Tutorial (4): I Failed the Draw... Or So I Thought
The horrible pain surged through my entire body. No, calling it “surging” would be too generous. It rocketed from the top of my skull all the way to my toes, then shot back up along my spine to my crown like some kind of sadistic rollercoaster. What the hell kind of pain was this?
“Grrrrk—?!”
It was the first time in my life I’d ever felt anything like it. The agony was so intense I couldn’t even think of a single curse word. If I had to describe this level of pain… imagine the flu when your fever spikes to 103.3 degrees. Add the time you stubbed your pinky toe on the razor-sharp corner of a mini toaster and half the flesh under your nail got sliced open and left dangling. Throw in the sensation of ripping off gauze stuck to pus after a whaling trip, plus simultaneous food poisoning and explosive diarrhea. Even if you combined all of those, they still wouldn’t reach half of what I was experiencing right now.
“Hang in there! I’d love to pat your back, but… you can’t be touched while you’re awakening… Sorry~?”
“Ugh! Gah! I-I’m f-fine—khk!”
“Yeah, our junior is doing so well~ Fighting~!”
Thankfully, I managed to cling to my sanity by leaning on my senior’s gentle voice. It had this strange calming effect. Watching her wobbly, half-hearted cheerleading helped me endure the convulsions that wracked my whole body.
‘Fuck! Hold on!’
To push through the pain, I replayed what I’d just experienced. The insane sight of a clean bathroom transforming into a monster’s maw in an instant. The fact that there were hordes of those things waiting for me. The realization that I would have to hunt them down from now on. No matter what, obtaining an ability had to raise my odds of surviving this lunatic world even a little, right?
That thought made it slightly more bearable.
I don’t know how much time passed. The pain that had been climbing from around my solar plexus gradually began to fade.
“Hoo… hoo…”
“Breathe! Just breathe! Feeling a little better now~?”
“Yeah… I think I can—”
You have acquired an awakening ability!
Growth-type Universal Interface
Because of the pain I barely had the mental bandwidth to think rationally, but—
“!!!”
I had no idea what it was, but I’d been granted an ability, and the name sounded legitimately cool. I felt a spark of joy.
Growth-type! Universal!
Weren’t both of those words unconditionally good? Having two good words stuck together had to mean an even better ability! Probably?
‘Growth-type’ usually implied a late-bloomer that dominated the endgame, and ‘Universal’ fit the image of a versatile, multi-purpose pick that could handle anything by itself.
“Hoo…”
“Take a little break~ Aigoo, you’re drenched in sweat~ Want some water— Oh, you already drank it all earlier? I’ll go downstairs and grab some~?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you, senior.”
While my senior headed down to fetch cold bottled water, I thought, It has to be something good… right?
I opened the gallery. The flood of comments from the last post greeted me.
“Heh. Look at these bastards.”
Most of them were belatedly admitting they’d forgotten to mention the side effects of the medicine.
It wasn’t exactly wrong, so I didn’t feel particularly angry. Even if they’d warned me how badly it would hurt, I still would have swallowed the pill.
“Guess I should ask for an ability evaluation.”
Is this any good?
However…
The gallery members’ reactions were incredibly disheartening.
I asked for more details, but the replies only grew more depressing. Everyone said they had never seen an ability with that name before. It wasn’t combat-oriented, it wasn’t a healer, and it didn’t look like a buffer either.
“A priest or a mental-type ability user, huh.” Those sounded pretty decent. On the other hand…
“Then what the hell is mine?”
The name sounded cool, but it was a completely unfamiliar ability I’d never heard of. It reeked of scam-coin or rigged stock energy.
Someone suggested I try using it first. They said it probably wouldn’t activate immediately because my body still needed to adapt. So I decided to wait a little longer.
Then one user dropped a reply saying they thought they knew what it was.
My heart pounded. I waited for the answer with nervous anticipation.
“Interface?”
I roughly understood the word, but I wasn’t sure what it implied in this context. Based on what I already knew…
“UI stood for User Interface, right?”
The gallery exploded.
I desperately wanted to deny reality.
“N-no way—”
I pictured the ability in my mind, and at that exact moment—
Hello.
I am the Growth-type Universal Interface that grows in the direction the user desires and wishes for.
A translucent window with a slightly different design from the gallery appeared.
“It really is a status window? My awakening ability is just a status window?”
I couldn’t believe it. No—I didn’t want to believe it.
In short…
“I completely failed the gacha?”
Out of the single chance I had to draw an awakening ability, I’d pulled a dud.
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Current Difficulty: Hell Fire
Level: 5
Awakening Ability: Growth-type Universal Interface
Stats — Health: 300 / Agility: 500 / Strength: 250 / Essence Affinity: 70 / Fear Resistance: 30% / Mental Interference Resistance: 20%
The little bastard kept displaying my information in a long list, proudly proving, Yes, I am indeed a status window.
“Aaaaaargh!!!”
If they were going to throw me into the highest difficulty, at least give me a decent ability! Bureau of Bizarre Management Branch 941 or whatever the hell you are, isn’t this a bit too much, you shitty game?!
The gallery members alternated between teasing and comforting me. I could only sigh.
“Haa.”
The world really was trash. As I let out a long sigh and scrolled down the status window I didn’t even want to look at, something caught my eye.
Random Ability Draw Ticket: 1 remaining.
“Random Ability Draw Ticket?”
Wait, it was a double gacha? If this were a mobile game I would’ve cursed the predatory monetization, but right now—
“Haa… Thank god…”
I was simply grateful that I’d been given one last coin.
The ability even gave me another draw ticket lol
The comments immediately flooded in with cheers and encouragement. I used the ticket right away.
“…What?”
What kind of ability was this? Both the name and description were incredibly lazy. And what did “It becomes possible” even mean? Did it turn me into some suspicious gentleman who just stares at anomalies and calmly says “Possible”?
If I posted the current situation in the gallery for advice, it was obvious what the replies would be. “Newbie, no matter what, you shouldn’t do weird stuff to anomalies.” or “How did you pull another dud even with a second chance?”
“Why couldn’t they have given me a combat ability instead of this crap…”
Are you dissatisfied with the ability?
“Yeah, of course I’m dissatis—huh?”
The status window talked?
“Y-you! You can speak?”
Correct. As I mentioned, I am a ‘Growth-type,’ ‘Universal,’ and ‘Interface.’
It is my duty to think and judge for myself in order to assist you, User.
“Oh.”
So it really was a growth-type, all-purpose interface? In that case, it might not be so bad after all.
I asked it to explain what it could do. The interface answered that it could do everything. When I tried to test that claim by asking it to capture an anomaly for me, it immediately reminded me that it was a non-physical interface and such a request was impossible.
After a few more exchanges that made me wonder if it was an early-stage clumsy AI, the interface explained its true nature.
As the user grows, I—a user-bound ability—will also grow.
Each time I grow, you will be granted additional opportunities to draw random abilities.
Therefore, it is not your final chance.
“!!!”
In other words, if I kept leveling up, I could keep drawing more abilities? While others only got one, I could collect multiple?
When you look at it that way, isn’t this actually amazing?
The despair that had weighed me down evaporated. Still, I couldn’t completely relax. Since the bathroom mimic had been called Stage 1, the tutorial clearly wasn’t over yet.
I asked the interface for a detailed explanation of my second ability, Possibility.
The user’s strong desires are made ‘possible’ in reality. The success of ‘Possibility’ is determined by a comprehensive calculation of the user’s stats. The more unreasonable the request, the lower the success rate. Once applied, the ability cannot be undone or destroyed by anyone other than the user themselves.
“This is actually pretty good…?”
Feeling much better, I immediately summarized the situation and posted it in the gallery.
Is this actually good?
The responses were cautiously optimistic. They said that while it might not be useful right away, it had infinite potential depending on how I used it. As long as I could clear the tutorial safely, I should be fine. The second stage of the tutorial was apparently something my current physical stats could handle.
Just as a sliver of hope began to bloom, the gallery members asked what the boss monster would be. Since it was random, no one could predict it. They worried that with only one combat-applicable ability I might struggle.
I corrected them. It wasn’t just one ability.
When I explained that the Growth-type Universal Interface would grow alongside me and grant additional draw tickets at certain growth milestones, the gallery fell into chaos.
I was smirking while reading their reactions when—
BANG!
“???”
A harsh metallic screech echoed from the far end of the eerie hallway. Then silence. After a moment, a grotesque laugh rang out.
“Kihihihihihihihit!!!”
The laughter grew louder and louder.