I'm Turning Into Gacha Characters?!

Chapter 524: Turned Into Gacha?! - 524

Tatsumaki wasn’t afraid of loneliness. Or rather, loneliness had long since become a part of her world—something she was so used to that she didn’t even bother paying it any mind.

Even so, on the first day after Alice moved out, she felt a strange, unsettling wave of discomfort.

For the citizens of L-City, this was Alice’s grand return after being away on business for over a week, and they welcomed her with open arms.

Alice’s recent exploits in J-City had garnered her another massive wave of attention and praise; by now, the young girl’s popularity was absolutely skyrocketing.

Of course, the corporate faction of the Hero Association was pushing this behind the scenes.

But then again, they didn’t even need to make anything up or slander anyone; they literally just had to display the girl’s battle records in front of the public as clearly as possible.

Just doing that was more than enough.

Catching a glimpse of her phone and seeing how Alice was being showered with love in L-City—with everyone getting along perfectly and happily—Tatsumaki blankly swiped past the trending topic.

She’s that happy after being back for just one day?

Hoping to pay no further attention to it, Tatsumaki swiped away from the trend, only to see something she wanted to look at even less.

[A Rational Discussion: Who exactly is Herta?]

[Why is the S-Class Rank 2 hero, Tornado of Terror, holding ’Herta’ in such high esteem? She’s even going so far as to shamelessly shout praises across multiple cities at the expense of her own image?]

[Is she a newcomer to the entertainment industry, or a rising star in the Hero Association?]

[To be so highly recognized by Lady Tatsumaki, she must be an incredibly outstanding person, right?]

Tatsumaki: ...Excuse me, it is neither high esteem nor recognition.

No matter how much Tatsumaki wanted to hide it, she couldn’t just stop using her superpowers.

This meant that aside from her initial shout when she first took flight, every subsequent time she took action, she would automatically praise Herta once.

As a highly popular hero, anyone Tatsumaki praised naturally became an object of intense public curiosity. Yet in the end, not a single person could find anyone named Herta.

Only the Hero Association had an inkling of the truth, and it left them trembling with fear.

Tatsumaki naturally hadn’t hidden the details regarding Herta. Aside from glossing over the parts where she had been utterly humiliated, she recounted everything that needed to be said.

However, the sheer sci-fi nature of the content made the Association staff question whether they had misheard her.

Or if Tatsumaki was playing some kind of joke on them.

But Tatsumaki couldn’t be bothered to joke around with them. Whether they believed it or not, once she finished saying what she needed to say, she lost all interest in talking further.

Later, after learning about their ’Ultimate Trump Card’ and her automatic-praise predicament, the Hero Association broke out into an even colder sweat.

They realized that regardless of whether Herta was just bragging, the fact that Tatsumaki had suffered a setback and was completely helpless to stop it was absolutely true.

That fact alone was enough to let them know that Herta was someone they couldn’t afford to mess with.

Meanwhile, Metal Knight, who maintained a close relationship with the Association, developed a keen interest in the matter.

Because of Tatsumaki’s bizarre behavior, quite a few people managed to glean bits and pieces of information.

The corporate faction even used this opportunity to brag about their own ’wisdom,’ claiming they had been saying all along that they should treat Alice with the utmost care.

Thank goodness they had ultimately followed their decision. Otherwise, due to the pressure from the purist faction, Alice might have developed a grudge against the Association, which would have negatively affected Madam Herta’s opinion of them.

As for their original intention merely being to make money?

Why bring up money at a nice time like this? Just tell us whether it was a wise move or not!

And as for that [Ark] creation of Herta’s whose current whereabouts were unknown—the fact that it was an aerial fortress armed with orbital weapons about which they knew absolutely nothing, posing a massive risk and unknown hidden danger?

Isn’t that a topic for the heroes to worry about?! Besides, we’ve already gotten things off to a great start. Shouldn’t you purists prove your own capabilities next?

It was clearly just a fluke of a coincidence, yet it gave the corporate faction an excellent opportunity to voice their opinions, leaving the purist faction so angry they could spit blood.

In the end, however, the Hero Association reached a unified consensus.

Since even Tatsumaki was helpless against Alice and the Herta backing her, there was no need for them to restrict Alice so tightly.

When it came down to it, the purist faction was a group of people who held a genuine passion and expectation for the nobility of heroes. Putting her background aside, Alice was undoubtedly very pleasing to their eyes.

Since they couldn’t control the situation anyway, they might as well just give her the green light.

Consequently, her rank promotion, which had been held back for the longest time, finally went through.

Alice’s rank rose from Number 17 to Number 15. In front of her was Tanktop Master, while behind her were Metal Bat at Number 16, Puri-Puri Prisoner at Number 17, and Genos at Number 18—or rather, the Demon Cyborg, as his hero name had already been granted.

In reality, this ranking could have been even higher.

After all, Alice’s influence and reputation among the public were incredibly high, easily matching Tanktop Master’s.

Furthermore, while her total number of battle records was lacking, the quality was top-tier. Bumping her up to at least Number 14 wouldn’t have been a problem.

But considering that a massive jump all at once might cause dissatisfaction among other heroes, they gave her a standard, perfectly reasonable promotion.

Tanktop Master was a hero who had been famous for a long time and commanded a massive following. His personal sense of justice and charisma were also exceptionally strong, so there was nothing to complain about by placing her right behind him.

With this rise in the hero rankings, the corporate faction finally couldn’t wait any longer and sent an invitation to Alice.

Their meaning was simple. They hoped Alice could handle being both a hero and an idol simultaneously, just like Sweet Mask.

When a crisis struck, she would be a hero saving the citizens’ lives and property; when there was no crisis, she would be an idol saving their hearts and souls.

The phrasing was quite beautiful—saving not just the body, but the heart as well. Even Sweet Mask would have found the pitch expertly crafted, so Alice naturally had no way to refuse.

However, Alice didn’t want her idol work to interfere too much with her hero duties. Her primary focus had to remain on her activities as a hero.

Thus, the girl turned to Sweet Mask for help.

Knowing this would happen all along, Sweet Mask pulled out an agreement he had prepared beforehand.

After assuring Alice that she would be satisfied, he personally went to the Association to handle the rounds of mediation and negotiations.

Even the corporate faction was somewhat wary of his influence and voice.

Ruining Sweet Mask wasn’t impossible, but it would mean throwing away all the investments they had put into him over the past few years, spending money to ruin him, and losing their biggest cash cow in the process.

If they had even a shred of a brain, they would never engage in behavior that ran completely counter to making a profit.

Moreover, Sweet Mask’s demands weren’t particularly difficult to accept.

Two days later, Sweet Mask explained the results of the negotiation to Alice. The moment she nodded and signed her name, it would take effect immediately.

To sum it up, it was actually very simple. Alice only needed to spare some time on her days off to participate in events arranged by Sweet Mask’s agency.

This included recording albums, filming shows, interviews, press conferences, and the like. Furthermore, if a disaster required her to act as a hero during her working hours, she was free to leave at any moment.

This could be considered extremely lenient. Although the trade-off was that Alice’s cut of the profits would be very low, neither Sweet Mask nor Alice cared much about that.

Money wasn’t important. What mattered was living up to the fans’ expectations and making everyone happy.

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T/N: If you want advance Chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL