Probability Never Lies

"Probability... turns out it doesn’t fool people nearly as much as you’d think..."

— Bwooooom!!!

"Ugh... at first I thought I was on the verge of hitting the jackpot..."

I shoved the noisy phone a little farther away and let out a long breath.

What time is it now? Already ten?

Wasn’t I definitely supposed to wake up at lunchtime and start gaming...?

"No, that’s not the important part. The important part is that I just blew 1.68 million won in thirty minutes!"

I knew it had taken thirty minutes because the kindly text messages telling me I’d spent 1.68 million won were still coming in.

The first message, saying I’d spent 120,000 won, had shown up thirty minutes ago.

"Ugh... because Seare came home on the thirtieth pull the first time...!"

The second Seare came out ridiculously fast.

It showed up in thirty pulls before I even had time to joke, Wow, am I about to hit pity?

But the third Seare was the real problem.

That one came out stuffed to the brim, like a mountain of overfilled rice.

And not even right away, either — a gold-pity off-banner pull spat out some dragon girl with horns on her head. What was her name again? Renako?

"And then it wasn’t even a quick off-banner into the next pull; I had to hit pity again..."

Looking back, I should have stopped then.

I got up from my chair and grabbed my sweat-soaked pants, fanning them back and forth in front of me to cool my body down.

Was this because I’d basically gambled two million won right here in my seat? Damn, I was sweating all over the place.

My pajamas felt stuffy too, so I just ripped off my top and tossed it onto the floor.

The youngest daughter of a chaebol family, throwing money away in front of her computer and stripping down because she was hot...

It was such a ridiculous sight it was almost funny, but so what? I used to be a guy, after all.

"Anyway... should I organize my glorious gacha timeline?"

26 pulls - Seare (1)

101 pulls - Renako

180 pulls - Seare (2)

261 pulls - Renako (2)

345 pulls - Seare (3)

436 pulls - Brunnhilde

515 pulls - Seare (4)

587 pulls - Renako (3)

662 pulls - Seare (5)

692 pulls - Seare (6)

"At first I figured it’d take 2.4 million won... but I only spent 1.68 million, so did I save 800,000 won?"

When I looked at it that way, it didn’t seem so bad.

"Ah, but why are women’s panties so tiny...? Ugh, they cling like crazy."

I’d been standing here fanning myself dry for ages, and the sweat still wouldn’t go away...!

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"Still, I should at least sort out what I got. Let’s take a look."

So I’d gotten six more copies of Seare, right? Three Renakos, and finally a character called Brunnhilde.

"Huh? This Brunnhilde... isn’t she the girl from that Light Cone I off-bannered last time, The Battle Isn’t Over Yet?"

I could never forget that glossy silver hair and that beauty with the unmistakably Russian vibe.

"Oh, wait... did I off-banner Brunnhilde’s signature Light Cone? Let’s check that in a bit."

I didn’t know what Renako did, but her job was listed as Abundance.

As the name suggested, she was of average height, but her chest was incredible.

"Ah! So Abundance means healer, huh? It’s a Chinese game, so of course they had to write the class names in the most obnoxious way possible. Just call them dealers, healers, tanks, and be done with it."

There was no need to look at a healer right away.

I quickly clicked on Seare and entered the UI for strengthening characters.

Then I immediately clicked Eidolon and moved my hand to the six available slots.

"Wow... every time I click once, it’s basically thirty thousand won disappearing. That’s insane. Completely insane."

My hands were shaking a little, but I mashed the Unlock Eidolon button anyway.

— Whoooosh!!!

"Oh? What’s this? The UI changes once you max out six dupes?"

The screen that had shown six little slots suddenly flipped over into a suggestive illustration of Seare, bare and shameless.

Of course, it wasn’t so blatant that it looked like outright porn — they had to keep the age rating in line, after all.

...Was this what spending money was supposed to feel like?

"For a two-million-won illustration, though... I mean, it’s not like you can see everything up top, and it’s not like they’re showing anything below, either..."

She’s not even showing her butt.

...Then again, the games I used to play never had anything like this, either, right?

It was just click! — a flash of light — and the ultimate skill’s damage multiplier went from 200% to 300%, and that was it.

"What’s this now? Galaxy Talk? I can chat with Seare?"

It seemed like this was another feature you only got by fully maxing her out.

The other characters were all locked.

But if I started talking to her now, I had a feeling I’d get spoiled on something, so I’d do it later.

"Hisss...! There’s so much stuff they open up that it really does feel like I’m being treated special..."

Damn, this is weird...

It definitely felt like I was getting a lot more for the money I spent, but for some reason it also made me feel like I was getting subtly ripped off.

I got a sexy signature illustration and an unopened feature called Galaxy Talk that base-copy players could never have...

"Aah, whatever, what’s not to like? It’s perfect for a degenerate otaku like me!"

I quickly took a screenshot of Seare’s sexy illustration and the screen with Galaxy Talk unlocked.

"Nice... now all that’s left is to brag about it..."

「I made a maxed Seare. Am I late or what???」

I liked the game the moment I finished the tutorial, so I went full max right away lol

It’s been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a while since I played a degenerate otaku game again, and honestly, I’m having way too much fun

「Whoa lol you went for full max on day one???」

「If it’s not too much trouble, could you buy me a tub of Häagen-Dazs?」

「Is it okay to post the six-dupe art? Won’t the mods delete it???」

「Pyaaa lol」

「WTF is this guy? He’s only level 22?」

「Rich bastards are based!」

「(Seare giving a thumbs-up emote)」

「Wow lol he really went straight to full max」

「No lol, if you’ve played Genshin you’d know this game’s DPS units are meant to be maxed out, yeah」

"Haah... yeah, this is it..."

The moment I hit refresh, twenty comments appeared at once.

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And because the recommendations were piling up so fast, the post got pushed into the featured board after just one refresh.

"Hoo...! I can see the jealousy! Of course they’re jealous! Honestly, 1.68 million won isn’t exactly the kind of money an ordinary salaried worker can just casually throw around!!!"

I’d lived a 9th-grade civil servant life, so I knew.

1.68 million won for a hobby in one shot?

No wonder people would freak out! Even when I eat, if the bill goes over ten thousand won, I start thinking it’s expensive!

"Ha... there are even people leaving insults first out of jealousy. Yeah, yeah, this is it. Wow, the comments are already over fifty."

About half of them were cute emotes of Seare and Brunnhilde.

But the other half were overflowing with envy — stuff like, I’m jealous, or, If you’ve got that much money, spare me a few won.

"Hoo... good. Then maybe it’s time to really enjoy the Galaxy Express."

Come to think of it, this game needed four characters in a party, right?

How should I build it? Like World War Great War or Final Fantasy, do I just put in one healer and fill the rest with DPS?

"Hmm... I did pull a bunch of four-stars, though..."

Four-stars are worse than five-stars.

That’s the unavoidable reality of being born into a gacha game.

Which means I absolutely did not want to put something obviously inferior into my party.

And the combat power numbers I could see at a glance were so low that they didn’t even make my heart flutter.

"How about this?"

Seare (Hunt) - Brunnhilde (Harmony) - Renako (Abundance) - Female Protagonist (Destruction)

"That actually feels pretty plausible, doesn’t it?"

Put simply, it was like DPS, support, healer, and tank-DPS... something like that.

Besides, our Seare was a 6-dupe Seare, so maybe she had the carry power of three damage dealers?

In effect, I wasn’t really running a four-person party.

I was running a six-person party!!!

"Heh heh heh, hohohoho!!! Yes! This is the power of money! For now, let’s trust our Seare’s power and push the story hard!"

— Ding-ding, ding-ding...!

"Huh, huh?! What? A call?!"

I was in the middle of hyping myself up all by my lonesome when my phone rang...!

My face went red as I hurriedly grabbed the smartphone and checked it.

Shinseong Bank, Gangnam Branch — Branch Manager Lee Jeongjik

B-br-bra-branch manager? Wasn’t that someone really high up?

"Hello... I’ve answered the call?"

"Good day, Lady Kwon Seah."

The voice on the other end of the phone was solemn and heavy, full of gravitas.

He also sounded a little like a kind middle-aged man, but just seeing the title branch manager made my chest ache.

Damn... what now? Did he think it was suspicious that the young lady who’d been missing for a month suddenly started whaling in a game?

"This is Lee Jeongjik from Shinseong Bank, Gangnam Branch. Are you feeling any better?"

"Ah, yes. I’m resting at the moment, so I’m better than I was before."

"That is a relief. The reason I called is... we were concerned that something urgent might have happened, since you repeatedly declined calls automatically placed to your number."

"Urgent?"

"Yes. Our Shinseong Bank Master Visa card has a fraud-detection system. When spending behavior differs from the usual pattern, we verify the cardholder in case of theft or loss."

...Wait, was this because I’d kept rejecting the calls that interrupted my spending spree?

Those were important calls?

Ah, no, wait! So because I’d ignored a few calls, the bank’s branch manager personally phoned me out of concern?

He did, didn’t he. Yeah, of course he had to!

"Was the card stolen, or—"

"No. I used it myself. Please don’t worry."

"So it was indeed the young lady who used it? Here, one moment, I—"

"Yes, yes! Yes! It was me! I knowingly and deliberately spent the full 1.68 million won myself, so please don’t worry about it in the future!"

Daaaaamn...!

I feel like I’m going to die of embarrassment.

Ugh, my face is burning. I’ve got goosebumps all over my body.

"Understood. It seems you’ve found a new hobby."

"Yes, well... I wanted to look into something."

"I understand. I’m truly relieved that this was not a theft incident. Please take good care of yourself."

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"Yes, of course... then please excuse me."

— Beep, beep, beep!

Cold sweat poured down my body for a completely different reason than when I was rolling gacha.

"...This is fine, right? It wasn’t my grandfather or my great-uncle calling, it got handled at the branch manager level, right?"

I figured if I spent a bit of money, someone would call — but I didn’t think something like this could happen.

I stared blankly at the monitor.

...What is this? Is this what they call post-orgasm clarity?

“Eek! A-ah! That scared me!”

I was still dazed when someone suddenly spoke to me, and I jumped in surprise — it was a voice coming from the computer.

Annoyed, I glared at the monitor, only to see Seare — the fully maxed six-dupe Seare I’d spent 1.68 million won on — stretching in an adorable idle animation.

"Fight you? Are you kidding? Do you know how much I spent on you?"

But watching the little butterflies glitter and flutter across the screen made my burning face cool down a bit.

She really was cute. Really cute!

"Ugh... but I already spent the money, so I might as well get every last bit of value out of it and enjoy myself until I’ve squeezed it dry!"

I pressed my thumb hard under the sweaty skin of my chest and scratched at it while grabbing the mouse again.

I’d already experienced every embarrassing thing there was to experience.

No way was I going to feel nothing but shame and never even get to enjoy the fact that I spent the money!

"Then before pushing the story, I want to strengthen my characters as much as possible... If I want to level them up, I’ll need to farm experience books, right?"

I naturally moved the mouse over the experience books and clicked.

"Calyx? Golden? What kind of dungeon name is that? Where are Silver and Bronze?"

Thinking it was a weird name, I clicked on the Golden Calyx.

"Let’s see... so I can’t just run this dungeon forever? I need something called Trailblaze Power?"

Trailblaze Power was a resource that recovered by one point every six minutes.

And running the Golden Calyx required at least ten Trailblaze Power.

"So what, I can only run this once an hour? And I can’t get Trailblaze Power anywhere else?"

No matter how I thought about it, it didn’t seem like I’d be able to level up as much as I wanted from running a single stage a little at a time.

"...You can get more Trailblaze Power if you’re rich? You can raise characters more than other people?"

I’ve got four billion won in my bank account.

If I farm this all out, then the combat power rank I saw earlier would obviously be mine for first place, right?