The Cursed Profession

The ten treasure chests were all made to look identical, but looking at them like this, they were completely different.

The fading of the paint, the slight rust on the metal fittings, the drag marks barely visible near the bottom.

When you make things, you start noticing even the smallest differences, but…

Ever since I gained the ‘Jack-of-All-Trades’ skill, not just animals and plants, but everything that entered my field of vision had started to look vastly different.

Maybe it felt that way especially because parameters like ‘Five Senses’ and ‘Concentration’ had increased several times over.

While lost in those thoughts as I looked over the treasure chests, before I knew it, I had ended up being made to play a bizarre game called the ‘Leopin Pauper Game.’

It seemed the new principal and vice principal had gone to the trouble of bringing as many as two thousand treasure chests into the schoolyard for the sake of that game.

But they did not know. Or rather, no one here knew.

That if I felt like it, I could become a treasure chest professional at any time.

So, I immediately changed jobs to Treasure Hunter.

Just to be safe, I first asked the principal, “…Am I really allowed to take them?” and then activated the Treasure Hunter skill, ‘Treasure Detection.’

The ‘Treasure Detection’ skill does not make treasure glow or anything like that.

It conveys a very slight, but decisive sense of wrongness to the five senses.

If I had to compare it to something, it was close to the sensation of ‘feeling someone’s gaze.’

I walked through the forest of treasure chests, searching for that eyeless burning stare.

At last, when I opened one treasure chest I had sensed, a ‘Winner’ sign popped out from inside along with a fanfare.

And then,

“Ha… Hassaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!?!?”

The principal let out a bizarre scream.

“Th-th-that’s impossible!? The odds were one in two hundred, so how could you hit it on the first try!? D-d-dah!?”

A little away from the first treasure chest I found, I located the next winning chest.

When I opened it, even more confetti burst out than before.

Apparently, if you kept drawing winners in succession, the celebration became more extravagant too.

Like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, I went from chest to chest opening them.

By around the fourth one, the fanfare had grown loud enough to shake the entire schoolyard, and the confetti shot high into the sky like a geyser.

The students watching my game had frozen like statues.

Even when they were covered in confetti riding the wind, they just stood there without brushing it off.

“N-… no way… Four correct in a row…!?”

“H-how does he know which ones are winners…?”

“H-he hasn’t even taken one minute yet, and he’s already made two hundred million…!”

“A-at this rate, it wouldn’t be strange even if he got all the winners!”

At the almost scream-like voice of one student, the principal came back to his senses.

He came tumbling down from the stage, and

“St-… stooooppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー!!”

came running toward me with a desperate look on his face.

His nose was bright red, and he looked on the verge of tears, breathing heavily.

“Th-this game is over! It ends here! Here, right! Right!?”

“Eh, but Principal, you said I could draw the treasure chests as many times as I wanted… Since I’ve got the chance, just a little more…”

“Uwaaaaaaaaaah! Stop, stop it, stoooopppppppーーーーー!!”

The principal clung to my leg and started bawling loudly.

There were no tears coming out at all, so I figured it was probably fake crying, but…

Still, I started feeling a little sorry for him, so I decided to stop here.

In the end, fourteen classes made the toast in the ‘Cheers Game.’

Thanks to that game, I fell out of the top ten of the ‘Asset Rankings’ only for a brief while.

But just like a treasure chest, once you opened the lid…

I stormed back to the top with an overwhelming lead over everyone below second place…!

“Ha… Hassaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!?!? Haan haan haan! Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー!!!!”

The principal let out a scream as though he had gone into respiratory failure.

Waving both arms around wildly, he was dragged away from the schoolyard by the vice principal.

Without sparing even a glance for that tantrum-throwing principal, I found my attention drawn instead to the fact that my body was glowing.

“Guess it’s been a while since I leveled up. Maybe gambling really does make for good experience?”

At the newly added class, I could not help giving a wry smile.

“Come on now, I’m not planning to do this seriously…”

That said, I was curious what kind of skills it had, so I tried changing jobs as a test.

“Whoa!?”

My HP had suddenly become an absurd number, and it completely floored me.

The ‘cooldown’ in the ‘Last One’ skill meant a restriction on repeated use of the skill.

Normally, as long as you have MP, you can use the same skill over and over consecutively.

However, some powerful skills require a cooldown.

In that case, until the specified period has passed, the effect cannot be activated again.

In any case…

Looking over the list of class skills, I learned why Gambler was called a ‘cursed profession.’

“If your money drops to zero, you die—that’s way too troublesome… Come to think of it, I heard Gamblers always wear a charm containing money around their necks, and keep it on even when they sleep or bathe. Well, I can change jobs whenever I want, so it’s fine for me.”