The wheel spun and its red and black colors blurred, mixing into a chaotic ring of fate. Jason watched with bated breaths as the dealer threw the small white ball in.
This was it. This was his last chance. He put all of his remaining chips on red and listened to the ball click as it bounced from one pocket to the other. It had to stop on red. It had to. The spinning slowed down and the white ball settled. The final result was 24. The color was black.
"Toooooooo baaaaaad!"
The entire table burst with laughter.
"Man, I have seen people with bad luck, but then there is you!" One of the players said.
"You should've stopped while you were ahead!" Another one shouted.
The dealer used his rake to pull all the chips to the other side of the table. A burly man sat by the edge tapping a single green chip on the surface. When the stack was placed in front of him, he turned to Jason and smiled.
"I guess this is it." The burly man said.
The game was fixed. The results were decided from the start. Jason wanted to shout that at the man, to accuse him of cheating. But what was the point? It wasn't like throwing a temper tantrum would get him his money back. He would just get himself kicked out, ruining his chance at winning back what he had lost.
But how was he going to do that? He was already in debt, and whatever funds he had left were just swallowed by the table in front of him. He needed to get more, but... from where?
As his desperation grew, Jason reached into the inner pocket of his jacket. He took out a fancy cigarette case and opened it, staring at the contents for a few seconds.
"Uh-oh" The burly man looked on with surprise. "Now that's something. How did you get one of those?"
Inside was a single blue capsule. That was the last of his fortune, and as he looked at it, his mind wandered back and forth between betting on it or using it right then and there.
"How about this," The burly man tapped the stack of chips in front of him. "We play one more round. Winner walks with everything. How do you like that?"
Jason stared back at the man, seemingly taken aback by the proposal. Not a second later, a wide grin formed on his face, his previous fear nowhere to be seen.
The hallways inside the building felt narrow. Random crates and cardboard boxes were stacked everywhere, along with some storage shelves that held nothing but junk. Moving around without making a sound proved to be difficult, especially with how dark things were. Thankfully Dante's OAM came with a night vision feature which he didn't hesitate to use.
[Dante, be careful. Someone is approaching the next corner.]
A red dot appeared in the small map floating in the corner of Dante's field of vision. He docked behind a large box and waited. A new screen appeared to display the feed from a security camera at the end of the hallway. It showed a man carrying a small box and walking without a care. He stopped at the door near the corner and went inside. A few seconds later, he came out empty-handed and returned from the direction he came from.
The storage area near the backdoor didn't see much traffic. The real challenge started when he reached the staff area. Two men were playing cards in what Dante assumed was a break room. They had left the door wide open which gave them a full view of the hallway.
While looking through the room using the security camera in one of the corners, Dante noticed a TV hanging on the wall facing the door. He gave Volcan some mental instructions and waited.
Inside the break room, the TV suddenly turned on. The two men were startled momentarily, and when they turned to look at it, they missed the intruder who sneaked past the wide open door.
The path forward is split into three different directions. The first one led to the kitchen while the other two went to the dance floor and the staff restrooms respectively. The plan was to take the stairs near the restrooms to reach the first basement floor, but after checking the cameras again, Dante saw that some of the staff had stopped for a smoke in that hallway.
The entrance to the dance floor was guarded which only leaves on option. Despite its size, only one cook worked the entire kitchen. The man was sitting on a stool with a bottle in his hand and didn't look to be having the time of his life. The Den wasn't the kind of establishment that offers entire meals so he was probably stuck preparing snacks to go along with the drinks served at the bar.
Just like with the break room, Dante looked for something to distract the cook with so he could sneak in. He settled on a microwave and asked Volcan to turn it on. A sharp beep alerted the cook, drawing his attention from the door while Dante sneaked in and hid beside one of the cabinets.
A new screen appeared with the feed from other security cameras on it. Someone was approaching the second entrance to the kitchen, the one Dante had planned to slip through.
The confused cook turned the microwave off and was staring at it, waiting to see if something was going to happen. He was distracted for now, but who knows how long that would last. Dante had to make a choice and quickly. Either he waits in his place and prays that neither the cook nor the other guy notices him, or returns to the hallway he came from and tries another way.
Just as he was about to make his choice, the entire building suddenly rumpled.