This Is Totally a Gacha Game

"…I'm back."

As if the endless wasteland I'd been staring at moments ago had been nothing but a lie, I found myself standing in my tiny studio apartment, morning sunlight spilling through the window.

Yeonbi must have been reverse-summoned the instant the Tower clear went through, and the room — suddenly quiet again — felt strangely unfamiliar today.

But I didn't have time for sentimental reflections right now.

"Whew. First things first — let's check the rewards."

The Tower clear rewards were still waiting for me. My hands trembled with a mix of pride and anticipation, but I forced myself to calm down and opened my status window.

"…That's it?"

My status window, the first time I'd ever opened it properly, wasn't exactly dazzling. Just a class name and a single skill. But that grade — EX-class — was nothing to sneeze at.

"Out-of-this-world Summoning… so this is my class skill."

With only one skill to my name, this had to be the unique ability tied to my class — the one that had summoned Yeonbi. Of course, the skill itself wasn't what I needed to check right now.

I shifted my gaze to the bottom-right corner of the status window, where a red exclamation mark was blinking insistently.

"There it is."

During the Tower run, so many messages had flashed past in a blur that I hadn't gotten a proper look at any of the rewards. Claiming them now was basically like opening a random loot box.

"Claim rewards!"

I claimed the clear rewards without a second thought, and the status window notifications came cascading down in a flood. Grinning, I went through them one by one.

The basic floor-clear reward was a random stat boost. As a summoner, extra Strength didn't mean much to me — but it was better than nothing.

"Huh? Platinum-grade?!"

The second reward was a skill selection ticket — and not just any ticket. It was for a Platinum-grade skill, the second-highest rank in existence. The kind of rare skill that even top-tier hunters could spend a lifetime chasing and never obtain. Dopamine flooded my brain like I'd just hit the jackpot.

…But what's this "new difficulty" business?

That phrase snagged in the back of my mind. Had I entered on some difficulty beyond the Tower's usual Easy, Normal, and Hard modes? …If so, the Awakener Association would probably put out an announcement. I shelved the thought for later and moved on to the rest of the rewards.

The final batch was challenge completion rewards. One-hit kill on the boss monster, floor clear under one minute, no damage taken — I'd knocked out nine challenges in total.

"Hell yeah!!"

Every last one of them was S-rank. The highest possible grade — challenges so brutal that only three hunters in the entire country had ever completed even one — and I'd freeloaded my way through nine of them.

But my triumph was short-lived. The challenge rewards turned out to be… a little unusual.

"…? How much?"

I'd heard the occasional rumor that the Tower sometimes paid out actual cash as a reward, but I'd never imagined it came from challenge completions. And this wasn't some pocket-change amount — it was a full one million dollars.

The diamond option, though, hit even harder.

"Are you kidding me?! Three thousand carats?!!"

Three thousand carats of diamond. If I sold that at market value, not three generations of my family — thirty generations could sit around doing nothing and still live in luxury.

I was frantically calculating the current diamond market price when another status notification popped up.

"Ah, figures."

Three thousand carats wasn't some neighborhood dog's name — there was no way that much real diamond would drop from a Floor 1 reward. The diamonds were probably some kind of special resource usable inside the Tower.

I decided I'd ask Yeonbi about it the next time I resummoned her, and for now picked the dollar option for one of the nine challenge rewards.

"…This is weirdly realistic."

The claim process wasn't quite what I'd expected, but either way, roughly 1.5 billion won at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the current exchange rate landed in my account. And when that kind of money suddenly appears in your life, there's only one thing to do.

"Hey, hyung-nim, it's Yuseong. I wanted to pay off this month's interest — and the principal, too…"

I paid back the entire 1.1 billion won in private loans my parents had taken out before skipping the country. Now that was a flex.

"Diamonds… ah, you mean adamant, do you not?"

"Yes. They came as a Tower reward, but I have no idea what they're for."

The next morning, the moment my summoning skill's cooldown ended, I called Yeonbi back and asked her about the diamonds. They had to be useful for something if the Tower was handing them out as rewards — I just couldn't figure out what.

"It ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is quite simple. They are the resource consumed by Out-of-this-world Summoning."

"By the summoning skill?"

"Judging by thy manner, thou hast yet to properly wield Out-of-this-world Summoning, have thee not?"

"Yeah, well… pretty much."

The only time I'd used my skill was when I summoned Yeonbi. Not for any deep reason — I'd only awakened a day ago. Between clearing the Tower and paying off my debts, I hadn't had a spare second to breathe.

"Then take this opportunity to use it properly."

"Alright, sounds good."

I'd been meaning to test the skill thoroughly anyway, so I activated Out-of-this-world Summoning on the spot.

"…? What the hell is this?"

A flashy female character illustration. A UI I'd seen a thousand times before. The whole system — this was totally…

"This is Out-of-this-world Summoning."

"This is a gacha game!"

It was the exact same gacha system you'd find in any mass-produced collectible mobile game.

"So I use diamonds to do gacha… I mean, to perform the summoning?"

"Indeed."

"…Alright. Let's give it a shot."

It was a far cry from any summoning art I'd ever imagined, but I decided to use the skill anyway. Hey, as long as the skill performed well, the packaging didn't matter.

After claiming the 3,000 carats of diamonds from the challenge rewards, I took a steadying breath and hit the 10+1 summon button.

A string of unreadable, corrupted characters flickered past, and then the scenery before my eyes transformed into a sky above the clouds. Pillars of gray, blue, and violet light surged up between the mystical clouds, reaching toward the sun…

Ugh. Even the animation was straight out of a mass-produced gacha game.

Once the light pillars faded, a skill window appeared before me, displaying the results of the summon. Well, if I was going to do a gacha pull, I might as well aim for the top.

"Please, a beautiful 5-star Divine Ancestor girl!!"

I prayed desperately for the limited-banner 5-star Divine Ancestor currently on rate-up.

"Are you kidding me?! This is all junk!"

Everything that popped out was either vaguely creepy nonsense or pure garbage. Not a Divine Ancestor in sight — not even a human silhouette. Nothing but 1-star and 2-star trash kept coming, until only the one bonus pull remained.

"Please…!"

The thought of having just incinerated 3,000 carats of diamonds made me squeeze my eyes shut.

In that moment, a brilliant blue radiance pierced through my eyelids and lit up the entire room.

"Yes!"

I'd at least managed to pull a 3-star summon. At this rate, it felt like I'd broken even — which was a relief.

"Oho. Thou hast already obtained a new summon, have thee?"

"Yeah. Let me call her out."

With a new summon, it was best to put a face to the name sooner rather than later, so I activated the skill and summoned her right away.

Just like when Yeonbi had been summoned, a woman's form slowly sharpened into existence in midair. True to her nature as a virgin ghost, she wore a pure white mourning dress.

Then, out of nowhere, I remembered the old superstition that virgin ghosts were all supposed to be ugly.

I'd prefer a pretty one if I had the choice…

Any man would rather look at a beautiful woman than an unattractive one. Praying the rumors about virgin ghosts were false, I waited for the summoning to finish.

"Ah… greetings to you! This young maiden, Kim Oksun, presents her respects!"

Contrary to my worries, she was actually quite beautiful. No — wait, that wasn't the issue. She looked… really young?

"Uh, how old are you, exactly…?"

"This maiden is sixteen years of age!"

"Ah. Right. I see."

Come to think of it, a summon's appearance probably didn't matter at all.