CH 4: Gacha Once Again
It had only been a few days since he last used the Gacha. Currently he had 432 points, so doing a few ten-pulls wouldn't even be a problem. Still, he decided to stick to just twenty rolls for now, since twenty rolls guaranteed at least two four-star cards.
From the last Gacha, he could already tell that four-star pulls were usually the truly valuable ones. Sure, some three-star cards could still be useful, but most of them required proper setup or specific situations to really shine.
Praying briefly to his dead omnipotent father, Lex clicked roll.
Immediately, 30 points disappeared and ten cards materialized in front of him once again.
[Dodge Viper SRT-10
Rank: ★★★
Type: Vehicle
World: NFS MW
Description: A top choice for raw acceleration and brute speed, though it can be difficult to handle.]
[Ebony & Ivory
Rank: ★★★
Type: Weapon
World: Devil May Cry
Description: Semi-automatic pistols designed to rapidly fire bullets instilled with demonic power.]
[Regeneration Serum
Rank: ★★★
Type: Consumable
World: Resident Evil
Description: An advanced bio-serum capable of restoring damaged tissue and curing most conventional injuries.]
[Gacha Storage
Rank: ★★★
Type: Storage
World: General
Description: A 10x10x10 meter storage space for items gained from Gacha Cards. Does not include summons.]
[Donna Troy
Rank: ★★★
Type: Character
World: DC Comics
Description: A warrior of the Amazons and one of the founding members of the Teen Titans. Donna Troy possesses immense superhuman strength, speed, durability, and flight alongside centuries of combat training. Though often overshadowed by Wonder Woman, she remains one of the most formidable heroines of her generation, capable of battling gods, monsters, and elite metahumans alike.]
[Background Creation Card
Rank: ★★★
Type: Modification
World: General
Description: Create a background for yourself or any summon when entering a world.]
[Quirk - Dead Signal
Rank: ★★★
Type: Mutation
World: My Hero Academia
Description: The user emits an interference field that disrupts wireless communication, cameras, microphones, and most electronic signals within a surrounding area.]
[Invisibility Cloak
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Artifact
World: Harry Potter
Description: One of the legendary Deathly Hallows. This cloak grants near-perfect invisibility, resists magical deterioration, and conceals the wearer even from many supernatural forms of detection. Wearing it may hide you from Death.]
[Bryan Fury - Template
Rank: ★★★
Type: Character
World: Tekken
Description: A heavily modified cyborg mercenary driven by violence and destruction. Bryan Fury possesses immense physical strength, enhanced durability, heavy weapons proficiency, and relentless combat instincts.]
[Senzu Bean Bag
Rank: ★★★
Type: Consumable
World: Dragon Ball Z
Description: A bag containing 20 Senzu Beans. These mystical beans instantly restore the consumer to near-perfect physical condition, healing injuries, restoring stamina, and replenishing most energy reserves. A single bean can sustain an ordinary person for up to 10 days.]
Going over the pulls, Lex immediately noticed a few extremely useful ones such as Gacha Storage. Still, before using anything, he carefully examined every card first.
The first card was a car, which was honestly pretty useful since he currently couldn't buy one normally. On the other hand, not having a driving license might make actually using it a little difficult.
Then there were the two semi-automatic pistols.
Honestly? Great pull.
Having guns was always better than not having guns.
Let's see how that purple-suited freak handles demonic bullets.
The Regeneration Serum initially looked useless considering he already had immortality and bodily fluids capable of resurrecting people, let alone healing them. Still, it definitely had practical uses.
Giving it to someone he didn't trust enough to reveal his powers to.
Trading it for favors or connections instead of money.
Possibly studying it later.
Of course, Gacha Storage was an incredible pull. He could finally take out and store all the weapons and items he'd been holding off summoning.
Donna Troy was another character card. From the description alone, Lex guessed she came from some sort of metahuman-heavy world too, meaning she might adapt to this universe relatively well.
The Background Creation Card would definitely become useful once he actually started summoning people properly. Though honestly, he wished it worked retroactively on him too.
Getting a fully legitimate identity card right about now would've been amazing.
Quirk - Dead Signal also sounded surprisingly useful, especially in a world where billionaires casually built flying metal suits and piloted them through cities.
The Invisibility Cloak…
Honestly, at first Lex found it a little underwhelming.
Useful?
Obviously.
But four-star worthy?
That part felt questionable.
At least until he reread the final line.
Wearing it may hide you from Death.
That definitely sounded more impressive.
Though considering he was already immortal, Lex wasn't entirely sure how much that actually mattered to him. It wasn't like he planned on wearing the thing twenty-four hours a day just to avoid dying or something.
Bryan Fury however was definitely a good pull.
Templates in general sounded incredibly useful and while he could currently equip only two at a time, having access to enhanced strength, reflexes and combat instincts would absolutely help him.
Then there were the Senzu Beans.
At this point Lex genuinely had to wonder why the Gacha kept giving him healing items.
He could already heal himself.
And other people.
And resurrect the dead.
How much more healing did one person realistically need?
He decided to use the cards only after finishing another ten-pull and immediately clicked roll again.
[Compass of Peeking
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Artifact
World: General
Description: A magical compass capable of generating a holographic map of all explored regions within a 50 km recording radius around the user. The compass highlights supernatural phenomena, including magic, superpowers, and exotic energies. Once identified and marked, supernatural sources remain continuously trackable within recorded territory. The compass only records areas physically visited by the user.]
[Ability - Moxie
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Mutation - Enhancement
World: Pokémon
Description: Triumph and victory continuously empower you. Defeating opponents gradually increases your physical power, confidence, and combat momentum during battle.]
[Spell Scroll - Greater Rejection
Rank: ★★★
Type: Consumable
World: Overlord
Description: A magical scroll containing the 9th Tier spell Greater Rejection. Upon activation, the spell forcibly interrupts and cancels an attempted high-tier summoning effect, preventing entities called through abilities such as Greater Summon from manifesting successfully.]
[Cryokinesis - Frozone Variant
Rank: ★★★
Type: Mutation - Emitter
World: The Incredibles
Description: Grants the ability to generate and manipulate ice through the rapid extraction of heat and ambient moisture. Allows the creation of ice constructs, freezing attacks, defensive barriers, and high-speed movement across self-generated ice paths.]
[Background Creation Card
Rank: ★★★
Type: Modification
World: General
Description: Create a background for yourself or any summon when entering a world.]
[Waverider
Rank: ★★★
Type: Vehicle
World: Pirates of the Caribbean
Description: A fast medium-sized sailing ship known for its agility, reinforced hull, and excellent handling during storms and naval pursuits.]
[Native Power System Card
Rank: ★★★
Type: Conversion
World: General
Description: By using it with any other card, you can convert that card to the local power system. Can only be used on up to 3 Star cards. Using it on 3 Star cards may lead to a slight decrease in that card's power.]
[Triss Merigold
Rank: ★★★
Type: Character
World: The Witcher
Description: A skilled sorceress of the Lodge of Sorceresses specializing in combat magic, alchemy, teleportation, healing, and political intrigue. Though not among the most powerful mages in the world, Triss remains an exceptionally versatile and intelligent practitioner of magic.]
[Judoon Translator Sphere
Rank: ★★★
Type: Equipment
World: Doctor Who
Description: A compact alien translation device capable of interpreting and vocalizing numerous extraterrestrial languages.]
[Derek Hale
Rank: ★★★
Type: Character
World: Teen Wolf
Description: A powerful werewolf possessing enhanced strength, speed, senses, regeneration, and combat instincts. Derek Hale is an experienced fighter with deep knowledge of supernatural threats and pack dynamics.]
Looking at the double four-stars, Lex immediately felt excited.
Compass of Peeking could easily become an incredible long-term investment and he already planned on traveling around eventually anyway.
Moxie on the other hand sounded borderline overpowered, especially during large fights. Beat up a few people and suddenly you start snowballing harder and harder.
Both four-stars seemed extremely useful.
One for long-term utility.
The other for immediate combat growth.
On the other hand, the first three-star card was… extremely conditional.
He had absolutely no idea whether people in this world even possessed summoning abilities or not. For all he knew, this universe was just some bizarre mix of superhero and supernatural genres mashed together.
Then again, supernatural settings usually had cults summoning horrifying things eventually, so maybe it would become useful later.
Cryokinesis however was immediately a great pull.
Honestly, any versatile superpower was valuable. Versatility rarely hurt anyone.
Ignoring the second Background Creation Card for now, Lex moved on toward the Waverider and felt slightly disappointed.
A sailing ship.
Really?
He honestly couldn't imagine any situation where he'd suddenly need a medium-sized sailing vessel.
Though considering the kind of world he had ended up in, he really didn't want to jinx himself by saying that confidently.
The Native Power System Card was interesting though.
Potentially extremely useful even.
Being able to convert abilities into something native to the current universe could help him avoid suspicion later on. The downside however was the slight decrease in power.
Still, depending on the situation, that tradeoff might absolutely be worth it.
Then came Triss Merigold.
Another character card.
And honestly, Lex wasn't sure he wanted to summon her at all. She definitely sounded like someone from a high fantasy world and dragging a fantasy mage into a modern superhero setting felt… wrong somehow.
Not dangerous exactly.
Just unfair.
The Judoon Translator Sphere meanwhile was probably useful simply because aliens definitely existed here.
That alone justified keeping it around.
Then there was Derek Hale.
From the description alone, Lex guessed Teen Wolf was probably some kind of supernatural coming-of-age world involving werewolves.
Honestly, the name itself practically gave it away.
Still, Derek sounded useful.
Experienced.
Practical.
And already familiar with supernatural situations.
Summoning him could definitely become a viable option later.
Though for now, Lex decided to leave that decision for another day.
He first used the Gacha Storage card and immediately felt a new sensation appear within his mind. He could now store anything gained from the Gacha inside it and retrieve it again with a single thought.
Honestly, that alone was an amazing quality of life improvement.
Next, he used Quirk - Dead Signal, Ability - Moxie and Cryokinesis - Frozone Variant back-to-back.
The differences between them became obvious almost immediately.
Dead Signal felt strangely similar to the X-Gene. He could feel it targeting a specific part of his DNA and modifying it in a way that allowed the ability to function naturally.
Moxie however was different.
It felt less like a biological power and more like some strange conceptual enhancement attached directly to him. Right now the effect felt dormant, but he could instinctively tell that it would become more noticeable once he actually fulfilled its condition.
Victory.
Defeating enemies.
Cryokinesis on the other hand felt almost like gaining an entirely new limb.
Or maybe a new sense.
The sensation was oddly similar to telekinesis while still remaining fundamentally different. Instead of mentally grasping objects around him, Cryokinesis allowed him to feel moisture and temperature itself.
He could sense water molecules suspended in the air.
The movement of cold.
The flow of surrounding air currents.
Maybe, if he trained enough, he could combine Cryokinesis with Telekinesis and manipulate the air itself as though it were a physical object.
That sounded ridiculously useful.
Still, Lex had no intention of repeating the mistake of experimenting with powers inside his hotel again.
Next came the Bryan Fury Template.
Templates, as Lex had gradually learned, worked differently from normal powers. Instead of granting everything instantly, they slowly integrated a character’s abilities, experience, instincts and even associated equipment as the user trained and assimilated them over time.
The moment he activated the card, another strange sensation hit him.
Memories.
Not exactly full memories, but fragments.
Combat instincts.
Habits.
Mannerisms.
Reactions.
It felt as though another person’s experience had suddenly been layered into his own mind.
Under normal circumstances, that probably would've been horrifying.
But the Essence of the Transcendent Self immediately filtered through everything, effortlessly separating useful information from unwanted influence.
Violent impulses?
Gone.
Mental instability?
Ignored.
Only the useful parts remained.
Combat experience.
Reflexes.
Weapon familiarity.
Physical instincts.
Lex currently had two Template slots available and the moment Bryan Fury occupied one of them, he immediately reached forty-five percent assimilation.
Honestly, most of that was probably because of the Essence of Transcendent Self. Without it, assimilating someone like Bryan Fury should've taken vastly longer.
For now, Lex decided against summoning the Dodge Viper.
Everything else however was fair game.
The Judoon Translator Sphere.
Spell Scroll - Greater Rejection.
The Invisibility Cloak.
Regeneration Serum.
Senzu Bean Bag.
Ebony & Ivory.
Amulet of Quiox.
Electro-Shock Pistol.
Skybreaker.
Image Inducer.
All of them were summoned one after another before immediately being stored inside the Gacha Storage.
He also summoned the Compass of Peeking, though that one couldn't be stored if he actually wanted it to record explored territory. He would need to physically travel with it on him.
Afterward, he stored everything except the Invisibility Cloak before finally leaving the hotel.
Using the cloak properly turned out to be far more annoying than he expected.
He still had to avoid physically bumping into people.
Doors still opened.
Footsteps still existed if he wasn't careful.
And crowded areas were an absolute nightmare.
Eventually, after finding a relatively empty area, Lex simply changed into his alternate face again. Since his clothes had already been switched beforehand, he casually walked out and resumed his search for another abandoned location to train in.
Now, someone might wonder why he kept using the same alternate face despite Pyro already seeing it.
Wouldn't it be smarter to simply create another one?
The answer was actually pretty simple.
His powers would remain the same.
As long as the powers remained identical, constantly switching appearances would only expose the fact that he possessed some kind of shapeshifting ability.
One consistent metahuman identity was safer than five suspiciously similar ones.
Another possible route would've been creating entirely separate identities built around different power sets.
But that sounded incredibly restrictive and honestly counterproductive right now. This identity existed specifically so he could freely experiment with abilities without worrying about exposing Lex Everhart.
Restricting himself to only certain powers defeated the entire point.
Since he had already explored quite a bit of the city previously, finding another abandoned place this time became significantly easier.
He also started actively using Dead Signal to interfere with nearby cameras and surveillance systems, which was probably how the Brotherhood tracked him last time.
Well…
Either that or the taxi drivers.
Though honestly, Lex doubted it. New York was massive and full of thousands of drivers. Someone asking to be dropped near abandoned areas was weird, sure, but probably not weird enough for people to start reporting it to mutant organizations.
Eventually, he found another abandoned lot and approached it cautiously.
This time, just to be safe, he activated the Invisibility Cloak before entering. He masked his footsteps using telekinesis, stopped his heartbeat entirely and even stopped breathing.
Not like he actually needed oxygen anymore.
Completely invisible and almost impossible to detect, Lex quietly stepped inside.
Then immediately froze.
“You’ve got one chance to tell me what you are.”
A voice came from directly behind him.