100x Payback Event

"......Damn it."

Reading the stream of sympathetic comments, I felt tears prick at my eyes for no good reason. Come to think of it, there actually were people out there who understood my frustration. I was something of a celebrity on the Player Gallery, after all.

Of course, there were plenty of mockers mixed in too. Still, this much was downright adorable.

"It's really just me?"

This sudden change, it seemed, was a matter concerning me alone. No matter where I looked, I couldn't find a single similar case.

"Hah."

A ragged breath left my lips. Everything before my eyes was neither illusion nor facade. The shattered bed frame, the change in my player information — all of it was real.

"......"

For a long while, I couldn't say anything. My strength had gone up by 5.

"It's just 5 points, what's the big deal?" — someone might say that. But. Exactly 1,827 days. For a little ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over five years, numbers that hadn't budged a single time had risen, all because I'd purchased a single 20-point item. The joy was immense, but so was the emptiness that came with it. The combined total of every stat gain I'd ever made before my growth froze was 4. Strength by 1, agility by 1, and stamina by 2. A single tap of my finger had just surpassed everything I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ever accomplished.

"So it's...... separate from the game, then."

The game had infected my player system. The original game had been a dying husk at end-of-service, but the system that had migrated into me was similar to the original yet different. The original was, at its core, just a gacha raising sim — clear stages with your pulled characters, earn currency, spend that currency on more pulls and upgrades. Simple logic. But the screen now displayed before me was different.

......In other words, settings and "activation" screens like this simply didn't exist in the original. And wasn't this even structured like a player status window? I tapped the screen again and selected that name.

"Hah."

An explanation and screen floated into view. And there, on it, was the figure of 'Von Grote'. Not game artwork — the image of a real, living human being.

"......A medieval fantasy world, huh?"

Maybe it was the petty-noble setting, but from his outfit down, everything looked shabby — strip away the word "noble" and he looked practically like a bandit. The classic macho bruiser type. I scrolled the screen down further.

Pretty detailed. Did this mean he actually existed? Whether that was true or not, of course, was impossible to verify.

"......Pretty textbook, though?"

Reading through the descriptions slowly, a picture of what kind of man Von Grote was began to form. The second son of a fallen noble house — not exceptionally gifted, but not a fool either. He worried about the fief's people and kept up steady patrols and hunts, so his character didn't seem bad. He disliked a brother who seemed like a less-than-admirable man, and doted on his adorable nephew. Similar to the impression his appearance gave, yet somehow different. At the very least, he wasn't unlikable.

Was there any interface beyond this? I spent a while tapping around the screen here and there, and eventually pressed the 'Current Location' field. The moment I did — my view changed.

"......What the?"

It hadn't changed completely. My room was still there, and so was the bed, the shattered frame exactly as I'd left it. But layered on top of it all was another screen. A man in worn leather armor, a sword slung across his back, was trudging along, dragging his feet. The dirt road had turned to muck, and every squelching step made his face scrunch up a little more.

I stared blankly at the screen. The man walked, periodically glancing around at his surroundings. Whether from the cold, he sniffled now and then and muttered to himself. There was no set pattern to his movements. No matter how I looked at it, he was a genuinely living, breathing person......

"Anyway, that guy never listens to a damn word I say. How long am I supposed to wipe his ass? Haah...... Father. You knew he'd turn out like this, didn't you? What exactly is so important about the eldest son anyway?"

The grumbling and resentment spilling out of him, as if chewed up and spat, were vivid. ......It was simply fascinating. So this was my gacha character?

He carried on like that for a while, then at some point hunched his body. At first I thought his shoelace had come undone. But instead of bringing his hand to his shoe, Von lightly brushed the dirt of the ground. Then he lifted that dirt and smelled it. It wasn't long before his eyes, which had been frozen in still concentration, widened.

"......There you are."

He drew his sword and began moving with careful deliberation. And before long, I could see what he had found.

"Damn it all."

A small curse echoed in my ears. There, two wolves with manes gleaming a vivid blue. Bodies far too massive for any canine. ......The math didn't work. That was my judgment — not Von's thoughts or mutterings, but my own. He was above me, sure, but looking at his stats, his level was pathetically modest. By player standards, he'd barely scrape past even the 5th floor exam. The kind of threshold that fell just short of crossing into the superhuman. A four-meter-long monster wolf was obviously no ordinary beast — there was no way he could take one down.

It seemed he'd reached the same conclusion. Von Grote slowly began backing away with practiced, seasoned movements. But then, an unexpected sound rang out.

Snap—!

"...!!!"

He must have stepped on something wrong. At the same instant, a low, rumbling beast's breath — and Von Grote's sprint began.

"Ah, shit, shit!"

A rather familiar string of profanity. Hearing it, a strange new realization surfaced amid all the tension — whether it was translation or something else, he was speaking Korean, wasn't he...?

Pak-pak-pak-pak—!

Von tore through the forest at full speed. That velocity seemed far beyond what his agility stat alone should have allowed — but that was only natural, since in this moment his life hung by a thread. And I, too, could only watch with bated breath.

Of course, there was no bond between Von Grote and me. He was, at most, a character who'd earned me my first-time bonus points. ......But what if he actually died? Then presumably, among the characters I'd already summoned, another plain N-grade one would be registered in his place. That was the nearly inevitable logic of it. And yet — that slim margin of uncertainty, and the fact that I was watching this unfold right before my eyes. Those two things together couldn't help but breed a measure of tension and hope.

Live, Von. You have to survive.

Of course, that was just an empty cry. He couldn't hear it, and even if he could, it wouldn't change a thing about his situation. Nothing among the functions I'd just checked would help either. The intervention mentioned in the tip message didn't seem to apply right now, and the other point-using features all required more points than I had. My remaining points from my initial shop purchase, plus what he'd earned since, totaled 27P. With barely that much, all I could do was watch......

"No, wait."

Was that really true? With that question, I immediately opened the Master-exclusive shop and scanned the list.

"......It's there."

Something I could buy. And it cost exactly 25 points.

I had 27 points. Astoundingly, that was exactly enough for a single use — and afterward, all that would remain was 2 points. Effectively, I'd be emptying my entire fortune. With those same points, I could have used the first-purchase bonus to buy stats for myself. If either stamina or agility rose by another 5 or so, I could pass the exam. I could escape this godforsaken low-floor life.

"......Would he even survive if I used this?"

I wasn't even certain of that. How much good would this blessing actually do? I might waste the points and lose Von anyway. But.

"Ha?"

A hollow laugh escaped me. A sudden chill ran down my spine at the thoughts that had just crossed my mind. Since when did I become such a pathetic bastard? I had recognized, clearly, that the being before my eyes wasn't some game character — he was a living, breathing person.

"Yes."

There was no hesitation. They were points you earned in the first place. So please — live.

[ Emergency situation modifier applied! ]

The instant that wish left me, Von's body flared with light.

"Wha— whoaaaaaah?!"

A cry of astonishment burst from his mouth. And with it, Von's movements changed completely. It wasn't merely that he'd gotten faster. The instant his foot touched the ground, his body catapulted forward. The tree roots and rocks he'd been desperately dodging moments ago, he now leapt clean over in a single bound. Once. Then twice. Each time the surrounding scenery rushed past, the wolves' forms faded further from the screen.

"What the hell is this?!"

Joy and elation spilled out of him in a torrent of curses. With that, one of the two wolves gave up the chase. The other, perhaps the more tenacious of the pair, tried to hang on to the very end—

Thud!Yelp—!

Trying to turn too sharply, it slammed headfirst into a tree and went sprawling. And in that gap, Von had already made it back within sight of the fief.

"Haah... haah...?"

Then, as if evaporating, a wisp of smoke vented from his body, and the radiance that had wrapped around Von faded into a dull haze.

"Ah."

Perhaps because the power had drained away, he stared down at his own hands with a faintly hollow voice. Watching him, I felt relief wash over me.

"......Thank god."

The tension that had gripped my whole body a moment ago dissolved. I must have been more absorbed in the scene than I realized — my palms and forehead were soaked with cold sweat. I'd been gazing at the screen with a foolish little smile when—

"......Who might you be?"

Von looked this way. That is — he turned his head toward the very vantage point from which I was watching him.

"What the hell."

He could see this place?

Messages surfaced one after another amid my bewilderment. And then, a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fanfare blared out.

".....?"

What is this.

Is this the 100x Payback Event?