"..."

'It's all your fault,' Angelica said from inside his body.

SIGH!

As Rudy had promised Maria, he was on his way to the central bank, which was two cities away from his town and he had never been there. He teleported to the next city but had to fly all the way to the next one.

"To be honest, I am glad that it's not that far. We are fortunate to have a branch of the central bank near us," Rudy said while flying above the clouds to remain hidden from everyone's sight.

He lived more of a village than a town although it was slowly developing into one. And the city next to his village where Joe and Lucy lived, where Reina's waterpark and the casino were located.

Because of such attractions and newly founded facilities, the city was rapidly developing.

"If I remember correctly, there was a park near the central bank that was later demolished and turned into a mall even after many protests from the citizens. That turned out to be one of the worst decisions in history since everyone in the city boycotted that mall, and it eventually went bankrupt."

Rudy landed on the backside of the park, where no one was around.

"Since it's late noon of summer, no one would come to the park. But there are still some people here for some reason"

Angelica came out of Rudy's body and said, "Imagine if you had called her in the evening. Everything would be crowded, and finding her would have been a hassle."

"True."

"What are you doing here?" Someone asked from a distance.

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Rudy glanced at the voice and saw Maria standing there, wearing a similar hoodie as him.

"What are 'you' doing here?" Rudy questioned back without showing any change of expression on his face.

"I was waiting for you in the park since there was nothing to do. You don't even have a phone, so I had no way to contact you. But I hoped that you would drop by the park or call me using the phone booth to find my location."

She smiled and added, "But I am glad I was able to find you."

"Same"

"Now!" Maria folded her hands below her bosom and said, "Let's get you a phone first!"

"Actually" Rudy looked at the sun and said, "It's almost 4PM. We should go to the bank first and make your account before the bank closes."

"Hmm" She hummed with a judging look on her face.

"By the way." Rudy glanced around using his see-through ability and asked, "Where are your bodyguards?"

Maria walked to Rudy and whispered in his ears, "I sneaked out."

"What?!" he exclaimed in shock. "How did they even allow you to leave alone to an entirely different city? I mean, yeah, you said you sneaked out, but how did they not notice?"

"As you know, the underground VIP gambling tournament will be later this week, so the entire underworld is preparing for that. It's the grand event of the year, and gamblers from all over the world come to participate," she said with a proud face. "That's why, the security at my place is liberal, which gave me a chance to sneak out without being noticed by anyone."

"Wait, the entire world?"

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"Indeed. There are underworlds all around the globe. And the winner of the underworld VIP tournament gets qualified to the VVIP tournament."

Rudy squinted his eyes with a judging look on his face and said, "You never told me about that."

"Honestly, getting there would be a dream come true situation. It's so hard that even my father, who is a professional gambler, was never able to get there. Imagine, only twelve people from the seven billion people in the world!" she said with a resolute expression on her face.

"Calm down. You exaggerated it. First of all, not all the seven billion people do gambling. Maybe a million of them. But yeah, that does sound appealing."

Rudy's goal had changed.

"I know, right! And no one knows what they give as a reward for winning the VVIP underground tournament~!"

"Heh." Rudy chuckled softly and uttered, "You are so reactive when it comes to gambling stuff, huh?"

"Well, I started gambling ever since I was three years old, so you may consider me a gambling addict," she said with a proud and confident look.

"Then you don't need me to win the tournaments, right?" he teased with a grin on his face.

"No! I need you! I don't have super luck like you have. And my brother and father don't allow me to gamble in the other casinos," she groaned with a sigh.

"You said no one knows the reward of the VVIP underground tournament, but you also said it happens yearly. So shouldn't everyone already know what the rewards are? What did the previous winners get?" Rudy asked patiently with a curious face.

"Most of them didn't win."

"Huh?" Rudy raised his brow with a visibly confused look on his face and asked, "What do you mean?"

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"They forfeit before reaching the final round. And most of the contestants always say that it wasn't worth it to reach there. And none of them gambled after that."

"Earlier, it had my curiosity, but now it has my attention! Now, let's go to the fucking bank and get you an account!"

Maria and Rudy went to the bank and passed through the security. However, they were being monitored by the guards as they both were wearing hoodies.

They walked to the counter, and it was then Rudy realized something. He checked Maria's hands and asked:

"Where are the documents required to open an account?"

"..." She averted her gaze and said, "You never told me to bring them."

"...."

"I was kidding! I already submitted them here and even filled the form!" she hissed.

"That wasn't the right time for a joke. But anyway, let's"

BANG~ BANG!

"....!"

PEW! PEW!

That day, robbers broke into the bank armored with advanced weapons that clearly didn't belong in the 2008 timeline.

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Thanks, @select_user, for the gift!