Sports

After having a relaxing few hours to himself, Noah decided to venture out of his room once more to explore more of the areas that he had yet to see.

Chief among them was the sports betting that he had wanted to visit on the first day but had gotten side-tracked with blackjack and a new teammate.

But now was his chance, to finally check the other holy grail of betting, the kind that could get your blood pumping without any effort on your end, the kind that anyone could pick up and win.

Of course, this meant that it would be incredibly packed in the bookmakers, possibly even more so than the actual gambling hall that had any form of luck game that you could think of.

Noah was prepared to barge his way through a large crowd to get anywhere as soon as he stepped through the door of his room, but there was scantly a person in sight.

It made sense though, everyone had gone either to bet or to eat, it would be weird if people were coming through this area in droves like they were when he was leaving the gambling hall.

It still felt like there was an eerie stillness abound, as if nothing had, or was living here, an unnerving thought for Noah, old stuff gave him the creeps.

This wasn't an uncommon thing in his area, many people were scared of old things, and especially old people, not the senile kind, but the kind that could still kick your arse if they wanted to.

The reason being that they all were usually a part of some kind of mob racket in one way or another, and if they weren't, they sure as hell would find any excuse to beat a child senseless for sadistic pleasure, spouting reasons of teaching the younger generation respect.

The fear of old things from these people's generation had naturally followed, reminding them of the terror that those old men and women used to instill into their hearts.

But not many of them lived anymore, most had died when Noah was still in his twenties, but that was still a very long time for many, and he didn't doubt that they could still beat him even in seniority.

Not that he would ever give them any reason to, he had seen what had happened to those who did, and to paraphrase it, it was not a pretty sight at all, he had seen men put into the ECU for looking at some of them funnily.

Of course, many also had strangleholds on the local betting scene, and since Noah became very notorious, he had to watch his back when playing games, if he saw one of them approaching, he would bolt.

He had once had his lights beaten out of him by a frail-looking sixty-year-old, not a nice experience at all, it was actually what made him bulk up in the first place, never wanting to have his arse handed to him by his elders again.

It had been a rather embarrassing explanation that he had to give to the doctor about why he was in such a state, but they most likely got so many patients through for the same thing that they weren't surprised.

In fact, he hadn't been the only one to go to the doctors for that exact same reason that day, that was where he had first met his ex with whom he would have his pride and joy.

It truly was bizarre meeting someone under those circumstances, and for the exact same reason, but perhaps that extraordinariness was what had made them come so close in the first place.

That was all behind him now, and his fear of the old had dulled as he had aged, but still came back from time to time, especially if there was a loud and aggressive sixty-odd year old.

He stepped out of the hotel area, and into the reception which seemed to be as crowded as ever, there were so many people that a second receptionist had been recruited for the front desk.

Someone Noah had never seen, but then again he hadn't seen anyone other than the girl he saw on day one who spoke with a distinctive southern twang.

Noah had never been to the South of the U.S but had wanted to go sometime in his life, if only to laugh at people being unable to make out his heavy northern accent.

He had played with someone from the southern U.S. before, and had been banned from many casinos up and down the East and West seaboards with them, fun times.

In fact, it was this guy that managed to get them all banned from entering any casinos in Las Vegas, he had slipped up when giving call outs and gotten them all caught.

News spread that there was a team and that they were members of it, and before any of them knew it, they were being denied access everywhere that they went.

"Hi again map boy"

Noah was not excited at receiving a new nickname so quickly but he resigned himself to the fate of being called it all the time by, most likely, all the receptionists.

There was a slight hint of a smile hidden behind the facade of professionalism that she was giving off.

"Hi shorty, how's your day been"

Of course, he had to get her back, a smile now present on his own face as well.

"Its been just fine and dandy, how about yours"

Clearly he had managed to hit a nerve, her eyebrow was starting to twitch nigh-on uncontrollably, seeming to be that her muscles were undergoing some sort of spasm attack.

"Well, to be honest, its been incredibly hectic, as you can see"

She pointed around to the massive swarm of people that were walking around, it was frantic all around.

"Yeah, it seems that there's a lot more people here than I have ever seen before"

"Well there's a good reason for that, there's a massive game that's starting soon between the gambling goliaths of the casino, poker of course"

She said that as if it was common knowledge, however, Noah couldn't pass up the opportunity to gain more information.

"Who are these goliaths you speak of?"

"They're the people who've clawed their way to the top, the richest of them all"

"And everyone wants to watch them gamble?"

"Wouldn't you love to see people gamble obscene amounts of money that you could barely wish to obtain?"

The concept did have an allure to it, it was why many people decided to watch online poker games, you could get all the excitement of betting big, without any of the risk of losing all your money.

"I might check it out later, but there's a place that's practically calling my name that I need to visit"

"You'll enjoy it, trust the judgement of someone who's seen it plenty of times, it's a rare occurrence"

Noah waved his hand as he walked towards the dimensional portal to the sports betting, his excitement barely containable.

Walking through the door Noah felt the warm air of a tropical desert hit his skin, threatening to boil it off of his bones, he wished for the air-conditioned conditions that the reception area was under.

As he thought this, the desert changed around him to become an air-conditioned lobby room with several TVs playing different kinds of sports in all of the corners of the room.

There were also doors for miles that stretched downwards of the hall, holding name plaques above them, *football*, *tennis*, *the gauntlet*.

A familiar term popped up, the gauntlet, that was what those strangers had tried to force Noah into playing, but instead of making him avoid it, it made him want to check it out for himself, to see why it was so bad.

But that could come later, Noah was looking for familiar games at the moment to see if anything was changed or if they were the same as their Earth counterparts.

He settled on football since it was the sport he was most familiar with and would be easy to see if there had been anything changed, plus betting on football was something that he had done hundreds of times in the past, to varying degrees of success.

The door was a combination of steel and wood that looks like it shouldn't pair well together but had been molded in such a way that the metallic nature of the steel complimented the earthiness of the wood near perfectly.

The doorknob was made of a rich red sandalwood that heavily contrasted with the dull greyness of the stell that practically enveloped it from all sides.

Opening the door did not reveal anything to be on the other side, just a large swirling portal of a blue-black tinge that swirled around like a spiral.

Noah had to steel himself before walking through, the thought of just dropping himself of into the dark void keeping him hesitant, yet he still took the step and walked through that swirling mass.