From Bullets To Billions novel Chapter 171

Chapter 171: The Power Of Money

When Max pulled out his phone and went online, the first thing he found, after registering for one of those gambling websites, was pure disappointment.

"I can’t believe it. There’s a 250k spending limit?" Max exclaimed in disbelief.

"If you would like to gamble at places with a higher limit, we would have to go to more well-known resorts," Aron explained calmly. "Or some underground ones."

Although Aron had made a clear distinction between the two, Max already knew there wasn’t much of a difference. Nearly every casino that appeared legitimate on the surface was actually being run by some Syndicate, using the operation to clean dirty money.

Usually, the underground gambling rings were for those desperate enough to be banned from regular establishments, or for those who wanted to bet on things unavailable, or outright illegal, for the general public.

"Well, I guess we can only do what we can do. We’ll have to see if this will be enough to cause a big effect," Max thought aloud. "The quickest way to double or lose my money... roulette, red or black, baby!"

From the corner of the room, Aron couldn’t help but show a look of disappointment as he imagined what Dennis would think if he knew the Sterns were trying to increase their wealth through something as volatile as gambling.

Thankfully, luck was in Max’s favor. He managed to win on his very first try, doubling the amount he’d put in.

"I knew red was my lucky color! Hahaha!" Max burst out with a wide grin. The rush he felt seeing the number on his screen, seeing that money in his account, was exhilarating. It almost didn’t feel real.

Right after that, Max did a series of physical tests, taking small breaks between each machine. When he got to the treadmill, rather than testing for stamina, he tested for speed, curious to see what his new max would be.

So far there have been improvements, Max noted mentally, but they’re small. I don’t even know if they can be considered measurable. Is it because what I have now is already so high?

In the grand scheme of things, the amount of money I have is already massive, so to see a large increase in strength, I’d probably need an even bigger boost to my wealth... Let’s just keep going and see anyway.

Thankfully, Max’s good fortune held. He landed on red again, gaining yet another increase. After a brief rest, he ran through all the tests again, this time noticing the results more clearly.

On the grip machine, my grip strength was 55kg. It’s on the upper end of average, but still not considered abnormal or anywhere near superhuman. I imagine Hercules could break this thing with ease, Max thought. After increasing my wealth by 500k, my grip strength went up by a whole kilogram. There were slight improvements after the first increase, and it’s the same across the other tests.

It was almost unbelievable for Max to witness such improvements so quickly, but he couldn’t ignore one possibility, maybe it was a placebo effect? Maybe seeing the wins and thinking about it all was tricking him into performing better.

Maybe that’s what Hercules was talking about... Well, just in case, I should keep going.

Unfortunately, that was where Max’s luck ended. He lost twice in a row, and when he retested, his grip strength remained at 55kg, unchanged.

Then came a downward spiral. He continued to lose and continued to test, but with every loss, his performance stayed the same or dropped. Eventually, he was down to his last 250k out of his original ten-million pot. And then... he lost it all.

"How... how?" Max shouted. "How could it have landed on black so many times in a row? Is this thing rigged?!" he yelled, feeling the urge to throw his phone across the room.

Aron shook his head, muttering softly.

Hercules had explained that the Vow was a link between the mind and one’s inner strength, like the release of hormones. In Max’s case, he had linked it to money, but he hadn’t truly explored the how behind that connection.

Could I change it somehow? Could I access the power within me in a different way? There are more tests to do, he thought. I won’t figure it out completely yet. But for now, my power feels a bit... boring. There has to be more to it.

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