Ch.140[Chapter 140] Restoration

Sir Dominic’s card is being reprinted, and new cards are joining the card pool today.

The card pack exchange was once again crowded with so many people that the server could barely handle it.

“What’s the probability this time?”

“0.5%, they say.”

“…That’s actually pretty decent?”

“Right? I even sold my house for this. I’m sure I’ll pull it within that many tries.”

People chatted and laughed while waiting in line.

Though the content of their conversations wasn’t exactly cheerful, the atmosphere wasn’t bad at least.

Unlike last time when the probability went down to seven decimal places, this was just 0.5%.

One in 200 cards.

That’s a rate where you could reasonably expect to hit the pity ceiling for a pickup character card.

…or so the calculation went.

“But you know…”

A person in noble attire looked at the queue with a troubled expression.

“Isn’t the line a bit… long?”

At the noble’s words, people looked ahead.

There was a sign that read “30,000 people to this point.”

In fact, there was one major error in Shenlong’s prediction of 50,000 cards.

He had forgotten that the reservation numbers on the first day of Little Sir Dominic’s sale alone were 20,000.

In a situation where reservations were increasing by 10,000 in real-time, 50,000 cards was an absurdly small number.

Above all, the fatal mistake was predicting that each person would only draw one card.

Sir Dominic was currently 3-tier.

And the reprinted card was 2-tier, just like before.

To evolve it to 3-tier, one needed to draw the same card to get stones, creating a compulsion to draw at least two cards.

Just look at the commander in the gas mask at the center of this madness.

After drawing two of the original Sir Dominic cards and one 3-tier Rider Sir Dominic, he was pouring all his resources into drawing another original Sir Dominic.

His plan was to stock up on materials in advance for future evolution to 4-tier.

If luck was on his side, he might even get enough stones to reach 5-tier.

“…Can I draw Sir Dominic’s card here?”

And here, a newcomer entered this card pack exchange filled with madness.

“I don’t understand, but I have my orders…”

It was Code Back Zero, the android who had become almost human.

Zero sat at an empty counter with a Little Sir Dominic doll on each arm.

“Welcome meow… Is that a Little Sir Dominic doll?”

The cat beastkin who had been boredly attending to customers brightened her eyes at the sight of the dolls.

The Little Sir Dominic doll currently had a two-month waiting list due to overwhelming reservations.

How did Zero have two of these dolls?

It was because she was made with the highest technology.

Her brain was artificial intelligence with performance that far surpassed supercomputers.

Yes.

She could access the internet just by thinking, use her own Wi-Fi, and refresh faster than anyone else.

That’s how she got her hands on two dolls by breaking through the server that was about to crash.

Of course, buying the Little Sir Dominic dolls wasn’t her own decision.

‘They’re releasing dolls of my brother. We should at least buy some. Order two just in case.’

It was a request from Dr. Banshee… no, Sir Dominic’s sister, Remi.

Zero had faithfully followed her creator’s words and bought two Little Sir Dominic dolls.

The moment she bought the dolls, Zero’s mission was complete.

Then why did she come to the card pack exchange?

That too stemmed from Zero’s excessive performance.

Zero’s information gathering ability was as excellent as her computational circuits, tending to collect information that ordinary people wouldn’t know.

A paradoxical state of poor efficiency due to excessive performance.

Zero collected information about Little Sir Dominic from the sea of information.

And she came across information about the original Little Sir Dominic.

The Little Sir Dominic doll was an autonomous doll that could move by installing a character card.

Zero nodded.

Zero was divided into hardware that constituted her exterior and software that constituted her soul.

Without software, Zero was just an android, and without hardware, Zero was just artificial intelligence.

Mind, Skill, Body.

Mind (心). Software.

Skill (技). Characteristics and abilities.

Body (體). Hardware.

These three components had to be complete for the entity “Code Back Zero” to be complete.

…according to the GachaTube wiki.

Zero looked at the Little Sir Dominics.

Currently, they only had the body, or hardware, of the three components.

They couldn’t be called Little Sir Dominic in this 33% state, not even half complete.

That was Zero’s conclusion.

So to fill the remaining 67%, Zero visited the card pack exchange.

The character card would fill both the soul and skills.

The moment she drew the character card, these incomplete Little Sir Dominics would be reborn as true Little Sir Dominics.

Of course, if Remi had noticed Zero’s actions and thoughts, she would have immediately adjusted them, but Remi was currently busy with experiments.

There was no way to stop Zero’s abnormal behavior.

Zero took out a Gacha Stone from her pocket.

It was pocket money that Remi occasionally gave Zero to make her more “human.”

The accumulated Gacha Stones amounted to about 12,000.

Enough to open one pack of 10 cards.

“One pack with Sir Dominic, please.”

“Wow, I’ve never seen those in person meow… Oh, one pack? Got it meow.”

The employee who received the Gacha Stone took out a knight pack.

Zero’s computational circuits began to work furiously.

The probability of drawing Sir Dominic for each card was 0.5%.

Since she needed two cards, the probability would be even lower.

But Zero didn’t stop calculating.

There is no such thing as luck.

Only probability.

…Of course, this was also nonsense disguised as a famous quote from the GachaTube wiki, but Zero believed it.

And finally, after completing her calculations, Zero said to the employee who was about to hand over the pack:

“Not that one you’re holding, but the 17th from the left in the back, 8th from the bottom.”

The employee who was about to hand over the pack flinched and stopped moving.

“…That one meow?”

The employee reluctantly put down the card pack she was about to give, got up, and brought the card pack Zero had specified.

Zero examined the card pack carefully, then signed it in a mechanical, neat Gungsuh font.

The card pack opened, and a brilliant rainbow light began to flow out.

“Oh! You’re lucky meow!”

The cat beastkin clapped as if to congratulate her.

But the beastkin’s movement soon stopped.

What came out of the card pack were 5 rainbow cards and 5 gold cards.

“…Is this even possible?”

The cat beastkin forgot her concept and stared at this incredible result of luck.

But the cat beastkin had not yet seen true “terror.”

“Sir Dominic.”

Zero flipped over one gold card for Little Sir Dominic.

There was a Sir Dominic card.

“Sir Dominic.”

Another gold card.

Again, it was Sir Dominic’s card.

“Sir Dominic, Sir Dominic.”

This time Zero boldly flipped two cards.

…Again, Sir Dominic’s card.

No, it wasn’t Sir Dominic’s card.

Zero tilted her head.

Wondering if this card was also reprinted?

The cards she drew were two Sir Dominica cards.

“Wow, I’ve never seen anyone this lucky in all my time working here. …meow.”

The employee somehow regained composure and maintained her concept.

One gold card remained.

But Zero ignored that card and shifted her gaze to the rainbow cards.

The employee, puzzled by this, asked Zero:

“Why aren’t you opening that one meow? Wouldn’t it be nice to see what it is meow?”

A reasonable question.

But Zero’s answer was beyond imagination.

“Because it’s not Sir Dominic.”

“…?”

How could she know that?

Even she, who had worked here for a long time, couldn’t tell what card would come out.

It was time for the rainbow cards.

“Rider.”

At those words, Rider Sir Dominic appeared.

“Steampunk.”

At those words, Steampunk Sir Dominic appeared.

After flipping two more rainbow cards, there were no more Sir Dominic cards.

Zero got up from her seat, leaving the last gold card.

She had already drawn 2 reprinted Sir Dominic cards, 2 reprinted Sir Dominica cards, Rider Sir Dominic, and Steampunk Sir Dominic, and had drawn more rainbow cards than expected.

“Wait, wait! Why aren’t you opening this one meow?”

The employee hurriedly called out to Zero.

As mentioned earlier, the employee was too curious about the remaining card, so she asked again.

“…? As I said before, that’s not Sir Dominic. I’ll take the 3-tier ones for the stones, but 2-tier ones aren’t very efficient for stones, are they?”

Zero spoke as if it were obvious.

“Is that so meow…? By the way, how did you know which ones had Sir Dominic?”

In fact, while Zero was opening the cards, the employee had secretly run a cheat detection program.

And no cheating was detected at all.

Since the central system confirmed it, Zero must have truly drawn Sir Dominic through some formula.

Zero pondered for a moment.

Then, as if it were no big deal, she said to the employee:

“I chose the pack with the highest probability assuming they were evenly mixed. And I thought numbers 1, 4, 9, and 10 were guaranteed.”

The employee looked at Zero with an expression that said she had no idea what Zero was talking about.

It was understandable.

The probability Zero spoke of was merely intuition and luck.

Since Zero didn’t believe in occult elements at all, she had simply expressed intuition and luck in scientific terms.

So her words kept missing the mark.

“If you don’t believe me, let’s open it.”

Zero flipped over the last gold card.

For a moment, Zero’s pupils dilated and then contracted again.

“It seems probability has betrayed me.”

Zero revealed the last card.

That card was… Sir Dominic.