Chapter Six: Please Call Me Emperor Luck (Kindly Support with Follows and Votes)
“Hello, children! Today our store is holding a special event. Any customer who spends over 10,000 yen gets a chance to enter a lottery draw.”
After ringing up their purchases, the supermarket clerk smiled and pulled out a black lottery box from beneath the counter, presenting it to the group. “The grand prize is a 20,000 yen voucher, redeemable at any store in the amusement park~”
“20,000 yen!” Ayumi Yoshida’s eyes sparkled as she eagerly suggested, “Haruki-kun, you’re so lucky—why don’t you draw the ticket?”
Mitsuhiko and Genta nodded in agreement, casting hopeful glances at Haruki.
“Then I won’t be shy,” Haruki Suzuki said, reaching into the lottery box and stirring the tickets before pulling one out casually.
“Shhh…”
Under the curious and expectant gazes of the three children, the lottery ticket was quickly scratched open, revealing the words “Grand Prize” in bold characters.
“(°Д°)”
The supermarket clerk was momentarily speechless, then retrieved the voucher from the drawer with a smile. “Kids, your luck is incredible! You just won our store’s biggest prize. Have a great weekend at the park.”
“This is amazing! Now we can really enjoy ourselves.”
“I was worried about not having enough pocket money, but now we can try every attraction in the park and still have money left for toys!”
“Haruki-kun, you really are our lucky star~”
The three children were buzzing with excitement, already planning how to spend their newfound fortune.
“Thanks, sis. Let’s go!” Haruki took the voucher calmly and, with Ayumi and the others, left the supermarket. He glanced back and casually asked, “What do you want to do next?”
“How about we check out the arcade over there? I heard they have tons of great claw machines and capsule toy dispensers, plus limited-edition Ultraman figures,” Mitsuhiko suggested, pointing to a game center several hundred meters away.
“Limited-edition Ultraman figures? That sounds awesome!”
“I’m excited too! Haruki-kun, let’s go see!”
Ayumi and Genta, both devoted Ultraman fans, enthusiastically agreed, grabbing Haruki’s hand as they hurried toward the arcade.
---
The moment they stepped into the arcade, a cacophony of noise greeted them. The hall was crowded with visitors—not only children their age but many adults playing games as well. Yet the most popular attractions remained the claw machines and capsule toy dispensers.
“This place is incredible!” Ayumi couldn’t help but cheer as she gazed at rows of claw machines stuffed with plush toys.
Even Tamaka Kurosaki, despite her usual calm demeanor, cracked a delighted smile—after all, she was still a seventeen-year-old girl at heart.
Looking at the variety of claw machines and capsule toy dispensers, Haruki felt a familiar itch to play.
In his previous life, Haruki had been notoriously unlucky, often drawn to games of chance like claw machines and capsule toys—what some called “bad luck but big craving.”
Now, finally regarded as a “fortune’s favorite,” he was determined to shed that unlucky reputation once and for all.
Surrounded by the three children, Haruki first exchanged the entire 20,000 yen voucher at the arcade’s front desk for game tokens. The five of them split the tokens evenly and each chose their favorite machines to play.
“Tamaka, sis, how about we try this capsule toy dispenser first?” Haruki preferred the capsule toy machines, which relied more on luck rather than skill, unlike the claw machines.
Tamaka, loyally following Haruki’s lead, smiled and nodded. “Alright, let’s start here.”
“Click-clack…”
Haruki inserted a 100-yen token into the capsule machine with practiced ease, turning the crank happily. A golden plastic capsule dropped out.
Opening it, he found a slip of paper inside marked with “Prize A.”
“Call me the Emperor of Luck!”
“Tamaka, please hold onto this for me. Once I’ve opened all the big prizes here, we can exchange them for rewards,” Haruki said, handing her the slip before eagerly continuing to turn the crank.
Over the next several minutes, Haruki went into overdrive, quickly emptying the top prizes from the first machine and moving on to several others.
The capsule machines he targeted were stripped of their “Grand Prize,” “Prize A,” and “Prize B” items, leaving only low-value consolation prizes behind.
“Haruki-kun, can you help us open some capsule toys too?” When Tamaka returned pushing a cart full of prizes, the three children couldn’t resist approaching Haruki with pleading expressions.
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Compared to Haruki’s incredible luck, the three children seemed plagued by misfortune. After spending nearly half their tokens, they had only managed to collect a few small dolls and badges.
Faced with their pitiful looks, Haruki couldn’t refuse and generously helped them open several capsules.
Thanks to the “Golden Rule” effect, Haruki’s luck was phenomenal, pulling out more than ten grand prizes and securing everything the three children had hoped for.
After this, Haruki was unanimously recognized by the group as their lucky charm and an indispensable companion.
After spending most of the day exploring the amusement park with Tamaka and the others, as dusk began to fall, Tamaka gently said, “Kids, it’s getting late. We should start heading back.”
“(^o^)/~”
The three children, their backpacks stuffed with gifts, nodded obediently. They’d had a fantastic day and were no longer inclined to cause a fuss.
“Tamaka, sis, Haruki-kun, we’ll head off now,” they said their goodbyes and left, content.
Watching the bus carrying the three children pull away, Tamaka softly said, “Master, it’s time for us to go back as well.”
“Yeah… please, a bean bag!”
Haruki’s words trailed off suddenly as he stopped in his tracks, his gaze drawn to two figures not far away.
They were a young couple, about seventeen or eighteen, still carrying a youthful innocence.
The boy was handsome, the girl radiant, their laughter and chatter painting the picture of young love.
Haruki knew them well—too well to call them mere acquaintances.
They were his classmate Sonoko Suzuki’s classmates: Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mouri!