Apocalypse: System of lotteries

"Your Da Vinci has say to little bear to cease its run," the bear was told. "Ming once declared, \'They must never cross the red mist boundary…\'"

Panting, Foodie stuck out his tongue. "Little bear, you\'ve jostled me during your run. You didn\'t notice, did you?"

  "Ming told us to run far to avoid the explosion, but perhaps we\'ve run too far…"

A silence lingered.

Ming gulped down a potion for strength and another for focus, engaging an extreme evasion and bolting towards the crater. 

He couldn\'t waste any more time. His resources were running perilously thin. 

"Roar!!" 

Raoul thundered as he sprinted, sweeping his whip in a wide arc. 

Ming took to the skies, narrowly avoiding the attack, swapped to his crossbow, and began to pepper Raoul with a flurry of bolts. 

Thump, thump, thump!

Raoul chased him, all the while spewing venom towards the sky.

Glancing back, Ming verified his trajectory towards the antlion pit was correct, then returned his attention to the continuing barrage on Raoul. 

Once he had exhausted his crossbow bolts, he brought out his shotgun, then switched to his revolver when his shotgun shells were depleted.

"Watch me!"

Ming showed his middle finger, accelerating backwards in mid-air!

Thud~

While Raoul was still spewing venom towards the sky, he tumbled into the pit.

Rolling, tumbling all the way to the bottom~

" Antlion! To earth! Initiate a sand vortex to trap it!"

Ming shouted aloud, hovering above the pit, tossing down spike traps like a hailstorm. 

How will you dodge this, Raoul?

At the bottom of the funnel-shaped pit, there was no room for evasion.

Dozens, hundreds of spike traps exploded, thousands of spikes zigzagging, stabbing, sweeping, and spraying in all directions!

Raoul\'s defense was rapidly dwindling; his feet were unknowingly sinking slowly into the sandy whirlpool of the antlion. 

The antlion, an imperial star creature in its sand pit, owned the field. Had the little bear not pulled him out in time, Ming would have been sucked dry by it.

"Roar!!" 

Raoul, whose knees were already submerged in the sand vortex, could only bellow. He had exhausted all his abilities. 

"stay put and bite its legs!" 

Ming had landed on the edge of the pit, dodging the occasional flying spike while pulling the trigger into the pit. 

He was now waiting for Raoul\'s defense to hit zero so that he could incapacitate it from a distance with his shotgun. Once it was disabled, it would be at his mercy. 

Then, its end would be nigh!

No, it would be the time when Raoul became a \'worker\' for Ming.

Originally, he thought he\'d need Chef and Lopene\'s help, but it seemed he wouldn\'t.

Defense, nearing zero!

Roar!!

Suddenly, Raoul, at the bottom of the pit, let out a long howl, kneeling motionless with arms braced on the ground!

"Surrendering?"

Ming frowned in confusion. Was it seeking to join since it couldn\'t win?

Roar!!

Lowering its head, Raoul let out a high-pitched, mournful cry. Two jets of filth and blood exploded from its back, followed by the unfurling of a pair of grey-brown wings from the wound!

Mutant awakening!

"Holy…" 

Ming stopped pulling the trigger in shock.

Whoosh! Thump!

Raoul , his wings flapping furiously, rose skyward with a ferocious howl. Free of the sandy vortex, he alighted before Ming with a bellow!

The gust from his flapping wings tossed Ming backward, tumbling. Then, with a single beat of its wings, Raoul  was before him, delivering a punch square to Ming\'s left chest.

Thump!!

Ming, yet to rise, was knocked flying again.

Rolling on the ground!

"Damn!"

Before Ming could get up, Raoul\'s hoof came stomping down again.

Dodge!

Ming rolled left. The hoof stomped heavily into the ground.

Ming had thought he could easily end the fight in the sand pit. He didn\'t expect its sudden evolution.

"Lopene!"

Ming initiated extreme evasion, narrowly avoiding Raoul \'s punch while summoning Lopene. Appearing, Lopene was still poisoned, his defense steadily decreasing. After all, whatever state he was in when entering the puppet space, he kept when exiting.

Ming darted to the right, luring Raoul to turn his back on Lopene!

[Your puppet, Lopene, wants to help Raoul earn money. He has no money.]

[Your puppet, Lopene, is looking at you. What to do?]

"Crap!"

This guy actually had no money!

"Lopene, give me the money!"

"Chef!"

Whoosh!!

As a punch flew in, Ming, banking on his extreme evasion, dodged, summoning Chef and ripping the bandage off his left hand.

[Your puppet, Lopene, gives you all the money in the treasury.]

It seemed that today, he was destined to use his money-boost ability!

"Cook for him!"

Ming dodged another whip attack from Raoul . He had to act fast; the cooldown for Raoul \'s abilities was nearly over!

[Your puppet, Chef, offers his elbow to Raoul \'s back. Raoul turns his head, suffered the elbow and loses attack ability for 5 seconds.]

"Good!"

Ming was thrilled, his left hand loosening, making a fist. As long as the spirit attribute exceeded 1200, he could connecting it!

Open hand again, make a fist again~

[Consumed 40,000 gold coins, gained 400 points in constitution.]

[...]

[Your puppet, Chef, triggers his talent, lays down a table, invites the opponent to sit. Raoul  accepts the invitation and sits across Chef. The effect of the additional 5-second loss of attacking ability fails~]

[Your puppet, Chef, make a cake. The opponent is immune.]

[Your puppet, Chef, looks at you. It\'s over; he doesn\'t like my dishes~]

[Your puppet, Chef, is knocked flying by Raoul \'s punch!]

"…"

Ming was shocked. Indeed, face-to-face, Raoul  could resist! A five-time mutated two-star emperor, truly formidable!

Looking at his left fist, he thought, this can\'t continue; Raoul \'s cooldown time was nearly over!

"Lopene, hit him!"

"Heh heh~"

[Your puppet, Lopene, charges in, is sent flying by a whip.]

[...]

"Damn it!"

The gap between a five-star King level and a two-star Emperor level was truly like heaven and earth.

Roar!!

Raoul  spread his wings again to catch up, landing in front of Ming, raising his whip!

"Not good~"

It was the [Beast Taming] skill!

The Giant Eagle skill was still cooling down~ what to do? Was he really going to have to jump through the fiery hoop in the enemy\'s hand?

Damn it!

[Your Da Vinci uses his ability to seize Raoul \'s whip and fiery hoop. Success! Triggers the Great Helper to strip, acquiring one of the opponent\'s skills. He looks at you, Ming, I\'m coming!]

[Your foodie rams into Raoul , gets bounced back. It keeps ramming, I won\'t stop until I crush you today!]

[Your Merlin grazes past Raoul l\'s swinging hand, I\'ll still poison you no matter how high your poison resistance!]

The bear leaped up, slapping Raoul l\'s head with its paw, causing him to stagger.

"Clench your fist!!"

[Spent 120,000 gold coins, gained 1200 agility points.]

At this moment, his agility crushed Raoul \'s! 

Raoul , now weaponless, could only fight with his bare hands.

"Come on!!"

Ming roared, clenching his left fist and pulling out a chainsaw with his right, "Let\'s have a fair fight!"

The chainsaw was activated! Zzzzz!!!

Whoosh!

Raoul  threw a punch. Ming easily dodged, cutting into his left knee with the chainsaw.

Defense points depleted! Left knee shattered!

"Break!"

He dodged a raised hoof, the chainsaw horizontally aimed at the right knee, shattering the kneecap.

Raoul  fell to his knees, flailing his fists!

"Sever!"

Ming put away the chainsaw, grabbed Raoul \'s left arm with his right hand, and smashed his left fist into his elbow!

He moved swiftly to his back, using a punch to break his right arm!

Whoosh!

Raoul flapped his wings and soared high!!

"Bend it!"

Ming leapt onto its back and broke its wings with his fists!

Raoul, now helpless, fell to the ground.

He opened his left fist, clenched it again, opened, clenched... clenched!

[Spent 70,000 gold coins, gained 700 spirit points!]

"Welcome to my home!"

Ming placed his right hand on Raoul\'s head, initiating a bridge!

The bridge was successful!

At this point, the antlion finally crawled out of the pit... only to see all of Ming\'s men staring at it.

[Your puppet , got lost in the sand~]

[Noon News, countdown to Chapter Three has begun, we hope everyone continues to stay strong. Here are today\'s news contents: 1, Emperor-level BOSS frequently appearing all over the world, be careful when going out; 2, an Epic-level BOSS has appeared somewhere, it\'s advised not to provoke; 3, the Walking Giant is about to appear, if you don\'t attack it, it won\'t attack you, it\'s best to live in peace; 4, please prepare for the arrival of Chapter Four, the more prepared you are the better.]

[All-channel broadcast, congratulations to Ming for being the first to defeat a six-star Mutant Emperor-level BOSS and achieving a five-star completion of a personal random instance. Reward: one five-star completion treasure chest, 50,000 experience points, 10,000 gold coins. His experience instance will descend on all Dragon Country districts, and the fog in his district will dissipate by 2%.]

"Mutant six- star?"

"In my original district, someone mutated six times. I heard that he\'s now someone\'s pet."

"That person must be really strong, right?"

"He\'s not necessarily strong, but he definitely knows how to take advantage of the situation."