Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Recharge Knows the Answer (4)
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[At that moment, in a conference room at a certain company in Pangyo.]
The era of a million Awakeners.
As national leaders and countless others scrambled to respond to the sudden emergence of a million Awakeners,
"Everyone."
A man in a black suit clapped his hands to draw the attention of those gathered in the conference room.
"Our Granade Impact: Redive is facing an unprecedented situation right now."
The name tag on the man's suit read 'Shin Ki-hyun, PD' in small letters.
"Number one in app store downloads over the last 24 hours. And the real-time store revenue rankings... also number one in just one day."
Every metric related to the game was hitting number one across the board.
This wasn't some anniversary event, nor was it a carefully hyped character dropping in a pickup banner.
"The character promo PV on YouTube is climbing the charts in reverse and sitting at number one, with over ten million views."
In the YouTube playlist sorted by popularity, it wasn't the game's 1.0 PV or the opening theme taking the top spot—it was a PV for some character. And the view count seemed to climb by ten thousand with every refresh.
"All thanks to this one."
Click.
As PD Shin Ki-hyun clapped his hands, the screen slid to the next image, playing a short video of a maid walking toward a tower that had appeared at a fountain.
"Thanks to this Elaine cosplayer, we're the center of attention worldwide right now. Just look at the smartphones you've all set aside. Our company messenger is the only one that's still usable. Isn't it?"
"You're right, PD. Even on my backup phone for talking to my parents, they're blowing it up asking what the hell's going on..."
"Setting aside the fact that you're using a backup phone, my smartphone alone has over 999 unread texts. Everyone I've ever given my business card to is calling, total chaos. Chaos."
PD Shin Ki-hyun carefully pointed at the maid on the screen with both hands.
"Whether this 'Elaine cosplayer' has any connection to our company or not."
"......."
"Right. Even if we know, it's not easy to say it outright. Given the situation, I get why we want to tread carefully. So, we need to do what we can on our end."
PD Shin Ki-hyun snapped his fingers, and an image of the 2D character Elaine appeared alongside some text.
"We have to ride this big wave, no question."
[How will we boost revenue?]
"Story Team. Is there any setup in the current player story arc where the Elaine character could show up?"
"Not right now, but we can make one."
The Story Team leader declared confidently, and the PD snapped his fingers with a grin.
"Exactly. If it doesn't exist, we make it. Even if we have to emergency-patch it in with an update—we paddle when the tide comes in, while all the focus is on Elaine right now."
How would game company employees know the identity of a Hunter?
What they needed to do wasn't track down the Elaine cosplayer's identity from past cosplay worlds or events—it was to make money off Elaine.
"Art Team. Have you made contact with the illustrator who drew Elaine?"
"She quit, but we got through to her fortunately. She's heading from Busan to Pangyo right now, so we'll pick her up at the station the moment she arrives—kidnap her, I mean, escort her politely."
"Good. Tell her to prep new illustrations immediately. And..."
The PD's gaze shifted to the Modeling Team, then to the Planning Team, who handled budgets and sales strategies for the BM.
"Any other ways we can boost revenue through Elaine?"
"Rerun it?"
Someone from the Planning Team raised their hand quietly.
"A rerun to commemorate soloing an A-rank tower."
"It wasn't even Elaine herself who cleared the tower—it was the cosplayer. You think players will react well to that? We're already catching flak for quadruple reruns."
"If we throw in like twenty gacha tickets with the rerun, they'll say 'this one's legit' and whale on it."
"But..."
"Honestly, Elaine's getting left behind in the power creep."
In the midst of heated brainstorming on how to rake in the cash, the Team Leader in charge of character leveling and combat balance raised his hand, dousing the fiery mood.
"She came out three years ago, after all. The character power creep has come a long way since then. Her recent rerun was a year ago, but it was billed as five-star while basically being 4.5-star performance, right? There was talk about that."
"Still better than the original. Original two-dupes are duking it out with the rerun's nametag."
"Hold on."
The PD raised his hand urgently amid the Team Leaders' chatter.
"Actually, there's something I haven't mentioned yet that I need to tell you all."
"What is it, PD?"
"The Chairman... is watching this meeting right now."
"......."
The mood sank instantly.
"The Chairman...?"
"He's in the meeting right now?"
"Yes. I didn't say anything so as not to burden you all, but this conference room is directly linked to the Chairman's office. So, let's use terms they can understand."
"Uh, um..."
The atmosphere grew heavy in an instant.
Unlike the suit-wearing PD, most of them were in hoodies or plaid shirts, so they hesitated on how to explain things to the 'money man' who wore suits costing tens of millions of won—not even the president.
"Hey."
"Yeah, Team Leader Chae."
"Didn't we have that internal discussion about delaying the new character update this time?"
"Team Leader Chae, I know you're sore about Planning rejecting the new char, but right now—"
"We drop a new Elaine. Postpone the one we had planned, and release Elaine as the next month's character. As a brand-new rerun."
"......."
Everyone perked up their ears at Team Leader Chae's words.
"Cars make money by doing facelifts and new models, right? Next version might be too soon, but if we release her as a fresh new char—"
[There.] [You're this month's star employee.] ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Separate from Elaine climbing the tower and battling enemies on my smartphone, I connected data to my spare tablet and launched the game.
What was I doing?
Ten-pull after ten-pull.
Papapapapapopapapapa.
Nine blue stars twinkled against the black night sky, with one purple star in the middle.
One more ten-pull.
Papopapapapapapabo.
"...Ha."
All I saw was blue.
Purple showed up about once every ten pulls, but that purple was the guaranteed 4-star resource you got every ten pulls.
Characters, weapons—it didn't matter.
'This isn't what matters right now.'
There was only one thing I wanted to pull.
A dedicated weapon to hand over to Elaine.
Ten-pull.
Stars twinkled in the blue night sky, constellations lighting up with pop pop pop sound effects—and the colors that followed were—
"!!"
Gold.
Amid the sea of blue, a golden light appeared.
"Please...!"
I'd already burned through 700,000 won.
Each ten-pull cost 25,000 won, so I'd stopped counting how many I'd done.
I just prayed it wasn't a dupe.
Some games guaranteed a dedicated weapon after a set number of pulls, but in Elaine's game, even characters and dedicated weapons might not drop when you wanted them.
So—
🌟 FIVE-STAR PULL! 🌟 ★★★★★ "...Phew."
It dropped.
My phone's notifications were piling up with 'data usage limit exceeded' warnings, multiple credit card usage alerts, and even a missed call from a number that never rang otherwise.
-Hello, customer. Is your credit card currently...?
-I'm gacha-ing!
-Ah, yes. Understood...
When the card company called thinking it might be lost from the sudden spree, my face flushed red and my voice cracked without me realizing.
But.
"...This is the last one."
The fifth.
I tapped the management button on the weapon I'd leveled up in advance and marked, placing my finger not on 'Enhance' but on 'Reroll'.
Four lock buttons.
Quickly unlocked them and loaded into the reroll screen.
Bzzt.
With flashy effects, five weapons—that each cost about 240,000 won to pull—merged into one.
A sword that boosted crit rate by 24% when given to five characters became a weapon that only one character could use, but boosted crit rate by 48%.
"......."
The moment I finished enhancing the weapon fully, I closed the game on the tablet.
Through the summon management app, Elaine was now standing before the door to the boss room on the top floor of the S-rank tower—the stairs leading up.
"......."
I carefully placed my left hand on a button I'd never touched before.
Elaine, waiting on standby, reacted to my left hand's movement. I turned her around to face me.
Elaine looked at me.
Even as a 3D model in the app, her golden gaze was clearly staring straight through the screen at me.
Nod.
Nod.
I immediately jumped into the character formation screen.
The tablet game had over 40 characters, but in the summon management app's game, only one existed in the party—Elaine.
However, the inventory was definitely shared.
Click, click.
I removed the old sword from the weapon slot and handed over the freshly pulled and five-times-rerolled weapon.
Honestly, the look didn't match.
Less a one-handed sword for a black-and-white maid, more a white ice sword for some snow woman from an icy tundra.
It didn't even shoot ice or anything—just shaped like ice forged into a blade—but Elaine gripping the sword just grinned.
Creeeak.
The door opened.
In this first-time S-rank tower—the room of its owner, the 'boss'—a massive presence revealed itself.
Grrrumble.
A gigantic serpent emerged from the scorching purgatory.
The snake's face flicked its tongue toward us, tiny wings spreading behind it as obsidian eyes gleamed.
"...That's the 'mother' of the ones Korean S-rank Hunters couldn't conquer."
💬 CHAT ⚙ [Elaine: The mother?] 💬 CHAT ⚙ [Elaine: Then the ones I killed downstairs were the offspring.] Kishaaaah!!!
The moment the boss opened its maw to spew flames from its entire body, Elaine gripped her new sword and charged forward.
💬 CHAT ⚙ [Elaine: Doesn't matter.] Slash.
💬 CHAT ⚙ [Elaine: Master gave this to me. I won't lose.] The wings on the back of the crimson serpent were sliced clean off.
I hadn't anticipated it. Even the tower's master hadn't seen Elaine's strike coming.
"......."
As expected.
'With Elaine's original specs plus 48% crit... it's basically 100%.'
Recharge never fails.