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******
Another month passed.
Another month of grinding, welding, designing, and cursing at wires that refused to behave.
And then—something unexpected happened.
A soft ding echoed in Ethan's mind.
[System Notification:
Host has survived in the Marvel Universe for 6 months without causing any large-scale chaos.
Reward: 1x Universal Gacha Ticket.]
Ethan froze mid-sip of his energy drink.
"…Huh?"
He sat up in bed, eyes narrowing at the floating message.
"What is this? Universal gacha? Since when do I have that?"
The System responded immediately:
[Explanation:
Some gacha types do not appear until certain conditions are met.
Universal Gacha one-time opportunity has been rewarded for meeting the condition.]
Ethan blinked.
"…Wait. One-time?"
He squinted at the hologram, rereading every word carefully.
"So it's not unlocked permanently… it's just a single chance?"
The System replied instantly:
[Correct.
Universal Gacha is not unlocked.
Host has only received a one-time ticket as a survival bonus.]
Ethan let out a long groan and fell backward onto the bed.
"Great… so it's not a new gacha type. I'm not suddenly lucky. It's just a one time reward."
He dragged a hand down his face.
"A one-time ticket… seriously? Couldn't it be five? Or ten?"
[No.]
"Of course not," he muttered.
Still, his frustration slowly turned into curiosity.
A one-time Universal pull wasn't something to waste. It could drop something worthless… or something universe-breaking.
Ethan sat up again, shoulders tensing.
"…Well, a free chance is still a free chance."
He sighed, resigned.
"Alright. Let's see what this one-time miracle gives me."
He tapped the glowing ticket.
The room darkened as the Universal roulette appeared, spinning violently with thousands of possible rewards.
"Come on…" he whispered. "Don't screw me over…"
The wheel slowed.
And slowed.
And then—
CLICK.
The prize lit up gold.
The golden glow swelled, bursting outward in a sharp flash of light.
Ethan covered his eyes.
When the flare died down, a notification hovered in front of him:
[Reward Acquired: STORM SHADOW — Elite Bodyguard (GI JOE Universe)]
"Huh?" Ethan blinked, confused. He had expected some kind of new tech—but instead, he got a summon?
[It was a Universal Gacha, meaning the host could have gotten anything. The host happened to get him.]
Ethan nodded slowly and looked at the card in his hand. It depicted a cool-looking guy in a white suit with two white katanas crossed over his back.
"Can I summon him now? Will he appear here?" Ethan asked.
[Host just needs to crush the card. He will appear at the perfect opportunity, not via sudden summon or anything reckless.]
[While crushing the card, the host will also gain information—when and where he will appear, as well as his background in this world.]
Ethan nodded and crushed the card. In the next moment, new information flashed through his mind.
"So, tomorrow, huh? And he'll appear there. Well… that's a good place. And a good background." Ethan nodded to himself.
"System, roll the monthly gacha too," he said as he sat down on the edge of his bed.
He was still inside his sci-fi basement—his bed had simply been moved there so he could sleep without wasting time walking back upstairs. With the Replicator progress now being at 50%, at start he made the complex tech that took more time but now, its now just simple tech so its progressing faster.
A soft blue glow appeared in front of him as the system processed the gacha roll.
[Monthly Gacha Rolling…]
[Reward Acquired:
BEHEMOTH — (Horizon: Forbidden West Universe)]
Ethan blinked. "Behemoth…? Oh damn, that's actually good."
He nodded as memories surfaced—Behemoths were cargo-carrier machines, built to transport heavy materials from one place to another. But they had something far more interesting than brute strength.
The Force Loaders.
Or more simply: Anti-gravity/Gravity technology.
In the game, Behemoths could manipulate gravity itself to lift and move massive loads. And now Ethan had obtained that same tech.
"Damn," he laughed. "Today is a lucky day. Not only did I get a powerful bodyguard, but also this insane tech… and for the first time, it's finally not from the Cyberpunk universe."
He leaned back as the blueprint data flowed into his mind. He now understood exactly how to construct a Behemoth—every component, every subsystem, every mechanism. And that meant he also had access to its power source.
"Hm… that's a pretty good power source…" he muttered, examining the glowing schematic of the Behemoth's core.
Ethan's eyes widened as more data streamed into his mind.
The Behemoth's power source wasn't just "good." It was absurdly superior.
"…Holy crap," he muttered.
The comparison to his existing tech appeared automatically.
The original Arasaka Replicator power unit—something he had been painstakingly assembling piece by piece—was complicated, slow to manufacture, temperamental, and required constant maintenance.
But this?
This Behemoth core was elegant.
Compact. Efficient. Self-regulating.
And its energy output was—
"Ten times that of the Replicator's power unit… and it lasts over a hundred years without maintenance?" Ethan stared at the numbers. "Okay, that's just cheating."
He didn't hesitate.
"Yeah, screw the old power cell."
He opened his project interface and immediately deleted the entire power assembly section of the Arasaka Replicator's blueprint. The holographic frame shifted, clearing space for a new component.
He dragged the Behemoth core schematic into place.
Instantly, the Replicator design recalibrated—panels reshaping, circuits rerouting, and energy grids optimizing around the far superior power source.
The Replicator's completion time estimate dropped drastically.
Ethan blinked.
"…It cut the build time in half? Just from swapping the power source?"
He let out a low whistle.
"This thing really is insane."
He leaned back in his chair, staring at the completed integration.
"Hm… fortunately the Behemoth power source is adjustable," he muttered with relief. "If it was too big to fit into my already half-completed Replicator, I would've had to scrap everything and restart. Thank god."
He let out a long breath.
If the power core had been oversized—even by a little—he would've been forced to rebuild the entire internal frame, recut the alloy housings, and redesign half the circuitry.