I Level Up With In-app Purchases

I Level Up With In-app Purchases – 77

EP.77 An Escape of Love(?) with the Duke’s Daughter (4)

“This is the place.”

“Hmm…”

Dawn, before the sun had fully risen.

A man dressed in black and a middle-aged man exuding an unmistakable noble air stood in a suspicious manner.

The building in front of them had a very shabby sign that read ‘General Store’.

The middle-aged man, who had no apparent reason to set foot in such a rundown and cramped place, glared at the general store building with disgust.

‘There’s absolutely nothing worth looking at here!’

Though his hands were clasped behind his back, his grip was tight with tension.

Judging by the fiery look in his eyes, one could tell he wanted to tear down the entire building right then and there.

“What should we do?”

“We’ll observe for now.”

“Observe, you say?”

The knight was taken aback by this unexpected decision.

“Nothing’s certain yet. We need to be sure it’s him.”

If he were to rashly destroy this general store out of anger, and if Ariane were to find out…

‘She’s already run away once chasing after a man. She’s done it before, so who’s to say she can’t do it again? The second time might even be easier.’

He had intended to immediately find the man and tear him limb from limb once he discovered his identity.

But upon learning of the man suspected to be Ariane’s lover, he found himself surprisingly calm.

‘I’ve been through all this before.’

Like Ariane, who was experiencing the passionate throes of first love, he too once had a first love he would have moved heaven and earth to win.

While he never expected Ariane to cause such trouble, like parent like child, he had experienced something similar.

That’s why he knew well that hastily harming the other party in this situation was something only amateurs would do.

‘It could only make her more rebellious and cause her to become even more twisted.’

Therefore, a careful approach was necessary to prevent the situation from becoming more complicated.

‘He’s probably not an easy opponent.’

He had thoroughly investigated what kind of man Ariane had fallen for.

And he could see that Ariane had fallen for a complete lunatic.

The worst of the worst.

He was a commoner by birth, had vulgarly lived as a mercenary, and was even older.

‘I thought it would be either an older nobleman or a commoner, but to think she’d end up with someone who combines all the worst qualities.’

Ariane’s choice made him dizzy.

He wanted to grab the back of his head and collapse.

But thinking that if he collapsed now, there would be no one to stop Ariane, he desperately clung to his senses.

‘How should I get rid of this piece of trash?’

There were many ways.

Blackmail would work, or sending an assassin to quietly cut his throat would be satisfying.

In his imagination, the man was dying in all sorts of ways.

The problem was that even if he killed him like that, Ariane wouldn’t forget him.

‘It would be too deep a wound for that child. I can’t do that.’

The reason he had to live with his first love buried in his heart.

It was because he learned that his late birth mother had forced the woman he loved to marry into another noble family and tormented her to the brink of suicide, all because he loved a woman deemed unsuitable.

If he had dated in secret without his mother finding out and then broken up, he probably wouldn’t have kept it buried in his heart for so long.

‘At least this father didn’t meet a commoner, Ariane.’

He knows that at the time, his mother had taken drastic measures to avoid creating trouble, as he had just gotten engaged to his current wife.

But the first love that was left unresolved and lost its place due to his mother was not easily forgotten even as time passed, and he didn’t want to leave such emotions for his daughter.

‘Are you saying my daughter should spend her whole life holding a mere commoner, who’s older and even lived as a mercenary, in her heart?’

Grind—!!

“My Lord…”

“Whew, I still have a long way to go. To think it’s this difficult to maintain composure.”

“It’s an understandable situation, isn’t it? Even if you were to drag him out and cut off his limbs right now, it wouldn’t be enough to quell your anger.”

“Yes, that’s right. This anger won’t end with just that much.”

Still, he had to proceed cautiously.

Ariane had already…

“She’s already run away once. If she finds out I’ve oppressed that man, she’ll go through an even worse rebellious phase. We must ensure she never knows we had a hand in this.”

“What method shall we use?”

“The easiest way would be to let Ariane see for herself what a piece of trash that man is.”

The best way to show that the man was trash.

It would hurt Ariane, but there was one way that she might consider fortunate, as it would allow her to resolve things before suffering an even greater wound.

“Set a woman on him. A courtesan skilled in seducing men.”

“…You are merciful.”

Grr!

“It will be a moment’s happiness. Like a fog, it will briefly cloud her vision and then vanish into nothing.”

The moment Ariane’s feelings for him fade.

He would personally throw the man into the pit of hell.

Doesn’t one fall more painfully when they’re knocked down from a high place?

He would drop the man from the highest point in life to the underground below.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Meanwhile.

Why am I so busy again today?

Now that Ariane’s scenario is finished, I should be able to take a break to celebrate, but tasks keep piling up.

There’s so much to do that I have to rush around without a moment’s rest.

Training my telekinesis finishing move was a busy task, and having to spend money again to draw SSR characters was another reason keeping me occupied.

“Is today an auspicious day?”

Don’t I have the cash I got from selling that crow’s child?

Last time I only managed to draw 3 SSRs with 1.33 million won, but this time I need to draw at least 5.

“Return on investment is real!!”

There was still the task of selling unique equipment to the SSR characters I had drawn before, and discussing the matter of the beads that once caused a stir in the academy with Ariane.

Among these, the gacha was a top priority task.

Flash—!

I came to the waterfall, believing without a doubt that it would someday bestow upon me a beneficial light, and I started pulling the gacha relentlessly.

Most of them were duplicates, so only beads were dropping one after another.

And finally, as if the heavens had graciously accepted my prayer, an SSR character descended from the sky.

‘It’s coming down already?’

Something doesn’t feel right.

Just as I was about to pause the gacha after confirming an SSR character had been summoned.

Flash—!

Once more, the sky rumbled with a boom! and lightning struck.

A total of two SSR characters descended to the ground with a dazzling light.

“Two characters in one gacha pull?!”

Since I always do 10-pulls rather than single pulls, it wasn’t impossible for two SSRs to appear in one gacha roll.

But seeing two SSRs come down when even getting one is difficult was something I hadn’t seen in a very long time.

“Insane!”

Moreover, the two SSR characters that came down from the sky looked very familiar.

They weren’t duplicates.

The fact that they weren’t duplicates but looked familiar meant there was a high chance they were characters I had been using, which meant I could expect them to be Tier 1.

‘This is the day. This is the day it’s happening.’

After confirming the faces of the characters that came out, I made up my mind to spend all my assets today.

Even if no more SSRs came out in future pulls, I was determined to summon SSRs using the mileage I had left over from before.

“Can’t lose the momentum. Gotta keep rolling!”

I didn’t need to worry about the SSR characters I had drawn as they would find their place on their own, and what I had to do now was to keep spinning the gacha.

Until my assets reached 0 won.

Keep spending, and spending more.

The thought that I should save some money to give Ariane her unique equipment?

‘Forget it all! I can just earn more and draw again!’

This kind of flow doesn’t come easily.

Spin!

Flash—!

And my determination produced a fantastic result.

3 of them!!

‘It’s not over yet! I’m aiming for 5, no, 6 or even more.’

I was on a roll.

I had an unusual feeling, and this feeling couldn’t simply be a misconception.

Once again, lightning strikes from the sky.

Flash—!

‘Holy crap!!!!’

I’m afraid to say anything lest I jinx it.

The heavens must be watching over me.

Adrenaline was pumping like crazy!

With the momentum to draw all the name cards of SSR characters, I spin the gacha once more.

[R] [R] [R] [R] [R] [R] [R] [R] [R] [R]

“Phew, right. This is normal.”

It wasn’t possible for an SSR to come out with every spin.

My pounding heart was starting to calm down.

For a while, only beads kept dropping normally.

It had made me feel elated and then calm again….

Flash—!

“Holy shit! This is it!!”

I threw both my arms up in the air.

I wonder if it would be better to make today my new birthday.

Since I haven’t celebrated my birthday since leaving home, it might be more meaningful to celebrate this great gacha success today.

It felt like the god of luck had bestowed their blessing upon me.

It’s like someone grabbed me by the hair and pulled me straight up, you know?

Flash—! Flash—!

Not stopping at the already good results, an SSR was drawn with the last bit of strength.

After spending all my money on gacha except for the mileage, the result was.

A whopping 8 SSR characters were summoned.

‘Of course, 3 of them were duplicates, but still.’

The SSR beads I now possessed were, excluding the one Shine I already had, 2 Rebeccas and 1 duplicate bead of a character named ‘Vine’ that I drew this time.

‘I didn’t expect to get two Rebeccas.’

Shine and Rebecca were people I could use the beads on right away.

However, until now, I didn’t have enough time to talk about the beads, so the task kept getting pushed back.

‘I’ve got a ton more work to do now.’

Excluding the 3 duplicate beads, I had to pay attention to 5 new SSR characters while also handing over the duplicate beads to Rebecca and Shine.

There were plenty of other tasks piled up as well.

‘When am I going to do all this?’

I clearly retired, but I don’t understand why there’s so much work to do.

‘My goal was just to summon SSR characters, sell them unique equipment, and leisurely make money.’

I didn’t need to pay attention to all the characters’ scenarios.

Like when playing a game, I should have just formed a party with Tier 1 SSRs and focused only on their scenarios.

But unexpected friendships formed, and as I started paying attention to Shine and Rebecca’s scenarios, work began to overflow excessively.

This is all work created by my own meddling.

‘I should reflect on this.’