I Level Up With In-app Purchases

EP.96 The Winner and Enhancement (4)

“Ouch!!”

I had to roll on the floor for a while after taking a direct hit.

It’s astounding that even this level of force isn’t considered serious from her perspective.

If she had hit me with her full strength, I would have been coughing up blood.

“Now that you’ve awakened, you should be able to handle this much! Toughen up, toughen up!”

Rebecca said, panting, as she lifted the bottle of alcohol to her throat.

‘Crazy woman…’

She had the nerve to put on her shoes in front of me earlier.

And she initiates a kiss only to back out?

“I’m letting it slide because we’re friends.”

“What are you saying? Hmpf! Just drink, you bastard.”

We continued to drink excessively while glaring at each other.

To the point where we were so drunk we could barely move.

In the end, Rebecca ended up staying the night at my place.

The next morning.

Since it happened to be the weekend, we were having a comfortable and leisurely morning.

Meaning we hadn’t gotten out of bed.

“Get up already.”

“Ughh… Make me something delicious. I’m hungry.”

“I’ve made toast, so get up.”

“Mmm~ Don’t wanna! Make me ramen!”

“It’s ‘ramen,’ you idiot.”

“Hangover cure~!”

After even making ramen for her, I felt a wave of regret.

Slurp slurp slurp!

“Ah~ This is it! I can’t find anything quite like this taste anywhere else.”

“Damn, I’m such a pushover. A total pushover.”

“He-hee! Are you really not going to sell this? I think you’d make a killing if you started a business.”

Rebecca thinks that cooking suits me better than running a general store.

I have to admit, cooking does seem to suit me pretty well.

But I’m not interested in making delicious food for others; I’m more interested in eating delicious food myself, so I have no desire to open a restaurant.

After finishing our meal, we washed up and then started lounging around my place again.

“Aren’t you going home?”

“I don’t know~ For some reason, I don’t feel like doing anything.”

“You’re already not doing anything.”

Maybe because of what we went through yesterday, I felt completely drained.

“You’re not going to do anything?”

“Nope.”

“Not even training?”

“…Nope.”

It’s quite surprising that Rebecca isn’t going to train.

In the end, I also lazily lay down.

While chatting idly with Rebecca, I suddenly remembered a topic I wanted to bring up.

“You said you’re enlisting soon, right?”

“Yeah. It’s not far off now.”

Rebecca had been waiting for the day to re-enlist while undergoing rehabilitation training for a long time.

“Will you be alright?”

“Of course I’ll be fine. I know it’s dangerous, that’s why I’ve been training so hard.”

It seems she doesn’t have even the slightest regret about choosing to re-enlist.

“I’m a bit worried. What if you enlist only to lose your life needlessly?”

“Hehe, you’ll come to my funeral if I have one, right?”

“Hey! Is that something you should say to a friend?”

At the very least, one shouldn’t laugh about their own death, right?

“Sorry, sorry.”

But Rebecca seemed to think differently from me.

Should I take this as black humor?

“So, speaking of which, don’t you want to get stronger?”

“I do. That’s why I’m training hard even now. Are you saying this because I’m not training today?”

“No, as you know, my ability is a bit unique. I’m saying this because I have a way to make you stronger.”

“…A way to make me stronger? Are you going to lend me equipment like last time?”

I grinned at Rebecca, who was showing interest, and said,

“Not that kind of thing. This time, it’s a method to increase your innate power.”

With enlistment now really close,

I was planning to raise Rebecca to 5 stars first.

Although I can’t give her a resurrection stone, I think our relationship is close enough to enhance her up to 5 stars.

Naturally, Rebecca showed interest in my words.

“How do you do it?”

“Actually, there are two methods. One of them you already know about.”

An SSR orb created through synthesis.

I held it out in front of Rebecca.

“You know about this too, right?”

“Of course I do! Can I use it now too?”

“Yeah. I made an orb tailored for you.”

“Wow~ If you sold these custom-made, you’d be rolling in money, wouldn’t you?”

“It’s not perfect yet.”

Unfortunately, only the characters I summon can use the orbs.

Moreover, since it’s limited to SSR, I couldn’t say its versatility had increased.

Since I had no way to explain that, I just said I made it to match your energy.

It’s somewhat true since I diligently synthesized it to give her an SSR.

“You said this could be done 5 times, right?”

“That’s right.”

Rebecca seemed to know more about the orbs than I expected.

“Isn’t it expensive?”

“Are we going to talk about money between friends? If you feel that uncomfortable, just consider it a debt. Or I’m fine with other methods too.”

“Other methods?”

Rebecca tilted her head, not understanding the meaning of ‘other methods’, then suddenly clenched her fist in surprise.

It seemed she had belatedly understood.

“A joke! It’s a joke. Just kidding.”

I quickly clarified that it was a joke to defuse the situation and save my life.

“Sigh… If that’s the first method, what’s the second?”

Rebecca sighed deeply and asked about the other method.

“The second method actually requires quite a bit of money.”

“Money… I can earn a lot when I enlist.”

Rebecca became dejected, saying she didn’t have much money at the moment.

It’s not that Rebecca lacks wealth.

It’s just that she thinks she doesn’t have enough wealth to pay off all the debts I’ve accumulated so far.

“I’ll explain the second method later. Let’s do this first.”

“You’re just going to give it to me like this?”

“I told you, only you can use it right now, right?”

I didn’t want to completely drain my friend’s wallet, considering we’ll need to spend a lot of money on unique equipment upgrades in the future.

Even though Ariane had spent quite a bit drawing unique equipment, she still had a lot left.

So, couldn’t we afford this much leeway?

‘This is more like an investment. An investment that can yield big returns later.’

But for some reason, her expression is strange when I say I won’t take anything.

“Why that look? Don’t you like it?”

“I’m already burdening you with the shoe equipment, so it feels weird to accept more.”

“So you won’t do it?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to, I just feel bad!”

“Didn’t you say you needed to get stronger by any means necessary?”

Rebecca needs to become stronger and stronger to reclaim the Desert Kingdom.

“There’s a limit to how much I can owe. How am I supposed to repay if I owe even more?”

All she’s really indebted to me for is borrowing the unique equipment.

“Was lending you that such a big deal?”

“Not a big deal? Not at all! You just can’t empathize because you haven’t experienced it yet.”

“…Do I need to empathize that much?”

It wasn’t easy to empathize with the emotions Rebecca was feeling, as she said.

In fact, it had been hard to empathize since the SSRs showed excessive reactions when they got their unique equipment.

‘I don’t even want to empathize.’

Seeing them fuss over unique equipment makes me think I shouldn’t be like that.

Of course, I know that Rebecca’s skills have been improving rapidly since breaking through the wall.

I guess she’s grateful to me in proportion to how much her skills have grown.

‘With enlistment so close, is this the time to be worrying about gratitude?’

Looking at the imminent re-enlistment time and the situation at the front lines, we couldn’t just smile and be happy.

Even now, there’s a lot of talk at the academy about the grim situation at the front lines.

“Enlist, make achievements, and keep getting promoted. Become so great that I want to brag about you. Then you won’t have to worry about repaying your debt, it’ll be repaid naturally.”

If she grows up well and makes a solid mark in the military, it’ll be a big advantage for me.

I took out the bead again and held it out to Rebecca.

“My success will help you?”

“Yeah. So since you’re getting help, make sure you get it properly.”

You can tell by looking at Rebecca’s eyes.

She can’t take her eyes off the bead in her hand, can she?

Her eyes were already full of desire.

“Ah… I really shouldn’t do this.”

This sense of indebtedness will come in handy later.

I told her once again to let future Rebecca worry about repayment as I placed the bead in front of her.

“What if I fail with all of them?”

“Why think about failing from the start? You should think about succeeding.”

There’s a completely different level of tension compared to when I gave beads to R or SR ranks for enhancement.

Fortunately, unlike R or SR ranks, SSR beads only require one bead for enhancement.

“Sigh, I’m really grateful and sorry. I swear I’ll repay this debt to you before I die!”

Rebecca closed her eyes tightly and placed her hand on the bead.

[SYSTEM- ⭐️1-star enhancement successful.]

I was curious how much she would change when she reached 5 stars.

Since it was my first time making an SSR rank 5 stars, I was a bit nervous too.

‘The main stat should reach SS, right?’

It’s already powerful, but what if it reaches SS, and beyond that, SSS?

Of course, it’s impossible to see SSS stats yet since Rebecca’s scenario isn’t finished.

She continued to attempt enhancements using the beads.

“Am I doing this right?”

[SYSTEM- ⭐️2-star enhancement successful.]

“Did I succeed?”

“Yes, you’re doing well.”

“Wow, this is amazing.”

There will be many more amazing things to come.

She quickly moved past 3 stars to 4 stars.

There was a slight hiccup at the final 5-star attempt.

[SYSTEM- ⭐️5-star enhancement failed.]

[SYSTEM- ⭐️5-star enhancement failed.]

[SYSTEM- ⭐️5-star enhancement failed.]

“Argh! Why isn’t it working!”

“Try to stay calm.”

It seems she’s not used to this kind of enhancement, so she can’t sit still after three failures.

Her reaction would probably be quite sticky if she got a taste of gacha.

Is this how veteran players feel when watching beginners?

I couldn’t help but smile at how cute it was.

She looks like a haughty princess from some fantasy world, but to think she could be this adorable.

[SYSTEM- ⭐️5-star enhancement failed.]

She stamps her feet, makes a fuss, and grabs the bead again.

And once again, failure comes.

Now Rebecca looks at me desperately, on the verge of tears.

But there’s nothing I can do about it.

“You can do it. Believe in yourself.”

That’s what enhancement is all about.

If you don’t believe in yourself, you’ll never reach higher enhancements.

At least the current enhancement only consumes beads, it doesn’t regress or destroy the enhancement back to 0, right?

What Rebecca needs is the courage to believe in herself and try.

[SYSTEM- ⭐️5-star enhancement successful.]

And finally, on the fifth attempt, Rebecca’s courage reached the sky.

“I did it!! I did it, right? I really did it?!”

“Yes, you did it.”

“Kyaa!”

A total of 10 attempts were made, using 10 beads.

It was painful to fail once at 3 stars, and four times when trying to go from 4 stars to 5 stars.

‘Is this right?’

It’s good that bead synthesis has been introduced, but the presence of failure feels very unfair.

Meanwhile, Rebecca was so happy about getting stronger that she hugged me and jumped up and down on the spot.

After enjoying Rebecca’s “service” (?) for a while, I said,

“Ahem, how does it feel?”

[Achievement unlocked.]

“Wait a moment, let me check. But this… my heart is racing. I feel a surge of power in my body… Whew!”

Whoosh~

“!!!”

Whoa, that startled me.

I thought fire was coming out of her mouth.

Looking closely, it wasn’t fire but magical power bursting out from inside her body.

“What are you, a circus performer?”

“Ha, this is, whew, so hot. It’s even stronger than taking an elixir?”

It seemed that as her physical abilities increased rapidly, it wasn’t easy to control.

“Give me a moment.”

“Okay.”

Rebecca seemed to need some time to adjust.

‘But didn’t something pop up earlier?’

I decided to check again what I hadn’t been able to confirm while chatting with Rebecca.

The log that had scrolled up was a message saying I had achieved an achievement.