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Gambler Chapter 9: Day Before
🕑 Added 2025-08-05 16:06:29 +0000 UTCThe Gambler's Guide to Heroism
Chapter 9: Day Before
~Hakari Kotaro~
After somehow managing to convince Toga, one of the major villains of the series from what I remember, to become a hero instead of a villain, I got pretty busy.
But the system did acknowledge me setting Toga straight as a feat, so that was great. From that I got...
Feat Achieved! Inspire Toga Himiko to be a hero
+1 Silver Skill Gacha Ticket
Rolling Silver Skill Gacha...
A Common Skill!
[Novice Charisma]
|Rarity: Common|
You have an aura of charisma around you, it is less of a skill and more of something that is just about you, a change in your demeanour and how you hold yourself perhaps. People of note feel themselves more attracted to your presence, it's subtle things like people paying more attention to you, taking you more seriously etc. Though at this level it is not too noticeable
A pretty decent haul, a general charisma boost. And it helped in my plans.
Between studying and spending time with Himiko, I enacted my plan to get money.
You see, it may not seem like it, but 4-Leaf Clover was broken.
Or a more apt way to put it would be "Easy as fuck to abuse"
You see, even a 5% luck increase when Gambling was essentially guaranteed money. As long as you picked the right gambling type of course.
And me? I was Yakuza, I knew how this shit worked and how to get around laws.
The problem with gambling was that the money I got would be illegal if I went into illegal gambling rings or casinos. Even legal casinos since the legal age limit was 20. But you know what wasn't and fulfilled all of my criteria?
Pachinko!
Since pachinko gave tokens that you turned in for prizes not inside the store, the money I got from them would be legal; me being of age did not matter in that case, it was technically legal.
The best kind of legal.
I still did not meet the age requirement to enter, but I had a trick. It was called lying.
I just dressed well, wore glasses, entered with an amicable, mature attitude, chatted with the staff and was overall amicable. If you act like you belong, they won't doubt that you belong.
Just went in, did not stay too long, did not earn too much and left before people got suspicious. And I toured the city for Pachinko places too, ones with high payouts. And used Seek Guidance to find the luckier machines around.
As expected, I was not caught even once. If I felt like someone was starting to get suspicious, I just left before they could question me.
And when I wasn't robbing Pachinko Parlours, I was working out, studying(not a lot) and blowing Himiko's back out.
That girl was certainly a natural freak. If I did not have [Boundless Stamina], I might have gotten outpaced by her, but my experience covered the gap. I sometimes got lost in the sauce with her and forgot to study. Not to mention, I had to tutor her too since she did not keep studying as a habit after getting expelled.
...Half of the time, the studying session turned into us testing just how durable my bed was.
But overall, Toga was a godsend for me, not only because she took care of food, cleaning and my libido, but because she was essentially my good luck charm. I did not know to what extent the canon would be turned upside down due to her presence, but I struggled to worry since Remix already threw a wrench into the cogs anyway.
And, although I did not earn many tickets, one day before the UA entrance, I managed to earn a whopping...
1,777,340 Yen.
Which was a LOT of buying power for a high schooler. I could have probably made tens of millions if I were allowed to horse race, but alas. I was satisfied with my current funds.
And earning so much money, of course, came with its own tickets.
Feat Achieved! Earn your first million yen
+1 Advantage Silver Item Gacha Ticket
I was currently cuddling in bed with Toga in order to soak in all of her luck before I mentally willed the ticket to roll.
[Midas' Bag of Holding]
|Rarity: Rare|
A small pouch the size of a human hand that contains a 1km x 1km square of space inside of it, whoever puts their hand inside can pull out what they are looking for no problem, the weight of the pouch does not change. This pouch cannot be lost as it will return to its owner in the case of being lost or destroyed with its contents unaltered.
or
[Costume Wardrobe]
|Rarity: Common|
A regular-looking closet containing an infinite amount of clothes ranging from lingerie, formal wear, cosplay etc. As long as the clothes are completely mundane you can pull any clothing weighing less than 5kg from it, and the clothes that will come out will be according to the desires of whoever reaches inside. Only 50 outfits can be taken out per day.
Wow, this was deeeefinitely a tough choice.
I lied, it was not, I picked Midas' Pouch without a single moment of hesitation. Sure, functionally infinite clothes definitely sounded useful, but compared to an inventory that even other people can use? It may as well not have been an option.
Getting up from the bed, I took out the Bag from the system storage, and I got a bag put in my hands. It looked like it was made of cloth made of gold; it kinda matched my hair and was about the size of a large dice bag. I could easily fit a hand inside. And I tried it out, trying to put a hand in. And go in it did, but I couldn't feel the walls of the bag despite its size, which felt weird. There was no wind inside either. Just nothing.
I lifted up a chair and brought it over to the opening of the bag and... put it in somehow. Space seemed to bend just to be able to fit in the chair despite how mind-boggling it was.
And pulling out the chair was simple, I put my hand in and willed the chair. Pulling it out looked like a clown getting out of a clown car.
For a last test, I opened the window and tossed the bag out while closing my eyes. I turned around and reached into my pocket five seconds later and found the Bag in my pocket.
Pretty damn cool.
Tossing the bag into one corner of the room, I went back to snuggling Toga in the bed.
Tomorrow would be the start of it all.
⚀—⚁⚂⚃—⚄—•⚅•—⚄—⚃⚂⚁—⚀
~Hakari Kotaro - Tomorrow Morning~
"Whoa... I knew UA was big, but... not this big."
"Yeah, this is just unreal."
Toga and I exclaimed our disbelief at the sheer size of UA. It was damn massive, bigger than most Universities I knew about. Just looking at its size told you the sheer amount of budget they had. As expected from the school a solid chunk of the top 100 heroes of Japan came from.
I mean, I remembered them having several multi-city block-sized training centres made to resemble actual cities, actual forests, and so much more. Not to mention USJ. But seeing them in person really made you doubt your eyes. Sure, they were probably way easier to run and build, but there is no way in hell this school had a budget below hundreds of billions of yen. I wouldn't be surprised if it went into the trillions of yen.
We were currently walking through the main entrance, under a dozen Tori Gate-like structures, towards the gigantic H-shaped(H for Hero, shocking) building. Thankfully, we were able to apply for the exam without much fuss. It was unexpectedly easy to do so.
As we walked, I constantly scanned the floor looking for Seek Guidance messages.
'Exam ahead, therefore tears.'
'Try finger but hole.'
'Time for crab.'
'Written exam, try brain.'
'Hero!'
They weren't really useful this time. But since I did not have any other ability useful to me available, I still kept them on just in case.
"Hey... Hakari-kun, do you think I'll do okay?"
Toga said with a subdued voice as we approached the entrance, but I patted her shoulder reassuringly. It made sense for her to still have doubts about her capacity to be a hero.
"Don't worry, Toga, I know you can get in." Because she was frankly overpowered compared to 99% of the attendees, "Or do you think I'd lie to you?"
She shook her head and pumped her fists with renewed spirits.
"Yeah, you're right, Hakari-kun. Even if I have to improvise somehow, I'll figure it out."
"That's the spirit."
I couldn't help but exhale from my nose seeing the fire in Toga's eyes.
"Alright, enough dallying, let's get to the exam rooms, Toga."
"Umu~! Let's do this~!"
Hopefully, that enthusiasm lasts her through the whole exam.
⚀—⚁⚂⚃—⚄—•⚅•—⚄—⚃⚂⚁—⚀
The exam was honestly incredibly easy. At least the academics part.
As I said before, I was a top scorer in high school before. And not only that, but I had Intermediate Biology, which made me as skilled as a good Biology Professor. I definitely aced the biology questions, even if some of them did look hard from an outsider's perspective.
Really, the only two categories I struggled with were History and Heroics. History, because I couldn't be bothered to study every minute change in the history of this world and Heroics, because I was slightly morally challenged.
But still, I had no doubts in my mind that I would get at least top 10 in the rankings.
I came out of the exam hall whistling while other students clutched their heads, groaned or discussed their expected results and answers with their fellow students. All I was thinking of was what level of feat I would get for scoring in the top 10 in the UA exam. I probably wouldn't get top 1, but you can't win them all.
After 5 minutes had passed, we all went to the Hero Course Exam Briefing room. We were all already assigned our seats. I was around the middle of the middle section, while Toga was seated at the far right corner, away from me.
And I noticed someone rather familiar was seated next to me.
"Hey, how's it going? Rough written exam, huh?"
"H-huh? Oh yeah. It was pretty hard. My name is Ochako Uraraka. What about you?"
The bubbly-looking girl with chestnut coloured hair, almond colored eyes, and a rather plus yet attractive figure wearing a sailor's uniform replied to me with an ever-present rosy blush on her cheeks after I decided to strike up a conversation.
I didn't think I'd meet a canon character this early, but fate worked in strange ways.
"My name is Hakari Kotaro, nice to meet you, Uraraka-chan. Seems like we will be classmates from now on."
She looked at me with slightly widened eyes in surprise. Mumbling to herself something that sounded like 'chan?'.
"Wow, you are really confident, aren't you?"
I craned my neck to the side with a raised eyebrow.
"Why not? I'm pretty confident in my abilities. Confidence in your own abilities does wonders for your performance. What about you, Uraraka-chan?"
She nodded slowly as if digesting my words.
"Mmm, I guess you are right, Hakari-kun. But why do you think I'll pass?"
Meta Knowledge.
"Could call it something like intuition. I had a good feeling about you."
That made her smile a little as she blushed just a little.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence. It does make me feel better."
Our conversation was cut short as the lights dimmed out, only to be replaced by stagelights that pointed to the centre of the auditorium from where a man stepped out.
He was dressed in a mix of a leather rocker aesthetic mixed with a speaker with speaker attachments on his costume. He also had long blonde hair spiked upward in a weird fashion style. He pulled out a pair of orange shades that he placed over his eyes before addressing everyone in an exaggerated motion.
"Welcome, all of you aiming to join the UA Hero Course here to listen to my presentation show! Now say 'Hey'!!!"
Somehow, the moment he asked everyone to show enthusiasm, the auditorium got even quieter as if someone had died. I felt slightly bad for the guy, but he seemed experienced with dealing with tough crowds as he just shook his shoulders.
"What an enthusiastic response! Well then, let me present you with a quick rundown of the upcoming practical exam and its rules!"
Finally. I have been waiting for this for a long time.
A/N: You can take the Yakuza out of Hakari, but you can't take the scoundrel out of him. Boosted luck is pretty busted, especially when you know how to play the law like a fiddle. And Midas' bag for getting the bag is oddly hilarious.
Whelp! We are finally at UA and no getting accosted by Ida this time, instead, Hakari luckily meets Uraraka early and makes an impression. Anyways, stay tuned for the practical exam because it's gonna be a woozie.
Comments
BronzDeck
Nah, Hakari would use it to ragebait Touma. No pregnancy issues for Hakari just yet.
Mount Of peace
The Midas bag is a nice touch, but I hope Hakari doesn't use it too much in public, especially in front of Tomura. Tomura might get greedy because Hakari has an inventory, and as a self-proclaimed gamer, he'll definitely want one. On a side note, I was going to say that so much unprotected sex is bad, but Hakari is a lucky guy who pulled out the damn clover. Goodbye pregnancy saving throws. :(
BronzDeck
Do not underestimate luck, Og Hakari makes that point very clear with jackpots. If he rolls gambler he is 1000% keeping it. This is a standard bag of holding so he has to physically insert and take things out so more like an inventory that can be handed over.
Loghead101
Yes luck is a great trait but I was expecting something more from yesterday’s comment. Just wasn’t what I was expecting. And I know there is a gambler trait in the gacha. Other mc’s are cowards for not trusting the gacha. If Hakari ever gets that trait he better bitch out. And he’s got a bag of holding too, I love bags of holding. Is it gonna be treated as just an inventory or can we expect it to eat projectiles and spit them back out? Got an early look at Ochako. She’s not my favorite girl in MHA either but I’ll wait and see. And it’s exam time. Knowing what goes into the exam I’m sure Hakari will be able to take the top spot but I’m so sure about taking the 0-pointer. Unless his Bikaku can created some blades on its appendage and he could cut his way inside and fuck up the internals. Can’t wait more bud!
