One of the three young men at the table eyed Lucas as a snake would eye a mouse caught in a trap.
"Hope yo' got money? cos' we don't mess around here!"
Before Lucas could answer, he added roughly; "Cash only son! Don't come here with none of that fancy jewellry or fake stuff! Get it?!"
"Are we gonna play? Or are we going to talk all night?" Lucas tried his best to look as bored as possible.
"Haha, you got jokes huh? Let's see if yo' skill can cash the cheque yo' big mouth is writing!"
And with that, the game began.
Lucas decision to make money this way stemmed from the fact that it was basically the fastest route to quick cash. (There was also the fact that he really did not want to end up in the wild hunting some creature that definitely did not want to be disturbed.)
Since fast cash was his motive, the logical thing to do would have been to head for a pure casino and hope there was some flaw in the system he could use to cheat. But that would have come with a serious backlash. Indeed, one of the quickest paths to trouble was to get caught cheating at a casino. People got mobbed, blacklisted, or even robbed.
That path had a lot of dead ends for him, and he was not keen on exploring them. Hence, chess. It was the only way for him to escape unscathed. If he relied on chess tournaments to turn around his fortune, he could easily get away with it because they would simply assume it was because he was skilled.
On his own side of the table, everything the three girls had on them was a single gold coin. Here, that was the equivalent of ten silver coins or a hundred copper coins. Across the board, the stakes were the same for all parties.
Only a few minutes into the game, Lucas found out he had greatly overestimated the skill of his opponent. In fact, he deduced that even if he closed his eyes and played, he still would not lose the game. There was no need to rely on the A.I system. It was his trump card, and it was looking like there was not going to be any need to tap into its assistance.
While Lucas felt ontop of the world, the three girls felt like they were cocooned in a fiery furnace of uncertainties. For the poor girls, that one precious gold coin was all that they had. And yet, at the same time, they trusted in Lucas. These conflicting feelings raged inside them. But they kept their inner turmoil locked and tried to suffer through the agonizing minutes.
Body taut in a slightly over confident posture, Lucas' hand deftly flew back and forth across the board with the ease of an expert player. The other knuckle brained guy would spend whole minutes thinking of a move, only to have Lucas descend on him and pick off his pieces like a sniper.
At the end of the day, the word the three girls had been expecting finally came from Lucas' mouth; "CHECKMATE."
It was a brutal defeat. Anyone watching could have easily seen that Lucas had been toying with his opponent. Instead of him to go for a direct assault on the poorly guarded king, Lucas instead took time to destroy every of his opponent's officials, leaving him open. And then, with the mercilessness of a python swallowing its prey after squeezing life out of it, Lucas ended the game.
Lolita very nearly jumped out of her skin for joy. The others summoned all their will power to stay calm when Lucas won. Their celebration would no doubt have drawn unwanted attention. So, they stifled their desire to jubilate victoriously, and chose to smile big, broad, happy smiles instead.
It was probably the smart thing to do given the situation.
Stunned, a bit dazed, the young man reached into his breeches and fished out the gold coin he had staked. Lucas gingerly collected it and checked to see if it was real. Much to his delight, it really was real!!!
The euphoric feeling of making quick money was like a rush!
Seeing that this place was a potential goldmine, Lucas turned to other opponents he could fleece without wasting time. Needless to say, he won the next series of games. Lucas ended up quadrupling his original gold coin two times over.
His winnings soon drew the attention of several others. Before long, he had a small group of spectators hovering around him. Fascinated with genuine wonder, they eagerly watched the stranger display his skill as he completely decimated his enemies. He was a complete joy to watch.
The bets started rolling in as more and more people began to bet on him. Lucas was not only making money, people were making money off of him!! He never lost a single game. He was like a living, breathing sure odds.
Later that night, before the manager would go to bed, he would thank the heavens for sending him this foreigner. Lucas was good for business!
The more games he won, the more people talked about him. As he was still an unknown entity with no name, one very presumptuous gambler came up with a name for him; "The dancing ghost." It was a superb name because it perfectly described just how Lucas played. He danced across the board, and simply took what he wanted without being seen.
He appeared every inch to be a formiddable player.
Observant spectators and opponents alike were very much confused as to the identity of this stranger. His alias was not helping matters at all. No one had seen him before, and yet he played like a professional. This began to spark up a string of endless questions which no one had the answers to.
Most people in the crowd were regulars of the chess establishment. So they knew just about all the top players here. So, Lucas' presence caused no small stir.
Lucas did it again and won another game. This brought his tally up to one thousand and twenty four gold coins. While he kept stacking more gold coins, the mystery around him continued to pile even higher.
There was simply no telling just how joyous Lolita and Catherine were. Especially Monica who loved gold more than the rest. Never in their wildest dreams had they ever thought it possible that they would ever amass such a fortune. Even if they had spent three whole years fighting, killing and going on suicidal missions, they still would not have been able to stack up such a neat pile of gold.
The very sight of it was mouth watering.
Lucas did not know it, but the fortune he had amassed within a short while would be enough to sustain the three girls for the rest of their lives.
As expected, after ploughing through a field of defeated opponents, no one wanted to play with Lucas again. It was almost always a sure loss for then, a plus for him. His skills spoke louder than any voice in the hall.
Just when he thought he was about to run out of opponents, the goddess of good fortune rolled a thunder cloud across the clear blue summer skies by bringing in someone new.
The heavy boots of a middle aged man thumped on the floor boards of the room. Despite the noise, it seemed everyone heard that signature sound and turned to the door. The new addition to the room was a man in his forties. Over his head sat a wide cowboy hat that hid his dark eyes. And above his upper lip sat a thick burly mouthstache.
His arrival drew the awe of the entire crowd, even the three girls.
Unlike poker, chess was a popular intellectual sport among the people. In contrast to its cousin, chess was a game of intellect and not luck. So, those who excelled at this game quickly rose to stardom within a short period. The strange middle aged man was one of those stars.
With tension in her voice, Lolita quickly whispered in Lucas' ear; "THAT'S JACK!!!"