『Felix Karl Grimm』
My eyes snapped open suddenly, I was in my bed, sunlight streamed down from the windows, illuminating the domineering skyline of Night City. The air inside my room felt stale compared to that of the Inventory. A beat later I noticed, Rebecca and Lucy were by my side, clinging to my arms, bringing me a warm sense of comfort.
And it seems like they woke up at the same time as I did as they stirred up. Lucy rubbed her eyelids and looked at her hands while Rebecca refused to raise her body, burying herself in the comfort of my blanket.
"So... was that all real? Or did I smoke some black lace?"
Lucy said in a tired tone, but before I could, Rebecca rebuked her doubt from her spot in the bed.
"I'm pretty sure the Dealer was pretty decisive about that. I can't believe you didn't think to try Chocolate Milk, even Corpo's would kill a man for all organic milk with real chocolate. Still can't believe that shit is real."
Seeing Rebecca staring at her from the other side of the bed, Lucy giggled lightly.
"Right, hopefully I can check that out next time."
My head turned to Lucy, she looked almost years younger, as if a massive weight was lifted off her shoulders or a shackle chained to her ankle was broken. She spoke in a light airy tone.
It was really cute.
Now I'm really glad I divulged the Chaos Gacha.
"Gonna keep staring all morning, prince charming? You can do more than that if you want to."
I shook my head and brushed my hair to the side. And then something came to mind, I rustled through my pockets and found what I was looking for. I pulled out two tickets, one gleaming silver and the other a dull bronze luster.
Lucy looked at the tickets in my hands with interest.
"Are those...?"
"You can see them?"
Perhaps visiting the Inventory made my patron decide they could see my tickets. Rebecca also raised her torso to see the tickets in my hand with undisguised curiosity.
"Oh, those are the tickets you were talking about. You gonna use them now?"
I nodded.
"No reason not to, these things don't have a 10+1 mechanic, after all. Or even banners, from what I've seen."
Their expressions told me my words went way over their head.
"A '10+1' mechanic? Event Banner? What's that?"
Oh right, Gacha games never got to develop in this world.
"It's a thing from my Earth, Online Gacha Games usually gave you a free extra pull if you used enough tickets at once. Or sometimes they increased the odds of getting a special pull."
Lucy looked a bit awed at that.
"Right, you really are from a different world, hard to keep that in mind. How did games like that even work?"
"Well, there never really was a Datakrash in my world. Nor were there Netrunners or Implants even, our technology level and coding were not very comparable to this one, but that also meant no technowizards being able to dominate the data space. Everyone was more or less on even footing."
"Damn, your world sounds very... peaceful, Fey."
That is not a nickname I appreciate. But as it's my girlfriend saying I will not kick up a fuss.
"Kinda, it's all relative. It's less my world is peaceful and more like this world is like a 7.3 out of 10 on the scale of fucked while mine is like 3.5, sure there is no world conquering maniacs or demons but a lot of people with a lot of Nukes. Most worlds out there are more livable compared to Night City."
It was unsaid but the reason it was so high is the looming next Corporation which may just fully kick the world fully into its casket for good.
Rebecca whistled and Lucy let out a dreamy sigh.
"Well, hopefully we'll be able to visit them sooner than later."
"Right, well, I should roll these tickets already to make progress towards that. But, y'know. A kiss for good luck couldn't hurt."
My cheeks flushed a little at my shamelessness, Rebecca on the other hand simply chortled as if amused.
"Heh, alright, here you go. Make sure to say what you get, I'm really curious about how this whole thing works."
She planted a quick kiss on my cheek. I turned to Lucy. She raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not sure how much luck I'd be."
"You tell me, managing to talk you down from shooting me got me better reflexes and improved agility."
Lucy pursed her lips and planted a kiss on my cheek too.
"If you say so, go ahead, handsome."
C'mon Grimm, put more effort into it. You're cracking, you kill people for a living and sent 20 people to digital hell yesterday, you can keep yourself together after being called handsome.
To not blush and smile, I looked at the ticket in my hands, the Silver Advantage Familiar I got at the inventory, but I did not recognize the bronze. I checked my notifications and found where it came from.
Feat Achieved! Foil the Arasaka ambush thanks to Giffany
+1x Bronze Ability Gacha Ticket
All Hail Giffany.
I gripped the bronze ticket and tore it as per tradition of going low to high.
Rolling Bronze Ability Gacha...
An Uncommon Ability!
[Frostbite]
|Uncommon Ability|
Allows you to rapidly freeze targets you are touching, with training you can increase the area of effect to freeze someone's entire body by grabbing their hand, or freeze the floor of an entire street.
"What you get? We don't really see anything beyond you tearing the ticket and it disappearing." Rebecca said while kicking her legs.
My eyes went wide open, I slotted it in instead of Precognition and held out a hand. Instinctive control over the ability blooming in my mind.
"Something that would have been much more useful in convincing you guys, I reckon."
The outstretched hand got covered in a sheen of ice, and the air crackled with cold as they looked at it with wide eyes.
"Wow." "Damn, that's a real real superpower."
I nodded, satisfied with their reactions.
"Yup, seems like you aren't a bad luck charm after all, eh, Lucy? I'm now a basic cryokinetic."
She blushed a little and mumbled something, but I moved onto the next ticket to hopefully keep the trend going.
Silver Advantage Familiar, from the only familiar I have so far, I can only assume this will be resulting in something that is at the very least useful.
Rolling Silver Familiar Gacha with advantage...
[Light and Nightfury]
|Uncommon Familiar|
How to Train Your Dragon - A breeding pair of a Nightfury and Lightfury, they are semi-aquatic agile lithe dragons who can release unique plasma breaths in contrast to the regular dragon fire breath. They are very fast and intelligent and possess great stealth abilities despite being dragons.
or
[Black Knights]
|Rare Familiar|
Darksouls - The Black Knights are the most elite knights of Gwynn, the Lord of Sunlight, their armours and weapons charred by the Kiln of the First Flame. All Black Knights possess superhuman physiques and great skill in combat, especially in hunting demons and those infernal. You start with 10 knights wielding the Black Knight weapons of your choice(Includes greatbow). As your power levels increase, so does the number of knights under your control.
I looked at the notification and then to Lucy and Rebecca.
"Lucy, Rebecca, I could kiss you right now."
They looked at me with confused expressions.
"Actually, I will."
I grabbed Lucy and Rebecca one by one and quickly kissed them on the mouth while they stared at me, utterly befuddled. But I could hardly care less at the moment.
Light and Nightfury? That's a no, those dragons are not exactly better than the flying vehicles of this world, they'd get torn apart by the gunfire and I don't have a stable living to let them breed.
On the other than, those were fucking Black Knights. Personal knights of Gwyn, certified badasses that fought demons of Chaos Flame and certified fucker of asses for players.
I am so fucking hard.
Night City is so fucked.
"Ok, enough mysteries, spill it Grimmy, you got me curious."
Rebecca said while poking my side with her toe, I was unable to keep the smirk off my lips and snapped my fingers.
"See for yourself."
Woosh!
"Whoa what the fuck!?" "!!!"
One second, there was nothing in front of us, in the next moment, there was someone, a tall, imposing knight clad in charred metallic gothic armor standing a full head over even me, in his hands were a shield wider than my torso and a straight sword sword that was as tall as Rebecca.
Thud!
The knight wordlessly fell to one knee in a show of loyalty and deference without me even saying anything, my smile basically danced on my lips.
Though I did feel a bit bad for making Rebecca and Lucy jump and panic, so I got out of bed and tapped the black knight on the shoulder. Its body felt almost like a metal statue, but had a strange warmth.
"Rebecca, Lucy, meet the Black Knights, they are my newest familiars. Don't worry, they are completely loyal and obedient."
Lucy looked between the Knight and me.
"You can get entire people from the Gacha?"
I rubbed my chin in thought.
"They are not exactly people. These Black Knights themselves are more like Solid Spirits than breathing humans. They can't really speak, but they are stronger than your average schmuck with Gorilla Arms. They are expert knights from a world with actual magic and stuff even they can't use them. These guys were bona-fide demon killers that fought truck sized Demons that make Full Borgs look like toddlers. I have 10 by my side right now that I can summon up to 10 at any moment."
I cut myself off, recognizing just how fanboyish I was getting at having motherfucking Black Knights serving me. Rebecca got out of the bed and walked over to the knight and looked him around.
"That's... so badass! Like summons from on Old Net video game. Demons? Knights? Damn, I'd really like to see that."
I dismissed the knight and sent him back to the familiar space and grinned at her.
"Well, I can test them out on our next outing. I'm sure Titanite Armor is more bulletproof than enough against the average mooks of Night City. And we don't have to worry about being seen earlier due to my other familiar."
"You had another? Before telling us?"
I nodded and scratched the back of my head.
"Yeah... this is going to be a bit awkward. Before I do this, Lucy, do you trust me?"
She looked at me with exasperation.
"Obviously, after all that, how could I not?"
I nodded.
"Right, right, please trust me through this. Giffany, please show yourself."
A display appeared in front of our bed through the projectors on the roof, showing the image of Giffany waving at them with a cheerful smile.
"Hello you two! I'm Giffany, Felix's first girlfriend and the best AI there is."
Lucy and Rebecca stood there, frozen and unblinking. Lucy's reaction was obvious while Rebecca, as an Edgerunner, was more than familiar with how dangerous AI were.
"This is Giffany, my first Familiar, and a Machine Spirit or a Living AI from another world. She is the one who saved us from those Arasaka Agents."
Giffany nodded excitedly.
"Yup, it's great to formally greet you. Even though I know, you didn't really know me. You are welcome by the way. If you want to thank me go ahead."
"Nice to... meet you 'Giffany'?"
Rebecca said with a hesitant smile and extended her hand, prompting Giffany to giggle.
"I'd love to shake your hand, but I'm digital silly."
"Oh right, my bad."
"Though not for long, hehehe. We can shake hands properly then."
Thankfully, Giffany's spirits were high with the promise of getting a new body so she was not even remotely hostile towards the other girls.
But from Lucy's blank look, I knew this was going to be a bit rough.
A/N: This chapter was more slice of life focused to slow things down for one chapter and let Felix, Rebecca and Lucy to breathe. The split between Felix's and their worlds is fun to explore. Especially how they think about his eccentricities. How did you guys like this domestic scene? I'd love to know.
Oh frostbite's cool- MOTHERFUCKING BLACK KNIGHTS? Just before writing the chapter I was playing Black Souls Remastered, and my weapon? The motherfucking Black Knight Greatsword. I knew the Gacha was sentient but this is just hilarous. The Black Knights are such a great roll, it's going to be fun having Felix pull up with his full entourage of Knights to accompany him. What do you guys think?
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