Character Pulls Are Fair to Everyone

"Oh... so you can play a mobile game on a computer."

Impact: Galaxy Train was a more serious game than I’d expected.

It even had an official website, and though it was supposedly a mobile game, there was a PC version you could download.

This was surprisingly shocking. Back in the day, if you wanted to play a mobile game on your computer, you had to use one of those famous app players.

"And even then it didn’t just work, right...? There was always some nightmare about mining or whatever, and you had to delete certain files and not others. It was a pain in the ass..."

Had mobile games changed this much while I was studying for exams?

Or was this whole "other world" just unusually special?

Honestly, I wasn’t curious enough to care either way, so I got out of the bedroom, turned on the computer, and downloaded Galaxy Train.

I’d assumed the computer would be password-protected, but it wasn’t.

That, and the fact that all the Talk notifications had been completely silenced, was kind of strange too.

"Anyway... Galaxy Train is a turn-based sci-fi RPG made in China..."

The official website, which I checked while installing the game, had far more information than I’d expected.

"Wow... the skin on these nerd games these days is on a whole different level."

The games I’d played before had been the kind of thing people went wild over just because they used Live2D, or whatever it was.

Cartoon graphics, was that what they called it? Seeing characters dripping with obvious otaku vibes move around in 3D made me ridiculously impressed.

"I thought stuff like this only existed in console games..."

If you asked whether there had ever been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a history of such openly subculture-flavored graphics existing on Earth, the answer was, of course, no.

Right off the bat, the famous Arcana series, which had reached its fifth installment, was a turn-based game overflowing with otaku energy and 3D graphics...

And if you shifted your gaze to console games released in Japan, they were scattered everywhere to the point where it was hard to even keep track.

"But... there just weren’t many mobile games like that. It’s not like there were none, but I don’t think there were any this serious, you know?"

If you went looking, there might definitely be mobile games somewhere that had graphics overflowing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with that nerdy-game feel.

But at the very least, I’d never played one.

So I was pretty excited.

"Though... wow, this installation’s taking longer than I thought."

What kind of game needed thirty gigabytes? Wasn’t the graphics supposed to be just good?

Anyway, I’d gotten all the information the official website had to offer.

This wasn’t my first time playing a mobile game, so maybe it was time to go find the "real" information...!

[Search: Galaxy Train Gallery]

To get the game’s real information, there was nothing better than an anonymous community.

After all, the official website wasn’t going to tell you what the monetization felt like.

... It was a little embarrassing, honestly, to be entering a community like this even after becoming a chaebol family’s youngest daughter, but whatever! It’s not like I was logging in with my face plastered everywhere!

"As expected, it’s a total mess..."

The community was chaotic, but that was actually reassuring.

If Galaxy Train were a dead game, there wouldn’t be this many people around.

"Let’s see... Genshin? Looks like the monetization is similar to this game..."

I skimmed the post pinned in the community notice section as quickly as I could.

Kind of amusingly, right from the opening line, the game’s monetization was described in red text as absolutely disgusting.

"If you’ve played Genshin, then the monetization is the same, yep."

"If you want to be a C6 owner, you’ll need to drop well over a million won, easy."

"Every version is going to bring two new characters, and if you get spooked once, you’d better be ready to whale for two truckloads right away."

"We never said this was a generous game, and if you think you can collect every character with just a monthly pass and battle pass, don’t even start."

"... Aren’t they usually supposed to tell you, ‘It’s generous, so just give it a try’?"

Just how bad was this game called Genshin, anyway?

Was it as savage as the games I’d played? No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t imagine it being that bad.

"Anyway... character pulls feel pretty familiar, don’t they? Honestly, there’s no way I’m short on money."

Money, to be honest, didn’t really feel like a serious issue.

What mattered was how fun the game was.

"Well, it’s installed, so might as well give it a shot..."

Unlike console games, mobile games were perfect for a little trial run.

It had taken some time to install, but if I played for a bit and it turned out to be boring, I could just delete it.

─ ♬

Launched with that lighthearted attitude, Galaxy Train made it immediately clear that it was different from the start.

"Oh... what? They were talking about space action, and it’s a space station?"

This was more serious than I’d expected.

Even the music was pretty good.

It wasn’t some cheap little tune, but more like violins? Anyway, it had an orchestral feel...

"Wow, the graphics are actually really good."

Do they really make games like this these days?

When I played mobile games back then, they were at the level where you could call them paper-doll dress-up and not be wrong.

This wasn’t SD art; it was proper 3D.

"So I can move with the keyboard? Huh? I can control the character?"

At the center of the large monitor stood a purple-haired woman wearing a coat and pants that emphasized her very full backside.

Because she appeared right from the start while violin music swelled in the background, her first impression was absolutely intense.

"What, and it’s even dubbed in Korean? But this was supposed to be a Chinese game?"

... Huh?

Was China in this world kind of different?

Weren’t Chinese games supposed to be dubbed in Japanese?

That was why everyone used to laugh about the three East Asian countries churning out nerd games together.

Could I really switch it?

"Oh..."

Once I opened the options window, there it was, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world: four languages to choose from.

Korean certainly wasn’t bad, but...

Still, if you were an otaku, you had to go with the Latin of the East—Japanese!

"... Then let’s keep going."

I moved the character around a bit, walked forward, and a message appeared telling me to attack the enemy in front of me.

So I clicked the left button, and battle began, followed by a flashy transition into familiar turn-based combat.

"I know this feeling. The speed bar’s on the left, there are elemental weaknesses... what’s this? A shield? Anyway, there’s something over the HP bar...!"

As expected from a Chinese game, it had borrowed a ton of familiar stuff.

It was packed with things I’d seen in the Arcana series.

"Skill points? Basic attack... ultimate... okay, I think I get the gist...!"

Galaxy Train’s UI was so clean it hardly felt like a mobile game at all.

And the animations for the basic attack and the combat skill were different.

Usually, a basic attack is just an auto attack, so don’t they usually reuse the animation or make it look obviously cheap?

... At least, that’s how the games I played did it.

"This game... isn’t bad."

The moment the first tutorial, overflowing with familiar elements, came to an end, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could tell.

Galaxy Train was fun.

* * *

"All right... Galaxy Train. You’re worthy of receiving Kwon Seah’s money."

After coming back from the bathroom and sitting down in my chair, I said it out loud.

I had just finished the tutorial, chosen the female protagonist, and seen the ending of the prologue story.

There was all this business about going to the next planet, but something else mattered more.

"That woman from earlier... I have to pull her."

The woman in the tight leather pants.

Honestly, I wanted that mature woman who seemed to have a deep connection to this game’s protagonist.

Considering she was playable right from the tutorial, she had to be the first pickup character, right?

"... ... Huh?"

With that thought in mind, I went back into the "character pull" banner that had opened earlier, only to find a girl I’d never seen before standing there.

A blue-haired female character was striking a cool pose with a scythe in her hand.

"What? Where did that mom from earlier go? Who is this? Butterfly at the Tip of the Blade?"

"No... and who exactly are you?"

... If it had been that woman with the full backside and the slightly big-looking chest from earlier, I definitely would’ve pulled.

But now that some unfamiliar ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠girl had popped up, I was hesitating a little.

"No, wait... why am I even thinking about this? Seah, are you a loser?"

I quickly moved the mouse and clicked on Details.

"Hunt... Quantum... Seera."

I quickly checked the information for the first featured character.

I skipped the story, because opening it could just spoil things for me, and checked the skills instead.

"What, this... isn’t this broken? You get another turn if you kill an enemy?"

I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand, wondering if I’d read it wrong, but the text didn’t change.

"This... isn’t this insanely overpowered? So this is why it’s a Chinese game? In a turn-based game, you just kill an enemy and get another turn for free?"

Even without bringing up Dark Dungeon or the Arcana series, one turn in a turn-based game was tremendously valuable.

And they were just giving it away for free if you killed an enemy?!

"That’s broken... No matter how I look at it, that’s broken. Fine, let’s pull her! Pull her!"

With my right hand I clicked the mouse to open the payment window, and with my left hand I picked up my smartphone.

Obviously, since I had just cleared the tutorial, there was no way I had enough currency for a ten-pull.

"Let’s see..."

"120,000 won for 13,000 gems... and it takes 1,600 gems to do a ten-pull?"

Roughly speaking, that meant I could pull about eighty times, right?

"Wait... but a single character is 120,000 won? The tuna set meal I had for lunch was 50,000 won..."

Wasn’t this a little expensive...?

How much was one of those famous Souls-like games, anyway?

Since I was only going to try it out, wouldn’t it be fine to go free-to-play for a bit?

What kind of sucker starts a game and immediately thinks about buying a truckload of currency?

"But, Seah... Souls-like games don’t have boobs or butts..."

Even if I’d become a woman, I still preferred women.

I liked the pretty voice and that decadent, seductive vibe the woman from the start of Galaxy Train had given off.

"Hsss... honestly, this... Seera or whatever she’s called doesn’t look bad either..."

Console games don’t have butts and boobs.

There are no pretty girls!

"Damn it! What am I even hesitating over? It’s only 120,000 won!"

The bag my cousin bought me cost tens of millions of won...!

─ Bwoooom!

... Hah, hahahaha... why don’t I feel any regret now?!

"Let’s just think of it as buying an expensive game! Back in the day, if you wanted to play games, you had to buy them!"

─ Chiririring!

The moment I saw the system message appear with that sparkling burst of light, a chill ran through my whole body.