Chapter 51
CHAPTER 51
Luck and Misfortune (2)
The very first place Ju-Heon visited was the largest casino nearby.
Brilliant neon lights.
Extravagant decorations.
This was Xiao Meilin, famed as the city where luck followed you with every breath.
Every slot machine here had supposedly been blessed.
But the instant Ju-Heon stepped inside—
the atmosphere of the casino began to twist.
[Authority: SPAM is permanently active.]
[The permanent "Misfortune" fixed upon you is being forcibly broadcast to your surroundings.]
The moment Ju-Heon sat down at a slot machine, the mood around him changed.
A man at the next machine, who had been cheering after hitting consecutive jackpots, suddenly went pale.
"W-What?! What's wrong with this thing all of a sudden?!"
Instead of the usual jackpot message, the screen displayed bright red letters.
[SYSTEM ERROR]
Beep! Beep! Beep!
"W-What?! Is it bugged?!"
The fortune points the man had painstakingly accumulated dissolved into particles before his eyes.
"No! My points!"
And that was only the beginning.
Every table Ju-Heon walked past became a disaster zone.
Gamblers who had been absolutely certain of ninety-nine percent odds suddenly made impossible mistakes.
"I saw your cards!"
"Cheating!"
Dealers froze after making mistakes they had never committed in their entire careers.
"W-Why did that happen?!"
High-ranking brokers who had been moments away from victory lost every asset they owned through a single streak of catastrophic bad luck.
"W-Wait! That was a mistake!"
People went bankrupt without ever understanding why.
Crash! Smash! Clang!
"W-What's happening?! I was winning!"
"My chips!"
"My stocks are crashing!"
"I'm bankrupt!!!"
Watching the scene, Cup Ramen Yu Jae-ha went speechless.
[…Wow. It's been a while since I've seen something this nostalgic...]
Seeing bankrupt people crying in despair made him grimace.
Ju-Heon, however, quietly fell into thought.
"...Jae-ha."
"Was this how Irene always felt?"
Yu Jae-ha lowered his voice.
Only recently, countless people had lost everything because of Ju-Heon.
The sight reminded him eerily of the time Ju-Heon had first met his wife—
the Queen of Bankruptcy.
[Captain...]
Could it be...
Has the Captain finally begun to understand the pain Irene lived with?
Overcome with emotion, Yu Jae-ha nearly dropped his cup ramen.
Then Ju-Heon spoke.
"Just standing still makes all my rivals self-destruct."
"This is freaking awesome."
"Hehehehehe!"
[...]
Yu Jae-ha's emotional moment didn't even last one second.
It vanished instantly.
[You weren't sympathizing with your wife after all?!]
"Hahahahaha! This ability's way better than I expected."
[…You lunatic. I can't believe I actually expected something from you. You're completely beyond saving.]
"Why?"
"Isn't it exciting? We don't know whether luck or misfortune will win."
[Now all we need is Captain Hyun-soo and we'd have the perfect husband-and-wife scam duo...]
Ju-Heon activated his Authority even more aggressively.
Now, everywhere he walked...
gamblers met destruction.
Just then—
Commotion erupted from a table he had only recently left.
"...Looks like he lost."
Amid the murmurs, someone desperately shouted,
"Wait! Just once more! Give me one more chance!"
"You only get one chance."
At the dealer's cold reply—
the loser collapsed.
"AAAAAAH!"
His screams echoed through the casino.
His body rapidly shriveled.
His skin wrinkled.
His back bent with age.
"Merciless."
"They took his entire lifespan."
Men dressed in black dragged the defeated gambler away.
Even as his feet scraped helplessly across the floor...
the casino never stopped.
If anything—
the excitement only grew.
"All the profits here go to the Queen of Fortune, right?"
"Yep. Lifespans, property, everything that person owns."
"At least he'll still have debt left."
"Naturally. It'll follow him all the way to the next life."
Whispers spread like waves.
This wasn't merely a casino.
It was the gambling hall operated by the Queen of Fortune herself.
[Anything may be wagered.]
Money.
Memories.
Contracts.
Even relics.
Everything that could be owned could be used as gambling chips.
Because of that, people gambled everywhere throughout the city.
Yet no one could take their eyes off the central table—
the very table where someone had just aged to death.
There was only one reason.
The prize.
Inside a glass display case beside the dealer rested a single reward.
"...That."
"Damn... it looks incredible."
"Should we challenge it?"
"Are you insane?"
Inside the case lay something difficult to even call a relic.
A single voucher.
[Voucher for the Blessing of Dawn (SS-Rank Consumable Relic)]
- Majesty Guaranteed
- Whatever you write upon it shall be granted.
Luck.
Assets.
Already pledged lifespans.
Memories.
Family.
Relics.
Intelligence.
Anything could be written on the voucher.
For the people destined to be exiled to Murphy's City...
it was their one chance to reverse fate.
For those blessed with extraordinary luck...
it was an opportunity to obtain absolutely anything from a Majesty.
Of course...
Since it was a relic that granted wishes, everyone was sacrificing years of their life trying to win it.
No one had ever succeeded.
And then—
Ju-Heon casually pulled out a chair...
and sat down at that table.
The atmosphere inside the casino instantly froze.
"W-Wait."
"Did he just sit at the Grand Prize table?"
People began gathering.
"He actually did!"
"Is he insane?"
Excited whispers spread through the crowd.
"I've never seen him before!"
"Get down from there! You'll die!"
"You're still too young!"
Ju-Heon merely glanced over the table before looking at the dealer.
"This table."
He asked calmly,
"What do I have to bet?"
The dealer remained silent for a moment before answering.
"Your lifespan."
"If you lose, you forfeit all of it."
Instead of hesitating—
Ju-Heon's smile only widened.
"Interesting."
He pointed toward the glass display.
"Then that's the prize?"
For the briefest instant,
the dealer's eyes wavered.
"...Correct."
"You may write whatever you wish."
"The greater the wish, the greater the difficulty."
"Good."
"I'll play."
Every eye in the casino turned toward him.
"He's really doing it!"
"How much is he betting?"
After a brief hesitation, the dealer slid over the wager slip.
Ju-Heon wrote something on it and handed it back.
The dealer's eyes widened.
"...You really want that?"
Just then—
Majesty Yu Jae-ha finally pushed through the crowd.
The moment he spotted Ju-Heon, he nearly had a heart attack.
"You bastard! I finally found you!"
"You couldn't even wait a few minutes before coming to gamble?! Do you even have any money?!"
Ju-Heon looked up and grinned.
"There you are."
"My ATM."
"...What?"
"My ATM?"
Yu Jae-ha stared at him in disbelief.
Ju-Heon casually pointed toward the chip exchange counter.
"Go exchange some chips."
"Why should I?"
"Those are my chips."
"Majesties are supposed to survive on their own."
Majesty Yu Jae-ha looked at him as if asking whether he was joking.
Ju-Heon simply laughed.
"That's fine. The wager on this table is lifespan anyway."
Yu Jae-ha was inwardly horrified.
This lunatic... actually bet his lifespan?
Even if he doesn't have eyes, there's a limit!
A Majesty's life was worth an entire world.
The dealer activated the mechanism for the Grand Prize Table.
"The game is Fall of Destiny. The rules are simple."
As the dealer explained, a transparent sphere containing an intricate maze appeared.
"I will release a marble. The marble will fall at random, and the color of the space it lands on determines the outcome."
The dealer pointed below.
There were three spaces.
- Red: Instant death for the player.
- White: No result.
- Blue: Player victory.
"...Red?"
Ju-Heon asked.
The dealer answered calmly.
"I wouldn't know. It's never landed there before."
"It usually falls on white one hundred percent of the time."
"I'm just that lucky."
His voice was indifferent, yet filled with quiet confidence.
The crowd grew even louder.
"That's why it's the Grand Prize Table."
"Only an idiot would challenge that."
But after hearing the explanation, Ju-Heon's interest only grew.
"So basically..."
"It doesn't matter how skilled I am."
"Correct."
"If your luck is good, I die."
"If your luck is bad, I win?"
"Exactly."
The dealer placed a single marble atop the device.
He had repeated this process thousands of times.
"Beginning."
The instant he released the marble—
it dropped into the transparent mechanism.
Every eye in the casino fixed on it.
The marble rolled smoothly through the countless branching paths.
Everyone held their breath.
"...It's never landed on blue."
"It's never even landed on red."
"That dealer must have absurd Luck because he's directly blessed by the Majesty."
The marble reached the second branching point.
Just as it was about to continue along its usual path—
Twitch.
The dealer's wrist trembled ever so slightly.
"...?"
That tiny vibration traveled through the mechanism.
The marble's trajectory shifted—
just a fraction.
The dealer's eyes widened.
The marble's movement had changed.
A microscopic difference—
something that should never have mattered—
suddenly mattered.
It bounced away...
and rolled in the exact opposite direction.
The dealer swallowed.
"This is...!"
The marble reached the third branch.
It moved only the slightest amount—
yet, like a butterfly effect, its entire course changed.
"W-Wait! The marble!"
It bounced erratically before falling downward.
Then—
Thunk!
The entire casino fell silent.
No one spoke.
For nearly ten seconds...
everyone simply stared.
"...Did it land on blue?!"
The dealer's face instantly turned pale.
"N-No... This..."
The casino erupted.
"He actually won?!"
Yu Jae-ha was speechless.
Ju-Heon merely smiled.
"Well?"
"Announce the result."
Grinding his teeth, the dealer declared,
"...Winner."
"The player wins."
"And don't forget the prize."
The dealer activated the voucher.
"I will grant the reward exactly as requested."
Majesty Yu Jae-ha hurried over excitedly.
"Oh! What did you write?"
"What else?"
"Something that'll be useful in the future."
"...Like what?"
"This city's all about gambling."
"The bigger the stakes, the greater the chance of going bankrupt, right?"
"...So?"
"But modern society has this wonderful thing called a guarantor."
"...A guarantor?"
Majesty Yu Jae-ha suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
...Don't tell me this bastard...
Right then—
The suspicious voucher emitted a brilliant light.
Instead of producing another relic—
it created a seal.
[Guarantor Seal (S-Rank)]
A relic personally issued by a Majesty.
From now on, every payment owed by the user will instead be collected from the guarantor designated by the seal.
The moment Yu Jae-ha saw the seal in Ju-Heon's hand,
his face went deathly pale.
This bastard...
Sure enough—
Ju-Heon grinned.
"That's right."
"My guarantor..."
"...is you."
"...?!"
"If things go south, your money and your lifespan will be used instead."
"So unless you want to die, don't think about enjoying yourself alone."
"Let's become business partners."
"Looking forward to working with you, Majesty of Creation."
This son of a—!
In other words—
if Ju-Heon lost at gambling,
Yu Jae-ha's lifespan would be deducted.
If Ju-Heon went bankrupt,
Yu Jae-ha would pay the debt.
This wasn't a partnership.
It was extortion.
"You said it yourself."
"In this city, life is the most valuable currency."
Unbelievable.
Majesty Yu Jae-ha ground his teeth.
Meanwhile—
the dealer quietly let out a sigh of relief.
That was close.
He had never imagined he would make such a mistake.
Although he had accidentally lost a round,
the prize that man chose was merely a seal for forcing someone else to act as his guarantor.
Smiling again, the dealer said to himself,
"In the end, neither the Majesty nor our side suffered any real loss..."
Compared to the Queen of Fortune's enormous wealth and countless relics,
this prize was insignificant.
So he thought...
"That settles this game."
Just then—
"Who said it was over?"
"...?"
Ju-Heon's lips slowly curled upward.
"Now the real game begins."
"Let's raise the stakes."
"...Raise them?"