Ashen God
Chapter 581 - 580: Demonized Swamp

Chapter 581: Chapter 580: Demonized Swamp

"Although Little Fox had indeed ascended to the Second Tier and had also learned an even more advanced Dream Creation Technique, which not only elevated her rank but also her skill level, and considering that I had already disabled the Supreme Will Skill’s protection, logically, the success rate should have been quite high at this point.

Yet, unexpectedly, even with all this, Little Fox still couldn’t break through the spiritual defenses. So the question is, is Little Fox too weak, or am I simply too strong..."

After some thought, Zhang Yanhang tended to lean toward the latter, that he was indeed just too strong, especially since he was, after all, a Second Tier Peak Awakened.

It’s a good thing Zhang Yanhang isn’t a Frey Control; otherwise, what would be unfolding next wouldn’t be a touching scene of earnest gratitude but a moral decay and a twisting of human nature.

"So, I choose Option One and will immediately enter Ashen World." After reviewing the three options, Zhang Yanhang immediately made his choice.

...

October 25th, Sunday, Double Ninth Festival, which also marked the first day that Zhang Yanhang had been jumping back and forth between the Main World and the Ashen World, at 12:45 AM, Raccoon City, Dulda Apartments, unit 301.

Once Zhang Yanhang made his choice, the pause in time instantly disappeared, and everything before Zhang Yanhang’s eyes first went black and then suddenly gray. Lying on the bed, Zhang Yanhang looked at the dim gray ceiling above him, feeling an oddly comforting familiarity. After all, this was his fifth entry into Raccoon City—feeling any less familiar would be challenging.

And the worn wooden bed beneath Zhang Yanhang, initially very uncomfortable to lie on, had somewhat been remodeled using alchemy but with limited success. Logically, it should still be uncomfortable, but probably because he had gotten used to it, he now actually thought this old wooden bed was pretty good.

"Ah, inertia really is a terrifying force, whether it’s used in attack or otherwise..."

Since not long ago he had just cleared a small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu and thus depleted a lot of his energy, Zhang Yanhang didn’t rush out to hunt monsters immediately but lay on the bed to recover some strength first.

About ten minutes later, Zhang Yanhang sat up from the bed, then, flowing with the inertia, skillfully went downstairs to clear out the slot machine’s Fourth Prize pool in Raccoon City.

Though for him now, the rewards from the slot machine’s Fourth Prize pool might not seem very useful, a mosquito’s leg is still flesh, and if he could hunt an extra hundred zombies by spending just five minutes, why not do it?

Moreover, though the soul points obtained from them might really be a drop in the bucket for Zhang Yanhang now, the items and equipment from their drop treasure boxes, like a new Waist Bag and new Yellow Medicine Grass, were still very useful for him. If he got Yellow Medicine Grass this time, Zhang Yanhang planned to experiment with alchemy or see if he could remove the restriction that only allowed use when Constitution was below fifty points through fusion.

If not, then there would really be hardly anything left in Raccoon City that could tempt him. After all, as for Waist Bags, he already had five Waist Bags +4, in addition to a Storage Box +3 with eight hundred slots—his inventory space was more than sufficient.

So honestly, though the Waist Bags were initially very tempting for Zhang Yanhang, they really weren’t much of an attraction now, as he couldn’t even use up the Waist Bag slots he had now unless under extreme circumstances like when he was excavating underground tunnels at the Crimson Iron Ore Vein.

Then there were the Coin Fragments. Although the Dark Purple Quality Coins that the fragments formed were still useful to Zhang Yanhang, the problem was that the source was just too limited. At least eight or nine Prototype Tyrants had to be killed for one treasure box to drop, and each box only yielded three fragments.

To gather ten fragments, he would need to kill over thirty Prototype Tyrants, and currently, Prototype Tyrants didn’t respawn in Raccoon City; only the slot machine’s prize pool refreshed one daily.

So, it was equivalent to Zhang Yanhang needing to hold onto a month before he could obtain another dark purple quality coin. Therefore, since he had collected the last coin, Zhang Yanhang had already given up any thoughts about it, as it was an impossible task.

Besides these items, what remained were red medicinal herbs, green medicinal herbs, blue medicinal herbs, and items like emergency sprays, which were even less useful to Zhang Yanhang, as his waist bag usually held a four-digit inventory.

Of course, various standard police equipment from Raccoon City was still quite useful to him, serving as a medium to bring items out of the Ashen World.

"The more I think about it, the more I feel that the dropped items from Raccoon City are useless to me. But that’s normal, after all, it’s an area I cleared during my first tier period, and I’m already at the peak of the second tier now, advancing to the third tier in a few days.

In this situation, if the various dropped items from Raccoon City are still useful to me, it might actually be strange; it would only indicate that my progress has been too slow."

Compared to the third prize pool of Raccoon City’s slot machine, Zhang Yanhang naturally looked forward more to the slot machine on the Goblin Plain because his purple quality swift leggings +4 only needed one more pair of swift leggings to upgrade to dark purple quality swift leggings +5.

Regarding the fact that he lacked one pair of swift leggings previously, which prevented him from making the swift leggings +5, Zhang Yanhang had always found it quite regrettable.

But fortunately, this time it should definitely be complete, although the last time the Goblin Plain slot machine did not refresh the third prize pool due to time constraints. However, this time he had waited four days before coming back.

The prize pool of the Goblin Plain slot machine this time should definitely refresh the Goblin Wolf Cavalry. If it still does not refresh, it would only indicate that there was a problem with the Goblin Plain slot machine.

Of course, if there is really a problem, Zhang Yanhang actually couldn’t fix it himself; he could only watch helplessly because the lucky slot machine is automatically generated by the Ashen World, unlike in the real world where you could directly ask a staff for repairs, or even contact the manufacturer.

Here, in the Ashen World, there is no service like repair hotline or home repairing. If the Goblin Plain slot machine really breaks down, one could only consider it bad luck. However, Zhang Yanhang believed he definitely wouldn’t be that unfortunate.

If you ask why, apart from his confidence in his own luck, it’s mainly because Zhang Yanhang had already used Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil to sneak a peek at the refresh situation of that slot machine and could only say that it indeed refresh normally as expected.

Every time after leaving the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, Zhang Yanhang liked to expand the scanning range of Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil to the maximum because that feeling was very liberating, but inside the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, he would always feel a bit stifled and awkward.

"Next, I’ll just start clearing out the third prize pool of the Raccoon City slot machine."

Zhang Yanhang, while speaking, pulled the metal lever on the side of the slot machine. Time paused instantly in Raccoon City, and at the same time, a vast array of text option boxes, both in format and content extremely familiar, appeared before Zhang Yanhang’s eyes.

[Please select the specific content for this draw of the Lucky Slot Machine]

[Option One: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Licker, First Tier Two Stars, Ordinary Monster.)]

[Option Two: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Police Zombie, First Tier Zero Star, Ordinary Monster.)]

...

[Option Fifty-Nine: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Gamma Type Hunter, First Tier Three Stars, Ordinary Monster.)]

...

[Option Seventy-One: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, T-001 Prototype Tyrant, Second Tier One Star, Ordinary Monster.)]

...

[Option One Hundred Ninety-Five: ✫✫✫ (Fourth Prize, Thank you for your patronage, No physical prize.)]

...

After successfully triggering an option, Zhang Yanhang habitually scrutinized the details of the options, but the end results disappointed him once again. The prize pool still contained thirty-six Ordinary Zombies, twenty-four Zombie Dogs, and the classic set combination of Lickers plus three Beta-type Hunters, two Gamma Type Hunters, and one T-001 Prototype Tyrant.

"I waited one week, then two weeks, and even three weeks, but it’s almost reaching four weeks now, and still the first and second prizes of the Lucky Slot Machine in Raccoon City have not been refreshed..."

Zhang Yanhang vividly remembered the day he first cleared the Raccoon City Lucky Slot Machine prize pool on October 1st, National Day, and today was October 25th, twenty-four days had passed, just four days shy of four weeks.

"Four days more, by my calculations, that would be exactly four weeks when I return to the Main World..."

Zhang Yanhang would pay special attention to the refresh situation of the prize pool in the Raccoon City slot machine then. All he could do was hope that by then, the first and second prizes would be refreshed, and if not, he could only wait for the last hope, which was the first of next month, although he likely wouldn’t be able to enter Raccoon City that day.

"Even if they really can’t refresh the first and second prizes, they should at least increase the number of T-001 Prototype Tyrant in the third prize pool a bit. My request isn’t high; just replace all three Beta-type Hunters and two Gamma Type Hunters with T-001 Prototype Tyrants, that would still increase my earnings a bit.

So, I choose Option Sixty-Three, the First Tier Zero Star Doctor Zombie."

Zhang Yanhang had originally thought about using this time pause to check the situation in the Demonized Swamp, but then he decided to give up that idea, planning instead to clear the slots in Goblin Plain next, and he immediately made his choice.

After Zhang Yanhang made his choice, the time pause disappeared instantly, and at the same time, the screen of the slot machine quickly flipped to three symbols representing monsters. A transparent egg shot out from the delivery port below the slot machine, but Zhang Yanhang just silently ignored this egg and mechanically pulled the metal lever again.

...

[Successfully killed First Tier Three Star Monster ’Beta Type Hunter (ordinary)’ × 1, Soul points +10.]

[Successfully killed First Tier Three Star Monster ’Beta Type Hunter (ordinary)’ × 1, Soul points +10.]

[Successfully killed First Tier Three Star Monster ’Gamma-type Hunter (ordinary)’ × 1, Soul points +10.]

...

Five minutes later, Zhang Yanhang successfully killed all the monsters in the Third Prize pool with a single Death Wave, and he also incidentally killed some Ordinary Zombies that had previously fallen into the pit.

After eliminating all the monsters, Zhang Yanhang silently stood in place for a few seconds, then began to collect the Drop Treasure Boxes.

Unexpectedly, because the T-001 Prototype Tyrant had just dropped a Blue Treasure Box, there was no Drop Treasure Boxes this time, and the equally rare Beta-type Hunters and Gamma Type Hunters also still didn’t drop any boxes.

However, other monsters which were more numerous still did drop boxes, allowing him to collect a total of six Drop Treasure Boxes.

After storing all six Drop Treasure Boxes into his Waist Bag, Zhang Yanhang immediately began sprinting towards the Lucky Slot Machine at Goblin Plain at full speed.

Since his Movement Speed had increased due to wearing Swift Leggings and associated achievements, plus it being a vast plain, even though the Lucky Slot Machine of Goblin Plain was about five kilometers away from Zhang Yanhang, he still reached the location of the Goblin Plain slot machine in about one minute.

Looking at the Lucky Slot Machine, which he had only seen once before but whose appearance still felt familiar, Zhang Yanhang did not hesitate and immediately pulled the metal lever on the side of the slot machine. At the same time, the Time Pause and text options window promptly followed.

Compared to the prize pool information from Raccoon City earlier, Zhang Yanhang undoubtedly felt more interested in the prize pool information from Goblin Plain, as it was only the second refresh there.

[Please select the specific content for this draw of the Lucky Slot Machine]

[Option One: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Big Saber Goblin Football Player, First Tier One Star, Elite Monster.)]

[Option Two: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Goblin Wolf Cavalry, First Tier Three Stars, Ordinary Monster.)]

...

[Option Thirty-Two: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Goblin Spear Thrower, First Tier Two Stars, Elite Monster.)]

[Option Thirty-Three: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Chief Shaman Goblin Maka Baga, Second Tier Second Star, Elite Monster.)]

...

[Option Sixty-Six: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Shaman Goblin, Second Tier One Star, Elite Monster.)]

...

[Option One Hundred Eighty-Nine: ✫☆✫ (Fourth Prize, Thank you for your patronage, No physical prize.)]

...