#it was an experience...will do it again for ryui haha

[flowerlaundry]

I managed to rank 39 for The Temptation of Apoptosis event! 😭 also yes, I am a Shiramitsu twins and Nagi oshi...

It was my first time seriously tiering for any event so I figured I'd talk about my experience...

a grueling 10 days and i can say…i’m pretty happy with what i achieved!!! Watch me do it again!

Frankly, i have only intended to grab 1 Toi and max Ryui out…but i ended up maxing then both 🫨

it’s not my first time tiering in events (i got SIF and Enstars under my belt…) but it’s my first time seriously aiming for a high tier and I'm super happy that it was for something i was really anticipating ever since i got into 18TRIP (over half a year ago now?!) 

The end of November was not good to me at all (for a variety of reasons that I won't delve into) so when I saw the announcement that the L4mps feature was happening at the beginning of December, I had my eyes peeled. I told myself I'd work hard for the L4mps event (especially since they’re my favourite unit and 3 of my faves are in it). i was seriously thinking it’d be a Yodaka-Toi event but i was bamboozled…seeing the words Aomori set off my fight or flight response. IT WAS A SHIRAMITSU TWINS EVENT?? Was this god’s reward for me for enduring another ass November?  I seriously was not expecting for them to go to Aomori this soon after seeing Ryui get cucked in the main story 😭 it felt like D-day…

Initially i did 30 pulls on the gacha, but the greed got to me. i wanted to max out Kinari so i did more pulls on the first day of the event and… ahh, orange head Akuta came 😊 i figured since i was close to pity, I'd might as well continue and i…ended up with 2 more Akutas on the 100th pull. maybe it was an omen.. I was ready with my 130% bonus (isn’t that insane..)

At the time I didn't realize how beneficial the fast boost pass was so i was hard at work doing the Yukikaze 4AP town stage and I'd do the event stage every 100 tickets I got…the grind is so painful. After 8 grueling hours, i got my first Toi!

i really was not planning for a day 1 rush but i was motivated- nein, influenced by other day 1 grinders so i pushed myself 😭

There was a bug where Toi and Ryui ended up using the other's emblem for the trip-revo thing, I wish it was intentional though...

i seriously did not think I'd be able to do it considering the last time i went for more than 1 mil was the l4mps seasonal (which was funnily enough, Ryui-focused and i was rushing at the end, thank you very much!)  but I did it! 

Now truthfully I could have just taken my time for the rest of the event…but the ego i got from breaking into the top 40s got to me. i’d initially planned to stay within the top 1000 but seeing my rank at the time encouraged me…what if i could stay in the top 100? i was determined. well, actually greed got me. i might just be a greedy person..

Fortunately I have quite a lot of downtime at work and I spend a lot of it at a desk (my coworkers are usually the ones doing the heavy lifting), which makes spamming the game easy. People don’t realize how great these types of simulation games are for the working society class…I don't have time nor energy to continuously tap the screen in tune to the beat…i’ve grown past that stage of my life (<- is not that old)…

Now at this point, I bought the fast pass boost to see how it works and. well, i should’ve bought it at the beginning of the event 😭 my lord it makes the grind easier, highly recommend it if you aim to get all rewards or tier in events.

you can see me get hit with the realization here lmao

I took a small break to read through the event (using whatever tools I had, a struggle..) 😭 i nearly died and was in agony and thought i’d be late for work (I was kinda early actually). I’ll need to reread it properly, I have many thoughts about it.

i managed to max Toi on day 6! i felt like i could’ve shed actual tears.. but i didn’t because I was working haha…I had Falling into Eternity on loop to aid me in my tiering woes.. I'm very excited for the full version (during Christmas too? omg…) I decided to slow down a bit for the following two days and it seems like the others around me also had the same thought, but the tiering urges got to me… this tiering shit is too serious.

I can't exactly remember how many points I'd allocated each day, but it was probably around 2-3 million points per day? It was a constant refresh-AP-and-spend-10AP-on-the-YKKZ-event-stage cycle, thank you fast pass <3

Speaking of things that are too serious...the time bonus feels like it's nearly impossible because this was literally the best I could do 😭

Anyway, the last time i tiered for anything was for the EP:Link Eichi in 2019, the final ! event…which was 5 years ago omg. At the time I had just started uni with only an allowance to work with, so I was pretty limited in what I could do. Now as a working full-time adult, it feels like the possibilities are endless…! It’s still important to budget oneself…!

Throughout the week I had maintained t40 and I wanted to keep it that way. A particular reason why i wanted to stay at T40 was because i like the evenness of tens, but maybe it’s also because i was the 40th person to get a maxed Toi. Feeling a bit sentimental lmfao… I also considered rank 42 for the so-called ‘meaning of life’ or 44…because four is death in east asian culture (i’m so sorry toi…) but somehow at the last second, i managed to get T39?! just barely at the edge of T30…I'm honestly still so shocked… I was just slightly bummed it wasn’t an even number (oi!) but then I remembered the queen…the diva herself— Hatsune Miku and how 39 can be read as sankyuu (thank you) so now I'm not bummed out! 🙏 

I’ve read the note from the #1 ranker of the event and I feel like I learned quite a bit! Even with just using google translate, you can get a good grasp of what they did for the event so I highly recommend taking a look if you ever plan on tiering for another feature event! (Ev3ns in winter is too soon..!)

From the note, they mentioned saving their tickets until the last hour before splurging them all. I personally used up my tickets whenever I got 100 (sometimes 200) so maybe this is actually a viable method.. I also hadn’t considered playstyles in 18TRIP but the more I think about it, the more I see it… I’m impatient though so maybe saving my tickets might not be the best route for me. They also mentioned how they ended up being unable to spend their last 60 tickets in the end so maybe splurging tickets 2 hours before end might be a good route, I also struggled to use up my remaining AP and tickets (but I did it…somehow!)

Tiering...is kinda like a strategic game, isn't it? You have to analyze your opponents and how they react/play and act accordingly. They mentioned how they could take it easy since their opponents weren't really moving during the weekdays. I fear this won't be possible for some of the more popular characters...

Now the actual amount I spent…I don’t want to think about it. I had to look through my records and I spent approximately 60k yen for this event. Honestly, if you only wanted one copy, you can easily halve this amount as long as you have some dias in reserve. The 10k bento pack is like…the most worth it pack alongside the beginners pack (if you haven’t already bought it). I personally bought the 10k bento pack, my 2 remaining beginner’s packs and 3 of the normal 10k packs…so I see where it starts adding up ahaha. Remember to spend responsibly!

I didn't actually lose any sleep while tiering. I'm a person who prioritizes resting after all + I do need to get up early on occasion for work...I think it helps I'm only an hour behind from Japan, which means my overall schedule would sync up to theirs in a way.

Despite the pain and agony I felt (in more ways than one), I'm most definitely going to try doing something similar once a Ryui feature event drops...I just hope it's not too soon lol. As much as I'd like to do it for Nagi...I can feel the bloodbath so maybe a T1000 is more viable for me...

As much as I'd like my wallet to hibernate, the next gacha is Nagi and I had to spark his Bday SSR💔 hopefully he's nicer to me this time around...but afterwards, I WILL hibernate until next time.

Until next time... 🤞Sanpachi Kamikita Nice Trip!🤞

[shunin-gumis]

Temptation Towards Apoptosis - Track 03

L4mps 1st Feature Event

This chapter is translated by Jelly!

CW: Vomiting and Trouble with Food

This chapter includes vomiting and Toi struggling with food. If you do not wish to read that part of the chapter please skip from "We bought some garlic again~..." till "Nothing, the chief thought..." to avoid such content. However, if you wish to read, please read with caution.

Location: Lake Towada - Winter Story Festival

Chief: We’ve finally made it to the Lake Towada Winter Story Festival!

Toi: Waah…! The Christmas lights are so magical…!

Chief: I think the atmosphere here would still be nice even if it snowed…

Nagi: J-J-Just like the chief said yesterday, I-I-I’m glad it didn’t snow.

Netaro: Gii is passionately shivering.

Nagi: I-It’s because I-I-I-I’m cold.

Netaro: It seems inconvenient for warm-blooded creatures to be bad with the cold.

Ryui: Toi, let me know if you’re cold.

Toi: I’m alright. As long as I’m with you, Ani-sama.

Toi: (…I want to tell Nagi-kun that sticking to Ani-sama will warm him up too…)

Toi: (But I don't really want Ani-sama to hug anyone else except me…)

Chief: In addition to the festival, there are other activities to do nearby the venue as well such as going on the Oirase Gorge Frozen Night Bus Tour, or the Towadako Guidehouse KAI.

Nagi: B-B-Buchi-san, you said you visited the s-s-sauna this afternoon, right?

Daniel: Yeah, a winter sauna right smack dab in the middle of Lake Towada’s natural goodness. Really hit the spot.

Yodaka: I believe you said the temperature of the cooling pool was 2°C.

Nagi: *chatterchatterchatterchatter*

Ryui: Oi, Hachinoya froze up just imagining it.

Chief: O-Oh no…! There should be stalls by Yukiakari Yokocho, so let's warm ourselves up with the food there…!

Daniel: ‘Right, then should we split up? Me and Yodaka planned on going around together.

Chief: Ah, are you two going drinking again?

Daniel: Haha, ‘course we are. Is there anything better to do? Nope.

Netaro: Ahhhh, the unclouded flies of an alcoholic*!

Ryui: Eyes.

Yodaka: Actually, we were interested in visiting the Kamakura bars.

Chief: (Mmmm, this free-spiritedness is reminding me of our Hakodate trip…)

Ryui: Then should we go too? Warm up a bit before heading to the food stalls.

Toi: Wouldn’t that make us colder…?

Netaro: Nyope. The inside of a snow hut is actually warmer than the outside since the walls of snow trap the incoming air and make the hut insulated.

Yodaka: In that case, shall we be off? Danny, can you help carry Nagi?

Daniel: Ahh fine. Up you go.

*Daniel picks Nagi up*

Nagi: *chatterchatter*…

Chief: Netaro-kun and I will go get food for everyone first. I think they sell hot pork soup, grilled squid…

Netaro: Grilled squid! Grilled squid~ Pf-PFFT! Hehehe.

Ryui: The hell you laughing at?

Location: Aomori - Kamakura Bar

Nagi: …Phew. I’m saved.

Toi: Wow. It really is warmer inside.

Daniel: *whistles* The glass is all made outta ice. How bougie.

Yodaka: What should we order?

Ryui: I’ll take a soda. Or else I won’t be able to go around asking about Morozumi-san.

Daniel: Then we won't hold back on the drinks, so we're countin' on ya to drive us back, thanks Ryui.

Ryui: How the fuck did you know I got my license?

Daniel: Well I mean, you told the company, yeah? Anyways, we’re counting on ya.

Nagi: Um, Buchi-san. Even if a car comes equipped with autonomous driving, it’s still too much to make a beginner drive on an icy road at night. I can drive instead.

Daniel: No, your driving ain’t any better.

Yodaka: Ryui may just be a beginner at driving. However, sometimes it's best to learn from experience. Everything should be alright as long as someone is guiding him from the passenger seat.

Daniel: Yeah, you said it man. It’s like how they usually throw learners on the highway without warning.

Nagi: Hmm… I guess so. Like how people usually practice parking after they get their licenses. Then again the company van is pretty big. Parking it requires skill.

Toi: (…Oh, I didn’t know that.)

Nagi: Ryui, did you have any problems with the written test?

Ryui: My only problem was that the stuff they asked was a pain in the ass.

Ryui: Like, “You have to be careful when driving at night,” true or false… stuff like that.

Toi: (Isn’t the answer… true?)

Yodaka: In this case, the answer should be false. “Regardless of the time of day, one should always be careful when driving.”

Daniel: Ah yeah. There were a lot of trick questions mixed in.

Nagi: I thought I’d never pass…

Snow Hut Visitor A: Oh, did you boys come here by car?

Snow Hut Visitor B: In that case, do we have the perfect snow tire recommendation for you!

Toi: … 

Toi: (They’re talking about things I don’t understand…)

Toi: (Ani-sama… looks like he’s having fun…)

Yodaka: …

Yodaka: My boy. I think the chief and Netaro should be back with the food by now.

Toi: Oh… Then, I’ll go see if they’re here.

Yodaka: Let’s go together.

Toi: It’s okay, I can go by myself!

*Toi leaves*

Ryui: Oi… where’s Toi? Natsume, don’t tell me you chased him out?

Yodaka: Apologies. I thought I'd help him get a change of pace, so he went outside.

Nagi: Oh, is Toi the only one without his license…? Oops, he might have felt left out.

Daniel: He doesn’t plan on getting it?

Ryui: It’s not like he needs one. I already got mine.

Ryui: Though if he wants to get it, I don’t plan on stoppin’ him either. But for now, I wanna be the one to drive.

Nagi: Why?

Ryui: Just think about it, imagine Toi riding in my car at night. He’d probably say somethin’ like, “I need to stay awake since Ani-sama is driving…” while dozing off. Isn’t that so admirable of him?

Nagi: I. Recommend chewing some gum. Then.

Ryui: And then while waiting for the light, I can relish in the moment of Toi sleeping in the passenger seat… and that's all I thought about so far.

Daniel: Your mind surely does work wonders.

Yodaka: Though it seems probable in the near future.

Location: Lake Towada - Winter Story Festival

Chief: Oh, Toi-kuuun!

Toi: Chief, Netaro-san. How were the food stalls?

Chief: It was super busy! And there was even a stage for live performances.

[CW: Toi's struggle with food starts here]

Netaro: We bought some garlic again~ Unlike Ryui, I am not a dingy stingy, so Toi can have some too. Here!

Toi: (…I don’t really want it, but Netaro-san went out of his way to share with me…)

Toi: Then, I will take a piece…

Toi: …, …

Toi: (Urh… It smells and my chest hurts… I don’t think I can, do this after all…)

Netaro: You aren’t gonna eat it~?

Toi: Huh, oh, no, I will. In that case… thank you.

Toi: …ng, …

Toi: (I feel, sick…)

Chief: We should head inside now, but I wonder if it will be too packed?

Netaro: It’ll be fine~ Since the dawn of time, JPN salarymen have always been a species well known for their exceptional ability to squeeze into small spaces!

Toi: (Since I put it in my mouth already, I have to do my best to swallow…)

Chief: Toi-kun, how does it look inside—

Toi: O-Oh… It was... pretty busy in there…

Chief: Hm? Toi-kun, are you okay? You look pale…

Toi: A-Ahaha, do I…?

Netaro: Then do you want more garlic~? It’ll give you more nutrients to recover energy—

Toi: …!

Toi: S-Sorry… I need to use the bathroom…

Location: Snowy Path

Toi: Br… *pants*, *pants*…

Toi: (Urh… I can’t suppress this nauseating feeling…)

Toi: (And… I can feel something watching me again.)

Toi: Who’s—

Toi: Urh…!

Toi: Ble, blhehg… ue…, …!

Toi: Uuueeu… *pants*, *pants*… *panting*…!

Toi: (It’s out… But I’m feeling better—)

Ryui: TOI!!

Toi: !!

Toi: (Ani-sama’s coming…! Oh no, what do I do…)

Toi: Oh…! I can cover it up with the snow…!

Toi: (Sorry, I’ll make sure to clean it up later…!)

Toi: (What about my clothes...? Phew, it didn't get on them... The inside of my mouth feels disgusting, but I have to ignore it.)

Ryui: Toi!

Toi: Ani-sama, what’s wrong?

[CW: Toi's struggle with food ends here]

Ryui: Nothing, the chief thought you were taking your time so…

Toi: Sorry. I wanted to play in the snow for a bit—

*rustling*

Toi: Huh. What was that just now…?

Stoat: …

Ryui: A white animal… is that a stoat?

Toi: Waah, its fur looks like snow. It’s so cute…!

Ryui: But you’re obviously cuter.

Toi: Ehehe.

Ryui: It’s almost time for the fireworks to start, we should head back.

Toi: Okaaay.

Toi: I hope we can meet again… little Stoat.

Stoat: …

Notes:

Oirase Gorge is one of the most beautiful river valleys in Japan that is best known for their autumn foliage. In the winter, the waterfall freezes over creating frozen falls that is a must see for tourists to Aomori. For more info on the tour click here. For more info on the gorge click here.

Towadako Guidehouse KAI is a canoe experience to enjoy the beautiful nature of Lake Towada and Oirase Gorge. For more info click here.

Yukiakari Yokocho is a a shopping street within the festival where one can enjoy the local specialties of Aomori.

When Netaro says "unclouded flies," he gets the saying wrong. It's supposed to be unclouded eyes, but in the original he says the unclouded sea cucumber. It was hard to fit this in for the pun, so sea cucumber was replaced with flies. Sea cucumbers also happen to be an important element in Aomori's new year cuisines and the most valuable type of sea cucumber here is called the Yokohama sea cucumber. More info click here

Kamakura Bars are Snow hut bars in the festival space that is known for its excellent sake.

Stoat is a weasel looking animal native to Eurasia, also known as ermine.

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