The Boss Behind The Game

At midnight, the Lantern Festival event of Battle Online had officially begun.

The lucky wheel appeared in the shops just like what the players anticipated.

This was the first ever lucky draw event in the game. Basically, all of the players were eager to give it a try. They couldn't resist going to the shop. They threw in their soul coins and awaited the judgment of destiny.

At this moment, a group of players sat in a circle in front of Tong Gua's Forge. All of them held a set of cards in their hands.

Among them, Tong Gua was the most agitated one.

Tonight, he had lost more than ten consecutive rounds. If he continued to lose, he would have to make a bet with his underpants. He had almost finished betting all the soul coins that he earned from his work of forging equipment.

This next round would determine his life or death.

"Three!" Ye Chen threw out a card of three after he took a glance at the set of cards in his hands.

"Joker bomb!" Tong Gua lifted his clothes upon seeing the card thrown out by Ye Chen. He followed up by throwing out two cards aggressively.

"You guys have no more cards to play, right?" Tong Gua swept his eyes over the others arrogantly. When he saw that everyone else was silent, he eventually threw out the card of three in his hand.

"Hahaha. All of you are shocked, right? Do you think you all just keep beating me? Come come come, pay up!"

Tong Gua was overjoyed as this was his first win. After getting his soul coins back, he grabbed the bottle of Wood Spirit Wine from his waist pocket and took several big gulps out of it.

"Come come come, let's continue! I will spell my name backward if I can't make you cry tonight!"

The players, including Ye Chen, felt deeply ashamed upon hearing this. They could not remember how many times Tong Gua had promised to spell his name backward.

"No, no. The big event is starting. I want to keep my soul coins for the lucky draw. Then, I need to make some traditional tangyuan later. That's it for today!"

"Yes, yes, yes. The Lantern Festival event has just begun. I'm done for the day, too..."

"Let's go, let's go!"

Tong Gua was glued to his spot when he watched as the other players rose to their feet and left him alone.

I've finally won a round, but they want to end it now? At that moment, there was a hint of bitterness in Tong Gua's heart as he was not done with the game yet.

"What's so great about a damn wheel? Is it really that fun?"

At this thought, Tong Gua picked up the clothes on the floor before he turned around and entered his house.

After lying down on his bed, Tong Gua could not help opening the shop interface. He wanted to see what the so-called lucky wheel was all about. Is it more fun than playing cards?

Five soul coins per roll?

Upon looking at the brief introduction on the wheel, Tong Gua glanced at the thousand plus soul coins left in his inventory. He pondered it over and decided to give it a try.

Hence, he exchanged five soul coins with a lucky draw.

After Tong Gua pressed the start button at the center of the wheel, the wheel started spinning rapidly and the image began to blur out.

After about three seconds, the wheel slowed down and the pointer became distinctive before it gradually stopped at nothing.

Tong Gua could not help but heave a sigh upon seeing this. As expected, this was not reliable, he thought. How can they give out soul coins to the players for no reason?

[Game Notification: Congratulations! You have hit the jackpot and won 500 soul coins!]

The despairing Tong Gua opened his eyes wide when he saw this.

I really won a prize! Is this a scam?

Tong Gua was in doubt. He bought a chance for the lucky draw again before he pressed the draw button for a second time.

[Game Notification: Congratulations! You have hit the jackpot and won 300 soul coins!]

Tong Gua felt giddy after receiving another price. Two rounds and he had already earned 800 soul coins, which could buy him many bottles of the superior quality Wood Spirit Wine.

Under the great temptations of the prizes, Tong Gua bought twenty chances for the lucky draw in one shot. He started to spin the lucky wheel continuously.

[Game Notification: Congratulations! You have won 1 soul coin!]

[Game Notification: Congratulations! You have won a Level 10 (white) weapon!]

[Game Notification: Sorry, you did not win any prize...]

The barrage of notifications stunned Tong Gua. After that, he got up from bed with a pair of reddened eyes. He tossed his clothes onto the bed.

"I don't believe that I can't win!"

Tong Gua's gambling addiction was aroused. He bought a hundred lucky draws and wanted to regain his investment by aiming at the grand prize. Winning the grand prize twice would bring him a load of fortune. As for the other things like weapons or armor, he could sell them off to the other players at a low price. In short, he would not suffer from any deficit.

[Game Notification: Sorry, you did not win any prize...]

[Game Notification: Congratulations! You have won a Level 1 (white) armor!]

After he drew all the lucky draws, Tong Gua's face was pale. Other than the highest reward, which was 30 soul coins, the other draws were a bunch of metal scraps that were worth nothing more than a few soul coins.

Facing this situation, Tong Gua was very regretful. Why did he not quit when he was ahead? It was obvious that it was a cheat released by the developer behind the scenes. How did I fall for this trick?

However, while Tong Gua was regretful, he bought another hundred tries.

He thought that he would not draw anymore after this. He only wanted to get back what he had earned from playing cards just now. He decided he would not be greedy anymore.

With this mentality, Tong Gua rolled the dice of fate once more.

Ten minutes later, Tong Gua's feet turned jelly as he fell onto his bed all of a sudden.

This damn wheel is such a scam!

This time, he not only lost his profit, he also lost quite a bit of money.

However, Tong Gua could not allow himself to stop now. These were the soul coins that he earned by forging armor and equipment painstakingly every day.

Hence, Ting Gua changed his target this time. He was thinking about getting his capital back and he would never touch this wheel anymore.

Upon looking at his remaining 800 soul coins, Tong Gua's heart ached. He pondered over and did not buy the extravagant package. Instead, he chose the single draw.

After ten more minutes, Tong Gua's heart pained as he looked at the 400 soul coins and a bunch of metal scraps in his inventory. His heart was almost broken.

However, what was done was done. What else could he do? He wanted to bet everything he had on one last round; he'd either earn his money back or lose everything!

As a result, Tong Gua turned the wheel of destiny again.

This time, as expected, the wheel could not have been more predictable. All of his soul coins were gone and he finally had nothing to his name.

When the draw ended, Tong Gua stared blankly into space as he lay on his bed. He was resentful. Why did I touch that damn wheel? Am I a fool!?

Since there were many players playing the lucky wheel, server announcements about rare draws by players, such as special weapons or costumes, were heard from time to time.

This gave the players an illusion that their bad draws were just because of their own bad luck. When they saw the others getting some valuable prizes, they would think that they had a chance, too, if they continued to bet on it. They would think that winning an item worthy of a server notification would help them earn back their capital and make them rich. The lucky draw event went on like a raging fire.

Meanwhile, Lu Wu who sat behind the scene looked as the soul coins piled up in his storage. He picked up his teacup and took a sip out of it leisurely.

At this moment, he experienced the feelings of a plotter who organized a lucky draw event. It was a pleasure to cheat on the people and let them spend money.

That's awesome!

During the third hour of the lucky draw event, some players in the forum were grumbling, while others flaunted their wins. Several questions were raised by the players as well.

Watermelon_Taro: "Screw you, lucky players! I did not expect my luck to suck so badly. This is too unbearable. I am a weak player to begin with, and I have not seen any chance for my comeback yet! (sobs)"

Fat_Happy_Water: "I suspect something is wrong with this damn lucky draw. Other than a 300 soul coin reward, I have gained nothing. I have lost so much money that I have started to doubt my life... (Gillfish_Clan_Selfdoubt.jpg)"

Crayon_Shinchan replied to Fat_Happy_Water: "What's the problem? Instead of real coins, you are spending soul coins on the lucky draw. So, the bank doesn't make money from it. Why would they cheat you with this? Silly kid, just face the truth that your luck is bad. (laughing emoji)"

Xueli_The_Strongest: "I won a beautiful costume. I'm satisfied. Thanks to the lucky wheel. However, I have stopped drawing after I've won the prize, so I would not comment on the probability. (laughing emoji)"

Although there were only one or two doubting voices in the forum, the majority of the players had the same thought as Crayon_Shinchan. They thought that the lucky draw event was only carried out in the game. Whether the players won prizes or not, the bank wouldn't earn a cent.

Moreover, if everyone won grand prizes, the balance of the game would be toppled. Thus, they treated this event as pure entertainment.

Five hours after the lucky draw event had launched, the number of participants started to decrease. Most of them headed to the wilderness to kill monsters. They wanted to collect the ingredients to make tangyuan.

Two silhouettes were sitting by the Liuli coast as they counted their ingredients under the morning glow.

Murphy and Little Pomelo had different thoughts from most players. They did not participate in the lucky wheel event at all.

In their point of view, every single coin earned should be used to build the foundation for their future happiness. They were not willing to spend them on some unreliable luck.

Therefore, they were looking for their prey in Liuli District while the other players were getting excited for the rain of server notifications. They wanted to gather more ingredients to make high-quality tangyuan, so that they could produce more when the time came.

To them, the rewards from this event were more reliable.

After five hours of hard work, they harvested a hundred types of different materials. Adding in the duplicates, they had about 300 pieces of special material altogether.

"We're almost there. Let's try to synthesize them!" Little Pomelo squinted and smiled when she looked at Murphy.

"Okay. Make them according to the official recipe first."

Soon after, Murphy reached out his hand to summon the Synthesis Oven given out by the game for this event, he opened the official tangyuan recipe and threw the ingredients into the stove accordingly.

As the game notification appeared, the tangyuans were ready.

[Black Sesame Tangyuan (Quality of Level 1)]:

Item Description: Players will gain 100 experience points after consuming it.

[Five Seed Tangyuan (Quality of Level 2)]:

Item Description: Players will gain 300 experience points after consuming it. Players are also given a rare and limited chance to get one random point of attribute bonus permanently.

After synthesizing around ten servings of tangyuan, Little Pomelo spoke with her eyes sparkling in excitement, "Murphy, how about we try synthesizing them on our own? Perhaps we could make a very delicious tangyuan!"

He nodded when he saw Little Pomelo's eagerness.

"You first… all the best!"

Murphy knew that Little Pomelo had always wanted to learn how to cook. Unfortunately, she was blind. It was unrealistic to do this in reality. So he agreed decisively when he saw the eagerness in Little Pomelo's eyes.

It did not matter if the materials were wasted. In his point of view, Little Pomelo's happiness surpassed everything.

In the meantime, Little Pomelo had no idea how to match the ingredients to synthesize a delicious tangyuan. She followed her feelings and threw in whatever delicious ingredients into the Synthesis Oven. Then, she waited eagerly for them to turn into a tasty tangyuan.

The first serving of tangyuan would be fresh out of the oven soon.

[Ginseng Soy Sauce Tangyuan (Quality of Level -3)]: Made of ingredients such as ginseng, soy sauce, and ginger.

Item Description: Players will earn a poison debuff after consuming it. Under a poisoned state, the certain player will lose 5 points of health per second for a duration of ten minutes.

Official Message: Don't eat it! Don't eat it!

Murphy burst into laughter upon looking at this abysmal tangyuan.

Little Pomelo, who stood to the side, was so embarrassed she grit her teeth and started on her second attempt.

After a moment, her second serving of tangyuan was out.

[Osmanthus Flower Durian Matcha Tangyuan (Quality of Level -15)]: Composed of ten types of ingredients such as osmanthus flower and durian.

Item Description: Highly poisonous. The player will lose 15 points of health per second for twenty minutes.

Official Message: Warriors, cheers!

Little Pomelo was angry when she saw Murphy suppressing his laughter. Do I have no talent in cooking at all?

She did not give up and started to make another one. She swore in her heart that she would make the tastiest tangyuan this time.

Creating two poisoned tangyuan did not lead Little Pomelo to be defeated. Instead, she got more determined with every setback.

When the eighth serving of tangyuan was out, some black smoke came out from the oven as well. Soon after, a server notification was heard.

[Congratulations to player, Little Pomelo, for successfully making a limited edition tangyuan. She gains a hidden bonus of 100 soul coins!]

The game notification stunned the both of them. Following that, they looked at the freshly cooked tangyuan.

[A Trip to the Road of Forgetfulness Tangyuan (Quality of Level -100)]:

Synthesis material: Unknown.

Item Description: Certain death after consuming it. The player will lose 100 points of health per second for a whole day.

Official Message: This bowl of poisoned tangyuan will give you a trip to the Road of Forgetfulness. You will be reborn after three hours.

"Pfft… hahaha!" this time, Murphy couldn't stand it anymore. He burst into laughter.

On one hand, Little Pomelo was very upset. The server notification misled her into thinking that she had made a superior quality tangyuan. However, she did not expect to have synthesized an even more poisonous tangyuan.

Looking at Murphy, who was still laughing angrily, she pinched him hard.

He sensed the pain and suppressed his laughter on his beet-red face, but there were still tears at the corners of his eyes, which could be either tears of joy or of pain.

Upon looking at the remaining ingredients, which were not much, Little Pomelo gave up. She squatted down and started crying.

At that moment, Murphy took a cooked tangyuan and passed it over to her.

"Take this. Let's continue killing monsters for ingredients after eating. You will certainly make the tastiest tangyuan."

"Really?" Little Pomelo looked up and asked.

"Of course, you're the best in my heart!"

Little Pomelo smiled when she heard him, and then received the tangyuan.

The two eagerly took a bowl of tangyuan each and started enjoying their meal. They planned to go and collect the ingredients after eating.

However, both of them trembled when they ate the tangyuan.

As both of them were eating different flavors of tangyuan. Coupled with their shared senses as they chewed on the tangyuan, a strange taste continued to linger on their palate.

Both of them exchanged books before they burst into laughter.

The two happily ate their tangyuan as they sat by the coast and enjoyed the sea breeze under the morning glow. They were overwhelmed with happiness.