Playboy Cultivator in the Apocalypse

Rein sat at the crowded bar of Kat's Casino, a large gambling den opposite the Underground Bizarre from Club Quinn.

It had a very different vibe. It was a dimly lit room with booths in the back that read [Privacy Booths | 100 Skye for 20 minutes or 1 RP for 40 minutes & two drinks].

Each was a twin-sized mattress surrounded by four walls. It was simple but popular.

While sex was legal in Immortal Skye and not discouraged, everyone found having it difficult.

The residential mansions had bunkbeds with ten people sleeping in each room. So only those who had recently moved into the Executive or the Eminent--recently renamed from the Elite--and had their own room could have sex conveniently on campus.

There were 50 booths that the owner, Mandy Mitchell, a business-minded blonde, prioritized. She had already raised the price twice because it was sold out for four hours, delighting the investors.

In the center were circular tables with people playing Texas Hold'em and Five Card Draw and rows of tables with dealers dealing Blackjack.

Surprisingly, the most popular area was a section where people played simple dice games.

The area was going wild, with one person's eyes lit with fire and passion.

"GahhhHHHhhHHhhHHh YAS!" Steve yelled at full volume, triggering loud cheers when he won--again--on a four-win streak.

Rein smiled at the Asian man in amusement, glad he was having a good time. He made fleeting panicked eye contact, looking from her to the dice to her three times.

"I~wonder." She chuckled in bewilderment, looking down at her glass, staring at the reflection of a redhead drinking a whiskey coke.

She looked classy, wearing a black skirt and stunning 1.5-carat diamond earrings that the Scavangers brought back from one of their trips to the wealthy end of town.

Her straight hair was in a tight ponytail that rested on her white t-shirt.

"I-I'm sorry to keep you waiting, D-Dir... I mean Ms. Harrington." Mandy said, "I know you're not representing Immortal--"

"It's best not to talk about a misunderstanding further." Sage replied with a sly smile.

"Y-Yes, Ms. Harrington." The blonde smiled, "What do you think? We've sold out the booths for four hours; your idea was stellar."

"You've~done~well." The redhead smiled ominously, "Thought you did get a life-saving subsidy in the form of free RP allocation. So why are you offering the service for cash when you can't make RP through gambling? Everyone's spending RP like candy."

"I-I...." Mandy gulped, feeling her heartbeat race out of control, "It all happened so fast. We raised our price and added the RP to it, mam."

"Relax." Sage smiled sinisterly, taking a drink from her glass, "This isn't my business; I was just curious why you weren't making the most of the boon.

If you wish to go bankrupt, that's of your own initiative."

The owner cringed and took a sharp breath. "I'm trying, Ms. Harrington, but your prices are too extreme. If Emperor Lexicon didn't sell us alcohol, we couldn't operate tonight."

"Oh~yes." Sage smirked, "The Emperor has subsidized your business not [once] but twice with lifelines. Yet here you are, still struggling."

"Forgive me for being blunt." Mandy's face flushed with resentment.

"That's for me to decide." The redhead smiled.

"Selling us alcohol at 1,000 Skye a bottle stands between success and failure." The blonde gritted her teeth, "It's almost like you're trying to make us fail."

"I'm making you fail?" Sage mused, locking eyes with a chilling gaze, "Tell me, Mandy. How much money have your dealers lost on Blackjack tonight?"

The blonde's eyes trembled, and she turned away, swallowing nervously. "Why are you asking that?"

"Well, the thing about blackjack is that it's egregiously lucrative for casinos." The redhead smiled viciously, "That's because the dealer has an equally egregious advantage.

So a dealer only needs to play by the book. This hand hit; this hand stay--then the money rolls in from elementary probability.

However, are any of your dealers trained to be dealers?"

Mandy opened and closed her mouth, feeling tears well in her eyes. "We're at Immortal Skye. Where was I supposed to find a blackjack dealer?"

"Great question." Sage replied sarcastically, "It seems like you chose a business requiring a supply of booze you didn't secure, needs labor that you don't have, and requires a major reserve of cash you don't know how to handle. That's why you're failing."

"Well price gouging isn't helping." The blonde said bitterly, looking way, "It's preying on the inexperienced.

"Preying?" The redhead laughed, "While you're relaxing, failing within these safe walls, five of my people got killed getting this very booze you think is free."

Mandy's eyes trembled in disbelief, watching her grab the whiskey bottle and turn it to see the label.

"Yuuuuuu-up." Sage confirmed with a slight smile, "Isn't that right, Rein?"

"That's right." Rein replied dryly, drinking the whiskey sour another employee poured her, "Did you forget about the [zombies] and think that we just went to a grocery store?"

The Director of Finance and Economics frowned, hearing the woman's voice and mannerisms. She was convinced something was strange about the brunette, but her cultivation, voice, appearance, and mannerisms lined up.

"N-No, I didn't forget about the... zombies... it's just that...." Mandy gulped, feeling the pressure, "Didn't you voluntarily sign up to get alcohol in the city?"

"What type of stupid question is that?" Rein scoffed breathlessly, staring into dead space to process the woman's stupidity, "We didn't sign up to risk our lives for alcohol.

My fallen teammates risked their lives for an absurd amount of money--the same amount you're complaining about paying.

The only difference between you and us is that we knew what we were doing before we did it, so we're not surprised people crashed and burned.

Don't use our lives to justify your shit business skills."

Mandy's eyes trembled in regret, and she turned away, feeling the full weight of her decisions.

Sage narrowed her eyes at the brunette, who returned a crazed [I'll rip your throat out] expression, making her turn away in surprise.

"My apologies... I'm just inexperienced." The blonde said to the short-haired brunette, "Ms. Harrington, what should I do about the blackjack?"

"You wish to be bailed out a fourth time?" The redhead mused dryly, "I already gave you your total source of profit for tonight."

Mandy turned away in shame. "I won't ask for your help for free."

"Hoh?" Sage smiled sinisterly, "You have my attention. Tell me, Mandy Mitchell, what is financial salvation worth to you?

For the right price, you can buy anything--including fame, status, and glory."

Mandy's eyes trembled with a rapidly beating heart, taking sharp breaths. The blonde heard her statement saying she'd be willing to help her succeed.

If she were to get Sage, the true owner of the Scavengers, to help her, success was near-guaranteed. She wouldn't be as rich as she hoped, but she'd get what was more important to her--fame, status, and glory.

Those were the three things that she wanted more than anything else.

How she got them was irrelevant. She only chose a casino because they were notoriously profitable, so she thought it would be a quick source of cash.

"Tell me what you want, and I'll do it." Mandy said earnestly, looking into the redhead's eyes.

"Let's talk about your desires, and we'll figure out how I can help you with them." Sage replied with a poison-laced smile, eyes flickering with destruction, "Then we'll talk about my price."

Rein scoffed in disgust and got up from her chair, preparing to walk out the door while listening from a distance. However, as soon as the redhead began answering--

"Don't go!" A man's voice called out, running up to the bar as fast as he could, "Rein, don't go! I'm just on a neverending streak, but I didn't forget!"

The brunette closed her eyes with hellfire and wrath burning in her 5,000-year-old soul. She turned to him with a bone-chilling glare that should have sent shivers crawling down his spine.

Contrary to expectation, Steve Chung responded oppositely, reaching his right hand to grab her without the slightest consent.

Kaze watched him move forward in comically slow-motion. The Asian man single-handedly forced him to make a public scene--in Rein's body--that would impact her reputation.

At the same time, he couldn't break character before the hawkish eyes of Sage Harrington.

The situation was a nightmare.