A stacked pile of 8 or 9 erotic anime statues, 2 or 3 fleshlights, and many unopened packages of tissues and toilet paper.

Erica stiffened. She slowly turned to Leonard, with a blank expression. “… I think I’ll sleep on the couch for now. We can get my stuff from my place later.” she stated, before closing the door and again concealing the unused room’s inhabitants.

He sighed, stepping to the kitchen as he said “Okay, sounds good. Sit down, I’ll heat us up some dinner.” and looked through his freezer for anything microwaveable.

While he put chicken nuggets on a plate, Erica asked “So, what made you like Gacha stuff? We mostly just talked about characters, so I’m a little curious.” as she started to sink into the unexpectedly comfy furniture.

“Pokemon, I guess. Got a cool, expensive card from a pack and I’ve just been chasing that high ever since…” Lenny sighed, pressing the necessary buttons to heat up tonight’s “dinner”.

Erica replied “Yeah, I getcha… I was big into Yu-Gi-Oh as a kid, though nowadays I keep it to Master Duel for my wallet’s sake.” as she smiled at the memories.

“Oh, really? I never really got how that game worked, like, how do you use the white cards?” he asked, sitting next to her.

In an instant her face lit up, eyes widening as she said “Those are Synchro monsters, you make them by adding up monster levels using a Tuner monster’s, they’re a monster type like Toon or Gemini, except for archetypes like Ursarctic who subtract levels, in which case…”

“So, why do I want the bugs in my deck?” Lenny asked, staring at the disparate greyed-out cards on his Switch’s screen with narrowed eyes.

Erica sighed. “Because aside from Floo, every deck does Special Summons. Maxx “C” is banned in the TCG for a reason, it’s a combination advantage machine and build-a-board stopper.”

He eventually nodded, and put three of the odd insect into his potential deck.

“Next, Ash Blossom’s gonna be your best friend here. It counters searches, or anything your opponent wants to do from the deck. You got the bundle, right?” Erica said, referring to a special item in the Shop menu.

Lenny responded “Yeah, also why shouldn’t I get the green one? It looks cooler.” Referring to another bundle giving a card named “Lightning Storm”.

Again she sighed “Ash is disruption, not a going-second board-breaker. Most people who win the coin flip and set up their field with five omni-negates will win unless you can stop their momentum.” before walking off. “Look, just play through the Solo mode and get some of the gems, you’ll need them to open all your packs. You can go pretty far without buying any, the game’s pretty generous. I’m gonna go get dressed in real clothes.”

As her voice faded off behind the door of his bedroom, Leonard’s eyes widened. He couldn’t believe it. Erica had just introduced him to a new Gacha game, one that supposedly wasn’t going to kill his wallet. He smiled, finally somewhat hopeful about the near future.

All of his hope and optimism was gone. Despite his initial glee at a Structure Deck being available that used Maids that turned into Dragons, he wasn’t having a very fun time. Buying three of the deck was easy, but it lost very quickly to a another that used a lot of spell cards and weird blue cards that Erica hadn’t explained yet.

He’d gone back to the tutorial, which explained that Link Monsters were what the “Sky Striker” deck used and abused. Somewhat irate that his deck full of cute girls lost to a different deck full of one specific cute girl, he chose to try and copy what had clearly bested him.

That took more gems than the game was willing to give though, so here he sat in the Gem Shop screen. He was simultaneously talking himself into and out of buying a large bunch of imaginary blue crystals, a war raging between his ears.

His coworker walked back into the central room, having changed into a really big T-shirt his mother got him in college with the expectation that he’d hit a growth spurt while he was there. He never did. “Sorry, turns out most of your shirts are pretty sma—Whoa, I’ve been gone for like, half an hour, how do you have bags under your eyes!?” Erica shouted from behind him.

Lenny blinked slowly. “Erica, I usually have bags under my eyes. Anyways, I’m not sure this game is as forgiving as you said. I’m already planning on making a purchase with it…” he stated, pointing to his dismal Gem count.

She narrowed her eyes, asking “Did you dismantle cards for Card Dust?”

“Card Dust?”

“Three of any rarity gets you anything of the same rarity.” Erica muttered, before selecting a bunch of extra cards he had and trading them in to make four categories of number go up “There, that’s probably enough for what you’ll need. I guess you’re going for Sky Striker? Kinda 2nd-tier, but that’s fine.”

“You… you did that without the Point Transfer…?” Lenny’s eyes widened as he tried to comprehend what she had just done.

She raised an eyebrow, asking “That’s a basic game mechanic, what do you mean ‘Point Transfer’?”

“It’s the name of my power thing, where I swap numbers. It’s kinda like what you just did but less restrictions and bigger costs.” he explained. Focusing his gaze on the screen, he continued “And… that’s a lot of Normal Dust…”

Erica sat next to him on the couch. “Wait… are you going to…?”

Lenny shrugged, saying “Only one way to find out…” before selecting an option that opened up specifically for him, letting him exchange Normal Gems for higher-rarity Card Gems.

12,860 N Dust -> 3,210 R Dust/640 SR Dust/60 UR Dust

“Well, that’s about right.” he sighed, sinking back into the couch as he cancelled the transfer. “Any two Ultra Rares is a poor trade for all those Normals, right?”

Erica wasn’t listening to him, eyes widening. Eventually she responded “Sorry, I’m just… wow. First time seeing you do it, it’s kinda surreal to see the UI have that pop up…” she chuckled awkwardly. “I-Is okay if I borrow your car…? My stuff’s still at my apartment, and if I’m gonna crash here, then…”

“Y-Yeah, sure… Sorry again, a-about the whole ‘summoning’ thing.” he muttered, as he started picking specific cards to turn into more dust before doing another swap.

At that point, a curious prompt opened up. Just as Erica stepped out to grab her things.

All of Your Unwanted Cards -> 1 Real Magic Card

“Wait, is this…?” Leonard wondered. Then, it hit him. “… I can have a Yu-Gi-Oh card that does actual magic stuff…?”