Ashen God
Chapter 40 [T-Virus Enhancing Potion]

Chapter 40: Chapter 40 [T-Virus Enhancing Potion]

If you ask Zhang Yanhang why he’s so obsessed with locking the door, it’s because, according to his experience playing Resident Evil, if you don’t lock the door, the room is pretty much guaranteed to inexplicably fill up with a few zombies. After all, zombies usually wander around like street wanderers, aimlessly roaming until, lo and behold, they wander straight into your room. It’s truly irritating.

The solution to preventing the random appearance of wild zombies in the room is actually quite simple: lock the door. As long as the door is locked, zombies can’t get in. So, Zhang Yanhang has always been doing just that.

Lugging the slot machine, Zhang Yanhang took a familiar path back to where it all began—the locale of unit 301.

Now comes the question: upon returning to this room, what is the first thing Zhang Yanhang has to do?

Is it to play the slot machine?

No, it isn’t.

Then what could it be?

You’ve probably guessed it by now. That’s right, it’s to clean the blood off his body using alchemy. After slaughtering over a thousand zombies, his body is so filthy that it barely resembles that of a human’s anymore. Looking at him, he seems more like a zombie than the actual zombies.

If zombies could talk, the moment they saw Zhang Yanhang’s current state, they’d likely cry out in awe of an ancestor’s spirit manifesting.

Zhang Yanhang manipulated the alchemy array with his hands, sweeping it back and forth across his body, continuously peeling away dust and caked blood. Eventually, a chicken-egg-sized black and red orb formed at the center of the alchemy array.

As for this black and red orb—concentrated with the essence of a thousand zombies—Zhang Yanhang could distinctly feel the waves of decayed stench hit him full in the face, just by holding it in his hand. It was incredibly potent, and he quickly tossed it out the window onto the street.

After cleaning himself up, Zhang Yanhang lay back on the shabby wooden bed for a while to see if anything would happen, but there was no response. "Could it be that the choice only triggers when it’s about to close? There seems to be about fifteen minutes left according to the option’s timing, so I’ll just wait it out."

During this waiting period, Zhang Yanhang prepared to have a go at the slot machine—after all, there was no harm in doing so while idle.

Zhang Yanhang stood up and walked over to the slot machine, reviewing the listed price and prize catalog. One soul point for one spin, with a first prize of a bottle of "T-Virus Original Extract (Essence Extraction)," second prize of two bottles of "T-Virus Enhancing Potion," third prize of a hundred zombies, and fourth prize, well, that’s a thank you for playing, meaning nothing at all.

After looking over the prices and prize catalog, Zhang Yanhang gently pulled the metal lever on the side of the machine. At the same time, he pulled the lever while sighing, "I never thought I’d get to play with something like this in my lifetime. I had always thought I’d never have anything to do with such things."

Zhang Yanhang’s impression of slot machines—these gambling artifacts—had always been fixed. He thought only sleazy middle-aged men played them, and he, a vibrant, youthful, twenty-year-old college student, would absolutely never touch them in the past, mostly because these machines were illegal in most cases.

Just as Zhang Yanhang had anticipated, the moment he pulled the metal lever, time paused, and a familiar text box appeared in front of his eyes.

"Please choose the specific content of the Lucky Slot Machine’s draw this time."

"Option One: 777 (First Prize, ’T-Virus Original Extract (Essence Extraction),’ Dark Purple Quality, Item.)"

"Option Two: ✬✬✬ (Second Prize, ’T-Virus Enhancing Potion,’ Purple Quality, Item.)"

"Option Three: ✬✬✬ (Second Prize, ’T-Virus Enhancing Potion,’ Purple Quality, Item.)"

"Option Four: ☠☠☠ (Third Prize, Police Zombie, First Tier Zero Star, Ordinary Monster.)"

"Option Five: ☠☠☠ (Third Prize, Nurse Zombie, First Tier Zero Star, Ordinary Monster.)"

...

[Option 104: ✬✫✪ (Fourth Prize, thank you for participating, no physical prize.)]

...

[Option 138: ✭✮✯ (Fourth Prize, thank you for participating, no physical prize.)]

...

[Option 259: ✰✩☆ (Fourth Prize, thank you for participating, no physical prize.)]

...

Time Pause had just begun and Zhang Yanhang’s eyes were flooded with hundreds of text boxes rushing by. Yes, this was exactly what happened every time he played the game and did a draw; Multiple Choice would show every possible item he could draw, and then let him make a choice.

Zhang Yanhang remembered the time he had the most text boxes; it seemed like there were six or even seven digits worth of options. Scrolling was such a pain that no matter how much he flipped through them, he could not get to the end, which was really annoying.

"Dark Purple Quality Item?" Seeing just these words made Zhang Yanhang’s heart stop in shock—that is, metaphorically, since his heart wouldn’t beat during a Time Pause anyway.

"Dark Purple and Purple? Two new qualities have appeared." Out of respect for the first-place prize, Zhang Yanhang first checked the attribute list of the second-place prize, the "[T-Virus Enhancing Potion]".

[T-Virus Enhancing Potion]

[Quality: Purple]

[Type: Artifact]

[Origin: Ashen World, Raccoon City, Outer Zone, Lucky Slot Machine.]

[Usage Effect: Strength +1, Intelligence +1.]

[Usage Requirements: Strength below 25 points, Intelligence below 25 points.]

[Score: 110 (The score for Purple Items is from 71 to 150.)]

"Wait, why is the score from 71 to 150? What quality of items have scores from 31 to 70?" Zhang Yanhang felt there must be an intermediate quality between Purple and Green, but he had not yet drawn an item of that quality.

"But, as expected of a Purple Quality artifact, it can directly increase the Strength Attribute and Intelligence Attribute permanently by one." There were two such T-Virus Enhancing Potions for the second prize; if Zhang Yanhang used them both, it would be like leveling up for free.

"Although there’s an Attribute restriction, none of my five attributes are even close to twenty points; with Strength barely at sixteen points and Intelligence at only fourteen points, there’s absolutely no need to worry about this. So, I choose Option Two, the second prize, the T-Virus Enhancing Potion."

After making his choice, Time Pause vanished instantly and the Slot Machine started to spin again, with various symbols whirling wildly. About three seconds later, the speed of the symbols began to slow down, revealing three identical ’✬’ symbols.

Once it was confirmed that these three pentagrams were the combination, the top of the already golden-shining Slot Machine suddenly burst forth with a virtual colorful firework display. Simultaneously, a color-transparent Egg was ejected from the delivery port.

This transparent Egg floated in mid-air, and before Zhang Yanhang even touched it, it slowly opened on its own, revealing a silver metal injection gun inside.