same golden mirrored glass covering the entire hotel, and demons were pouring in by the dozen.

Harvey knew the System built its trials from a mix of landscapes replicated from Earth and fitting the nature of the trial’s multiversal inhabitants. His own had been a gradient of mostly human buildings, like the Hell Hotel, and shantytowns like Veils End, whose once-vibrant community had rotted away to undeath over the centuries. That made him wonder how much of this hotel’s inspiration came from Earth and how much came from the demons. Growing up in Arizona and going to college in California, Harvey had spent his fair share of time in Las Vegas, and the Golden Calf could’ve easily fit in between the Bellagio and Caesar’s Palace.

As they got closer to the door, Celeste covered her nose with her hand and asked: “Oh my… what’s that smell?”

“A casino,” Harvey laughed. “Normally it’s mostly cigarette smoke, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some harder stuff burning up in there.”

“It doesn’t bother you?” Cash asked, doing a poor job of straining to keep his face impassive so nobody else would notice their reactions.

“You get used to it,” Steve grumbled. “Most of us go through a phase where we think gambling is the best way to get rich quick. The key is learning that it’s not before your house ends up looking like one of those apartments we passed outside. The casinos wouldn’t look this nice if they were handing out free money all the time.”

Walking through the front doors, they found themselves in a wide atrium where a golden statue of a horned devil stood atop a mound of human and angel corpses. The gleaming monument dominated the pristine white marble atrium, and groups of demons rushing by all whooped and hollered as they took a moment to slap one of the fallen angels carved into the base. Looking at the metal, Harvey could see discolorations where countless hands had rubbed against the gold, suggesting that hitting the statue on the way in might be one of Hell’s lucky rituals.

Gamblers were often superstitious after all.

“Cute,” Celeste winced.

“Let’s see if we can find a check-in desk and get a room,” Harvey suggested. There weren’t any signs to point them in the right direction, so he just picked a path and started walking. He’d been worried that there wouldn’t be any humans around, or that they’d all be servants if they were, but he was relieved to see multiple groups of Sinners lounging about without any demon supervision. Most were well away from any high-limit tables thanks to their scant opportunities to go out and actually earn any merit, but a few seemed to have won enough to play with the high-rollers.

The games were surprisingly modern for a demon casino. Instead of roulette wheels made of bones or slot machines glowing with fire, the games all looked like something you could find in Vegas. Harvey had no idea how they were going to find the lieutenant, but at least he had a way to pass the time.

Eventually, they found a small reception desk where a human in a black suit was standing behind a counter with a sign above him that read “Honeymoon Suites.” Harvey saw a seductively dressed demon pulling two humans by their ties toward an elevator and decided to risk it.

Before he could say anything, the man behind the counter asked, “How long?”

“What?” Harvey asked, the question catching him off guard. He expected something along the lines of ‘checking in’ or ‘how may I help you.’

“How long do you need the room for?” the man clarified.

“Oh, all day,” Harvey answered.

“All day? What do you mean all day?”

“All day as in we need the room until tomorrow night. 24 hours. You know, all day?” Harvey repeated.

The man looked shocked, then a lascivious grin appeared on his face. “All day? No way these four can last that long with a dirty girl like you. I clock out at noon tomorrow if you want another piggy for your playpen. It’s not often we get blondes around here.”

“Excuse me?” Celeste roared indignantly.

“Ooh, feisty. I like it. Rawr,” the clerk purred.

“Just shut up and get us a room,” Harvey commanded, stepping in before Celeste tried to cut this guy’s head off.

“Awe. Someone’s jealous,” he mocked before regaining a more professional demeanor. “The going rate is 500 merit.”

“Great,” Harvey replied as a screen popped up in front of him.

“24,000? What the hell happened to 500?” Harvey exclaimed.

“500 merit every half hour,” the clerk corrected.

“Oh my god,” Harvey groaned, accepting the prompt. He’d gained a lot of merit in the last week of heavy combat, but not enough to spend the cost of a crate of health potions on one night in a hotel room.

Receiving confirmation, the clerk smiled and handed him a key. “Have fun!”

Harvey and Celeste both left him a parting glare as the five walked over to the elevator. The room number was etched into the key, and it looked like they’d been put on the 9th floor. Instead of calm and simple elevator music, they were forced to endure the same club dance beat thumping outside, and Harvey was relieved to find the hallway blissfully silent when they stepped out.

“I hate this,” Cash complained.

“Shh. Save it for when we’re in the room, and maybe keep it to yourself in there too,” Harvey whispered. “I wouldn’t be surprised if some creep hid magic cameras all over the Honeymoon Suites.”

The hallway was as bland as any hotel he’d ever been in, and they quickly found the door to their room. Pushing inside, they found a small room with a leather couch, a heart-shaped bed, and a bathroom that was 90% hot tub.

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“It’s a good thing your mother’s not here,” Steve remarked as he surveyed their accommodations. “She’d have to disinfect the whole place before she’d even sit on the couch.”

“Probably still best not to touch anything we don’t have to,” Tyler added.

“So what do we do now?” Celeste asked, and the whole group turned to Harvey.

“Umm… Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t really expect things to go this well,” he admitted. They’d spent all day obsessing about how they could possibly walk right into Hell, but almost nobody had batted an eye. They’d just walked right in, the demons too excited about their day of depravity to give them the courtesy of admiring just how great their disguises were. Either the demons were absolutely sure the angels would never willingly spend the night in hell, or they weren’t worried about what would happen if they did.

“They might be ignoring us now, but we’re in the heart of the lion's den. The second we slip up, we’ll be fighting 100-to-1. I think our first step is trying to find out who the lieutenant is and where we can find them. We can’t just go around asking people, so we’ll need to spend some time mingling to see what we can find out. I think it’s best that Dad and Tyler get some rest after everything that happened today, so why don’t Celeste and I go out for a bit while the three of you stay here?”

“You just don’t want to let me gamble,” Tyler complained. “ I doubt you have to be 18 here.”

“Yep. I’m the worst. Sorry for wanting you to recover from all those levels and an Imprint instead of giving Hell all your money,” Harvey sighed in mock resignation.

“It’s a good plan. We’ll wait here. Just lay low and don’t go picking fights,” Cash agreed.

“Why are you looking at me?” Celeste asked.

“Because you already almost killed someone,” Harvey laughed.

She glared at him, but her face softened as she acknowledged the point. “Fine, I’ll be on my best behavior, but only because you’re my favorite little piggy.”

“Oh lord,” Harvey groaned.

Once the others were settled, Harvey took their one key with them down the casino floor. Most people didn’t need a second copy when they were only planning to spend an hour or two in the suite, so the others would have to stay put for now. Walking back into the sea of slots, he pulled his aura in tight. He didn’t have a hint of holy inside it forcing him to mask its properties, but being surrounded by so many magical beings put pressure on his spirit that he hadn’t expected. The normal cheers of hitting a big win and despair of losing it all were accompanied by bursts of aura that carried those emotions with them. If he didn’t shield himself with his own, he was sure he’d have a migraine.

The pair walked up to an empty slot machine, and he let Celeste sit down on the plush leather chair before moving to stand behind her.

“Alright, how do we do this?” she asked.

Harvey looked at the machine and realized he didn’t know. Merit was intangible, not paper money he could hold in his hands. Transferring it from person to person was as easy as a thought, but the machine didn’t respond when he tried willing it to accept a transaction. Looking to the right, he saw a demoness pulling chips out of a slipsack and feeding them into a large coin slot.

[I haven’t seen any ATM’s around.]

“Stay here, I’ll be right back,” Harvey whispered in Celeste’s ear. She turned to say something, but he was already out of earshot. Harvey picked out a few landmarks to try and remember where the machine was before dashing away. Eventually, he found a Cashier’s booth with tellers standing behind ornate golden bars. There was a long line of gamblers waiting their turn, most looking despondent while a few clutched slipsacks like they were protecting a pot of gold. Letting his eyes wander while he waited, he saw a large section full of poker tables cordoned off with velvet ropes. A plastic sign on a brass stand had the details for a poker tournament that was supposed to start at 9 AM and run deep into the evening.

[If we weren’t here to hunt a lieutenant, I’d say we should play,] Julius said.

[Are you kidding? Julian was a shark already, and now we’ve got an AI that can calculate the odds of every hand in real time.]

Harvey hadn’t thought of that. Every game in the casino had a built-in house-edge except for poker. Otherwise, they wouldn’t offer them. Blackjack could technically be beaten if you were good at counting cards – which he could probably do perfectly thanks to the Cognition Matrix – but they were quick to shut you down once you started winning too much. Poker, on the other hand, was a game where he could rake in the money as long as statistics stayed on his side.

Harvey chuckled.

“Next!” a voice called in the distance. Harvey didn’t move, still thinking about all the merit he could make with a supercomputer in his head.

[Harvey,] Julius quipped.

“NEXT!” the teller shouted.

Harvey lurched forward, dashing over to the open teller with an embarrassed smile.

“How can I help you?” she asked.

“I need some chips,” Harvey said.

“How many?”

He thought about it for a second. If he played his cards right, he could make a lot of merit today, but he also didn’t want to draw too much attention to himself. He’d forgotten to look at how much each spin cost at the slot machine he’d left Celeste at, so he decided to start with 40,000. He could always come back later if he needed more.

“40,000,” he said.

“If you upgrade to the 50,000 bundle, I can give it to you for 45,000 merit,” she countered.

[That’s how they get ya.]

“Sure,” Harvey said. A transfer window requesting 45,000 merit appeared, and he accepted, receiving a tray with 50,000 merits worth of chips that disappeared into his spatial ring.

Rushing back, he found Celeste leaning into the machine next to her with a drink in her hand.

“Ooh! Ooh, ooh! Come on! One more! Ahhh!!!!” She and the demoness feeding the machine both slumped back into their chairs.

“So close! This stupid machine,” the demoness complained. Looking at the screen, it appeared they were one symbol off a massive payout.

“You’re back!” Celeste cheered, waving her drink in front of him. “You have to try one of these! It’s awesome.”

Harvey snatched the drink from her hand and took a sip. It ended up being some kind of peach margarita, but a lot stronger and sweeter than most of the drinks he’d had back home.

“Gimme, gimme, gimme,” she urged, reaching out for the glass.

“I leave you alone for five minutes,” Harvey laughed, not knowing if Celeste was a better actor than he’d expected or had already been sucked into the casino trap. The two played the slot machine for a few minutes, slowly bleeding chips while Celeste and the other demon chatted away. It didn’t take long for him to realize the woman wasn’t going to be any help with finding the lieutenant, so he dragged Celeste away from the machine and toward the blackjack tables.

“This is actually kind of fun,” she said when they were out of sight of their new friend.

“We’re not here to have fun,” Harvey reminded her.

“I know, but you said we need to fit in, right?” Celeste replied.

“I guess, just don’t get lost in the sauce, alright?” he said as she set her empty glass down on a waitress’ tray.

The two moved to a blackjack table, this time Celeste standing behind him while he cozied up to the felt. They were already in the middle of a hand, so he waited until the dealer acknowledged him to put a stack of chips on the table. Celeste had no idea what was happening, but luckily she was smart enough not to ask questions while the others played. A cocktail waitress came by and took everybody’s drink order, with Celeste asking for another margherita while Harvey just asked for a beer.

“You better start jacking up those baby bets of yours, sinner, if you want to have enough chips for the poker tournament! You signing up?” the burly demon man sitting beside him asked after the dealer busted and had to pay them all one by one.

“Thinking about it. You?” Harvey asked. It didn’t take long to notice that his slow, smart play was an outlier compared to all the reckless demons. They either won big or lost hard, but he hoped his being a human would explain the difference in mindset.

“Damn right,” he chuckled. “I was four spots away from making the final table last week. Would’ve finally gotten to meet the lieutenant.”

“Really?” Harvey asked, having to force himself not to get too excited. “Why would you want to meet him?”

“The whole reason I signed up to come to this shithole planet was to try and rise through the ranks, but it’s hard to get noticed when the angel bitches can’t even fight back,” the demon laughed.

“You’re not worried about pissing him off if you manage to beat him at the poker table?” Harvey pressed.

“I’m pretty good, but I’m not that good. There’s a reason the lieutenant hasn’t missed a final table since we got here. Still, just making the final table gets you a fat stack of merit and dinner in his private room at The Slaughterhouse.”

Harvey glanced at Celeste, who looked down at him with a mix of anger and anticipation.

“You know what? I think I will sign up,” Harvey smiled.

“Better run up that baby stack of yours then,” the demon said, pointing at Harvey’s chips. “You’re gonna need a lot more than that to survive the tables.”