Even Today, the Ranker Dreams of Retirement

[The constellation ‘Nearest Light’ can’t believe it!]

[The constellation ‘Nearest Light’ points accusingly, suspecting match-fixing!]

[The constellation ‘Nearest Light’ was in a frenzy.]

‘Match-fixing?’

Chae Jiseok wore a dubious expression. If they had used other methods, it might be understandable, but to be limited to 4th place even with precognitive abilities?

“I’m fine with it though? I got what I wanted, so it’s all good.”

In contrast, Habin coolly stood up from her seat. She pointed at the ‘Star Fragment’ among the 4th place prizes.

“I’ll take that one, please.”

“What? Oh, yes, of course.”

The clerk quickly packaged the Star Fragment and handed it to Habin. After checking the packaged item, she tugged on Chae Jiseok’s arm.

“Well, since we’re done here, let’s quickly look around other places! We don’t have much time!”

“Are you sure you’re okay with just that?”

“It was just for fun anyway. I’ve used up all the lottery tickets I bought.”

Habin shrugged. The 36 lottery tickets she purchased barely made a dent in her account balance to begin with.

“I don’t dwell on the past. The future ahead is too important! We have a mountain of food to eat before the night market closes! Did you know we haven’t even bought souvenirs yet?”

Habin swiftly pulled Chae Jiseok into the crowd.

“C-customer. Just a moment, please!”

The clerk left behind at the casino wore a troubled expression as he watched the two disappear.

‘Just who was that customer?!’

Gulp. The clerk swallowed hard as he stared at the number display board. He had been trying his best not to show it earlier, but…

‘That person hit the jackpot 10 times with just 36 tickets!’

Moreover, she got 2nd place 12 times and 3rd place 14 times.

If the casino hadn’t manipulated the numbers, those would have been the results.

‘Because we manipulated the numbers, that customer had to leave with only 5th and 4th place wins.’

Indeed. The lottery tickets Habin bought were actually being manipulated by the casino. Not just the ratio of 1st place winners, but the ratios of all the lower ranks as well.

This was possible because the casino’s lottery tickets were special.

When numbers were written on the sheet, it would recognize them, check what rank they would be in advance, and then manipulate the numbers to be displayed on the board one more time.

‘What kind of method did she use?’

As far as he knew, there had never been someone who hit so many wins in the casino’s history.

“Unless they’re insanely lucky… Could it be the luck stat?”

But that didn’t make sense. Even hunters who invested in their luck stat and bragged about it when buying lottery tickets, in reality, the luck stat had only a minimal effect on lottery results. The luck stat was most effective in battles against monsters, but had a very low rate of impact in everyday areas.

Then there was only one answer left.

‘Precognitive ability?’

The clerk’s expression turned serious as he considered this final possibility. He hurriedly dialed a number somewhere.

“B-boss! It’s not much, but… I think I might have just discovered someone with precognitive abilities!”

◆◇◆◇◆

“……A precognitive ability user?”

A woman deeply buried in a sofa.

She had bright red curled short hair and languidly drooping eye corners. Below her eye corners was a tear mole dotted like an accent. She asked again in an irritated tone into the receiver.

“Are you joking right now? Why would a precognitive ability user show up there?”

-I don’t know either! But according to the guy who was in charge of the lottery stand at the time, that woman hit the jackpot repeatedly.

“Hit the jackpot repeatedly?”

-To be precise, 1st place 10 times, 2nd place 12 times, and 3rd place 14 times. She kept getting 1st to 3rd place! In 36 games.

“Hmm, that is impressive.”

The woman’s voice rose in pitch as if intrigued. She swirled the glass in her hand and asked.

“Are you sure the witness wasn’t drunk and spouting nonsense? This is for real?”

-He’s not the type to lie.

“There’s no chance she used an ability other than precognition?”

-We couldn’t confirm that far. But we couldn’t guess any other abilities.

Thud.

The woman set her glass down on the table and spoke.

“Then why didn’t you catch her, instead of just calling me?”

-We followed right after, but she shook off our pursuit and disappeared.

“……Seems she’s quite skilled.”

The woman muttered softly, furrowing her brow. The casino in Kill Screen that Habin had visited was actually operated by her organization.

Minor Patch.

The identity of the woman on the phone was none other than the boss of ‘Minor Patch’.

‘Errata’.

“……Even though they’re members of ‘Minor Patch’, they couldn’t catch one woman.”

Errata let out a scoff.

The casino under Minor Patch. Befitting its notorious criminal organization, even the dealers working there, and even the lottery ticket sellers were carefully selected from quite skilled hunters.

And yet she managed to shake them all off? Either the woman who escaped was highly skilled, or the personnel stationed at the casino were incompetent. It had to be one of the two.

‘They’ve gotten lax. I should drop by sometime.’

The casino was originally a side business, so she hadn’t been paying much attention to it, but she felt caught off guard while being careless. Errata hid her bitter voice and spoke again.

“Well, let’s put that aside for now……. Anyway, according to you, this precognitive ability user is a young woman. Is there no possibility it’s a man? Any similarities to Fides?”

-There weren’t any. Plus, it was a face we’d never seen before. It doesn’t seem to be a famous hunter either.

Not someone from Fides’ side?

“Then what about her face? If it’s a woman…… Did she look like Chae Jise? Is there a possibility Chae Jise went in disguise?”

-She didn’t resemble Chae Jise, and at that time, both Chae Jise and Fides were attending a meeting. There’s absolutely no possibility of that.

“Huh?”

Errata let out a sigh. Until now, Errata had her own speculations about the precognitive ability user.

‘Fides or Chae Jise are suspicious,’ she thought.

Fides, who led people while formulating plans as if he knew the future, and Chae Jise, Solaris’s golden touch who succeeded in everything she put her hand to. If there were people with precognitive abilities, she thought it would be at least one of these two.

But now an entirely unexpected figure had appeared?

‘What in the….’

Errata frowned, deep in thought. According to the information passed on to her by the system administrator, precognitive ability was a dangerous power that at most there might be one in the whole world. So there’s no way ability users could be this common.

‘Then conversely, maybe Fides and Chae Jise aren’t precognitive ability users.’

What if there was someone truly behind those two? What if there was a real prophet behind them, informing them with precognitive abilities?

“No, even if that’s the case, why would that person suddenly come to buy lottery tickets?”

It was utterly baffling.

‘Why would someone with that level of ability bother buying cheap street lottery tickets with a top prize of only 1 billion won?’

Errata, wearing a puzzled expression as if she couldn’t understand at all, asked again.

“There should be CCTV installed in the casino. What about her face?”

-She didn’t buy the lottery tickets inside the casino, but at the stand at the entrance, so we only have her face captured by the auxiliary security camera. It’s low quality.

“There should be a payment record, right?”

-It was a cash payment. Oh, come to think of it, she paid in Korean won. She must be Korean.

“Korean?”

-Yes. The language sounded like Korean too.

“Hmm, then send me the photo.”

Ding-a-ling.

As soon as Errata finished speaking, a CCTV capture was promptly sent to her phone.

A small, delicate girl captured within the static noise.

Errata looked at the image for a moment, then turned to a person nearby.

“Hey, Taeseo. You’re Korean too, right? Do you know this woman by any chance?”

“Don’t know her.”

A cold reply dropped.

“Ah, at least look before you answer. Your personality is so nasty, I swear. This woman, they say she’s Korean and seems to have precognitive abilities.”

Errata forcibly shoved the screen into Kang Taeseo’s view.

“……!”

“Do you know her?”

Kang Taeseo, who had accidentally confirmed the screen, stiffened his face in surprise upon seeing Hyun Habin’s face.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Pretty trash! I should give this to Taeseo.”

Meanwhile, back at the night market. Habin, who had put the Star Fragment into her inventory, hummed a tune.

“That guy Taeseo, he’s surprisingly fun to spoil, you know? Last time I gave him just one candy, and he sent a touching message on KakaoTalk in response. Anyway, the more I get to know that guy, the sweeter he is. He’s grateful for small things, and- oh?”

Habin was in the middle of choosing travel souvenirs.

“That one’s for Jise unnie, this is for Libe, this for Park Wondu, Ayeon, the neighbor auntie, this for the training institute instructor, Secretary Lee, temporary mentor, now I need to buy something for Chae-ssi and something for oppa too. Let’s buy Kim Jaljal’s last. I have something in mind for him!”

“You’re buying something for me too?”

[Are you buying something for me too?!]

“What? Of course! They say when you go on a trip, you should buy gifts to the point of overflow. Just in case you’ve forgotten someone.”

[Where did you hear that?]

“My mom used to say that.”

[…….]

Her mother, who would come home with arms full of gifts every time she went on a business trip.

When asked, ‘Why did you buy so much?’, she would smile and say, ‘When you start giving out gifts, you always find more people to give them to.’ And that saying was never wrong.

‘Ah, I forgot a gift for the neighbor auntie. I should have bought one more!’

‘Oh, there’s a younger sibling I became indebted to recently, I should have bought more coconut oil last time. That would have been perfect as a gift.’

“Anyway, that’s the law of souvenirs, so I’m going to buy more while I’m here……. Gasp! How about that? Satoria soap!”

Habin pointed at soaps dangling from strings.

A soap made from the oil of rare seaweed found only on the 5th floor of Kill Screen, with a very pleasant scent. It has the function of calming tired body and mind.

“Wow, this smells really good! Chae-ssi, smell it too!”

Habin held the creamy, soft soap up to Chae Jiseok. Smelling it inadvertently, Chae Jiseok opened his mouth.

“It really does smell nice……. But I’m not sure if we should be leisurely choosing items like this.”

He sighed.

“Why?”

“I checked on our way here, and it turns out the casino just put a tracker on us. I removed it as soon as I discovered it, and we’re already far away with lots of people around, so it’ll be hard for them to find us…… but I still feel uneasy.”

“Why are they tracking us?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. I’ve heard stories of them trying to take back money when someone wins too much, but you only got 4th and 5th place in the lottery.”

“They’re not following us anymore, so it’s fine.”

Habin had already changed her appearance with ‘Deceiver’s Wish’. With her looks changed too, it would be even harder to find her.

“I can’t let my precious vacation be ruined by mere casino tracking!”

Habin, trying on a horned headband hanging at the stand, raised her head. She added in a bright voice, looking at Chae Jiseok.

“And what are you worried about? If they pick a fight, they’re the ones who’ll lose!”

[That’s right! They don’t stand a chance! No chance of winning.]

“You can handle everything at your level anyway, right Chae-ssi?”

“Well, that’s true…… Wait, am I the one who has to handle it?”

“Hmm, what should I get for oppa!”

“……”

Habin, changing the subject, looked around at various items. Carpets woven with exotic patterns, vibrant paintings on glass, scented candles and lamps, lamps. Each of the diverse items had small effects attached to them.

“Hmm, Hyun Siwoo didn’t ask me what souvenir I’d bring him, but because I’m much more broad-minded and kind than that guy, I’ll specially prepare a gift for Hyun Siwoo.”

Nodding her head with satisfaction, Habin turned to look at Chae Jiseok.

“Chae-ssi, what do you think would be a good gift for family? What do you usually give each other for birthday presents?”

A birthday gift for family.

Lost in thought, Chae Jiseok answered.

“Hmm……. I’ve heard these days people usually just give money instead of gifts.”

“What? That’s so thoughtless! You should give a gift with heart!”

“My nuna sometimes gives money too.”

“A very considerate and cool choice that takes the other person’s needs into account!”

“……”