Traveling between worlds was already not something common, so when a System notification appeared at that moment, Elysia did not find it strange at all.
So… this is the legendary System, right?
Until she was escorted to the confinement room, Elysia did not say a single word. Only after the knight responsible for the escort left did she sit down on the bench in the confinement room and remain alone in that dimly lit chamber, where she softly murmured a single sentence:
“System?”
In the next instant, a screen appeared before Elysia.
「Scanning world data······」
「Scan complete. Danger level: Insane.」
「Scanning host data······」
Elysia was slightly dazed as she looked at the data that kept appearing on the screen in front of her, her feelings quite complex.
Such low stats… looking at it this way, an ordinary person would probably be between 9 and 12.
When she saw the emoticon at the end of the evaluation, Elysia’s eyelid twitched.
She did not know why, but upon seeing that, she felt a strong urge to punch the system twice.
Setting that impulse aside for now, Elysia continued asking:
“System, what does this ‘number of draws’ mean?”
From the moment she saw the word “draw,” Elysia had already become very interested.
Could it be that common type of System gacha? Drawing various skills, various talents, and then going around showing off?
The System answered Elysia’s question directly, and it seemed that its AI level was not low.
「Just say it silently in your mind, you don’t need to say it out loud.:D」
Looking at the increasingly exaggerated emoticons at the end, Elysia forcibly suppressed the mood that was becoming more and more irritated and silently asked in her mind:
(“System, what is a draw?”)
「Draw: the process of selecting a winner or an element at random, where each participant has an equal probability of being chosen.ヽ(ヅ)ノ」
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
(“This crooked mouth is getting more and more ridiculous, damn it!”)
(“And another thing! I asked what you get from your draw, how the draw works, I didn’t ask you to copy a Wikipedia definition!”)
Elysia finally could not hold back any longer and fiercely cursed the System in her mind.
In the end, after spending quite some time in “intimate communication” with the System, Elysia finally understood how this System worked and what the draw was for.
In simple terms, it was exactly like a typical mobile game gacha.
It was divided into five tiers: Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mystic.
What was drawn were characters, characters that could be swapped at any time.
After confirming several times with the System, Elysia finally understood how character cards worked.
Put even more simply, it was just like switching characters on the spot in a mobile game.
If a character from a card died, she herself would not suffer any damage and could use another character card to replace it.
However, if her original body died, then death would be real.
The more character cards she had, the greater, in equivalent terms, the number of times she could avoid dying.
Moreover, it was not the case that drawing a Common character meant it was trash, Common characters could also be evolved to Rare quality.
The process happened in two steps.
Interpretation and completing the advancement mission.
Each card had a progress bar. The more she acted in accordance with the professional traits and personality of the character on the card, once it reached 100%, the System’s advancement mission would be triggered.
The more she read, the more interesting Elysia found it. If in a single draw she directly obtained a Mystic card, wouldn’t she be invincible?
「Card quality represents growth potential and the strength of abilities, it does not represent current power.☆⌒(ゝ。?)」
“I… forget it.” Elysia loosened the fists she had clenched moments ago, took a deep breath, and said, “Then, I’ll draw.”
Elysia was clearly in a dark confinement room lit only by a candle, but the instant she finished saying “draw,” the surroundings around her suddenly transformed into a deep blue sky.
And before her eyes, a meteor abruptly appeared, dragging a long trail of light…
T-this… this isn’t that thing, is it…
Just as Elysia was about to complain about this sense of déjà vu, her field of vision followed the meteor and violently slammed into the ground.
Only then did Elysia manage to clearly see the meteor’s true form.
A black handbag…
Suppressing the urge to complain, Elysia slowly extended her hand, opened the bag, and a dazzling light blocked her vision.
When the light faded, a cute little girl with green hair, about the size of a palm, wearing a tiny maid outfit, flew toward Elysia.
“An excellent companion has been added!” the little girl said in a soft, childlike voice, then directly threw the card she was holding onto Elysia’s face.
Pap—
....
...
..
Inside the solemn and majestic cathedral, there were no visitors at that moment, only the young men and women gathered from the convent.
Sunlight passed through the colorful stained-glass windows of the church, adding a touch of fantasy to the entire atmosphere.
On the platform stood a young woman whose face could not be clearly seen. She wore a magnificent crown, was dressed in a long white robe adorned with golden threads, and held a luxurious scepter in her hands.
She looked like a figure similar to a pope, only far too young for that.
A grand piece of music echoed within the cathedral, bringing a sacred atmosphere to the place. The youths below the platform drew a horizontal line before their chests in perfect unison.
At the same time, the pope on the pulpit raised her scepter, and a row of cardinals in red robes, positioned not far from her, also raised their left arms.
“Goddess of Hope, who governs light and healing,
praised be the Lord, the god of medicine.
May all sorrow and sighs flee away,
we beseech the Lord to pour the Holy Spirit upon His children.
O Lord, we ask that You grant us hearts capable of praying correctly,
so that we may know who, in truth, is Your agent…”
The prayers were recited one after another, and words of praise emerged without end.
But, just as had happened over the course of hundreds of years until now, the goddess gave no response.
The orchestral music gradually faded, and the youths’ unison recitation also diminished, until everyone simultaneously raised their heads to look at the transparent glass dome.
Half an hour passed, then an hour. The atmosphere inside the church became heavy and suffocating, only the pope continued, stubbornly reciting the goddess’s name, imploring Her descent.
The Church of Hope had been without a chosen one for a very long time. And without one chosen by the gods, it meant there was no link of communication between the faithful and the Goddess of Hope.
As time passed, faith would also slowly erode due to the lack of responses.
And the weaker the faith, the less likely it was that the goddess would respond…
A sense of despair spread through the pope’s heart.
Goddess, Lord, if You truly govern hope, could You grant at least a tiny bit of hope to Your most devout faithful?
Just as the pope was about to stop the recitation, a beam of sacred light, brighter than the scorching sun, descended from the heavens, illuminating the entire cathedral.
“The goddess! It’s the goddess!”
Everyone gazed emotionally at that almost tangible sacred light, delayed by two hundred years, slowly descending. Tears of emotion also streamed from the corners of the pope’s eyes.
It truly was the goddess’s aura, the goddess had responded!
Praise be the goddess!
The Pope looked lovingly at the children of the goddess, the boys and girls who symbolized the future of the Church, wondering who had broken the “curse” of nearly two hundred years.
Surely it must be a lovely child, filled with faith.
Under the pope’s gaze, the sacred light that was slowly descending suddenly stopped after passing through the glass dome.
That’s right, the beam of light simply stopped in midair, with no intention of descending further, looking extremely abrupt and… full of “spirit”?
Next, under the pope’s stunned gaze, the sacred light made a ninety-degree turn and shot toward the church doors, racing at the speed of light toward a certain location.
That direction was…
The confinement room???
