Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Coin Explosion
A sudden notification appeared.
A soft chime echoed in my mind.
This was completely unexpected.
Truly.
A system message appeared.
What?
Leon is dead?
How?
How did he die?
I shot up from my seat.
Good news, technically.
My sworn enemy was gone.
Even if that enemy belonged to the original owner of this body, I was the one living in it now.
Wow.
Something I didn’t know was happening behind the scenes?
Who killed him?
Who on earth did it?
I couldn’t make sense of it at all.
Even though I hadn’t been here long, a Hero Candidate was basically a monster.
Someone chosen as a Hero Candidate, wielding a holy sword and the power of the goddess, wasn’t someone easy to kill.
Even dukes and princes would tread carefully around someone like that.
So how?
It was strange.
Was some god helping me?
But then.
The next notification was even more unexpected.
This one was far more shocking.
“5753 coins have been obtained.”
“…O… oh… oh… oh… five thousand coins? Five thousand coins?! You’re kidding, right? You’re kidding, right?!”
I was going crazy.
No, I was practically possessed.
After wasting time collecting heroine underwear like a pervert…
No, after carefully “collecting resources,” I finally hit something real.
A proper mission.
No, a gold mine.
Maybe I had been thrown into a normal fantasy dating game after all.
But the very idea of “normal” felt wrong in this situation.
I had nearly died several times in just a week.
Tears welled up in my eyes.
Now, finally, there was hope.
I didn’t know why killing a Hero Candidate gave me coins, but who cared?
Cash was everything.
Five thousand coins meant real money.
Five thousand coins could buy two hundred pairs of virgin heroine panties.
But finding heroines was hard, and there was a limit of ten per target.
Two hundred was insane.
Maybe this system had originally been designed for the previous owner of this body.
That perverted bastard probably collected them easily.
Two hundred pairs of virgin heroine panties…
“Two hundred… two hundred!”
“W-what is two hundred, master?”
I couldn’t say it.
I couldn’t tell her.
It was too shameful.
Everything in my world was now being measured in virgin heroine panties.
But what could I do?
That was literally my lifeline.
“Ah… it’s nothing! Let’s just go look for a house first. I’ll die of illness if I stay here any longer!”
That day, I bought a small decent house in the capital for 210 gold.
Moving out of that ruined shack felt like heaven.
So this is what money does.
But 210 gold was still only enough for this.
The capital was ridiculously expensive.
This wasn’t a place even minor nobles could live comfortably.
Why did my family send me here?
I sighed.
If I had stayed in the countryside, I never would’ve met the Hero Candidate Leon.
Three thousand and fifty thousand gold…
Just how much did that idiot noble head spend?
Either the previous owner was insane, or the family head was.
Moving was easy.
Only the body had to move.
But once I settled into the new house, I checked the system message again.
Something felt off.
It clearly said the “body” had been eliminated.
Why “body”?
Was there a separation between body and soul?
That didn’t make sense.
…No.
Actually, it did.
Right now, my soul and body were separate too.
This world really was “separate systems,” damn it.
Like a cursed buffet where everything is served apart.
What kind of messy fantasy world is this?
I gave all the remaining gold except 100 coins to Ria.
She was the only person I could trust.
“Ria. Use this to buy furniture and supplies. Especially my bed. It must be the best. Good sleep improves alchemy quality.”
“W-wah!”
Tears formed in her eyes.
She looked genuinely moved.
Why was she crying?
I just handed her money.
What was so emotional about that?
“Why are you crying?”
“I-I’m sorry, master! It’s just… you’ve never trusted me with this much money before. Usually when money appears, you immediately send it to gambling dens or pleasure districts… I mean… alchemy materials…”
She was really confused about my personality.
Or rather, the previous owner’s personality.
“From now on, you manage all finances. You’re the only one who knows my secret as an alchemist.”
“I will not fail you, master!”
Good.
She was way too emotional about this.
Did the previous me really act like such trash?
Ria ran out happily with the money pouch.
Now I was alone in the house.
I leaned back on the sofa and reopened the system notification.
Leon’s death.
My enemy was gone.
But something about it felt wrong.
And that’s when a chill ran down my spine.
I didn’t know where the body had died…
But I had a feeling he might come back.
Or worse, someone would come for me.
The Church of the Goddess also seemed suspicious.
They created the Hero Candidates in the first place.
They would definitely see me as a threat.
I had to be careful.
Absolutely avoid them.
I had no defensive power.
If someone came to assassinate me, I was dead.
So there was only one answer.
Gacha.
I opened the system window with trembling hands.
Now I had more coins than ever.
I had to use them.
Before I died.
“Start with one coin.”
Common items appeared.
Useless.
Then again.
Another pull.
Useless again.
“Good. This is the pattern.”
I convinced myself.
Bad pulls meant good ones were coming.
That’s how gacha worked.
“Alright. I know you’re coming. Give me an S-rank or something. 100 coins!”
Click.
My heart pounded.
Nothing.
“…Huh?”
I rubbed my eyes.
No way.
“Again. 100 coins!”
Nothing.
“YOU SONS OF BITCHES!”
I slammed the floor.
200 coins gone in an instant.
200 coins could buy 8 pairs of virgin heroine panties.
Too expensive.
This wasn’t a game.
There was no pity system.
No mercy.
Just reality.
I took a deep breath.
I stabilized myself.
Then I switched strategy.
Mass pulls.
Hundreds of coins at once.
Common items.
Trash.
More trash.
Pain.
And then—
A flash of light.
A notification appeared.
“You have obtained a heroine exclusive item.”
Ria’s black ribbon.
Effect: increases cleaning ability by 10 percent.
What?
There were exclusive items like this?
Then another.
Illiana’s platinum hairpin.
Effect: increases healing magic ability by 10 percent.
Wait.
This was different.
This meant I could strengthen heroines.
Build them.
Use them.
My thoughts shifted rapidly.
If I could enhance heroines…
Could I turn them into assets?
Shields?
Allies?
That was when Ria returned.
She wasn’t alone.
She brought eleven female mercenaries with her.
The house quickly filled with activity.
Furniture was carried in.
Beds.
Tables.
Cabinets.
In less than an hour, the empty house became livable.
Money really changed everything.
After paying the mercenaries, Ria sent them off.
My gaze drifted.
At their exhausted figures.
Then at something else.
A dangerous thought formed.
What if…
Just maybe…
One of them was a heroine?
My system could make anything valuable.
Maybe this was another coin mine.
I called Ria over and whispered.
“Tell them. If they take off their underwear, I’ll pay them one silver each.”
“…Excuse me?”
Her eyes shook violently.
One silver was a huge amount for them.
“Did you forget?”
“This is… for alchemy, right?”
“Yes. You understand now.”
Ria hesitated.
Then walked toward the mercenaries.
I watched quietly.
The system.
The coins.
The world.
Everything was getting more absurd by the day.
And yet…
I was starting to adapt to it.