“You want to bet with me? Alright, alright!”

  Tsunade, who had been annoyed by the previous events, suddenly became excited.

  “Come on, come on, what do you want to bet on?”

  With that, Tsunade pulled Kaya Shihōin into a corner.

  “Ding! Clink!”

  She pulled out a pile of dice, Pai Gow tiles, and simir items from her pocket, looking at him confidently.

  “These are all my specialties. If you don’t like them and want to bet on something else, I can go grab it.”

  “Uh, no need, no need, this will work. How about we go with dice? It’s simpler.”

  Waving his hand to signal no more trouble, Kaya couldn’t help but mutter in his mind, “Yeah, all your specialties... must be specialties in losing…”

  Soon, the game began.

  “I only have a little over ten thousand ryo, so I can’t bet too much…” Kaya gnced at the hundreds of thousands Tsunade had casually pulled out and couldn’t help but swallow nervously.

  A true rich kid. The amount his father earned in a month from doing missions probably wasn’t even close to that.

  “No worries, ten thousand is fine. I’m not compining.”

  “Uh, ten thousand, all in one go?”

  “Of course, betting makes it more exciting the higher the stakes. Come on, come on.”

  “Alright…”

  Before long, the two were deep into their betting game. Tsunade expertly shook the dice cup and, after a moment, opened it with a confident look.

  “One, one, two… What’s this? My luck is terrible…”

  Meanwhile, Kaya couldn’t hold back his ughter as he watched.

  It seemed like his first recharge had paid off!

  But when he opened his own dice cup, his smile instantly froze.

  “One, one, one? Three ones?”

  Kaya rubbed his eyes in disbelief, his mind bnking out in confusion.

  “Who am I? Where am I?”

  On the other side, Tsunade was cheering with glee.

  “Wow, I won! Finally, I won!”

  “Hey, you still want to keep betting?”

  “I… I…” After a moment of stunned silence, Kaya gritted his teeth and said, “Of course, I’ll keep betting.”

  He pulled out a few scattered hundred ryo bills. “This time, let’s bet smaller.”

  Moments ter, Kaya found himself staring at the st of his money, now completely lost. He was becoming more and more confused.

  This wasn’t how the script was supposed to go.

  Could it be that he was destined to become the man with worse luck than Tsunade, the king of bad luck?

  Just as Kaya stood there in a daze, a voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

  “Detected host is exploiting a system loophole. Supplementary program activated.”

  After a brief pause, the system expined to Kaya.

  According to the system’s certification, gambling was considered a serious misuse of a bug. If left unchecked, ninjas could casually visit various casinos to farm endless amounts of money, disrupting bance. Thus, a new feature was added: gambling profits would be nullified, and the user’s luck would drop to zero when gambling.

  …

  Staring at the system in silence, Kaya was too tired to even compin anymore.

  “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

  “Uh, this bug was just discovered…”

  “Yeah, sure, you found this bug just now... whatever, you’re the system, you make the rules…”

  After a while, Kaya, feeling utterly defeated, decided to leave this painful pce.

  “Hey, you’re not betting anymore?”

  Tsunade asked with confusion.

  “What’s the point of betting when I don’t have any money left…”

  “Uh (⊙o⊙)… I can lend you some!”

  Tsunade eagerly tugged at Kaya’s arm to keep him from leaving. This was the first time in her life she had won so happily—well, maybe the first time she’d ever won against anyone except her grandfather.

  “Well, it’s not about the money. My luck’s always been terrible. I thought I could be a bit better than you, but now it seems… well, I’m not betting anymore. A bet I can’t win is just boring, and besides, I don’t have much money to keep up with this…”

  As he spoke, Kaya broke free from Tsunade’s grip and walked off with a defeated look on his face.

  All his savings had vanished in an instant. He needed some time alone to clear his head.

  Looking at Kaya’s forlorn back, Tsunade paused for a moment, then suddenly ran up to him.

  “Wait, wait!”

  Tsunade suddenly shoved all the money Kaya had lost back into his hands.

  “Here, take this. Come on, let’s keep betting. If you lose, I won’t take your money. You know, other than my great-grandfather and second grandfather, I’ve never met anyone with worse luck than me. Heh heh, you can bet with me every day!”

  It was rare for Tsunade to meet someone with worse luck than her—perhaps even worse than herself—and she was genuinely starting to enjoy gambling now. Even though she kept losing, winning was, of course, far more enjoyable than losing.

  “Uh…” Kaya scratched his head, feeling a little hesitant.

  No doubt, getting his money back was a good thing. There was no harm in gambling with her, but if this little girl tched onto him and started dragging him into pointless betting every day, that would become a hassle…

  “I don’t really have time to bet with you every day. I need to earn money and work on my training…” Kaya gnced around, looking for an excuse to avoid the situation.

  “That’s not a problem! Come py with me! I have plenty of pocket money. I can buy whatever you want, and as for training, I can ask my grandfather to help you out. How does that sound?” Tsunade kept offering conditions, tempting him.

  For the first time, Tsunade had found someone whose luck was just as bad as hers, or even worse. Suddenly, she felt a strange sense of accomplishment.

  “Eh?” Kaya couldn’t help but gnce at Tsunade in surprise.

  It seemed like he’d gained something unexpected from losing his money? Was this some kind of hidden achievement unlocked…

  “System, borrowing money from Tsunade doesn’t count as a bug, right…” Kaya suddenly had an idea.

  Maybe getting advice from the First Hokage wasn’t that meaningful. With his poor talent, even guidance from a Jōnin probably wouldn’t help much. But the fact that Tsunade had a lot of pocket money gave Kaya an idea.

  It wasn’t about taking her money and not returning it. Kaya pnned to borrow some for now—after all, she was rich and didn’t ck the funds. When he grew stronger and earned money, he’d repay her ter.

  The system was silent for five seconds before replying, “No problem. Being able to borrow money is also a kind of skill…”

  “Well, that’s good…”

  Suddenly, Kaya thought of a more important question.

  “Does luck really exist? And about Tsunade’s brother and boyfriend dying…”

  The system gave an answer to Kaya’s question.

  “Yes, according to this system, people close to Tsunade tend to experience instability in their luck during certain periods…”

  “...Speak human nguage.”

  “Uh, to put it simply, people close to her experience fluctuations in their luck… but as long as they aren’t family or romantic partners, the impact on regur friends is minimal…”

  “Ah, I see…”

  Kaya’s gaze toward Tsunade became filled with sympathy. This was definitely a cssic case of the star-crossed fate of a lonely soul.

  Although Kaya didn’t really believe in destiny or luck, Tsunade’s luck was definitely something extraordinary, something that couldn’t easily be expined by logic…

  “So, being her friend shouldn’t affect me, right?”

  “Of course not. With the system in pce, her luck level won’t affect you…”

  “Well, that’s good…”

  “Eh?”

  Suddenly, Kaya had another thought. Considering Tsunade’s situation, she would likely end up lonely in the future. If she didn’t want to be lonely forever, the only solution would be…

  Also, thinking about future Tsunade was truly a magnificent sight…

  Cough cough...

  Kaya suddenly shook his head, suppressing the unexpected thoughts that had popped up.

  “What am I thinking… Tsunade’s still a little girl, it’s not the right time for that. Besides, the most important thing right now is to get stronger…”

  He muttered softly, gncing around as his thoughts drifted.

  <><><><><>

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