Gacha Addict in a Matriarchal World

It’s unfair.

“You said this was sealed for a long time! Wasn’t it already on the verge of collapse, and I just happened to land the final blow?!”

“No, Jonah didn’t do anything.”

“Exactly as Lydia said. If anything, Lydia and I were the ones who landed the final blow.”

“Then let’s go with that! There’s no way I’m some kind of poison that even a disaster can’t withstand, right?!”

Despite my desperate voice, Benny just smirked.

“Well. The thing was fine with our attacks, but the moment it touched you, it freaked out like crazy. Considering a Prime Doppelganger copies even memories… Maybe your usual thoughts are toxic enough that even a Catastrophe can’t withstand them?”

“Argh!”

I can’t accept this reality!

“Whoa! Why, why are you pulling my cheek!”

“Because it hurts when I pull my cheek!”

“Ugh! Then I’ll pull yours too!”

“Aaah!”

In the end, Benny and I were briefly rolling on the floor, pulling each other’s cheeks.

Thud.

Suddenly, we bumped into someone’s foot. As I looked up, there was Karen, wearing a calm expression as if she wasn’t surprised at all.

“Karen! What do you think? It was just that the Prime Doppelganger was weakened, not because I’m filled with dangerous thoughts, right?!”

“……”

Karen, who looked down at Benny and me for a moment, knelt on one knee with the same calm expression and crossed herself.

“This, too, must be the will of the Goddess…”

“Argh!”

Karen never says I’m harmless.

But well…honestly, I kind of understand.

As Benny said, a Prime Doppelganger perfectly mimics even memories.

If suitable materials like the corpse of a god existed, it can even imitate divinity.

Naturally, the reason it approached me was to replicate my form.

I can roughly guess the reason. Because I’m like the center of this party. And I’m the most powerless.

It probably planned to cause chaos within our party after transforming into me.

…But the moment it came into contact with me to mimic me, the Prime Doppelganger would have naturally read my memories.

Like the creature that mimics even transcendents if conditions are right, it would have read the memories of my soul, not just this body.

I don’t know exactly what the Prime Doppelganger saw or what shocked it so much.

But I can certainly speculate.

“It’s a cliché, but…”

I don’t know why this world resembles the novel I was trying to write so much… If it’s not just a coincidence but truly my novel becoming reality.

The information in my head is, with a little exaggeration, high-grade knowledge comparable to the creation of the universe.

And usually, encountering such things makes one go insane or their head explodes, which is a cliché.

It’s a being that needed the corpse of a god as material just to mimic divinity. Certainly, this is a tremendous power, but…

Though I don’t know the actual strength or rank, if it tried to mimic my position as something like a god of gods and went mad before perishing, then everything makes sense.

The persistent Gear Doppelganger was instantly neutralized and spat out the path leading to the seal, or even the Prime Doppelganger that once plunged the world into chaos vanished in vain, and no matter how you look at it, it’s too dangerous an enemy for our party now, yet the Goddess urged us to proceed without hesitation.

Everything fits perfectly.

But if such an assumption is true, naturally another problem surfaces.

If Earth was a higher world, not another world. Then how did I end up on the Pan Continent, and for what reason was I summoned?

The only one who could have done such a thing is the Goddess of Love, but what is the true nature of her infinite favor towards me and her gacha ability?

For now, there are no answers. But I can’t help being bothered by the unconscious touch of a fragment of a grand plan.

However, as I mentioned before, this is a dilemma that currently has no solution.

The anxiousness that I had been suppressing suddenly surged up, but nothing has changed.

“Phew…”

I took a deep breath and slowly closed and opened my eyes.

What came into view were the worried faces of the others looking at me.

Benny, who had been holding my cheek and wouldn’t let go, cautiously spoke up.

“Jonah. Why are you like this all of a sudden? Uh. Don’t worry too much. You’re a saint, right? Didn’t the Goddess’s power somehow sort it out?”

“Thank you, Benny. I’m okay now. I just needed to organize my thoughts, and I just finished.”

“…Really? It’s all good now, right? It’s not my fault, is it?”

“……”

Seeing Benny’s suddenly brightened expression, it felt like a horn was sprouting in a corner of my heart.

I surrendered to the rising mischief without resisting.

“Hmm. That’s true. It’s not really Benny’s fault, but…it’s true that I got a little hurt because of Benny…”

“What?”

In front of Benny, who widened her eyes, I dramatically held my temples and shook my head.

“Sigh… I think I need compensation for this mental shock?”

“N-no way…!”

Benny, showing a guarded attitude, as if she really thought I was asking for money.

I gave her a sly smile.

“I’ll confiscate the stash Benny usually uses for a week.”

“…Stash? Confiscate?”

Benny tilted her head, as if she didn’t understand anything.

I made a gesture as if lightly grabbing something and waved my hand toward her.

“You know, the thing you use here.”

“What is that…?”

“Oh, would this be more familiar to Benny?”

I belatedly realized I had instinctively made an Earth-version gesture and changed my hand shape.

I spread my palm wide, wiggling only my middle and ring fingers up and down as if poking something.

Only then did Benny jump up and shout.

“What are you going to use that for, Jonah?!”

“Of course, to understand Benny’s preferences.”

“…Wh-what are you going to do knowing my preferences?”

She tried to act nonchalant, but the undeniable excitement seeped into her voice and expression.

Seeing that, I chuckled and leaned my head slightly closer to Benny.

“Why? Did you think I was going to prepare an event that suits Benny’s tastes?”

“Eh!”

“Oh Benny, you dream big. Order is important in these things. First is Ellie. Next is Miss Lydia. Then it’s Eve, and lastly, it’s Benny?”

“L-last place in the hierarchy?!”

“What do you mean by hierarchy? Don’t say things like that. It’s just the order in which we met, you know? I was just offering you a side that suits your taste, no other meaning?”

“…Huh?”

“Oh my. Benny, surely not….”

Already for several years, having consistently inserted the Platypus TMI, she realized there was nothing more to insert, and looked shocked like a pitiful creature.

“Surely you didn’t think I was offering to become Benny’s stash myself, right?”

“Th-that is!”

“Oh my. To think Benny was looking at me like that….”

I glared at Benny with eyes containing a bit of hurt and more disgust, stepping back. At the same time, Benny’s complexion turned pale.

Watching this with satisfaction, I shrugged.

“Well, I was just kidding.”

“…Huh?”

“I’ve known for a long time that Benny has been looking at me with those lewd eyes, so it’s not surprising now.”

“……”

Benny’s eyes roll around, unsure whether to be happy or not.

Watching that made my thoughts complex, and it felt like all the accumulated stress and negative thoughts flew away in an instant.

Without hiding the smile spreading on my face, I picked up the gray orb left by the Prime Doppelganger.

The orb flinched the moment my hand touched it, but it soon realized its place and obediently returned to its round shape.

“Now, what is this…?”

Though it’s just half a piece of flesh left behind, it’s something obtained by defeating a Catastrophe.

I expected it wouldn’t be ordinary, but to think it would move on its own accord.

Whether there was a condition, if it just had a calm personality, or if it was forced to be quiet after coming into contact with me again, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.

What is important now is that I had somehow defeated the Catastrophe. And now that I’ve collected the spoils, all that’s left is to get out of here.

With the mindset that when you don’t know, you should search, I took out the Goddess Statue from my bosom.

“Goddess, Goddess. This time, please show me the way back home.”

A rough prayer. However, the Goddess of Love responded to it.

Paah!

Its posture returned to its usual form, but the statue emitted a bright pink light.

“Everyone. Something seems to be happening, so gather around!”

At my shout, the group rushed towards me. Each grabbed an arm, leg, or shoulder, becoming physically connected around me.

Suddenly, the light emanating from the Goddess Statue grew even more intense.

Reflexively closing my eyes and then opening them again.

“Hmm. The smell.”

The musty air entering through my nose, and the stench of decay that made me swear.

We were back at the bottom of the moat.

Showing the gray orb I had just picked up to the bewildered party, I asked.

“Our bodies aren’t tired, so shall we hunt a bit more? …And test what this thing is.”

Fortunately, no one objected.

Crunch!

“What the hell! How could you eat that!”

The gray orb devoured the prosthetic arm meant for Ellie.