Right in front of Dorian, the console had a fingerprint scanner which the System used to confirm its identity so that the lottery draw participant did not cheat. It’s not that the System suspected that the minions would try to cheat, but it was more meant for the future lottery ticket holders if Jin decided to go ahead and include it to his repertoire of service instances.
(Meanwhile, monsters like Mr Derpy and Mechataur would have to send proxies as the scanner was unable to read their signs)
As Dorian placed his hand on the scanner, the lottery draw ball machine suddenly grew in size right in front of him. As the leader of one of the largest factions, the System had to flush out the current ball samples and replace them with different sets of balls that were meant for those quantities. More colourful marble balls were added into the mix and started to spin as if they were in a washing machine.
The digital screen fizzled right beside him for a moment before a revised chart of the lottery rewards revealed his odds of success and the updated prize pool. As Dorian was the first lottery draw participant, the Magic Eye cameras automated by the System zoomed onto him with anticipation, and everyone was looking at it on the big screen. Mr Patsu and Bear Cub One were also giving side comments to bide time and hype the crowd up a little more.
Amidst the sounds of the rotating marbles, one of them finally appeared out of the drawing machine as it quickly spiralled out of the tube and landed on a soft landing tray laced with cushions.
“Let’s see what it is… It’s a red spiral marble! Those are worth 2,000 System points for each Valg and let’s see what else the System put in!” Mr Patsu announced as he went to the revised rewards chart and read the fine print while the magic eye camera panned its angle and filmed a portion of the chart.
“Ooo! The extra prize, in this case, is 20 Draw cards for Dorian to use. With them, he can grant an exclusive power boost to up the Valgs!” Mr Patsu exclaimed and Jin in his Panda Suit was confused.
“System had taken the initiative to recreate the monster fusion procedures since User refused to use it to its fullest potential. Thus, it added another function that would permanently boost the monster’s abilities. However, that process does require User’s Black Sludge Crystals.”
“But you do know they are rather limited, right?” Jin queried, and the System merely stated that the newest form of Sludge Liquid that poured out of Jin’s body had been collected. A mere 100ml of it alone had been enough to boost the monster’s stats by a few notches up.
“However, despite this power up procedure which the System had tested on animals as part of the experiment, the power boosts dilutes upon reaching a certain limit. So far, it has not been possible to raise their power above User’s grade.”
“So, what you are saying is that I can theoretically boost all my minions to my current Grade while you subsequently downgrade them to meet the cultivators’ standard in the dungeon instance?” Jin asked, and Mr Patsu was explaining the same thing to the audience in a more dramatic way.
“Affirmative. However, to give your sludge crystals to 8000 over minions and growing would be an arduous task. That is why the System is giving it out as part of the lottery rewards.”
“And some lucky minion could be powered to my current grade?”
“While the System wished for such a case, those kinds of situations should be reserved for desperate situations. Drastically increasing the power stats of a minion might seem useful, but they are likely to suffer from training deficit, where the lack of training could not allow the minion to fully utilise their new found strength. It might also promote torpidity and inactivity despite being in a controlled environment. Not to mention System is unsure about any other long term negative effects it might have.”
“I see… Guess you are just giving them something like a step up power boost? Even though you are seemingly using them as more guinea pigs…”
“Affirmative. That way, they can have an extra boost in their stats and be able to train further since they all currently will suffer a lack of contact with cultivator training until your Virtual Reality Network is up and running.”
“And the cultivators will never know that despite their soul turning into data, they are actually fighting with real monsters all the way,” Jin smirked as he stepped forward.
“Thank you, Dorian, for being the first draw participant! Now, let us see who is the next participant and while you all wait for your turns, we have prepared some games for you to participate in. Of course, that means there are more prizes to be earned.” Jin said as he pulled the microphone out of the stand and beckoned his two game masters (or mistresses) out to explain more.
“Oh, and one more thing. Each of you will have a chance to press on the lottery draw machine. Unless the System deems otherwise!” Jin emphasised before giving the mike to his Sub System Users to take the stage.
“Happy Chinese New Year to all! Firstly, let’s congratulate the Dark Elves as the second group of minions to get to draw the lottery. Do not worry, everyone will have an equal chance of winning the grand prize of 100,000 System points! And yes, there can be up to three of such winners. But if you do not get such a prize, I assure you the minimum points are still worthy of your wait.” Qiu Yue grabbed the mike and Jin in his Panda costume skipped happily into the backstage.
His role now was to only appear and congratulate the three grand prize winners for picking the lottery as well as presenting a large gift pack filled with alcohol, snacks and other kinds of goodies.
Other than that, he took out his panda head and checked his phone. Even while waiting, there were a few things he could do. This is especially so when the System had also recently upgraded his phone capabilities and allowed him to have remote access to his dungeon maker console after achieving better processing capabilities.
But first, an email to Ke Loong for a meeting in the morning.
