Before starting to play with the gacha system, Ethan spent some time browsing through the countless screens of the system, unable to contain a certain impression.
It had everything: resource overview, city warehouses, quality of each building, beauty, and even a general summary of the village, with specific and detailed tabs for the economic, military, and social areas.
[Name: GoldenVeil
Type: Medium settlement
Population: 67
Population loyalty: 30%
Houses: 97 (23 occupied)
Prosperity: Miserable
Attractiveness: Miserable
Population increase: +3/Week (Increase attractiveness and prosperity to receive more inhabitants)
Lord: Ethan GoldenVeil
Knights: 0
Average level: 0
Guard: 10 light infantry
Average level: 14
Guard loyalty: 23%
State of ’miserable wooden walls’: 243/654
Chests: 3 gold coins (+0.01/month)
Upgrade requirements: 97/30 houses, 67/100 inhabitants, 5 gold coins, Lord of knight level or higher]
"Wow... it’s just like in a game!" Ethan exclaimed internally, trying to contain his shock.
He had lived in this world for over eighteen years, and seeing things like this being treated as game mechanics brought a genuinely strange feeling to his chest.
How many others like him existed? Had his father also had access to a similar system?
Why did the Church of the Nine Gods personally act to warn the settlement’s population about the arrival of this system?
As he pondered, a few more notifications arrived, taking his attention.
[You have received a new mission! The Road to Glory]
[Quest: The Road to Glory.
Description: Raise your village to the level of a large settlement within two months.
Rewards: 1x premium gacha ticket, 2x gacha common tickets, +100% XP, +5 prestige, unlock a random basic skill from the Golden Lord’s Ring.
Failure penalty: none]
Ethan looked at the notifications for a brief moment before leaning back in his chair and relaxing.
Had the system learned to be kinder to him?
"No..." He shook his head.
He couldn’t let his guard down.
A single misstep and that system would force him to throw every ounce of his dignity in the trash.
He’d rather die as a hidden pervert than live as a degenerate known to all!
Not that his preferences mattered much to the system.
"System, how can I use a gacha ticket?" Ethan asked mentally, stretching.
[Just tear them in half. There should be no resistance. Tickets are stored in the system’s storage indefinitely. Rewards can be stored for up to one year.]
"Right..." he muttered, opening the system storage and removing a single ticket.
It was a free ticket, the kind generated every twenty-four hours or received via easy quests.
Made of plain paper and covered in strangely familiar writing, there was something almost nostalgic about it.
After a moment of observation, Ethan tore it in half.
[You used: 1x free ticket]
[Spinning...]
[Congratulations, you received: 1x Common Woodcutter’s Axe (Rank G)]
Ethan’s eyes lit up as he accessed the warehouse again and took out the item.
The next moment, he felt the unmistakable weight and texture of a wooden handle.
It wasn’t a high-quality item; the handle already showed small cracks despite being new, and the iron head was full of impurities.
Still, compared to what the woodcutters there had access to, it was excellent.
Unable to contain his excitement, he took all the remaining free tickets and tore them up at once.
[You used 91x free tickets]
[Spinning...]
[Congratulations, you received: 1x Aged Scythe (Rank G)]
[Congratulations, you received: 1x Steel Scythe (Rank F)]
[Congratulations, you received: 1x Common Steel Sword (Rank F)]
[Congratulations, you have received: 1x Low-Quality Wheat Seeds (Rank G)]
[Congratulations, you have received: 1x Common Steel Axe (Rank F)]
[...]
The system inventory was quickly filled with dozens of items.
Seeds of various types, weapons, and especially farming tools.
Only in the last few items did something above Rank F appear.
[Congratulations, you received: 20x Common Pops (Rank E)]
[Item: 20x Common Pops.
When redeemed, twenty common inhabitants of random talent are generated to join your settlement in the next week, with an initial loyalty of 70%.]
"Good!" Ethan exclaimed, punching the table excitedly.
The tools and seeds were great, of course, but nothing compared to twenty new citizens with high loyalty.
"If at least five of them are at full combat capacity..." He could already imagine himself creating his own guard and eliminating the risk of waking up decapitated by Alaric.
’Luckily, they don’t seem to want to kill me yet...’ he thought, quickly grabbing his common tickets, 35 in total.
From what he had discussed with the system, these had a chance of generating items up to grade A. With that in mind, he grabbed them firmly and tore them.
[You used 35x common tickets]
[Spinning...]
[Congratulations, you received: 1x High-Quality Corn Seeds (Rank E)]
[Congratulations, you received: 1x White Steel Sword (Rank E)]
[Congratulations, you received: 1x Compound Bow (Rank E)]
Right after the third spin, a different light appeared alongside the notification. Not the usual white, but a deep green that blinded Ethan for a moment.
[Congratulations, you have received: 1x Leather and Steel Armor Set! (Rank D)]
Before he could even react, another intense green light dominated everything around him.
[Congratulations, you have received: 1x Book: The Basics of Blacksmithing and Ore Extraction. (Rank C)]
Dozens of other items arrived in quick succession, including a few more Rank D items.
But Ethan focused on just one.
He opened the storage and took out a large, heavy book, easily over eight hundred pages.
"Ugh... is this just the basics?" he wondered, opening the first few pages.
It took only a moment to realize: he had found pure gold.
The book not only taught how to make axes, pickaxes, and swords, but also included mining techniques and, above all, construction techniques.