A lucky roll

David was in his room, sitting on his desk as he stared intently at his monitor screen. It was Sunday and he was enjoying his weekend. After working hard the entire week skipping classes and terrorizing the entire school, he felt that he had earned himself a well deserved break. And he knew just the perfect activity to do on his break.

You see, smoking and bullying weren't the worst things that David had done. Far from it, in fact. He fell into the worst pithole of them all. Gambling addiction, specifically gacha games. The gun one, the ship one, the horse one, the idol one, the one where people die when they are killed, he had played them all. It wasn't like this at first, though. The first time he tried a gacha game, he was actually a hater that laughed at the idea. But by the time he realized it, he was already hooked and at that point, he was just too far gone. He became a whale, spending hundreds of dollars every month to roll the gacha.

It didn't help that most of the ones he played had PvP mechanics in them, highly encouraging people to spend money to get an edge over other players. David, in his obsession for recognition, kept spending money to place himself at the top of the leaderboard. This worked for him and it led him to gaining fame amongst the player base. His guildmates in the games also kept showering him with praises for carrying them in group contents, feeding into his ego even more. He was enjoying the attention and recognition it brought him so he kept pouring more and more money into the pithole. He couldn't care less about the amount he spent, though. It wasn't his money anyway, it was his mother's.

And on this day, David had a goal. There was a new character coming out and he really wanted to max them out instantly. He came prepared, of course. On his left, a printed fanart of the character he wanted, a charm of some sort to boost his luck. On his right, his mother's phone with the banking app open, ready to pay for his gacha rolls. Naturally, he hadn't asked for permission at all from his mother to use her money. He just swiped the phone right from his mother's nightstand while she was still asleep. Luckily for him, his mother had kept notes of all her passwords so he could easily use it to gain access to all of her accounts. Lastly, in front of him lies the monitor screen with the button saying "10X roll", the key to his goal.

When he was finally ready, he pressed the button. The animations started playing as the game started displaying the result of his rolls. "FUCK! I DON'T WANT YOU! WHY DID YOU COME OUT!?", he exclaimed angrily as he didn't get the character he wanted. He decided to try again only to get another character he didn't want. He kept trying over and over again with each roll sucking out the money out of his mother's bank account. Yet he still hadn't gotten what he wanted and he was growing frustrated.

"Stupid fucking game! I can't believe I'm gonna have to hit pity for this one!", he grumbled in frustration. Just as he was about to press the roll button again, the door to his room suddenly swung open. It was his mother, still in her pajamas, and she looked pissed. It seemed that she had just been woken up by David's yelling and she was not in the mood to play nice at all.

"David, did you take my phone again!?", she yelled loudly as she walked towards his desk, eventually spotting her phone with the banking app open. The look on her face turned from pissed off to furious in a matter of milliseconds. "Did you spend my money on one of your stupid games again...?", she growled at him, anger radiating from her words.

In response to his mother's growl, David just scowled "Yeah? So what? It's not like you're gonna run out of money with just this much, right?".

"That is not the point! This is my money, not yours! You need my permission to spend it and I did not give you permission to spend it on your stupid games!", she yelled before adding "In fact, you shouldn't even be playing games at all! You should be studying instead!". This was daily routine for David at this point so he just replied with his usual answer. "How many times do I have to tell you, mom? Studying's just not my thing. You can't tell a fish to climb a tree.", he said, confidently quoting Einstein's words.

His mother frowned even more and continued rambling. "Don't get smart with me, Mr. Einstein! You should look at what Ashley's son is doing! He's constantly getting A's in school subjects while you're over here getting an A+ in failing life!", she said while pointing a finger at David. At the mention of Ashley's son, David's mood turned sour. He knew who his mother was referring to. It was John, his nemesis. He loathed being compared to John, especially if it was by his own mother. She had just managed to push his buttons and that made him furious. Instead of replying with words, he just gave her the middle finger, grabbed his phone, and stomped angrily out of his room.

"Where are you going, young man!? Come back here! I am not done with you yet!", his mother shouted. She tried to gain his attention to no avail as David had already walked out the front door of the house. She sighed deeply, frustrated by her son's recent attitude. As much as she worried for him, she just decided to let him go and have some space for himself. Surely he would calm down that way and come home eventually, she thought.

David didn't really know where to go so he just walked around aimlessly for a while. Eventually, his legs got tired of walking and he came across a convenience store, which he decided would make a great resting spot for his sore legs. He went in and bought some food as he hadn't even had breakfast yet. He then sat down and enjoyed his meal when he eventually noticed a strange machine in the corner of the room. It looked like one of those gachapon machines you can find in Japan. David had seen plenty of images and videos of them on the internet, but he had never seen one in person before.

Curious, he decided to finish his meal before taking a closer look. As he looked closer at the machine, he noticed a text on it saying "Whomsoever is lucky enough to draw the grand prize shall have their deepest desire granted". David didn't even know what "whomsoever" meant since he had always skipped his English classes. It was apparent now that not only did he fail those classes, but also his own vocabulary. Thankfully, the terms "lucky", "grand prize", and "deepest desire" were all too familiar to his ears, or in this case, eyes. His brain immediately put the three terms together and the machine quickly piqued his interest. Neuron activated.

However, it suddenly dawned on him that he couldn't exactly consider himself a lucky person, especially with how messed up his life was right now. That fact almost made him lose interest in the machine entirely. But thanks to his mother who had interrupted him earlier, his itch to roll the gacha was still left a bit unscratched. Now, the itch had just grown to an all-time high. He couldn't resist the temptation. He absolutely had to play with the machine. Thankfully, he still had some cash left to spare. He put his money into the machine and rolled the gacha.

As the machine made its iconic noise, David saw an object rolling out of it. A capsule with a label plastered on it. David grabbed the capsule and read the texts on the label. "Lucky winner...", he mumbled to himself as a smirk formed on his lips. "Heh, would you look at that. I guess today might just be my lucky day after all.", he commented at himself, feeling excited for what his prize was going to be. He then opened the capsule, changing his life forever...