Even Today, the Ranker Dreams of Retirement

“Then I’ll process your payment.”

“Do you accept Korean money here?”

“Of course.”

“Then please use this.”

In a corner of the night market, a casino.

While the clerk was processing her lottery tickets, Habin looked around. A roulette wheel glittering enticingly, people huddled together playing cards.

“I’m going all in!”

“Are you dealing from the bottom of the deck?”

“Got any proof? You’re writing a whole scenario, you damn bastard!”

Crash bang!

“It was a shill… Unbelievable.”

People winning money, losing money, and even the beautiful sight of people grabbing each other’s collars.

Watching this scene, Habin shrugged her shoulders.

“Tsk tsk. Good adults shouldn’t do things like that, you know.”

Habin had no intention of participating in gambling from the start. But as it turned out, hunters were prohibited from entering the gambling den in the first place.

[No Hunters Allowed!]

[No Awakened Allowed!]

A large sign written at the entrance. Next to it was a person checking identities for entry. A system where you had to verify your identity using databases from various countries to prove you weren’t registered as an Awakened to gain entry.

“Even with measures like that, sometimes unregistered Awakened sneak in and cause a ruckus.”

The clerk counting the lottery tickets spoke up. At those words, Jiseok tilted his head.

“But wouldn’t it be difficult to operate without accepting hunters?”

More than half of the people coming to Kill Screen Island are hunters. Wouldn’t the gambling den be losing all its important customers?

“It can’t be helped. Hunters can use skills, you see.”

The clerk answered.

“If they use penetrating vision skills or items, they could instantly figure out what cards their opponents have, right?”

“Ah……”

That made sense. There were quite a few hunters with appraisal skills and penetrating vision skills, not to mention items with similar effects. Using those, seeing through cards would be child’s play.

“That’s not all. Hunters have good eyesight and excellent motor skills, right? Their superior dynamic visual acuity and control are excessively advantageous for games. No matter how quickly we shuffle the cards, they’d probably see it all?”

The clerk sighed and stretched out his hand. At the tip of his fingers were a roulette wheel and a dart board. Games where you spin the roulette and guess the number, or throw darts.

“Those would be a piece of cake too. It’d be easy to see where the roulette would stop, and with their stats, they’d hit the bullseye every time with darts. If we let hunters participate, we’d go bankrupt. So we only cater to ordinary people. You can think of it as similar to how hunters can’t participate in the Olympics or World Cup.”

“Do they still hold the Olympics these days?”

Habin interjected with a puzzled voice.

“Wasn’t everything suspended after the Gate Crisis?”

“There’s talk of restarting next year, but they’ve decided to exclude all Awakened and limit it to ordinary people only, so the response has been quite lukewarm.”

“I see.”

Habin wore a regretful expression.

The world’s sports culture had been on a downward trend since the Gate Crisis. Initially, during the early stages of the Gate Crisis, opinions like “Why hold the Olympics when monsters are the problem?” and “If a gate suddenly opens during the Olympics, it would be a disaster” led to the indefinite postponement of large-scale sporting events, including the Olympics.

But when they tried to hold them again, a new problem arose.

‘Awakened should be excluded from competitions.’

This claim had its reasons. Just as people who unnaturally enhanced their abilities with drugs were excluded from competitions before the Gate Crisis, the logic was that Awakened should be excluded too.

‘Moreover, Awakened and non-Awakened aren’t even in the same league! Does it make sense for an Awakened who can lift a truck with one hand to compete in sports with an ordinary person?’

In fact, this argument was more persuasive. The ability gap between Awakened and non-Awakened was so vast that the very meaning of competition was lost.

But when they tried to hold competitions just among non-Awakened, people’s interest had shifted entirely to hunters, leading to a lukewarm response.

‘After watching hunters slicing monsters, watching humans fence each other doesn’t have the same tension as before.’

‘After seeing people shoot arrows with skills, watching archery competitions feels too peaceful.’

Hunters’ battles were rapidly spreading through social media and MuTube, so nowadays anyone could easily watch hunters’ battle highlights from their living rooms. There were even “hunter cameramen” who professionally followed famous hunters, filmed them, and uploaded edited videos.

Although Fides appeared on broadcasts every time, earnestly pleading for everyone to refrain from filming inside dungeons for safety reasons, hunters who had once experienced explosive view counts and attention didn’t stop filming and uploading.

“In this situation, there’s talk again about whether it’s okay to hold the Olympics just among non-Awakened. Or some suggest creating new events exclusively for hunters? They say it would be worth watching if hunters with abilities fought each other.”

A battle of Awakened abilities.

Currently, it was illegal worldwide for Awakened to fight each other using their abilities. Naturally, this was for safety reasons. If hunters used skills every time they fought each other, surrounding buildings would be damaged…….

“And that’s how families fall apart, and society crumbles……”

“Where are you going with this?”

“Hmm, so that’s why Fides-nim paid so much attention to regulating that area.”

Jiseok nodded. According to the SPES standard protocol established by Fides, Awakened were not allowed to use attack skills against people except in urgent situations where lives needed to be protected or during training.

“But if there were official competitions where they could do that, it might be interesting too? Although it would be a waste of manpower.”

It would feel like using precious forces that should be fighting monsters merely for entertainment.

“Well, even if it’s not battles, I’d like to see new events created. For example, magical figure skating? If a hunter with a mage class performed figure skating while using flashy ice magic?”

“Wow. It would be art! Just like El*a from Frozen!”

“Do You Wanna Build a Snowman, Let It Go would become reality!”

“We definitely need a Hunter Olympics!”

Habin nodded excitedly. The lottery ticket seller, who had been speaking with a satisfied expression, finally handed over the stack of calculated lottery tickets with a tap-tap.

“There are 36 sheets left in total. On each sheet, write down 7 numbers from 1 to 20, and your rank is determined by how many you match. 7 matches for 1st place, 6 for 2nd…… that’s how it goes.”

“It’s lotto, lotto.”

“The difference is that we tell you the numbers right away. Once you write down the numbers, I’ll press this button, and 7 random numbers will appear on this display board. You just compare those with the numbers on your sheet. Ah, of course, it’s better not to think about changing the numbers on your sheet later. The sheets are treated with a special effect that records everything. We have our own methods to detect forgeries too.”

“Oh.”

“With this method, even a hunter with special abilities wouldn’t find it easy to win using their powers. How could they guess numbers that will appear in a few seconds? Unless they have precognitive abilities.”

The clerk added with a proud expression.

“This casino has branches in several places besides Kill Screen, and seeing that the win rates are all similar, it seems that even hunters can’t do much about lottery tickets.”

The clerk, with his hand on the button, opened his mouth.

“Well then, let’s test your luck!”

◆◇◆◇◆

30 minutes later.

“Oh my……”

The clerk let out a sigh. He muttered in disbelief as he looked at the lottery tickets Habin had marked so far.

“Looks like you’re having bad luck today.”

“……”

Nothing.

Surprisingly, two-thirds of Habin’s lottery results were nothing. The remaining third only got 5th place consistently, merely recovering some of the ticket cost. Habin shouted with an unbelievable expression.

“This can’t be!”

With a luck stat of 2.1 billion? And yet nothing?

She should be at the top in terms of luck stat on this planet right now? Well, she wasn’t aiming to win, but still.

“Hmm……?”

Habin raised her eyebrows.

‘Then what exactly is the luck stat used for?’

When she overcame the extreme nothingness, it was said that she was ‘influenced by the luck stat’.

‘Is it luck for combat then? Luck related to skill application?’

“Sigh, what a shame. Then I guess I can’t take that.”

Habin sighed with a deeply disappointed expression. She gazed at the ‘Star Fragment’ she had just seen. It was a prize available from 4th place.

“I really liked that one.”

“Aren’t there many similar glass shards or gems? Seeing that it’s an item with no effect, it seems to have value only as a decoration.”

“What? Chae-ssi, you don’t know. It’s those pretty pieces of junk that are the most tempting. They’re good for gifts too.”

Habin twisted her hair and rested her chin on her hand crookedly. Now there was only one lottery ticket left.

“Is this really all you have?”

“This is all the remaining sheets.”

“Since it’s just a game of matching numbers anyway, can’t I write numbers on any paper and use it as a lottery ticket if I pay extra?”

“It’s against our casino’s principles.”

The clerk’s attitude was firm. Habin turned her gaze to the last sheet with a resigned expression.

“Alright, I’ll bet everything on this last lottery ticket!”

[Why are you so serious about this?]

“I need to win something at least!”

Just as she was furrowing her brow in concentration, a constellation message flew towards Chae Jiseok.

[The constellation ‘Nearest Light’ asks if you want to help!]

[The constellation ‘Nearest Light’ pokes Chae Jiseok!]

“……”

Chae Jiseok, who had been watching Hyun Habin with his arms crossed, shook his head helplessly.

‘Should I help just once after all?’

[The constellation ‘Nearest Light’ nods, saying it’s a good idea!]

‘Then, tell Hyun Habin to try marking the next numbers as 5, 17, 12, 10, 9, 20, 7.’

[The constellation ‘Nearest Light’ hums a tune, excited to see the result!]

The excited constellation whispered the numbers to Hyun Habin through a message. Habin’s eyes widened round upon hearing it.

‘Wow, prophet skills are really sweet, huh? Does it work for lotto too?’

‘It might not be accurate. I just called out numbers that felt right.’

‘Sweet!’

Habin’s eyes shone as she quickly wrote down the numbers.

‘I’ve always wanted to try marking lottery numbers that appeared in a dream or were called out by ancestors at least once in my life!’

Though she had failed because she never had such a dream.

But a real prophetic skill user giving her lottery numbers?

There was no better jackpot than this.

Habin grinned as she finished filling out the last lottery sheet.

“Let’s go with this!”

“Alright, then I’ll draw the numbers!”

The display board spun, numbers rolling. Finally, it stopped abruptly and revealed the numbers. The display board showed these numbers:

5, 18, 4, 2, 17, 9, 20

‘Let’s see, what did I mark again……?’

5, 17, 12, 10, 9, 20, 7

It was 4th place.

“……”

[The constellation ‘Nearest Light’ stands up in outrage, saying this result is impossible and that there must have been cheating!]