The Gacha System : Road to Artifact Master

"Ugh, I just want to go home," complained Aaron as he was heavily delayed due to the traffic just outside his residential area.

He had just finished the first meeting for teachers, preparing for the school opening day next week. The meeting 4 hours to be done and it had to be done almost perfectly because it was the first time for the school to be open just after the pandemic.

Aaron moved his car to enter a small parking space inside his rented house. The house wasn't big, but it was still comfortable for a single adult to live in. The black small sedan fit well into the parking space. He had just bought the used car recently during the pandemic due to the low price of the car at the time.

"Squeak.. squeak… squeak.."

"Ugh, I'm sweating all over the place. Maybe I really need to fix the air conditioning soon? Well, at least it's much cheaper than getting a new speaker and radio," he muttered to himself.

He got out of his car with his laptop bag on his back and took out the groceries he had bought from the Geant store not far from his residential area on his way back from school.

He unlocked the grill gate and opened the wooden door with another key. The small terrace house looked plain and empty due to the lack of furniture. Aaron had rented this house last month, and the owner had mentioned to him that the house had never been lived in or renovated. That was why Aaron had rented the house, as the rental price was the cheapest among the other houses.

He put the groceries on a small wooden table at the kitchen and immediately went to clean himself first. The bathroom was spacious enough for him to stretch his arms out while showering, with enough room to comfortably move around without feeling cramped. Though everything looked gloomy due how to the house was never painted, it still feel comfortable inside since everything is functioning well.

"Ahh, much better," he thought to himself.

He was just done showering and he was looking at the mirror just outside the shower. The mirror reflected a lean and fit physique of a man standing at 1.75m tall.

"Damn it, I forgot to buy some shavers.. also I really need to get a haircut. Maybe I can do this tomorrow since it is weekend," he said to himself.

He then put on a sport attire and starts cooking for dinner. It was still 3PM in the evening, but he always did it earlier since he would always have time to jog and exercise in the evening.

"I'll make chicken rice with extra chickens and keep them in the fridge so that it could be reheated later," he thought to himself.

There was still time before evening, so he went to do some school works with his gaming pc inside his room. The master room was dark and lacked light, but it was decently filled with furniture. There were console games connected to a giant television hang on the wall and a gaming chair there.

Later when it was almost 5PM, he stood up as the computer slowly turned to sleeping mode.

"Hahaha, nice. I'm almost done with this work. Finally, I can watch some of the new anime that came out," Aaron thought to himself with a smile.

He grabbed a can of energy drink and a bottle of mineral water from the fridge and headed to the jogging park, which was at least 20 minutes away by car, assuming the traffic was decent. Inside the car, Aaron was excited to finally jog again after being limited by quarantine restrictions during the pandemic.

After half an hour, he arrived at the park and began looking for a place to park his car. Fortunately, the mayor had made sure there was plenty of parking available, with enough space for at least a hundred cars. The jogging track was also properly maintained, made of asphalt and synthetic materials, making it safe and comfortable to run on.

Despite the lengthy journey, Aaron was beaming with excitement as he stepped out of his car. He had already put on his Bluetooth earphones while driving and only needed to change the playlist and set up his running app to track his progress.

"Well, I think I'll just do a light jog today. A 10-kilometer run should be okay," he thought. "Hmm, it's still surprisingly empty here. I don't recognize any of the people here, though. Alright, let's start running!"

Aaron took his time looking around, stretching his muscles, and then began his jog.

"Ah, I've missed the feeling of wind on my face and the sound of footsteps on the running track so much."

As he completed the 1.2 kilometer running track, he was surprised to see that there were new decorations, such as more plants, wooden benches, and a gazebo. While running, families would smile and greet him since they recognized him as a teacher at their children's school.

Although Aaron was a bit reserved and introverted, he tried his best to smile and greet them back as nicely as he could.

An hour later, he was seen doing pull-ups on the monkey bar not far from where he parked his car. He had less than a quarter of his mineral water left and was planning to leave soon.

After completing 50 pull-ups, he left the monkey bar and began walking slowly toward his car. Suddenly, a random flyer flew by the breeze and hit his face.

It was so sudden and random, too, because the flyer that hit his face was clean and looked very new. The flyer was the size of A5 and illustrated capsules that people can get from the gacha vending machine.

Something was written below the capsule illustrations which said, 'Unleash your inner child and rediscover the thrill of the unknown.' It was written nicely with a small QR code just below the quote.

'Damn, this sounds like a scam. Why would people scan this?' thought Aaron while holding his phone.

"Hm.. hm.. sigh.."

'Screw it, it's not like I have anything important on this phone, right?' said Aaron after spending a few minutes thinking about scanning the QR code.

'Kecakkkkk!'

In just a moment, a notification popped up saying, 'Gacha System has been installed on your phone.'

With a shocked and surprised expression, Aaron muttered, 'Huh? That was quick..'

Aaron scanned his phone for malware or viruses before opening the Gacha System app. Finding nothing wrong, he hesitated for a moment before tapping the white-colored plastic egg logo.

Upon opening the app, three boxes appeared on the screen: 'Daily Quest', 'Item Draw', and 'Skill Draw'.

There was also a human logo, which when tapped, turned to another page. However, it was empty, and he concluded that it must be the inventory slot.

As he was about to explore the app's functions, he suddenly remembered that he needed to get back on the road to avoid the traffic jam. He quickly closed the app and headed back to his car.