The Support Ate it All

The masked gentleman eventually spread the cards out like a fan and held them out in front of her.

It was as if he was silently asking her to pick one.

When Seo Ye-in pointed to a card as instructed, it floated up into the air.

[J of Hearts]

Next to it, another card rose, showing only its back.

“—? —?”

The masked gentleman pointed at the two cards, gesturing up and down with his fingers.

It seemed like he was asking, “Will this card be higher or lower than the J of Hearts?”

Based purely on probability, it should be “lower”.

But without a moment of hesitation, Seo Ye-in gave her answer.

“Higher.”

As soon as she spoke, the facedown card spun around, revealing a Queen of Spades.

It was higher than the Jack, so her answer was correct.

The masked gentleman slapped his forehead with a dramatic smack! Meanwhile, the masked clown silently pointed at him and mockingly laughed.

However, it seemed the mini-game wasn’t over yet.

The masked gentleman shuffled the cards again with a flourish before spreading them out in a wide fan.

When Seo Ye-in picked another card, it floated into the air, showing its back, and four symbols appeared before it:

Heart, Club, Spade, Diamond.

This time, the goal was to guess the suit of the card.

Though the odds were much lower in this four-choice scenario, Seo Ye-in once again gave her answer immediately.

“Club.”

The card spun around, revealing a Seven of Clubs.

Having secured her second win in a row in the blink of an eye, the masked gentleman grabbed his head and swayed in despair.

On the other hand, the clown who was now even more delighted silently shook with laughter.

Before long, the masked gentleman placed the recently chosen Seven of Clubs in midair and began shuffling the cards for the third round.

Shuffle-shuffle—

The masked gentleman’s flashy hand movements revealed his determination not to lose this time.

When he spread the cards out into a fan, Seo Ye-in pointed to one, and it floated into the air, showing its back as it rose next to the Seven of Clubs.

Besides the card, four suit symbols and an up-and-down arrow appeared at the same time.

This time, she had to guess both the suit and whether the card was higher or lower than the Seven of Clubs.

That’s just unfair.

Even if it was a mini-game, there were rules about maintaining some semblance of fairness.

It seemed the masked gentleman was truly desperate not to lose.

Of course, by that logic, Seo Ye-in herself could be considered shamelessly lucky.

At this point, one would expect her to hesitate or deliberate a little, but instead, she simply glanced at the card and declared,

“Diamond.”

“~?”

The masked gentleman leaned forward and cupped his hand to his ear, clearly signaling that he wanted to hear the rest of her answer.

Seo Ye-in answered curtly.

“Equal.”

“……!”

The card that appeared next was the Seven of Diamonds.

If she had answered higher or lower, she would have been wrong.

She actually got that right.

To pick both the correct suit and the exact number out of thirteen options; it was nothing short of incredible.

There was no doubt about it: Seo Ye-in’s victory was absolute.

The masked gentleman, seemingly resigned to the outcome, slumped his shoulders in defeat.

Meanwhile, the clown clapped his hands enthusiastically before stepping forward with a sly grin.

Now it was the clown’s turn to host a mini-game.

The masked clown rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a toy crocodile head.

Its mouth was wide open, revealing eight unevenly spaced teeth.

The crocodile tooth game.

Also known as “Crocodile Roulette”. The game required participants to take turns pressing the teeth.

However, one of the eight teeth was a trap. Pressing it would cause the crocodile’s jaws to snap shut with a clamp!

The unlucky player whose hand got caught would lose the game.

“~~!”

The clown extended the crocodile head toward Seo Ye-in with a polite gesture.

Just as she had done during the game with the gentleman, Seo Ye-in pressed down firmly on one of the teeth without a moment’s hesitation.

Click.

A small sound echoed, but the crocodile’s mouth remained open.

Next, the clown exaggeratedly deliberated, saying, “Which one should I press~? This one? Or maybe that one?” After his theatrical pondering, he finally pressed a tooth. Without delay, Seo Ye-in pressed the next tooth.

Click.

She’s seriously bold.

Most people, when feeling even a little tense, would hesitate. But Seo Ye-in acted immediately every time her turn came.

Was it because she had such strong confidence in her luck? Or perhaps she simply wasn’t afraid, having rarely experienced defeat? It was hard to tell.

Click.

Oddly enough, it was the event boss, the masked clown, who seemed more nervous.

The mini-game progressed so quickly that there were soon only three crocodile teeth remaining.

The probability of the jaws snapping shut was now significantly high.

The clown hesitated, then cautiously brought his hand toward one of the front teeth.

Click.

Once again, nothing happened.

The clown sighed in relief, but Seo Ye-in immediately pressed the next tooth without hesitation.

Click.

Finally, with only one tooth left, Seo Ye-in handed the crocodile to the clown.

“……”

The masked clown stared at the toy crocodile as if he was looking at a self-destruct button. After a moment of resigned silence, he pressed the final tooth.

Snap!

The crocodile’s jaws snapped shut at lightning speed, biting down on the clown’s hand. The clown jumped up and down as if to dramatically mimic the pain.

Onlookers burst into laughter.

The masked gentleman who had also been watching chuckled along at first, only to remember his own loss and slump his shoulders again in dejection.

“……”

“……”

The result of both mini-games had been Lucky Charm’s victory.

The clown had put away the crocodile roulette and, instead, had taken out a brightly colored box that looked like a child’s toy.

When the lid was opened, it seemed as if a spring-loaded doll would pop out.

[Surprise Magic Box]

That’s unexpected.

It wasn’t something you saw very often.

Among the various rewards obtained for clearing mini-games, this one had a relatively low appearance rate.

And yet, it didn’t stop there.

When the masked gentleman snapped his fingers, the box began to shimmer with vivid rainbow hues.

[Brilliant Surprise Magic Box]

Not only was it a rare reward, but now it had the word “Brilliant” added to it as well.

Apparently, this was possible when there were two event bosses.

In contrast, Seo Ye-in seemed to be unimpressed and tilted her head in mild confusion before gently tugging at my sleeve and holding the box out to me.

“I’ll give it to you.”

At her words, both the masked gentleman and the clown simultaneously turned to look at me. Their expressions were somehow filled with betrayal.

They had gone through the trouble of hosting the event and giving out such a good reward, only for her to hand it off to another guy without hesitation.

However, with no way to protest, the two eventually slumped their shoulders even further and disappeared into the crowd.

After briefly watching them go, I shook the box lightly and said,

“It doesn’t feel right to use this alone. Let’s open it together.”

“Together?”

“Yeah.”

The [Surprise Magic Box] was a type of random box item.

The main difference from a typical random box was that it was empty when first opened.

The type of item that appeared depended on what was placed inside the box.

If you put in a sword, you’d get a sword. If you put in a potion, you’d get a potion in return.

Of course, since there was an element of randomness, there was always a chance you’d end up with something worse than what you had put in.

But this one has the Brilliant word attached to it.

The chances of obtaining a good result were dramatically higher.

With Lucky Charm’s skill added to the equation, it was practically a guaranteed jackpot.

Still, it would be a waste to put in something like the sapling or crow branch.

If I put the sapling in, there was a chance the [Octopus Limbs] cheat-like skill would disappear, and the crow branch might also get replaced by something other than a spatial-type item.

Keeping these items as they were seemed like the wisest choice.

Besides, the Surprise Magic Box was something I had obtained entirely thanks to Seo Ye-in.

Summoning two event bosses and winning two mini-games in a row wasn’t exactly an easy feat, even for me.

Since she had managed to pull off such a challenging task, it only felt right to share the reward with her.

Luckily, we had just the perfect item for this situation.

“Give me your bracelet.”

“Mhmm.”

Seo Ye-in took off her Fluffy Cloud Bracelet and handed it to me.

The Fluffy Cloud Bracelet and the Storm Cloud Bracelet were a pair.

I was confident that if we put them in the Surprise Magic Box, it would return them to us in some form as a set.

Although proceeding as-is seemed like a good plan,

“Let’s check out the shop first.”

“Let’s do that…”

The <Long Ears Magic Item Shop> was just a few steps away.

There was no harm in delaying the box opening until we looked around.

Who knew? We might find something useful in there.

When we entered the shop, the familiar-looking shopkeeper greeted us.

She had a kind face and her ears weren’t pointed at all.

Even though we were now in the Gray Kim Ho and Gold Sloth state, she recognized us at a glance.

“It’s been a while. Welcome!”

“Hello.”

“Looking for anything in particular?”

“Today, we’d like to see some A-rank items.”

Shops typically didn’t expect much from first-year students.

After all, how much could a first-year afford to buy, even if they did manage to scrape together some money?

However, we’d already proven our buying power during our first trip to the downtown area by using two B-rank exchange coupons.

Because of that, the shopkeeper casually guided us to the A-rank section.

Compared to other parts of the shop, the A-rank display area was noticeably smaller.

The immense value of each A-rank item explained why even a magic item shop located in the downtown area of Dungeon Island couldn’t afford to stock them in abundance.

Because of that, it didn’t seem like it would take long to browse through everything.

I started by quickly scanning the skill books and trait scrolls.

There’s nothing for penalty reduction.

Clicking my tongue in slight disappointment, I moved on to check if there were any materials compatible with the Crow Branch.

Unfortunately, it was another dead end.

I had a feeling there wouldn’t be anything.

After all, it wasn’t exactly common to find items compatible with spatial materials.

Since I hadn’t expected much to begin with, I wasn’t too disappointed.

This was something that would take time, and I had no choice but to be patient.

With that thought in mind, I was about to turn away when one particular item caught my eye.

It was a transparent glass bottle filled with a shimmering, translucent liquid.

[Fairy Queen’s Delight (A)]

…If it’s this.

Although it wasn’t directly related to my original goal, it was a fantastic item to use for an impromptu surprise reveal.

I didn’t hesitate for long before making my decision.

“I’ll take this.”

***

Despite being a consumable item, Fairy Queen’s Delight carried a hefty price tag, as befitting its A-rank status.

Of course, with the promise Ahn Jeong-mi had made to me, I was more than willing to pay that amount.

Seo Ye-in and I left the downtown area and moved to a quiet resting spot.

It was the same place where we had obtained the Fluffy Cloud and Storm Cloud Bracelets.

Sitting side by side, we opened the brilliant surprise magic box and placed the two bracelets inside.

Then I poured every last drop of the Fairy Queen’s Delight into the box, leaving none behind.

If I had placed the entire glass bottle inside, it might have been classified as a “potion”, which would potentially change the surprise box’s result.

But if it’s already used, that’s a different story.

With these three items now in the box, my first goal was to obtain a “bracelet set”.

The second goal was tied to the effect of the Fairy Queen’s Delight.

The potion I had poured in instantly seeped into the two bracelets, and from them, a fresh, vibrant energy began to radiate.

Its powerful enchantment effect would greatly enhance the value of the bracelets.

They would likely become at least A+ rank, which meant I could expect even better results.

After closing the lid, I handed the surprise box over to Seo Ye-in and asked,

“Lucky Charm-nim, are you ready?”

“I’m ready.”

“Feeling good about this?”

“Very Lucky!”

“Excellent. Let’s see what we’ve got, shall we?”

Seo Ye-in pulled the box closer, slowly lifted the lid, and then—

Boooom!

A loud explosion echoed as clouds completely engulfed our view.

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