"As expected of the Class Monitor. Even your casual words are so profound," Kiana said, clapping her hands and looking at Fu Hua with admiration.
Fu Hua turned her head away awkwardly. After all, she knew her own situation best; she was well aware of how terrible her luck was.
However, a sliver of hope remained in her heart.
What if, among these people, I'm not the one with the worst luck?
"Then let's stick to the old method. Just guess one of the answers," Himeko said.
"Let me answer this time," Theresa volunteered.
"No, Principal. Let me do it," Fu Hua interjected.
"No, no! You've already answered two questions. How can we let you answer again? You'll lose a year of your life if you get it wrong," Theresa said, shaking her head vigorously.
Answering the questions was risky, yet Fu Hua had given her all the rewards she had won. No matter how thick-skinned Theresa was, she couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.
Therefore, she absolutely could not let Fu Hua answer this question.
"It's alright, Principal. Let me take this one. My constitution is rather special. Even if a year of my life is deducted, the effect on me will not be significant," Fu Hua said.
"That's still a no. I am the Principal. Even if the effect isn't significant, you are still my student. How could I let a student bear the risk?"
With that, Theresa shouted directly at the system.
"I choose B!"
[Answer... Incorrect. The correct answer is A: Fu Hua.]
Theresa instantly felt a numbness wash over her body, as if something ethereal had been drawn out of her. A wave of weakness immediately followed.
Fortunately, Kiana, who had anticipated this, was right there to support her.
After a few seconds, the feeling of weakness gradually faded.
"Phew... So that's what it feels like to lose a year of your life? It doesn't seem to have too much of an effect."
Theresa clenched her fists. She felt fine, not too affected.
"It's likely because the Principal still has a long lifespan. A single year is within a tolerable range," Bronya commented.
"So the correct answer was actually the Class Monitor?" Kiana looked at Fu Hua with a strange expression. "Class Monitor, didn't you just say your luck was alright?"
"..."
Fu Hua pushed up her glasses and silently turned her back to the group.
She needed a moment to herself.
---o---
At that moment, a new image appeared in the Q&A space.
In the image, Fu Hua was playing an arcade machine in the St. Freya game hall.
She didn't have many hobbies. After her fist training, she would occasionally take a little time to go to the arcade to relax.
Soon, Fu Hua beat the game. She checked the time, felt it was about enough, and prepared to head back.
However, she still had a few game tokens left. After a moment's thought, Fu Hua walked over to a lottery machine in the arcade.
The machine was simple: insert a token, choose a few patterns, and if all the chosen patterns were correct, you would win the grand prize. If only one was correct, you'd get a consolation prize.
The odds of winning on this machine were actually quite high. After all, it was for the students' own enjoyment. The arcade was opened to help the Valkyries relax and have fun, so Theresa had set the lottery machine's win rate very high. As long as you weren't exceptionally unlucky, you could win a first or second prize even with your eyes closed.
However, Fu Hua inserted several tokens in a row and didn't win a single time. Not even a consolation prize.
Seeing this, Fu Hua was taken aback. She then called over a staff member, suggesting that their lottery machine might be broken.
She had seen other students win at this machine many times before, and big prizes at that. How was it that when it was her turn, she couldn't even get a consolation prize?
If the machine wasn't broken, what else could it be?
Outside the screen, when Fu Hua saw this scene, she silently closed her eyes, unable to watch any further.
Because she knew what happened next.
This was the nightmarish day she first became aware of her status as a gacha player with famously bad luck.
In the image, after inspecting the machine, the staff member stated with a puzzled expression that there was nothing wrong with it.
Then, as if fearing Fu Hua wouldn't believe her, she tried it herself.
The result was effortless: a second-place prize on the very first try.
At the time, Fu Hua didn't think too much of it, assuming her luck was just a little off.
So she exchanged for dozens more game tokens and continued to play the lottery.
The final outcome was truly touching.
After dozens of consecutive attempts, Fu Hua still hadn't won a single consolation prize.
It was as if by some cruel coincidence, the patterns she chose would simply never win.
There was even one time she chose the same patterns over and over, pulling more than ten times, and still, none of them hit.
And the moment she changed her selection, the patterns she had been choosing before immediately won...
The staff member standing beside her was completely dumbfounded.
She had worked there for years and had never seen someone so unlucky.
To not even get a consolation prize after dozens of tries—the probability of that was even lower than winning the grand prize dozens of times in a row.
Finally, Fu Hua got serious and exchanged for over a hundred more tokens.
At long last, after all one hundred-plus tokens were gone, she finally won a single consolation prize.
On that day, the sun outside was bright and white, but Fu Hua's face was as black as the bottom of a pot.
---o---
No one knew what Fu Hua was feeling at that moment, because the group outside the screen could barely contain their laughter.
If it weren't for the fact that the subject of the story, Fu Hua, was standing right there, Kiana's personality would have had her clutching her stomach and roaring with laughter long ago.
Although Fu Hua's situation was indeed pitiful, it was... also genuinely hilarious!
"Pfft—... Ahem. It's, uh, it's alright, Fu Hua. It's just a little bad luck, really. It's nothing. Please don't take it to heart."
Himeko tried her best to hold back her laughter as she attempted to comfort Fu Hua.
But seeing Himeko's face, which had become quite comical from the effort of suppressing her laughter, Fu Hua couldn't find a shred of sincerity in her words.
Finally, Fu Hua sighed and covered her face with her hand.
"Forget it. Just laugh if you want to. It's true my luck isn't very good."
"Hahahaha!!!"
The moment Fu Hua said that, it was as if a floodgate had been opened. For a time, the Q&A space was filled with a joyous atmosphere and the sound of silver-bell laughter.
Even the emotionless Bronya's eyebrows curved into a lovely crescent moon.
At first, Fu Hua had felt quite embarrassed. After all, having your embarrassing past exposed in public would make anyone a little uncomfortable.
But for some reason, seeing everyone laughing so happily, she felt as if she had been infected by their laughter. Her embarrassment instantly vanished, and a small smile involuntarily touched her lips.
In a daze, she seemed to hear a familiar yet distant voice in her ear.
"Immortal, you're so beautiful. Why don't you smile more? A smile makes you ten years younger~~ Hehe, just like me."