The Chariot's Call
I became a gacha summoner. I have no idea how many hours I slept, but the urge to piss tells me it’s probably time to get up. If I opened my eyes and checked my phone, it would be afternoon. No need to look—it’s obvious. That’s just how a lifelong NEET’s days go. Early to bed, early to rise? That’s nothing but an impossible fantasy. Morning people are just arrogant bastards drunk on their own superiority complex. Still, something feels off. Normally a hangover would be pounding my skull right now…
“What the hell? This weird refreshing feeling?”
“Pleased to meet you, Applicant.”
What the—why is there a dwarf in a suit and silk hat standing on my bed? Shorter than a dwarf, so in fantasy terms that’d be a gnome. And he’s wearing shoes on someone else’s bed. As a Korean, I can’t forgive that. More importantly, where the hell am I? Right. There’s no trace of the usual stinking bachelor pad. I’ve been dragged somewhere unknown, bed and all. Whether that’s considerate or terrifying, kidnapping a sleeping person along with his bed is just insane.
“What the fuck is this place, and who the hell are you?”
“I am merely a manager. Did you not apply for the Otherworld Survival Project?”
“Uh… did I?”
I must have gotten blackout drunk and done something stupid. Let’s look on the bright side—at least I didn’t knock someone up or get sued for rape. But this seems way more serious. The Otherworld Survival Project? Me? Applying for that?
“Hmm… I don’t really remember.”
“Oh dear. Have you ever heard the phrase ‘once you sign, there’s no backing out’? Since you’ve already applied, withdrawal is impossible!”
The suited dwarf waved his staff through the air and a massive contract appeared. It had been a while since I’d seen that much text, so my eyes hurt a bit, but the summary was clear: while completely wasted, I’d applied to some project that would send me to another world. Another world? Weird. Usually you get trucked or worked to death by a black company. Guess this is the new method.
“Manager, so what happens to me now?”
“Before you depart for the otherworld, you will be granted a special ability. A fragile modern human cannot survive that dangerous world with knowledge alone.”
“Oh, so I get a status window or something?”
“A status window? Only the lowest of the low use those. Now then, it is time to choose your ability. Please select carefully.”
The dwarf pulled a deck of cards from his inner pocket and held it out, telling me to draw one carefully. Most people would take the top card, but I was going full Tazza mode—bottom-deck draw, the very last card.
“Draw!”
When I flipped the card, it was a tarot card. At the top was the Roman numeral VII, and at the bottom, in English: THE CHARIOT. Judging by the name and design, it was the Chariot card.
“You have drawn the Chariot Arcana. Congratulations. You have obtained quite a splendid ability.”
“Oh, is this a good card?”
“Of course. Your class is ‘Summoner,’ specifically the fraudulent profession that wields the Power of the Chariot.”
A summoner? Wasn’t that the mage-type job that summons monsters to fight? I’d played around with one in an MMORPG back in the day. Calling out different summons depending on the situation and fighting together had its own charm. But I had zero clue what the Power of the Chariot actually did. A summoner is a summoner, but what exactly was I supposed to summon?
“So, Manager, you said summoner—what can I actually summon?”
“What you can summon is anything falling under the broad concept of ‘vehicles.’ Modern transportation like cars and motorcycles, armored weapons such as tanks and armored vehicles, even bipedal mechs straight out of sci-fi! The variety that crosses reality and fiction is so vast it cannot all be explained.”
In an instant, all sorts of vehicles and weapons that made my heart race just looking at them appeared before my eyes. Was this an illusion? A dream? Seeing things I’d only ever seen in games with my own two eyes made my lower half tremble.
“That’s incredible!”
“That is merely the tip of the iceberg. Not only inanimate objects, but biological vehicles such as dinosaurs are also available. However!”
When the dwarf snapped his fingers, a familiar window appeared before me. It was none other than the gacha screen you see in every shitty mobile game. Single pull and ten-pull options. A window I was all too familiar with. Showing me a gacha screen already? Even money-hungry game companies wouldn’t run things like this.
“Gacha? Don’t tell me I have to get those vehicles—those summons—through gacha?”
“That is correct.”
“Wait, but how do things like airships or bipedal mechs even move? There’s no way a fantasy world has coal or oil for fuel.”
“An excellent point. The currency used in the otherworld—money—is the answer.”
The dwarf explained that when fuel ran out, I could spend money to refill it. Biological summons like dinosaurs would need food supplied like pets. The maintenance cost made the system unnecessarily realistic. And seriously, what kind of summoner gets their summons through gacha? Even I, who loves gacha games, thought this was too much.
I looked at the gacha window.
Solaris is an ultra-large aerial weapon of the airship type. This vessel, built with over-technology, possesses bombardment capabilities sufficient to bring hell to any lifeforms on the surface. Its transport capacity and durability make it no exaggeration to call it a weapon of war, by war, for war.
The current pickup was a massive airship—the ultimate human fantasy. Not just for flight, but built as a weapon of war, complete with propellers, naval guns, and what looked like missiles for bombing. I really wanted it. Even as a non-paying player, I’d empty my nonexistent wallet for this. But what currency did the gacha use here? The window said a single pull cost 1 gold and a ten-pull cost 10 gold. Apparently I needed the otherworld’s currency.
“Hey, Manager? Roughly how much value does 1 gold have?”
“It is a currency that only high-ranking individuals or highly capable adventurers can even glimpse. Since the worlds are different, even I cannot easily compare its value to modern society’s money.”
Damn it… Even before pulling, earning money was going to be hell. I’d played countless gacha games, but never one where real-money top-ups were impossible and earning currency was this difficult. Still, my pride was kicking in. Since I couldn’t go back to my old life anyway, I’d just have to grit my teeth and endure.
“Alright, now let me introduce you to three summons that will help with your otherworld life.”
“Don’t gacha games usually give out a few ten-pull tickets?”
“They do, but if you wish to gamble on SSR or higher…”
“No, no. If I can get something guaranteed, I’ll take the guaranteed option. Go on.”
“First, allow me to show you this!”
When the dwarf snapped his fingers, a bipedal mech appeared as if teleported. Lacking realism but overflowing with romance—the essential element of any sci-fi genre.
Grade: SSR
Aliens and extraterrestrial lifeforms cannot stop humanity’s expansion. Phobos is the embodiment of that truth. The overwhelming firepower of its arm-mounted gatling guns and gatling lasers, combined with shoulder-mounted missiles, will tear apart any enemy in an instant. Sweep the planet clean with its 360-degree rotating upper frame and sturdy, swift legs.
“How about it? Does it please you?”
“It’s great, but let me see the other two before deciding.”
“Very well. The second summon is…”
With a thunderous roar and heavy footsteps, a dinosaur appeared. Its long neck and tail closely resembled the brontosaurus I’d seen in books as a child. But it wasn’t just a dinosaur. It was clearly mechanical—either a machine-made dinosaur or one clad in mechanical armor. Its body featured a rideable platform, a rotating turret, and a mounted cannon. The visual screamed old-school arcade game “Metal something-or-other.”
Grade: SSR
A weapon and summon born from the combination of dinosaurs and mechs that men love. Any man who feels no excitement looking at this must be impotent… Mecha Bronto X, fusing the power of dinosaurs with otherworld mechanical engineering, will become the summoner’s greatest friend and comrade.
The explanation was enough. No need to look further. Now I just had to see the final option and decide. Time is money! An impatient Korean has no time to read walls of text. I urged him to show me the last choice, and at that moment black clouds gathered in the sky of the unknown space and thunder began to roar. A completely different entrance effect from the previous two. Was an overpowered character beyond comparison with the first two prepared?
A moment later, a bolt of lightning as fierce as divine wrath struck, and a massive figure no ordinary person could be appeared.
“A giant…?”
The bipedal mech and mecha dinosaur from before were laughable in comparison. An overwhelmingly imposing giantess revealed herself. And her rank was different—SSS. Had the human-rights-tier, cheat-tier character finally arrived? At that size, how many meters tall was she? Maybe twenty or thirty? She had flowing blonde hair, a cloak of bearskin over her shoulders, and quite revealing clothing. The Viking/barbarian-style outfit boldly exposed her cleavage, midriff, and thighs. They say a female character’s defense is proportional to her exposure, and apparently that was true.
“You kept me waiting far too long! Very well. Are you my master?”
“No…? Nothing’s been decided yet.”
Her size was overwhelming. Not just her height—her chest too. Was the order of adjectives wrong? No, that was the honest truth. Her face was also extremely beautiful, and her strong yet sexy impression made it clear that appearance was part of her performance. But wait, vehicles? Manager, were you lying to me? The first two were vehicles and weapons I’d seen in games, so I could understand. But I never expected a giantess to just appear like this. That’s not a vehicle!
“Hey, Manager! That one looks wrong. Why is a giant suddenly coming out!?”
“What do you mean? She is strictly a summon and vehicle that matches your ability. Please examine the information window.”
If riding meant climbing onto that giant body… there was some logic to it. The description was so long I couldn’t even finish reading it. Plus, this giantess had skills and abilities the other summons lacked. Was this the dignity of triple-S rank?
“Even so, how the hell am I supposed to ride that?”
“Hmm, you wish to ride this body? If that is what you desire, I shall gladly allow it.”
The giantess carefully picked me up and nestled my body between her breasts. A full-body paizuri, not just with her chest. The sweet scent of her skin and softness enveloped my entire body. The manager had been right. This was an excellent, powerful, and very good vehicle.