"The five-star standard Annihilation character, Griff, is at your service."
That standard Annihilation character was also startled by Mio's shout and gave a brief self-introduction.
"Of course I know that! But who are you?! Why are you here?! Where is Hasumi?! Where is my wife Hasumi? Why didn't she come to see me?! Why?!"
Mio was indeed somewhat broken at this moment.
"Because she's still in the gacha pool," Carl quietly muttered from the side.
It took Mio some time to realize that her pull had gone off-rate.
But Mio still refused to believe it. She looked at the few hundred Contract Stones left in her wallet and, as if making one last desperate gamble, clicked single pull twice more.
As for the result.
There was still nothing. It was all a pile of three-star trash.
As if possessed, Mio clicked pull once again, and a merciless notification popped up.
[Your Contract Stones have been exhausted!]
"I'm... out of pulls."
Mio covered her forehead and said those despairing words in a pained tone.
"What do I do? Hasumi is still in the gacha pool!"
At that moment, the notification thoughtfully added another line.
[Would you like to use Paid Contract Stones?]
"...Can I... only spend money now?"
Following that prompt, Mio opened another entrance to the abyss.
That was Oath's payment interface.
Oath's launch Version 1.0 did not have the usual messy small packs seen in pay-to-win mobile games. It only had a very direct first-purchase double bonus.
Seeing Mio like this, Carl originally wanted to step forward and stop her, telling her, "Even if you get the character after spending money, you won't feel happy."
But how should he put it? Carl still had the same attitude. There were many things that could not be stopped with mere persuasion.
"There are tiers of $0.88, $4.39, $14.34, $28.96, $47.98, and $94.79?"
"And the first purchase gives double resources. Wait... if I directly buy pulls, one pull actually costs... $2.34? That expensive?"
Only now did Mio realize what spending money meant.
$2.34 for one pull. One ten-pull actually cost $23.40!
In the real world, she was just an ordinary office worker.
Wasn't this way too expensive?
But soon, another thought appeared in her mind.
There was a first-purchase double bonus! That meant if she charged $94.79, Oath's official team would give her another $94.79 worth!
Thinking about it that way, wasn't Oath's official team losing big? And wasn't she making a huge profit?
"A hero... can't run away on the battlefield!"
In the end, Mio made up her mind and took out the blue-green payment app.
"In any case, I'll try spending a little first?"
Mio quickly bought the $0.88, $4.39, and $14.34 tiers first.
With the first-purchase double bonus, she successfully obtained 2,680 Paid Contract Stones.
This kind of Paid Contract Stone was the truly precious resource. It would be counted toward each gacha character's revenue.
$19.61 was enough for someone to have decent meals for three or four days, even if not for a whole week.
But here... it could only be exchanged for around sixteen pulls, and that was with the double bonus included.
And with one simple button, those $19.61 worth of pulls would instantly go down the drain and vanish into nothing.
Player lady, if you like throwing money into water, I suggest using that money to buy something nice for your parents instead, or start saving up to go on a vacation and touch grass.
Although Carl thought this in his heart, he himself had spent quite a bit of money on mobile games before, so he really was not qualified to say anything to Mio.
"First paid ten-pull! Ninetieth pull! Come on! Lady Hasumi! Come to my side!"
Mio pressed the pull button again. The result... was still only one guaranteed four-star.
"Ugh... my heart hurts."
At this moment, Mio already felt the pain in her wallet.
When she had been using Free Contract Stones before, since she had earned them by grinding in the game, she could accept it fairly easily even if she got nothing.
But now, every ten-pull Mio did was being paid for with her real-world money!
Money she should have used in reality to buy milk tea, eat barbecue, grilled fish, fried chicken, go shopping, buy bags, buy merch, buy cosmetics, and so on.
Even though Mio realized this, she no longer had any way to retreat.
She had already invested that $19.61. If she gave up now, then all her effort over these three days, along with that $19.61, would have gone completely down the drain!
And so...
"Again!"
Mio bought the $28.96 tier next, but after buying it, she suddenly thought of something.
"The online guides said Hasumi's full form is 0+1, which means I still need to pull Lady Hasumi's signature weapon. Ugh... fine."
Mio no longer dared to dream about Hasumi's Contract Souls.
But she still wanted to fish out Hasumi's signature weapon from the gacha pool as part of the dowry.
So she bought the $47.98 tier as well.
"I've already spent $96.55? That's one-eighth of my monthly salary! Whatever... this time, I'll definitely pull Hasumi! Come on!"
Through spending money, Mio once again gathered around sixty pulls. Counting the pulls she had already invested, she could definitely pull Hasumi.
The question was how many pulls it would take.
"Please! Hasumi! Come out early! I still want to pull your signature weapon!"
Mio launched her final death charge at this limited banner.
One hundred pulls! Nothing!
One hundred and ten pulls! Still empty!
One hundred and twenty pulls... does this gacha pool only have four-star characters?
One hundred and thirty pulls... Mio felt like even breathing had become difficult.
Because what she was now pouring into the gacha pool was all real money from the real world.
Every ten-pull without a result was like another cut across her heart.
Pain, regret, anger, depression... and hatred.
Every negative emotion humans could imagine and produce spread through Mio's heart.
At this moment, Mio even began questioning herself.
"Why did I come to play this game?"
Could Oath be a tool created by the game company to torture players?
One hundred and forty pulls!
"Do you seriously have to wait until full guarantee before you're willing to come out? You might as well die in the gacha pool!"
Mio had already reached the point of cursing.
All of Mio's expectations and love for Oath had been completely transformed by this damned gacha system into naked hatred toward Oath's production team, hatred so strong she wanted to curse the Oath game planners' mothers.
Then Mio pressed the final two ten-pulls.
Finally! On the 154th pull, a rainbow light representing a five-star character finally appeared before Mio's eyes.
The five-star limited Annihilation character Hasumi, whom Mio had been looking forward to owning ever since launch... stepped out of the gacha pool at this moment with dazzling effects.
"Lord Savior, I knew I would have a romantic encounter with you."
Hasumi spoke her usual bright lines as she arrived before Mio.
She was about to celebrate with Mio, celebrating the joy of successfully pulling her from the gacha pool, which meant obtaining a five-star limited character.
But Hasumi discovered... there was not the slightest trace of joy on Mio's face.
Instead, Mio looked at Hasumi, then looked at her own hands.
At this moment, even Mio herself was wondering.
"I clearly already pulled the limited five-star character I wanted."
"But what is this... sense of loss and emptiness in my heart?"
"And... what is this anger?"
"Why am I not happy at all? I completely... can't feel happy."
Carl silently watched Mio's devastated appearance from the side.
In his heart, he actually understood it deeply. The reason was... she had spent money.
If she had pulled the character using resources she had grinded in the game, then of course it would have been supreme joy and happiness.
But once she spent money, especially after spending a large amount of money, even if she finally pulled the character... she would not feel any joy.
The only thing she could feel was endless emptiness.
At this moment, Mio might have realized it. She had realized something very ridiculous.
"It feels like... all the effort I spent in Oath over these three days wasn't as fast as simply spending $96.55 in the real world?"
"Then what is the point of playing this game?"
Mio murmured to herself.
Carl could actually answer Mio's question. In mobile games, all effort existed so you would not have to spend that $96.55.
Saving the gacha resources given by the game every version, reasonably planning which characters to pull, only entering the gacha pool after saving at least one full guarantee of 160 pulls, and so on.
But Carl knew these answers were meaningless.
Because the cruelest part of mobile games was that, no matter how carefully you planned your gacha resources, no matter how cautiously you walked on thin ice, in the end, because of the uncertainty in the gacha pool, perhaps a 50% off-rate chance, perhaps a 200-pull pity spark, and because of power creep, all the characters you pulled before could become useless trash.
At the same time, it also meant that all your previous effort and money spent would be wasted and go down the drain.
Oath's game planners used this method to force players to spend money, constantly pushing them to pull stronger characters.
So if one thought about it carefully, what Mio said was not wrong.
When all your effort in a game is less useful than spending $96.55 in the real world, and when the character you worked so hard and spent that $96.55 to pull turns into waste paper after a year, or even half a year, is this really what people call a "game"?
"Oath is nothing more than a tool I use to torture you." This line fit the game planners perfectly.
Carl looked at Mio's devastated appearance. Even though Hasumi, whom she called her wife, kept trying to comfort her, Mio simply could not become happy.
"Her heart is completely shattered. I wonder if my healing treatment will work."
Carl felt it was time to give this heartbroken player a treat.
(To be continued.)