The Suit-Clad Woman at the Door

"Whew. That run was rough."

"…? Didn't the girl and Lady Yeonbi handle every single fight again?"

"Ahem. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Quiet, Oksun."

The day after killing the Lich on Floor 3, I cleared Floor 4 straight away. The difficulty itself was a cakewalk for me, so there was no reason to drag my feet.

Apparently the boss had been a Death Knight… but Yeonbi incinerated it on the spot, so I never even got a look at the thing.

"Isn't this a new record?"

Yeonbi had declared Death Knights grotesque and foul, and the moment we entered the tower she hurled a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fireball. Thanks to that, this floor wrapped up faster than any run before it.

Curious about my own times, I opened the status window and pulled up the clear rankings.

"Damn… just a little faster and I'd have had a one-second clear!"

First place, stamped proudly across every ranking in a row. At this point first was a given — the real question was how much further I could shave the times down.

And looking at Floor 4, with only my name on the board, this was another first clear, no surprise.

"Yeah, yeah, enough already — claim rewards!"

I dismissed the status window's increasingly tiresome congratulations and claimed the clear rewards.

The usual random stat bump, plus a thousand carats of diamonds. On a normal day, that would have been the end of it.

"Oh?! Skill upgrade?!"

A special message I hadn't seen once since awakening. Granted, I'd been spamming Out-of-this-world Summoning lately, so a proficiency bump wasn't exactly shocking. Still felt a little early… but hey, free power was free power.

I opened the skill window with a grin.

The skill window looked almost identical to when I'd summoned Oksun. The only real difference was that single extra line at the bottom.

"Six-star Anomalies…? Right. My class is Anomaly Summoner."

I usually just called them summons, so the word "Anomaly" felt almost foreign. And a six-star Anomaly… I couldn't even begin to picture what kind of existence that would spit out. Honestly, Yeonbi alone — a five-star — was more than enough for tower clears, so the upgrade didn't hit as hard as it maybe should have.

I'd think about it once I got back.

"Haaah. Living somewhere spacious really is nice."

"We're moving somewhere even bigger later, you know."

"The sunlight comes in so well, Summoner!"

We hadn't returned to my shabby studio apartment — we'd come back to a luxury hotel. The old place was now just a storage dump for all the junk Out-of-this-world Summoning kept spitting out. Last time I checked with a realtor, getting into a new place would take months, so for now we were camping out at the hotel.

"Huk! Cold air is pouring out of this little box!"

"Close the fridge door, Oksun."

A multi-month hotel stay was a serious expense, but the summons loved it, so I couldn't complain too hard. And once we actually moved, a whole new set of options would open up.

"Skill activate."

Now that I had space to dump the junk, I could gacha to my heart's content. Diamonds on hand: twenty thousand carats from challenge rewards, four thousand from tower clears. Roughly eighty-eight pulls' worth of currency — and I planned to dump ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠every last one of them today.

"Please, a five-star…! If I only get three-stars again, I'm gonna cry!"

"Um… Summoner? Three-stars aren't that bad, really…"

"True Ancestor Vampire, come hooome!!"

I casually ignored Oksun's muttering beside me and mashed the eleven-pull button. This time — please — something four-star or higher that could actually pull its weight!

I clasped my hands and prayed for a five-star with everything I had.

The first multi pulled nothing but garbage. But I'd ground enough collection RPGs in my time — I wasn't expecting miracles from a single eleven-pull.

"No time to waste!!"

I hit the eleven-pull button again. And again. And again. Straight toward that five-star True Ancestor.

Eighty-eight pulls later.

Sixty-six one-stars. Nine two-stars. Eleven three-stars. One four-star.

"Son of a bitch… publish the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rates already, System!"

Forget five-stars — I'd barely scraped a single four-star. With rates like these, what was the point of unlocking six-star Anomalies at all? And somehow I'd pulled more three-stars than two-stars, which was just insulting.

"Two-stars and three-stars are equally useless anyway!!"

"No, three-stars aren't that bad…"

Oksun muttered something, but rage had plugged my ears. Eighty-eight pulls of blood, sweat, and devotion — evaporated, leaving one lonely four-star behind. And even that four-star wasn't a summon. It was some middling weapon.

Instant death looked broken at a glance — until you actually read the condition. Stab the heart four times. Humans already die if you stab their heart four times. So what exactly was the point of the "instant kill"?

The rest of the Anomalies were just as underwhelming.

A nauseating snail fragment, and—

A disgusting cylinder with a bone-chilling warning label. For the record, I had Yeonbi incinerate it the second it dropped.

A terrifying potion with a cryptic note attached. And I'd pulled four of them.

"Haaah… is my luck just that bad?"

Watching my long-awaited eighty-eight-pull session crash and burn sent a wave of existential dread washing over me. Maybe I should just chug a TS Potion and start streaming as a girl…

I was flopped on the bed, motivation completely drained, when Yeonbi decided to comfort me.

"Summoner, do not take it so hard."

"Ugh, but still…"

"The next summon is guaranteed to be a five-star, is it not?"

"…What?"

"Did you not know? Out-of-this-world Summoning yields a five-star every hundredth pull."

…Holy shit. There was a pity system?

Then if I'd done eleven pulls when I got Oksun, plus eighty-eight this time…

The very next single pull was a guaranteed five-star?

"Long live Out-of-this-world Summoning!!"

Out-of-this-world Summoning was the greatest skill alive.

"Whoa. They're just hauling in ten billion like it's nothing."

The morning news dropped a bombshell that left my mouth hanging open. I'd handled 1.5 billion myself and still found ten billion absurd. The sheer power of Cheonhyung, just waltzing that kind of money across the border, was something else.

"Man… I could use another ten billion myself."

The 1.5 billion from the tower clear rewards had gone almost entirely toward paying off debt and securing a place to live. Which meant it was back to grinding for a living.

I was about to head into the tower for another productive day when—

A slender woman's voice from beyond the door. Figuring it was room service, I opened up — and found a woman in a suit standing there.

"I'm with Cheonhyung. Shall we talk for a moment?"

"Huh? What is this all of a sudden…"

"Sign a contract with us. We'll give you ten billion."

…Ten billion?

The same ten billion from the news?

I stood there in stunned silence at the sheer absurdity of it, and she spoke again.

"…Fifteen billion."

"…?"

"T-twenty billion might be a bit difficult…"

Who was this person.