I'm Turning Into Gacha Characters?!

Chapter 525: Turned Into Gacha?! - 525

"Wow... she really has become a total superstar, hasn’t she..."

Z-City.

In the middle of the dilapidated, desolate ghost town, Saitama was lying on the tatami mat of his cramped little bedroom just like any other day, his eyes glued to the television screen.

"Master, are you watching Alice’s promotional video?"

Genos walked out of the kitchen carrying a plate of rolled omelets he had been preparing for lunch.

Hearing Saitama’s wistful sigh, he followed his master’s gaze toward the TV, instantly understanding the reason behind the sudden melancholy.

"Yeah. I never would’ve thought Alice would become this popular. A bona fide celebrity..."

Saitama’s face gradually stiffened. "Meanwhile, the citizens treat me like some kind of weirdo, other heroes think I’m a criminal, and I still have to drag myself out of the house every single day just to meet the quota for a C-Class hero... Even now, I barely have any fans to my name..."

"Do you desire a fanbase, Master?"

Genos set the rolled omelets down on the small wooden table.

This room doubled as both their bedroom and their living room; whenever it was time to eat, they simply dragged the table out and set it up right here.

"Well... if you’re asking whether I want one or not, then yeah, obviously I do... Plus, I really thought becoming a hero would at least count as a proper, steady job." Saitama picked up a piece of the omelet with a toothpick and popped it into his mouth, his voice dripping with bitterness.

"But in reality, I’m barely making any money, and I still have to carve out time between my part-time gigs just to do hero work..."

Finishing his complaint, he couldn’t help but let out a satisfied hum. "Mmm~ Man, there really is nothing better than eating rolled omelets while watching TV."

"In that case, you simply need to rise to A-Class or above, Master."

Ever the attentive disciple, Genos offered his logical solution. "B-Class heroes receive a monthly stipend, while A-Class heroes are entirely exempt from the monthly activity quotas. They can even request and mobilize the Hero Association’s resources to a certain extent."

"No, no, no... That sounds great and all, but it’s not like I have any chances to rank up right now, do I?"

Saitama sat up from the tatami mat, a look of sheer frustration washing over his face. "To raise your hero rank, don’t you have to defeat monsters or make some kind of active, high-profile contribution?"

"But... absolutely no monsters are out there specifically calling for a C-Class guy like me to help." He pointed a finger at his own face, a look of profound emptiness in his eyes.

"And besides... this is the ghost town. Who on earth is even around here for me to make a ’high-profile contribution’ for?"

"I see."

A look of sudden, profound realization dawned on Genos’s face. "Master, you mean to say that the only reason you constantly stay at home is because you lack assignments?!"

"What else did you think it was?!"

"I assumed that you simply held zero interest in those weak, low-level monsters, Master. I thought you chose to remain at home while waiting for an enemy truly worthy of your strength to appear."

"No, no, no! That is completely wrong!"

"If that is the case, then I actually have a suggestion." Having finally grasped the root of Saitama’s predicament, Genos came up with another idea.

"A suggestion?"

"Lately, hasn’t Alice been scaling back her hero duties because she has to do her idol activities on her days off?"

Saitama did recall hearing about that, though he hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time.

"Didn’t Alice say that whenever she can’t do hero work, she leaves the city monitoring to some kind of Ark AI? I thought that Ark thing was supposed to be a fleet of drones that fights monsters in her place?"

"They even reported it on TV yesterday. They said you can’t find a single monster threat in L-A-Citynymore."

"Precisely." Genos nodded in agreement. "We could ask Alice to notify us whenever the Ark detects a monster. Then, you can be the one to step in and handle the disaster, Master."

"Huh?"

However, Saitama’s response to the idea was rather lukewarm. "If Alice’s system can already handle it, there’s really no need for us to butt in, right?"

"Hmm... That is true. You are not the type of person who enjoys stealing credit from other heroes, Master."

Genos nodded, conceding the point. But if that was the case... what options did they have left to quickly raise Saitama’s hero rank?

"Come to think of it, hasn’t the Hero Association given you any difficult requests, Genos?" Saitama suddenly remembered. He recalled Alice mentioning that the Hero Association would directly hand high-difficulty assignments over to her.

After all, there were certain crises that only an S-Class hero could properly manage.

"My apologies, Master. The Hero Association generally dispatches the closest available hero to provide backup. However, Z-City is situated right on the edge of the continent. On top of that, it’s right next to L-City. Compared to Z-City, deploying from L-City makes it far easier to reach almost any location quickly."

"Ah, well..."

Genos was staying here in Z-City with him, which meant almost all of those prime requests ended up falling right into Alice’s lap.

"Furthermore, the Rank 3 S-Class hero, Silver Fang, has his dojo located right here in Z-A-Citys well."

Compared to the lowest-ranked S-Class, the third-ranked hero was obviously considered much more reliable.

The corner of Saitama’s mouth twitched in awkward defeat.

But he couldn’t just keep going on like this forever...

"Master."

Just as Saitama was nursing a mild headache and preparing to just go with the flow and give up thinking altogether, Genos’s voice cut through his thoughts.

The cyborg had pulled out his phone at some point and was now holding the screen directly in front of Saitama’s face. "It seems Alice wants to invite you and me to go out and have some fun."

"Go out?"

Saitama looked toward the screen.

[Alice: Bang-bang-ka-bang! Alice has sent an invitation to Genos and Saitama!]

[Alice: Would you like to join Alice tomorrow at 8:50 AM to start the (Gaming Festival) dungeon?]

[Alice: yes / no]

[Genos: Gaming Festival? What is that?]

[Alice: It is a place where various developers showcase their electronic games! There will be offline playtests for closed beta games, live tournament matches for popular games, and merchandise exhibition booths for open beta games!]

Genos was no fool, and upon hearing this, he quickly deduced the situation.

[Genos: Because you mentioned your love for gaming during that interview program, the organizers sent you an invitation, correct? It just so happens that tomorrow is a day off.]

[Alice: Precisely! This time, Alice will be participating as both a player and a judge on the live showdown stage for the fighting game "Roadhog"! At the same time, I will also be taking part in a live-streamed playtest for a new open-world adventure game!]

[Alice: The organizers gave Alice a lot of tickets, but the members of the Blizzard Group don’t have much free time. Only Piko can carve out some time to come play.]

[Genos: Understood. I will ask my master.]

[Alice: Great! Alice will be looking forward to it!]

"A gaming festival, huh... I’ve never actually been to one of those places before..." Saitama scratched his bald head.

After all, places like that always required a ticket. On a regular basis, he couldn’t even afford a decent piece of meat, pinching pennies at every turn and strictly buying discounted groceries.

Spending cash on an expensive event ticket was completely out of the question for his lifestyle.

But since Alice was providing the tickets this time, he was naturally very interested.

"Alright! Let’s go keep Alice company then!"

"Yes, Master!"

Now that Saitama had made up his mind, Genos naturally had no reason to refuse.

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