The apocalypse started suddenly.
The 19 year old Reinhardt Selig sat on the edge of his unmade bed, his back against the wall. He held a steaming cup of instant ramen, the only thing he had eaten all day. The plastic fork was warped from the heat, and the broth was far too salty, but he slurped down the noodles with a satisfied moan. His apartment was cluttered with half-packed boxes and discarded clothes, the mess of a move he had given up on weeks ago.
"This is peak living," he muttered.
He said, just eating his ramen in the corner like a bum. A few minutes passed before he realized how quiet the building had become.
Usually, he could hear the bass from the apartment next door or the sound of cars on the street below. Now, there was nothing. No sirens, no engines, just the low hum of his refrigerator.
"Thats a little weird, considering its the middle of the day." He lowered his phone. He listened for any sign of life outside, but the silence continued. He rubbed the goosebumps on his arms. Usually, quiet was a good thing, but this felt different.
[DING.]
The sound was sharp and digital. It sounded like it was coming from inside his own head. Reinhardt flinched, nearly spilling broth on his sheets. "What the…?"
He checked his phone, but there was no new notification or anything that would make that sound. He looked at his desk, but his laptop was shut. He felt a spike of adrenaline. There was no device in the room that should have made that noise.
Then, a translucent golden screen appeared in the air.
"wha—ghk!?"
Reinhardt gasped, but a stray noodle caught in his throat. He doubled over, coughing hard as his lungs burned. His eyes watered, making the golden light look blurry. He pounded his fist against his chest and wiped his face, his heart beating fast from the shock.
The screen stayed exactly two feet from his nose. He leaned back until his spine hit the wall, but the window moved with him, maintaining the distance.
He tried to find a logical explanation. Was it a prank? Was he having a medical emergency? He reached out and swiped his hand through the light. His fingers passed through the glow. There was no heat and no physical resistance.
"I've finally done it," he whispered, his voice cracking. "I've actually lost my fucking mind. This is it. I'm hallucinating."
His highschool years did involve a lot of…Delicious lettuce. So this wasn't completely out of the question.
[DING.]
「Apocalypse System Initializing」
The text appeared in the center of the gold light. Reinhardt stared at the word 'Apocalypse' until his eyes hurt. He looked around the room, searching for a projector or a hidden camera.
"Apocalypse?" he repeated. "Is this a joke? Because if someone's filming this, the timing is terrible."
'How would they even get in my apartment…'
「Synchronization in Progress…」
He stood up, his legs feeling heavy. He backed toward the kitchen, but the screen followed him. "Jesus? Buddha? Anyone?!" He shouted at the ceiling, his chest tight.
He leaned against the kitchen counter and gripped the edge. He tried to convince himself this was a dream. Or maybe he had just finally snapped.
He stopped pacing as a thought occurred to him. If this was real, he didn't owe money to anyone anymore. His boss wouldn't be calling him. For a moment, he felt a strange sense of relief.
It was a raw, visceral sound that came from the floor directly below him. It was cut off abruptly, followed by a sickening, wet thud. Then the silence returned, heavier than before.
Reinhardt's relief vanished. He stared at his apartment door. The thin wood looked incredibly fragile. "No way. Nonono" he shook his head with each no.
The crashes began starting, growing louder as more screams echoed.
"…Yeah, no, screw this."
He moved on instinct. He threw his weight against the refrigerator, his feet slipping on the linoleum. The appliance was heavy, filled with frozen meals and soda. It moved slowly, scraping against the floor.
"MOVE!"
He gritted his teeth, his muscles aching from the effort. He gave one final, desperate shove, and the fridge slid in front of the door, blocking the entrance.
He collapsed against the side of the fridge, breathing hard.
'Had to use some of my special class strength for that...' He chuckled silently, trying to lighten the situation for himself. He'd be doing that alot it seems.
[DING]
「Synchronization Complete」
「Welcome, Reinhardt」
"Welcome? I don't feel very welcomed." He ran his fingers through his reddish-brown hair. He looked at the screen, then back at the door. If something was happening outside, this window was his only source of information.
"…Alright. Okay. Think."
His bright blue eyes flicked between the barricaded door, and the screen, clearly unsure which one he should be more worried about.
"…If this is real… then ignoring it is probably stupid."
He hesitated, then nodded to himself.
"Yeah. Yeah, okay. We're doing this."
The screen shifted again, reorganizing itself into a cleaner interface.
[Status]
[Inventory]
[Shop]
[Gacha]
Reinhard leaned in slightly, reading through the options.
"It looks like a game menu..."
He blinked twice, his expression slowly changing
"…No way."
His eyes locked onto one option.
[Gacha.]
"…You're kidding."
It didn't go away, no matter how hard he stared at it.
"SHITSHITSHITSHITTTT!"
"THIS IS SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE THAN THE APOCALYPSE!" Tears ran down his face, his mouth wide open in a silent wail. He quickly clamped a hand over his own mouth, remembering the monsters outside.
He shook his head violently. Centuries of Gacha trauma had been built up in less than his twenty years of living. He was a fan of games like Gate/Fo and others with gacha elements, but he was not a fan of the gacha itself. To him, it was a curse.
The memories of countless failed rolls and the "pity" counters that never delivered flashed before his eyes.
Another distant noise echoed through the building. Something dragging, maybe.
Reinhard didn't move.
"…The world might actually be ending…"
He scratched the back of his head, letting out a quiet breath.
"…and I got a gacha system."
It took Reinhard a full 5 minutes to steady himself, finally taking a deep breath as he clicked on "Status" First. He figured saving gacha for last would keep his sanity in check.
The screen flicked, then an interface appeared on screen, a video of his own face above his stats, a live one of course.
[Name: Reinhardt Selig]
-Mana: 50/50-
-Strength: 10 (F-Rank)-
-Agility: 10 (F-Rank)-
-Endurance: 10 (F-Rank)-
-Intelligence: 10 (F-Rank)-
-Willpower: 10 (F-Rank)-
-Luck: 15 (F-Rank)-
-Special Traits: Gacha-
"…Wait, that's it!?" Reinhard's voice shot up a little. He leaned closer, practically smashing his bright blue eyes against the glowing gold screen. His fingers twitched nervously, hovering like he might just poke it.
"Strength 10… Agility 10… Endurance 10… Intelligence 10… Willpower 10… Luck 15?!" He jabbed a finger at the screen.
"Whoa! Luck is kinda high though, right?" he ignored that it still said F rank.
He bounced on his heels, tilting his head and muttering to himself,
"F-Rank… F-Rank… F-Rank everything… Okay, okay…TERRIBLE!"
Reinhard flopped back against the wall, staring at the ceiling.
"I… I mean, I could be worse, right? Right? Hah! Hahaha… oh god, I have no idea what I'm doing!"
"FFFFFFFUU—" fell to his knees, hissing in pain…his strength had not increased…meaning the numbers shown were his current actual stats, so 10 was probably on the level of an average 19 year old.
"HNNGGGG." He flopped back onto his bed, his hair falling over his face. Then he realized he had a Mana bar. If he had mana, maybe he could use magic or skills if he trained.
He stood up and began pacing in a circle. He imagined himself leaping over buildings and being admired by everyone. The Legendary Hero of the Apocalypse! That's me!
Suddenly, his eyes grew sharper as he stopped mid-step. His gaze flicked around the room nervously.
"The most important thing… is it monsters? Apocalypse? No! Non! Nein!" He muttered to himself. "It's… it's the women!"
He sat back down, his thoughts moving rapidly. Who wouldn't want to save beautiful women and eventually get married and have a family?
Reinhardt's love of women was thorough. Whether they were feisty, aggressive, cute, muscular, soft, flat, evil, evil as HELL, or even monster women—he adored them all. Years of consuming media had trained him to expect them to appear in times of crisis. He thought of the ice-jade beauties from Chinese dramas, tsunderes, and goth ladies. Most of all, he thought of his favorites: tomboys with pixie cuts. Right behind them was mature women of course. He considered himself a man of culture.
He walked over to the gray curtains he had recently installed and threw them open with a flourish, half-expecting to see a damsel in distress waiting to be rescued.
What he saw instead made him stumble back a step. Dozens, maybe hundreds of people were screaming, scattering in panic. Armored goblins chased some, tiny werewolf-like creatures sprinted after others, and a mix of people ran blindly in all directions.
"Yea… I'll just… keep exploring the system," he muttered to himself, excitement and fear twisting together in his chest. "How the hell didn't I hear all this before?" He would never know the answer, and frankly, he didn't want to dwell on it.
After a few minutes rifling through his inventory—forty slots, all empty—and browsing the shop, which seemed to operate on coins he assumed came from defeating monsters or accomplishing feats, Reinhard's bright blue eyes locked onto a single tab.
[Gacha]
A small pop-up appeared beneath it as he clicked.
[GP: Gacha Points are earned from defeating monsters or accomplishing significant feats. The amount of GP gained varies.]
Reinhard blinked at it, chewing the inside of his cheek as he continued reading.
Bronze Ticket: 100 GP
Silver Ticket: 500 GP
Gold Ticket: 2,000 GP
Platinum Ticket: 10,000 GP
Diamond Ticket: 50,000 GP
Legendary Ticket: 200,000 GP
Mythical Ticket: 1,000,000 GP
Divine Ticket: 5,000,000 GP
[The Types of rolls are divided Into 4 types.]
[Abilities]
Abilities are supernatural abilities that occupy ability slots to use and energy to activate. Abilities can range from anything from creating a spark of lightning from your fingertips to manipulating the fabric of all spacetime.
Most, if not all abilities scale with the user's basic stats. But rather obviously, higher-rank abilities scale way more than lower-rank abilities. And even if they aren't specified, the power of a feat, trait, item, etc. is implied by their rarity. So don't expect a rare dispel to win against a legendary fireball unless you yourself are above legendary rank in strength
[Skills]
Skills are completely intangible and act purely as knowledge inside of the user's brain. The moment a skill is pulled and confirmed, the user gets all of the information and experience downloaded inside of their brain. The knowledge is comfortable and only needs getting used to. The downloading process can cause a small headache.
[Items]
Items are what aren't Abilities, Traits, Familiars or Skills. They usually take the form of physical items separate from the user such as weapons, armour, consumables, potions etc. but they can also take the form of structures that are placed according to your wishes when you take them out.
[Traits]
Unlike abilities, traits do not require energy to use in almost all cases, in addition, Traits do not have active functions and work almost exclusively passively or reactively. Traits do not occupy ability slots and any amount can be possessed at a time. They can however be toggled if their effects are undesired.
Traits largely act as modifiers on the world, like making you more attractive to a certain graphic, enhancing the effects of some aspects, increasing resistance to an aspect or just generally changing something. There are exceptions but they aren't common.
-Among the Traits there are a subset that are tagged with (Race), the moment you toggle these Traits you permanently turn into that race or that race hybridized with your current race. If undesired, race traits can be rerolled(with the ticket they came from) if you have not turned them on.-
Reinhardt Mulled over this information for a few minutes. The types of rolls were interesting, for him it seemed the most useful ones were traits in his opinion.
He continued scrolling down.
[A newbie Gift package has been provided in recognition of current circumstances.]
DING.
[Legendary Ability Ticket x1] [Platinum Trait Ticket x1]
Reinhardt stared at the icons. He didn't move for several seconds. A Legendary and a Platinum ticket right off the bat? It felt like a trap.
"No! Keep yourself together, Rein!" He slapped his cheeks with both hands.
He couldn't allow himself to have high expectations. This was exactly how the Gacha got you. It gave you a taste of hope—a 10x pity or an increased drop-rate event—just to lure you in. Then, once you were hooked, it would leave you with nothing but pure rage. Or tears(Both in his case).
He took a slow breath, exhaling until his lungs were empty, then decided to use the Trait ticket first. He didn't want to burn his luck on the big one just yet.
[Platinum Trait Ticket -1]
[DING!]
[Longevity]
Rank: Elite
Your natural lifespan is multiplied by 100. Additionally, even if your lifespan were to be drained or destroyed, you will naturally regenerate it over time.
Under regular circumstances, this would be an amazing trait. Living for thousands of years was the dream of every emperor in history. But in his current situation, it felt almost like a joke. If a zombie bit him in the next ten minutes, those extra centuries wouldn't mean much.
"Actually… wait. This is good." He rubbed his chin, his eyes scanning the description again. "Who knows when this will come in handy? If I find items that siphon lifespan or skills that cost years to cast, I'll be fine. But it doesn't seem to give me physical regeneration…"
He turned his attention to the final item. The Legendary Ability Ticket sat in the center of the interface, glowing with a deep, pulsating gold.
As he stared at it, he felt a strange, magnetic pull. It reminded him of that scene with the Green Goblin mask, where it spoke to Norman.
He shook his head, his hair messy from the movement. He was probably just going crazy. With monsters outside and a golden screen in his kitchen, losing his mind seemed like the most plausible explanation.
"Whatever. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die with a Legendary skill."
He reached out and pressed the button.
[Legendary Ability Ticket -1]
The screen didn't just flicker this time. A massive golden gear appeared in the air, grinding with a heavy, metallic sound that vibrated in his chest. White light began to leak from the edges of the gear, spinning faster and faster until it was a blur of pure gold.
[Mystic Eyes of Death Perception]
|Mythical Ability|
Fate - Allows you to view lines of death as small cracks and lines along objects or people, if you destroy any line along a target, the target instantly and absolutely dies or gets destroyed. Can only be used on targets the concept of death can be applied to. Overuse of this ability can lead to severe brain damage.
"...."
Reinhardt stood frozen. He didn't move. He didn't even breathe. He just stared at the wall where a particularly thick line ran vertically toward the ceiling. He knew, with a terrifying, instinctual certainty, that if he so much as ran a kitchen knife along that line, his entire apartment building would likely cease to function as a structure..
He was in disbelief. He had used a Legendary ticket, but the gacha—that fickle, cruel mistress—had actually glitched in his favor for once. It had up-ranked.
The shock hit him harder than the realization of the apocalypse. He felt a sudden, sharp ache behind his eyes that warned him of the "brain damage" mentioned in the description. He squeezed his eyes shut, leaning his forehead against the cool metal of the fridge.
When he opened his eyes, the lines had disappeared. And suddenly he felt lacking without it active.
"Its better not to use that too much with these stats of mine."
He knew that if he used it more than a few seconds, his brain might melt. He suddenly paused before once again, realizing that
"…WAIT."
His head snapped up, eyes lighting up.
"I JUST GOT A MYTHICAL!!"
His voice cracked as he pointed at the screen, finger shaking slightly.
"ON MY SECOND PULL?! THANK YOU GACHA LORDS! THAT'S NOT HOW THIS EVER WORKS!!"
He spun in place, nearly tripping over his own feet.
"FUCK YES!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Reinhardt froze.
The sound slammed into the apartment door hard enough to rattle the fridge.
His grin vanished instantly.
"…Oh shit."
"FUCK YES!"
BANG BANG BANG
"Oh shit."
[A/N]
Bleh:P