Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 66: ETERNALLY IN HIS DEBT*

How did I come to owe so much money all of a sudden?

It was hard to keep track of the numbers at the end of each round. Apparently, after calculating all of the bets multiplied by the dealer factor, I was now six thousand in the red. I had already given up on the game, since Andrei could not even finish the first mystery meal. All that was left was to see how many of my possessions I would have to sell to get rid of the debt I would owe by the end of the game.

Today, which was supposed to be an enjoyable date and my chance to learn more about Andrei, ended up being a totally stressful, energy-draining event with no purpose whatsoever.

At last, the waiters returned with the final set of meals. The MC smiled as usual when he was about to reveal the mismatched dish I chose for Malik. For dessert, I thought he liked chocolate, so I ordered a chocolate sundae for him.

While the rest of us looked at the screen to watch the numbers fall deeper into the abyss, Malik began to enjoy his sundae without looking, because that was exactly what he ordered. The waiter lost his composure as his poker smile turned into a frown and he threw a sharp glance Malik's way. Malik returned his disconcerted frown with Andrei's usual conceited smile as he continued indulging.

Although we had lost the game, I was almost in tears at the simple fact that I finally got a match. For the first time, I guessed the correct item that Malik had wanted to eat and I smiled at the green checkmark in the dessert row.

Then, it was time for my dessert. I had been looking forward to the cherry rose velvet chocolate cake that I was sure Malik had correctly ordered for me.

The waiter placed the plate in front of me and lifted the cover to reveal the most anticipated course of the night, the cherry rose velvet chocolate ca-

What happened to the cherry rose velvet chocolate cake? Why am I staring at a sherbet? My ghostly face looked up at Malik for answers, but he was busy ignoring me and enjoying his cake.

While I was confused at the current turn of events, I noticed the MC waiter looked extremely displeased. Rather, he was mad. His smile had completely disappeared as he stared at Malik like he was about to summon a gang to take care of him in a back alley because he rigged the game or something.

Wait! Did he rig the game? Was there something else going on that was completely going over my head?

The dealer then entered the room. He also did not look very happy as he entered our room. The air had become very tense, but I could not figure out what they were so upset about.

This round was definitely strange. The weirdest thing about this round was that Malik had already finished eating his cake before I even took three bites of the sherbet.

By the time they brought the mystery dessert, Malik already had a break for ten minutes. regardless of whether we won or lost, I had to order at least three mystery meals once I enrolled us in the dealer's game in the third round. So, although it seemed hopeless, I still had to order the mystery dessert.

They brought in a large cart which contained a large rectangular cover. It was obvious it was a large cake, but it made no difference as it was impossible to finish such a humongous cake in only forty minutes.

To make matters worse, it was a mega-sized cheesecake. Of all the cakes to present for the mystery dessert, it was a cheesecake. There was no need for us to finish this, but I felt terrible for the other rooms that were working hard to get a free meal.

"What are you doing?" Malik said when I took up my fork to have a few bites of the cheesecake.

"I want to try some of it," I replied. Since the outcome of the game didn't matter anymore, I wasn't going to ignore the giant blob of delicious cheesecake right in front of me.

I would later learn why the MC and dealer were really upset, and that I had misunderstood the entire game from the start. Did Andrei come here before and play this game? Is that why he knew how the game worked? However, I noticed that when we came here initially, he looked around as though he had never been here before.

At this point, I vaguely knew the answer in the back of my mind. I watched him scarf down the mammoth of a cheesecake in its entirety in less than thirty minutes, while the faces of the MC and the dealer grew paler with each passing minute.

The MC reluctantly confirmed that he had completely finished the cake and after forty minutes the screen refreshed to show the new results. Now that all five courses had been completed, this would be the final score.

On refreshing, the numbers in all the slots spiralled to reveal the final sum while the normal waiter cleaned up the plates and hurriedly escaped from the sea of tension in room four. How lucky for him; I had to stay here without even knowing what they were so sour about.

The spiralling numbers slowed as they came to a stop to reveal that I owed a grand total of negative…forty thousand!

But, wait. It's green!

I looked at Malik's side of the screen. He had…two hundred thousand dollars in the green. So, my side of the screen, which was also green, meant I didn't have any more debt. I stared at the screen in shock at the outcome. What's more, the rest of the rooms were all in the red…in the millions!

What the heck happened? We were then announced as the winners of the dealer's game and were asked to follow the dealer to a private office to receive our prize.

Malik stretched his arms after he stood and had a grin on his face as he walked past the MC waiter and left the room. We followed the assistant dealer to the main office where the primary dealer was waiting.

"Congratulations," the dealer said.

"Thank you," Malik replied as they shook hands.

"Well, you definitely turned the game around for your partner. I was sure she would end up with five hundred thousand dollars in the red."

"Is that what you expected? Can you reset it and see?"

"Sure."

The dealer reset the game on his laptop to the results after the fourth course. Why was Andrei even interested in knowing this? I didn't want to relive this stressful game again, so could we please hurry and leave?

"Let's see. If you had matched and she didn't, as I thought was going to happen, and all the bets had been the same, then this is what the result would have been."

The dealer turned his screen fully around to show us that I would have been eight hundred thousand dollars in red. I can't believe I came to a restaurant to have a peaceful meal and almost had to pay them eight hundred thousand dollars. Thank goodness Andrei saved me from that absurd scenario, or should I thank his ability instead? I don't know how, but there's no doubt the Undercode had something to do with the change in his pattern in the last round. In fact, that could have been his approach to the game this whole time.

"It's a good thing I fixed things," Malik said sullenly. " Since, I'm the only one she can ever be indebted to," he said while pulling me closer to him.

What did he say?

"Oh," the dealer said, chuckling. "In that case, congratulations, you have won a free meal tonight! Would you like a complementary bottle of wine?"

"No, thank you. I would like to convert my earnings into a gold chip please."

The dealer stared back at him wide-eyed, then his expression slowly became extremely serious.

"Are you sure?"

"Very sure."

"Where did you hear about that?"

Malik only smiled in response.

The dealer shifted his stern glance at me occasionally while he spoke to Malik.

"She doesn't know anything about this," Malik reassured him, and I returned a confused expression to further reassure him.

The dealer focused all of his attention on Malik as he sat back in his chair. He then left the room for a couple of minutes and returned with a black box, which he gave to Malik.

Malik opened the small box and we were struck with the sheen of an elaborate gold chip inside. Yes, it looked like a dealer chip made of real gold. Malik smiled, closed the box and put it in his pocket.

"Thanks," he said after confirming the goods.

The dealer sat back in his chair and said nothing.

"This was all just a game, wasn't it," Malik continued, and the dealer glanced up at him. "You weren't actually going to charge 800k for losing the game, were you?"

The dealer raised an eyebrow as he contemplated his reply.

"You're right, it was all just a game. And you completely broke the game."

"Well, that was the only way to get what I needed."

The dealer started chuckling, then Malik started chuckling, and I just stood there watching and confused. In the end, he had an objective for coming here after all. Even after I said I wanted to surprise him, he still hacked my computer to find out where we were going. There's a limit to taking advantage of people, you know.

Even though I was not one to talk.

But I still felt frustrated at what he did.

"It's all part of the experience. Although in the end, if they lose, we only charge the total cost of the meal," the dealer kept talking, but I had completely ignored their conversation at that point.

"I see. What do you think about working with her? She's starting a new event management business." My attention was instantly revived as soon as he said that.

"I would love to work with you to bring this thrilling, heart-wrenching experience to more people," I pitched in enthusiastically.

"Hm, I don't mind, but I'll have to talk it over with the boss."

"Sure, I'm just starting up as well. I will be in touch again."

I gave him my business card, then we left the restaurant. At least something good happened in the end, but I was still upset at Andrei.

"Thank you," he said after we were some distance away from the building.

"Why are you thanking me? I should be the one thanking you, since you won us a free 5-course meal."

"No. Thanks to you, I obtained something far more important."

"Are you referring to that gold chip you asked for? Why do you need it?"

"You'll find out later."

"I don't think I deserve to be left out of the loop constantly. Why can't you just tell me what's going on?" I didn't like that I appeared to be whining, but this pattern of withholding information was ticking me off.

"Oh, I'm happy that you want to be treated as my equal partner, in every sense of the word."

"I didn't say that. I'm just tired of being manipulated by you. You even hacked my computer to check what I had planned for today, so that you could further your personal agenda."

"I didn't hack into your computer and I didn't know about this place before. I only followed the instructions that were left behind by a certain person. Honestly, I don't know where this gold chip will lead me and if it's even worth following the lead, but I don't have anything to lose by trying."

"What instructions are you talking about?"

"Someone left secret instructions about how to win the game and about the gold chip on the tablet and the monitor. You wouldn't be able to see it though. Unless you did the surgery."

This man wastes no opportunity to bring up that surgery.

"Could you see something else on the tablet? Is that why you won the game?" Is it similar to the time I looked at my Xoro account with the contacts and all of a sudden a bunch of hidden messages appeared.

"Yes," he replied with a chuckle.

No, kidding. I need to start wearing my contacts all the time.

"You might not want to do that," he replied. "You'll only feel miserable since you will only see bits and pieces of the translated Undercode program, like that time you tried to initiate the Audix program at Merz. That's why you should have the surgery instead."

That was a miserable day I would never forget. Of course, he had to bring up that surgery again.

"I still can't believe you scouted this place for me all on your own. As expected of my partner."

Uh, I hope he knows that this was a total coincidence.

Just like that, I only had one day left of my one week of vacation and I was just as tired as I was at the beginning of the week. Thus, there was only one thing on tomorrow's agenda: sleep, sleep and more sleep. I cancelled all my obligations on the way back to my car. No acting lessons. No gym. No safehouse meeting. I just wanted to sleep, otherwise I was going to become a zombie.

After sending all the messages, an email came through from Bolster. It read, "Congratulations on your promotion."

I couldn't believe it. I was promoted to the Silver team. Then, I looked up at Malik walking beside me after realizing I heard him say that out loud.

"Why am I being promoted already? Did you have something to do with it?"

"Of course not. They asked for you to join their team since you were doing well. There's no reason to keep rookies on low-tier teams if they're doing well." That's what they said during the meeting.

I was definitely happy to be making progress, but also nervous that this was happening so soon.

"See you on Monday," he said as I got in my car.

"Bye. See you Monday," I replied.

"By the way, here you go." He handed me a receipt with a total of minus eight hundred thousand dollars.

"What is this?"

"Just a reminder that you're in my debt now, and very deeply so."

Ugh, is he serious? I had just forgiven him for not actually hacking into my laptop last night and now he comes with this. I crushed the paper and cut my eye at him as I slammed the car door.

"Don't worry, I sent you an electronic bill too." My phone vibrated as soon as he finished his sentence.

Just wonderful. I thought I was free of this debt nonsense, but clearly I was not. He had better not use it to get me to marry him.

"There is one more thing you should know."

What now?

"You will never be free of that debt."

Huh?

"Why is that? It's not like it is impossible to pay this off." Though I really don't want to.

"That's because the interest on that debt is multiplied by infinity. Read the fine print. You'll be in my debt...eternally."