I blinked. And again. Contrary to expectations, the forested landscape didn’t disappear. I didn’t return to my room. I was stuck here, in the middle of a forest for some reason, with no idea where I was, when I had just been in my room staring at my phone.

“A dream?”

No. Not likely. Far too coherent to be a dream, and besides, the fact that I was able to calmly ask myself that question suggested that a dream was unlikely. Furthermore, dreams were always created from our own experience – and I knew for a fact that I had never seen this clearing in my life. I mean, I’m a city girl. How would I have the chance to see a clearing as pretty and a sky as unpolluted as this? Even if I had seen it on television or in a movie, this landscape was far too detailed to be the result of such memories – besides, I hadn’t had the time to watch those in a week. There was no rational explanation for a dream like this, and therefore, it being a dream was unlikely.

As I cast my gaze around, trying to think of an alternative explanation, I noticed that as I moved, something else moved in my field of vision as well. As I calmed myself and took in my situation, I noticed that a red bar was floating in the corner of my field of vision, with numbers above it that read [100/100]. Just below it was a shorter, green bar which bore the numbers [50/50].

…a HP bar?

I was no stranger to HP bars, given the amount of games I had grown up playing – and the number of gacha games I played to this day. But I had never seen an actual, physical HP bar before, and certainly not one that seemed attached to my field of vision. As I rotated my head, the HP bar moved along with it.

“… Virtual Reality?”

The presence of the HP bar immediately called to mind another possibility for what was going on. Perhaps that app I had found had some sort of VR technology in it, some super-amazing new innovation that was able to create VR environments that were this ridiculously detailed, and I was just watching a VR simulation right now.

“…right, no, that’s stupid.”

No way. I didn’t even own any VR gear, and I was completely sure that I was not wearing any form of external apparatus when that light appeared on the phone. My own state of dress testified to that: I was still in a half-dressed state, with my pants gone but my shirt still on. It was evident that whatever had happened, I was still in exactly the same state as I was when my phone had started freaking out.

“…my phone.”

I searched around me, trying to locate my phone. Despite the rest of myself being as I was at the moment the light had started, my phone was not with me. It was nowhere near me – the ground around me was vacant apart from my own body. I closed my eyes and massaged my forehead. The loss of my phone was reasonably annoying, but nothing very significant – all my game progress and important info were backed up on cloud servers, anyway. More importantly, if this wasn’t a dream, and it wasn’t VR, then it left one likely, but ridiculous, explanation – and the presence of a HP bar, of all things, confirmed this.

“…It can’t be… another world?”

That was the kind of nonsense that happened in fiction. The character getting sent to another world, other than their own. A very popular trope, as it happened. I really didn’t want to seriously consider the option that I had been somehow shifted to an alternate world, but my other possible explanations were quickly running out. And, as a certain fictional detective is often quoted saying: when all other possibilities have been eliminated, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. I opened my eyes and glanced back to the HP bar. It seemed that I had been somehow transported to an alternate, game-like world. Of course, in retrospect, the moment my phone had started acting weird, all common sense went out the window.

Eh, let’s start by finding out more about this HP bar.

I reached out and touched the HP bar, which was floating a couple centimetres away from my face. I expected my fingers to pass through it, but the moment I made contact, a radial menu popped out from the HP display. Six circles were displayed: [Status], [Equip], [Quest], [Inventory], [Class] and [Gacha]. My eyebrow twitched when I saw the last circle. I resisted the overwhelming urge to click it, and instead opted to first check my [Status]. As I tapped it, a square, translucent panel appeared in front of me, with details scrawled across it.

Status

Name

Brynhildr Weber

Class

Gachamancer (☆☆☆☆)

Level

1 / 40

Stats

HP

100 + 0

MP

50 + 0

Strength

2 + 0

Endurance

2 + 0

Magic

2 + 0

Resistance

2 + 0

Agility

2 + 0

Luck

0 + 30

Skills

Gachamancy Lv.1

Login Bonus Lv.1

Item Box Lv.1

Class Change

I blinked. My status screen raised several questions, particularly about my class. I’d played many games in the past, enough to know that pretty much anything could be considered a class, but even so, this was my first time seeing a class like [Gachamancer]. I tried tapping on it, which created an additional text box, floating in front of the status panel.

Class: [Gachamancer]

One who tempts fate. Uses Gacha Points (GP) to roll the [Gacha], risking all for the chance to attain new power.

Stat Correction: +30 Luc

My eyebrow twitched in annoyance. This was certainly a perfect class for me, the gacha addict, but the very fact that it fit so well made me feel a little terrible about my choices in life. I shook my annoyance away and looked over my stats. It was clear that my class was weak. It seemed my only outstanding stat was Luck – even though I felt like Luck made no sense as a numerical stat. Perhaps it was related to the [Gacha].

I had an idea of what ‘Skills’ referred to, but I decided to check it, just in case. I tapped the box. A textbox explaining what skills were popped out, as well as five other textboxes, each explaining one of my skills.

Skills

Special abilities or attributes gained from one’s [Class].

Gachamancy Lv.1

Allows the user to call upon mystical energies in the [Gacha]. Consume GP to summon forth a random weapon or class. Gacha pool is determined by physical location. This skill can be used as long as the user’s [Class] or [Subclass] is [Gachamancer].

Login Bonus Lv.1

Grants the user 1 GP per day. Grants the user a starting stock of 35 GP. Skill remains even if user changes classes.

Item Bag Lv.1

User can summon a magical bag which can store up to 30 distinct items per category, regardless of physical size. Storage Capacity can be increased by expending GP. Skill remains even if user changes classes.

Class Change

User is able to change classes if in possession of a [Class Crystal]. Skill remains even if user changes classes.

[Subclass]? What’s that?

I searched around for an explanation, but found nothing. Oh well. There were more important issues at hand.

I narrowed my eyes as I came upon the part of the [Login Bonus] skill that said I had been given 35 GP. I tapped the [Inventory] button on the radial menu, next to my HP bar. Instantly, the button became greyed out. At the same time, a black messenger bag appeared, slung around my torso. It seemed to be made of high-quality leather, and it was about the size of a briefcase.

It seemed I could tap this button to summon the bag, after which it remained summoned. I deduced that tapping the button again would dismiss it, but I kept it materialised since it was in a convenient shape, anyway. I opened it and looked inside.

…Well, that’s new.

The inside of the bag was much bigger than the outside – no surprise, since it was a magical bag – but more interestingly, the base of the bag was split into a neat 6-by-5 grid of squares. Of these, the first two squares were occupied. In the first square was what looked like a crystal, with a myriad of different colours swirling within. When I focused on it, white letters appeared above it, reading [Class Crystal (Gachamancer)].

This must be for the [Class Change] skill. And that means that the item right next to it is what I’m looking for.

The square next to the [Class Crystal] held a stack of multi-coloured orbs, their gradient identical to my [Class Crystal]. Each was about the size of a pearl, and a white number in the bottom-right hand corner of the box read “35”. I focused on them, and true enough, the words [Gacha Point] appeared above it.

Out of curiosity, while continuing to look inside the bag, I shook it around vigorously. Nothing happened. The items in it did not move. I briefly wondered how it worked, but quickly realised that I was trying to figure out the workings of a magic bag and gave up the endeavour. This was far from the most bizarre thing I’d seen in the last hour, so there was no point in trying to figure out this particular bit of absurdity. I closed the bag, then turned my attention to what had been tempting me since I saw it: the [Gacha] button.

I touched the button, and three panels appeared in front of me.

Weapon Gacha

Spend 5 GP to attempt a roll for a weapon of up to SSR rarity! Spend 25 GP to attempt 5 rolls, with one roll guaranteed to be an SR or above!

Availability:

[Tigrynaresh, The Hallowed Forest]

Rates:

3% SSR, 22% SR, 75% R

Class Gacha

Spend 30 GP to attempt a roll for a class of up to SSR rarity! Spend 150 GP to attempt 5 rolls, with one roll guaranteed to be an SR or above!

Availability:

[Tigrynaresh, The Hallowed Forest]

Rates:

3% SSR, 22% SR, 75% R

Beginner’s Gacha

One time only! Spend 5 GP for a guaranteed SSR weapon! You’ll also get a [Beginner’s Starter Set] for free!

Availability:

[Beginner’s Pool]

“[Tigrynaresh, The Hallowed Forest]... I guess that’s the name of this forest.”

The [Gachamancy] skill description had said that gacha pools were based on my physical location. I presumed that meant that different locations would have different weapons or classes that could be drawn. Well, for the moment, that didn’t matter, since I had no idea how the location affected the pool – and even if I did, I knew nothing about this forest or this world, so the best course of action was to just wing it.

I licked my lips in anticipation, the gacha addict in me coming to the forefront. With my starting amount, I could roll on the class gacha once, as well as on the guaranteed SSR once. I could do a 5-pull on the weapons gacha, but I would probably get more mileage out of a second class other than my [Gachamancer] – based on my starting skills, that seemed to be what my class was intended to do. Besides, I could use the weapon gacha once every 5 days because of [Login Bonus] – as opposed to the class gacha, which I would have to save a month’s worth of GP to use. It made more sense to go for the more expensive item first, since I was given the option.

With that, I decided to roll the class gacha first. I was curious as to what kind of classes there were in this world – the fact that there existed a gacha for weapons suggested that this was a world where I could expect conflict to occur, so I wanted to see if the class gacha gave combat or non-combatant classes. This would probably affect what I decided to do from this point, so it was arguably more important than rolling for a weapon.

Of course, the real reason was because I wanted to know if my [Curse] had been broken.

My decision made, I touched my hand to the [Class Gacha] panel. A second text box appeared.

Please present 30 GP.

I reached into my bag and grabbed the GP. I grabbed a random handful, but when I did, the number in the bottom-right changed from 35 to 5. It seemed that it read my intent and only gave me exactly as much as I needed. Very convenient. I held the handful of pearl-like GP up to the textbox. For a second, nothing happened. Then they started shining brilliantly, floating up, off the palm of my hand. I clamped my hands together and squeezed my eyes shut as if in prayer.

Please let the [curse] be broken. Please. This is a different world, you know? Curses from the old world shouldn’t cling to their past glory, you know? That’s how politicians lose power, you know? So please just leave me alone, my [curse]. I’m begging you.

A white light enveloped the cluster of pearls, then they slowly began to change shape, turning into the shape of a [Class Crystal]. As the process continued, the light abruptly changed colours, becoming golden instead of white. I leaned forward in excitement. After a few more moments, the light disappeared, leaving in its place a golden-coloured [Class Crystal], hovering in the air. A text box appeared in front of me once more. I peeked at it through a slowly-opening eyelid.

“…Oh come on, you can’t be fucking serious!”

New Class Obtained!

SR Class [Valkyrie] has been obtained.