48 Hours a Day

The man in the plaid shirt provided a valid reason. “We had an agreement before. You do know the work you did in three days paid you more than what you earned in half a year, right?”

“Yes. But unfortunately, it’s not enough,” the woman replied.

“Not enough… What do you mean by that?” “Okay, I changed my mind. How about sharing all the money we made in the past few days? Otherwise, I’ll tell the casinos what you have done… I believe they will be interested in your recent… winning streak…”

The the Mediterranean sea-breeze wasn’t that cold, but for some reason, the flannel-shirted man shivered. “Why are you doing this?!”

“Why? Because I need more money.”

“But we had an agreement.”

“Yes, yes, you guys always like to talk about agreements and agreements. But you know agreements mean nothing in this world, right? Whatever you’ve been doing; that breaks the game’s rules too, right?”.

“But…” flannel-shirt paused suddenly, and then a look of horror materialized on his face.

“Hey… is that necessary? I just want half of the money. Are you terrified, or what?”

An unfamiliar voice came from behind her, “I’m sorry to disturb you. I wonder if you two are interested in enjoying the night view of Monaco?”

The woman turned around and saw a black Buick stopping behind her. The window of the passenger side came down, and a head poked out from it. The person was bald, and he did not look like he had good intentions. A mermaid tattoo was also on his neck.

In comparison to flannel-shirt, whose calf was already trembling, his fake wife managed to put up a better act. Although she was actually nervous right now, she still mustered enough courage to ask the man a question. “Are you… from the casino?”

“You should watch what you say, miss. We have nothing to do with the casino. We are just a group of Monaco’s hospitable residents,” the bald tattooed man grinned, giving off an unsavory and vile look.

Although they did not admit it, even a fool would have known that the man and his people in this black Buick were related to the casino. The local casinos were concerned about their reputation. Although there were certain things they wouldn’t do themselves, it certainly didn’t mean that they would sit by and do nothing

The inability to hold the two of them responsible for what they did in the casino in front of everyone was by no means a guarantee that they would not hire external help to intervene with the problem outside. The black Buick appearing at this hour was obviously here to solve the casino’s problem.

Flannel-shirt became more and more nervous. It was his first time encountering this kind of trouble and had no idea what he should do in such a situation. Nervously glancing around his surroundings, it was apparent that he was desperate to escape. The woman was also regretting her recent actions. In the past three days, the two had easily scammed away a considerable amount of money from the few casinos, managing to make a fool out of them. Blinded by the thrill and ease of the profits, her appetite became so ravenous to the point that she was deluded.

She thought that those casinos were her personal ATM, especially after she got to know that there was a technical team supporting flannel-shirt. They were the original team, and as he said, she was only recruited to the team to cover him temporarily. Before that, she was just a pole dancer at a small bar in a small town. She was a nobody. When she couldn’t make rent, she even provided extraservices to the men in the bar.

Who knew what would happen after this? Such a rare opportunity wouldn’t knock twice, and she had to make as much money while she could. It explained why she was adamant to carry on despite flannel-shirt beseeching his counterpart to stop. She knew they might come across little snags and potholes, but certainly not getting into big trouble like this. Compared to a nerdy flannel-shirt, she had come across all kinds of people while she was working as a pole dancer. Since their enemies had managed to locate them, she knew it was now useless trying to escape while inside others’ territory.

What more, the entire Monaco was only 2.02 square kilometers wide.

At this juncture, she was already thinking about selling out flannel-shirt to the people from the casino. However, she might not be able to keep the 20,000 euros she earned. Though she threatened to expose him, she wouldn’t do unless it was the last resort since she might not make any money anyway at the end of the day.

It was all because she knew what the casino people were interested in. Earlier, she had tried to figure out how flannel-shirt and his team managed to hit a royal flush on the poker machine every time. She also knew that it was her forte to extract whatever information she wanted from men. All she needed were two bottles of beer, some romantic music, and getting into the bathroom naked with steam around her. By that time, most men would have fallen for her. Unfortunately, even after flannel-shirt explained everything to her, she found that she still didn’t understand a single thing.

Terms like ‘pseudo-randomness’ and ‘linear-feedback shift register’ sounded like a foreign language, let alone the confusing source code.

“That’s why I hate nerds. They are not real men! Whether on the bed or under the bed!

Those topless and sweaty things working hard at construction sites are the real men! For those who play with keyboards and numbers, they are a bunch of sissies at best!!!”

Now, she was furious after knowing that although she unleashed all her charm and exposed her body, it yielded nothing in return.

She failed to acquire the most valuable thing. Even if she sold the flannel-shirt out to the casino, she knew that she would gain no benefit. She knew that should be thankful if the casino thugs even let her go in the end.

After a while, the bald man in the black Buick got a little impatient. The car doors flung open, and out came four burly men.

“In Monaco, it’s impolite to refuse an invitation.”

Flannel-shirt started to panic when he saw the four muscular men, and he was about to run for his life.

Suddenly, a black shadow descended from the sky!

It was a masked man with a hood. He had jumped from the second floor of a nearby residential building and landed on the roof of the black Buick. When he landed, a small cloud of dust flew up, and the whole car shook. For a moment, the bald guy thought it was an earthquake.

Next, the masked man jumped off the roof of the car and kicked the muscular man in front of him with his knee. The three other goons quickly reacted, surrounding the assailant, arms akimbo, and ready to strike.

Flannel-shirt was fortunate to witness a scene that only appeared in American blockbuster movies of the past. Three fierce and confident-looking men had been put down by a single masked man in just one minute.

It seemed that the masked man didn’t even exert his full strength on them. Although the four thugs were lying on the ground, their injuries weren’t actually fatal.