Ch.61[Chapter 61] Parallel Universe

*Ding dong. ‘MuGaGumHoney’ has donated 100 valuable points! Little bit thanks!*

[GachaTube Video]

“Oh, thank you MuGaGumHoney for the 100 points. It’s a video. What is it?”

Star I’m Not Little, who was coloring a recently custom-ordered Sir Dominic figurine, thanked the donor and played the video.

“Ah, it’s Sir Dominic. I wonder when he’ll be added to the gacha pool. I’ve been saving points to pull for him as soon as he comes out.”

The video showed edited footage of Sir Dominic’s accomplishments.

Sir Dominic fighting dozens of enemies alone in the early stages of the war, Sir Dominic planting a flag to summon a massive battleship…

Having watched these clips hundreds of times already, her interest quickly waned.

The fact that the quality was worse than the short videos she uploaded to GachaTube didn’t help either.

I’m Not Little mindlessly resumed coloring her figurine, but the chat started to burn up.

Sis, big trouble. The Gacha Stone exchange rate is insane right now.

Sis, quickly convert your points to Gacha Stones.

“What? What’s happening now..? Why is the Gacha Stone rate…? Why are you telling me to convert now?”

I’m Not Little couldn’t understand why the chat was on fire as messages scrolled by rapidly.

She finally froze the chat and read each message one by one, then turned her head to look at the video that was still playing.

‘Hot topic! Limited quantity of Sir Dominic in stock! [Starter Pack MMCIV], [Knight Pack CLII]’

A sentence appearing at the end of the video.

Thud. Star I’m Not Little dropped the brush she was holding.

The release date was today.

…

[The Gacha Land General Election Event is starting!]

The Gacha Land General Election begins today. A chaotic and boisterous atmosphere!

If Gacha Land’s election wasn’t fun, comedy shows wouldn’t be failing!

During the election period, candidates are permitted to do anything to get elected.

Receive ambiguous rewards from various events created by the candidates.

Additionally, one free voting ticket will be provided to all citizens.

You’ll receive one additional voting ticket each time you clear a stage.

Vote as much as you want for whoever you want! And receive rewards!

This event will run for one week.

[The Parallel World Event is in progress.]

During the Gacha Land General Election period, you from a parallel world will visit.

Whether you meet or not is up to fate, but either way, won’t it be fun?

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to challenge special stages that you can complete with your parallel self!

This event will run for one week.

A few days after Sir Dominic added his information to the gacha pool.

Sir Dominic was almost finished cleaning his house, which had been delayed due to the hearing issues.

“Where should I put this…”

As Sir Dominic was looking at the 1/2000 scale model of the Titan-class flagship Uranus, which took up a third of his yard space, event windows appeared. He paused his cleaning to read the events in detail.

Sir Dominic was sick of anything related to politics after the hearing.

He was of serf origin and had rarely been involved in politics afterward, so he had little tolerance for such matters.

Although there were rewards for exercising voting rights, Sir Dominic decided to skip this event.

Not knowing which politicians were worth voting for also played a part.

However, the second event quite piqued Sir Dominic’s interest.

Parallel world.

After searching on his smartphone, he found an explanation about world lines that branch off from a single world according to divergence points.

What kind of event could it be? Sir Dominic found it quite interesting.

Above all, he was curious to see his parallel self.

“I should go into town later. I need to buy a bed too.”

Yes, while cleaning his house, Sir Dominic realized there was no bed in this large house.

Although he could sleep on a haystack and dry cloth, Sir Dominic wanted to bring in a nice bed that wouldn’t diminish the value of this wonderful house.

Finally, after displaying the one-eyed knight figurine in his room, Sir Dominic moved on, thinking the figurine resembled someone.

The figurine looked too crude to be recognized as Sir Dominic anyway.

Sir Dominic selected the Market Area from the options that appeared when he touched the forest path.

“Let’s see… furniture store…”

Sir Dominic took out his phone and opened the map app.

When he searched for furniture stores, a deep alley in the Market Area was found.

I should have come from System Industries instead. Sir Dominic lamented, realizing that the waypoint he had placed at System Industries was actually closer.

However, he saw it as an opportunity.

Taking this chance to properly explore the Market Area wasn’t a bad choice.

Sir Dominic headed toward the entrance of the Market Area.

…

“Ugh, I came here without a plan…”

Card Pack Exchange in the Market Area.

A small girl wearing a hood made of some unknown animal skin was lingering at the entrance of the exchange.

The only Card Pack Exchange in Gacha Land was currently so packed with people that there was no room to step in.

After examining the crowded interior for a while, the girl sighed.

It was too crowded to buy card packs right now.

Even if she went in, she would surely be jostled by the crowd and pushed back out again.

“I brought all the Gacha Stones I collected, but…”

The girl thought carefully and realized these Gacha Stones might not be enough.

She wasn’t sure exactly how many would be needed, but to get the character card she wanted, she would have to overcome extremely slim odds.

A probability that went down to seven decimal places.

A situation where even hitting the pity wouldn’t allow for an exchange since it wasn’t a pickup.

She considered waiting for the next opportunity, as popular cards like this were often reprinted in larger quantities, but the rarity of being a first edition and her fervent fandom criticized such thoughts.

Are you really not going to pull? It’s limited edition! First edition! Can you even call yourself a fan?

No one actually said that, but it felt like everyone was saying it to her.

“Right. I’ll pull until I get it. Who cares if there’s no pity system? If not now, it’s meaningless.”

The girl nodded with a determined expression.

The exchange was still overflowing with people.

If she ran out of Gacha Stones in the middle, she might have to recharge and come back, waiting in that long queue again.

Better to exchange a lot of Gacha Stones at this opportunity.

The current exchange rate between points and Gacha Stones was seriously bad, but to the girl who had already made up her mind, the exchange rate loss was just a small fee.

The girl checked her point balance briefly and left.

The currency exchange was near the entrance of the Market Area.

And the fastest way to the entrance was through a narrow alley.

…

“How did it come to this?”

The girl had been caught in a trap set in the alley.

With a snare around her ankle pulling her up, hanging upside down like a pendulum, the girl lamented her situation.

The girl… no, Star I’m Not Little found the current situation extremely awkward.

For a Star to visit Gacha Land directly, they had to go through a procedure to seal all their powers.

This measure existed because the power unconsciously emitted by a Star could become a disaster for Gacha Land.

Because of that procedure, the Star, who now had less strength than an actual little girl, had fallen into a trap all too easily.

Finding this situation so absurd, Star I’m Not Little chuckled.

When would a Star with such great power ever experience a situation like this?

“Boss, this one’s laughing?”

“Leave her be. She must be planning something.”

Not that it’ll work. A bald thief, smirking vilely with his subordinate, approached the Star and said:

“Hand over all your Gacha Stones and we’ll spare your life. We’re very gentlemanly robbers, not pedophiles, so we won’t do anything weird to you, just give us all your money.”

Perhaps somewhat reluctant to harm a girl so small it might be legally concerning, the thief spoke in a somewhat gentlemanly manner.

“Ah.”

The Star considered unsealing her powers but realized that might prevent her from entering Gacha Land for a certain period.

Annoyed by this troublesome situation, the Star took out her Gacha Stones to get past this nuisance, but the thought that they were the foundation for pulling Sir Dominic made her hesitate to hand them over.

“What are you hesitating for? Give them here.”

The bald thief snatched the Gacha Stone pouch from I’m Not Little’s hand.

With an “Ah” of regret, the Star sighed in disappointment and said to the thieves:

“Now let me go. I gave you all my money.”

“Oh, right. We definitely got the money.”

The thief chuckled as he put the Gacha Stone pouch in his bag.

“Listen, little miss. We’re thieves. If we kept our promises, we wouldn’t be thieves, would we?”

The thief said this vilely.

“Take care, little miss. Maybe someone will find and help you.”

In this deep alley, that is. The thief laughed wickedly and was about to leave.

“Stop right there.”

At that moment, someone appeared from the darkness in the direction the thief was heading.

Colorful feathers stuck in their hair.

An eye patch covering one eye.

A knight’s attire with sword and shield.

Above all, brown bob-cut hair and emerald eyes that shone in the darkness.

“Sir Dominic…?”

No, it wasn’t Sir Dominic.

The Star shook her head.

Similar to Sir Dominic, but with a different voice.

Star I’m Not Little, hanging upside down, looked at the person who resembled Sir Dominic.

“It seems Gacha Land’s public safety is a mess. How could a knight pass by such a situation?”

This one-eyed knight drew their sword and tossed the scabbard aside carelessly.

Then, leading with their shield, they charged toward the thieves without hesitation.

As something terrifying attached to the knight’s chest bounced with the movement.