[At that moment, in a conference room of a company in Pangyo.]
The era of a million Awakened.
Amidst a flurry of activity as national leaders and countless others scrambled to adapt to the emergence of a million Awakened individuals.
“Everyone.”
A man in a black suit clapped his hands, drawing the attention of those gathered in the conference room.
“Our game, [Granade Impact: Redive], is currently facing an unprecedented situation.”
The man’s name tag read Shin Ki-hyun, PD.
“Number one in app store downloads within 24 hours. And as of this moment, our store revenue ranking has also skyrocketed to… first place in just one day.”
All metrics related to the game were hitting first place across the board.
There wasn’t even an anniversary event or a meticulously crafted character launch in a promotional build-up.
“The promotional PV for one of our characters on UTube is now trending at number one, with views surpassing ten million.”
In the UTube playlist sorted by popularity, it wasn’t the game’s 1.0 PV or the opening song leading—it was the PV for a specific character, with views climbing by the thousands every time the page was refreshed.
“And it’s all thanks to this person.”
Clap.
Shin Ki-hyun PD clapped his hands again, and a slide transitioned to a short video of a maid walking toward a fountain with a tower looming in the background.
“Thanks to this Elaine cosplayer, we are now under global spotlight. This is evident even from your smartphones, which you’ve all turned off. The company messenger is probably the only thing functioning right now, isn’t it?”
“That’s right, PD. Even my parents are blowing up my backup phone, asking what’s going on.”
“Forget the backup phone; my primary phone has exceeded 999 messages. Everyone I’ve ever handed my business card to is contacting me—it’s absolute chaos.”
PD Shin Ki-hyun gestured carefully at the maid on the screen.
“This Elaine cosplayer, whether or not she is affiliated with our company…?”
“…”
“Yes. Even if you know, it’s hard to speak up in this situation. I understand the caution. So, we must proceed accordingly.”
Snapping his fingers, PD brought up a photo of Elaine’s 2D character with some text displayed beside it.
“We must ride this big wave.”
[How can we increase sales?]
“Story team. Is there any scenario where the Elaine character could appear where the current player base is?”
“There isn’t, but we can create one.”
When the story team lead firmly responded, PD snapped his fingers and grinned.
“Good. Even if it doesn’t exist, make it. Push an emergency update if necessary. We need to capitalize on this momentum while the spotlight is on Elaine.”
How could game developers know the identity of a Hunter?
Their job was not to investigate the cosplayer’s identity through cosplay events or conventions but to monetize Elaine’s newfound popularity.
“Art team. Have you contacted the illustrator who drew Elaine?”
“Although they quit, we managed to reach them. They’re on their way from Busan to Pangyo and should arrive at the station soon. We’ll pick them up right away and, uh, bring them here.”
“Good. Get them to start on a new illustration immediately. And…”
PD turned his attention to the modeling team and the BM-sales strategy team responsible for budgeting and execution.
“Any other ways we can boost revenue through Elaine?”
“Re-release her?”
A member of the planning team quietly raised their hand.
“We could re-release her in celebration of her solo clear of an A-rank Tower.”
“But Elaine herself didn’t clear the Tower—it was the cosplayer. Would the players respond positively? Especially since we’re already doing a quadruple re-release, which isn’t getting good feedback.”
“Throw in 20 free gacha tickets. Players will say, ‘Now this is worth it’, and spend.”
“Still…”
“Let’s be honest—Elaine is falling behind due to power creep.”
As discussions heated up over ways to maximize revenue, the combat balance team lead raised a hand, cooling the room’s fervor.
“She’s a character from three years ago. Since then, power creep has significantly progressed. Even though her alt version was released last year, people called it 4.5-star quality rather than a true 5-star.”
“Her alt version is still better than the original, though. Original Elaine at two awakenings barely matches her alt version at base stats.”
“Wait.”
The PD raised his hand, cutting off the team leads’ conversation.
“I haven’t mentioned this yet, but there’s something I need to tell you.”
“What is it, PD?”
“Actually, the Chairman is watching this meeting.”
“…”
The atmosphere instantly froze.
“The Chairman is…?”
“Watching this meeting?”
“Yes. I didn’t mention it earlier to avoid pressuring you, but this meeting is being streamed directly to the Chairman’s office. So, please use terms he can understand.”
“Uh, right…”
The mood in the room grew heavy in an instant.
Unlike the sharply dressed PD in a suit, most of the others wore hoodies or checkered shirts. Facing the “big boss”, a man likely clad in a suit costing millions of won, left them hesitating over how to frame their points in a way that would be comprehensible to him.
“Uh, excuse me.”
“Oh, Team Leader Chae.”
“About the new character update—there’s been some internal discussion about delaying it, hasn’t there?”
“Team Leader Chae, I know you’re upset about the planning team rejecting your proposal for the new character, but right now—”
“Let’s release a new Elaine character. Postpone the character we were planning to release, and instead, launch Elaine next month as a new version, perhaps as an alternate form.”
“…”
Everyone perked up at Team Leader Chae’s suggestion.
“You know how cars make money by releasing facelift models and new versions, right? While pushing it for the next update might be difficult, releasing a new Elaine version could—”
[You there.]
A deep, resonant voice of an older man filled the conference room.
[You’re this month’s Employee of the Month.]
* * *
While Elaine fought her way up the Tower on my smartphone screen, I connected my tablet to my data plan and launched the game.
What was I doing?
Ten consecutive pulls.
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pow-pa-pa-pa-pa.
Nine blue stars sparkled in the dark night sky, with a single purple star gleaming in the middle.
Another ten consecutive pulls.
Pow-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow.
“…Hah.”
All I saw was blue.
Every ten pulls or so, a purple would appear, but it was the guaranteed four-star reward that came once every ten attempts.
Whether it was a character or a weapon.
‘This shouldn’t be my priority right now.’
I had one goal.
The exclusive weapon I needed to give Elaine.
Ten more pulls.
The stars sparkled in the blue night sky, constellations shimmering with sound effects of pop-pop-pop as the colors filled in—
“!!”
Gold.
Amidst the sea of blue, a golden light emerged.
“Please…!”
I’d already spent 700,000 won.
At 25,000 won per ten-pull, I’d stopped calculating how many attempts I’d made.
All I could hope was that it wasn’t an off-banner pull.
Some games guarantee the desired item after a certain number of attempts, but not this one. In this game, both characters and exclusive weapons could evade you indefinitely.
So—
[★★★★★]
“…Finally.”
It appeared.
Notifications cluttered my phone, warning about exceeding my data usage limits and showing multiple credit card transaction alerts.
There was even a phone call—something that rarely happened.
– Hello, this is your credit card provider. Have you been making recent transactions—
– I’m pulling gacha!
– Ah, I see. Thank you for confirming….
My face flushed as I raised my voice, embarrassed by their assumption that my card might have been stolen due to my sudden spending spree.
But now…
“…This is the last one.”
For the fifth time, I selected the weapon I had pre-leveled and marked, then placed my finger over the Refine button instead of Enhance.
Four locks.
I quickly unlocked them and placed the weapons into the refinement slot.
Zap.
With dazzling effects, the five weapons I had painstakingly acquired—each costing roughly 240,000 won—merged into one.
A sword that previously increased critical hit rate by 24% for five characters now became a weapon exclusively for one, boosting the critical hit rate to 48%.
“…”
As soon as I completed the weapon’s Full Refinement, I closed the game on my tablet.
Through the Summoning Management app, I saw Elaine standing before the boss room of the S-rank Tower, at the door leading to the final staircase.
“…”
For the first time, I hovered my left hand over a button I had never pressed before.
Carefully, I placed my finger on it.
Elaine, who had been waiting, reacted to the motion of my left hand. I turned her to face me.
Elaine looked at me.
Though she was just a 3D-rendered character in an app, her golden gaze seemed to pierce through the screen, as if she were truly meeting my eyes.
Nod.
Nod.
I immediately opened the character selection screen.
In the tablet game, I had over 40 characters, but in the Summoning Management app, there was only one—Elaine—standing alone in the party window.
However, the inventory was shared.
Click. Click.
I removed her old sword from the weapon slot and equipped the new weapon I had just drawn and fully refined.
Honestly, the look didn’t suit her.
It wasn’t the kind of weapon you’d imagine a monochromatic maid holding. Instead, it resembled something a snow spirit from a frozen tundra might wield—a shimmering white ice sword.
It didn’t summon actual ice or anything; it just looked like a blade made from frozen crystal.
Yet Elaine merely smiled faintly as she gripped it.
Creak.
The door opened.
Beyond lay the S-rank Tower boss room, a place I had never seen before.
From within, a massive presence began to emerge.
Rumble.
A colossal serpent appeared, rising from the fiery depths of purgatory.
Its massive head turned in our direction, flicking its forked tongue, while small wings spread out behind it, its jet-black eyes gleaming menacingly.
“…So that’s the ‘mother’ of the creature that even Korea’s S-rank Hunters failed to subdue.”
[Elaine: The mother?]
Elaine’s voice popped up in the system notification and chat window in the lower left corner.
[Elaine: Then the one we killed on the floor below was merely its offspring.]
Kiiiiii-shaaaahhh!!!
The boss opened its mouth, preparing to unleash flames from its entire body.
But before it could act, Elaine gripped her new sword tightly and leapt forward.
[Elaine: It doesn’t matter.]
Swish.
[Elaine: As long as my master has given me this, I will not lose.]
The wings attached to the crimson serpent’s back were severed.
Even I hadn’t expected it. Neither had the Tower’s master, who now writhed in shock from Elaine’s strike.
“…”
As expected.
“With Elaine’s stats and a 48% critical hit boost, her crit rate is basically 100%.”
Spending all that money wasn’t a mistake after all.
