Apocalypse: System of lotteries



[Your frogs climbed out of the lake, still playful and energetic. Da Vinci suddenly froze, realizing it hadn't brought anything back today...]

[Your Foodie was quite relaxed and told Da Vinci that it had caught a few fish in the lake and was full. Da Vinci patted Foodie, calling it a traitor, did we Make an appointment to share the good times and the bad times...]

[Your Da Vinci hopped ashore and frantically searched through the ruins, using its gathering ability on a fragrant plant. After a successful gathering, it went on to gather other plants it found appealing, considering them all treasures...]

"Hehe~"

Ming returned to the temporary shelter and began building his new home. This area belonged to him, so he wanted to make it better.

An hour later, Ming looked at his new home with satisfaction. It was identical to the home in District 109, familiar and cozy.

He had made up his mind that once the third chapter was over, he would bring everyone from his home over. By then, Little Spider could weave its webs freely in the large space, the rabbits could breed as much as they wanted, the bees would have endless nectar to collect, and the earthworm farm would upgrade to a large-scale industry. It was an exciting prospect!

"Pretty good~" Ming released Lopene from the puppet space, immediately handed him a prescription, got an injection into it, and then connected. 

The connection was successful.

Although the process wasn't difficult, repeatedly connecting and disconnecting was still troublesome.

Wasting spirit power was one issue, but the second issue was during combat when you needed to summon unconnected puppets to replenish your fighting strength. While guarding against enemy attacks, you also had to be wary of unconnected puppets attacking you.

Although the process wasn't very difficult, repeatedly bridging and unbridging was always a troublesome matter.

Wasting psychic energy was one thing, but another was during a fight. If there was a need to release unbridged puppets from space to supplement combat power, one had to guard against attacks from the enemy and also guard against attacks from the unbridged puppets.

The best solution to this trouble was to have more puppet slots, but currently, there was no way to have more puppet slots, so he could only try another method.

"I'll do an experiment later~"

While thinking about the experiment, Ming asked Lopene for money: "Give me all the money in the vault."

[Your puppet Lopene gave you 23.56 million gold coins]

"Heh~ tonight, let them see what it means to be rich!"

"Huh?"

Ming thought of another issue. He had so much money, but what was the use?

Now, the apocalyptic store no longer sold food, drink, and material resources. It only sold potions, teleportation scrolls, dungeon substitute puppets, and some equipment he didn't like.

To be honest, those things didn't cost much. Of course, for him, a wealthy person, that money was indeed a drop in the bucket. And those essential supplies and material resources were not being sold by anyone now.

Because everyone knew that those were the real capital. So, what use was it for him to have so much money?

This was a question worth pondering.

[Your frogs came back, and Da Vinci told you that as the eldest in the family, it had to take care of everyone, so it brought back a lot of grass, considering many at home eat grass... Da Vinci felt that you didn't have to squeeze its head so hard with excitement...]

[Foodie told you that it had brought back a great fish for you today, and opened its mouth to swallow the cake you handed over... It thought that the cake looked familiar...]

"Enjoy the fresh cake," Ming would never tell Foodie the true origin of the cake, which he took from a broken table after a fight.

At dinner time, Ming covered  Lopene with a protective suit (from the horror hospital instance), a protective hat, and a mask, making sure it was fully covered and wouldn't contaminate the food. Then he brought out Chef from the puppet space, gave it a prescription,  and connected it.

After the connection was complete, he also put a protective suit on Chef, ensuring they both wouldn't directly touch the food...

"Let's start cooking!"

Ming, holding Little Bear and the froglings, retreated, letting Lopene be the first white mouse... no, the first guest.

After all, the frogs were so small, and if they were hit by a pan, they might die instantly. Little Bear couldn't go either, as it might end up killing Chef. The main purpose was to improve the coordination between Chef and Lopene.

Once everything was in place, Ming released Chef's connection, and Lopene started eating!

[Your puppet Lopene tastes the grilled skewers handed by Chef and finds it delicious, losing its combat ability...]

[Your puppet Lopene sits at the dining table set up by Chef, triggering the opponent's gluttony talent and forcibly immobilizing him for 30 seconds]

[Your puppet Lopene gets hit in the head by a pan, defense value -500...]

[Chef places a plate of cheese foie gras on the table...]

[Your puppet Lopene gets hit continuously, defense value -500; -500; -500]

"Wow, there's even cheese foie gras!"

The random gourmet food was indeed quite unpredictable. However, thanks to Lopene getting hit, Ming was now familiar with Chef's attack pattern.

First, it used a skill to trap the target at the table, immobilizing them. Then, it would attack several times with a frying pan and spatula. After that, it would serve more food to keep the target immobilized and continue attacking.

  repeat! What a great chef!

As for Lopene, it was a very loyal diner. After all, it didn't want to leave the table at all.

[Chef takes out a roast suckling pig and places it on the table... raises the pan and hits Lopene, defense value -1000]

[Chef places a plate of boiled fish fillets on the table... Lopene's defense value -500]

[Your Foodie rushes forward, jumps onto the dining table, and starts eating like a tornado... lets out a burp and continues eating...]

[Da Vinci tells Little Bear to be careful and eat slowly, as there might be fishbones in the fish fillets that could get stuck in their throat... Foodie, holding a skewer of grilled food, tells Little Bear not to trust Da Vinci, as boiled fish fillets usually don't have bones... "Hold this bamboo stick for me, and I'll show you a special skill..."]

"Huh?" Ming was confused. Why hadn't Chef used the "Come home for dinner" skill?

[Chef places a plate of pasta on the table... raises the pan and hits Lopene, defense value -500]

[Chef places a plate of drunken ducks on the table... Lopene's defense value -1000]

[Your Lopene defense value -500]

[…]

"Stop!"

"Enough food~" Ming patted Chef's shoulder, and then put it back into the puppet space. Seeing the happy faces of everyone enjoying the meal, Ming took fruit from his warehouse and took a bite.

Although the food was summoned by Chef's skills, Ming wasn't hungry, and eating the fruit he picked himself was enough.

Looking at Lopene lying on the ground, he thought the coordination today was pretty good. After all, he managed to control the amount of food served by the Chef just in time before Lopene's defense value reached zero, conserving food and avoiding waste.

After putting Lopene back into the puppet space, Ming found a quiet place and released a puppet master zombie from the puppet space.

Connection, connection successful.

This was what Ming wanted to do the most tonight, using his own puppet master puppet to control the puppet master zombie's puppet.

This idea had been mentioned in the chat channel before, but it was all theoretical. To verify this, one would need to have a puppet master zombie, which required killing a puppet master. 

Whether someone had done it in secret or had done it but wouldn't reveal it on the chat channel, was unknown.

So, when Ming took control of District 1521, he naturally obtained the necessary subjects for this experiment. If the attempt to control a puppet with a puppet was successful, it would be a whole new story.

For example, becoming a real farm owner!

With just one command from him, thousands of puppets would start plowing, sowing, and harvesting.

What a sight it would be!

[Ming's Puppet]

[One-Star Lord-level Puppet Master Dannie]

[…]

[Puppet Slots: 1]

[Weakness Detection: It's Ming's puppet, and no one would dare to touch it…]

"1 puppet slot

Seeing this, Ming suddenly felt that he might be quite strong, having 5 puppet slots after all.

But compared to Alan, he didn't seem strong at all. After all, the little freak could simultaneously control multiple puppets, which meant he had a strong puppet slot talent.

At this point, he released a regular zombie from the puppet space.

"Go and connect with it!" Ming patted Dannie and pointed at the hideous regular zombie.

Hehe~

Dannie walked up and raised her hand to press the zombie's forehead, unfortunately, it had already rushed towards Ming, and she missed~

"Hiss~" Ming felt a bit disappointed. Indeed, the reaction abilities of zombies and humans are different, somewhat sluggish, and rigid. It seems that more integration is needed.

Ming then controlled the regular zombie and ordered it toward Dannie, "Come here, connect!"

Dannie walked over and pressed her hand on top of the regular zombie's head.

1, 2, 3...8, 9...

"Why isn't it successful yet?"

Ming was a bit anxious. He had already observed that Puppet Dannie's mental attributes were twice as high as the regular zombie's, so it shouldn't be this slow.

11…12, 13, 14…

[Your puppet Annie successfully completes her puppet bridge]

"Exactly as expected." The result was what he wanted, but the speed was too slow, and it still needed his help to control, which left Ming slightly disappointed.

"Make your puppet squat." Ming gave Dannie an order.

Hehe~

Puppet Dannie turned to look at her puppet, making a hehe~

6 seconds later, her puppet squatted on the ground.

Ming touched the tip of his nose. His kicking Lopene and Lopene's conditioned reflex to knock its head took a day and a night of continuous adjustment to achieve, so the matter of a puppet controlling a puppet can't be rushed, it can only be honed over time.

However, for something as simple as cultivating a farm and planting crops, it should be easy to manage. These two in front of him are not necessary to keep around. With such a weak puppet slot, why keep them?

Kill them! Gain experience.

Ming thought that in the future, he should pay more attention to puppet master zombies with high mental attributes and more puppet slots. If the mental attribute is low, the bridge target will naturally be lower.

Low means that their strength is not very good, and they can only do simple things. A puppet master zombie with high mental attributes is the best choice.

At night, the frogs and little bears were asleep. Ming leaned against the side reviewing the harvest from the two. When he saw the small fish and black swan in the warehouse, he smiled slightly.

"Yay, I can draw a prize again!"