In a quiet corner of the city, inside a small fourth-floor apartment room, a young man sat in silence, staring at a phone screen cracked at the lower left corner.
His name was Takuya Minami, 15 years old, a senior high school student. His grades were average. He didn't have many friends. He had only one hobby: playing gacha games.
"Come on! This is too much. You've already taken almost all my money. Just give me that loli girl!" Takuya complained.
He clicked his tongue in frustration after spending nearly 15,000 yen on the current gacha event and still didn't get the new character he wanted.
This was his final pull. "Please! Just give me that cute Nagumi!" he muttered, closing his eyes and praying.
Takuya's heartbeat sped up. He didn't want to open his eyes. But at the same time, he had to. He hoped—deep down—that he would get the character named Nagumi.
Not because she was strong, but because she was a cute little loli character. Takuya loved small, adorable girls.
"Please! Just this once!"
Takuya slowly opened his eyes. As his eyes peeled open, there was no golden light coming from this gacha result. His face immediately turned pale. His body went limp. The 15,000 yen he had spent… had gone to waste.
The small-bodied, beautiful elf character wielding a sword—Nagumi—was not in his possession. And yet, he had already spent 90% of his money.
Takuya placed his phone on the table. "Am I truly cursed by the Gacha God?" he groaned, clenching his fists.
He stood up and walked toward the door. He stood there for a long moment, staring at it.
His fists were clenched, his emotions bubbling over.
"Damn it!" shouted Takuya.
BAAM!
Takuya punched his apartment door with all his strength. He grimaced in pain as his right hand trembled, struggling to endure the sting.
"Damn it!" he screamed again. "Damn it!"
He punched the door five more times. The sound was loud. The floor even trembled slightly. The apartment door became slightly dented. Blood trickled from his knuckles.
"Hey, asshole! What the hell are you doing?! If you've got a problem with me, come over here!" shouted someone from the neighboring apartment. "You really looking to start something with me, huh?!"
Takuya ignored him. He stepped back and collapsed onto his bed. Staring up at the stained ceiling of his apartment.
He had chosen this shabby apartment to save money. Of course, the remaining money would be used for gacha. Takuya was already addicted to gacha games. He even delayed his tutoring payments multiple times just to roll the gacha.
It sounded stupid—but Takuya really was an idiot.
"Shit. Shit. Shit."
Takuya was furious. This time, it wasn't just living expenses that he had spent. He had also used the money meant for books and tutoring fees. And he was already five months behind on payments. If he didn't pay by tomorrow, he would be kicked out.
"What should I do?" he muttered.
Takuya closed his eyes while holding his swollen right hand, injured from punching the apartment door.
"Get out here, bastard!" yelled someone from outside. It was the same guy from earlier—now standing right in front of his apartment door.
The same man who had shouted at him just minutes ago. They weren't on good terms. They had even gotten into a fight once—just from making eye contact.
That time, Takuya had already wasted
35,000 yen on gacha with miserable results. His emotions were all over the place. When they locked eyes, Takuya cursed at the man for no reason, and it ended in a fistfight.
This time, Takuya ignored him. He sat down and picked up his phone. Looking at the game screen again. His heart was still heavy.
"Useless game," he muttered.
He held his finger over the game's logo. A prompt appeared: 'Uninstall'. Takuya was about to press it… but he hesitated.
"I should've never played that stupid game to begin with," he muttered.
He clicked his tongue in frustration. Everything had started when he was 12 years old. That was the first time he played a game—and he immediately got hooked on gacha. Now, he was practically insane because of it.
"What's going to happen to me?" He was panicked. If his mom found out that he spent all that money on gacha, he'd get beaten for sure. Takuya sighed deeply. "If only I could enter an isekai world, maybe everything would be solved… but I don't want to get hit by truck-kun."
Just as Takuya put his phone back down and closed his eyes, something strange happened. A bright light suddenly shone from the floor.
Takuya panicked and immediately stood up, trying to get away from it—but he was too late.
A few seconds later, the light disappeared—but the floor beneath his feet... had changed.
Takuya looked up, and when his eyes focused ahead, they widened in shock. What he saw was completely different.
"Is this… an isekai?"
At the same moment, a floating screen appeared in front of his face. A screen just like in a game.
[GACHA SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
[WELCOME, USER!]