Gacha Addicts Are Always Right (4)
I slammed the multi-roll button without a second thought.
“One hundred and twenty rolls, let’s gooo…!”
[Normal Draw] — Spend cash or an equivalent amount of magic stones to randomly obtain items and skills between 1-star and 5-star rarity.
[Single Draw] [10+1 Draw]
Ding!
The notifications kept pouring in, one after another.
And then…
4-Star: Skill - Sound-Eating Steps
“Huh? Wha…?”
All the other notifications had been plain white text inside black borders, but this one glowed golden all by itself.
“Four… stars?”
And it was a skill, too. The name even sounded cool as hell!
I’d already gotten decent mileage out of a 3-star pickpocket skill. Just how good would a 4-star one be? I couldn’t even imagine. It felt way too unreal.
At first I just stood there in a daze, but a beat later, pure joy surged up from deep in my chest.
“This is it!!! Yeah! If you just keep dumping money in, it eventually pays off!!! I was right all along!! Kki… eeeeeeeeeeek?!?!”
The scream that tore out of me came from the agony that crashed over me right after.
It felt like every single cell in my body was being flipped inside out. My muscles tore apart and reknit themselves over and over. Strange cracking sounds came from my bones. It was like my body was no longer my own.
My breath caught in my throat. Tears, snot, even drool poured out uncontrollably. I bit down on the blanket to hold back the screams that kept trying to escape, writhing on the bed for what felt like forever.
Once the physical torment finally ended, an overwhelming flood of knowledge slammed straight into my brain. Unfamiliar information poured in without pause. I couldn’t even think straight. In barely ten seconds I was so exhausted I felt like I might pass out.
I lay sprawled on the bed like a corpse when, not long after, I heard urgent footsteps rushing up from downstairs. Then came the frantic knocking.
Thud thud!
“Yona?! What just happened?! Open the door!”
“Ah.”
My mind snapped back to reality. It looked like Elly had heard my scream and come running. If I didn’t do something, she’d probably break the door down.
That would mean she’d see all the gacha loot scattered across the room. She might even discover the gacha system itself.
I planned to tell her about it someday, but not right now.
“J-just a second, Elly… I’m coming out…”
My voice dragged out long and weak, like the author who’d gone out in the rain for some spicy pork stew only to have someone steal his umbrella on the way back. But I couldn’t help it. A disposable umbrella was more expensive than I expected… no, it was because I genuinely had no strength left in my body.
I shoved all the gacha results into the corner as best I could, then cracked the door open just enough to stick my upper body out. I forced a tired smile.
“What’s up, Elly? Knocking on my door like you’re about to break it down… Did you get too horny to hold it in?”
“……Huh? N-no, I just thought I heard a weird noise all of a sudden…”
The wolf beastman who had been acting all dignified just moments ago instantly shrank into herself, her yellow eyes darting around. Or more accurately, she was desperately trying to avoid letting her gaze settle on one particular spot.
That spot just happened to be me.
Wondering what was going on, I glanced down.
“Ah.”
My pajamas were a complete mess from all the thrashing I’d done in pain. The angle was perfect—my collarbone was half exposed above, and below, the fabric had ridden up to just beneath my navel.
I’d been about to flash her a sly grin at the sight of Elly not knowing where to look, but the information still scrambling my brain and the lingering pain only let a weak smile slip out.
“Hehe… You heard all that? It was nothing. I’m fine now.”
“Are you really okay? Your voice sounded really desperate.”
Elly couldn’t even look me in the eye, yet her voice was thick with worry. She wasn’t going to let this go easily. I’d have to come up with something.
“Actually…”
“Say whatever you want. I’ll help if I can.”
“Thanks, Elly. The truth is, I was trying out a new kind of self-development.”
“……?”
“But the posture was a bit weird, so instead of just a cramp in my foot, my calf muscles started spasming like crazy. I was just startled, that’s all. I’m really fine.”
“……”
“Oh, but you just said you’d help, right? Why don’t you come in and we can talk about the details in de—”
“Never mind.”
The worry vanished from her face in an instant. Elly just gave me a cold, deadpan look and shook her head.
“Take it easy. You’ll wear your bones out. …I worried for nothing.”
She let out a long sigh and walked away. A small grumble trailed behind her as a bonus.
Only after I watched her go back down to the first floor did I close the door and lock it.
“Good. That should do it for now.”
I’d somehow become the culprit of some nasty inter-floor noise complaint involving an accidental moan during a private moment… but at least I’d sent her away without getting caught. Yep.
Now that my body had recovered quite a bit, I flopped back onto the bed and started munching on one of the magic herbs that had landed in my hand. The flood of knowledge had stopped by then, so I decided to slowly go through everything I’d gotten.
“Sound-Eating Steps, huh.”
What kind of footwork earned a 4-star rating? The answer was simple. It was quiet enough to literally “eat” sound.
That’s right. The skill I’d just obtained was a stealth-type ability that erased your presence.
No wonder my whole body had hurt so much. To move without making noise, you had to absorb all the impact from your feet hitting the ground. You also had to hold your breath to stay silent, and if necessary, even control your heartbeat.
What made that possible was an almost transcendent level of bodily control. Flexibility, balance, precision… and most importantly, instinct.
I wasn’t any stronger, faster, or tougher than before, but I could confidently say I was a completely different person now. The very air against my skin felt different. At this point, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I’d been reborn.
“…It just hurt like absolute hell.”
It had hurt when I first got the pickpocket skill too, but not nearly this bad. The gap between 3-star and 4-star was massive. No wonder the system had emphasized it starting at 4-star.
I’d have to test the details later. For now, I needed to look at everything else first. The skill I’d already learned wasn’t going anywhere.
“1-star Authority: Fragrant Scent…”
Since it was only 1-star, there was no strain on my body at all, not even any discomfort. Just like the name suggested, it was an authority that made my body always smell pleasant.
It was completely useless in combat. I wouldn’t go around saying it was the blessing of the Goddess of Love, though.
I glanced at the statue rolling around on the floor and the heart-shaped symbol sitting on the desk, then spoke in an awkward voice.
“Wow~ With this, I won’t have to worry about body odor during long expeditions where I can’t wash properly, or after sweating like crazy!”
No one was listening, but just in case the goddess herself was, I added that part. Then I picked up the statue that had been bothering me.
Long, flowing hair. A faint smile that made me unconsciously mirror the expression. Large, full breasts and hips paired with an impossibly narrow waist—an overwhelmingly feminine figure. I didn’t know what material it was made from, but the texture was so smooth I kept wanting to touch it.
As expected. This really was a masterpiece. It perfectly captured the goddess’s beauty that transcended the mortal realm.
Though the name “Statue of the Most Beautiful, Cute, and Lovable Goddess in the World” was incredibly suspicious! And the fact that it had come out together with the Goddess of Love’s own authority was definitely meaningful! Even if it was so beautiful it gave me chills, it was still just a statue with no use beyond appreciation! Still, it was a 3-star item.
The 3-star dagger made from a unicorn’s horn had been ridiculously good. Even if I didn’t know exactly what this statue did, it probably had something special to it. Maybe I could use it as a prayer stand before rolling the gacha, sell it to a rich collector of goddess merch, or donate it to a temple for special privileges.
I’d have to look into the details later, but it definitely wasn’t ordinary junk. And even if it was, something this beautiful stopped being junk the moment you laid eyes on it.
“Mmm.”
If I kept staring at it I’d start feeling too reluctant to sell it, so I wrapped it in leather and shoved it into the corner of the closet.
With the statue taken care of, all that remained were the usual 1-star junk items and some 2-star things I couldn’t use right away. I tucked the mana potions into my bag and set the steel shield on the pile of stuff I planned to sell later.
That left the wrist crossbow… I’d already pulled one of these before. Even though it was a 2-star, I got a duplicate. I thought about attaching the new one to my right arm too, but that would probably make movement awkward. Better to sell this new one.
The moment I picked up the pristine, untouched wrist crossbow to put it on top of the steel shield—
Synthesize the 2-star: Wrist Crossbow?
“Eh?”
There was a synthesis system too?