Chapter 381: Supreme Luck

The next day.

I sat in a quiet spot with Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in.

I started with the good news.

“We won’t have to clean the underground sewers. And they’ll be reducing our penalty points to the minimum.”

“Looks like you negotiated with the disciplinary committee president.”

“I gave what I had to give and got what I had to get.”

A worried look crossed Go Hyeon-woo’s face.

“May I ask what you gave? I’m concerned we might have placed a burden on you needlessly.”

“It’s kind of a secret, so I can’t say right now. But what I can tell you for sure is that it wasn’t a burden. I was the one who dragged you into this in the first place. Even if it had been a burden, there’s no need for you two to feel sorry.”

“I see. Still, I hope you’ll keep this in mind. Both I and Miss Seo are ready to take on any task, even worse than cleaning the underground sewers, at any time.”

Seo Ye-in nodded up and down as if to show her agreement.

I responded to their goodwill with a smile, then got to the point.

“Since we’re already gathered like this, I think it’d be good to take care of the boxes as well. What do you say?”

The reason I ended the sentence like a question was because the one in charge of opening the box wasn’t me, but Seo Ye-in.

Thanks to her ridiculous streak of luck, she had basically taken control over anything luck-related.

If our lucky charm deemed today to be a good day, then we’d go for it. But if she said it wasn’t, we’d postpone.

“……”

As Go Hyeon-woo and I focused our attention on her, Seo Ye-in tilted her head slightly to one side, then the other, and finally nodded.

I asked for confirmation.

“Are we opening the boxes today?”

“Mhmm.”

“Is your luck okay? You seemed to use up quite a bit of it yesterday.”

Didn’t she hit four rest slots in a row on the roulette and then three large bonus hits back-to-back?

After using that much luck, shouldn’t she have needed a recovery period?

But Seo Ye-in answered nonchalantly.

“Very lucky.”

“Great. Let’s go.”

I began pulling the random boxes out of my inventory.

Two were from the [Rabbit Room]:

[Clock Rabbit’s Random Box (C)]

[Clock Rabbit’s Random Box (C+)]

And four were from the [Rabbit Tower]:

[Rabbit Tower Random Box (C+)] x2

[Rabbit Robot’s Random Box (B+)]

[Rabbit Robot’s Random Box (A)]

Seeing them, Go Hyeon-woo let out a low sound of admiration.

“Four boxes are at least C-rank, and two are even higher. If you add Miss Seo’s luck to the mix, something good is bound to come out.”

“Honestly, I’m kind of excited too.”

While we said that and focused our attention, Seo Ye-in quietly stared down at the boxes again.

Then she picked one up and placed it in front of me, so I asked.

“I’m opening it?”

– Shake shake.

She shook her head side to side, then began moving the rest of the boxes in front of me.

Next, she stood up and came closer.

I asked again,

“You’re opening them here? Should I move over?”

– Shake shake.

Seo Ye-in shook her head again and suddenly settled herself comfortably on my lap.

Then she said briefly,

“A good place.”

“It works better if you do it on my lap?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of principle is that?”

“The Law of Comfortable Laps.”

“That’s a thing?”

“Mhmm.”

Seo Ye-in spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Go Hyeon-woo who was watching with a fatherly smile backed her up.

“Haha, isn’t Miss Seo’s luck something that defies explanation in the first place? If she’s that confident, let’s trust her.”

“Of course, I already know that.”

It wasn’t like our lucky charm had ever been predictable.

And if it meant bringing world peace even a little closer, this was nothing.

I asked, still maintaining my Kim Ho chair mode,

“Which one would you like to open first?”

“This one.”

What Seo Ye-in picked up was a C-rank random box.

Looks like she planned to start from the lower ranks and work her way up.

Then she asked me,

“What do you want?”

“Hmm, what comes to mind right now is crafting materials.”

“Materials?”

“Preferably something shiny.”

That way, I could make a statue and pay the dimensional crow with it as labor.

“Okay.”

Seo Ye-in gave a slight nod and immediately flipped open the lid of the box.

A bright light burst out.

Fla—sh—!

“Oh.”

“Great start.”

Go Hyeon-woo and I let out words of admiration at the same time.

Judging from our past experience with box openings, this level of shine meant the result was likely to be worth getting excited about.

Sure enough, when the light faded, what lay there was:

[Random Rank-Up (B)]

“Not materials, but hey, it’s B-rank. That’s a jackpot in itself.”

“This one’s a little different from the usual random rank-ups I’ve seen.”

“It’s way better than those.”

A normal Random Rank-Up randomly selects one of the user’s entire pool of skills/traits and gives it a small chance of being upgraded in rank.

On the other hand, a Random Rank-Up (B) specifically selected one B-rank skill or trait and gave it a chance to be ranked up.

The success rate was also much higher than that of the normal version.

Still under 10%, but hey, that’s something.

The regular ones went all the way down to decimal percentages.

Single digits felt generous in comparison.

I asked Seo Ye-in,

“Are you going to use that yourself?”

Even if Go Hyeon-woo had given up his share, it was only right to distribute the rewards to Seo Ye-in.

After all, if it hadn’t been for her, they wouldn’t have gotten so many high-rank random boxes in the first place.

Seo Ye-in glanced briefly at the scroll.

“I’ll use it later.”

“Suit yourself. Let’s keep going.”

Next up were three C+ boxes.

Seo Ye-in seemed to be lining the boxes up in a row, and then she grabbed the lids of all three at once.

Seeing that, I asked,

“You’re opening all of them at once?”

“That’s right.”

“Where’s all that confidence coming from?”

“Overflowing with confidence.”

Her gray eyes sparkled brightly.

Was today really going to be one of those lucky days?

To show I was on board, I tilted my chin slightly and, with one hand, covered my own eyes and with the other, covered hers.

It just felt like the light was going to be blinding.

Sure enough, Seo Ye-in flung open all three random boxes at the same time, and three flashbangs went off.

FLASH—!!

“Good thing I covered them.”

If not, my eyesight might’ve taken a hit.

I kept waiting with my eyes still covered, and eventually, the light that had been leaking through my fingers slowly faded.

Only then did I finally turn my gaze to where the boxes had been.

[Random Rank-Up (B)] * 2

“What kind of day is this? That’s three in a row.”

“Haha, but Miss Seo here already has a track record, doesn’t she?”

Well, considering she pulled both Rest and Bonus (Large) in a row earlier, there was no rule saying she couldn’t pull three good items in a row too.

The last item was a large metal ingot.

Pitch-black, yet it gleamed faintly with a golden sheen.

[Black Mithril Ingot (B+)]

A high-grade material with excellent mana conductivity.

Part of my weapon was also made from an alloy of black mithril and millennium iron.

But the black mithril used back then was scraped together by melting down old accessories, so it was only a small amount. What sat before me now was a solid, full ingot.

Feels like a bit of a waste to use this for a statue.

Still, with how luxurious the shine was, there was a good chance it would produce great results.

Seo Ye-in looked back at me and said,

“Shiny material.”

“You actually pulled it.”

“Praise.”

In response, I entered full Kim Ho cheering mode and started clapping exaggeratedly with wide gestures.

“Well done, well done, our lucky charm. Well done.”

“……”

Seo Ye-in’s expression didn’t change much, but there was a subtle sense of pride in her demeanor.

She soon reached out for the three [Random Rank-Up (B)] scrolls, held onto two of them, and extended the remaining one toward me.

I accepted it and asked,

“Right now?”

“Mhmm.”

“Very well. You go first.”

Once again, without hesitation, Seo Ye-in used both scrolls at the same time.

The magic scrolls began to glow with increasing intensity.

However—

Fwooooosh…

The light vanished in an instant, and both scrolls simultaneously turned to ash and scattered.

Go Hyeon-woo widened his eyes in shock.

“Oho, even Miss Seo can fail.”

“It’s a random rank-up.”

The chances were better, but still under 10%.

And just like a standard random rank-up, it wasn’t affected by any external factors.

A double failure. Fairly honest, in a way.

I asked Seo Ye-in casually,

“Wanna use mine too?”

– Shake shake,

She declined very coolly.

Even though her share had just gone up in smoke, she didn’t seem the least bit disappointed.

In fact, her eyes urged me to go ahead and use it already.

So I used the Random Rank-Up (B), and as the light gradually grew brighter, I thought to myself—

Flaaash—

Feels like it might work… or not.

If it worked, that’d be huge, but it was better to keep my expectations low.

Even if it failed, I could still collect stamp coupons. That was the mindset.

[Stamp Coupon (C+)]

▷ Stamps: 13/15

Thanks to Seo Ye-in’s failure, two more had already been added.

If I failed this time and just once more, the final reward would—

Flaaash—!

Just as I was thinking that, an even brighter light burst out and was absorbed into my body.

A notification message followed right after.

[Rank-Up Successful!]

[The rank of ‘Monarch’ has increased. B → A]

“It actually worked.”

Go Hyeon-woo smiled softly and said,

“I was worried what we’d do if all those valuable items failed. Congratulations.”

– Clap-clap-clap—

Seo Ye-in also cheered with a silent round of finger claps.

All that remained were the highly anticipated B+ and A-rank random boxes.

At that moment, a hush fell over the room.

Even Seo Ye-in stared at the two boxes for a long while before slowly reaching for the B+ rank box.

Then, suddenly, she turned her head toward me.

“Cover my eyes.”

“Is it going to flash again?”

“…Probably?”

“Very well. I shall cover them for you.”

Once we both shielded our eyes, Seo Ye-in finally began to lift the lid of the box, ever so slowly.

Kwoooosh—!

A rainbow-colored burst of light exploded through the room.

Even with my hand up, the light was blinding.

The item that emerged was, once again, a magic scroll.

[Magic Scroll – Time Freeze (S)]

Go Hyeon-woo’s expression shifted. He was interested.

“…Is that what I think it is?”

“It is.”

Tearing it open would cast [Time Freeze].

Its duration was just over four seconds.

Though it was a one-time consumable, if used wisely, it could serve as a powerful trump card.

Looking straight at Seo Ye-in, I said,

“How did you pull something like that? You’re on fire today.”

“More praise.”

“You’re not just lucky, you’re radiant. I couldn’t even look at you before the box opened.”

I spent a good while showering Seo Ye-in with praise, bouncing her lightly in celebration.

Now, all that was left was the long-awaited A-rank box.

Go Hyeon-woo slowly stroked his chin.

“At this rate, an S-rank is practically guaranteed.”

“Let’s not jinx it with pressure.”

I was in an especially generous mood.

So what if the last one didn’t turn out well?

Even just today’s haul had already far exceeded expectations.

Soon, Seo Ye-in took my hand and brought it up to her eyes.

She was wearing the Kim Ho blindfold.

Feeling a spark of anticipation myself, I covered my own eyes, and the final random box began to open slowly.

But the burst of light we expected didn’t come.

Instead, the open box was suddenly shrouded in black and white, and we heard the ticking of a clock’s second hand.

Tick— Tock— Tick— Tock—

“Looks like [Time Freeze] has been triggered.”

“Yeah… I wonder what’s coming out.”

A time-type magic effect had been triggered by the random box.

Even for me, that was a rare occurrence.

We stared at the frozen box, and as the ticking stopped, its contents slowly revealed themselves.

Inside, there were three tiny gears, each no bigger than a fingernail, interlocked with one another.

[Golden Gear (S+)]

I was dumbfounded.

“This came out of that?”

“Judging by the rank, it’s clearly something special, but… what exactly is it used for?”

“Equipment material.”

Even in “Dragon Slayer Academy”, there were only a few time-type items.

Among them, the [Golden Pocket Watch] which was considered an endgame-rank item used this as a component.

I had planned to collect them slowly in the late stages, but I never imagined I’d get a piece this early.

Seo Ye-in turned to look at me and said,

“Shiny material.”

Before the word “praise” could even come out of her mouth, I started clapping.

Go Hyeon-woo quickly picked up on it and joined in.

– Clap, clap, clap, clap,

– Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap,

“……”

Amid the shower of applause, Seo Ye-in glanced back and forth between us, then slowly rose to her feet.

She stretched both arms wide to the sides.

“Praise.”

“Ooh.”

“Ooohhh!”

– Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap!!

We clapped until our palms felt like they’d break.