I Level Up With In-app Purchases

I Raise With In-app Purchases – 6

EP.6 Mysterious Secret Merchant (2)

I hid my body in the alley and glanced behind me. 

There was a hesitancy as if lingering regrets, then a sudden shift in position. Worried that someone else might see, I took off the suspicious-looking hood.

“Sigh…”

Indeed, being in the Academy City, there were too many things to be cautious about. 

The lifestyle disparity between commoners and nobles was significant. Not paying attention to one’s behaviour could lead to being denied entry.

Commoners who neglected their appearance versus nobles who managed their beauty through various means. 

In this world, taking care one’s appearance was considered a virtue among nobles. Even among nobles, if someone looked unattractive, continuous grooming efforts could earn them recognition.

For commoners, the idea of enhancing their appearance wasn’t even in their minds. Yet, for me, someone from South Korea known as the beauty kingdom, the lifestyle of nobles wasn’t unfamiliar.

‘How to groom oneself is not a trivial matter.’

Facial packs that my girlfriend occasionally applied, days when I had to forcibly apply sunscreen. 

In the game, there were items to enhance a character’s charm and sociability by improving their attractiveness. To enter the Academy City, I spared no expense in applying items to boost my charm.

Thanks to that, my face, which I hadn’t cared for before, successfully transformed into a ‘groomed beauty’. Fortunately, nobles were lenient about scars, probably due to the situations they faced fighting monsters in the contaminated zone.

I spent a considerable amount of money to buy a dark navy suit, pushing the limits of what was feasible. With my identity already sorted out beforehand, all I needed to do was avoid suspicion about my appearance, which was also covered by items.

“I wanted to throw all of this away when it first came out… but having it comes in handy.”

Even this cosmetic product would sell well among nobles. However, from a game system perspective, beauty products were almost useless. After repeatedly spinning hundreds of times to get exclusive weapons for the hero, you would end up with hundreds of beauty products.

‘Boosting sociability due to character synergy isn’t a bad thing, but it’s an annoying factor that makes you click a few more times.’

However, now that the game had become reality, these items turned out to be quite useful.

‘Wouldn’t it be appreciated as a gift for girls?’

Who among the girls wouldn’t be interested in beauty? I decided to think about it later once I got closer to them…

I entered the inn and let out a deep sigh. 

“It was really tough.” 

It had taken a whopping 14 years, almost 15, to come this far. 

I had put in a lot of effort to get close to the Academy over the years, trying to reach the nobles as a commoner. 14 years. 

‘Damn, they should have adjusted the difficulty level better.’

However, even after successfully infiltrating the Academy area, my hardships didn’t end easily. Just before retirement, I took on one last request to purchase special items and went with the mercenary group to the contaminated zone. 

I could purchase the special items without any trouble. I successfully dealt with the monster I encountered after Kobold, gaining confidence in my skills. That moment was the best.

‘I shouldn’t have caught the monster so easily…’

I was too excited about capturing a monster using my abilities. What could the guys filled with uncontrollable confidence after capturing a monster with supernatural abilities do?

‘It’s an accident, well, sort of.’

It was an accident waiting to happen, a situation ripe for an accident. I used the tracking scroll once again. Unknowingly, we chased after the monster, not realizing how close we were to the contaminated zone. Unfortunately, we encountered a powerful monster that we couldn’t handle.

‘My precious scroll.’

To survive, I had to use the scroll without sparing it. As a result, I killed the monster using the truly rare and precious magic scroll, the only one I had.

‘I made money, but…’

Honestly, using that scroll still left a bitter taste in my mouth.

‘Thanks to that, I sold that loot, bought special items on sale, and still had money left. That’s how I was able to pull again.’

I once again recalled the girl I had just met. After coming to the Academy, I realized once again that this world was like a game.

‘It’s because the character draw window finally opened.’

The large city built around the Academy, where only nobles with verified status could enter, and commoners could only access with a guarantee from a noble. 

If an accident happened with a guaranteed commoner, the noble who provided the guarantee had to take full responsibility. This made nobles hesitant to give guarantees to commoners, except for truly necessary situations or trustworthy individuals.

Some argued whether such strict access control was necessary for the Academy, but the justification for thorough protection prevailed.

Thanks to this system, I had to put in a lot of effort to enter this place. It took me 14 years.

‘In truth, it took 14 years to arrive, and I was worried that the characters I knew had already graduated.’

Fourteen years. It was a considerable time even if I enrolled and graduated from the Academy. I had spent a lot on gacha to get exclusive weapons for the characters, but I never thought I could sell all those weapons.

The characters I knew were nowhere to be found when I observed the students going back and forth near the Academy for days.

At first, I was disappointed, thinking I arrived too late at the Academy, and I pondered how to contact them as they had already entered the military.

Later, it occurred to me that there might be a reason why the character draw was opened as soon as I arrived at the Academy. Using the remaining cash, I decided to draw characters.

“Spending was the answer.”

The shock was still there when I did the first character draw with a dazzling light effect. 

It was decent, as I got an SSR character. However, what shocked me wasn’t that I got a good character but the fact that the character came out into reality the moment I drew it.

“Huh? What am I doing here?”

Ten characters came out with one draw.

[R] [R] [R] [R] [SR] [R] [R] [R] [SSR] [R]. 

None were duplicates, and all of them, with bewildered expressions, scattered to their desired locations.

Most of them were R and SR grades with little value to cultivate. I couldn’t stop the ten from going their way, and I only understood the situation after I came to my senses late.

‘It’s not that they are not here because it was too late, it just they didn’t exist at all.’

Looking back, it still gives me chills. The Academy was where I found those ten characters who had disappeared somewhere.

They laughed and chatted casually with other students, as if they had existed since forever. New noble families appeared, and no one questioned their existence.

‘So, do I have to spend money to at least keep the kids’ business cards?’

How much influence would the nonexistence of characters have on this world? Even if the performance of characters drawn with spending wasn’t directly used, it would be better than extras.

‘And if those kids, who are worth raising, graduate from the Academy and go to war to reduce contamination rates by 1%…’

In the end, spending had to continue. 

Depending on how much effort I put into running the gacha, it could change the fate of the world.

I don’t know why someone like me got this ability or why I’m burdened with this responsibility.

‘Money again.’

But making money seems to be the answer. It was a tiresome task, but considering the situation up to the Academy, life should be much better than when I earned money as a mercenary. I emptied the remaining cash to draw characters.

Unfortunately, there was only one valuable character to raise, the SSR I drew at the beginning. And that SSR character was the girl I had just talked to.

[Name: Shine (SSR)]

[Rank: B]

[Skills: ]

[Stats: Power (B) Health (C) Agility (B) Magic Power (C) Charm (C)]

Looking at the character window, the base stats weren’t great. To make it work, I needed to draw the same character multiple times to raise the grade to 5 stars. Additionally, I had to clear scenario quests to increase stats.

Among the various stats, the main stats, Power and Agility, needed to have SSS, and Magic Power had to be at least SS to make this character worthwhile as a tier 2 character.

‘Plus, having the character’s unique equipment would be even better.’

Fortunately, Shine’s unique equipment was in my item window. It was a fantastic weapon that would make anyone envy if they saw it.