The cloudy sky blanketed the city. Rain fell, touching the rooftops of old apartments lined up on the outskirts of Tokyo. In a corner of the city rarely noticed, inside a small apartment room on the fourth floor, a young man sat in silence, staring at the cracked screen of his phone, the fracture visible at the lower left corner.
His name was Takuya Minami, 17 years old, a final-year high school student. His grades were average. He didn't have many friends. His only hobby was playing gacha games.
"Come on, just give me one SSR girl this time," Takuya muttered.
He clicked his tongue in frustration. He had already spent almost 15,000 yen on this gacha event and still hadn't gotten the new character he wanted. His luck with gacha was terrible, yet he always played these kinds of games.
This was his final pull. "Please! Give me Nagumi Fukada, the beautiful one," he whispered, closing his eyes in prayer.
Takuya's heart beat faster. He didn't want to open his eyes, but at the same time, he had to. He was desperately hoping to get Nagumi, the petite elf girl who wielded a bazooka.
"Please! Just this once is enough."
Takuya opened his eyes. There was no golden glow from his gacha result. The 15,000 yen he had spent vanished into nothing.
The beautiful petite elf girl with a bazooka resting on her shoulder, her cute face etched in his imagination—he had failed to obtain her. And for that, he had spent nearly 90% of his money.
Takuya placed his phone on the table. "Am I truly cursed by the Gacha God?" he muttered, clenching his fist.
He stood up and walked toward the door. He stopped there for quite a while, staring at it.
"Damn it!" Takuya cursed.
BAAM!
He punched his own apartment door with all his strength. His eyes squinted, his right hand trembling.
"Damn it!" he shouted again, louder this time. "Damn it!"
He struck the door five more times. The sound echoed violently, even shaking the floor, while blood dripped from his knuckles.
"Hey, what are you doing?! If you don't like me, then come over here!" someone shouted from the neighboring apartment. "Sounds like you've got a problem with me."
Takuya ignored him. He stepped back slowly and collapsed onto the bed, staring at the dingy ceiling of his apartment.
He had chosen this shabby apartment just to save on expenses. Naturally, the money he saved would go toward gacha. Takuya was already addicted to gacha games. He had even skipped school for four days straight just to roll a few more times.
It sounded pathetic, but Takuya really was a fool.
"Damn. Damn. Damn."
He was furious. This time, not only had he used his living expenses, but also the money for his books and tutoring lessons, all for the hope of getting the character he had been waiting for over the past two months.
And yet, the result was trash.
Takuya closed his eyes, clutching his swollen right hand from punching the door.
"Get out here, bastard!" shouted the same man from earlier, now standing right outside Takuya's door.
That man was the same neighbor who had yelled at him before. They were not on good terms. In fact, they had once gotten into a fight just for making eye contact.
At that time, Takuya had already spent 35,000 yen on gacha with nothing but miserable results. His emotions had been unstable, and the moment their eyes met, Takuya cursed him, which ended in a fight.
This time, Takuya ignored him. He sat up and picked up his phone again, staring at the game's screen. His mood was still foul.
"Lousy game," he muttered.
He pressed and held the game's logo. The word uninstall appeared. Takuya wanted to tap it, but he hesitated.
"I should never have played that stupid game in the first place," he sighed.
As he set his phone down again and was about to close his eyes, something suddenly happened. A bright light burst out from the floor.
Panic struck Takuya. He immediately stood up, intending to run, but he was too late.
Moments later, the light vanished, yet the floor beneath his feet… had changed.
He lifted his gaze. His eyes widened as he looked forward. What he saw was entirely different.
"Where is this…?"
At the same time, a screen appeared before his face. A game-like screen.
[GACHA SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
[WELCOME, HERO!]
"HAH? SYTEM...."