Liam no longer bet to win.
He bet to detonate.
System Update[New Ability Activated: Probability Stampede]
Effect: Trigger large-scale pattern distortion by influencing mass user betting behavior.
Target: Any open sportsbook with algorithmic tracking.
Warning: Effects will ripple beyond target. Federal tracking risk elevated.
Liam picked his target carefully.
"BetBlast.io", a dark crypto sportsbook operating out of Moldova with connections to both Russian syndicates and the Balkan cartels. Its interface was sleek, mobile-friendly, and rigged from the inside.
Perfect.
He didn't want to win at it.
He wanted to kill it.
Seeding the BombLiam created 800 burner accounts over three days. Every one tied to fake wallets, prepaid IPs, and layered proxies.
He mimicked real user behavior:
Some accounts lost small bets
Some chased odds
Some bet emotionally
Then, on Champions League Final Night, he triggered the Stampede.
A single, simple prediction:
Underdog: Astra FC to win by 2. Final score: 3-1.
The odds? +4700.
Insane.
Stupid.
Impossible.
But the Stampede didn't care about logic.
It created patterns that others chased. On Reddit, Discord, Telegram, YouTube.
Thousands of real people started betting it too.
The book's AI flagged it as a minor meme spike.
No red alert.
Just funny money.
Until the match happened.
And Astra FC — a team with no business winning — scored in the final minute.
3–1.
Exactly.
The Fallout$32 million in payouts.
BetBlast.io went dark within the hour.
CEO vanished. Backend database scrubbed. Crypto wallet drained by "unknown withdrawals."
Every fixer tied to the site lost capital. Some lost everything.
One hung himself in Serbia.
Another fled to Panama.
The syndicate behind it issued a silent bounty:
"Whoever killed our book… we want his name."
They called him "The Black Fade."
But some still whispered a better name.
"Joker."
System ExpansionControl Over Market Pulse: 7.8%
System Growth: Stabilized
Global Suspicion Level: 34%
New Threat: INTERPOL – Digital Crimes Division
New Flagged File: "Ghost Algorithm" under preliminary investigation.
Liam read the system prompt and shrugged.
Let them watch.
You can't arrest luck.
Arman's WarningHe received a secure call the next night.
It was Arman.
His voice was lower than usual. Cautious. No smugness.
"You shouldn't have done that."
Liam said nothing.
"You've upset a lot of old men, my friend. The kind who don't send hitmen. They send plagues."
"I'm not afraid of gamblers," Liam replied.
Arman sighed.
"I'm not talking about gamblers. I'm talking about those who write the odds of entire nations."
Liam raised an eyebrow.
"Good," he said. "Let's see how they bleed."
The call ended in silence.
The Smile ReturnsAt 3:16 a.m., Liam's system glitched.
Static. Red text. Distorted data.
Then—
"May I offer a wager?"
Liam jolted up.
On his screen: A single smile.
Drawn crudely in ASCII. Wide. Crooked.
Entity Detected: UNKNOWN
Classification: EXTRAPROBABILISTIC
Warning: This being does not belong to the system. Cannot be influenced.
The Smiling One speaks:
"You are impressive, Ghost-King. But you lack vision. You play beneath the ceiling I already shattered."
"I offer you a door. Step through, and the odds you control will no longer be earthbound."
"Decline, and I will watch you burn. But it will amuse me either way."
*Wager: If you can survive the next 30 days of rising opposition… I will give you a second system. One that controls not probability—
but fate itself."
Liam stared at the screen, unblinking.
This wasn't a threat.
It was a test.
A dare.
And Liam had never refused a dare in his life.
System ResponseWARNING: Unknown Entity Offer Detected
Accepting wager may void certain system protections. Risk of psychological degradation, ego bleed, and anomalous intervention.
Do you wish to engage in the 30-Day Challenge?
Liam typed:
Yes.
The World ReactsWithin 48 hours:
Four major sportsbooks freeze large-odds betting.
A darknet forum places a $100k bounty for "The Fade's" location.
The FBI launches an unnamed internal task force tracking high-frequency betting anomalies.
A rogue AI designed to mimic Liam's patterns appears in Tokyo.
And in a private chat between six international fixers, someone posts one line:
"We either kill the Joker... or he kills the game itself."
Liam's Last Words in the ChapterStanding in his dark apartment, wrapped in a blood-red glow from his monitor, Liam whispered:
"Let's see who folds first."