Exactly midnight.
20 seconds later, Kaito's fingers stiffened, then he silently turned off his phone, picked up the bottle of drink from the table, and chugged several big gulps. (T/N: The MC's real name is Qin Ye, but I changed it to a Japanese one for convenience.)
"Ha…"
"I finally worked up the courage to fall for something, but you made me lose… so completely!"
"Hahaha…"
"Damn it!!!"
After gently tossing the empty bottle into the trash can, Kaito lay speechless on the sofa.
'And here I was showing off to the group, saying I'd definitely bring home a 3080 wife tonight, but looking at it now, it turns out the clown was me!'
'Man, are these guys all demons?!'
'All mages who've been single for over 30 years, right!?'
'Seriously, I finally managed to survive the mining craze, was just planning to buy an RTX 5080 wife for the house, and the result was that I'd been utterly focused tapping away at the screen frantically from 11:30 until just now!'
'6666 units, gone in an instant.'
For a moment there, Kaito thought the merchant was cheating customers, that they'd only put up a few, definitely not 6666!
True, the price was $200 cheaper than the official retail price, and after today, tomorrow it'd be over $3,000.
Calculating it this way, it was at least several hundred cheaper.
—Ding.
A message came through on his phone.
Kaito picked up his phone, thinking it must be one of the bunch of "sons" in the group who'd definitely managed to grab their "wives" and were posting screenshots.
But the moment he unlocked his phone, it automatically entered the chat group.
[Izumi Sagiri Avatar]: Today my daughter drew some super cute pictures, everyone want to see?
[Misaka Mikoto Avatar]: Your daughter's drawings are great, but I'd like a snake drawing drawn by you, thanks. (Expectant.jpg)
[Hinatsuru Ai Avatar]: Although I feel this isn't quite right, I'd also like a copy. (Serious.jpg)
[Illyasviel Avatar]: Oh my, if it's a drawing personally done by Izumi-san, I'd like a copy too, fufufu (Excited.jpg)
[Izumi Sagiri Avatar]: ??? (Sagiri Izumi with three question marks on head.jpg)
[Izumi Sagiri Avatar]: Wait, is it really okay for everyone to do this?
[Izumi Sagiri Avatar]: (Image.jpg)
[Misaka Mikoto Avatar]: Hehehe, your mouth says no but your body's being pretty honest, huh?
[Misaka Mikoto Avatar]: Hiss… Izumi-san's snake drawing is as great as always!
Seeing this, Kaito understood the first thing.
This group has heroes! Has master artists!
Staring at that cute picture of a pretty, fair-skinned girl, Kaito promptly right-clicked and saved it, then prepared to say thanks.
In his understanding, he thought this was just one of the many chat groups he'd joined.
After all, everyone here was an old-school otaku, you could tell from the avatars.
'Come to think of it, weren't these avatar names the mothers of those characters? Were people all playing like this?'
For example, the [Misaka Mikoto Avatar] actively requesting a snake drawing had the ID Misaka Misuzu.
'Ha, I get these people's game now.'
'Starting to play the "MILF" game, huh?'
'Wait, something's off.'
'How come this chat group has no avatar or ID?'
Trying to exit, there wasn't the normal Messenger interface either; instead, it directly exited to the phone's home screen, and a new unknown question mark icon had appeared on his desktop.
As for the app's name, there was none.
Clicking in again, it was still the same chat group; exiting, straight to the desktop.
Long-pressing the app to uninstall, weirdly enough, there was no information at all!
"Problem with the phone?"
Kaito fiddled with it for a while, but still couldn't get any information about it, and even more so couldn't uninstall it.
But when he reopened the chat group, the content inside was very normal too, not like something downloaded involuntarily because he'd visited some study website.
[Konjiki no Yami (Tearju Lunatique)]: Everyone, is it really, really okay for you to do this? Also, is there any master willing to teach me how to cook? Today, Eve ate my failed attempt, it was clearly terrible, but she said it was delicious. Although I felt really happy, I feel like I'm failing badly as a mother QAQ.
[Hinatsuru Ai Avatar (Hinatsuru Akina)]: Tearju, there's really no solution for this. I even specially recorded a video teaching you how to cook last time, and you still messed up... this natural airhead trait of yours is really hopeless.
[Illyasviel Avatar (Irisviel)]: Oh my, wouldn't it be a good idea for Tearju-san to find a cooking housekeeper to teach you while also ensuring Eve's normal diet? (Joker.jpg)
[Momo Belia Deviluke Avatar (Sephie Michaela Deviluke)]: Huh? Let's put Tearju's matter aside for now, haven't you noticed there's a new member joining the group?
[Misaka Mikoto Avatar]: There's a newbie? Has a month already passed like that?
[Illyasviel Avatar (Irisviel)]: Newbie, hurry up and check in~ and by the way, tell us how cute your daughter is.
[Hinatsuru Ai Avatar (Hinatsuru Akina)]: If the newbie is feeling confused, I suggest looking at the top right to check the chat group content introduction. Also, there's daily check-in at midnight to get points. Accumulate 100 points and you can do a Gacha draw, getting many amazing rewards.
[Hinatsuru Ai Avatar (Hinatsuru Akina)]: Addition, newbies get 100 points directly on their first day check-in, so you can draw immediately! Also, a newbie's first draw has a high probability of getting a very good reward!
Speaking of points and Gacha, these people started getting lively again, some showing off the points they got from today's check-in, others crying about being unlucky.
'Hmm, it kind of has that vibe of a normal game chat group.'
At this point, Kaito didn't rush to speak either. Instead, he clicked the top right corner and saw the chat group introduction.
"I see... probably similar content to those novels..."
In short, people from different worlds are randomly invited to join this chat group. One person is invited per month. Now, including him, the chat group has 9 people.
The invitation methods vary, and their manifestations are also different.
Kaito also found he could completely transfer this question mark app from his phone into his mind. After fiddling with it himself, sure enough, the chat group manifested in his mind, and the question mark icon on his phone disappeared.
Unfortunately, there aren't many functions yet. Besides everyone chatting and sending gifts, there's only checking in to get points, then accumulating points to do the Gacha.
Currently, daily check-in can get 1 to 100 points.
One draw costs 100 points, a ten-draw costs 900 points (10% off, hot recommendation!)
'100 draws guarantee an A-rank reward, 1000 draws guarantee an S-rank reward, 10,000 draws guarantee an SS-rank reward, 100,000 draws guarantee an SSS-rank reward, 1,000,000 draws guarantee an EX-rank reward…'
'Damn, it really has that feeling of extremely money-grubbing mobile game gacha systems, with discounts for ten-draws! It makes you want to hoard points until you can do a ten-draw instead of drawing one by one.'
But seeing the guarantees… Kaito felt sick.
However, after realizing that, like in novels, he had entered a Multiverse Chat Group, or perhaps a Dimensional Chat Group, his mood was also very excited.
So he quickly did the check-in.
Sure enough, first-timers definitely get 100 points, and following Hinatsuru Akina's words, that the first draw has a high probability of getting a very good reward, Kaito hurried to the bathroom to wash his face, then opened the [NetEase] music player and played a song called "Good Fortune Come".
"Come on, Gacha draw!"
Pressing the Gacha button that had a strong mobile game vibe, a large number of cards quickly appeared.
The number of cards was vast, and the content on each card refreshed every second.
There were all kinds of Devil Fruits, and various other abilities, items, etc.
They were differentiated by ranks E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, EX.
After all, it's a Multiverse Chat Group, so it naturally has everything.
Until…
A card was selected, then automatically flipped to the front.
—Ding
Congratulations, you have drawn an SS-rank reward! (First draw UP↑)
Obtained: [Guardian Deity: Inazuma Twin Thunder (Demon) Gods (Baal and Beelzebul "Makoto" and "Ei")]
"???"
'What!?'
'I drew the Raiden Shogun in the Gacha? And both Makoto and Ei?'
'Wait, doesn't that mean I got a buy-one-get-one-free deal!?'