Chapter 31: The Wheel of Fortune

Chapter 31: Chapter 31: The Wheel of Fortune

Eric manifested the three midnight-blue gacha tickets from his system subspace, placing the glowing cards neatly in a row across the aged pine floorboards of the attic.

He dropped to his knees, clapped his hands together with exaggerated solemnity, and closed his eyes.

"Oh holy gods of gacha, divine arbiters of RNG, hear my plea... bless these pulls with pure gold."

Perched atop the back of the wooden chair, Coal tilted his head sideways, blinking his pitch-black, intelligent eyes before letting out a soft, unimpressed click of his bone-white beak.

Ritual complete, Eric raised his head and locked his gaze onto the first shimmering card.

"System, activate Gacha Wheel. Let’s roll!"

*SHIIING.*

The first ticket dissolved into a cascading fountain of azure sparks, coalescing into the familiar crimson-rimmed roulette wheel spinning rapidly before his retinas. The needle blurred across the distinct segments, Weapons, Artifacts, Miscellaneous, Potions—before steadily bleeding momentum with crisp, rhythmic clicks.

*Tick... tick... tick...*

The needle dragged past the border and ground to a complete halt right in the dead center of the Manuals section.

*DING!*

│ [GACHA REWARD CONFIRMED]

│

│ Congratulations, Host!

│ Obtained: [Mortal-Rank High-Grade Skill Manual x1]

│ Item deposited into [System Inventory].

"Holy shit!" Eric gasped, his hands trembling as he stared at the crimson prompt. "A skill manual! Finally!"

He plunged his consciousness straight into his inventory and drew out the prize. A weathered, charcoal-grey parchment materialized in his grasp, bound with delicate silver thread and humming with a faint, cool shadowy resonance.

Eric carefully unrolled the scroll, inspecting its detailed interface breakdown:

│ [SKILL MANUAL: Shadow Steps]

│

│ Tier: Mortal Rank (High-Grade)

│ Element: Shadow

│ Learning Requirement: Mortal Stage Level 5+

│

│ Effect: Grants the practitioner the innate movement technique [Shadow Steps (Rank D)]. Allows the user to short-range blink across low-light terrain and glide silently along physical cast shadows.

"A Rank-D movement skill..."

Eric ran his thumb across the cool vellum, his eyes alight with excitement.

"I would’ve settled for a basic sword strike, but high-tier mobility is ten times more valuable for battlefield survivability. This completely changes how I can position alongside Coal."

Tucking the precious scroll safely back into his storage subspace, Eric turned his attention to the second ticket waiting on the floor.

"Keep the hot streak alive. Roll number two!"

*VUUUM.*

The wheel spun into a second blinding vortex of light. Eric leaned forward, holding his breath as the needle whipped past Manuals, grazed the edge of Weapons, and eased to a smooth, gentle stop over the turquoise border of the Potions sector.

*DING!*

│ [GACHA REWARD CONFIRMED]

│

│ Congratulations, Host!

│ Obtained: [Mortal-Rank High-Grade Mana Potion x10]

│ Items deposited into [System Inventory].

"Potions?!"

Eric’s eyes practically morphed into credit signs. "Ten bottles of high-grade mana potions?!"

Ten sleek, crystalline vials filled with swirling sapphire liquid materialized in his inventory, giving off a soothing, luminescent glow. Eric immediately whipped out his smartphone and pulled up the live auction ledgers on the municipal hunter network.

Because high-grade mana recovery potions could instantly replenish a cultivator’s spent mana reserves during critical boss raids or life-or-death skirmishes, they commanded the exact same premium as high-grade healing tinctures, roughly 35,000 credits per vial on the open market.

Liquidating the entire batch would yield a staggering 350,000 credits.

Eric let out a wild, breathless laugh and fell backward onto his mattress, staring up at the bare wooden rafters in pure ecstasy.

"Five hundred and twenty thousand already sitting in the bank, plus three hundred and fifty thousand from these draughts... that’s over eight hundred and seventy thousand credits in total value!"

The suffocating noose that had weighed on his chest since the moment he woke up in this world vanished in an instant. The looming six-hundred-thousand-credit debt to Scarface Vane’s syndicate was officially crushed with fifteen full days to spare.

"No more scrambling for interest payments," Eric whispered, a fierce, liberated grin spreading across his face. "Sunshine Home is safe. From here on out, every single beast core, credit, and drop of blood is invested strictly into our own power."

*Caw!* Coal flapped his wings from the chair, letting out a sharp, approving trill as if sharing in the victory.

Catching his breath, Eric pushed himself back up to inspect the third and final card resting on the floorboards.

"Let’s see what closes out the triple pull. Spin the third ticket!"

*SHHHHH.*

The roulette wheel flared into motion for the final time. It accelerated into a vibrant blur, clicking steadily past Weapons, skipping clean over Potions, and gradually bleeding speed until the needle settled firmly atop the mysterious, slate-gray silhouette of the Miscellaneous sector.

*DING!*

│ [GACHA REWARD CONFIRMED]

│

│ Congratulations, Host!

│ Obtained: [Low-Rank Skill Upgrade Token x1]

│ Item deposited into [System Inventory].

Eric’s eyes locked onto the glowing text, his mind racing with possibilities.

A skill upgrade token.

With *Shadow Steps* in his hands and Coal’s *Shadow Talons* sitting at Rank E, he held the exact catalyst needed to elevate their combat prowess to an entirely new tier.