Gacha Despair and a Phoenix Feather
Garcia writhed, gasping for breath, but Ryu Hwi held him aloft with one hand without so much as a tremor.
Assaulting a Bronze citizen as an Unknown was a serious crime.
Garcia had tried to record the whole scene, but for some reason even that refused to work. Something was interfering with his SEED.
“That's right, I'm an Unknown. A criminal stripped of even his name. For the past three years, I haven't been treated as a human being—just called by a number. 7017.”
The moment he loosened his grip, Garcia crumpled to the floor on his backside. Ryu Hwi turned away with an air of utter indifference.
“A great ‘human being’ like you shouldn't go groveling after an Unknown. It's beneath you.”
With that, Ryu Hwi walked out of the shop, without so much as a backward glance at Garcia, whose legs had gone so weak he couldn't even stand.
He arrived at his lodging—an old, run-down hotel where anyone could stay as long as they paid. The facilities were shabby, but it was still better than the place he'd lived in for the past three years. He shrugged off his jacket, tossed it carelessly aside, and sat down on the bed.
The days he'd spent with Garcia—and with the people he'd believed were his ‘friends’—came flooding back.
His school days had been no different from anyone else's. He'd had a family. He'd had friends. He'd skipped class complaining that studying was a drag, gotten caught and chewed out by the teacher, snickered with his friends behind their hands and gotten scolded all over again.
“I'm gonna become a game developer and make a game that beats Latia at its own game!”
When Garcia shouted that first, the others had taken turns declaring their own dreams. And then Ryu Hwi had said, “Then I'll become a gamer and clear that game for you!”
He missed them.
And because he missed them, it was so hard to swallow the irritation and the anger.
Was that really all those years together amounted to—trash to be buried in a garbage can, just like that?
Becoming an Unknown had taken so much from him. His entire life had been denied, invalidated, erased.
On that fateful day, if the miracle of a UR hadn't appeared before his eyes, everything would surely have ended then and there.
I shouldn't have gone to see him.
His thoughts were a tangled mess. If he'd simply ignored Garcia's summons, he wouldn't have to feel this filthy, crawling sensation in his chest.
It had been a completely worthless, meaningless waste of time.
No—was it really meaningless?
At the very least, he could now shake off the last lingering attachment in his heart for good.
And Gabriel Darius, huh. A name I never expected to hear.
Gabriel Darius, second-in-command of the Linzea Guild. A gamer who had cleared countless game labyrinths.
The moment he took down Linpel Darius, Gabriel Darius would undoubtedly make his move. A barrier he would have to cross sooner or later.
Would you like to connect to the Game Labyrinth?
He gave a light nod, and his body was enveloped in a bright radiance. A moment later, Ryu Hwi's figure vanished from the hotel room.
Title:World of Phantasm
Developer: Latia
Genre: RPG
Once inside the game labyrinth, he checked his inventory item by item. No matter how much you prepared, it was never enough. There was no such thing as being fully ready.
Ever since he'd uploaded the Deep Sea Escape video without even hiding his face, he had run through countless simulations of what would come next.
He'd cast the bait, so they would definitely take it.
The targets: the Linzea Guild, and Linzea's ace, Linpel.
Among all the current game labyrinths, World of Phantasm had held a top position for years—and Linzea was its highest-ranking guild. And he had set out to drag that guild's honor through the mud. Not that a single gamer disparaging Linzea should amount to more than an itch.
But the Deep Sea Escape video had drawn an explosive reaction in a matter of hours. Even now, its view count kept climbing.
Which meant Linzea could not possibly ignore it.
Linzea would move. And even if Linzea didn't, Linpel would. Because Linpel never tolerated anyone who defied him.
“Alright, then. Starting now—”
It's Random Box time!
“………”
The Random Box demon was alive and well today, too.
“Hold on. I've got things to do first.”
“I'll spin it later, okay? The ‘timing’ should be just about ripe by now. They're slow-moving bastards, but after all the ruckus I've been stirring up, there's no way they won't react.”
He nodded and pulled up the map data for World of Phantasm.
“Whoever seizes the initiative wins. Is there anywhere suitable?”
Ideally, a village on the frontier with few gamers—but a place with no gamers at all would be a problem. He needed to announce the existence of ‘Ryu Hwi’ to the world, and he needed gamers who would serve as ‘witnesses’ to everything that was about to happen.
Information on a certain village floated up into his field of vision.
“A village I've visited before. Do I still have any ‘Transfer Stones’ left?”
Transfer Stones. An R-grade item native to World of Phantasm that allowed instant travel to any village you had previously visited.
“Damn it.”
He used a Transfer Stone right away and moved to the village. Face hidden beneath his helmet, he confirmed that this was indeed a ‘suitable place’.
There was a plaza at the edge of the village—a spot gamers passed through often, and one the residents, by all accounts, rarely dared approach.
“This looks like the place. Well then, time to prepare.”
A short while later, with every preparation complete, Ryu Hwi removed his helmet.
The gamers passing nearby froze, their faces going slack with shock.
“Wait—is that... is that really Ryu7017?”
“No way. For real?”
Paying their reactions no mind, Ryu Hwi sat down on a bench. Now, at last, the preparations were finished.
“I heard you the first time, so shut up!”
The preparations were done, but the anxiety remained. Could he actually win this ‘gamble’?
To raise his odds, he needed more power. And Ryu Hwi had the means to get it.
He took a deep breath and checked his tickets and points.
YggON Tickets: 92
Guaranteed SR Tickets: 5
Random Box Points: 7,220 RP
Tickets and points accumulated from login bonuses, daily missions, dungeon clears, and achievements. The tickets had piled up decently enough, but the points fell far short of what he'd hoped. After all that grinding, he hadn't even managed to scrape together what a single Dark Knight kill would have been worth.
“Alright, Random Box first, then.”
He had no expectations for the YggON tickets, but he had five guaranteed SR tickets. With any luck, he might even land an SSR.
“Here we go!”
YggON Random Box — 10x Pull
Consuming 10 tickets.
A rainbow... was, of course, never going to appear. Not even an SR animation. He'd already predicted the outcome, so Ryu Hwi didn't hold out the slightest hope.
Just as expected. Exactly as expected. A single R card—and even that was a duplicate. Not a single ‘new’ in sight.
YggON had seized the moment to flood the display with ‘lololol’. Gritting his teeth, Ryu Hwi spun the Random Box again.
NNNNNNRNNR!
NNNNNNNRRR!
RNNNNNNNNR!
RRRNNNRNNR!
NNNNNNNNNR!
RNNRNNRNNR!
NNNNNRNNNR!
RRRRNNNRNR!
Ninety pulls.
Ryu Hwi stared up at the sky for a moment. With the current probability boost mode active, he'd heard the SR drop rate was 3.6%.
So shouldn't at least one have shown up? Was this what they called probability fraud?
“Whew.”
It didn't matter. He hadn't expected anything anyway. He still had five guaranteed SR tickets!
“Right. Then... Random Box, open!”
◈ SR — Gunsword
◈ SR — Gunsword
◈ SR — Flash Step
“They're duplicates! You've got to be kidding me?! Are you kidding me?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”
YggON had completely flipped out. The ‘lololol’ flashing above its head was one for the record books.
A duplicate, of all things! Ryu Hwi felt his head swim. He'd never imagined his precious, hard-won guaranteed SR tickets would be incinerated like this.
“Calm down. Calm. Two left. Two tickets...”
Deep breaths. In, out. In, out.
With his heart steadied, Ryu Hwi opened the Random Box once more. Watching the shimmering golden light, he swallowed hard.
There was no way lightning would strike twice. Beyond the golden glow, the word ‘new’ came into view. A new SR!
Ryu Hwi clenched his fist. Whatever it was, any SR would be worth using!
“………”
It was a toothbrush.
A toothbrush engraved with an ornate magical pattern. A toothbrush that whirred to life the moment you pressed the switch.
Ryu Hwi grabbed YggON.
“Shut it, you damned vacuum cleaner.”
This damned UR, inconveniently enough, was genuinely delighting in its master's misfortune.
“This toothbrush?”
Could it have some hidden function? Clutching at straws, he let himself hope.
Among the items obtained from Yggdrasil, some could be brought out and used in reality. The most representative example was the magic stones dropped by slain monsters.
“And besides that?”
“And?”
“So it's a dud.”
Ryu Hwi slumped to the ground. Setting aside its material value entirely, there was simply no way to make use of it inside the game labyrinth.
How could one machine be so insufferably smug?
Gritting his teeth, Ryu Hwi spent his final ticket. Please, just let this one be something usable...
A new item. He immediately pulled up its information.
SR — Phoenix Feather+NEW
Type: Tool
A necklace crafted from the feather of a phoenix.
Grants a single-use resurrection upon death.
Ambiguous. A one-time-only resurrection—was that really SR-grade material?
No, think positive.
Ryu Hwi received no stat bonuses tied to level, which meant one wrong move could get him killed in a single blow. But with the Phoenix Feather, he would survive at least once.
Even thinking about it that way, it still felt underwhelming!
Well, it is what it is. At least I grabbed a Phoenix Feather, so my odds went up. With the hand I'm holding, there's still plenty of possibility.
He had already accounted for the worst-case scenario. He'd never expected a perfectly tailored, dazzling skill to drop into his lap in the first place.
“What?”