I'm gonna be straight with you—I've never had any luck in my life.
Whenever I had to guess on a fifty-fifty test question, I'd pick wrong every single time. My college entrance exam scores tanked because of it, and I couldn't even get into the school I wanted.
When I picked up security work for extra cash, I always got the worst assignments. Through some cosmic joke, I landed night shifts at a sketchy warehouse right when break-ins were happening all over the area.
I finally got a real job and bought a used car. The damn thing died on me less than a year later. The scrap value was worth less than what I paid, so I barely got to drive it before going back to being a pedestrian.
I went to this fortune teller who was supposedly legit. She told me all my luck was saving up for old age, like a dam about to burst. Then she said if I paid her, she could move that luck up sooner. I just left.
And today? Just another string of bad luck.
Right when I was about to finish some overdue work, my manager came back from his afternoon break and got on my case.
"Hey... buddy. It's not like I didn't give you time, right? You could've gotten it done, couldn't you? Did I overestimate you? You don't think my assignments are optional, do you? Huh? Say something. Did I dump my work on you?"
Okay, so not exactly cursing. But this asshole had been giving me passive-aggressive treatment ever since I called him out once. I had to stand there in front of everyone with my head down like some criminal.
"No, sir."
It wasn't even his work. He'd stolen tasks from the boss's nephew to kiss ass and dumped them all on me. Like always, I drowned my sorrows with a can of beer.
"This goddamn job. If I just had money I'd quit in a heartbeat. Fuck..."
But I don't have money, so I keep going. I stumbled into a convenience store and grabbed some snacks for tomorrow. Then, bored, I asked the cashier who was half asleep.
"Hey, could you give me a Quick Pick for the lottery? Just pick some random numbers. Haha!"
"...Fine, whatever."
The cashier treated me like a pain in the ass and scribbled down random numbers. I pulled out my wallet—hey, there was ten bucks left over from when I missed the last bus and had to take a taxi.
"Five tickets with these same numbers!"
"...That's ten bucks."
The cashier practically threw the lottery slip at me. I fumbled it, had to grab it a couple times, then paid and shoved the paper in my pocket.
"Hehehe!"
Yeah, it's the price of a Starbucks coffee, but so what? Just imagining myself throwing a stack of money in that manager's face along with my resignation made me happy.
"Oh."
The moment I pulled out my smartphone, I felt a pang of regret.
"With ten bucks, I could've done a 10-pull gacha."
It's not gonna win anyway. Maybe I should've just blown it on gacha instead. I opened up my favorite mobile game—a typical tower defense where you're a dungeon master summoning monsters. They even put gacha mechanics on trash mobs. What a cash grab.
"No PVP, garbage story, and gacha for everything..."
It's not even a waifu game, and most characters look ripped off from somewhere else. But whatever, I've got saved gems anyway.
Should I do it? They said to wait two more weeks for the limited character.
"Fuck it, I'll pull."
I pressed the button and all my gems vanished. I wasn't a whale or anything—just bought the monthly pack and played casually. That bastard manager's bald head was always shiny. Maybe my luck would shine too, right?
"Ah, fuck."
Wrong. All shitty one and two-stars, and the best was a 3-star [Potbellied Orc].
"Trash game. Selling this garbage with no shame."
I force-quit the app. I got home and collapsed on my cheap bed without even changing.
"My luck's fucking garbage..."
I was too pissed to sleep. Those gems could've been saved for the limited character, but instead I got some fat orc.
"So unlucky..."
I put my phone by my pillow and closed my eyes. Maybe this broke my bad luck curse. Don't fortune tellers always say you'll get money in old age?
"Whatever. Sleep."
Maybe I'll dream about grabbing that manager by the hair.
The next day, I experienced a miracle.
Those five lottery tickets with the same numbers? All five hit second place.
"Fucking manager, you toupee-wearing bastard!"
I hugged one of the tickets and thanked God. Even if it wasn't first place, five second-place wins came out to about five million dollars.
"I'm quitting and finding a new job. Hell yeah."
I'll grab his toupee, rip it off, and throw it in his face with my resignation letter. Then I'll take three months off, find another job, and use the prize money for investing.
"Yeah! All the bad luck till now was for this moment!"
They said I could claim the prize at the lottery office Monday. I'm taking the day off and leaving that shithole company behind. I waited for Monday while dreaming the sweetest dreams.
But.
That fortune about luck in old age wasn't wrong.
Thud.
My consciousness faded. My vision went dark. Who would've thought my last stroke of luck would be five lottery tickets?
***
"That shitty cashier."
I should've known from his attitude.
"Still, he got caught right away. Went to prison for murder. You were all over the news—huge deal."
"Is that really what you say to a dead guy?"
"Fair point. My bad. Haha."
This Grim Reaper's got one hell of a sarcastic streak. He's basically a salaried worker too, but he's taking his work stress out on me.
"I died a horrible death. Do you have to rub it in?"
"Rub it in? I'm just stating facts. But hey, at least you did right by your parents at the end. A firefighter found that lottery ticket you were clutching when you died and gave it to them."
"Well, there's a silver lining. Ended up being a good son in death when I couldn't manage it in life."
"Right. Anyway, let's get to the point."
The Grim Reaper handed me a tablet. The contract on screen looked migraine-inducing.
"What's this?"
"Reincarnation NDA. You get to keep your memories, but you can't tell anyone in the other world that you reincarnated."
"That's it?"
"Yep."
Pretty simple. Keep it secret, sign your name, reincarnate. Naturally, I had questions.
"Why offer this to me?"
"It's a relief program for people who died before their time. Can't bring you back here, but you can finish living your life somewhere else."
"Is there a set lifespan?"
"Nope. Die in an accident or live to a hundred—it's up to you. So, you doing this or not?"
The Grim Reaper tried to snatch the tablet back, but I held on and pointed at the signature line.
"I died unfairly. Can't you throw in something extra?"
"Dude. Just getting to reincarnate is insane. What more do you want?"
"Don't you feel bad for me? Don't Grim Reapers have hearts?"
"Hearts? If I bend the rules, I'll be filing incident reports for a month, you punk."
Good to know. The Grim Reaper was basically a bureaucrat.
"Tsk. No flexibility."
"I work by the book. Can't give you freebies—this is all luck-based anyway."
The screen changed on its own, even though I was holding the tablet. Definitely supernatural tech.
"Reincarnation gacha. Random world, random race, random abilities. Simple enough?"
"Ah shit. I just blew my gacha luck at the end, remember?"
"But you won the lottery, didn't you? Sign and spin. Getting another shot at life is already huge."
"One spin?"
The Grim Reaper nodded. One chance.
"Oh, and if you don't do this, we wipe your memory and send you to judgment. You've seen the movies, right? Could be hell—"
I pressed the button.
Bright light exploded from the tablet. My consciousness faded.
Whatever I become, it's gotta be better than my last life.
"Grunk."
I reincarnated as an orc.