Chapter 9
[So fun! So fun!]
The black shape of 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?' clapped with a lisp.
That bastard was enjoying himself even though he had lost every gacha pull.
In the first place, the result of the gacha meant nothing to him.
It was good because if the other side pulled well, he could kill them.
If he pulled well himself, he felt good because he pulled well.
He'd been living his life doing only things that made him feel good. How nice must that be.
The third N-rank person sat down.
“Uweh...”
Looking at the headless corpses strewn on either side of the chair, he seemed to barely suppress the urge to vomit.
“I brought a complete gacha.”
[Huh?]
“A gacha where you collect 45 different pieces...”
Crunch!
The third person's head flew off before he even got to try the gacha.
[Too hard! I don't know!]
Jang Tae-sik sighed as he looked at the headless corpse that had just been made.
“I told you to just install a normal gacha game, why won't you listen...”
He approached the table and slid both hands under the corpse's armpits before speaking to me.
“If there isn't any space around the chair, we have to move the corpse to the entrance of the quarantine room. Could you help me?”
“Sure.”
I could have said, 'You do it yourself,' but I didn't.
It would have stung my conscience to skip the very last turn and still say things like, 'I'm an employee!'
I helped by grabbing both legs of the corpse and moving it.
I didn't have to look at the parts where blood was streaming down, so I didn't get shaken up much.
“Phew.”
“Agent.”
As I wiped the sweat from my forehead, Jang Tae-sik came over and spoke to me.
“Are you really planning to go absolutely last?”
“I suppose so? If you succeed, Tae-sik, then I won't have to take the gamble myself.”
I didn't want to put my life on the line.
I said it honestly without pretense.
If it were a rookie, maybe not, but Jang Tae-sik, who'd beaten the guy three times, would understand how I felt.
“Understood.”
Jang Tae-sik nodded.
I'm really sorry. If we make it out, I'll buy you a meal or something....
“That's a shame. If you'd switch turns with me, I was going to tell you the secret of this.”
A secret?
“I didn't survive three times for nothing.”
His face was brimming with confidence as he proposed the deal.
Did he really have some kind of trick I didn't know about?
“If you switch turns with me, I'll tell you everything I know.”
Instead of jumping into the gambling pit, I could just take the advice of a fourth-run veteran.
“No thanks. Keep doing what you're doing.”
I refused flatly.
I've got the gallery behind me.
Why would I do something like that when I have far more data to draw on than some lowly N-rank fourth-runner?
“...You'll regret this.”
Look at him, look at him.
So it wasn't pure goodwill after all.
If you can't notice something weird, then you're the idiot.
Sometimes someone gets lucky and pulls top rarity on the first try.
Maybe for the first two or three pulls, it would still land well even without hitting pity.
But if he pulled gacha countless times, the probabilities would converge toward the average.
There's a reason the phrase "mean reversion" exists.
But even if he pulled endlessly and was still less lucky than twenty people every day?
That's the kind of thing the Fair Trade Commission would investigate and fine you for rigging the rates.
In other words, 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?' wasn't just playing around with pure luck.
It was highly likely the odds had been manipulated when the gacha was set up.
There's no way a guy who says things like 'I overate' and 'I'm having fun' whenever he gets a good pull is someone who really wants to pull well.
[You fourth! Fourth!]
“The rate is 0.7%. There is no pity.”
[Good! Good! Start!]
Jang Tae-sik pressed the gacha button first.
An orange statue appeared with flashy effects.
[Luck is skill. Hah!]
A mismatched character you'd expect to see in a hot-blooded series popped out against the backdrop of the gambling parlor.
The star count was... six-star!?
At this rate, Jang Tae-sik was going to die too...
“What a shame.”
[You're next! You're next!]
For some reason, the two kept going even though the top rarity had already come out.
The strange turn of events continued.
Even though a 6-star appeared on the screen of 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?', the thing still wasn't satisfied.
[Your turn! Your turn!]
Even after several 6-stars appeared over the next 100 pulls, the two kept going.
Why wasn't the rule working? I didn't know.
I opened the gallery.
If you don't know the answers to the workbook, you can just look at the answer key.
[Let's investigate 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?' being managed by a newbie. ARABOJA]
Author: EntityFreak
At least the old-timers here would know his name just from hearing it.
Because he's the kind of guy you can deal with just by throwing people at him.
If we're short on people, sometimes even low-level employees get sent in.
Otherwise, there's no reason to see him.
RIP to the guy whose friend died earlier.
Anyway, to get to the point, 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?' doesn't play fair.
According to team-lead-level documents, the rate is 0% until you feed it ten people.
After that, it's the same as the other side's rate.
Once you go past 15 people, it gradually raises the gacha rate.
From the way it talks about gobbling people up and being full and all that, up to ten people it's just stuffing its belly under the guise of gacha.
So if the newbie's turn comes within the first ten people, nothing gets posted.
Anyway, please come back safely, my dopamine.
[Comments]
GayWeirdGayya: Then why not just play a dog-meat-like game? There are times when even if you pour in a few thousand, it still won't give you the legendary. They said that's rigged too.
ㄴ(글쓴이) EntityFreak: Any costs used for management can be billed later.
ㄴGayWeirdGayya: Ah.
ㄴ(글쓴이) EntityFreak: If you're the kind of bastard who notices when someone tells you to install a gacha game, then installs a dog-meat-like game instead, and has the brains and nerve to top it up with tens of millions of won, you wouldn't be an N-rank employee to begin with.
As expected, someone had posted a hint about the guy in the featured thread.
EntityFreak, huh. What a fitting nickname.
I'll have to thank them later.
GalleryBrowsingIsEasy: Right now the 16th person is in the match, and they're both still pulling even though 6-stars are coming out. What is this?
ㄴ(글쓴이) EntityFreak: N-rank personnel?
ㄴGalleryBrowsingIsEasy: Yeah. He says he survived three runs and is on his fourth to get out.
ㄴ(글쓴이) EntityFreak: Then the game structure must have a tier above 6-star. The odds would be different from the other 6-stars.
ㄴ AutoSaveIsEssential: With that money, how many PC games could you buy? Why are you spending it on that crap?
ㄴ WraithNo.1: A bastard who buys the limited edition of a PC game where you bash the previous game's protagonist's head in is mocking gacha games, lol.
ㄴ AutoSaveIsEssential: Fuck you, bitch.
What was that, another tier above the top rarity?
I turned my gaze toward the two who were going hard at the gacha.
Jang Tae-sik, cold sweat beading as he pressed the gacha button.
So he really hadn't survived three times for nothing.
Ziiioooooong!
Then dazzling light and sound burst forth from Jang Tae-sik's screen.
[I ask you, are you my prey?]
A female character wearing beast hide over her armor.
The star beside her name was a 6-star. But it was red.
[You pulled it? You pulled it?]
“2,232 pulls.”
[Yeah!]
'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?' also tapped the tablet.
And on the screen, in the second slot...
'Transcendent 6-Star'
Six red-glowing stars were stamped there along with the text.
The turn on which 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?' pulled its top rarity was also the 232nd.
[It's a tie! It's a tie!]
“Hah... Hah...! That's it!”
Jang Tae-sik threw up his hands and exhaled the breath he'd been holding.
That bastard had definitely just said he was on his third run and would give me the information, hadn't he?
“It was a bluff.”
So that's why they tell us in training not to listen to what N-rank personnel say.
So that's it, then?
Jang Tae-sik stood up from his seat.
Then he turned around and looked at me.
“Agent, it's your turn.”
“Yes?”
“A draw means we have to rematch, so your turn gets pushed back.”
I'd had a sliver of hope, but it looked like there was no rule for who got to go next.
That sort of thing wasn't in the reports or the gallery.
Tch.
Clicking his tongue, Jang Tae-sik leaned against the wall.
“I hope you succeed.”
There was a smile on his lips.
How much does that person know about 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?'?
I don't know. In the first place, my opponent isn't that guy.
I walked over to the table and sat down.
Up close, the tablet was caked with dried blood.
The black shape held it as if it meant nothing.
The blood was drying.
From here on out, it's a gamble with my life on the line.
“300-pull pity cap, 5% rate.”
[Eeh?]
Hearing my conditions, 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?' was startled.
Makes sense.
The rates would be a lot different from ordinary gacha games.
After all, this game couldn't even be officially released in Korea, so seeing it for the first time wasn't strange.
[Is there really a game like that?]
I nodded instead of answering.
[Good! Good! Let's start!]
I pressed the gacha button with trembling hands.
Jeng jeng, jyae-jyae-jyae-jyae-jeng~ Ah, jwe-jwe-ya!
Traditional music with a folksy Chinese flavor.
Nine 4-stars, one 5-star.
Then it was the turn of 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?'
Eight 4-stars, two 5-stars.
We kept alternating turns and continuing the gacha.
20, 30, 40, 50 pulls.
During that time, neither of us got a top-rarity character.
Even though both of us had far exceeded the expected value for a 5% rate.
[So unlucky! So unlucky!]
Judging by the fact that he was saying things he hadn't said earlier, even 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?' seemed disappointed that the rates weren't acting weirdly.
And then came the long-awaited 60-pull.
I got nine 4-stars and one 5-star.
In the 3rd and 9th slots of 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?', there were six stars.
He pulled off an insane luck flex, getting two top-rarity units in just ten pulls.
[Wow! Waaah! You pulled it!]
“I was just a little less lucky.”
[Right! Right! Since I lost, you can go now!]
The black shape said that and held out a hand for a handshake.
For a moment I wondered whether to take it.
But I couldn't afford to get on the creature's bad side and die inside the quarantine room, so I took its hand.
The feeling of touching a lump of butchered pork traveled through my hand.
I walked over and sat beside him, letting out a sigh of relief and making the same surprised face Jang Tae-sik had earlier.
“It's your turn, Tae-sik.”
I said, smiling and meeting his eyes.
“I wish you success.”
You have to give back what you receive.
“...It's cheating.”
“Yes?”
Suddenly, Jang Tae-sik rushed up to 'Why Are You Luckier Than Me?'
And then he shouted while showing his smartphone screen.
“That agent is cheating right now!”
[Eeh?]
What he showed on his screen was an article about the game I was playing.
[A gacha where the top rarity doesn't appear until after a certain number of pulls. Is that really normal?]
Damn.
“That man had been winning by using a loophole from the very beginning!”
He found it.