Maluck woke up feeling well-rested, stretched out luxuriously in his overpriced but undeniably comfortable hotel bed, and did his habitual ‘let’s see how screwed I am today’ check.
His Bad Luck Points had shot back up to 76.
Figures.
Apparently, doing nothing but reading some web novels and getting a solid night’s sleep wasn’t enough to stop the slow creep of bad luck from accumulating.
Still, he wasn’t worried. Not after last night’s soda experiment. He had options now.
Yawning, he pulled up the System Store to check what was available today.
And then—he froze.
Three store items had appeared. They all seemed pretty cool.
(150 LP)The Unbreakable Mirror – If it reflects something, that thing gets a boost of luck for the day. Breaks the curse of bad luck if shattered.
(50 LP)The Lucky Penny – If you pick it up, you avoid one disaster that day.
(300 LP)Golden Domino – Causes a perfect chain reaction of lucky events wherever it lands.
But something new had appeared!
Or rather… something familiar. His eyes widened as he saw it—The Fortune Tuner. Not just back in stock, but in a separate slot.
(25 LP) The Fortune Tuner —a strange, mechanical device designed to adjust luck, transforming bad luck into good luck.
That meant one thing
Permanent access.
‘Holy. Shit.’
This was massive. A game changer.
Because now, whenever he wanted, he could burn all of his Bad Luck Points and turn them into Good Luck.
No more waiting for disasters. No more playing defense against fate.
Now he could weaponize it.
Maluck barely hesitated before slamming the Buy button on the Fortune Tuner.
His Luck Points (LP) were originally sitting at 108, but the moment the transaction processed, he watched that number drop by 25 like a kid seeing their allowance disappear at an arcade.
Now at 83 LP, he sat back, grinning.
This was huge.
He finally had the Fortune Tuner as a permanent tool. No more stressing about BP stacking up like an unpaid tab. No more waiting for disaster to strike just to offset the bad luck. Now, at any given time, he could flip all that miserable misfortune into pure blessed fortune.
It was like finally getting an “Undo” button for his entire existence.
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Maluck exhaled, feeling victorious.
“Man,” he muttered, stretching in his chair. “If I had this years ago, I wouldn’t have had to drink Grepsi Cola out of sheer spite.”
Of course, the System had already started tallying up his bad luck again in the background. But for now?
For now, Maluck was on top of the world.
Maluck sat back, staring at his Bad Luck Points (BP) – 76 and Luck Points (LP) – 83 like a gambler trying to decide if he should go all in or cash out.
Now, the Fortune Tuner was in his hands permanently. But—and it was a big but—he noticed that it was still colored like other one-time-use items. That meant every time he used it, it would cost him 25 LP.
“So basically,” he muttered, rubbing his chin, “I can burn 50 BP into nothing, but I get zero luck points out of it. Just a clean slate.”
That sounded nice, but it also felt like a massive waste.
Every day, with bad luck accumulating at 2 per hour, he was getting 48 BP per day. Which meant that as long as he kept generating BP, he could use the Fortune Tuner daily and stay perfectly at zero.
But zero luck wasn’t lucky. It was just… not unlucky.
If he played his cards right, let the BP build up a little more, then flipped it at the right moment? He’d be rolling in bonus Luck points.
Maluck exhaled, trying to balance the pros and cons in his head.
On one hand, if he used it right now, he’d be completely safe from any horrific bad luck. No sudden car breakdowns, no bird shitting directly into his open coffee cup, no accidentally liking a three-year-old Instafans post while stalking someone.
On the other hand…
‘Wasn’t some suffering… just free LP waiting to happen?’
Maluck felt strangely enlightened by the thought, like he’d just cracked the code of the universe.
By allowing himself to endure bad luck, he could eventually gain good luck.
It was kind of poetic.
No—deeply poetic.
So much so that he decided to write an impromptu Buddha-esque saying about it.
He grabbed the hotel notepad and scrawled:
“To endure misfortune is to plant the seed of fortune. But if you never water the tree of suffering, you will never sit in the shade of luck.”
He stared at it for a long moment.
…It was terrible.
Like, really bad.
Not profound. Not wise. Just a weird mashup of mixed metaphors and nonsense.
Which made sense.
“Poet” and “Philosopher” were conspicuously absent from his stat sheet.
He sighed, crumpled up the paper, and threw it into the trash.
Still, the core idea was solid. He just… needed someone else to write it better.
“Yeah…,” he finally muttered. “Thinking too much.”
He hit Activate Fortune Tuner—and instantly, his BP dropped from 76 to 0.
His LP now sat at a happy 121
The best part was that a whole bunch of potential disasters just got erased from existence.
He breathed a sigh of relief. That was definitely the right call.
***
Maluck scarfed down his breakfast, keeping things healthy—boiled eggs and seared chicken breast. High protein, good fuel for his totally-going-to-give-him-a-stat-boost-any-day-now workout routine.
Then, gym time.
Thirty minutes of lifting. Still no strength gains.
Fifteen minutes of running. ‘Okay, actually, that felt easier. Progress? Maybe?’
He wasn’t sure how this worked, but he was starting to get suspicious that the System didn’t count effort unless it was literally life or death.
Did he need to wrestle a bear? Run from a gang of angry gamblers? Fight someone in a burning dojo?
…He really hoped not.
As he was lying on a bench, contemplating whether or not he had to get dramatic for the System to care, his phone buzzed.
Dave: Yo, baseball sold. $1,000.
Maluck blinked. That was fast.
A second message popped in:
Dave: You probably could’ve gotten $1,500 if you waited.
Maluck snorted. ‘Classic.’ He wasn’t that mad about it, though. Cash in hand was cash in hand.
He grabbed his keys and drove to Dave’s shop, picked up his cut, and, feeling pretty damn good, decided it was time to call Chloe.
No answer.
Weird. Maybe she was still asleep?
He sent her a message:
Maluck: Hey Chloe, you up?
…No answer.
Maluck waited a few minutes, checked his phone. Still nothing.
He was about to send a wake-up-you-lazy-bum meme when, just as he stepped out of his car at the hotel, his phone finally buzzed.
Chloe: Just woke up. You ready?
Maluck: Yup. Where am I picking you up?
Chloe: [Address sent]
Alright then. Time to go pick up his grumpy, goth, pawn-shop sidekick and figure out just what exactly her hidden talent was. He’d go pick up the cash from the sale later. No hurry.
Hopefully, it didn’t involve breaking into abandoned buildings or getting into bar fights.
…Actually, that last one could be fun. He did have a Garbage Warrior skill after all.
***
