Two years after the First Contact, a couple would welcome me into the world.
For some reason that I would never understand, that couple decided that Miwen would be a good name for their newborn son.
Though this strange name bothered me when I was little, I started to appreciate it as I grew older. It rolled off the tongue well enough once people got used to it, and while odd, it was also unique.
Unfortunately, family and name aside, I was pretty ordinary.
I passed my grades without studying or applying myself, satisfied with average scores.
Never bad enough to fail, never good enough to stand out.
Even though the teachers often said I had potential and only needed to apply myself more, I disagreed.
Grasping concepts wasn't hard, but finding the will to dedicate myself was. Only so few things made me try my best, and I quickly learned that this was just my nature.
Almost everything in life was the same.
I was tall and exercised a bit on my own, but I never cared to play any sports.
When it came to my appearance, not being ugly was already good enough for me.
The best I could say for myself was that, at least, I wasn't ugly. Though I probably wasn't any girl's dream guy either.
Just like everyone else born after the First Contact, I didn't hear Catherine's words or receive her blessing. As part of the so-called Hopeless Generation, I lived as a spectator in a world of myths and legends.
However, that was about to change.
Society, once anxious about a future in which the "Gifted" population would decline and no new Gifts would be born, once again discovered that our world didn't run on set tracks.
After the eighteenth anniversary of 'The First Contact', the Giftless Children began to awaken to their blessings one after another.
The eighteenth birthday was already important in our world. It marked the moment boys and girls became men and women. However, even that meaning was shadowed by the revelation that those Catherine hadn't blessed would receive their Gifts upon reaching adulthood.
Our second beginning.
The chance I had been waiting for all my life.
Twenty years after the First Contact, seventeen years after I was born...
I stared at the clock, watching attentively as every tick brought me closer to a new fate.
My wish was for a simple, reasonable Gift.
It suited me better than something grandiose, powerful, or even flashy.
Yet, when the time finally came, the words that appeared in my mind turned my world upside down.
Miwen: "What the...?"
I did exactly as instructed and focused on emptying my mind.
Slowly, letters began to take shape on the black screen, until I could read the words [Gacha Kingdom Building].
Separated, I knew what each of the three words meant.
I was also aware enough to know that what seemed like three different concepts were, in fact, only two.
"Kingdom Building" was a composite concept, a literary genre, and, at times, even a game genre.
It involved, as the name implied, the gradual development of territory through strategy, resource management, diplomacy, intrigue, warfare, and so on.
Funnily enough, said territory did not necessarily have to be a "Kingdom", nor did it have to be built from scratch.
Meanwhile, "Gacha" was a game mechanic that often implied the use of a certain resource to obtain random rewards.
What took me aback about these two concepts was how disconnected, or even contradictory, they were.
I could simply focus on the title that appeared in my mind to see my Gift's description and effects, but there was a fun component to guessing about it before it was ultimately revealed.
Like how you'd imagine yourself playing the games before taking a video game out of the box and turning it on.
So, I tried connecting things on my own a little.
I thought that it wouldn't make much sense for the "Kingdom Building" part to feed into the "Gacha" part, unless I was expected to build up a territory and then use its resources for the Gacha, but...
Then the Gacha would be useless for, possibly, a long time.
The idea of "Kingdom Building" involved precision and meticulous planning, so it made more sense to me that the "Gacha" aspect would feed into it.
I could see resources obtained from a gacha being used for the betterment of a territory.
Although doing this randomly posed a certain challenge, it still made more sense.
However...
The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a complete circle.
I started to see a way for both aspects to feed into each other.
Chaotically, but still...
Before I could fill my head with enough hypotheses to guarantee myself a disappointment, I decided to check what my Gift was truly about.
Finally, I focused on my Gift's title, and a block of text containing its description flooded my mind.
[The user of [Gacha Kingdom Building] shall be hereby known as "The King."
Please note that this system, as it integrates with many others, might use both "User" and "The King" interchangeably...]
Already, things were a little strange.
Every Gift was unique, even when they had similar effects.
But the language used in their description was almost universally analytical.
Mine, for some reason, seemed much more conversational.
More amateur in comparison.
Still, with much more text in the block, I kept note of it on the back of my head and continued reading.
[In accordance with his level, [The King] shall receive daily [Gacha Tickets].
These tickets can only be used in the [Ticket Gacha]...]
I was worried about having to use my own money to prop up my Gift, so just this was already a huge relief.
Even though being level one limited me to a single ticket every day, depending on what the gacha brought me, this could be more than enough.
Unfortunately, instead of telling me exactly what I could get, as I'd expect from a Gift description, the continuation of the text only brought more concepts for me to rationalize.
[The King has access to a secondary special Gacha, known as the [Mana Gacha].
This Gacha does not accept tickets and instead uses the King's own mana for every roll in every banner.
With enough mana, the user may choose to do multiple rolls, or concentrate his mana, allowing for increased chances of better results.]
Slightly confusing that there were two different gachas with no explicit difference aside from the resource used, but it made things a little better.
Also, when I thought about it, I realized that most games actually did have at least two different gachas.
Normally, one of them uses an easier, "free-to-play" resource and contains slightly worse items.
So, since "mana" was an easier resource to acquire compared to levels and time, I decided to think about the [Mana Gacha] as a "free-to-play" gacha I could use when I had no spare tickets.
With that logic, that last part, about being able to do multiple rolls or one big one, was pretty interesting too.
I often found myself collecting too much of the "free-to-play" resource in games, so being able to use it all at once to guarantee the best possible result wasn't something I'd ever complain about.
[Certain [Banners] and items are locked and can only be obtained when using a minimum amount of mana for each roll in the [Mana Gacha].
Tickets suffer no such restriction...]
Gimmicky, but fine.
If anything, it only proved that the first gacha was the "pay-to-win", unrestricted one.
At that point, everything clearly had to do with the Gacha, but the next lines finally introduced the concept behind the "Kingdom Building" part of my Gift.
[The user has access to his own Kingdom, a dimension fully under his control.
Please note that certain aspects of [The Kingdom] need to be unlocked first before being modified, and even existing aspects might only be modified after specific requirements are met...]
There was already a sense of progress with the Gachas, both by acquiring more levels and more mana.
However, the Kingdom seemed much more intricate in that aspect.
On its own, the ability to enter a personal dimension was already a good effect.
However, the rest of the text expanded on it, and I couldn't help but think it was actually excellent.
[As long as [The King] wills it and both parties are in agreement, the user may designate others as his [Citizens].
Being a [Citizen] brings a plethora of benefits, like the ability to enter and leave the [Kingdom] without needing permission.
Other benefits may be unlocked as [The Kingdom] receives more [Citizens]...]
The way "benefits" was placed in the text caught my eye.
It seemed to refer to benefits for the citizens, but it never specifically said it.
Perhaps there was a chance I'd stand to gain from having more [Citizens], too.
Or so I'd like to imagine, at least.
[The main currency of [The Kingdom] is the [Kingdom Points].
These points can be claimed daily, in accordance with the sum of every citizen's levels, including the user's.
[The Kingdom] includes a [Kingdom Shop] where upgrades, buildings, changes, and items for the citizens and for the Kingdom itself are available.
More features might be unlocked as [The Kingdom] grows.]
Thinking I wished for something simple almost made me laugh.
Just reading this description was already a lot, and that was before I had properly checked anything mentioned in it.
Still, I was excited and immediately tried something out.
I concentrated my thoughts on one of the words in my Gift's description, which clouded my thoughts with a video game-like menu.
In this screen, I could focus on pressing the [Claim Daily Tickets] button that changed my [Owned Tickets: 0] to [Owned Tickets: 1].
Obviously, I tried pressing it again to see if I could cheese the system, but it was of no use.
As much as it looked like it in my mind, this wasn't a game where I could bug.
The "button" became a timer, showing I had to wait twenty-three hours and fifty-nine minutes until I could press it again.
I already expected to fail, so instead of feeling bothered by it, I chose to continue on and test the ticket I received in the [Ticket Gacha].
Instantly, I got flash-banged by a gigantic list that appeared when I focused on this menu.
No matter how much I read or "scrolled down", it seemed endless.
Worse, while I could change it, the list wasn't in alphabetical order at first, so I got to see things like "Chairs Banners" and "Nail-Polishers Banners".
Suffice it to say, that made me a little apprehensive about the power I received.
Thankfully, there was a search function.
I gave up trying to find anything useful within the list using any of its different ordering and filtering methods, so I focused on a few things that interested me.
Things that seemed powerful, like weapons and skills.
To my surprise, both turned out positive.
However, coincidentally, I also ran into a rather interesting banner called [Companions Banner].
For some reason, this one felt oddly tempting...
As if it were inviting me.
I thought about trying it, but I decided not to mess with anything I couldn't somewhat anticipate as my first choice.
Being careful, at least until I knew what I was doing, was probably for the best.
I would have hated to hurt myself or someone else by misusing my own power.
And as much as this Gift was different from what I expected, I still wanted to like it.
It was mine, after all.
So, while one could argue there weren't any wrong choices, I decided on the safest bet I was already thinking of.
Weapons were good, but they could be taken away, and in the hands of someone who hasn't trained, they might actually become a hindrance.
They could also be hard to hide, like an axe, and unlike skills, they could easily intimidate or intrigue someone.
So, I decided to use the [Skills Banner] that I found.
Using the ticket caused my mind to become fuzzy.
Hazy.
And then, blurry.
It was as if my consciousness had been painted over.
All I could "see" was an endless sea of white.
A complete blank canvas that I couldn't escape, no matter how much I tried to open my eyes.
Almost as if they were already open...
This feeling, disturbing as it was, also only lasted for a moment.
It came suddenly, it disappeared suddenly.
Like I had just imagined it.
Whatever the case, it didn't seem to affect my body or my mind in any way.
It just left me with the understandable feeling of confusion.
I assumed this was just... What it was.
Something I'd have to get used to.
And so, I went back and checked if I had truly gained a new skill.
Skills were something universal.
As long as one had a Gift or a blessing, they could obtain skills by training or completing certain requirements.
Some Gifts outright gave out skills, others strengthened them, and some did both.
A few skills were one-of-a-kind, others were common and accessible to all.
Most importantly, by spending [Level-up Points], instead of leveling their status, one could choose to acquire a skill or forcibly increase the level of an already existing one.
Generally, the skills available that way were thematically coherent with one's Gift.
However, before checking what those were in my case, I focused first on the skills I currently had, in the aptly named [Current Skills] section that appeared below my Gift's name.
And there it was, the skill I had acquired...
[Movement Speed Up
The holder of this skill has a bonus to his movement speed, allowing him to be faster and have better control over his movement, even under higher than usual speeds.]
Simple, yet convenient.
Ironically, much more to the point than my Gift's description.
I wouldn't say this skill was a total game-changer, but it was useful for combat, and I felt like with it, I could definitely try my luck at the Dungeons.
Before any of that, though, I wanted to check what I had in the [Available Skill], so I could plan ahead for when I leveled up.
That was my first regret.