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"YEAH!! I WON! I WON!"
The lazy man immediately waved the scratch-off ticket in his hand, pushing through the crowd in front of him to the ticket center staff.
After verifying it was correct, the staff member said with a smile:
"Congratulations, sir."
"You won one hundred Ryō, and there's a Konohagakure logo below, which means your total winnings are five hundred Ryō! However, the ticket center has a regulation that a ten percent tax is levied on winnings between 500 and 1000 Ryō. That means you'll receive 450 Ryō in cash, plus one Fire Games outer ticket. Please verify it~"
The staff handed over a confirmation slip, and the lazy man immediately signed his name.
This money was basically free!
A ten percent tax wasn't a big deal at all!
Plus—This Fire Games ticket seemed to be in high demand, and reselling it would earn a lot more money!
A huge profit!
Afterward, the staff called over his colleagues, and a stack of gleaming banknotes swayed in his hands. Although the amount wasn't large, the visual impact was still strong.
The chaotic scene quieted down for a moment.
The lazy man took the cash handed to him and stuffed it into his pocket, but he carefully pulled out the Fire Games outer ticket, raising it high and shouting:
"One ticket! Does anyone want to buy it? This is the first ticket!"
At that moment, a wealthy middle-aged man with a gold ring on his finger and a large belly walked over: "I don't care about outer tickets, but it's the first ticket after all. I'll take it! I'll give you five thousand Ryō in cash! Take it or leave it, I'm leaving now!"
The wealthy middle-aged man immediately pulled out five thousand Ryō in banknotes from his wallet, the cash swaying in the breeze, making the lazy man's eyes bulge: "Okay, okay, okay! That's great! The ticket is yours!"
A ten-Ryō lottery ticket, but it earned him a total of five thousand four hundred ninety Ryō in cash!
Witnessing the miracle of instant wealth, the onlookers broke the silence, like a drop of oil in water, instantly boiling over.
"Me, me, me! Give me ten scratch-off tickets!"
"Give me twenty! One for each person! If foreigners saw this, they'd think people from the Land of Lightning couldn't afford lottery tickets!"
"Tch—choosing is better than effort! They're all going to buy scratch-off tickets, I'll take ten of those—those happy fire ones, right?"
——
The [Oto Dome] ticket center exploded.
Although each lottery ticket was sold for ten Ryō, the sheer number of buyers and the volume of purchases quickly brought in a large amount of cash.
Some people screamed with joy after winning both a grand prize and a Fire Games ticket—those who won small prizes also showed satisfied smiles, grateful for tonight's snack money; and there were also those who bought dozens of tickets and won nothing, looking frustrated and muttering about their bad luck.
This was just one of the lottery sales points in Otogakure.
Except for the street where Konoha University was located, which didn't have a direct sales point, almost all the major streets in Otogakure had set up sales points.
Perhaps next—merchants would discover a lucrative opportunity and pay a franchise fee to the ticket center to open lottery businesses in slightly more remote communities and streets.
——
Soon, [buying lottery tickets] became the fashionable trend in Otogakure, and merchants traveling between Otogakure and other lands spread the trend far and wide.
The wind of the lottery began to spread.
Adapting to local conditions!
Otogakure was enveloped in the celebratory atmosphere of the Fire Games, with the lottery tickets bundled with Fire Games tickets.
But in some of the prosperous cities of the Five Great Nations, 'Iki' and 'The Forest Reader' were sold at a ten-Ryō markup, and there were also bundled lottery tickets sold through two magazine channels. Those who won had to work a little harder, asking someone to redeem the prizes for them or going to the lottery stations on the border of the Land of Fire.
This gave rise to a new business—redemption services! Before Konoha opened lottery stations in the Great Nations, this profession might be very lucrative.
The novel gameplay spread between the nations.
However, because it took time to redeem the prizes in the Land of Fire, the "miracle of instant wealth" hadn't been seen yet. The enormous purchasing power was still accumulating. The magic of the lottery was only spread by international friends coming from the Land of Fire, making people's hearts itch.
The enthusiasm for the lottery was temporarily suppressed in people's hearts.
But the two articles, "Toes" and "Chūnin Exam," began to spread and ferment throughout the Great Nations.
The situation in smaller nations was okay, because of the small population, the per capita income was still decent, and people were generally satisfied with the current situation.
But in the Great Nations?
After reading the two articles, emotions exploded!
Let's start with "Toes" first—
A man claiming to be a villager from Kumogakure came forward and said: "That's how it is in our Kumogakure! You wouldn't believe how disgusting it is to see those penniless muscle ninjas on the roadside! When they don't have money, they buy three or two steamed buns and sit on the roadside, licking each other's feet!"
"Of course, it's not entirely the fault of those ninjas! It's because the Raikage Tower doesn't do anything, which is why our lives have become so difficult!"
"Those damn rich people, even though they're so wealthy, only give us poor people a little bit of money to barely survive. They take their money to the Land of Fire, to splurge!
"I don't understand! We common Kumogakure villagers create all the wealth, but they don't think about enriching us first, but instead take our wealth abroad. Is that something a person would do?! When they make money, they don't think about building up our own country, but instead want to run away?!"
"Those remaining rich merchants aren't any better either, launching all sorts of small competitions to try to squeeze money from us common villagers."
"Sometimes I really envy Konohagakure, envy the people of the Land of Fire! If our Raikage Tower could be as effective as the Hokage Tower, life would be much better—Days are getting harder and harder. As a result, the Raikage Tower is still cutting funds to the ninjas, saying that the situation on the front lines with Konoha is critical…"
"This war—do we even need to fight for it?! Do we need to risk our lives for those politicians and the rich?!"
And besides "Toes,"—"Chūnin Exam" was also spreading and fermenting in secret.
Constantly provoking the relationship between common ninjas and the village towers. Taking Kumogakure as an example…
The Kumogakure ninjas, who had already been dissatisfied with the alliance policy, lacked a major ideology and their actions stopped at verbal complaints. Over time, they became accustomed to obeying all orders from the Raikage Tower, and they forgot about the high commission.
Originally, the worst-case scenario was that the money they earned from completing missions would be used to aid other small ninja villages, to support Sunagakure and Kirigakure, to build new luxurious dormitories…
But under the hint of "Chūnin Exam," they discovered a possible anger—
Their money was being used to support those who already enjoyed high salaries and benefits at the Raikage Tower!
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