1.99 Lucky Player

Haru was sitting on a sofa in Mio’s room. He was looking at the betting odds, and Hina was beside him. She watched him without him noticing. He turned, looked at her, then returned his attention to the betting website.

Mio was lying on the bed, looking bored.

"More than five hundred gold coins, that will certainly help pay for the tournament crystals, but if something like this happens during the tournament, the guild is going to face serious problems."

"What’s the guild’s profit margin on each crystal?" Haru asked.

Mio stayed silent for a few seconds.

"It’s not fixed. On some crystals, the profit is less than one copper coin. On more expensive crystals, it can be anywhere from two to dozens of copper coins. We make more money from people entering the dungeon and from selling food and equipment. Believe me," she said, looking at Haru.

"Then why do you keep running a guild?"

"The amount of crystals that used to be collected made it worthwhile. Thousands of slime crystals were turned in every day. Just those crystals earned us a few silver coins. The other crystals and drops brought in a good amount of coins as well. Still, selling food made even more. A lot of adventurers came out of the dungeon and spent plenty of coins on food, drinks, and more weapons. That kept our internal economy moving and allowed us to keep everything running."

"Does your father know about our deal?"

Mio looked at him and stayed silent for a few seconds.

"Do you think any girl would tell her own father that she could get rich by sucking a guy’s dick?"

"Yes!" Hina and Haru said at the same time.

"No, I didn’t tell him. I don’t think he’d personally care, but he’d refuse the money if I offered it. So it’s better if it stays between us."

"I’ve made up my mind," Haru said out of nowhere. "Every day I’ll earn fifty thousand coins. That’s what I want to make. I don’t want to attract too much attention, and I’ll offer half of it. Is that okay?"

"For that price, you can use my body however you want," Mio said as she turned over on the bed. "Come on, put your dick in my mouth. I’m too tired to come over to you."

Haru didn’t move. He remained seated on the sofa while looking at the odds.

"And it won’t be every day. Otherwise, sooner or later the betting sites will start suspecting someone who’s always winning."

"Fine, I accept, but if you want me to suck you, come over here." Mio was out of energy.

Masaru was looking up every name Kaede had mentioned. He was conducting a fairly basic investigation. There wasn’t much useful information on the internet that he could use. The guild registration was incomplete, and the two had been careful, providing a phone number that didn’t exist. Every payment made since their registration had been in coins. There was no bank account information. Other than the connection to the Shinozaki family, nothing out of the ordinary had been discovered.

Kaede tried searching for some other information. No member of the guild knew those two. Every time something had happened in the dungeon, the two of them had entered. So Masaru was certain they had some connection to the incident.

"What are we going to do?"

"For now, nothing. When they come back, I want you to let me know. I’ll use an item to follow the two of them inside the dungeon."

"Can I help with anything else?"

"Considering the current payments we have to make, how many coins do we have left?"

"Assuming all current debts are paid, we have two thousand gold coins in reserve, a few hundred silver coins, and a few copper coins. However, the unpaid debt is still very high, more than four hundred thousand gold coins."

"At our current pace, will we be able to pay it off?"

"Yes. However, you made a big mistake. If they don’t win, we’ll have a huge problem. Even though I believe it’s possible, we need some way to deal with it in case the three of them fail."

"Are you suggesting we cheat?"

"Yes, but it’ll be very difficult, since there will be judges counting everything. I intend to send the three of them to the fifteenth floor and let them kill monsters and keep the crystals in their inventory. They can use some item to keep the crystals hidden from inspection."

"Do it, but be very careful. I don’t want anyone finding out that they’re carrying the crystals in their inventory."

Masaru wasn’t very comfortable with the idea of cheating, but he knew it was the best way to keep the guild from sinking even deeper into debt. Especially considering that the idea for a tournament had come out of nowhere, and he had simply thought of something and ordered Kaede to announce it without first reconsidering whether it was really a good idea.

"I’m going back to the dungeon. Let the three of them rest. I’ll collect some crystals and resell the others to Himura. Is our salesman at the guild?"

"He is, and Himura doesn’t suspect him at all."

"That’s perfect. We’ll keep him a secret for a long time and take advantage of this whole situation," he said with a broad smile.

He stood up, walked over to Kaede, and kissed her. She only moaned while asking him to stop. He continued, and she slapped him.

"Now isn’t the best time," she said angrily.

"All right. When it is, let me know, please."

He headed for the dungeon entrance. The guild had more people than usual, but it was still nowhere near the number of people the guild used to receive every day, not even close.

Masaru used a skill that caused five slimes to die with a single strike through the air. He used an item and collected all the drops. He walked a little, then used his skill again. Many slimes were killed, and every drop was collected. No special items dropped. He continued all the way to the entrance of the second floor. He didn’t actually need to do that, since he had the guild card, allowing him to skip directly to the next floor. He could repeat that infinitely, as long as he waited for the five-second cooldown.

On the second floor, he walked around and killed many wolves and snakes. Every item was collected. He wanted as many items as possible because he wanted a comfortable amount of coins to spend on the prize pool, since all drops would be bought for a price slightly higher than normal. Another one of his terrible ideas. Kaede had warned him about it many times, but he hadn’t listened, especially since she had simply approved the five-thousand-gold-coin grand prize and the distribution of special weapons to every member of the winning group.

He knew very well how to come up with bad ideas at the worst possible moments.

On the third floor, he obtained a wand that increased attack power for water spells. Although Mages mostly used staffs, some always preferred using a wand because it was a cheaper item and very useful for casting magic.

The fourth floor was a little different. The horned wolves were hiding. Along the way, he only saw two wolves, which were quickly killed with a strong, swift strike. The fifth floor was very easy. The orcs simply charged straight at him. The monsters didn’t think much. They ran at him and were quickly killed with a single strike through the air.

Masaru was already getting a little bored. He started using the guild card, and the floors were skipped one by one until he finally reached the fifteenth floor. He observed the monsters. Orcs, gorgons, and chimeras were on that floor, and every monster looked enraged. He used his attack, and every monster within an eighty-foot radius was killed. Chimera blood was what he wanted the most, since it was a very expensive item used by alchemists to produce countless potions. He wanted as much as he could get. Part of it would be given to Mio’s group, and the rest would be sold to Himura. Actually, only the crystals would be sold to Himura, since he would sell the blood himself to the alchemy laboratories.

The biggest problem was how long the laboratories took to pay. It took more than two weeks before they made the deposit. Because of that, he reconsidered and decided to sell everything to Himura at once. That way, he would be able to keep the guild running for much longer.

The power company also took a long time to pay, with a deadline of more than thirty days. That always irritated Masaru, who simply accepted it while cursing the entire administration in his own head.

The main problem with all of this was the amount of time he always had to wait to receive the money. But when it was the other way around, he couldn’t delay by even a single day.

Amid pointless complaints and powerful strikes, Masaru was handling all the monsters on the floor with ease. It seemed like nothing more than a warm-up. His attacks never touched a single monster. The force in the air alone was enough to make several monsters explode immediately.

And so he continued for more than six hours.