#097
‘Please, succeed!’
I swallowed hard and activated the synthesis enhancement. A small roulette wheel appeared before my eyes with a golden glow effect.
The circular roulette was simply divided into sections. About 2/3 was labeled “Fail,” 1/3 was “Regular,” and a thin sliver was marked “Success.”
[You can increase the chance of success by doubling your Love Coins. Would you like to try?]
‘Seeing it as a roulette makes the success probability look even lower…’
Unlike regular enhancement, seeing the enhancement process visually seemed advantageous, but it made me even more nervous. Moreover, as a higher-cost betting option appeared, I felt my palms getting sweaty.
‘The more spins, the better, right?’
Even in card collection games, 10-pulls have a higher guaranteed probability than single pulls, so wouldn’t this be the same?
After deliberating, I chose 20x. I thought this amount would move even the gods to grant my wish.
‘Clear mind, no thoughts…’
Gacha should be approached with a pure and reverent mind. I watched the roulette’s direction intently.
“What are you staring at so intensely?”
“Is there something in the air?”
As the roulette was slowly coming to a stop, Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon suddenly called out to me. I usually managed my gaze better, but constantly staring at one spot must have seemed strange.
“No, it’s not that…”
[Bam-bam-bam-! Unfortunately, it’s a fail!]
While I turned my gaze to make an excuse, the roulette finished spinning and text appeared in the air. I thought fireworks had burst, which seemed good, but looking closely, it was a fail!
“Aaaagh!”
I grabbed my hair and screamed. Fail! How could it be a fail! Who sets off fireworks for a fail!
“W-what’s wrong!”
Startled by my loud voice, Shin Haejun grabbed my shoulders and shook me. I glared at the two with resentful eyes.
Come to think of it, gacha is a sacred act that should be done very reverently, but because these two called out to me, my luck must have run away. Whenever I opened a luck box, I would politely kneel and chant “Please give me XXX, please” ten times before opening it, but not being able to do that this time felt like the root cause.
Of course, I know this is an irrational thought. But really, if you don’t approach gacha reverently, you’ll fall into a jinx!
“It’s ruined…”
Having chosen the 20x option, my coins disappeared into thin air like crazy. I stared blankly at the coins that vanished in an instant and grabbed my hair. As I pulled my hair, groaning “Uwaah,” the two hurriedly tried to stop me with shocked faces.
“What, what’s wrong?”
“Jaeha, why are you suddenly acting like this?”
You don’t understand! I became suddenly rich only to go completely broke right away!
I was boiling with anger inside. I struggled to calm my bubbling insides and glared at the stopped roulette. I could see that the needle had stopped ever so slightly on “Fail” between “Fail” and “Success.”
‘Just a little… it seems like it would’ve worked with just a little more…’
Glancing quickly, I saw that I still had a few coins left. It was just enough to spin the synthesis enhancement two or three more times.
‘Just one more time…’
And as I spun it just one more time, the roulette whirled around again. As I instinctively knelt down to watch seriously, I could feel restless movements beside me.
But this time, I mustn’t look. After seeing the result first…!
“Argh!”
I screamed once again. This time it wasn’t a fail. However, the roulette had stopped on “Regular” with a minute difference between “Regular” and “Success.”
Mercenary enhancement successful.
Active skill ‘Psychic Summoning’ skill level increased by 1!
All status ailments removed.
Mercenary enhancement successful.
Active skill ‘Frost Storm’ skill level increased by 1!
All status ailments removed.
It seems “Regular” meant regular enhancement. An enhancement success window popped up in front of me. This time, both of them succeeded in enhancement at once.
Even in the midst of the agony of failing to get “Success,” my mind was racing. It seemed that by consuming double the coins, if you land on the “Regular” section, it guarantees two regular enhancements for each person.
‘It doesn’t seem… bad?’
…No, that’s not right. It is bad! This came after using and wasting 40 times the usual amount of coins, including the 20x multiplier! I must have been blinded by gambling!
“Jaeha? Are you not feeling well?”
He seemed to be worried about my mental state rather than my physical condition, but indeed, my heart was racing so much that my mind was going blank.
I don’t know how to deal with this disaster. I gritted my teeth in anger at this crazy roulette, or rather at myself for taking a gamble.
“You’ll hurt your teeth.”
Suddenly, Shin Haejun slipped his finger between my lips. His touch made me realize I had been grinding my teeth hard, and I relaxed my jaw.
‘Reminds me of yesterday…’
Suddenly, I remembered when I had licked Shin Haejun’s fingers. Trying to clear my mind of impure thoughts, I unexpectedly remembered something I didn’t want to recall.
‘If it’s like this… to make up for it…’
I had resolved not to do any more lewd acts, but in this situation, don’t I need to accumulate coins again somehow?
“Uuuugh…”
I squeezed my eyes shut and groaned. I should have shaken and stopped myself just moments ago when I thought life was about seizing opportunities!
Once I crossed that line in my mind, skinship became too natural, so I was trying to restrain myself somehow, but to think it would turn out like this…
“What on earth is wrong?”
“Yeah, you’re suddenly acting strange.”
As I was biting my lips and regretting my wrong choice, the two asked with serious faces. They seemed determined not to back down until I gave a proper answer, showing a very stubborn attitude.
“It’s ruined.”
“What… do you mean?”
Hyun Dowoon asked with a puzzled face. It was understandable for him to find it abrupt since I had only mentioned enhancing skills without explaining exactly how it was done.
“I tried to enhance the skills… Remember I said skinship was essential? But because it failed, now there’s not enough…”
I spoke in a shrinking voice with my eyes tightly closed. Then I waited for their reaction.
‘…Why aren’t they saying anything?’
It was so quiet that I was about to open my eyes slightly to check their reactions when suddenly my body was lifted up.
“Uwaaah! W-what are you doing?”
“If that’s the case, you should have said so earlier.”
Shin Haejun grinned as he held me in his arms. Beside him, Hyun Dowoon’s eyes also gleamed.
“You’re welcome anytime.”
The two strode towards the bedroom.
‘This isn’t what I meant.’
Recalling the intense guiding session, I regretted it even more strongly.
‘To think I’d be the one ruined by gambling…!’
***
After spending a sticky, passionate time, I attempted skill enhancement again.
*Mercenary Enhancement*
Gold/Love Coins will be consumed.
-Regular Enhancement
-Synthesis Enhancement
After failing once, I stared at the terrifying enhancement window for a while, then bit the inside of my cheek and selected synthesis enhancement.
I was planning to do regular enhancement out of fear, but thinking about it calmly, I felt there must be a reason why synthesis enhancement appeared at this timing.
“Don’t be too nervous.”
“That’s right, if it doesn’t work this time, we can do guiding again.”
Honestly, at the end we didn’t even pretend to do guiding and just did a lot of lewd things, but they’re calling it guiding. I knew why they were so nonchalant, which made me even more annoyed.
I glanced at them sideways, then closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
‘Calm… detachment… I have no material desires…’
As I took a long deep breath, instead of my mind becoming calm, my heart pounded even more. I tried to spend a little more time as if meditating, but nothing changed, so I finally attempted the enhancement.
‘Please… please!’
Soon the roulette spun around, and with a fanfare, the needle entered the very narrow “Success” section!
“Uwaaaah!”
I reflexively screamed and hugged both of them around their necks. The enhancement window disappeared immediately because my hands let go, but expressing joy came first.
“It worked, it worked!”
I broke through the 5% probability!
I burst into laughter out of happiness. Then I kissed both of their cheeks, stomped my feet, and thoroughly savored the victory.
“…Jaeha.”
Meanwhile, Shin Haejun cupped his cheek with his hand and looked at me with blank eyes. He looked very surprised.
“I need to check, check!”
Regardless, I strongly pulled both of their hands and immediately checked the status window. I was dying to know what skill had appeared.
Checking Shin Haejun first, I saw that a mysterious skill called ‘Path of Truth’ had appeared in his active skill window. It couldn’t be used alone and required pouring all of his and Hyun Dowoon’s total energy to use. Moreover, there was another strange condition attached: ‘Automatically used when needed.’
For Hyun Dowoon, a skill called ‘End of the Path’ was created. It had an explanation that it would be automatically used after ‘Path of Truth’ was used first.
‘Why is there no effect description?’
There were only activation conditions, with unknown explanations about the effects.
I tilted my head and absent-mindedly told them about the newly created skills.
“So we can’t know what it is until we use it,” Hyun Dowoon muttered.
“But there’s this strange condition that says it’s not decided by the user, but automatically used when it becomes necessary…” I added explanation to his words, and then silence fell.
‘Do they also think it’s a strange result?’
Feeling somewhat deflated, I drooped my shoulders. Suddenly, Shin Haejun narrowed his eyes and asked sharply:
“How do you know that? What are you looking at to say such things?”
It was a question that made my heart sink.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
