— — — — — —
Shared Space, Main City
Inside the grand palace marked as the "Members-Only Zone."
Several figures were gathered around two nearly identical machines. They had the same design and shape, except for a few decorative details — one trimmed in gold, the other in red — to tell them apart.
"Enhancing and amplifying…"
Shiroyasha, who had once seen the unfinished prototypes in Veyron's hands, tapped on the golden machine. "So… how do you use this thing?"
"The one in front of you is the Enhancement machine. See that big drawer at the bottom?"
Veyron gave a casual flick of his finger, and the drawer slid open as if pulled by an invisible hand. "You put whatever you want to enhance inside. The screen will show its current level. Then just press this button, and the process begins."
"And these smaller drawers around it are for… lucky charms to boost success rates, right?"
Chika Fujiwara curiously pulled open the four small drawers at the top left, top right, bottom left, and bottom right of the main compartment. Then she tugged at a separate slot directly beneath the big drawer — it didn't budge.
"What's this one for?"
"Sharp eye, huh?"
Veyron gave her a big thumbs-up. "That one… well, I'll keep that a secret for now. Why don't you guys try it first?"
"…"
Yeah, we know you just want to watch us suffer, but did you have to make it so obvious?
The girls exchanged glances before Gwen finally stepped up. She took out a sleek, platinum-colored pistol with a short blade fixed under the barrel and placed it inside.
It was the Divine Desert Eagle, one of the rare drops Veyron had fished out of the void. He'd sent them out as a "try-your-luck" red envelope, and Gwen had managed to snatch one.
The moment the gun was inside, the screen displayed its default name (which could be changed) and showed its current enhancement level: +0. A prompt appeared asking whether to enhance it to +1.
Success rate: 100%.
With full odds, there was nothing to be afraid of. Gwen pressed the button without hesitation.
[Ding!]
With a crisp chime, the level jumped to +1, but the success rate for the next level dropped to 90%.
"So it drops by ten percent each time until +10?"
Hancock mused thoughtfully. "In that case, it's probably safe to aim for +5 or +7 at least. Though… Veyron-san never said if +10 is the max. What if there's a +11— huh? Chika, why are you looking at me like that?"
"I'm just moved," Chika said dramatically, pretending to wipe away tears that weren't there. "It's nice to know honest, pure-hearted people like you still exist in the world. I'll just give you some advice... this is more evil than the gacha."
Hancock: "???"
"I'm not really into these number-based grindy games," Gwen said, glancing at Hancock with a small smile, "but I know the basics. Usually, with Enhancement systems like this, the success rate doesn't just drop by a flat amount — it falls off exponentially the higher you go."
As she spoke, she pressed the button again.
[Ding!]
The Desert Eagle was now +2, and the success chance for +3 had dropped to 70%, just as she'd predicted.
Confident in her luck, Gwen pressed again.
[Ding!]
Success. It became +3.
But now the odds for +4 had plummeted to 50%, and a new warning appeared at the bottom of the interface:
[From +4 onward, failure will cause a random drop of 1–3 levels.]
"See?"
Gwen shrugged at Hancock and pulled the now +3 gun out of the drawer.
The real question was what "Enhancement" actually did to the weapon. Raising numbers was one thing — but what was the actual boost?
Without hesitation, Gwen pointed the barrel at her palm and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Compared to its unmodified state, the shot's impact had increased by 33.1%.
"So it boosts by ten percent of the previous level each time?"
"Exactly," Veyron confirmed.
"And what about amplification?"
Selina, who was holding another Desert Eagle from that same red envelope event, asked curiously.
"Curious? Then try it yourself," Veyron said with a sly grin, gesturing toward the second machine.
"…Why don't you go first?"
Selina nudged Gwen toward the amplifier.
"Fine by me. But can you do Enhancement and amplification at the same time?"
Gwen slid open the amplifier's main drawer and placed her gun inside.
It worked.
[Ding!]
[Ding!]
[Ding!]
Three clean chimes later, the Desert Eagle was at Amplification +3. Gwen aimed at her palm again and fired.
This time, the difference was clear.
"So Enhancement boosts raw stats… and amplification enhances special effects?"
Using her keen senses, Gwen could tell the amplified gun's holy attribute — which dealt bonus damage to "dark" or "evil" targets — had grown significantly stronger.
"Correct," Veyron nodded again.
.
.
.