The Slot Machine Badge

Haven Online has no shortage of ways to make a character stronger. They split into the tradable and the untradable, and a badge belongs to the untradable side—power bound to the character itself, kin to a class's exclusive options.

Buy as expensive an item as you like and it may shed a little value, but sell it back and you still recover something. A badge, the instant you roll its options, binds to the character, and that is the end of it. Look closely and most of Haven works this way, which is why people call it a tattoo game. You pour a fortune in, and when you try to quit and liquidate the character, all that comes back is the price of the items. It isn't even an ordinary online game, so you can't sell the account. Haven is addictive enough, and called a second reality often enough, that far fewer users cash out and bolt the way they used to, like they're making a getaway. Even so, a badge is the first item-shaped, character-bound upgrade you meet after starting Haven.

Kill a field boss, open a badge slot, obtain a badge, activate its options, and equip it. A process that looks perfectly simple, and one that boasts a long and illustrious tradition of complaints and disasters.

There's even a saying that Jesus himself would start swearing if he had to pull options on the thing they call the badge slot machine. Face the option roll, they say, and you realize badge fusion was an angel.

With lines like that climbing the chat, I got curious. What kind of content was this, exactly, to twist people up like that?

"Heh heh. Level-5 badge owner, right here."

Well, before I even stepped into the option rolls, I figured I ought to congratulate myself on pulling a level-5 badge in one try. So ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I laid the bragging on thick.

"I'm a level-4 badge owner too!!"

"Hah. Knew it. I knew you'd pull it in one shot."

"Thank you. I thought you'd get it in one try too, Siwoo."

"We called it, didn't we?"

Whatever the viewers said, I felt fantastic. Honestly, I'd never imagined a 3 percent would stick on the first try. I still had two more to pull, but the thought that a certain someone I'd been aiming this at might be watching drew a smile out of me all on its own.

The effect was instant and perfect. With results like these, how was I supposed to hold back?

"Skills? Essences are expensive... maybe later..."

"Praying your three-star SS comes with skill rank +1!"

"You got this!"

Beside me, Lim Sarang piled on the cheering. Our eyes met, and we both burst out laughing. A kind of bond, maybe. A common enemy had shown up, and with it came that party-member sense of belonging.

"Shall we give the badge a spin?"

"Yes! Want me to tell you which options you should roll for?"

True to someone who had watched my stream from the very beginning, Sarang felt like she knew me well. But she knew the first part. She didn't know the second.

I am a professional streamer.

I wagged a finger.

"No need to wear out your voice explaining, Sarang. We have Mr. Badge Tutorial with us."

"Ah! I'm sorry. That was my mistake..."

"Oh. You showed up! An explanation of the options, if you would."

"Hmm... this system feels strangely familiar."

I felt like I had the gist of it.

It wasn't like exclusive options, where you rolled one empty slot at a time. Spin the slot once, and all three options filled at once. Like those three, and you simply used them. Don't, and you spun again until you drew what you wanted. The reroll price itself was on the cheap side—but because all three options had to hit, the real odds had only gotten worse.

"Thank you, Teacher Badge Tutorial. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠So which tier-0 options am I supposed to roll?"

"Hmm. So this is the same idea as a one-star or two-star SS exclusive option? Generic options sit at lower numbers, but they're generic, full stop. Conditional ones post higher numbers, and you live or die by the condition."

"That's right!"

"Thanks, Sarang."

"Whoa. An option like that."

Most of the viewers didn't seem to know the option either. If he hadn't told me, I probably would have rolled without a thought in my head until I saw it for myself.

"Thanks, Badge Tutorial. I'll make you a mod today, so wear that armband with pride."

I gave temporary mod privileges for my room to the viewer who had been donating as Badge Tutorial. There wasn't anything special for him to do. A mod could kick viewers, but he wouldn't. It was just the stylish little effect of a mod mark, and chat that automatically came out in bold.

Either way, the goal was set in stone.

"So I just need to pull three lines of that status-ailment whatever, right?"

I rolled the options.

Some absolute never-heard-of garbage popped across all three lines.

"..."

This time the options really did spin like a slot machine—tick, tick, tick, tick.

"Ah!!!!"

Dopamine came flooding in.