Just as he meticulously finished carving the last magical rune groove on the final set of field equipment for the Half-human children, Chen Luo let out a soft sigh, a faint sense of fatigue beginning to creep into his brain. After all, the craft of forging and improving field equipment always demanded absolute mental focus and extremely brain-draining mana regulation. If not for the fact that his mental power was on the verge of exhaustion, he truly would have conveniently pulled out his own weapon to re-temper it as well.
As Chen Luo wearily walked over to a smooth, flat stone to rest, the Half-human children refused to sit still. Having just received brand-new equipment with significantly upgraded stats, each one was bursting with excitement, immediately dividing up to spread out and search for scattered monster spawns to test their new gear in live combat. Watching those dynamic, energetic figures, Chen Luo couldn't help but show a helpless smile. Initially, Chris—with his cautious nature and habit of observation—intended to stay by Chen Luo's side to watch over him. However, brought along by the overly enthusiastic coaxing and invitations from his friends, the Wolf Tribe boy had no choice but to set aside his stern demeanor, pick up the new poison twin daggers, and dash off with the group to experience the refurbished power.
While waiting for the children to play about, Chen Luo's gaze inadvertently swept across the open space opposite and settled on a massive block-shaped structure—another commercial hotel. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly about how absurdly dense with hotels this district was. The curiosity of a player who loved exploring every nook and cranny immediately stirred; Chen Luo stood up and stepped through the shattered glass door. The interior was vast but covered in a thick layer of dust. Just as he inhaled a mouthful of musty, dusty air, Chen Luo was choked into a long fit of coughing.
-"Damn it, why is this godforsaken place so full of dust... Cough cough cough!"
As he grimaced and cursed, from deep within the dust-shrouded darkness of the hall, rustling crawling sounds echoed. Monster hisses grew denser and denser, approaching slowly but with menace. Peering through the shifting haze, what appeared before Chen Luo was a pack of low-level mutated spider monsters. Without wasting time, Chen Luo flipped his hand and drew his military dagger, his figure shooting forward like a fierce gust of wind.
Seeing prey charging into their territory, the spider horde all simultaneously opened their grinding-toothed mouths, emitting piercing shrieks before accelerating toward him. The clacking of armored spider legs against the stone floor blended with the ringing of his swinging blade ripping through the air in quick succession. Though these were merely low-level creatures without protective magic, swiftly sweeping and killing monsters had long been a craft ingrained in the blood of a former top-tier booster like Chen Luo.
-[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for defeating a total of 15「Mutated Spiders」, receiving 2,100 EXP.]
-[Congratulations, Host, on officially leveling up to Level 13! Luck smiles upon you—receiving an additional 5 Intelligence points and 5 Resilience points!]
Seeing the system notification before him, Chen Luo couldn't hide his surprise. For an Unclassed profession (Vô Chức Tán Nhân) that required balanced development across all stats, having the level-up bonus suddenly jump into the two attributes of Intelligence and Resilience without being scattered piecemeal was an extremely rare stroke of fortune. After all, if those 10 bonus points all piled into a single stat, it would be too absurd and unbalanced; while allocating them cleanly 5-5 with no odd remainder was a once-in-a-millennium occurrence.
Without dwelling on the joy of leveling, Chen Luo continued striding deeper into the hotel. However, aside from discovering 4 sturdy Safes sitting prominently in the corner of the management office, the entire place was completely derelict. The water and energy systems had utterly failed; the luxurious mattresses in the suites had all been infiltrated by mutated mold, turning pitch black. Spending resources to clean and reuse them proved far too troublesome and not worth it.
Stepping back into the open space outside, Chen Luo stopped and looked up to carefully study the appearance of the surrounding high-rises. Rows of bizarre flora—most notably the mutated ivy and extremely aggressive woody vines—had crawled from the foundations all the way to the rooftops. They wove into dense patches of deep green leaves, thick and sturdy as iron armor.
Chen Luo was truly astonished. Under natural growth conditions, plants could not achieve such terrifying growth rates and invasive scale in such a short period. Every trace pointed to this flora having been magically intervened or intentionally cultivated before the apocalypse event, not mere spontaneous natural outbreak. Gazing deep into the cracking concrete roads now gripped tightly by roots, he realized a truth: this city—or more broadly, this entire apocalypse world—concealed countless mysteries far beyond the comprehension of veteran gamers like him from his past life. Though a surge of intense curiosity rose in his chest, Chen Luo understood now was not the time to dig deeper. He silently promised to find the right moment to interrogate high-level NPCs or undertake an expedition himself to strip clean every secret this world was hiding.
When Chen Luo leisurely returned to his original stone, the Half-human children just happened to finish their test run and happily regrouped. Seeing everyone's faces brimming with joy, he smiled and signaled the group to pack up and head back to "base."
-"Let's head home, Brother Chen Luo! The equipment you made is truly amazing!" — Aaron ran joyfully ahead, waving his arms and legs in effusive praise. "It's not just light as a feather—the durability is outrageously strong too. How do you make it so good?"
-"That's right, big brother!" — Celes couldn't hide her astonishment either as she gently stroked the gleaming blade at her hip. "Not just light—the damage increase is insane! That armored monster earlier—I split it in two with just one basic swing."
As a swordswoman, Celes understood very well that to obtain a sword that was both sharp and kept perfect balance like this one, one would normally have to spend a fortune on master blacksmiths to craft it by hand. Even the top-tier industrial products could hardly achieve this level of refinement and mana fusion.
As for Alice, the shy little girl didn't say much, merely looking up at Chen Luo with a radiant, pure smile like morning sunlight. For a girl who had always been afraid and withdrawn to proactively smile naturally was already a tremendous psychological step forward. Chen Luo smiled fondly and reached out to pat each child's head. Though Chris tried to dodge out of embarrassment and a desire to maintain his big-brother composure, ultimately the boy yielded to Chen Luo's large hand gently stroking his hair. After all, no child wants to be left out of the circle of praise when all their friends around are being commended.
As the group began their journey back, Chen Luo strolled leisurely at the rear. He deliberately maintained a few steps of distance to give the children room to chat freely and share the joy of victory, while he played the role of a silent guardian behind.
However, after only walking a short distance, the toe of Chen Luo's boot suddenly stepped on a smooth round object hidden beneath the weeds, causing him to slip slightly. Noticing the children ahead were still absorbed in conversation and paying no attention, Chen Luo quickly bent down and brushed aside the grime to see what had tripped him.
Beneath his hand appeared a small pouch wrapped in slightly dust-covered golden-yellow cloth.
Initially, Chen Luo simply thought it was some personal pouch someone had accidentally dropped while fleeing. However, when he tried activating the 「Appraise」 skill, a dazzling golden window abruptly burst before his eyes—the item before him was actually a Lucky Bag of Legendary quality!
This Lucky Bag could be considered a flexible condensed version of the「Safe」. When opened, it had a random chance of granting the owner extremely rare equipment, skills, or materials, but also carried the risk of drawing a "Cursed Bag". The biggest difference was that the pouch would instantly vanish permanently after use rather than leaving behind a container like a Safe. Legendary-quality bags had an extremely low spawn rate—findable only with ultra-small drop rates inside high-tier Safes, dropped from special events, or naturally scattered across the map. Clearly, Chen Luo's case fell into the third, fortunate possibility.
-"Jackpot, jackpot! Never thought I'd find something like this in such an out-of-the-way spot. Looks like my gacha luck hasn't been half bad lately!"
Chen Luo was so overjoyed he nearly blurted it out loud. As a man with "gacha blood" deeply ingrained in his marrow from his past life, if he had accidentally missed a Legendary-tier draw opportunity like this today, he would definitely be too angry to sleep for several nights. Though the quantity of items inside the Lucky Bag wasn't as abundant as a Safe, its quality was directly tied to the bag's rarity—and the words "Legendary" were the golden guarantee for top-tier goods!
Quick as lightning, Chen Luo hid the pouch deep in his system inventory, then hastened his steps to close the distance to the children, avoiding letting them notice he'd fallen too far behind.
As he moved, the gacha blood within Chen Luo boiled uncontrollably. He silently opened his inventory interface. This time, no barrier stood in the way of his desire. With a speed-blurring motion that even he couldn't explain, Chen Luo pulled out a few feng shui coins and a set of ceramic divination bowls from his field inventory. His lips murmured fervent prayers to every gacha deity in existence, his hands continuously rattling the bowls in crisp, clattering sounds. After a period of devout invocation, Chen Luo opened the bowls—great fortune! Without another trace of hesitation, he focused his spiritual energy and decisively activated the opening of the Legendary「Lucky Bag」right in his inventory.
*BOOOOOM!*
The instant the pouch split apart, a blinding column of golden light exploded, shooting straight up from Chen Luo's virtual inventory position through the high clouds! The energy burst was so sudden even Chen Luo himself jolted in surprise. The Half-human children ahead turned back in panic; the holy, dazzling light made it impossible for them to open their eyes, all raising hands to shield their faces. Unlike his friends' bewilderment, Chris stared at the sky-piercing golden pillar, his brows knitting tightly, the Wolf Tribe boy's face growing extremely serious and worried.
At the same moment the golden light of the extraordinary treasure pierced through the sky, across countless distant lands, mysterious forces and high-intelligence monster creatures all paused simultaneously, looking up toward the fantastic light on the distant horizon.
-"How many years has it been... Where has such a fierce golden light erupted? Could a World-Grade Treasure have just surfaced?"
In a shadowy space, a figure draped in a dark robe turned to speak thoughtfully to the one beside him. In the laws of this world, whenever a World-Class or Legendary exotic treasure erupted with magical power, it was only natural for the major powers to catch the scent and swarm in to fight over it.
-"I don't know either," — another robed figure, this one in white, replied gently, his voice dispersing the silence. "But based on the locating magic compass, the point of eruption is quite far from us... It seems to have descended over some ruined metropolis area."
Their voices, though utterly calm, were laced with a crushing aura of time itself—clearly the tone of supreme elders who had lived across centuries.
-"So how do we split it this time?" — another elder in blue robes probed, his sharp eyes sweeping across those around him. "In the last exotic treasure's appearance, you old White and old Fire hogged most of the benefits. This time, the two of you still want to dip your hands in too?"
The statement contained a complex, unspoken agreement unfolding among these great beings, where distributing world-level resources was decided with just a few words.
-"This time, let your faction go," — the white-robed elder said gently with a smile, spreading his hand in concession. "After all, our faction alone can hardly monopolize all the treasures of the world."
With that, he cast a sidelong glance at the elder in the scarlet robe embroidered with a surging divine flame beside him.
-"Hahaha! Good fortune, purely good fortune! How would this old man dare claim to monopolize!" — the scarlet-robed elder threw his head back and laughed arrogantly. That echoing laugh made it impossible to tell what schemes lay hidden behind that aged face—whether they were wicked or unfathomably deep.
...
The view gradually expanded to a grand panorama. The gathering place of the six robe-clad elders representing the major powers was a luxurious round stone table. That table sat at the very pinnacle of a breathtakingly magnificent high tower. At the tower's base sprawled a bustling, prosperous grand metropolis—an apex seat of power completely divorced from the desolation of the outside apocalypse world. At that peak of authority, the six elders casually discussed dividing the "newly surfaced treasure" without the slightest deference or fear toward anyone.
Meanwhile, in Chen Luo's space, as the golden pillar of light gradually retracted and vanished into the void, he slowly opened his eyes. Looking at the three empty inventory slots now radiating dazzling gold and deep, vivid purple, Chen Luo's eyes immediately revealed a maniacal, ecstatic gleam!
Wasn't this the dream "pulling 3/5 SSR" scene that every gacha gamer on earth yearned to worship?! Chen Luo was overjoyed as if he'd won the lottery, already mentally popping champagne to celebrate. Right at that moment, the system voice rang out, tallying all his results:
-[Ding! Congratulations, Host, on successfully opening the Legendary-quality「Lucky Bag」!]
-[List of items received:
1. Legendary-grade Equipment: 「Myriad Pole Divine Sword - Damaged State」!
2. Combined Skill Scroll: 「Infinity Sword Technique」!
3. Special Item: 「Lucky Bag」 of Ultra Rare (UR) quality!]
-[Host opens a Legendary Lucky Bag for the first time; Luck +0.05!]
-[Detected another 「Lucky Bag」 of UR grade in inventory. Would the Host like to continue opening?]