Stay-at-Home Summoner

[At that moment, in a conference room at a company in Pangyo.]

The era of a million awakenings.

While numerous individuals, including national leaders, hurriedly moved in response to the emergence of a million awakenings.

“Everyone.”

Here, a man in a black suit clapped his hands to draw the attention of those gathered in the conference room.

“Our [Granad Impact: Redive] is currently facing unprecedented circumstances.”

In front of the man’s suit was a name tag stating ‘Shin Gi-hyun’ along with the title ‘PD.’

“Ranking first in app store downloads within 24 hours. As of this moment, the sales ranking in the store is also… first place in a single day.”

All indicators related to the game had ranked first.

It wasn’t any anniversary event, nor was it a character from a buildup for a sales push being released.

“The character promotion PV on UTube is trending at number one with over ten million views.”

In the popularity rankings of Utube video playlists, it was not the game’s 1.0 PV or opening song that was first, but rather the PV of a specific character, and it seemed to be gaining 10,000 views with every refresh.

“Thanks to this person.”

As Shin Gi-hyun PD clapped his hands, a slide on the screen changed, briefly playing a video of a maid walking toward a tower generated by a fountain.

“Because of this Elaine coser, we are receiving global attention now. Even your smartphones that are turned off right now signify that. The company messenger is the only app we can use right now, isn’t that right?”

“That’s right, PD. Even my parents are contacting me asking what’s going on with my sub-phone right now…”

“Setting aside that you have a sub-phone, my smartphone alone has received over 999 messages. Everyone I handed my business card to is trying to contact me, it’s complete chaos. Total chaos.”

Shin Gi-hyun PD cautiously pointed at the maid on the screen.

“Is this person, the ‘Elaine coser’, related to our company or not?”

“…….”

“Yes. It’s difficult to speak easily even if you know. Given the situation, I understand wanting to be as careful as possible. However, we need to act in our own way.”

As Shin Gi-hyun PD snapped his fingers, a picture of the 2D character Elaine appeared alongside some text.

“We must ride this big wave without fail.”

[How do we increase sales?]

“Story team. Is there a situation where the Elaine character can appear where the players are, like in the main dungeon?”

“There isn’t, but we can create one.”

As the story team leader declared this, the PD snapped his fingers and smiled.

“Yes. We must create one even if it doesn’t exist. We need to update and make an emergency addition immediately; we must paddle the boat while the tide is high with the current focus on Elaine.”

How could the game company’s employees know the identity of the hunter?

What they needed to do wasn’t to find the identity of the Elaine coser from past cosplay worlds or events, but rather to make money through Elaine.

“Art team. Have you contacted the illustrator who drew Elaine?”

“They left the company, but fortunately, I was able to reach out and make contact. They are currently coming up from Busan to Pangyo, and as soon as they arrive at the station, I’ll pick them up and ‘escort’ them here.”

“Yes. Please prepare for a new illustration immediately. And…”

The PD’s gaze shifted toward the modeling team and the planning team, responsible for budgeting and executing sales strategies.

“Is there any other way for us to boost sales through Elaine?”

“Let’s bring back the original, right?”

A member from the planning team quietly raised their hand.

“We’ll reintroduce her to commemorate the solo clearing of the A-Rank Tower.”

“Elaine herself didn’t clear it; it was the coser who cleared the tower. Do you think players will react well to that? We’re already facing backlash for having four copies.”

“If we give away about 20 gacha tickets along with the reintroduction, they’ll say ‘I can accept this’ and spend money on it.”

“But…”

“Elaine, honestly, she’s fallen behind due to character inflation.”

In the midst of discussing how to rake in money, the team leader in charge of character leveling and combat balance raised their hand, dampening the lively atmosphere.

“The characters are from three years ago. Character inflation has already progressed significantly since then. The gap was released a year ago, but although it’s labeled as 5-star, it essentially has the performance of a 4.5-star character, if you remember?”

“But it’s still better than the original. The original 2nd awakening is on par with the gap business card.”

“Wait.”

The PD raised his hand urgently amid the conversations of the team leaders gathered in the conference room.

“Actually, I didn’t mention it, but there’s something I need to tell you all.”

“What is it, PD?”

“The chairman is watching this meeting with us right now.”

“…….”

The atmosphere grew tense.

“No, the chairman is…?”

“You mean they’re in the meeting right now?”

“Yes. I didn’t want to add pressure to you all, but this meeting is directly connected to the chairman’s office. So, we need to use terminology they can understand.”

“Um….”

The mood quickly grew heavy.

Most of those gathered were in hoodies or check-patterned shirts, not suited like the PD, and everyone was hesitating over how to express thoughts that would make sense to someone who wore multi-million won suits.

“Uh.”

“Oh, Team Leader Choi.”

“We have some internal issues regarding the new character update, right?”

“Team Leader Choi. I understand the pain of the rejection from the planning team regarding the new character, but right now…”

“Let’s release Elaine as the new character! Let’s push back the one we were originally planning to release and put out Elaine next month as a new gap.”

“…….”

Everyone perked up at Team Leader Choi’s words.

“Just like how cars generate revenue by doing facelifts and releasing new models, even if the next version might be a stretch, releasing a new character like this—”

[There.]

A deep, authoritative voice resonated in the conference room.

[You are the outstanding employee of the month.]

* * *

Separately from Elaine fighting against enemies while ascending the tower on my smartphone, I connected my data to the tablet I had brought and opened the game.

What was I doing?

Ten consecutive pulls.

Papapapapapapa.

Nine blue stars twinkled in the black night sky, and a purple star gleamed in the middle.

Once again, another ten consecutive pulls.

Papobapapapapapapapa.

“…sigh.”

All I could see was blue.

While purple stars did appear once in every ten pulls, this purple star was a 4-star currency that was guaranteed to appear at least once.

Whether it was a character or a weapon.

‘This isn’t what’s important right now.’

What I wanted to pull for was only one thing.

The exclusive weapon I needed to give to Elaine.

Ten consecutive pulls.

As the stars sparkled in the blue night sky, the colors lit up with the sound effect of ‘pat pat pat’—

“!!”

Gold.

Amidst the sea of blue, a golden light emerged.

“Please…!”

I had already spent 700,000 won.

Each time I did a ten consecutive pull, I was throwing away 25,000 won, so I had erased the number of times I had pulled from my mind.

I just hoped for no ‘pick-through’ to occur.

While there are games where you are guaranteed an exclusive weapon after a set number of pulls, the game that Elaine belonged to has a risk of not getting desired characters or exclusive weapons.

Thus—

[★★★★★.]

“…phew.”

It appeared.

On the smartphone’s notification, the ‘information usage limit exceeded’ warning had piled up alongside several alerts from my credit card usage.

There was even a phone call that usually wouldn’t happen.

-Hello, customer. Is there any chance your credit card is currently…

-I’m doing gacha!

-Oh, I see. I understand….

When I suddenly started spending on my credit card, the card company called thinking it had been lost, and my face flushed, causing my voice to slip.

But.

“…this is my last one.”

Fifth one.

I pressed the management button on the weapon where I had left a mark from previously leveling it up, selecting the ‘refine’ button instead of ‘enhance.’

Four lock buttons.

I quickly unlocked them and brought it to the refining window.

Pzzzt.

With a flashy effect, five weapons that felt like they each cost around 240,000 won were now combined into one.

The sword that raises critical hit chance by 24% when given to five different characters became a weapon that could only be used by one character but raised the critical hit chance to 48%.

“…….”

As soon as I finished all ‘enhancements’ of the weapon, I exited the game on the tablet.

Through the summoner management app, Elaine was now standing in front of the door to the boss room of the S-Rank Tower, at the entrance to the top floor.

“…….”

I cautiously placed my left hand on a button I had never pressed before.

Elaine, waiting, reacted to my left hand’s movement, and I made her turn to face me.

Elaine looked at me.

Though she was a 3D modeled character within the app, I could clearly see her golden gaze fixed on me beyond the screen.

Nod.

Nod.

I immediately entered the character formation window.

While the game on the tablet had over 40 characters, the summoner management app only had one—Elaine in the party window.

However, the inventory was surely shared.

Clink, clink.

I pulled out the sword I had been using from the weapon slot and handed over the newly drawn weapon that I had just refined to 5 stars.

To be honest, the look didn’t really match.

Rather than being a one-handed sword that a black-and-white maid would wield, it resembled a white ice sword that an ice princess from a snowy realm might hold.

It didn’t even have any ice magic; it was merely a weapon that looked like ice crafted into sword form, but Elaine just smiled as she held the sword.

Creeeak.

The door opened.

In the S-Rank Tower for the first time, a massive presence emerged from the room where the tower’s owner and ‘boss’ resided.

Gggggg.

A giant serpent manifested in the scorching inferno.

The serpent’s face turned toward us, its tongue darting out, while its small wings unfurled, and its pitch-black eyes glimmered.

“…That’s the ‘mother’ of the entity that Korean S-Rank hunters couldn’t conquer.”

[Elaine: Is it the mother?]

In the lower left corner of the system notification, Elaine’s words appeared in the chat window.

[Elaine: Then the one we killed downstairs is its child.]

Kishhhaaaak!!!!

As the boss opened its mouth, preparing to spew flames from its entire body, Elaine gripped the new sword and leaped forward.

[Elaine: It doesn’t matter.]

Rustle.

[Elaine: Since you have given me this, I won’t back down.]

The wings on the back of the red serpent were severed.

Even I hadn’t anticipated it, and neither had the owner of the tower expected Elaine’s strike.

“…….”

Indeed.

‘Given Elaine’s original stats, with a critical hit chance of 48%, it’s nearly certain.’

The spending on the game wasn’t wrong.

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