"I told him that if he wore this mask, he would become a saab, and he would have power, but he would also pay the price. The real Saab will not give up dignity and make you smile. ”

Sabo kicked the body away and smiled at Lorenzo, but the smile made Lorenzo shudder, he never thought it would be like this.

"Surprised, isn't it? The real Saab is a deformity, a dwarf. ”

Sabo didn't seem surprised by Lorenzo's surprised gaze, or that he had seen too many of them in his life, and he was used to it.

Stretching out his short arms, his body twisted by the accumulation of flesh and fragile bones, and his internal organs were squeezed into this small body, he gasped slightly because of the swing of the sword just now, and his thick fingers struggled to grasp the blood-soaked cards, he looked so bloated, but he didn't care.

"I hope you don't feel displeased with my stand-in, after all, I am the master of the Green Shark, and I want to rule a group of outlaws, and the body of a dwarf is not very useful, and it is difficult to deter my subordinates, not to mention that I am still a Viking...... Viking gnomes are ridiculous, right. ”

Sabo said lightly, obviously a very sad thing, but he didn't say it like his own story.

"I think it's ...... more than ridiculous Great, leading a group of outlaws with such a body, quite powerful. ”

Lorenzo said sincerely.

Saab was not happy because of Lorenzo's praise, but said calmly.

"And what about you? Mr. Lorenzo Holmes, I wonder why you are so confident in winning him, as soon as Lady Luck deviates from you, your head will blow up, and it's not just some lucky dauntless can do it. ”

It was a gamble on the brink of death, like dancing with death, which only pure madness could harness.

"Eyes, his eyes. ”

Lorenzo pointed to his eyes, their gray-blue pupils shining brightly, reflecting the bloody table.

"That guy wants to win so much, he wants to win to the point of madness, as a boss he should be powerful, but that domineering is too cowardly. I studied acting, he is not a qualified actor, and certainly not a qualified gambler, real gamblers will not back down, the chips in their hands are all they have. ”

Lorenzo had already seen through the double, but he thought it was just a minor boss to worry about, but apparently the real Saab had come out to complicate the situation.

"You seem to like gambling, but I've never seen you in a casino. ”

Sabo didn't seem hostile, and asked as he shuffled the cards, the music in the hall was still there, the people were immersed in the warm bustle, and the death of the stand-in didn't attract anyone's attention.

"Gambling is a good thing, it can turn the tide, and even a single coin can win an entire kingdom. ”

Rubbing his fingers lightly against the brand-new butcher coin, Lorenzo replied.

"But a friend of mine once told me that luck is a finite thing, and that the luck that a person has in his life is fixed, and that you should have been hit by a carriage today, but before you were killed, you were lucky enough to fall and escape the attack of death.

Like a soldier on the battlefield, he can dodge countless bullets just because luck plays tricks, but when you run out of luck, a deadly bullet will take your life. My friend was the best gambler I had ever met, but he rarely gambled, saying it was to save his luck. ”

Saab nodded, he had heard such stories before, but he had a different feeling when he heard it today.

"What about your friend, did he win the whole kingdom?"

"No, he used his luck in one battle, and the broken shrapnel cut into the only slit in his armor, piercing his artery, and the strongest armor became his grave. ”

Lorenzo said slowly, his expression unchanged, as if it was just a forgotten past for him.

"I like to gamble, too, but what I like is the feeling of walking between life and death, walking away with the spoils of war before the sword of death falls. ”

Sabo licked his dry lips, it was a scarlet tongue, as if he had blood in his mouth, and his teeth were like sharks, Eve sat on the side and didn't dare to speak, everything tonight was beyond her knowledge.

"You also know that it is difficult for a deformity like me to find a feeling of being alive in life, everyone thinks that you are an ominous symbol, no one cares about you, but on the verge of death is different, you have a wrong face with death, maybe you will still flick his black robe, and you are still alive, the thrilling thrill is very good, the blood is boiling, and the heart of silence is beating again!"

Sabo spoke excitedly, his clumsy hands slapping the table with anger, like a deformed giant baby, with a grotesque weirdness.

"So that's what you lost?"

Lorenzo asked.

"Do you mean that?"

Sabo stopped tapping the table as he spoke, and stretched out his hands, which were mutilated palms.

Both palms were missing to varying degrees, and the entire phalanges were severed, leaving two or three fingers on top of them, but even then he was nimble, and the dizzying shuffling of cards came from this mutilation.

"yes. No gambler can't lose, but luckily my opponents were good guys, and they kept my thumb and middle finger so I could continue to hold my sword...... But it doesn't matter, I always win it back in the end. ”

With a few fingers, he picked up the bayonet, a slender and light sword, without any ornamentation, not even a grid, just composed of a blade and a hilt, and the weight of the bayonet was greatly reduced, so that Sabo could command a deadly and swift sword with a few hands.

"It's a good day, are you still going to play a game?"

"But I've already won. ”

"That's my stand-in. ”

"But he's also Saab, isn't he?"

The cold conversation, the two of them did not let anyone, the sword and the gun, all the chips were placed on the blood-stained table.

Saab was silent for a moment, then said.

"About the other day, it was a guy named Mentor who asked us to do it in order to cover the group of people from the pursuit. ”

"Who's that mentor? ”

"I don't know, I just know that he has a lot of status, but all of them are high-status, whether in Invig or in other countries. ”

"What about the group?"

"That's the second question, Mr. Holmes. ”

Sabo smiled sinister under half of his mask, unfolding the cards neatly in front of Lorenzo, the blood on them still dry, with a strange feeling.

"So you want to play another game?. ”

......

It was a dead silence, and despite the warmth of the air and the excitement of the music, the atmosphere on this high platform was like falling into an ice cellar.

Sabo has redeemed his dignity, but that's all there is to it, and if he wants more information, he will have to join the game again. Lorenzo's eyes were downcast, he was thinking, it was clear that this time it was completely different, this time he was facing the real Saab, a real gambler.

"Enough is enough. ”

Eve whispered that the princess of the Phoenix family felt uneasy about the darkness of the world only in the family's account of the war.

But Lorenzo ignored her, and like Eve, Lorenzo was just as uneasy, but unlike Eve's uneasiness, Lorenzo really cared about the whole thing.

The mysterious cargo from the north involved the shrike and Saab and the people who hid deeper in the darkness, and of course, the most important thing was what Lorenzo saw in his vision, the mutant body, the lighthouse erected, the strange and hideous everything crawled out of the memories and tried to bring him back to that rainy night.

He needs to know the truth.

"What's the stake?"

Beneath the brass mask, the voice is as calm and powerful as iron.

Then there was a sincere smile from under the mask of the bull, and Sabo clapped his hands vigorously, and the laughter was piercing and crazy, like the last carnival before the end of the day. He jumped off his chair and staggered to the edge of the high platform, looking down like a king at the grand feast.

"Everyone!"

He shouted loudly, and the dancing crowd stopped looking at the short man on the high platform, which was very different from their impression of Sabo, but they didn't care, they only recognized the mask at this banquet, and whoever wore the mask of the bull was the master.

Sabo was so happy that any pleasure for a dying person would be great, he shouted.

"Prom begins!"

As the sound resounded, the orchestra's repertoire changed instantly, the past was different from the opulence and beauty, this time the melody was full of weirdness and mourning, the pianists dragged the strings unwillingly, like a chainsaw cutting through the living, and the music went out to belong to the wail of human beings.

The attendants came out of nowhere, and instead of gold and jewelry, the tray was filled with hallucinogens, which the guests picked up at random, and then exposed the inside of their wrists, which should have been smooth skin, but now filled with needles, and skillfully injected into them, and the gates of heaven were opened to fallen mortals.

It was a pre-apocalyptic, abandoning all ethics and virtues, and opening up the dark side of human nature. Eve stared blankly, this was the beginning of the nightmare for the girl, the smell of blood in the air, and then the blood was agitated, trying to join in the depraved.

"Calm down, detective, this is just the beginning. ”

The cold hand gripped hers, and it felt like a block of thawed ice, and Eve woke up from the psychedelia.

"Stay awake, you don't want to be like them, do you. ”

Lorenzo's voice rang out, and Eve woke up from a dream, followed by heavy breathing, sweat soaking through the mask.

"I'm ...... What's wrong. ”

Eve asked with some fear, the strange feeling just now, she felt that the whole world was shattered in front of her eyes, and then recast into a strange appearance.

"Hallucinogens, there should be a lot of its volatiles in the air, and the impact is not too big. ”

The sharp dagger was drawn from under Eve's dress, and Lorenzo shoved it into Eve's hand, holding the weapon tightly that might have reassured the girl.

"So that's what the ball really looks like? a big feast of bliss. ”

The gray-blue pupils were still clear, and Lorenzo was not disturbed by the hallucinogens contained in the air at all.

"Yes, all the people who come here are rich people, and wealth can no longer satisfy them. ”

Saab stepped down from the edge of the platform and returned to the table, taking a coin from his mutilated palm and placing it in the center of the two of them.

"Win me once and I'll answer you a question. Sabo stretched out his right hand and raised his index finger.

"What if I lose?"

"You answer me a question. ”

"I didn't expect me to be so liked by you. Lorenzo was a little surprised, he thought that someone like Saab would ask Lorenzo to chop off his fingers.

"After all, you are the iron thorn of the shrike, Mr. Holmes, and in a sense, it is because of you and I that I have become Sabo, the leader of the green shark, and you are my benefactor. ”

Saab's eyes weren't lying, and he owes some of his success to Lorenzo.

"To be honest, it was a bit of a surprise to me. Lorenzo couldn't believe it.

"It's nature, and the Orientals often say it, and they call it 'cause and effect'.

I was there at the time of the Red River tragedy six years ago, but you also know that it is difficult for people to attract attention with my stature, so I survived, and thank you for making the Lower City reshuffle, which gave me a chance to rise. ”

That had been a long time ago, but now Lorenzo could still smell the blood, and his face was frozen as if it were ice.

Eve on the side was already frozen, she remembered the last time she had heard of Iron Thorn, it was from Officer Pree, and more far-reaching, the Red River tragedy, and she finally remembered this moment.

"Stranger hired by the Shrike, the corpse you threw into the Thames that day made the Shrike what it is today, and after that you mysteriously disappeared, only a few survivors knew your name, but they were terrified that you would appear somewhere and take away the lives that should have died. ”

That was already a story of the past, and Lorenzo never took the initiative to bring it up or reply as if he had deliberately forgotten.

"So what do you want to play? ”

Lorenzo remained calm, as if he had no emotions, a mechanical life.

"How about a coin toss?"

No one could have imagined that Sabo would come up with such a game, and the only finger played with the coin, and he said.

"You're not very good at solitaire, are you? It's unfair for a veteran to play against a newbie, and you like pure luck, so be it, and then ...... How about you?"

As he spoke, the coin flicked at Eve, and the coin spun rapidly in front of the girl's eyes and finally came to a slow stop, the surface of the metal mottled and shiny, and looked very old, and the carved things on it became blurred under the caress of many years, and the axe and shield could be faintly seen.