WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 140

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I calmly watched the students.

Each of them had taken out a mirror bug and was lightly fiddling with the screen. They seemed to be checking the gacha section I had prepared in one corner of the message board.

They looked fairly interested. But they only glanced at one another, gauging the mood, and no one made the first move. They probably did not trust the gacha yet.

That was understandable.

I had spoken about it lightly, but five hundred points was a larger amount than it sounded. Renting my mirror bug for a month only cost fifty points.

Spending ten times that with a single tap of the finger. From their perspective, of course there would be resistance. I smiled brightly as I watched them.

Then all I had to do was lower that resistance.

I lightly clapped my hands. The magical power in them amplified the clap, spreading it throughout the classroom. The students’ gazes turned to me. Feeling those sharp stares, I raised my mirror bug.

“I imagine the points needed for the gacha feel a bit burdensome. So I’d like to hold a commemorative event for everyone’s first gacha. The first ten gachas performed in this classroom will be discounted to half price. So please draw without feeling burdened.”

I lowered my head with a slight smile. Then I breathed my will into the mirror bug and moved to the gacha screen. There, brilliant lights were flashing around a large phrase that read “Special Event!”

I poured my will into the shadow tree. My magical power seeped into it and began changing the structure of the message board. The words First 10 Half Price appeared above the gacha button.

The mirror bugs the students were looking at would be showing the same thing. Once they confirmed it, their eyes lightly sparkled.

The tenfold probability boost and half-price discount had both been applied. Could they withstand such a powerful temptation?

A quiet laugh slipped out of me.

Hehe. They could not.

I looked at the students with confidence.

Just as I expected, one of the students seemed unable to resist and pressed the button. At the same time, that student’s mirror bug began giving off a slightly dazzling glow.

The mirror bug floated into the air and began drawing a picture on its screen. In the completed picture, a woman with a gentle impression appeared. She looked a little like Mira.

The woman in the picture sat inside a dim tent. There, she stroked a crystal ball as if making a prophecy. Inside the crystal ball, a hazy flow like fog rippled.

The woman stroked the crystal ball for a moment, then calmly closed her eyes. Then she slowly lifted it. Light began pouring out from within the crystal ball.

At first, a blue light rippled faintly, then the color shifted, and purple soon filled the screen. The light was strong enough to ripple past the mirror bug itself.

The light gradually settled. In the end, where the crystal ball had been, a small ticket appeared. The woman lightly bowed her head and slowly vanished.

I quietly nodded. That gacha animation was excellent. It was the result of a lot of care on my part.

They were spending points to draw from the gacha. If the result simply popped out in an instant, how shabby would that be? I could not give them that kind of disappointment. That was why I had prepared a gacha animation like this.

The student stared blankly at the screen, then checked the ticket.

A ticket.

There was only one type of ticket that gave off purple light, a one-month pass to the fourth floor. Pulling that in one try was impressive luck.

He looked extremely satisfied.

That was understandable. He had only spent two hundred fifty points. With that alone, he had gained access to the fourth floor. Of course he would feel good.

The others seemed to have checked his ticket too, because they began touching their own mirror bugs and drawing from the gacha one by one. I smiled as I watched many mirror bugs pour out light.

Thanks to that strong first draw, the gacha caught on. Some were still hesitating, but they would surely fall to the temptation soon enough. I folded my arms and nodded.

Then a booming drumbeat suddenly rang out.

The grand sound was not only heard by the ears. It carried magical power, creating vibrations that rang all the way through the chest.

That sound...

I could not help flinching when I heard it. The sound was very familiar. I was the one who had set it.

I had not expected to hear it already.

Everyone’s gazes turned toward the source of the sound. I did the same. There, Cassian was looking down at her mirror bug with a puzzled face.

An extremely strong light was bursting from her mirror bug. The drumbeat was coming from it.

On the screen, I saw the picture of the woman carefully set down the crystal ball. The crystal ball cracked apart within the light, then began rippling with a golden glow. Cassian looked down at it and tilted her head slightly.

“Oh, I pulled it.”

I saw her quietly tap the mirror bug’s screen. I stepped toward her. When I stood beside her and checked the mirror bug, a golden ticket came into view.

After confirming it, I smiled brightly and clapped my hands. That drumbeat just now was the congratulatory sound that rang when someone drew the first-place prize.

That was the first-place prize of this gacha, a pass that allowed someone to receive Blood Axe’s power.

“Congratulations, Cassian! I didn’t think you would draw it this quickly.”

“Mm... Thank you, mister. I had a good feeling for some reason, so I pressed it, and it came out.”

“But I don’t need it,” she muttered.

I looked at her with fresh eyes.

Of course, I had expected it to come out today. There were two hundred students here. If all of them drew ten times, then by probability, someone was bound to pull it.

But I never thought it would appear this quickly. And I never imagined it would be Cassian.

I stared at the golden ticket she had drawn and smiled bitterly.

They said powerful beings carried luck with them, but I had not expected her intense intuition to apply even to a gacha. It was quite an amazing talent.

I glanced around.

Perhaps because she had received such a result right in front of them, the mood among the others had changed a little too.

A streak of desire rippled in their eyes as they looked at the golden ticket she had drawn. They began touching the gacha button. Cassian seemed to have given them strong motivation.

With that, the classroom began flashing with lights. White light rippled, blue light burst out, and occasionally purple light appeared.

Like that, all of them finished their ten draws. But despite so many attempts, no golden glow like Cassian’s appeared again.

Of course it did not.

Even though the probability had been raised tenfold, it was not something that could be drawn that easily.

I quietly observed the students.

They had all failed to draw that power, but surprisingly, most of them looked satisfied. Even if they had not drawn Blood Axe’s power, they had picked up a few other prizes.

Various items were floating on their mirror bugs. I saw the students glance toward one another’s mirror bugs.

They seemed to be checking what everyone else had drawn. Among them, I also heard voices bragging about what they had pulled. Perhaps because this was the opening round, everyone seemed a little lucky.

And as I watched the students, I saw Blood Axe flying around wildly. Its restless movements made it very clear it thought the points were being wasted.

That was understandable. If this was held at half price, there was no way to profit. It could even be called a loss. Some prizes required points to prepare, after all.

But this was basically a sample. If they were lucky now, that was even better. Based on that feeling, they would draw again next time without much hesitation.

I returned to the platform and smiled brightly while facing the students again. Then I lightly gestured toward Blood Axe. Since the power had been drawn, the prize had to be prepared.

-Slaughter! Slaughter!

Blood Axe was drawn by my gesture and floated above the platform. Then it shook its body and spat out a bit of writing. The murmuring students stopped talking and turned their gazes to it.

“It says, ‘Congratulations on having a winner. I shall grant that power at once!’”

Saying that, I looked at Blood Axe.

What it had prepared was a small chipped piece of its axe blade. The power contained inside was as simple as its ego. It simply made it a little easier to split a target.

Was its ego simple because the power was simple? Or did the power have a simple form because its ego was simple?

I could not know. I slightly shrugged. Well, maybe it was both.

In any case, there was no doubt the power was very strong. I had personally experienced the power contained in that magical power while staying with Rabbit in the dream.

“Then please wait a moment. I’ll bring it right away.”

I lightly clapped my hands and let my will flow. That will moved along my shadow tree and headed toward the puppet waiting near Blood Axe.

The waiting puppet received the signal and took a box from its chest. Then it carefully moved toward Cassian and quietly placed it in front of her.

The box was neatly sealed with layer upon layer of seals. But despite those seals, they could not completely block the magical power rippling inside, and a savage magical power seemed to leak faintly from within.

Cassian received it and gently undid the seal. Then she lightly opened the lid of the box. A terrifyingly fierce magical power began pouring out from inside.

That magical power came from the axe blade fragment inside the box. Cassian frowned slightly and blocked the flow of magical power. Then she closed the box again and firmly layered the seal back on.

She lightly tapped the box and nodded. The flow of magical power was extremely clear. The other students must have confirmed it too.

As if proving that, their mood had changed. The satisfaction from before had vanished without a trace, and strong envy and desire had begun filling their eyes.

I looked at them with a pleased smile.

“Then today’s lecture will end here. I wish you all good luck.”

I lightly bowed my head toward the students as I said that.

Blood Axe also spat out a final farewell of Slaughter! With that, its body gradually began to blur.

The illusion magic forming its body had ended. Like that, Blood Axe slipped out of the illusion body and returned to its room.

And a week passed.

During that time, the gacha was extremely active.

Surprisingly, quite a few people had drawn Blood Axe’s power. Around twenty, perhaps. Considering the probability, that was surprising. It meant they had attempted it that many times.

And the result of those attempts was now in front of me.

I scratched my head as I looked around the workshop.

Then I glanced to the side. There, I could see No. 0 scattering magical power here and there while directing the puppets.

The puppets were packing various items quite nicely. I picked up an item placed nearby. It was a fairly high-purity lump of magic stone. This was also one of the items listed as a gacha prize.

I sent out my will and called a mirror bug. It lightly flew up and floated in the air. On its screen was a list of prizes that needed to be prepared. There was still quite a lot left.

Should I send those first?

With that thought, I sent a signal to the waiting puppets. Then the puppets put the items No. 0 had packed into their chests and began moving.

They left the workshop and spread throughout the tower. They were going to the people who had drawn those prizes.

The prizes I had listed were very diverse. I was also adding more. Their value varied widely too. Some were worth less than a hundred points, while others were worth more than five thousand points.

I had prepared them because I thought a gacha should not have blanks. The magic stone I had just touched was worth around two thousand points.

So many things were being scattered throughout the tower like that. Preparing them caused a great deal of bleeding. Of course, I was earning even more than that.

It was the result of making that calculation just right. Of the five hundred points each gacha cost, about sixty percent went into preparing these prizes. And within that cycle, my points continued to grow.

I smiled bitterly as I looked at the packed list of prizes still waiting to be prepared.

I had known this thing called gacha was good at stimulating people’s desires. It was basically gambling, after all.

But I had not expected it to receive such a big response. As those piles of prepared prizes showed, the students were investing far more points into this than I had imagined.

Why was that?

I tilted my head slightly.

The probability of this gacha had been disclosed very clearly. So they must have calculated it thoroughly as well. The students were mages too, so they would be very sensitive to profit and loss.

The structure of the gacha was very simple. Unless they drew the first-place prize, Blood Axe’s fragment, it could ultimately only be called a loss. Well, that was gambling for you.

The students knew that too. Despite that, they were investing this many points.

I quietly stroked my chin.

Perhaps I had underestimated their desire for power, and how desperate that desire was.

Well, there might also be people who simply got carried away by the prizes. If their gacha luck was good, there were cases where they could make a large profit.

I flipped through the mirror bug’s screen. It displayed the transaction board.

Various prizes I had listed were being traded there. Quite a few people were selling off their byproducts like this. Some were even selling Blood Axe’s fragment.

After checking the seller, I let out a hollow laugh.

It was the item posted by Cassian, who had drawn that power first.

I scratched my chin slightly. Well, she would not need this power.

What she wanted in exchange was around a hundred puppet modification vouchers. Those were items positioned at about the tenth-place prize among the various prizes I had prepared.

The puppet modification vouchers were also items most people did not pay much attention to. But after that trade was posted, a price range began forming for them. They were now being traded for around a thousand points.

It seemed Cassian was trying to decorate her bear puppet even more. Just what did she plan to request with a hundred of them? A faint fear rose in me at the thought.

Like this, prizes of mine with unclear prices, such as fourth floor passes, were also being sold for points.

The gacha had settled into the tower as a kind of culture. Within it, the students scattered points as if enjoying a festival.

That reaction from the students seemed to have stirred some interest in the other treasures too. Those treasures would contact me, saying they wanted to put their own powers into the gacha as well.

And I had politely refused all their proposals for now.

Of course, if I only thought about points, there would be no problem with adding them immediately. If various powers were available, the students would definitely invest even more points.

But the gacha being held this time was not simply for points. This month’s gacha had to belong entirely to Blood Axe. That way, I could concentrate points on it.

Like that, after No. 0 handled the packing and I handled the deliveries, many prizes were carried throughout the tower. The work was finally done.

No. 0 looked at the empty workshop and nodded with a proud smile.

Still, after repeating this process, the puppets had grown quite used to deliveries, and their speed was gradually increasing. They were now skilled enough to move on their own even without my instructions.

If a few more days passed like this, they would surely be able to handle deliveries by themselves, even without me or No. 0.

I lightly patted No. 0’s back with the will to hang in there until then. No. 0 still had not finished all of Professor On’s assignments, but it was working very hard to help me.

I was briefly stretching out and resting when the mirror bug lightly vibrated.

When I glanced at it, the mirror bug floated into the air and displayed the message that had come to me.

I slowly read it and nodded. It was from Hao. It seemed they had contacted me to make today’s regular report.

“Then I’ll step out for a bit. You worked hard today too.”

I lightly touched No. 0’s head and left the workshop. Then I slowly headed toward the infirmary.

That was where we usually met for the request.

Hao had their mind eaten by Hari, and because of the contamination that came from that body, they always stopped by the infirmary.

In that sense, it was the best place to talk. When I arrived at the infirmary and opened the door, I saw Hao.

Hao was half-lying on a bed, steadying their breathing. From them, I could feel Blood Axe’s magical power rippling, if only faintly. I widened my eyes a little and approached.

“Good to see you. But judging by that magical power, it seems you ended up drawing it.”

Hao stopped breathing and slowly opened their eyes. When they saw me, they scratched their head slightly. Then they nodded with a faint, bitter smile.

“Yes, Blood Axe supported me, you see.”

I lightly stroked my chin.

Blood Axe wanted Hao to contain its power. Perhaps because of that, it had invested many points into Hao. It could not simply hand the power over directly, after all.

That was also possible because part of those points would return to Blood Axe anyway.

Under Blood Axe’s sponsorship, Hao continued drawing from the gacha. In the end, among those many attempts, they seemed to have drawn Blood Axe’s power.

“Congratulations. So how was Blood Axe today?”

“It gave me a lot of points again today before leaving. Lately, Blood Axe has been handing out so many points that it’s becoming burdensome.”

Hao shook their head with a slightly uncomfortable look. Seeing that, I let out a light laugh.

“Well, you can receive them without feeling burdened. You can even squeeze more out of Blood Axe.”

As the gacha spread through the tower, many points also piled up for Blood Axe, who was running it. Even after excluding material costs, it was clear that well over a hundred thousand points had gone to it.

The points that had returned to me were considerable too. Since Blood Axe and I had an 8:2 profit structure, I could roughly infer its points based on that.

Of course, Blood Axe probably did not have many points left right now.

I lightly shrugged.

Blood Axe spent those points without holding back. As seen now, it poured plenty of points into Hao, and it also bought many items from me. I had recommended plenty of things to it too.

The fact that I had even prepared a private room for Blood Axe said enough. Right now, it had one treasure room on the sixth floor all to itself. It had adapted extremely well to using points.

Its spending grew even larger as the points coming in increased. And that overspending was exactly what I wanted.

Blood Axe was not satisfied with only the points it had now. It had begun using future points as collateral too. And with that, it bought many things and put them in its room.

Things like a whetstone hard enough to grind its axe blade, or cloth that could smooth its handle. They were expensive items capable of enduring a treasure’s magical power. They were also all things I had recommended.

It was the result of tempting Blood Axe with the points it would receive in the future. Like that, it owed me a lot of debt.

Of course, that debt was at a level it could quickly repay as long as points kept coming in steadily. That was why Blood Axe had bought those things without hesitation too.

But would this gacha really last long?

I quietly shook my head.

There was no way.

These endless points would eventually hit a limit. The current gacha was, in the end, only a seasonal business.

This gacha was based on Blood Axe’s power. The students would either obtain enough of that power or give up, and as time passed, it was clear that the same momentum as now would no longer be produced.

So the scale of those points would gradually shrink. Meanwhile, the amount Blood Axe owed me would grow even larger. Like that, it would ultimately be bound by that debt, by points.

I lightly stroked my chin.

This was also the method I had nearly suffered from at the auction house before. Completely binding someone with points. This could be called a simpler version of that.

This was like a welcome greeting that existed in the university. Since Blood Axe could also be said to have finally entered the university by using points, I had to teach it the danger of points as well.

Once I had Blood Axe sitting perfectly on a mountain of debt, it would not be able to say anything even if I took that power from it.

It would simply do its best to cooperate with me in order to erase its debt.

And it seemed that time was not far away.

I let out a light laugh.

At that moment, Hao lightly waved a hand. It seemed they had something more to say. When I met their gaze, Hao scratched their cheek and opened their mouth.

“You told me to let you know if there were any unusual matters, right? I think I saw something a little suspicious.”

“Did something happen?”

At that, Hao folded their arms and tilted their head. They slightly furrowed their brows and made an uncertain expression.

“Mm, it’s a little vague. Recently, I think Blood Axe has been talking with Tooth Necklace more and more often. Not just in my tribute room. I think they may also be exchanging private messages separately.”

Tooth Necklace, huh.

I frowned slightly.

Hao did not seem to know exactly what they had talked about either. Was it about the gacha? I could not know.

“I understand for now. I’ll check it once. Thank you for telling me.”

I exchanged farewells with Hao and left the infirmary. Then I leaned against the wall and quietly stroked my chin.

It seemed I needed to check the treasures’ message board.

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