Episode 10
What I saw when I opened my eyes were countless cards.
Ten thousand cards floating above the black space.
'So this is the famous Hall of Ten Thousand Gods.'
An event more commonly known by the name "card gacha" rather than its noble title, Hall of Ten Thousand Gods.
The flower of God of Se that made countless users cry and laugh.
The moment of god pulling had begun.
[Welcome to the Hall of Ten Thousand Gods.]
[Each card contains a different god.]
[Please choose the god you will serve.]
"Wow... There's so many."
The god pulling, infamous for being the best way to test one's wealth or luck.
Posts about investing tens of millions of won to pull the desired god were common to see, and even then, there were plenty who couldn't obtain one and shed tears.
On the other hand, it was a bizarre system where someone could succeed in ten tries while others failed after investing tens of millions.
Truly, you had to either dump money or dump luck.
Dohyeon, who prided himself on having worse luck than anyone, planned to finish the god pulling quickly.
'No need to be greedy.'
He had already obtained sufficient rewards, and even though it was painful, with 6 traits, he could accept even pulling trash.
"......Hm?"
That was certainly his intention.
Until he looked closely at the cards before his eyes.
"......Why is that one gold?"
It wasn't just gold.
Every card was emitting a different light.
* * *
All users who completed the tutorial faced a crossroads of choice.
A crossroads where they must serve only one god among the many gods of the Hall of Ten Thousand Gods.
Since they had to choose a job among those derived from the god they served, they had to choose carefully given the system.
Was that all?
In God of Se, where everything was divided by grades, gods too had their respective grades.
Fable God, Hero God, Myth God.
Fable Gods were those who became gods through stories that consistently spread among people since ancient times, Hero Gods were cases where humans formerly called heroes ascended to the Hall of Ten Thousand Gods and became gods.
The last, Myth Gods, were those who created a single 'myth.'
Zeus of Greco-Roman mythology or Odin of Norse mythology belonged to this category.
Naturally, the latter ranks were higher grades.
Naturally, everyone wanted to become an apostle of a Myth God, but not just anyone could become one.
"Right. This damn trash game's characteristic doesn't go anywhere."
Because you had to pull unconditionally based on probability.
What would be the probability of pulling a Myth God card among ten thousand, not knowing how many there were?
Naturally, it couldn't be easy to pull, and the prevailing opinion was that pulling a Myth God required either heavenly luck or pouring in astronomical amounts of money.
[GodBung just pulled the Lion God of the North from the gacha, what should I do? Should I just stop here?]
-Lion God... Gustav? Crazy, if it's a Hero God you should stop immediately.
-I still have 300 bullets left... I pulled it in 200, so I'm a bit conflicted.
-ㄹㅋ 200 for a Hero God;; Is this even a country?
-What's there to be conflicted about. If it's Gustav, it doesn't lose to anywhere, so even if you can't have it, it's still a win.
-I wanted to be a main tank... But if it's Gustav, the derived jobs are only Commander or Sub-tank. If it were a DPS maybe, but sub-tank hurts my pride a bit...
-You have to play with a more aggressive playstyle than a normal tank, so it's a bit rough as main, but if you have a good skill set, it's doable as main.
-Ah, then instead of Gustav, how about the God of Honest Axes~ Is this axe your axe~.
-God of Honest Axes ㅋㅋㅋㅋ The derived job is only Axeman, isn't it?
-ㄹㅇ Getting a Hero God at 200 is something to be grateful for, you're getting greedy.
-Do you think pulling 300 more will get you another Hero God?
-Wake up. Some people can't pull one even after dumping a thousand. There's nothing more foolish than believing luck will continue just because it came through once.
-Ah, right;; I must have lost my mind for a second. Thanks everyone.
Even pulling just a Hero God was enough to make people consider changing the job they had in mind, such was the lofty status of Hero Gods.
It was only natural.
Myth Gods, rare even among 1 billion users, were close to fantasy.
Since Myth Gods were treated as belonging to their own world, Hero Gods were effectively a grade that could dominate anywhere.
[I'm screwed... No matter how much I pull, only Fable Gods come up... Did the Han River temperature rise a bit?]
-ㄱㅊ Unless you're a paying player, most are like that. Fable Gods are usable if you choose well. Fable Gods have particularly severe performance differences per god.
-My friend pulled a Hero God in one try...
-That's because your friend has insane luck. I poured in 10 million won and barely pulled one. Actually, now that I think about it, it feels unfair? Why did I spend 10 million won while someone pulls a Hero God for free? This luck-based trash game is really X.
Because most users belonged to Fable Gods.
Everyone groaned about it, but honestly it was a difference in perception; Fable Gods weren't necessarily bad.
Because jobs had unique effects, but skills were all the same within each job category.
It was a major reason why the evaluation that even if the god was a bit lacking, good traits made it a jackpot was quite common.
However, people still couldn't help but be serious about god pulling.
[Everyone's groaning about Fable Gods this and that, but I'm not happy at all even with a Hero God.]
-Pissing me off from the morning. Don't fish for compliments ㄴㄴ
-Please refrain from baiting;;
-Fishing for compliments? What's your trait? Wanna try living with the Three Ultimate Sword Techniques?
I poured my own money to pull a Hero God, and I can't do anything about this damn trait, it's X.
Honestly, whenever I see someone pulling a long face over getting a Fable God, their trait is usually insanely good. Someone with an innate mana trait pulling a long face over getting a Fable God is really too much, isn't it?
-Ah...
-Ah... sir... What was your control like that you got the Three Ultimate Sword Techniques...
Because the second chance and last chance for people with trash traits was this 'god pulling.'
Those with trash traits had no answer if even this was bad, so they couldn't help but be serious about this god pulling.
Was that why?
Usually, people with good traits often had mediocre gods, and among those with trash traits, there were notably many cases where the god's grade was high.
Of course, special cases occasionally existed.
A case where the trait was fraudulent and the god was a Myth God, a case that naturally made one say it was rigged.
[Myeolsal is truly beyond comparison;;]
[How can someone have a Myth God and top-tier traits too.]
[Insane physical ability, lots of money, good-looking, popular... ㅅㅂ why does he live life alone.]
[That's how mom's friend's son always is. They're just beyond comparison in everything so I don't even feel inferiority. Just seems like a person from a different world.]
Myeolsal and the top 10 guild masters.
Or those who had reached the high ranks were such people.
People who lived in their own world, as the users said.
Therefore, Dohyeon hadn't held any particular expectations.
'It's not like my lack of luck is anything new.'
Even until the moment of server shutdown in his Demlock days, Dohyeon had never possessed a single legendary-grade skill.
With his kind of luck, he would have to invest astronomical amounts of money to obtain a good god, and he didn't have that kind of money.
At best, about 1 million won?
Whether it was a Fable God or whatever, he planned to be satisfied as long as a god that would give him a job where he could wield a sword appeared.
"Crazy."
That was certainly his intention...
"What the hell is this."
That plan was completely overturned.
Astronomical money? Heaven-defying luck close to heavenly fortune?
He didn't need any of that.
"......The grades are visible."
Because the colors emanating from the cards were telling him the grades.
"Brown, silver, gold."
From left, these were the colors symbolizing Fable God, Hero God, and Myth God.
They were colors that should be reflected on the front of the cards... but for some reason, they were now shining from the back.
It wasn't a bug or error.
Not because of that cliché about God of Se being managed by AI and having no bugs.
[Eye of Truth is activated.]
The message floating above his head was telling him that wasn't the reason.
The sole unique trait obtained after clearing the tutorial.
'Sees through hidden things...'
It was a trait whose effect he hadn't properly grasped, but he never imagined it would have such a fraudulent effect.
'This is an absurd ability.'
It wasn't just something said in vain; it was truly absurd.
No matter how important traits were in a game, should a mere trait be allowed to invade the system's domain?
If this was real, it meant he would be doing guaranteed pulls whenever he did card gacha.
The only one in all of God of Se.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
He could feel his heart's blood pumping and beating fast.
It beat so violently that the sound was about to ring in his skull.
'Crazy.'
He couldn't control his excitement to that degree.
Guaranteed pulls. Was there anything more fraudulent than this in a luck-based trash game?
-Why do you have such bad luck? It's to the point I don't even feel sorry for you, man.
-I am curious. If you had good luck, how far could you have climbed...
-You're already rank 1, is there anywhere higher to go?
-That's not what I mean, you bastard.
Words his comrades had once said in passing.
At the time, he had laughed it off, but on the other hand, it had been bitter.
How could he not harbor resentment toward his bad luck? It was just that he took comfort in ultimately achieving 1st place; no one had been more miserable than him.
'With this...'
But now it was different.
Starting 1 year and 6 months late?
Yes, that was a devastating blow. Normally, it was to the extent that becoming a ranker would be an impossible dream. That was why Dohyeon hadn't harbored any lingering attachment to becoming a ranker when he started the game.
It would be nice to become the best in a game he was playing anyway, but this was just too late no matter how he looked at it.
'Wouldn't it be possible?'
But what if he had the Eye of Truth?
What if Kaiser, who had no luck, gained luck superior to anyone else?
...Perhaps becoming a ranker might actually be possible.
'Calm down.'
Suppressing the dizziness in his head, Dohyeon took a deep breath.
It was too hasty a thought. It wouldn't be too late to judge after pulling first.
'Only 20 out of 10 thousand...'
No wonder pulling a Myth God required astronomical amounts of money.
Compared to the silver ones that seemed to be around 500~700, it was undoubtedly an extreme probability.
But right now, it was just a useless probability.
'I'm targeting only the gold ones.'
With a pounding heart, Dohyeon pulled a gold card.
At the same time, along with a dazzling golden light, a cheerful notification rang out, and Dohyeon's eyes widened.
[You have pulled Myth God 'One-Armed Sword God Tyr'.]
[Will you select this god?]
"Tyr...!"
Contrary to his shabby name, he was a god of sword and war from Norse mythology, and a man called the god of duels.
He was the supreme god before Odin, but lost his arm and fell from the rank of chief god.
In some regions, he was still called the supreme god, but given that he had lost an arm, his prestige inevitably had to diminish.
Therefore, his reputation wasn't good at first...
The moment the true value of Tyr's unique ability was revealed, the evaluation made a 180-degree turn.
'That's understandable.'
Tyr's unique ability, Duel.
An ability that deals additional damage to enemies in fights judged to be duels. But the most fraudulent ability was the second one.
'An ability to resurrect at the cost of one arm when approaching death.'
It could truly be called an ability that perfectly matched the title of One-Armed Sword God.
Considering how burdensome the death penalty became in the late game, and conversely, how rare resurrection abilities were, it could be called a top-tier ability.
Even if the cooldown was a bit long, in a crisis situation, it was like having 2 lives alone.
Having one more life changes your playstyle.
You could play more boldly.
'Let's go with this.'
He had 1 million won, so he could pull 10 more times, but there was no reason to.
A god better than Tyr?
Such gods might exist, but he could confidently say that a god more helpful to Dohyeon wouldn't appear within 10 pulls.
Because Tyr was already a top-tier god among the sword gods he had originally wanted.
Swish.
Therefore, Dohyeon selected the card without hesitation.
Then a message floated up.
[You have selected Myth God 'One-Armed Sword God Tyr'.]
[The vessel of an apostle has not been formed.]
[You cannot become Tyr's apostle.]
[Please pull a card again.]
[Tyr is greatly flustered by an unexpected situation.]
"......?"
Incomprehensible messages.