Faced with such a rare big spender, the yuan-ti woman flashed an intoxicating, dazzling smile and cooed, "Of course, honoured guest."
She was just about to instruct the burly ogres to carry the chests over when Charlotte's voice stopped her.
"No, I don't want the chests you hand me. May I pick them myself?"
"Huh?"
A flicker of confusion crossed the yuan-ti woman's face, though she replied politely, "Certainly. Though... it shouldn't make any difference."
"The difference is massive!"
Charlotte struck a pose, pushing up his glasses with supreme confidence. "Heh. According to the official lore, since this is 'Cassius's Bounty,' there must be good stuff hidden inside.
"Knowing how scummy the devs are, would they ever let you pull good gear that easily? If the people at the front pull all the best prizes, what happens to the junk left behind?"
Charlotte pointed at the chests, his eyes glinting with self-assurance as he declared aloud, "So these chests are definitely set up to fleece a big wave of chumps first, recoup the costs, and only then start dropping the good loot. But no matter how much they schemed, they never anticipated I'd pull the rug out from under them!
"Everyone, keep your eyes peeled. I'm about to show you what it looks like to outplay the heavens!"
Hearing Charlotte's seemingly ironclad reasoning, the onlookers bought it completely.
"Damn, he really is a top guild leader. He's got real skill!"
"Makes sense! I'm copying his picks later."
"Total big shot. He's got the mechanics all figured out. No wonder nobody pulled anything good before!"
Meanwhile, watching everything from his palace, Cassius was torn between tears and laughter. *Aren't you overthinking this? I didn't rig any of this. If you just bought them normally, you'd get your drops!*
"My dear god-tier gear, where are you hiding?"
Charlotte walked to the deepest part of the shop, scanning the identical chests. After a moment of solemn contemplation, he carefully pointed out a specific chest.
"Heh, looks like the first piece of blue gear is about to drop."
Under the expectant gazes of the crowd, Charlotte threw the chest open. A flash of white light flared.
*Whoosh—*
[Ogre's Beast-Hide Vest]
[Quality: None]
[Description: Crude clothing fashioned from worg hide. Worn by an ogre for years, it reeks of foul musk. Perhaps useful for driving away annoying neighbors.]
Countless eager eyes locked onto the hide vest swarming with flies. The crowd fell instantly silent, followed by scattered boos.
"How is that possible?"
Charlotte's eyes went wide with disbelief.
Glancing around at the doubtful crowd, he cleared his throat with a dry cough and explained, "Even I can't guess right every single time. Pulling a rare drop is a low-probability event, after all. Besides, I still have nine chests left. Just watch!"
He sifted through the stock once more and picked out another chest that looked promising.
The chest was opened.
The crowd craned their necks to look.
[Lakeman Noble's Leather Whip]
[Quality: None]
[Description: A whip discovered in the subterranean dungeons of an ancient castle, silently bearing witness to House Lakeman's cruelty toward the common folk.]
Charlotte's face darkened instantly. Catching the schadenfreude in the onlookers' gazes, he forced a pale smile.
"Cough, cough. Another fluke. I still have eight chests left!"
The remaining eight chests were opened one after another.
A hobgoblin's stinking leather shoe, a kobold merchant's green bandanna, a lizardfolk's aged bone club, an orc's underpants...
"How is this possible?!"
Charlotte stood dazed on the spot, feeling as though he were about to cough up a mouthful of blood.
He had pulled eight pieces of quality-less absolute trash in a row! Even a beggar on the streets of Northwind Keep would turn his nose up at this junk, and he had spent a full fifty gold coins!
The watching players were flabbergasted, muttering amongst themselves at his rotten luck.
"Man, you're a pure African chieftain."
Someone shouted it without holding back, sending the crowd into roars of laughter.
Ridiculed by hundreds of players, the notoriously face-conscious Charlotte flushed bright red and defended himself, "What do you people know? This is called gathering data! I'm using this to calculate the official drop rates, locate the RNG loopholes, and crack the chests' algorithm. My objective is already achieved. The good loot is coming right up!"
He sounded so convincing that the crowd was actually momentarily bluffed.
Soon, however, someone caught on and shouted provocatively, "Then pull something good to show us! Prove it!"
"Yeah, show us!"
"Buy another one and let's see!"
The spectators, ever eager for more drama, began clamoring excitedly.
Charlotte's face burned crimson. Panting heavily, he gritted his teeth and made up his mind.
*Smack!*
He slammed his hand onto the counter, emptying out the remaining fifty gold coins from his bag and shouting with high spirits, "Ten more!
"I've already found the loophole! Since single pulls don't have a pity system, I'm doing a ten-pull!"
"Holy crap, he's loaded!"
"As expected of the guild leader!"
And so, ten meticulously selected chests were carried over by the ogres. At Charlotte's command, they were opened simultaneously. The spectacle drew gasps of admiration from the players.
*To all the countless mage-lords through the ages, whether any of you achieved godhood or not, I pray to you with all my heart—please let me pull something good!* Charlotte pleaded through clenched teeth in his mind.
Immediately following that, however, an even more unbelievable sight unfolded: ten identical white beams of light flashed in unison, reflecting off Charlotte's glasses and illuminating his hollow, lifeless expression in pale light.
Underpants, tunics, bandannas, cloaks... These common white items were enough to assemble an entire deluxe beggar's outfit.
"How... how is this possible? How could there not be a single piece of good gear? Not even an uncommon green?"
His legs turned to jelly, and he collapsed to the floor, muttering under his breath, "My entire year's savings..."
The gorgeous yuan-ti woman stepped forward with apparent concern to support Charlotte, whispering a "helpful" reminder into his ear. "Honoured guest, if you wish to purchase more, we also offer loan services.
"In light of your outstanding contributions, we can offer an annual interest rate of just five percent."
"I'll kill..."
Sitting on the floor, Charlotte was so furious he nearly passed out.
The surrounding players sighed, gloated, or secretly counted their blessings.
"Thank god I didn't buy. This is a total scam."
"Right? What 'secret trove'? More like a garbage dump! Twenty chests in a row, and every single one was trash."
"Props to Charlotte, though. He took one for the team. We'll remember your sacrifice!"
Watching this, Cassius couldn't help but grow anxious. *Is this event I spent so long preparing going to be stillborn?*
*How can this guy be so damned unlucky? Even with random picks, you can't open twenty chests and get literally nothing!*
He wanted nothing more than to fly down and slap Charlotte in the face, telling him that opening the chests normally was all it took.
After all, Cassius had exercised considerable restraint this time. Fleecing players required sustainable development and a long-term strategy.
If he traumatized the player base on their very first try, what would happen to their enthusiasm in the future?
Thus, Cassius had thoughtfully guaranteed reasonable odds, stocking at least a dozen solid rare items in the pool to bait even more players into the money pit once the game officially launched.
When that time came, the closed-beta veterans would brag on the forums, "Back in the day, I bought rare blue gear for only five gold!" The new players would naturally be green with envy and eager to try their luck.
That was how an endless stream of marks would willingly jump into the pit.
Yet Charlotte's catastrophic unluckiness went far beyond anything Cassius had anticipated, making the dragon question his very existence.
Several more players stepped up to try their luck, but having been misled by Charlotte, they also picked randomly from the back stock. Without exception, all they got were white flashes.
"This really is a scam."
"Learn from their pain—don't buy!"
Looking at the exquisitely decorated chests, Feitian Nüwu felt her hands itch. She loved collecting odd trinkets and brewing them into eye-watering concoctions.
After clutching her gold coins and hesitating for a moment, she decided to buy one.
"You've gotta try everything once. Consider it experiencing the end-of-beta event. Even if I don't pull anything, I can use it to console the guild leader. He looks so pitiful."
She held no real expectations, merely wanting to join in the fun.
The yuan-ti woman attending the counter asked, "Honoured guest, do you wish to pick your own chest like the others?"
Feitian Nüwu waved her hand with a giggle. "No need, I'm just here for fun. Just grab me any random one.
"Here, exactly five gold coins, no more, no less."
Even though it was only five gold coins, it still stung a little, and her eyes lingered on the coins with reluctance.
The yuan-ti woman smiled, swept the coins into the register, and sent an ogre to haul a chest over.
Thus, the very chest Charlotte should have opened was placed right before Feitian Nüwu.
She casually flipped it open.
*Clatter—*
A crisp chime rang out as brilliant blue light burst through the seams.
An exquisite wand set with seven different colored gemstones lay quietly inside the chest, radiating a dense magical aura.
[Wand of Wonder]
[Quality: Rare]
[Description: This wand has 7 charges. While holding it, you can direct it at a target to unleash a spell. The target can be a creature, an object, or a point in space.]
[The spell's effect is determined randomly, including spells such as Slow and Stinking Cloud, as well as effects such as "turning skin bright blue" or "unleashing a torrent of gems."]
["Surprised? Shocked? That is magic: endless wonder and transformation!" — Archmage Trinaid, following his research into Limbo.]
"Huh?"
Feitian Nüwu's jaw dropped in astonishment.
The surrounding crowd fell silent for a heartbeat before erupting into an uproar. They had gathered to watch a trainwreck, never expecting someone to actually hit the jackpot!
"Holy shit, a drop!"
"Rare! It's rare gear! And it's a wand, the most valuable kind! That thing must be worth at least a thousand gold!"
"European, eat my spear!"
"Metaphysics won't change your fate, and money won't fix bad luck!"
Over in the corner, a heartbroken Charlotte was drawn by the commotion. Looking over half-dead, he spotted the blue gear in front of Feitian Nüwu—and the chest, which looked suspiciously like the one he was originally supposed to open.
"O endless heavens, why have you treated me so harshly!"
Charlotte felt a mouthful of blood rise in his throat, wishing he could just lie down and end it all right there.
Feeling the burning stares of the crowd, Feitian Nüwu blushed with embarrassment.
Soon, she spotted Charlotte not far away and waved at him cheerfully, wanting to share the good news with the guild leader who had helped level her up all this time.
"Leader! Over here, I got a drop!"
"Don't call me Leader anymore..."
"Call me Chieftain, you shameless European. Between you and us Africans stands a tragically thick barrier. Goodbye... no, farewell forever."
Charlotte sprawled limply on the ground, utterly drained in mind and spirit.
He slowly closed his eyes, slipping out of consciousness, looking ready to pass into the great beyond.
Chapter 223