I Became an Outcast the Martial Arts Masters are Obsessed With – Chapter 3

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
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Quietly slipping out of the alley, I dashed straight to the Outcast Inn.

Kwang!!

As I burst through the inn door, the outcasts who were each passing the time all turned to look at me.

However, the gazes of the men were none of my business.

Only after crossing the threshold of the inn did I let out a sigh of relief.

Well, I’m unsure if it was a sigh of relief or panting with my breath catching up to my chin.

“Brother Ho, it seems like gambling didn’t go well today?”

“The excellence of the light movement technique that made you run like the wind was truly like the legendary Grand Thief Mu-yeong Sinpung.”

“So, did you prowl around some gambling house today and run away like this?”

The outcasts who were killing time by tilting their wine cups since broad daylight snickered.

It had been 8 years of the Murim Cheonha life and 7 years since becoming an outcast.

There were quite a few outcasts whose faces I was familiar with.

Especially in this Outcast Inn, my character was steadfast.

A gambling addict.

A guy who earns money and throws it all into the gambling house.

And a loser who is so terribly wrong at gambling that he gambles and gambles and gambles at this inn always loses, so he has no choice but to go out and gamble.

This was probably how the outcasts living in this Outcast Inn perceived Hocheon An.

In a society of men, the fools obsessed with their hobbies and doing stupid things are the number one targets for friendship.

I, Hocheon An, who was obsessed with gambling and always bet my entire fortune, might have zero likability among men.

The outcast bastards seemed to want to drink with the story of my suffering today as a snack, so they gathered around individually.

“Yeo Il-ye appeared.”

The smiles disappeared from the faces of the outcasts, teasing me with a remark each.

“I managed to shake her off, but I don’t know what that crazy bitch will do next. Everyone, spread the word and tell them not to go out.”

“Heh, that murderous ghost again…”

“You were blessed by fortune.”

I pushed through the outcasts patting my shoulder and headed to the center of the inn.

There was a middle-aged beauty there, Yu Sa-yeon, the owner of this Outcast Inn.

True to her name, she was a person with many stories.

Of course, apart from such a tragic backstory, she was also a leech-like woman who monopolized all service businesses targeting outcasts in Sacheon and sucked the marrow out of the outcasts by wielding monopoly power.

She was the number one person I wanted to beat up when I became a master, despite knowing all the tragic backstories that led her to open an Outcast Inn alone as a woman in Sacheon, with the knowledge I gained in the game.

“Oh my, look at that sweat. Alcohol?”

“That’ll do.”

In this uncivilized Central Plains martial world, all beverages except alcohol were warm.

As a manly man who insisted on iced Americano even if I froze to death, drinking hot tea in this situation where I was sweating profusely was an unthinkable act of violence.

After gulping down a cup of cold alcohol, I felt rejuvenated.

“So, Yeo Il-ye appeared?”

“That’s right. I managed to shake her off somehow, but I don’t know what she’ll do next, so we should be careful.”

“That damn crazy crusher, seriously. Can’t even get rid of that bitch.”

From the perspective of Yu Sa-yeon, the de facto leader of Sacheon outcasts and the one running this Outcast Inn, there would be no one as much of a headache as Yeo Il-ye.

Not only did she shatter the limbs of outcasts who were earning good money, but she also frequently made them cripples and forced them into retirement.

The Sacheon outcasts resolved most of their eating, sleeping, shitting, and drinking at the Outcast Inn.

A decrease in the number of outcasts and a hindrance to the economic activities of outcasts was equivalent to saying that it directly led to a reduction in Yu Sa-yeon’s profits.

It was natural for wrinkles to form on Yu Sa-yeon’s forehead at the news that Yeo Il-ye was harming outcasts again.

But now that she had even gained enlightenment, I wasn’t sure if the Outcast Inn could handle her.

If she had reached the transcendent realm, I wondered if anyone among the outcasts currently in the Outcast Inn could match her.

Yu Sa-yeon held her forehead as if she had a headache, but there was no sharp solution.

Directly intervening was out of the question, and even if we tried to protest, would a protest from a mere inn owner be effective against a member of the Nine Great Sects renowned throughout the Central Plains martial world?

“Anyway, I’ve delivered the message.”

“Hey, Hocheon An, no matter what, how can you just explain that and try to leave? I need to know something to come up with countermeasures.”

Yu Sa-yeon tried to hold me back and inquire more about the situation, but there wasn’t much I could say.

In fact, this world was a game, and I was a rotten old-timer who had played this game for 10 years.

I couldn’t say that I had anything better to do than memorizing character enlightenment in a public KakaoTalk chatroom, then getting selected for reincarnation truck delivery and becoming Hocheon An, encountering Yeo Il-ye, and giving her enlightenment.

Moreover, if I mentioned that I enlightened her, Yu Sa-yeon would castrate me.

“I’m sorry, but it seems like I’ve become Yeo Il-ye’s top priority target. I need to find a way to survive, so a long conversation would be difficult. I have somewhere to go.”

“…Okay, fine. Just in case, let’s at least know your destination.”

Yu Sa-yeon’s words were reasonable.

If something happened to me, or if something happened to this Outcast Inn, or if we needed each other, well, I could at least tell her my destination.

“Tell me where you’ll be.”

“The gambling house.”

Yu Sa-yeon looked at me like I was rotten trash.

Why. What. Why?

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Dogwi claimed to be the best gambler in Sacheon.

In his younger days, he used a sleight of hand in the gambling den. He ended up getting one of his ears cut off. Still, even after that, he persisted in the gambling den for fifteen years, using underhanded tricks.

He was a veteran who had gone through thick and thin in large and small gambling dens.

Numerous gamblers challenged Dogwi, who proclaimed himself the best gambler in Sacheon, but they all left as mere dust.

Someone entered the residence of Dogwi, who was practicing his sleight of hand alone.

“Ho, what brings you here?”

It was a familiar face to Dogwi. It was Jang Yi, the manager of Youngsang Pavilion.

Where is the best gambling house in Sacheon? Most gamblers would pick Youngsang Pavilion.

Although many famous brothels in Sacheon are frequently visited, none are as gambling-friendly and serious about gambling as Youngsang Pavilion.

First of all, the owner of the brothel, Sa Chae-Yong, was a former gambler himself and had a philosophy about gambling.

Of course, a large gambling house would naturally cheat in the gambling den.

Youngsang Pavilion was no exception.

However, Youngsang Pavilion insisted on using only the sleight of hand of gamblers, without using any mechanical devices, to finesse customers’ pockets.

That’s why Youngsang Pavilion has never been embroiled in significant controversies since its opening.

There was no evidence since they didn’t use physical devices.

Among true gamblers, there was a trend of recognizing such skills as a form of ability.

How did the manager of such a Youngsang Pavilion come to visit in person?

The word “manager of Youngsang Pavilion” might not sound like much. Still, Jang Yi had the power to command hundreds of people, including the courtesans working at Youngsang Pavilion, the gamblers, and the servants, with a single gesture and to fire any number of them with a single shout without any problem.

Just the fact that Jang Yi, who could summon dozens of gamblers with a single gesture, had personally come to Dogwi’s residence made Dogwi smell the scent of a big deal.

“Nothing much, but please have a seat.”

Dogwi gestured to a seat, but Jang Yi didn’t move.

Dogwi was puzzled, but his eyes widened as he saw Jang Yi bending his waist in half.

“This guy here, Sir.”

‘Sir?’

The owner of Youngsang Pavilion, where more than a thousand gold taels are exchanged in a single night, Sa Chae-Yong, had come to meet a mere gambler? In person?

“Are you the guy named Dogwi?”

“Yes, but what brings you here?”

“You bastard!”

Jang Yi rushed forward as if he was about to grab Dogwi by the collar and make him kneel, but Sa Chae-Yong stopped him with a hand.

“I like it. The eyes of a true gambler.”

Dogwi’s waist, easily bent to Jang Yi, was stiff before Sa Chae-Yong.

Jang Yi was just a manager, but Sa Chae-Yong was a gambler.

Dogwi, who prided himself as the best in Sacheon, no, secretly the best under the heavens, had no intention of bending to a gambler.

“I came looking for you because they say you’re the best gambler in Sacheon. I want to entrust you with a job.”

“How urgent must it be for you to come at this late hour?”

“I’ll give you a hundred gold taels.”

Dogwi’s movement stopped.

“Tonight. If you finesse a certain guy, I’ll give you a hundred gold taels and half of the money he wins.”

Dogwi’s Adam’s apple moved.

Dogwi was the fifth son of a poor farmer, and his family had a whopping twenty members across three generations.

When they sold all the rice they had farmed for a year, they would barely get one gold tael.

But a hundred taels in one night? And giving him the guy’s money, too?

“I need to hear an explanation of what this is about.”

“Of course. There’s a son of a bitch named Hocheon An who I want to chew up and spit out. He’s been coming to the brothel for several years, but until now, he had never won any money. He was a guy who gambled seriously, but he always lost money and then left with only enough to buy a bottle of alcohol, so I had left him alone.”

Sa Chae-Yong gulped down his tea as if talking about it made his anger rise.

“But that bastard suddenly went crazy today and is finessing all the gamblers in my brothel! Every single one of them! Without exception! The money he has won so far exceeds a hundred gold taels!”

Gamblers were an essential presence in a gambling house.

Simply finessing suckers was only a tiny part of what gamblers did.

The primary task of gamblers was to make people enjoy gambling.

They would create thrilling matches that made people’s palms sweat, igniting the passion for gambling in those in the gambling house that day, or they would provide appropriate defeats and victories to high rollers to keep them from losing interest in gambling.

Or they would finesse those lucky enough to bring in too much of a win that could cause a loss to the gambling house.

They would quickly finesse troublemakers and kick them out to maintain the atmosphere of the gambling house, and so on.

The elements that gamblers could manage in a gambling house were endless, so there was no reason for a gambling house not to hire professional gamblers.

But where did the gambling funds of those professional gamblers come from?

Of course, it came from the pocket of the brothel owner.

‘Is he crazy?’

When a customer and a customer were matched up, it didn’t matter who won the money in the gambling house.

They just needed to sell alcohol and collect the exchange fee for the chips.

However, when a gambler and a customer were matched up and lost money, it directly led to a loss for the gambling house.

Targeting and finessing gamblers was equivalent to attacking the brothel.

Because both attacking and winning money from gamblers caused losses to the brothel, whose purpose was to make money.

“I want to send warriors to get rid of that bastard, but that crazy bastard is winning purely with gambling skills, and my pride as a gambler won’t allow it!”

Dogwi swallowed his saliva at Sa Chae-Yong’s fiery gaze.

“You can take all the money. Just make sure to finesse that bastard! When he leaves the brothel penniless, I’ll take care of the rest from then on!”

Dogwi pondered, but the conclusion had already been drawn.

Dogwi had been waiting for such a big match for a long time.

“I’ll do it.”

“Good, but you should also keep in mind.”

Sa Chae-Yong looked at Dogwi and said,

“If you fail to finesse that bastard, you’ll have to appease my anger with your dead body.”

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