A Gacha Addict's Life in Fusionpunk - Chapter 10

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ A Gacha Addict's Life in Fusionpunk ◈

Chapter 10: Starting the Second Run (2)

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"Young master, remember this. You must never let anyone discover you there."

"No, I really did win money! The deposit certificate is in my room!"

"Saving you, the House Head's bloodline, is at least how I hope to atone for this disloyalty."

"Will you listen to me?!"

"I'll come find you in three days! If you haven't heard from me by then, please... take care of yourself."

Because of the penalty, I followed the exact same path as my previous run and wound up tumbling into Necropolis.

I really came back to this place.

But it didn't matter.

Everyone knew status windows were cheat codes.

And it was a well-known fact that my era of success was starting now.

I couldn't interfere with the status window yet.

Whenever I tried, a red warning light appeared.

※ [ Belated Response ] Penalty in Effect ※

Apparently, I couldn't operate the status window during the penalty.

Fine. I could use this time to organize my thoughts.

First, I had raced back through time.

The important thing was that I had only returned.

If I didn't change something, my death would repeat itself. You know, that worldline stuff from genre conventions.

I didn't want to die. I didn't want to be thrown into that horrible place again. And the penalty worried me too.

To avoid the worst ending, I needed to think as hard as possible.

Let's take this one step at a time.

Why had that monstrous samurai bitch, who had cut off my head and slit kind office foreman Ron's throat, come looking for me?

At first, I thought she had been chasing Arbel and found me along the way.

But that wasn't it.

'You're Cedric Montraven, aren't you?'

'What a disappointment. Your sister bored me, but... I had high expectations for you.'

That bitch's target had been me from the start.

She had been my guest.

'Why, though?'

I had no idea. I couldn't understand it.

If she had such high expectations, couldn't she have tried talking first?

We could have had coffee, watched a movie, taken a walk through Necropolis, rested at a hotel for a while...

No. Anyone who expected something from Cedric had to be completely insane.

Trying to understand a crazy bitch was crazy too.

Skip that for now.

Next question. How had she found me?

I had hidden well until then.

Necropolis was a shitty place, but it was perfect for lying low.

Thousands of exiles flooded into it every day. It was a human garbage dump.

'Could that fucking Ceres have...?'

Right after I sold a corpse to Ceres and spent a hot night with her, that killer had paid me a pinpoint visit.

And Ceres was the only person who knew exactly who I was.

'That's it.'

I hadn't had much choice at the time, but revealing my identity to a mage had been stupid.

I hadn't even been able to make proper use of the Universal Coin I'd finally received.

I had to hide my identity more thoroughly from now on.

So what should I do?

For now, a goal that had disappeared had returned.

Arbel in a reverse bunny suit.

I wasn't a psychopath, so I felt a little guilty.

Even if I had had no other choice, I had sold her corpse.

And the way she had died while calling for her mother had been pitiful.

I had one week before an injured Arbel crawled into my rented room.

During that time, I would get settled, and while I was at it, try to save her this run.

As I thought through all that, the screaming "me" eventually fell asleep as though collapsing.

Ah.

Come to think of it, this was the day I had spent twenty-four straight hours at the casino.

※ [ Belated Response ] Penalty Ends ※

The moment I woke up, that refreshing message greeted me.

"Whew. That was fucking suffocating."

The penalty was over.

My arms and legs moved as I wanted them to, and the status window responded too.

"Let's see..."

I needed to see what could possibly be so amazing that it hadn't shown its face during my first run.

First things first.

The unread notifications.

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::: Challenge Task (NEW!) :::

::: Achievement Earned (NEW!) :::

::: New Area Entered (NEW!) :::

======

Pretty classic.

Challenge Tasks gave points.

But apparently, they didn't stack.

Even though I had kissed Arbel once more, the notification saying, "Kiss your older sister. +10 pt," had only appeared once.

If they stacked, I would have turned Arbel into a deep-kiss vending machine.

Like the tips that appeared on game loading screens, entering a New Area also gave simple hints.

I still didn't know what Achievement Earned meant.

But unlike Challenge Tasks, it seemed to give things related to understanding death, titles, and other stuff.

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[ Death Game (LV.0) ]

▶ User: Cedric Montraven

▶ Achievements Earned: 「Zeroth Death」「Lucky for Now」

▶ Title Held: 「Hedonist」

▶ POINT: 221 pt

▶ Artifact Display Stand: [ ] [ ] [ ]

◆ Shop

◆ Playground (Locked)

◆ Enhancement (Locked)

======

First, I clicked Death Game.

"Huh?"

I clicked the "User: Cedric Montraven" entry.

Click. Click. Click.

"...?"

Nothing happened.

Clicking Achievements Earned or Title Held showed things like the log messages from when I got them, but that was it.

The same went for Points and the Artifact Display Stand.

Playground and Enhancement were simply marked as Locked.

"What is this, some subscription service?"

Could I not use all the features without paying a monthly fee?

But when I selected Shop...

Bbaam~ Bbam bbabam!

Fireworks and confetti exploded as I entered the shop window.

Unlike the shabby old status window, a colorful page that looked like a nerdy gacha game's shop UI greeted me.

It felt strangely familiar.

But the displayed products were...

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◆ Shop

《Old World Shopping Mall》

《Artifact Random Box》

《Joker Random Box》

TIP

- Purchased products can be stored in your inventory.

- Products stored in your inventory carry over to the next run.

======

"What kind of shop only has random boxes?"

It was too early to be disappointed.

Who knew what might come out of them?

《Old World Shopping Mall》

- 1 draw: 5 pt

- A random box containing items from the modern world.

- You can pay points to refill won products.

"This one's a random box too."

It was ridiculous, but I had to test the waters. I pressed the one-draw button.

[Points used. 221 pt => 216 pt]

Doo-dung-jjak! Doo-dung-jjak! Koong-jjak!

A box appeared in the center of the UI, glowing wildly amid flashy effects.

"Ooh, oooh..."

My heart raced.

The taste of gacha that analog casinos could never provide.

After everything it took to forget you!

This was fun! This was exciting! I could spend my whole life doing only this!

White light shone brilliantly through the gaps in the box.

Doro-rong!

The box opened.

"Did I get something good?!"

With my heart pounding, I checked what had come out.

「Jjajanggetti Bundle」

- Grade: C

- Description: Become a chef this Sunday!

- Refill: 1 pt

Thud.

A bundle of Jjajanggetti dropped limply from the air to the floor.

"Fuck."

Was this for real?

Jjajanggetti? It was delicious!

Boil it up, add the sauce, fry an egg with a runny yolk, drizzle in olive oil, mix it all together, put a piece of green onion kimchi on top, and shove it into your mouth. Ahh, that was sex. That was Sunday.

"Give me my five points back, you bastard!!!"

I had over two hundred points in total, but five points was no small amount.

And considering I couldn't earn duplicates, they were an extremely rare resource.

I had to scrape and farm them bit by bit like a free-to-play player.

"Forget it. I'm upset. I'm never doing this again..."

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★★[EVENT!] 《Old World Shopping Mall》 Special Fever Time!★★

★ 'UC' items, pickup rate increased by 500%!!

★ 'R' items, pickup rate increased by 1,000%!!

★ 'SR' item guaranteed after 100 draws!

★ One free Refill Voucher provided!!

======

What, what, what?!

A banner suddenly appeared. Flames roared around the ten-pull button as it began blazing.

"Hiss... Haa... I'm weak against this kind of thing."

I hesitated.

Was it really right to invest this much in something that looked completely useless?

[Points used. 216 pt => 166 pt]

Gacha was supposed to be done in ten-pulls.

Dung-tak! Doo-dung-tak! Dung-tak!

Effects far more spectacular than before!

Ten boxes soared into the air.

My brain melted from excitement and tension!

At least at this moment, I envied no one.

How long had I gone without this feeling?

The floating boxes opened one by one.

The results were...!

Doro-ro-ro-rong!

Oogami Ultra-Thin Condoms (C)

Dupong Zippo Lighter and Lighter Oil (UC)

Tyreno (C)

Energy Drink ×6 Bundle (C)

Portable Water Filter (C)

Sanel Body Wash & Shampoo (UC)

Malbor Red, One Carton (C)

Clown Makeup Kit (C)

Almani Long Coat (UC)

Quite the garbage haul, right?

"...I'd forgotten this feeling too."

I poured Tyreno into my mouth and crunched it up.

My hard-earned fifty points!

Used on this fucking garbage!

"Sigh... Or maybe not? Could these be useful? At least my quality of life will improve a little, right?"

There was body wash and shampoo. Of course, this place didn't have shower facilities.

Looking again, there were cigarettes too. A whole carton! And it had even given me a lighter!

This had not been a bad investment. It had better not have been.

Otherwise, I felt like the frustration would kill me.

"Fuck, this is making me anxious..."

The urge to immediately spend another fifty points and pull something useful to make up for my losses slowly crept in.

Maybe this ten-pull had just absorbed all my bad luck?

"Huh?"

Then I noticed it.

One unopened box still remained in my vision.

A soft bluish glow leaked through its gaps.

A mystical Hummm. rang out.

As though possessed, I touched it.

A guidance window appeared amid watery blue effects.

「 S&W Model 500, .500 S&W Magnum Rounds ×20 」

- Grade: R

- Description: A large, gleaming, high-powered Magnum revolver. Do not shoot people.

- Refill: 3 pt / 1 pt

The S&W 500.

The revolver people thought of when they heard Magnum.

As though possessed, I picked up the heavy weapon.

"Wow."

Its grip had the solid weight of a small dumbbell.

It was the 10.5-inch barrel model, nearly thirty centimeters long.

Rather than a handgun, its cold silver gleam resembled a finely sharpened dagger.

When I removed the cylinder, I saw five chambers large enough to fit my pinkie finger.

I tore open the small ammunition box and loaded the rounds. Then, wearing the Almani long coat I had just gotten, I struck a pose.

My eyes turned cold.

"The end of my gun shines, and my trigger delivers judgment... Hoo. One bullet remains. You're a bad person. You made me a laughingstock. Cry. Prove your purity by crying."

What should I do? Maybe I was bipolar! I was suddenly excited!

The weight settled into my grip and gave me psychological stability.

It was too big to carry around, but I had the Inventory function, so that was fine.

This was power on a completely different level from a hand axe. It filled me with confidence.

This was a huge gain. At least huge enough that I didn't regret spending fifty points.

"From now on, your name is... Hero."

I had a reliable companion.

And then...

《Artifact Random Box》

- 1 draw: 1 Achievement Ticket

- Display artifacts on the Artifact Display Stand to gain permanent abilities.

- Tickets owned: 2