[201-400] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 319: End Run

[You have failed to draw a prize from your golden lottery ticket. Please draw again.]

"Of course. Why not."

Ves shook his head as he received another dud on his next draw. Even a golden lottery ticket couldn't escape from the System's stingy grasp. It reiterated again how much of a bad trade it was to engage with this scam-like lottery business.

"I get the feeling it's a convenient way for the System to limit my actual rewards."

His distaste for the System's Lottery grew when he tried and failed to find a listing of the probabilities of winning any prizes. That was illegal!

Yet no matter how many times he nagged, the System remained inscrutable. He could only give up and draw the last golden ball with an apprehensive arm.

Once he retrieved the final ball, it shone as bright as the one that held the laser pistol. "This must be a big prize!"

Indeed, once the light had faded away, a translucent pill appeared in its midst. The entire lottery interface faded away now that he used up all of his golden tickets, but Ves didn't care as he stared at the compelling little pill.

"What is this?"

[Congratulations! You have received a Transcendence Pill. This object can be ingested to provide a powerful mental boost and break the human limit of any random mental Attribute without any lasting negative consequences. Ingesting the pill comes with considerable risk, and requires considerable mental and physical fortitude to survive the transformation process. It may take 1 to 88 days to complete this process.]

This time, Ves received another major prize. He had always been keeping his eye out on a way to breach past human limits. His endurance once reached past 2.0, but it reached that state in a highly unstable manner. His body slowly broke apart from the constant stress.

This time, the Transcendence Pill offered to do the same, but without any of the unsustainable elements. Even though the description still pointed out some risks, as long as he made the right preparations, there wouldn't be any lasting dangers.

"Still, if it takes up to eighty-eight days to complete the transformation process, then it's not a good idea to use it up at this time."

Right now, he was in the middle of a warzone. Soon, he'd be evacuated into space, but the danger only started from there. He could not afford to put himself under at this crucial time.

The System categorized the Transcendence Pill as a Supreme item, so Ves easily dematerialized it into his Inventory. Both his weapon and his pill would be absolutely safe there as long as his comm remained in his possession.

"It's too bad I don't have any way of upgrading my comm."

The fact that the comm that held his System could be taken away at any moment represented a major weak point in his security arrangement. Ves had been eying some comm upgrades in the Shop that could alleviate these risks, but right now he was loath to spend so much DP.

Overall, leaving aside the Special Upgrade Voucher, Ves received a fair amount of compensation for all of his trouble. The Amastendira met his need for a powerful self-defense option while the Transcendence Pill saved him the trouble of figuring out a way to break the human limit on his own.

As for the sensor production license, Ves reserved his judgement on it. He'd check on it once he returned to Cloudy Curtain.

"It really sucks that I've only scored three prizes out of ten draws."

With a tentative success rate of forty percent, golden lottery tickets sure provided an unsteady amount of value. Even if three out of the four prizes appeared to be exclusive items that provided benefits that couldn't be found in the Shop, it still didn't change the fact that it had been a risky exchange.