You Crazy Woman
"Y-y-you crazy bitch!"
Unfortunately, aside from the first-purchase bonus, the monthly pass, and a battle pass by the name of God's Tears, Raider had no generously priced cash-shop goods to speak of.
The total absence of packages was, from the standpoint of streamer Märchen—who dreamed of becoming a proper whale—pretty disappointing. On the other hand, she also found it something of a relief.
If Raider had packages? Then every time a new one dropped, she would have been hounded by the compulsion that she absolutely had to buy it. And the moment even packages left her short on gacha currency, she would have had to slam down a truckload of cash. The second that moment arrived, she would undoubtedly have stressed herself sick weighing efficiency, arguing over what was a rip-off and what wasn't.
But if there were no packages? No need to fuss over efficiency or anything else—just dump cash for however much gacha currency she was short. Efficiency didn't even enter into it.
How wonderfully player-friendly a monetization policy was this!
"Honestly, what a bunch of fools, thinking only of the players..."
Ack. Digging up her old statements—how petty.
But she didn't panic. A pro streamer found a way to handle even a situation like this. Without a single second of deliberation, she fired straight back.
"Excuse me, how do you bring up the ex you dated and broke up with in front of the new lover you just started seeing?!"
Just like that, her old remarks slipped out of the chat's interest. A highly desirable outcome.
Still, even a fire that looks dead has to be checked again. The follow-up was already prepared. She put on a face packed tight with apology, then dropped her tone just a little.
"Think she'll cool off if I get her this? We haven't been together long, so I'm not really sure..."
First-purchase bonus, monthly pass, battle pass—and, since she was spending anyway, a twenty-two-dollar pack to top the total off at two hundred and twenty. Purchase complete.
Two hundred and twenty dollars melted away in an instant.
"Hey now, cease the smear campaign! Stream rule number six! You know bad-faith hate against Raider is banned, right?! Our Raider isn't that kind of girl!"
Anyway, with her ammunition solidly restocked, it was finally time to enter the real show. She backed out of the shop window, drew one grave breath with a solemn face, and then stepped into the gacha screen without hesitation.
"...Oh. Something's gone up."
Maybe she ought to skim what the feel of it was. It shouldn't take that long—she'd seen some of it in the CBT, and she had the veteran hours piled up from every gacha game she'd played until now!
Raider's gacha was split into three kinds: the limited-character pickup, the limited-weapon pickup, and the standard banner.
First, the limited-character pickup. Only characters appeared at five stars, and among those five-star characters, the chance of obtaining the limited one was 0.7 percent. Next, the limited-weapon pickup. Only weapons appeared at five stars, and the chance of the limited weapon was the same 0.7 percent as the character banner. Last was the standard banner, where standard characters and weapons dropped together... but did she even need to pull on standard?
Standard characters and weapons showed up on the pickup banners too, but the reverse was not true—limited characters and weapons would never appear on standard, not if you died and woke up again. On top of that, miss a limited character or weapon now, and who knew when you'd get another chance to pull them?
"And pity is one hundred and fifty pulls! It's a mileage system and it carries over! What you can exchange current mileage for is the limited character and the limited weapon! Dupes for breakthroughs obviously exist!!!"
She rattled off the remaining features in a breathless rush, as if something were chasing her. In truth, she was being chased by an impatience of her own making. The ten-pull button sat right in front of her eyes. She had more than enough currency left over after a full pity. There was no justification whatsoever for holding the gacha back. Was it even possible, in a situation like this, not to get impatient and to keep a leisurely heart? She was of the opinion that it was impossible even if she died and came back to life.
But impatience was impatience, and the stream was the stream. Like a professional, she had to finish everything she was supposed to do before she pulled. So what was it she had to do? What else. She had to take a moment to figure out what kind of character she was supposed to be pulling for. Pull first and check later, without even really knowing what she was pulling? Then if they slapped a problem-gambling label on her, past even medium-risk gambling, she figured she'd have nothing to say for herself.
"All right, the first limited pickup character is Tequiel. A dual-blade character, huh? Shall we take a look?"
With that, she wiped every trace of a smile off her face and began the character analysis—coldly, clinically.
"First off, a tank top and hot pants... a little armpit showing, navel showing too. ...An off-shoulder bra top over the tank top, nice. The accessories give it a slightly luxurious feel... To emphasize that she's a busty character, the tank top tents the chest, and the bra top curtains the chest on top of that..."
Nodding, she declared it outright.
"This is a meta character!"
Putting out a character you absolutely had to pull, right from the very first limited pickup. Having staked the company's fate on making the game, WorldMaker's will to rake the money in by the rake-load was on full display. The 2D standing illustration alone delivered this much satisfaction—just how much more would the 3D model give? That was the part she was genuinely looking forward to.
"A proper performance evaluation is impossible this early after launch anyway, you know? So just for this moment, looks are performance!"
Remember the iron rule of gacha games. You must never trust a character-performance evaluation that comes out not long after a game opens. Every player is a scrub at a pathetic level, nobody's builds are properly done, and not all the content is even unlocked. Even an evaluation everyone can accept might get completely overturned before much time has passed. But a character's appearance? None of that! A character who's pretty once is a pretty character for life!
"If character performance is a relative grade—"
"—then character looks are an absolute grade!"
"...Or not, whatever!"
"By the way, I just saw a chat that said 'performance is a moment, but being hot is forever'? A famous line that plucks the heartstrings. As thanks for moving me, I will be awarding chicken."
Whew. Good thing she'd left whispers open ahead of time. The chat had suddenly started flying so fast she nearly missed it. Invite them to an open chat, then send the gift voucher... Done!
"All right, so we're finally going to pull... The character pool is pathetic right now and the weapon pool is pathetic too, so I'm definitely planning to hit pity at least once, okay? I'll do the character banner first, and if even one Tequiel shows up on the way to pity, I'll jump straight over to the weapon banner."
The gacha goal she'd set this time was simple: secure the character, and secure the weapon. If one pity wasn't enough, she was willing to spend more. Still, if at all possible, she'd rather finish it in a single pity. Honestly, slamming a cash truck down on day one felt a little...
She wasn't even being greedy. Just one. She only had to get one. The odds of at least one Tequiel appearing across a hundred and fifty pulls were 65 percent. Round that, and it was 100 percent.
...Huh? Feels like I've had this exact thought before.
Back then, the ending was definitely...
No. Positive mindset. Positive mindset, positive mindset...
"If—if I'm really lucky, and the weapon comes out before I even hit pity...? Then should I not hit pity, and save it? Should I aim for a breakthrough too? Nngh, just imagining it is thrilling...!"
It was so thrilling that her whole body gave a shiver.
"All right, let's gooo——AAAAH?!?!!?!! It already popped?!"
From the very first pull, a brilliant rainbow light came out to greet her. The rainbow that was the mark of a five-star. Was her era finally here?! A gacha result that would draw a line through Raider's history———a bow? Tequiel used dual blades.
No, wait. That familiar look was definitely...
"Yurie?!"
"Why are you coming out here?!"
...Apologize? Right. Just in case, she would apologize——
——Like hell she would apologize!
She'd lost the fifty-fifty. Kind words were not coming out of that!
"Give me back my heart-pounding!!!!!"