The Gambler's Overture

Ryu Hwi checked his login bonus and clicked his tongue.

He distinctly remembered claiming the Day 3 login bonus before leaving the game labyrinth. But now that he'd logged back in, the counter had reset to Day 1.

“So it resets if I don't log in every day? Then I should really plan my labyrinth runs in seven-day chunks from now on.”

A guaranteed-SR ticket had simply flown out the window. Feeling thoroughly cheated, Ryu Hwi bristled with irritation.

[Hehehe, it seems Master has finally fallen under the spell of the Random Box himself. Indeed! Laughing and crying over a single guaranteed ticket — that is the fate of us Random ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Box gamers!]

The flying robotic vacuum cleaner shrieked overhead, thrashing about in the air.

Ryu Hwi ignored YggON and pulled up the system UI.

The mod installation had gone off without a hitch. Of the mods he'd bought from the shady merchant — Probability Manipulation, Map Creation, and Appraisal of All Things — it was Probability Manipulation he most wanted to see working properly.

[Ugh. To think Master would stoop to such a cowardly exploit. Hrk... the Random Box rates have increased to 0.7–1%.]

What YggON had quoted before was, of course—

N 70% / R 27% / SR 2.7% / SSR 0.3%

And now—

[N 67.4% / R 28% / SR 3.6% / SSR 1%.]

The odds of pulling N-rank junk had dropped while every other tier had crept upward. That disgusting 0.3% SSR rate had climbed all the way to 1%.

It was easy to dismiss a mere 1%. But in the world of random boxes, that difference was enormous.

Ryu Hwi clenched his fist.

“YggON, it's time for the Random Box you love so much!”

[You damned cheater!]

“What, and only now you complain?”

Whistling, Ryu Hwi took stock of the tickets and points currently in hand. Between hunting the Chaos Dark Knight and arriving at the village, he'd managed to accumulate a decent haul.

40 YggON Tickets. 2 guaranteed-SR Tickets. 15,730 RP in Random Box points.

More than enough points for a hundred-pull, with room to spare.

“Alright, here we go!”

The random box animation unfolded before him. Ryu Hwi watched it quietly. Just one percent! But 1% on a random box carried tremendous value.

SR 3.6%, SSR 1%. With enough luck, an SR or even an SSR could come tumbling down in a single ten-pull.

“Come on, SSR!!”

N — Toothbrush

N — 1-Night Stay Voucher, Village Inn +new

N — 5% Off Voucher, Weapons Shop +new

N — Wooden Spear +new

R — Landmine

N — Convertible Fairy Tale Book +new

N — Energy Drink +new

N — HP Potion +new

N — Shampoo

R — Iron Shield +new

[Loooooooooooooooooooooooooool.]

The robotic vacuum sprayed consonant-tinged laughter above his head.

Ryu Hwi's lips twitched. Fury smoldered and writhed within him, but he took a deep breath and forced it back down.

“I-It's my first time, that's all. First pulls are just a warm-up — everyone knows that!”

The random box animation unfolded once more. This time, surely, a golden meteor symbolizing SR would come crashing down—!

R — Premium Anti-Hair-Loss Shampoo +new

R — Carpet +new

N — Convertible Fairy Tale Book

R — Convertible Silver Bullion +new

N — Tree Branch

N — Toothbrush

N — Toothbrush

R — Dummy Doll +new

R — Beginner's Swordplay Manual +new

R — Sleepfish +new

[Congratulations! Probability Manipulation works wonders, doesn't it? This is the most R-rank haul we've ever gotten. And that dummy doll is actually rather useful.]

The urge to slam YggON to the floor and grind him into the carpet crept up Ryu Hwi's spine like rising bile. Never mind the N-rank garbage — even among the R-rank items, hardly anything looked worth using.

“I've still got twenty pulls left!”

He burned through the remaining twenty tickets in back-to-back ten-pulls. And then...

A blinding storm of N-rank.

[Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.]

The robotic vacuum scattered consonants in every direction, careening wildly through the air.

“Forty pulls and not a single SR?! How is that even possible!!”

Ryu Hwi exploded. The Probability Manipulation mod was garbage!

[On a completely unrelated note, Master, aren't you getting a suspicious number of toothbrushes? Planning to open a toothbrush stand?]

“Just shut your mouth. Got it?”

What remained was 2 guaranteed-SR tickets and 15,730 RP. Thank god for those guaranteed tickets, at least.

Swearing to delete this worthless Probability Manipulation mod, Ryu Hwi fed the SR tickets in one after another.

An aurora flared to life!

“Huh?”

[Wha—?]

From an sky dyed in shimmering aurora, a golden meteor and an iridescent rainbow meteor came hurtling down.

One was SR.

And the other...

“SSR! SSR!! Damn it, I knew you'd come through!!”

Who was it, exactly, who'd called Probability Manipulation garbage?

[Cheater! You CHEATER! Cheater!! Does cheating like this actually entertain you?! You filthy, shameless cheater!!]

The robotic ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠vacuum screamed something at him, but Ryu Hwi didn't listen. It wasn't worth hearing.

He checked the random box results.

“Intuition?”

Examining the SSR result, Ryu Hwi wore a puzzled expression.

Flash Step he knew. It was a skill from World of Phantasm that, when activated, let the user move at near-teleportation speed. The cooldown was an issue, but it was an invaluable skill for escaping danger.

The problem was the SSR, Intuition.

The SSR he'd pulled during that fateful 106-pull, alongside Sword Mastery and Parrying, had been worthy of its rank. Its uses were situational, sure, but its effect was absolute — a trump card he'd been carefully saving for a critical moment.

So this “Intuition” had better be worth its weight too.

“It doesn't exactly hit you over the head with anything, does it?”

Intuition was, by nature, vague and imprecise. Even if you felt that something bad was about to happen, there was no way to prove it would actually come true. Was this really worth an SSR?

So there's a lot about SSR-rank skills I don't know.

If this skill had ever appeared in another game labyrinth, he'd surely have heard of it. But he never had.

Half doubting, half believing, Ryu Hwi equipped Intuition anyway.

“So what's changed?”

Could it be a dud even among SSRs? On paper, it looked worse than an SR-rank skill.

“Maybe it's the kind of skill whose true value only shows at higher levels— whoa?!”

The RP required starting from just Lv 1 was astronomical. For the SR-rank Sword Mastery and Parrying, reaching Lv 4 had cost 2,100 RP each. Intuition, meanwhile, demanded a full 7,000 RP right out of the gate.

[Unless a skill's effects are proven, pouring points into it recklessly is a waste, if you ask me.]

YggON offered the advice with surprising composure. Then, the very next breath—

[Now then, Master! The appetizer is over! Having just pulled an SSR from a guaranteed-SR ticket, your luck has reached its absolute zenith! Let's spend every last point on the Random Box! Random box! RANDOM BOX!!]

“....…”

[Go! Go! Hundred-pull! Random box! All you have to do is gently press '100x Random Box' with your remaining points, right now! Come on, let's go! The fork in the road between heaven and hell! Random box! RANDOM BOX!]

Skill upgrades.

Sword Mastery Lv3 → Lv4 (2,100 RP).

Parrying Lv3 → Lv4 (2,100 RP).

Flash Step Lv1 → Lv2 (700 RP).

Flash Step Lv2 → Lv3 (1,400 RP).

[Wh-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! Nooo, aaaaargh! Th-the points! All at once! My precious Random Box points! THE POINTS!!]

YggON went berserk. Ryu Hwi ignored the tantrum completely.

Points remaining: 9,430 RP. Excluding Intuition, his skills now stood as follows:

Sword Mastery had gained an attack-enhancement effect. Parrying's Attack Break had improved. Flash Step's maximum travel distance grew with each level while its cooldown shrank.

The points needed for Lv 5 on Sword Mastery and Parrying... 8,400 RP? That's a sudden huge jump.

Up until now, the required RP had clearly been doubling with each level. By that math, Lv 5 should have cost 4,200.

The YggON system caps skills at Lv 5. Is the final level just more expensive by design?

Ryu Hwi stared at the skill management window, weighing his options.

Or... maybe—

[Hmmmmm. 9,430 RP remaining. The hundred-pull may be far, far away, but all is not lost! Now, let's invest the rest in the Random Box! Let us savor that hollow pleasure of torching hard-earned points in one blaze of glo—]

Skill upgrade.

Sword Mastery Lv4 → Lv5 (8,400 RP).

[Kuh-hack!!]

Psssshhk!

The robotic vacuum crashed to the floor, spewing smoke like a machine suffering a catastrophic malfunction.

What a noisy vacuum cleaner. Ryu Hwi clicked his tongue and checked the system.

That was the cap for Sword Mastery.

Ryu Hwi broke into a knowing smile.

Rank Up available.

So that was why the final level-up had demanded such an obscene amount of points. Maxing a skill out unlocked this — the Rank Up.

He pressed it without hesitation.

A brand-new animation appeared. The text reading 'SR — Sword Mastery Lv5' floated up into the air and transformed into a gleaming golden egg.

Leaves materialized out of nowhere and drifted softly down onto the golden egg. The moment they settled, the egg drank them in and blazed with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a light almost too radiant to look at.

SR had been forged into SR+. The tag '(Ygg)' now hung off the original Sword Mastery. Skills bearing that mark simply did not exist anywhere in World of Phantasm.

Ryu Hwi immediately pulled up the details of Sword Mastery (Ygg).

“Hahahahahaha!!”

Ryu Hwi burst out laughing. He couldn't help himself.

Sword Mastery alone was one of World of Phantasm's core skills — a high-tier skill that plenty of gamers still hadn't maxed out. Yet here he was, barely into his time in the game labyrinth, having already mastered Sword Mastery and acquired an upper-tier skill that didn't even exist in the game.

And on top of it all, he'd earned achievements. He decided to hold onto the fifteen tickets rather than spend them right away.

[Why, oh why, did YggON end up with a Master like this? A Master worthy of YggON would be the type to hurl himself headlong into desire without a single thought for consequences, and explode in a glorious blaze of gacha! Random box, random box, random box...]

Leaving the malfunctioning vacuum to mutter itself into oblivion, Ryu Hwi stepped out of the room.

My toolkit isn't all that deep yet — but it should be more than enough to pull off what I'm after.

There were several dungeons scattered around this village. Each one preserved the record of the gamer who had cleared it with the best performance.

What Ryu Hwi was after were the records left behind by the Linzea Guild's gamers — and above all, the record of LinpeL.

“Time attack — start.”