CHAPTER 623: CHAPTER 622 WESTERN FOREST

October 27, Tuesday, the day after the Double Ninth Festival, and also the third day since Zhang Yanhang entered the Ashen World. At 12:11 AM, in Raccoon City, at the Dulda Apartment, the Lucky Slot Machine.

After rescanning the talisman paper in the sewers of Raccoon City, Zhang Yanhang found that the blue energy bar on the paper had risen by about one-fifth again, now occupying two-fifths of the total area of the paper.

Based on the current situation, Zhang Yanhang estimated that the talisman would need at least three more days to repair the transmission channel, which meant it would not be done until October 30 or 31. Therefore, he definitely couldn’t wait that long and could only plan to come back and check the next time he entered the Ashen World.

After checking on the progress of the abandoned transmission channel’s repair, Zhang Yanhang immediately started to pull the metal lever at the side of the slot machine. As the metal lever turned, the familiar pause in time once again descended upon Raccoon City, and a large array of text options that were all too familiar in both format and content appeared before Zhang Yanhang’s eyes.

[Please choose the specific content of this Lucky Slot Machine prize draw:]

[Option One: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Gamma Type Hunter, First Tier Three Stars, ordinary monster.)]

[Option Two: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Police Zombie, First Tier Zero Stars, ordinary monster.)]

...

[Option Seventy-Nine: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Chihuahua Zombie, First Tier One Star, ordinary monster.)]

...

[Option Ninety-Two: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, T-001 Prototype Tyrant, Second Tier One Star, ordinary monster.)]

...

[Option One Hundred Ninety-Two: ✫✫✫ (Fourth Prize, thanks for playing, no physical prize.)]

...

After proficiently reviewing the entire prize pool list, Zhang Yanhang was unsurprisingly a bit disappointed, "If I remember correctly, today should be the last day of the fourth week, yet the prize list still hasn’t refreshed the first or second prizes...

Wait, I think this prize pool was refreshed on the 26th, so this is actually the Saturday prize pool. The prize pool that refreshes this morning at 6 AM is the one that truly has the possibility of updating the first and second prizes."

Although the air around him had come to a standstill, Zhang Yanhang couldn’t help but sigh heavily. The closer he got to hope, the more fearful he was of disappointment. Thankfully, apart from the four-week option, he still had a backup choice, which was a month, but like with repairing the transmission channel, he would only be able to verify that next time he came.

"Speaking of which, it’s okay if the first and second prizes don’t refresh, but why hasn’t the Lady Zombie appeared again? Could it be some limited quantity rare zombie? It would be nice if it could give me a couple of Lady Zombies to play with."

Even though Zhang Yanhang really disdained the other zombies, he could just about accept having a Lady Zombie as a pet.

"So, I choose Option Two, Police Zombie, First Tier Zero Stars ordinary monster."

After reviewing the third prize list of the Raccoon City Lucky Slot Machine, Zhang Yanhang quickly made his choice. The time pause disappeared, and the patterns on the Lucky Slot Machine screen began to spin rapidly, finally stopping on three symbols representing monsters.

...

[Successfully killed a First Tier Three Stars Monster ’Beta Type Hunter (ordinary)’ x1, Soul points +10.]

[Successfully killed a First Tier Three Stars Monster ’Beta Type Hunter (ordinary)’ x1, Soul points +10.]

[Successfully killed a First Tier Three Stars Monster ’Gamma-type Hunter (ordinary)’ x1, Soul points +10.]

After brushing off a T-001 Prototype Tyrant that had fallen onto him, Zhang Yanhang, somewhat in disgust, used his Energy Shield to repell the dark red tainted blood that had been squirted out of the monster’s body due to the pressure from the Death Wave.

Although the color of the blood was somewhat similar to the blood of demonized creatures in the Demonized Swamp, without a doubt, Zhang Yanhang disdained the blood of Raccoon City zombies even more. At least the demonized creatures counted as life forms, albeit in a demonized state.

However, zombies were completely outside the category of normal life forms, merely unconsciously moving corpses, maybe not even qualifying as Undead life, after all, Undead at least had some semblance of self-awareness.

Zhang Yanhang stood atop the pit of corpses for a few seconds, and on schedule, drop treasure boxes appeared from the zombie corpses in the pit. However, this time he didn’t continue the same streak of good luck as before; neither the Gamma Type Hunters, Beta-type Hunters, nor the Prototype Tyrant dropped any treasure boxes, nor did the Police Zombie drop any more treasure boxes.

So, even though Zhang Yanhang had unwillingly scanned the entire area, he only found four drop treasure boxes, which was two fewer than the six drop treasure boxes from last time, and they were two relatively valuable drop treasure boxes at that.

After quickly gathering these four drop treasure boxes, Zhang Yanhang promptly stashed them in his Waist Bag, then immediately returned along the outer wall to apartment 301 in Dulda Apartment. Thanks to his ’As Flat As A Pancake’ ability, he once again entered through the window and lay directly back on the bed to contemplate life.

"Now that I’ve finished clearing all three third prize pools of the Lucky Slot Machines, what should I do next? Should I sleep first or open the treasure boxes?"

Zhang Yanhang thought for a moment and felt that even though he was very tired from working tirelessly for thirteen hours, compared to sleeping, he should probably open the treasure boxes first, especially as he would likely be able to assemble the necessary number to upgrade the Grey Maned Arm Guard to Dark Purple Quality +6, with no unpleasant surprises.

With that, the physical recovery speed bonus provided by the Grey Maned Arm Guard would definitely be increased, and as the physical recovery speed increased, the time he needed to rest would naturally decrease. Therefore, adhering to the principle that sharpening your axe will not delay the work of cutting wood, he should indeed open the drop treasure box he had just acquired.

After making up his mind, Zhang Yanhang didn’t rush to open the treasure box immediately. Instead, he first opened his balance of soul points to check it.

[Soul Points: 143336 (+63442)]

"This time, the number of monsters hunted is more than the last time, so the earnings from soul points are naturally higher. If I remember correctly, the last time the total earnings from kills were just over fifty thousand soul points; this time, the kill earnings alone are 63442 soul points, almost ten thousand more than last time.

Adding the soul points I had saved before, my current balance of soul points without opening the treasure box has already reached 143336 soul points, which is enough to upgrade the Fighting Master skill from Level 5 to Level 6.

With the situation developing like this, after I finish opening the drop treasure boxes, wouldn’t it be possible to directly gather enough soul points to upgrade the Indestructible Golden Body to Original Level 6 as well?" Zhang Yanhang thought it was quite likely as long as he could get another 110,000 soul points from the drop treasure boxes.

"Although the soul points I’ve obtained this time are indeed more than last time, the area I cleared this time was also much larger than before.

Last time when I cleared the area, I only cleaned up eighty square kilometers of the Demonized Swamp, but this time I cleaned one hundred and thirty square kilometers at once, which was fifty square kilometers more than last time.

In other words, I cleared an area more than three-fifths larger than last time, but the soul points were only about one-fifth more; the Demonized Maned Beasts were indeed a bit weak. Even though their number was indeed slightly more than the Demonized Dogtooth Giant Apes, the lower value of soul points meant that the overall earnings were not actually much higher."

This time, including the third prize pool from the Lucky Slot Machine, Zhang Yanhang killed approximately seven thousand monsters in total. The largest proportion naturally came from the first tier three star ordinary Demonized Maned Beasts from the eastern Demonized Swamp forest, of which he killed nearly seven thousand. Following that, there were forty Demonized Dogtooth Giant Apes from the Lucky Slot Machine in the Demonized Swamp.

Next came the zombies, Zombie Dogs, and Lickers from Raccoon City, then the twenty Big Saber Goblins, Goblin Spear Throwers, Goblin Wolf Cavalry, Big Goblins, and nineteen Goblin Shamans from the Goblin Plain; following that were the Police Zombies, Beta-type Hunters, and Gamma-type Hunters.

Last were the single instances of Prototype Tyrant T-001, Chief Shaman Goblin Maka Baga, and the Demonized Emperor Crocodile. Among them, Zhang Yanhang considered the Demonized Emperor Crocodile to be the most important because only the Demonized Emperor Crocodile had dropped a treasure box, as the Prototype Tyrant and Maka Baga would need to wait a few more days before possibly dropping another treasure box again.

After checking his soul point balance, Zhang Yanhang immediately emptied out a large pile of drop treasure boxes from his Waist Bag. He next wanted to count the number of drop treasure boxes.

As for what method Zhang Yanhang used to count the number of drop treasure boxes each time? It was actually quite simple—just scan them with Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil, and then he would know the number of treasure boxes.

Therefore, after quickly completing the count, Zhang Yanhang found that this time he had acquired a total of three hundred and sixty drop treasure boxes. Since the number of monsters hunted was greater, the number of drop treasure boxes naturally increased by a large margin, rounding up to nearly a hundred more drop treasure boxes than last time.

Of these three hundred and sixty drop treasure boxes, there were seven blue treasure boxes, which included three from the Big Goblins and Goblin Shamans and one from the Demonized Emperor Crocodile.

The rest were three hundred and fifty green quality drop treasure boxes. Of these three hundred and fifty boxes, the majority were naturally from the Demonized Maned Beasts, as they provided Zhang Yanhang with three hundred and forty-four treasure boxes.

This time, the proportion was even more exaggerated than last time: after excluding the drop treasure boxes of the demonized maned tooth beast, only six drop treasure boxes remained. Of these six, two came from the demonized canine giant ape, one from the Licker, and the final three were from the Big Saber Goblin, Goblin Spear Thrower, and Goblin Wolf Cavalry.

What followed were the pitifully few white drop treasure boxes: not only were there just three in total, but they all came from the third prize pool of the Raccoon City Lucky Slot Machine. After all, Zhang Yanhang was indeed no longer running into white treasure boxes during his regular monster hunts, so it was normal for there to be so few.

Of the three white drop treasure boxes Zhang Yanhang obtained this time, the First Tier Zero Star ordinary zombies contributed two, and the First Tier One Star zombie dog contributed one.

After tallying the drop treasure boxes he had gathered this time, Zhang Yanhang did not linger any longer and went straight to picking up a blue-quality drop treasure box, namely the one from the demonized emperor crocodile.

Since it was his first time opening a drop treasure box from a second tier demonized creature of the demonized swamp, he placed considerable importance on this treasure box.

[Do you want to open the ’Drop Treasure Box (Demonized Emperor Crocodile)’?]

"Yes, open it."

Accompanying Zhang Yanhang’s choice, the familiar sensation of time pause immediately descended upon Raccoon City once again. It had only descended a hundred times before while he was clearing the prize pool of the Lucky Slot Machine, and now it was set to come three hundred sixty more times.

But although the frequency of time pause was astonishing, Zhang Yanhang definitely wouldn’t grow tired of it; in fact, he even hoped it would occur a few more times.

After all, three hundred sixty drop treasure boxes were just an average number in his past drop gains. There was even a time when he opened six hundred drop treasure boxes in a row, spending over half an hour just opening the boxes.

Although the continuous repetitive mechanical selection did numb him a bit, to his good fortune, tallying the gains always turned out to be exciting.

If possible, Zhang Yanhang was indeed very eager to replicate those wonderful moments of opening six hundred boxes in a row, but alas, there weren’t enough monsters in the demonized swamp.

If the density of monsters in the demonized swamp were the same as in the Goblin Plain, then not to mention six hundred boxes, even if Zhang Yanhang were to open a four-digit number of drop treasure boxes all at once for an hour straight, he still wouldn’t lack confidence. Unfortunately, the density and number of creatures in the demonized swamp were both low and could not satisfy his little wish.

Moreover, according to his previous scanning results, although he had only cleared 55% of the total area of the demonized swamp, he had nearly cleaned out most of the creatures in it.

The combined number of creatures remaining in the Western Forest, the lake area, and the swamp area was even less than the number of demonized maned tooth beasts in the Eastern Forest.

After all, there were only about twenty thousand demonized creatures in the demonized swamp. He had eliminated six thousand in the Southern Forest and another seven thousand in the Eastern Forest, totaling thirteen thousand creatures.

Therefore, it was quite normal for the remaining creatures to be fewer than those in the Eastern Forest. Moreover, it was commonplace for more powerful creatures to be fewer in number.