Staring at his phone screen, Nick swiped through the gacha shop. The latest patch of his favorite game, Aether Babes, added 5 new waifus today. Quickly glancing at his prism shards, he smiled at himself knowing that he finally had shown some discipline:
He had saved enough resources for 10 whole 10-pulls, enough to be a third of the way to pity.
It was almost certain that he'd get the fan favorite– Juliana. Ever since her addition in Ver. 1.3, pretty much anyone who played the game fell in love with her. Not only did she have a good personality and a good personality, but she was also extremely helpful to the MC in his journey. Really, it should've been a crime that they waited as long as they did to add her.
Nick ignored the outside world as his face lit up with the summoning animation. In the game, the MC walked into some tower and faced some kind of boss. He one taps the boss like it owes him money and then some color of light radiates from its dead body.
This light fills the tower before collecting into some kind of ball in front of your character. The color of the light determined the rank of your character: all the way from blue for F-Rank and then red for SSS-Rank.
Nick hung his head in the air as his phone screen filled with white–an A-Rank.
'Stupid Mercury. This is like my fifth dupe.' Nick buried his head in his hands as the little elf danced on his phone.
She wasn't even all that useful. All of her abilities were based around healing, but her passive wanted the party to have lower health. There was one dungeon where people used her sparingly, but otherwise she literally was never on a single good team.
Nick tapped the summon button again, hoping for something better. 'At least an S-Rank waifu!'
The character killed the boss again, this time revealing a green light. A stupid B-Rank. 'I'm always so unlucky!' Nick droned as he tapped the phone screen furiously in an attempt to get through the stupid animation.
Not even a second after the summon button popped up again, Nick slammed his thumb onto the screen.
Another B-Rank.
Another.
And another.
A stupid A-Rank.
2 B-Ranks in this one.
Another stupid A-Rank.
Nick let out a long sigh as he realized his long, hard journey of saving his resources was useless. He spent an entire day grinding for nothing. It was obvious he'd have to spend money.
Another A-Rank. Another.
Resigned to his fate, Nick pulled out the mightiest weapon in existence–a credit card– as he did the last summon.
The character killed the boss for the last time, this time a giant Endwalker: an endgame boss. A guaranteed SS-Rank or higher!!!
Nick's eyes grew wide as he realized he was finally lucky. Killing an Endwalker in the animation guaranteed you a newer unit. His chances of pulling Juliana were very high!
All he needed was that flash of red—a little bit of crimson in his life.
The boss died and...
A flash of red appeared!
He was guaranteed a newer SSS-Rank waifu, like Juliana! Finally!!!
Tapping his foot on a dorito bag as the light traveled to the top of the tower, he waited expectantly for everyone's favorite mage to appear in front of him. In any second he'd pull the best waifu, so...
He had to get his fingers ready!
Screenshotting this pull to brag on social media was a must!
The light coalesced into a single ball and out came...
"DAMMIT!!!" Was the last thing the phone heard as it flew through the air and slammed into the wall, instantly shattering.
Nick stared at the broken phone for a few seconds, completely unbelieving of what he had just done. He... he broke his phone.
'How can I do my dailies!'
Nick hurriedly grabbed the broken pieces of his phone, trying to apply some kind of magic to fix it. If he missed his dailies... his clan was going to kick him! Dailies were something he never missed, not even when he had open heart surgery. Even if he was asleep for 24 hours straight, he made sure to force his sleeping body to do these dailies!
But now...
"Urgh!!!" Nick gasped as he felt his chest constrict and the room darken. It felt like...
...
The next thing Nick knew, he was gliding through the cosmos. Grunting as he hit the ground, Nick stared at the golden floor got a second. Lifting his head and looking around, the entire area felt entirely different but also familiar. Almost as if...
"I'm in the Divine Lounge," he whispered to himself in awe.
That was the truth. This place looked almost exactly like the opening cinematic to the gacha game Aether Babes, where the player meets the goddess of love and home, Hesta.
Looking around, the area was empty though. Even though it somehow looked like a replica of his favorite game, the actual scene was completely different. There was no goddess dropping exposition, there was no golden fruit to eat, and there was no divine rod of summoning babes to obtain.
Nick gave the room one last good look around, to make sure he didn't miss anything.
Overhead, the stars shone brightly. Each one was a different level in the gacha game, almost an entire world in itself. This place he stood on was kind of like a nexus of the worlds. From here, he could travel to literally any world he had unlocked in the game.
Surrounding the stars was the encroaching darkness of the demon army. And more, though he hadn't gotten that far yet. No one had, as the first patch with the new enemies wasn't supposed to drop until next year.
Speaking of, how the fudge did he enter this game? Was he seriously supposed to stop the demon army, like he had in the game?
Returning his attention to the ground, he wished any of the gods were here to answer his question. In the game, Hesta had explained that all the gods were either banished or killed by the demon army. The player was tasked with traversing the cosmos, growing powerful himself while simultaneously summoning strong Valkyries–basically, warriors like Juliana.
Combined with the might of his army and his character, Nick had been a fairly decent player for being a dolphin, or light spender. Over the last few years, he had dedicated his free time to Aether Babes and was one of the first to learn many strategies that even top-ranked clans used. Hopefully, that knowledge would still be useful here.
That is, assuming that this new place he was summoned to followed these same rules and general plot line. So far, Hesta's disappearance suggested otherwise.
If she was gone, then maybe he was transmigrated here after she died.
Traveling through a throne room without a king, Nick found no more answers. The hall was adorned with a long carpet that led to a magnificent golden throne. Even against the darkness of the Demon army, this throne shone like a magnificent ray of golden light. In the game, it had belonged to Hesta's late husband, Seuz.
After he cleared the 5th world in the game, Nick's character had basically assumed the role of the new King of the Cosmos. He had only waited that long because, back then, another god had claimed the throne.
Now, it would appear all of the gods were dead or captured.
Therefore, it was only natural Nick would sit on his throne a little early.