Chapter 280 Thousand-Leaf Phosphorescent Armor
The "golden half-hour." That's what they called it – the brief window of opportunity surrounding the Accurate Exchange Roulette Wheel.
This mystical wheel, a beacon of power in a world gone mad, drew survivors and mutated creatures alike with an irresistible allure. But its promise of riches was always shadowed by imminent danger. From the moment it materialized, the clock started ticking.
William, being a three-star Evolving person with those speedy Bloodstride Boots, sprinted towards the roulette wheel. He got within a few hundred feet of it pretty quickly.
But this area was a mess of collapsed ruins, no clear path, just a bunch of construction debris to climb over.
And, of course, mutated beings were already showing up, and their numbers were growing fast.
William had to start fighting. His Edge of the Moon blade cut through any zombies and mutated beings in his way. He didn't even bother with the Magic Crystals; he just wanted to get to that wheel.
Some advanced evolved beings showed up, and there were other Evolving persons around too. The advanced ones were chasing the others, who all had their eyes on the roulette wheel.
After slicing through a level-two zombie, William was just a few hundred feet from the Poppy roulette wheel. Ten minutes had passed, and there were still a few figures ahead of him, with the noise behind him getting louder.
William had no idea how many beings were converging here.
Suddenly, a weird Mutated flea landed in front of him. This thing had evolved to level three and was no joke. It was the size of a house cat, super agile, with crazy jumping ability and covered in sharp barbs that could tear flesh.
William was getting frustrated. He had to spin the wheel and get out within half an hour, or he'd be stuck. Even a four-star or five-star Evolving person would be doomed here.
The Metal Osmium person appeared above the level-three Mutated flea. The flea dodged most of the attack but still got one leg crushed. It screamed and bit off its own leg to stay mobile.
Usually, this self-mutilation would give the flea an edge, but William was too fast. He didn't stop after activating the Metal Osmium person. He zipped past the flea, chopped off its head, and grabbed its Magic Crystal.
Then he retracted the Metal Osmium person.
William was getting better at using his skills and professions in battle.
"Hey, what's this thing? Do you know?" A sleazy voice came from the rubble. The guy's face was bloody, but his eyes were bright, and he was covered in dust. Seeing William, he pointed at the roulette wheel.
William's eyes flashed, and the Edge of the Moon shot out, slashing the guy's throat. Blood gushed out.
The guy clutched his throat, trying to stop the bleeding, but it seeped through his fingers. A bright blade he had hidden fell to the ground.
William ignored him and was now within arm's reach of the Poppy roulette wheel. The enticing items on it seemed almost within his grasp.
A survivor charged from behind the wheel, eyes full of hatred. He was obviously connected to the guy who just tried to kill William.
William's eyes hardened. He had seen this kind of desperation before, the kind that could twist a person into something cruel and reckless.
These two had low evolution levels, only one-star. Maybe they thought they could take William down with a sneak attack.
Dodging the dagger, William elbowed the guy in the chest. As the dude's eyes widened, William finally made it to the roulette wheel.
This was the first time William had ever been this close to the Accurately Exchange Roulette Wheel. In his past life, he was just a small fry, clearing zombies for others.
The massive wheel was split into eight sections: Potions, Cards, Professions, Weapons and Equipment, Battle Pets, Materials, Bloodlines, and Blueprints and Formulas. Each section had ten options, and next to each option was a cylindrical indicator showing the price.
One look, and William knew this wheel needed a steady stream of Magic Crystals to fill the energy cylinders to get the goods. Otherwise, it was all for nothing.
But, if you looked closely, you could see small scales on the cylinders. By figuring out how much a single Magic Crystal moved the scale, you could roughly guess the price of an item.
William didn't waste any time. He popped in a Magic Crystal to start spinning the wheel. Luckily, it only needed a level-one Magic Crystal to get going, and William had plenty.
The massive wheel started spinning, lighting up like crazy. If it were nighttime, folks at Cloud Peak Manor would probably see it. William hated this flashy mechanism and could almost picture the looks on everyone's faces in Accraville City when they saw this spectacle.
And yeah, that was exactly what happened.
A few hundred feet behind him, people from the conference center were rushing over. Whether they were elites from Accraville City or members of the Zero Commerce Guild, their faces were a mix of excitement and determination as they picked up the pace.
In the eastern part of the city, a woman in a beige trench coat stood on a crane's extended arm, squinting at the commotion and the light streaking across the sky.
In the western part of the city, a guy tossed aside a half-cooked monster leg, wiped his greasy hands on his clothes, grabbed a pair of iron hammers, and silently walked out, pointing his crew towards the roulette wheel.
In the southern part of the city, a giant beast head emerged from the large reservoir at the power plant. Two thick jets of water shot from its nostrils, smashing into a nearby wall with a loud crash. A broken human corpse in the water jets was pulverized. The beast head looked at the distant light, shook its head, and stood up from the pool, casting a shadow over the entire power plant.
In the northern part of the city, two women who had just been fighting turned their heads simultaneously to look at the light shooting into the sky. Both had puzzled expressions, and one of the women had a shiny black cat on her shoulder, raising its little paw towards the light and meowing non-stop.
In a deep underground tunnel, a fat Mutated mouse sat on a cushion, its paws almost the size of an adult human's, patting its round belly as it burped. Its long tail occasionally twitched, hitting the body of an Evolving person beside it, whose flesh was in tatters. A sliver of light shone from the other side of the tunnel, and the Mutated mouse looked at it curiously. It touched the green Magic Crystal on its head, scratched its whiskers, and then let out a piercing squeak. A horde of Mutated mice began to move towards the surface.
Meanwhile, William watched as the roulette wheel's pointer stopped in the Blueprints and Formulas section, which was his second choice after ruling out the Materials section.
His eyes quickly locked onto an Artisan blueprint—Thousand-Leaf Phosphorescent Armor.
Magic Crystals flowed into the roulette wheel like water.
One hundred level-one Magic Crystals only moved the price indicator to one-tenth. As he kept adding more, the energy column's progress slowed down! It wasn't until he had inserted fifteen hundred level-one Magic Crystals that the column was finally filled, and a blueprint scroll appeared in the reward slot.
The light in the sky shot up like fireworks, making William freak out. Meanwhile, a drop of smooth red liquid slowly dripped from an opening on the side, and a faint fragrance began to spread through Accraville City with the breeze.
As a result, all the mutated beings in the city went berserk.
